heart."

In arranging his thoughts and their visible forms Khepera was assisted
by the goddess Maat, who is usually regarded as the goddess of law,
order, and truth, and in late times was held to be the female
counterpart of Thoth, "the heart of the god Ra."  In this legend,
however, she seems to play the part of Wisdom, as described in the Book
of Proverbs,[FN#3] for it was by Maat that he "laid the foundation."



[FN#3]   "The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his
works of old.  I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or
ever the earth was.  When there were no depths I was brought forth . .
. . . . . Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I
brought forth: while as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields,
nor the highest part of the dust of the world.  When he prepared the
heavens I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth:
when he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the
fountains of the deep: when he gave to the sea his decree, . . . . . .
when he appointed the foundations of the earth: then I was by him, as
one brought up with him. . . . . . ."  Proverbs, viii. 22 ff.}



Having described the coming into being of Khepera and the place on
which he stood, the legend goes on to tell of the means by which the
first Egyptian triad, or trinity, came into existence.  Khepera had, in
some form, union with his own shadow, and so begot offspring, who
proceeded from his body under the forms of the gods Shu and Tefnut.
According to a tradition preserved in the Pyramid Texts[FN#4] this
event took place at On (Heliopolis), and the old form of the legend
ascribes the production of Shu and Tefnut to an act of masturbation.
Originally these gods were the personifications of air and dryness, and
liquids respectively; thus with their creation the materials for the
construction of the atmosphere and sky came into being.  Shu and Tefnut
were united, and their offspring were Keb, the Earth-god, and Nut, the
Sky-goddess.  We have now five gods in existence; Khepera, the creative
principle, Shu, the atmosphere, Tefnut, the waters above the heavens,
Nut, the Sky-goddess, and Keb, the Earth-god.  Presumably about this
time the sun first rose out of the watery abyss of Nu, and shone upon
the world and produced day.  In early times the sun, or his light, was
regarded as a form of Shu.  The gods Keb and Nut were united in an
embrace, and the effect of the coming of light was to separate them. As
long as the sun shone, i.e., as long as it was day, Nut, the Sky-
goddess, remained in her place above the earth, being supported by Shu;
but as soon as the sun set she left the sky and gradually descended
until she rested on the body of the Earth-god, Keb.



[FN#4]   Pepi I., l. 466.



The embraces of Keb caused Nut to bring forth five gods at a birth,
namely, Osiris, Horus, Set, Isis, and Nephthys.  Osiris and Isis
married before their birth, and Isis brought forth a son called Horus;
Set and Nephthys also married before their birth, and Nephthys brought
forth a son named Anpu (Anubis), though he is not mentioned in the
legend.  Of these gods Osiris is singled out for special mention in the
legend, in which Khepera, speaking as Neb-er-tcher, says that his name
is Ausares, who is the essence of the primeval matter of which he
himself is formed.  Thus Osiris was of the same substance as the Great
God who created the world according to the Egyptians, and was a
reincarnation of his great-grandfather.  This portion of the legend
helps to explain the views held about Osiris as the great ancestral
spirit, who when on earth was a benefactor of mankind, and who when in
heaven was the saviour of souls.

The legend speaks of the sun as the Eye of Khepera, or Neb-er-tcher,
and refers to some calamity which befell it and extinguished its light.
This calamity may have been simply the coming of night, or eclipses, or
storms; but in any case the god made a second Eye, i.e., the Moon, to
which he gave some of the splendour of the other Eye, i.e., the Sun,
and he gave it a place in his Face, and henceforth it ruled throughout
the earth, and had special powers in respect of the production of
trees, plants, vegetables, herbs, etc.  Thus from the earliest times
the moon was associated with the fertility of the earth, especially in
connection with the production of abundant crops and successful
harvests.

According to the legend, men and women sprang not from the earth, but
directly from the body of the god Khepera, or Neb-er-tcher, who placed
his members together and then wept tears upon them, and men and women,
came into being from the tears which had fallen from his eyes.  No
special mention is made of the creation of beasts in the legend, but
the god says that he created creeping things of all kinds, and among
these are probably included the larger quadrupeds.  The men and women,
and all the other living creatures which were made at that time,
reproduced their species, each in his own way, and so the earth became
filled with their descendants which we see at the present time.

Such is the Legend of Creation as it is found in the Papyrus of Nes-
Menu.  The text of both versions is full of difficult passages, and
some readings are corrupt; unfortunately variant versions by which they
might be corrected are lacking.  The general meaning of the legend in
both versions is quite clear, and it throws considerable light on the
Egyptian religion.  The Egyptians believed in the existence of God, the
Creator and Maintainer of all things, but they thought that the
concerns of this world were committed by Him to the superintendence of
a series of subordinate spirits or beings called "gods," over whom they
believed magical spells and ceremonies to have the greatest influence.
The Deity was a Being so remote, and of such an exalted nature, that it
was idle to expect Him to interfere in the affairs of mortals, or to
change any decree or command which He had once uttered.  The spirits or
"gods," on the other hand, possessing natures not far removed from
those of men, were thought to be amenable to supplications and
flattery, and to wheedling and cajolery, especially when accompanied by
gifts.  It is of great interest to find a legend in which the power of
God as the Creator of the world and the sun and moon is so clearly set
forth, embedded in a book of magical spells devoted to the destruction
of the mythological monster who existed solely to prevent the sun from
rising and shining.






II.



THE LEGEND OF THE DESTRUCTION OF MANKIND.



