History Of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 1 (of 12)Maspero, G. (Gaston)
History
History Of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 1 (of 12)
Maspero, G. (Gaston)
Civilization, Ancient; Egypt -- History -- To 640 A.D.; History, Ancient; Middle East -- History
We see only that these were the gods who chiefly protected the sun-god
against its enemies and helped it to follow its regular course. Thus
Harhuditi, the Horus of Edfu, spear in hand, pursues the hippopotami
or serpents which haunt the celestial waters and menace the god. The
progress of the Sun-bark is controlled by the incantations of Thot,
while Uapuaitu, the dual jackal-god of Siufc, guides, and occasionally
tows it along the sky from south to north. The third Ennead would seem
to have included among its members Anubis the jackal, and the four
funerary genii, the children of Horus--Hapi, Amsit, Tiumautf, Kabhsonuf;
it further appears as though its office was the care and defence of
the dead sun, the sun by night, as the second Ennead had charge of
the living sun. Its functions were so obscure and apparently so
insignificant as compared with those exercised by the other Enneads,
that the theologians did not take the trouble either to represent it
or to enumerate its persons. They invoked it as a whole, after the
two others, in those formulas in which they called into play all the
creative and preservative forces of the universe; but this was rather as
a matter of conscience and from love of precision than out of any true
deference. At the initial impulse of the lord of Heliopolis, the three
combined Enneads started the world and kept it going, and gods whom
they had not incorporated were either enemies to be fought with, or mere
attendants.
The doctrine of the Heliopolitan Ennead acquired an immediate and a
lasting popularity. It presented such a clear scheme of creation, and
one whose organization was so thoroughly in accordance with the spirit
of tradition, that the various sacerdotal colleges adopted it one after
another, accommodating it to the exigencies of local patriotism. Each
placed its own nome-god at the head of the Ennead as "god of the Nine,"
"god of the first time," creator of heaven and earth, sovereign ruler
of men, and lord of all action. As there was the Ennead of Atumu at
Heliopolis, so there was that of Anhuri at Thinis and at Sebennytos;
that of Minu at Coptos and at Panopolis; that of Haroeris at Edfu; that
of Sobkhu at Ombos; and, later, that of Phtah at Memphis and of Amon
at Thebes. Nomes which worshipped a goddess had no scruples whatever in
ascribing to her the part played by Atumu, and in crediting her with the
spontaneous maternity of Shu and Tafnuit.
Illustration: 206.jpg [PLAN OF THE RUINS OP HERMOPOLIS MAGNA. 1]
1 Plan drawn by Thuillier, from the _Description de l'
Egypte_, Ant., vol. iv. pl. 50.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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