The religions of ancient Egypt and BabyloniaSayce, A. H. (Archibald Henry)
Religion
The religions of ancient Egypt and Babylonia
Sayce, A. H. (Archibald Henry)
Assyro-Babylonian religion; Egypt -- Religion
The contrast is striking between the introduction to the legend and the
euhemeristic spirit that elsewhere prevails in it, and can be explained,
even in the case of such disregarders of consistency as the Egyptians,
only on the supposition that the Ra of folk-lore and the Ra of theology
were held to be the same merely in name. Not even a pretence is made of
regarding Isis as a goddess; she is simply a common witch, who resorts to
magic in order to force Ra to hand over his name and therewith his powers
to her son Horus. The virtue of the name, and the power conferred by a
knowledge of it, are features common to the folk-lore of most countries.
They take us back to that primitive phase of thought which not only
identifies the name with the person or thing it represents, but makes it a
separate entity with an existence of its own.
The legend of the sun-god of Edfu is equally instructive, though in its
present form it is not earlier than the Ptolemaic age. This begins as
follows: “In the three hundred and sixty-third year of the reign of
Ra-Harmakhis, the ever-living, Ra was in Nubia with his soldiers. Enemies,
however, conspired (_uu_) against him; hence the country has ever since
borne the name of the land of Conspirators (_Uaua_). Then the god Ra went
his way in his bark along with his followers, and landed in the nome of
Edfu. Here the god Hor-Beḥudet (the winged disc) entered the bark of Ra
and said to his father: ‘O Harmakhis, I see how the enemy have conspired
against their lord.’ Then said the Majesty of Ra-Harmakhis to the person
of Hor-Beḥudet: ‘O son of Ra, exalted one, who hast emanated from me,
smite the enemy before thee forthwith.’ Hor-Beḥudet flew up to the sun in
the form of a great winged disc; on that account he is ever since called
the great god, the lord of heaven. He espied the enemy from the sky, he
followed them in the form of a great winged disc. Through the attack which
he made upon them in front, their eyes saw no longer, their ears heard no
longer, each slew his neighbour forthwith, there remained not one alive.
Then Hor-Beḥudet came in a many-coloured form as a great winged disc into
the bark of Ra-Harmakhis. And Thoth said to Ra: ‘Lord of the gods, the god
of Beḥudet (Edfu) has come in the form of a great winged disc: from this
day forth he shall be called Hor-Beḥudet (Horus of Edfu).’ And he said
(again): ‘From this day forth the city of Edfu shall be called the city of
Hor-Beḥudet.’ Then Ra embraced the form of Hor, and said to Hor-Beḥudet:
‘Thou makest the water of Edfu (red with blood like) grapes, and thy heart
is rejoiced thereat.’ Hence this water of Edfu is called (the water of
grapes).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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