Nor was this the only incarnate god of which Egypt boasted. Another
bull, called Mnevis, was maintained in the great temple of the Sun at
Heliopolis, and, being regarded as an incarnation of Ra or Tum, was as
much reverenced by the Heliopolites as Apis by the Memphites, A third,
called Bacis or Pacis, was kept at Hermonthis, which was also an
incarnation of Ra. And a white cow at Momemphis was reckoned an
incarnation of Athor. Who can wonder that foreign nations ridiculed a
religion of this kind--one that "turned the glory" of the Eternal
Godhead "into the similitude of a calf that eateth hay"?
The Egyptians had also a further god incarnate, who was not shut up out
of sight like the Apis and Mnevis and Bacis bulls and the Athor cow, but
was continually before their eyes, the centre of the nation's life, the
prime object of attention. This was the monarch, who for the time being
occupied the throne. Each king of Egypt claimed not only to be "son of
the Sun," but to be an actual incarnation of the sun--"the living
Horus." And this claim was, from an early date, received and allowed.
"Thy Majesty," says a courtier under the twelfth dynasty, "is the good
God ... the great God, the equal of the Sun-God. ... I live from the
breath which thou givest" Brought into the king's presence, the courtier
"falls on his belly," amazed and confounded. "I was as one brought out
of the dark; my tongue was dumb; my lips failed me; my heart was no
longer in my body to know whether I was alive or dead;" and this,
although "the god" had "addressed him mildly." Another courtier
attributes his long life to the king's favour. Ambassadors, when
presented to the king, "raised their arms in adoration of the good god,"
and declared to him--"Thou art like the Sun in all that thou doest: thy
heart realizes all its wishes; shouldest thou wish to make it day during
the night, it is so forthwith.... If thou sayest to the water, 'Come
from the rock,' it will come in a torrent suddenly at the words of thy
mouth. The god Ra is like thee in his limbs, the god Khepra in creative
force. Truly thou art the living image of thy father, Tum.... All thy
words are accomplished daily." Some of the kings set up their statues in
the temples by the side of the greatest of the national deities, to be
the objects of a similar worship.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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