Yao, one with his father Osiris in the mid-day and mid-summer, one with his counterpart Horus at the early morn and spring of the year, and one with Tum in the darkness of night and winter; just as Zeus of the Greeks was Zeus Amen (Jupiter Ammon), Olympian Zeus, Zeus Yao, and Stygian Zeus, according to the season of the year. Between the Middle Empire and the New Empire another catastrophe occurred to the Egyptians, in the form of an invasion of the Hyksos, or shepherd kings of Arabia, who overran the whole country, destroyed the temples, and levied heavy tribute on the people, eventually settling down for four centuries as Kings of Egypt, adopting many of the native customs, and introducing many Semitic deities and observances. At last the Hyksos were driven forth, and the New Empire commenced with the eighteenth dynasty; but a considerable difference was now found to exist in the religion of the country, partly on account of the introduction of Semitic rites, and partly owing to the change that had taken place at the vernal equinoctial point, by the precessional movement of the zodiacal constellation _Taurus_. The vernal equinoctial point was now (B.C. 2000) in the sign _Aries_, and therefore the principal deities should be no longer represented as incarnate bulls, but as incarnate rams. Accordingly, we find that after this date the bull-god Apis, or Serapis, gradually fell into disrepute; and Amen, who was now the supreme and representative god, was worshipped as an incarnate ram, being depicted as a man wearing ram’s horns. Another mode of worshipping the young sun-god, born at the winter solstice, December 25th, was that known as the Mysteries of the Night, or Passion of Osiris, at which an idol of the infant Horus, or Amen, called also the Holy Word, was presented to the people in its mother’s arms, or exposed to view in a crib for the adoration of the people by the priests, who were, according to Adrian, called Bishops of Christ (χριστος, the anointed one); and when King Ptolemy, B.C. 350, asked the meaning of the custom, he was informed that it was a sacred mystery. During these mysteries, which took place annually, bread, after sacerdotal rites, was mystically converted into the body of Osiris, to be partaken of by all the faithful, who were called Christians; and an idol representing the body of the god, stretched on a cross within a circle, was placed upon the mystic table for adoration and praise.