The priesthood of Amon alone displayed any vigour and enjoyed any prosperity in the general decline. After the victory of the god over the heretic kings no one dared to dispute his supremacy, and the Ramessides displayed a devout humility before him and his ministers. Henceforward he became united to Râ in a definite manner, and his authority not only extended over the whole of the land of Egypt, but over all the countries also which were brought within her influence; so that while Pharaoh continued to be the greatest of kings, Pharaoh’s god held a position of undivided supremacy among the deities. He was the chief of the two Bnneads, the Heliopolitan and the Hermopolitan, and displayed for the latter a special affection; for the vague character of its eight secondary deities only served to accentuate the position of the ninth and principal divinity with whose primacy that of Amon was identified. It was more easy to attribute to Amon the entire work of creation when Shû, Sibû, Osiris, and Sit had been excluded--the deities whom the theologians of Heliopolis had been accustomed to associate with the demiurge; and in the hymns which they sang at his solemn festivals they did not hesitate to ascribe to him all the acts which the priests of former times had assigned to the Ennead collectively. “He made earth, silver, gold,--the true lapis at his good pleasure.--He brought forth the herbs for the cattle, the plants upon which men live.--He made to live the fish of the river,--the birds which hover in the air,--giving air to those which are in the egg.--He animates the insects,--he makes to live the small birds, the reptiles, and the gnats as well.--He provides food for the rat in his hole,--supports the bird upon the branch.--May he be blessed for all this, he who is alone, but with many hands.” “Men spring from his two eyes,” and quickly do they lose their breath while acclaiming him--Egyptians and Libyans, Negroes and Asiatics: “Hail to thee!” they all say; “praise to thee because thou dwellest amongst us!--Obeisances before thee because thou createst us!”--“Thou art blessed by every living thing,--thou hast worshippers in every place,--in the highest of the heavens, in all the breadth of the earth,--in the depths of the seas.--The gods bow before thy Majesty,--magnifying the souls which form them,--rejoicing at meeting those who have begotten them,--they say to thee: ‘Go in peace,--father of the fathers of all the gods,--who suspended the heaven, levelled the earth;--creator of beings, maker of things,--sovereign king, chief of the gods,--we adore thy souls, because thou hast made us,--we lavish offerings upon thee, because thou hast given us birth,--we shower benedictions upon thee, because thou dwellest among us.’” We have here the same ideas as those which predominate in the hymns addressed to Atonû,* and in the prayers directed to Phtah, the Nile, Shû, and the Sun-god of Heliopolis at the same period.