Renouf, one of the latest writers on these subjects, says:[3] "I fear Egyptologists will soon be accused, like other persons, of seeing the dawn everywhere," and he quotes with approbation this passage from Max Müller relating to the Veda:-- "I look upon the sunrise and sunset, on the daily return of day and night, on the battle between light and darkness, on the whole solar drama in all its details, that is acted every day, every month, every year, in heaven and in earth, as the principal subject." But we must now go somewhat further into detail. The various apparent movements of the heavenly bodies which are produced by the rotation and the revolution of the earth, and the effects of precession, were familiar to the Egyptians, however ignorant they may have been of their causes; they carefully studied what they saw, and attempted to put their knowledge together in the most convenient fashion, associating it with their strange imaginings and their system of worship. Dealing with the earth's rotation, how did the Egyptians picture it? How was this interaction, so to speak, between the earth and the sky mythologically represented? They naturally would be familiar with the phenomena of dawn and sunset, more familiar certainly with the phenomenon of dawn than we are, because they had a climate much better suited for its study than ours. There can be no doubt that the wonderful scenes which they saw every morning and evening were the first things which impressed them, and they came to consider the earth as a god, surrounded by the sky--another god. [Illustration: RA. MIN-RĀ. AMEN-RĀ.] I have next to point out that, the sun being very generally worshipped in Egypt, there were various forms of the sun-god, depending upon the positions occupied in its daily course. We have the form of Harpocrates at its rising, the child sun-god being generally represented by the figure of a hawk. When in human form, we notice the presence of a side lock of hair. The god Rā symbolises, it is said, the sun in his noontide strength; while for the time of sunset we have various names, chiefly Osiris, Tum, or Atmu, the dying sun represented by a mummy and typifying old age. The hours of the day were also personified, the twelve changes during the twelve hours being mythically connected with the sun's daily movement across the sky. [Illustration: SEBAK-RĀ. CHNEMU-RĀ.] We often find Rā compounded with other names, and in these forms of the god we possibly get references to the sun at different times of the year. Amen-Rā, Sebak-Rā, and Chnemu-Rā are cases in point. The former undoubtedly refers to the sun at the summer solstice. Min-Rā is an ithyphallic form. The names given by the Egyptians to the sun then may be summarised as follows:-- Hor, or Horus, or Harpocrates, and Chepera (morning sun). Rā (noon). Tum or Atmu (evening sun). Osiris (sun when set). [Illustration: ANUBIS, OR SET.] [Illustration: ANUBIS-OSIRIS.]