History Of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Vol. 1 — 13 - Vol. 01, Ch. 02: The Gods of Egypt, pt. 5

He dwelt in the city near the prince and in the midst of his subjects: Râ living in Heliopolis along with the prince of Heliopolis; Haroêris in Edfû together with the prince of Edfû; Nît in Saïs with the prince of Sais.

Although none of the primitive temples have come down to us, the name given to them in the language of the time, shows what they originally were.

A temple was considered as the feudal mansion--hâît,--the house--_pirû, pi_,--of the god, better cared for, and more respected than the houses of men, but not otherwise differing from them.

It was built on a site slightly raised above the level of the plain, so as to be safe from the inundation, and where there was no natural mound, the want was supplied by raising a rectangular platform of earth.

A layer of sand spread uniformly on the sub-soil provided against settlements or infiltration, and formed a bed for the foundations of the building.

[*] * This custom lasted into Græco-Roman times, and was part of the ritual for laying the foundations of a temple.

After the king had dug out the soil on the ground where the temple was to stand, he spread over the spot sand mixed with pebbles and precious stones, and upon this he laid the first course of stone.

This was first of all a single room, circumscribed, gloomy, covered in by a slightly vaulted roof, and having no opening but the doorway, which was framed by two tall masts, whence floated streamers to attract from afar the notice of worshippers; in front of its façade [*] was a court, fenced in with palisading.

* No Egyptian temples of the first period have come down to our time, but Herr Erman has very justly remarked that we have pictures of them in several of the signs denoting the word _temple_ in texts of the Memphite period.

[Illustration: 167. jpg THE SACRED BULL.

2] 2 A sculptor's model from Tanis, now in the Gîzeh Museum, drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a photograph by Emil Brugsch- Bey.

The sacred marks, as given in the illustration, are copied from those of similar figures on stelæ of the Serapeum.

Within the temple were pieces of matting, low tables of stone, wood, or metal, a few utensils for cooking the offerings, a few vessels for containing the blood, oil, wine, and water with which the god was every day regaled.

As provisions for sacrifice increased, the number of chambers increased with them, and rooms for flowers, perfumes, stuffs, precious vessels, and food were grouped around the primitive abode;

until that which had once constituted the whole temple became no more than its sanctuary.

There the god dwelt, not only in spirit but in body,[*] and the fact that it was incumbent upon him to live in several cities did not prevent his being present in all of them at once.

He could divide his double, imparting it to as many separate bodies as he pleased, and these bodies might be human or animal, natural objects or things manufactured--such as statues of stone, metal, or wood.

[**] Several of the gods were incarnate in rams: Osiris at Mendes, Harshafitû at Heracleopolis, Khnûmû at Elephantine.

Living rams were kept in their temples, and allowed to gratify any fancy that came into their animal brains.

Other gods entered into bulls: Râ at Heliopolis, and, subsequently, Phtah at Memphis, Minû at Thebes, and Montû at Hermonthis.

They indicated beforehand by certain marks such beasts as they intended to animate by.

their doubles, and he who had learnt to recognize these signs was at no loss to find a living god when the time came for seeking one and presenting it to the adoration of worshippers in the temple.

[***] * Thus at Denderah, it is said that the soul of Hâthor likes to leave heaven "in the form of a human-headed sparrow-hawk of lapis-lazuli, accompanied by her divine cycle, to come and unite herself to the statue."

"Other instances," adds Mariette, "would seem to justify us in thinking that the Egyptians accorded a certain kind of life to the statues and images which they made, and believed (especially in connection with tombs) that the spirit haunted images of itself."

** Maspero, _Études de Mythologie et l'Archéologie Égyptiennes_, vol. i.

p. 77, et seq.

; _Archéologie Égyptienne_, pp. 106, 107; English edition, pp. 105, 106. This notion of actuated statues seemed so strange and so unworthy of the wisdom of the Egyptians that Egyptologists of the rank of M. de Rougé have taken in an abstract and metaphorical sense expressions referring to the automatic movements of divine images.

*** The bulls of Râ and of Phtah, the Mnevis and the Hapis, are known to us from classic writers.

The bull of Minû at Thebes may be seen in the procession of the god as represented on monuments of Ramses II.

and Ramses III.

Bâkhû (called Bakis by the Greeks), the bull of Hermonthis, is somewhat rare, and mainly represented upon a few later stelæ in the Gîzeh Museum; it is chiefly known from the texts.