The text containing the Legend of the Destruction of Mankind is written
in hieroglyphs, and is found on the four walls of a small chamber which
is entered from the "hall of columns" in the tomb of Seti I., which is
situated on the west bank of the Nile at Thebes.  On the wall facing
the door of this chamber is painted in red the figure of the large "Cow
of Heaven."  The lower part of her belly is decorated with a series of
thirteen stars, and immediately beneath it are the two Boats of Ra,
called Semketet and Mantchet, or Sektet and Matet.  Each of her four
legs is held in position by two gods, and the god Shu, with
outstretched uplifted arms, supports her body.  The Cow was published
by Champollion,[FN#5] without the text.  This most important
mythological text was first published and translated by Professor E.
Naville in 1874.[FN#6]  It was republished by Bergmann[FN#7] and
Brugsch,[FN#8] who gave a transcription of the text, with a German
translation.  Other German versions by Lauth,[FN#9] Brugsch,[FN#10] and
Wiedemann[FN#11] have appeared, and a part of the text was translated
into French by Lefebure.[FN#12]  The latest edition of the text was
published by Lefebure,[FN#13] and text of a second copy, very much
mutilated, was published by Professor Naville, with a French
translation in 1885.[FN#14]  The text printed in this volume is that of
M. Lefebure.



[FN#5]  Monuments, tom. iii., p. 245.

[FN#6]  Trans. Soc. Bibl. Arch., vol. iv., p. 1 ff.

[FN#7]  Hieroglyphische Inschriften, Bl. 85 fl.

[FN#8]  Die neue Weltordnung nach Vernichtung des sundigen
Menschengeschlechtes, Berlin, 1881.

[FN#9]  Aus Aegyptens Vorzeit, p. 71.

[FN#10]  Religion der alten Aegypter, p. 436.

[FN#11]  Die Religion, p. 32.

[FN#12]  A. Z., 1883, p. 32.

[FN#13]  Tombeau de Seti I., Part IV., plates 15-18.

[FN#14]  Trans. Soc. Bibl. Arch., vol. viii., p. 412 ft.



The legend takes us back to the time when the gods of Egypt went about
in the country, and mingled with men and were thoroughly acquainted
with their desires and needs.  The king who reigned over Egypt was Ra,
the Sun-god, who was not, however, the first of the Dynasty of Gods who
ruled the land.  His predecessor on the throne was Hephaistos, who,
according to Manetho, reigned 9000 years, whilst Ra reigned only 992
years; Panodorus makes his reign to have lasted less than 100 years.
Be this as it may, it seems that the "self-created and self-begotten"
god Ra had been ruling over mankind for a very long time, for his
subjects were murmuring against him, and they were complaining that he
was old, that his bones were like silver, his body like gold, and his
hair like lapis-lazuli.  When Ra heard these murmurings he ordered his
bodyguard to summon all the gods who had been with him in the primeval
World-ocean, and to bid them privately to assemble in the Great House,
which can be no other than the famous temple of Heliopolis.  This
statement is interesting, for it proves that the legend is of
Heliopolitan origin, like the cult of Ra itself, and that it does not
belong, at least in so far as it applies to Ra, to the Predynastic
Period.

When Ra entered the Great Temple, the gods made obeisance to him, and
took up their positions on each side of him, and informed him that they
awaited his words.  Addressing Nu, the personification of the World-
ocean, Ra bade them to take notice of the fact that the men and women
whom his Eye had created were murmuring against him.  He then asked
them to consider the matter and to devise a plan of action for him, for
he was unwilling to slay the rebels without hearing what his gods had
to say.  In reply the gods advised Ra to send forth his Eye to destroy
the blasphemers, for there was no eye on earth that could resist it,
especially when it took the form of the goddess Hathor.  Ra accepted
their advice and sent forth his Eye in the form of Hathor to destroy
them, and, though the rebels had fled to the mountains in fear, the Eye
pursued them and overtook them and destroyed them.  Hathor rejoiced in
her work of destruction, and on her return was praised by Ra, for what
she had done.  The slaughter of men began at Suten-henen
(Herakleopolis), and during the night Hathor waded about in the blood
of men.  Ra asserted his intention of being master of the rebels, and
this is probably referred to in the Book of the Dead, Chapter XVII., in
which it is said that Ra rose as king for the first time in Suten-
henen.  Osiris also was crowned at Suten-henen, and in this city lived
the great Bennu bird, or Phoenix, and the "Crusher of Bones" mentioned
in the Negative Confession.

The legend now goes on to describe an act of Ra, the significance of
which it is difficult to explain.  The god ordered messengers to be
brought to him, and when they arrived, he commanded them to run like
the wind to Abu, or the city of Elephantine, and to bring him large
quantities of the fruit called tataat.  What kind of fruit this was is
not clear, but Brugsch thought they were "mandrakes," the so-called
"love-apples," and this translation of tataat may be used
provisionally.  The mandrakes were given to Sekti, a goddess of
Heliopolis, to crush and grind up, and when this was done they were
mixed with human blood, and put in a large brewing of beer which the
women slaves had made from wheat.  In all they made 7,000 vessels of
beer.  When Ra saw the beer he approved of it, and ordered it to be
carried up the river to where the goddess Hathor was still, it seems,
engaged in slaughtering men.  During the night he caused this beer to
be poured out into the meadows of the Four Heavens, and when Hathor
came she saw the beer with human blood and mandrakes in it, and drank
of it and became drunk, and paid no further attention to men and women.
In welcoming the goddess, Ra, called her "Amit," i.e., "beautiful one,"
and from this time onward "beautiful women were found in the city of
Amit," which was situated in the Western Delta, near Lake
Mareotis.[FN#15]  Ra also ordered that in future at every one of his
festivals vessels of "sleep-producing beer" should be made, and that
their number should be the same as the number of the handmaidens of Ra.
Those who took part in these festivals of Hathor and Ra drank beer in
very large quantities, and under the influence of the "beautiful
women," i.e., the priestesses, who were supposed to resemble Hathor in
their physical attractions,