The particular signs distinguishing each of these sacred animals have been determined both on the authority of ancient writers, and from examination of the figured monuments; the arrangement and outlines of some of the black markings of the Hapis are clearly shown in the illustration on p. 167. And if the statues had not the same outward appearance of actual life as the animals, they none the less concealed beneath their rigid exteriors an intense energy of life which betrayed itself on occasion by gestures or by words.

They thus indicated, in language which their servants could understand, the will of the gods, or their opinion on the events of the day; they answered questions put to them in accordance with prescribed forms, and sometimes they even foretold the future.

[Illustration: 169. jpg OPEN-AIR OFFERINGS TO THE SERPENT.

1] 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph taken in the tomb of Khopirkerîsonbû.

The inscription behind the urseus states that it represents _Banûît the August, lady of the double granary_.

Each temple held a fairly large number of statues representing so many embodiments of the local divinity and of the members of his triad.

These latter shared, albeit in a lesser degree, all the honours and all the prerogatives of the master; they accepted sacrifices, answered prayers, and, if needful, they prophesied.

They occupied either the sanctuary itself, or one of the halls built about the principal sanctuary, or one of the isolated chapels which belonged to them, subject to the suzerainty of the feudal god.

The god has his divine court to help him in the administration of his dominions, just as a prince is aided by his ministers in the government of his realm.

This State religion, so complex both in principle and in its outward manifestations, was nevertheless inadequate to express the exuberant piety of the populace.

There were casual divinities in every nome whom the people did not love any the less because of their inofficial character; such as an exceptionally high palm tree in the midst of the desert, a rock of curious outline, a spring trickling drop by drop from the mountain to which hunters came to slake their thirst in the hottest hours of the day, or a great serpent believed to be immortal, which haunted a field, a grove of trees, a grotto, or a mountain ravine.

[*] * It was a serpent of this kind which gave its name to the hill of Shêikh Harîdî, and the adjacent nome of the Serpent Mountain; and though the serpent has now turned Mussulman, he still haunts the mountain and preserves his faculty of coming to life again every time that he is killed.

The peasants of the district brought it bread, cakes, fruits, and thought that they could call down the blessing of heaven upon their fields by gorging the snake with offerings.

Everywhere on the confines of cultivated ground, and even at some distance from the valley, are fine single sycamores, flourishing as though by miracle amid the sand.

[Illustration: 171. jpg THE PEASANT'S OFFERING TO THE SYCAMORE.

1] 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a scene in the tomb of Khopirkerîsonbû.

The sacred sycamore here stands at the end of a field of corn, and would seem to extend its protection to the harvest.

Their fresh greenness is in sharp contrast with the surrounding fawn-coloured landscape, and their thick foliage defies the midday sun even in summer.

But, on examining the ground in which they grow, we soon find that they drink from water which has infiltrated from the Nile, and whose existence is in nowise betrayed upon the surface of the soil.

They stand as it were with their feet in the river, though no one about them suspects it.

Egyptians of all ranks counted them divine and habitually worshipped them,[**] making them offerings of figs, grapes, cucumbers, vegetables, and water in porous jars daily replenished by good and charitable people.

** Maspero, _Études de Mythologie et d'Archéologie Égyptiennes_, vol. ii.

pp. 224--227. They were represented as animated by spirits concealed within them, but which could manifest themselves on occasion.

At such times the head or whole body of the spirit of a tree would emerge from its trunk, and when it returned to its hiding-place the trunk reabsorbed it, or _ate_ it again, according to the Egyptian expression, which I have already had occasion to quote above; see p. 110, note 3. Passers-by drank of the water, and requited the unexpected benefit with a short prayer.

There were several such trees in the Memphite nome, and in the Letopolite nome from Dashûr to Gîzeh, inhabited, as every one knew, by detached doubles of Nûît and Hâthor.

These combined districts were known as the "Land of the Sycamore," a name afterwards extended to the city of Memphis; and their sacred trees are worshipped at the present day both by Mussulman and Christian fellahîn. [*] * The tree at Matarîeh, commonly called the _Tree of the Virgin_, seems to me to be the successor of a sacred tree of Heliopolis in which a goddess, perhaps Hâthor, was worshipped.

The most famous among them all, the Sycamore of the South--_nûhît rîsit_--was regarded as the living body of Hâthor on earth.

Side by side with its human gods and prophetic statues, each nome proudly advanced one or more sacred animals, one or more magic trees.

Each family, and almost every individual, also possessed gods and fetishes, which had been pointed out for their worship by some fortuitous meeting with an animal or an object; by a dream, or by sudden intuition.

They had a place in some corner of the house, or a niche in its walls; lamps were continually kept burning before them, and small daily offerings were made to them, over and above what fell to their share on solemn feast-days.

In return, they became the protectors of the household, its guardians and its counsellors.

Appeal was made to them in every exigency of daily life, and their decisions were no less scrupulously carried out by their little circle of worshippers, than was the will of the feudal god by the inhabitants of his principality.

[Illustration: 173. jpg THE SACRIFICE OF THE BULL.

--THE OFFICIATING

PRIEST LASSOING THE VICTIM.

1] 1 Bas-relief from the temple of Seti I. at Abydos; drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by M. Daniel Héron.

Seti I. , second king of the XIXth dynasty, is throwing the lasso; his son, Ramses II.

, who is still the crown prince, holds the bull by the tail to prevent its escaping from the slipknot.

The prince was the great high priest.

The whole religion of the nome rested upon him, and originally he himself performed its ceremonies.

Of these, the chief was sacrifice,--that is to say, a banquet which it was his duty to prepare and lay before the god with his own hands.

He went out into the fields to lasso the half-wild bull; bound it, cut its throat, skinned it, burnt part of the carcase in front of his idol and distributed the rest among his assistants, together with plenty of cakes, fruits, vegetables, and wine.

[*] On the occasion, the god was present both in body and double, suffering himself to be clothed and perfumed, eating and drinking of the best that was set on the table before him, and putting aside some of the provisions for future use.

This was the time to prefer requests to him, while he was gladdened and disposed to benevolence by good cheer.

He was not without suspicion as to the reason why he was so feasted, but he had laid down his conditions beforehand, and if they were faithfully observed he willingly yielded to the means of seduction brought to bear upon him.

Moreover, he himself had arranged the ceremonial in a kind of contract formerly made with his worshippers and gradually perfected from age to age by the piety of new generations.

[**] Above all things, he insisted on physical cleanliness.

The officiating priest must carefully wash--_ûâbû_--his face, mouth, hands, and body; and so necessary was this preliminary purification considered, that from it the professional priest derived his name of _ûîbû_, the washed, the clean.

[***] * This appears from the sacrificial ritual employed in the temples up to the last days of Egyptian paganism; cf.

, for instance, the illustration on p. 173, where the king is represented as lassoing the bull.

That which in historic times was but an image, had originally been a reality.

** The most striking example of the divine institution of religious services is furnished by the inscription relating the history of the destruction of men in the reign of Râ, where the god, as he is about to make his final ascension into heaven, substitutes animal for human sacrifices.

*** The idea of physical cleanliness comes out in such variants as _ûîbû totûi_, "clean of both hands," found on stelae instead of the simple title _ûîbû_.

We also know, on the evidence of ancient writers, the scrupulous daily care which Egyptian priests took of their bodies.

It was only as a secondary matter that the idea of moral purity entered into the conception of a priest.

His costume was the archaic dress, modified according to circumstances.

During certain services, or at certain points in the sacrifices, it was incumbent upon him to wear sandals, the panther-skin over his shoulder, and the thick lock of hair falling over his right ear; at other times he must gird himself with the loin-cloth having a jackal's tail, and take the shoes from off his feet before proceeding with his office, or attach a false beard to his chin.

The species, hair, and age of the victim, the way in which it was to be brought and bound, the manner and details of its slaughter, the order to be followed in opening its body and cutting it up, were all minutely and unchangeably decreed.

And these were but the least of the divine exactions, and those most easily satisfied.

The formulas accompanying each act of the sacrificial priest contained a certain number of words whose due sequence and harmonies might not suffer the slightest modification whatever, even from the god himself, under penalty of losing their efficacy.

[*] * The Purification Ritual for officiating priests is contained in a papyrus of the Berlin Museum, whose analysis and table of chapters has been published by Herr Oscar von Lemm, _Das Bitualbuch des Ammonsdienstes_, p. 4, et seq.

They were always recited with the same rhythm, according to a system of chaunting in which every tone had its virtue, combined with movements which confirmed the sense and worked with irresistible effect: one false note, a single discord between the succession of gestures and the utterance of the sacramental words, any hesitation, any awkwardness in the accomplishment of a rite, and the sacrifice was vain.

Worship as thus conceived became a legal transaction, in the course of which the god gave up his liberty in exchange for certain compensations whose kind and value were fixed by law.

By a solemn deed of transfer the worshipper handed over to the legal representatives of the contracting divinity such personal or real property as seemed to him fitting payment for the favour which he asked, or suitable atonement for the wrong which he had done.

If man scrupulously observed the innumerable conditions with which the transfer was surrounded, the god could not escape the obligation of fulfilling his petition;[*] but should he omit the least of them, the offering remained with the temple and went to increase the endowments in mortmain, while the god was pledged to nothing in exchange.

* This obligation is evident from texts where, as in the poem of Pentaûirît, a king who is in danger demands from his favourite god the equivalent in protection of the sacrifices which he has offered to that divinity, and the gifts wherewith he has enriched him.

"Have I not made unto thee many offerings?"

says Ramses II.

to Amon.

"I have filled thy temple with my prisoners, I have built thee a mansion for millions of years....

Ah if evil is the lot of them who insult thee, good are thy purposes towards those who honour thee, O Amon!"

Hence the officiating priest assumed a formidable responsibility as regarded his fellows: a slip of memory, the slightest accidental impurity, made him a bad priest, injurious to himself and harmful to those worshippers who had entrusted him with their interests before the gods.

Since it was vain to expect ritualistic perfections from a prince constantly troubled with affairs of state, the custom was established of associating professional priests with him, personages who devoted all their lives to the study and practice of the thousand formalities whose sum constituted the local religion.

Each temple had its service of priests, independent of those belonging to neighbouring temples, whose members, bound to keep their hands always clean and their voices true, were ranked according to the degrees of a learned hierarchy.

At their head was a sovereign pontiff to direct them in the exercise of their functions.

In some places he was called the first prophet, or rather the first servant of the god--_hon-nûtir topi_; at Thebes he was the first prophet of Amon, at Thinis he was the first prophet of Anhûri.

[*] * This title of _first prophet_ belongs to priests of the less important towns, and to secondary divinities.

If we find it employed in connection with the Theban worship, it is because Amon was originally a provincial god, and only rose into the first rank with the rise of Thebes and the great conquests of the XVIIIth and XIXth dynasties.

But generally he bore a title appropriate to the nature of the god whose servant he was.

The chief priest of Râ at Heliopolis, and in all the cities which adopted the Heliopolitan form of worship, was called _Oîrû maû_, the master of visions, and he alone besides the sovereign of the nome, or of Egypt, enjoyed the privilege of penetrating into the sanctuary, of "entering into heaven and there beholding the god" face to face.

In the same way, the high priest of Anhûri at Sebennytos was entitled the wise and pure warrior--_ahûîti saû uîbu_--because his god went armed with a pike, and a soldier god required for his service a pontiff who should be a soldier like himself.

These great personages did not always strictly seclude themselves within the limits of the religious domain.

The gods accepted, and even sometimes solicited, from their worshippers, houses, fields, vineyards, orchards, slaves, and fishponds, the produce of which assured their livelihood and the support of their temples.

There was no Egyptian who did not cherish the ambition of leaving some such legacy to the patron god of his city, "for a monument to himself," and as an endowment for the priests to institute prayers and perpetual sacrifices on his behalf.

[*] In course of time these accumulated gifts at length formed real sacred fiefs--_hotpû-nûtir_--analogous to the _wakfs_ of Mussulman Egypt.

[**] They were administered by the high priest, who, if necessary, defended them by force against the greed of princes or kings.

Two, three, or even four classes of prophets or _heiroduli_ under his orders assisted him in performing the offices of worship, in giving religious instruction, and in the conduct of affairs.

Women did not hold equal rank with men in the temples of male deities; they there formed a kind of harem whence the god took his mystic spouses, his concubines, his maidservants, the female musicians and dancing women whose duty it was to divert him and to enliven his feasts.

But in temples of goddesses they held the chief rank, and were called _hierodules_, or priestesses, _hierodules_ of Nit, _hierodules_ of Hâthor, _hierodules_ of Pakhît. [***] * As regards the Saïte period, we are beginning to accumulate many stelae recording gifts to a god of land or houses, made either by the king or by private individuals.

** We know from the _Great Harris Papyrus_ to what the fortune of Amon amounted at the end of the reign of Ramses III.

; its details may be found in Brugsch, _Die Ægyptologie_, pp. 271-274. Cf.

in Naville, _Bubastis, Eighth Memoir of the Egyptian Exploration Fund_, p. 61, a calculation as to the quantities of precious metals belonging to one of the least of the temples of Bubastis;

its gold and silver were counted by thousands of pounds.

*** Mariette remarks that priests play but a subordinate part in the temple of Hâthor.

This fact, which surprised him, is adequately explained by remembering that Hâthor being a goddess, women take precedence over men in a temple dedicated to her.

At Sais, the chief priest was a man, the Tcharp-haîtû; but the persistence with which women of the highest rank, and even queens themselves, took the title of prophetess of Nit from the times of the Ancient Empire shows that in this city the priestess of the goddess was of equal, if not superior, rank to the priest.