10. 11. 12. 282 YEARS OF VARIOUS NATIONS. APP. BOOK II. might hence derive an argument in favour of the early use of hieroglyphics, and suppose that they were invented before the introduction of the solar months. In India also the lunar year was older than the solar. The lunar year still continues in use among the Arabs, and other Moslems, and the origin of a month has been the same in many countries; but their year is only of 354 days. The Aztecs, again, had months of 13 days, of which 1461 made their cycle of 52 years, by which the supernumerary quarter day was accurately adjusted. But though the Arabs always used lunar months, it has been ascertained by Mr. Lane, and by M. Caussin de Perceval, that their years were intercalated for about two centuries, until the 10th year of the Hégira, when the intercalation was discontinued by Mohammed's order; so that the usual mode of adjusting Arab chronology with our own is not quite correct. It is a singular fact, that Moses, in describing the abatement of the waters of the Deluge, calculates five months at 150 days (Gen. viii. 3, 4), or 30 days to a month, being the same as the unintercalated Egyptian year; the lunar however was that first used by the Hebrews; and, as in other languages, their name for the moon signified also a month. The lunar year of the Jews consisted of 12 months, which began (as with the Arabs) directly the new moon appeared; they varied in their length, and in order to rectify the loss of the 11 days, in the real length of the year, they added a thirteenth month every third, and sometimes every second year, to make up the deficiency, so that their months and festivals did not (like those of the Arabs) go through the various seasons of the year. Herodotus considers the intercalation of the Egyptians better than that of the Greeks, who added a month at the end of every 2nd year, making them alternately of 12 and 13 months. This indeed would cause an excess, which the omission of 1 month every 8th year by the Greeks would not rectify. (See Censorinus, de Die Nat. c. 18.) Herodotus calculates the Greek months at 30 days each, and the 12 months at 360 days, when he says 70 years, without including intercalary months, are 25,200 days, i.e. 360 × 70, which, he adds, the 35 intercalary months will increase by 1050 days (35) × 30), making a total of 26,250 days for 70 years. This would be 375 days to the year. (See n.o, ch. 32, Bk. i.) On the Greek intercalation see Macrobius, Saturn. i. 14, who says the Greeks made CHAP. II. THE GREEK AND ROMAN YEAR. 283 their year of 354 days, and perceiving that 11 days were wanting to the true year, they added 90 days, or 3 months, every 8 years. Strabo (xvii. p. 554) says the Greeks were ignorant (of the true length) of the year until Eudoxus was in Egypt; and this was in the late time of the 2nd Nectanebo, about B.C. 360; and Macrobius affirms that the Egyptians always possessed the true calculation of the length of the year,-"anni certus modus apud solos semper Ægyptios fuit." (Saturn. i..7.) He then mentions the primitive year among other people-as the Arcadians, who divided it into 3 months; other Greeks making it consist of 354 days (a lunar year); and the Romans under Romulus, who divided it into 10 months, beginning with March.-[G. W.] 284 EGYPTIAN GODS. APP. BOOK II. CHAPTER III. "THE EGYPTIANS FIRST BROUGHT INTO USE THE NAMES OF THE TWELVE GODS WHICH THE GREEKS ADOPTED FROM THEM."-Chap. 4. 1. Different orders of Gods. 2. The great Gods of the first order. 3. The second order. 4. Place of Re, or the Sun. 5. Classification of the Gods. 6. Sabaism not a part of the Egyptian religion. 7. Pantheism. 8. Name of Re, Phrah, and Pharaoh. 9. Position of Re in the second order. 10. Rank of Osiris. 11. Children of Seb. 12. The third order. 13. The other most noted deities. 14. Other Gods. 15. Foreign divinities. 16. Chief God of a city and the triad. 17. Deities multiplied to a great extent -the unity. 18. Offices of the Deity-characters of Jupiter. 19. Resemblances of Gods to be traced from one original. 20. Subdivision of the Deity-local Gods. 21. Personifications-Nature Gods. 22. Sacred trees and mountains. 23. Common origin of religious systems. 24. Greek philosophy. 25. Creation and early state of the earth. 1. Ir is evident that some gods held a higher rank throughout the country than others, and that many were of minor importance, while some were merely local divinities. But it is not certain that the great gods were limited to 8, or the 2nd rank to 12; there are also proofs of some, reputed to belong to the 2nd and 3rd orders, holding a higher position than this gradation would sanction, and two of different orders are combined, or substituted for each other. It is not possible to arrange all the gods in the 3 orders as stated by Herodotus, nor can the 12 have been all born of the 8; there was however some distinction of the kind, the 8 agreeing with the 8 Cabiri (i.e. "great" gods) of the Phoenicians (see note on ch. 51), and the others with the 12 gods of Olympus, and the Consentes of the Romans; though it is uncertain how this arrangement applied 2. to them. Those who have the best claim to a place among the 8 Great Gods are,-1. Amun; 2. Maut; 3. Noum, or Nou (Noub, Nef, Kneph); 4. Sáté; 5. Pthah; 6. Neith; 7. Khem; 8. Pasht, who seems also to combine the character of Buto, under whose name she was worshipped at Bubastis. 9 1. Amun, the Great God of Thebes, "the King of the Gods," answered to Jupiter; 2. Maut, the "Mother" of all, or the maternal principle (probably the môt of Sanconiatho, see App. Book iii. СНАР. ІІІ. GODS OF THE FIRST ORDER. 285 Essay i. § 3, 11), appears to be sometimes a character of Buto (Latona), primæval darkness from which sprang light; 3. Noum, Nu, Nou (or Nou-bai? called also Noub, Nef, Kneph, Cnuphis, and Chnubis, the ram-headed god), who was also considered to answer to Jupiter, as his companion (4.) Sáté did to Juno, was the Great God of the Cataracts, of Ethiopia, and of the Oases; and in later temples, especially of Roman time, he often received the name of Amun-the "contortis cornibus Ammon." (See notes on ch. 29, 42, Book ii., and on ch. 181, Book iv.) There is a striking resemblance between the Semitic nef," breath," and the Coptic nibe, nifi, nouf," spiritus ;" and between the hieroglyphic num (with the article pnum), and the veûμa, “spirit," which Diodorus says was the name of the Egyptian Jupiter. He was the "soul of the world" (comp. mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet"). The ram, his emblem, stands for bai "soul," and hence the Asp also received the name of Bait. The "K" of Kneph is evidently a corrupt addition, as Knoub for Noub; the change of m and b in Noub is easily explained (see above, in CH. i. § 6); and the name "Noub" is perhaps connected with Nubia as well as with gold. The very general introduction of the ram's head on the prow of the sacred boats, or arks, of other gods, seems to point to the early and universal worship of this God, and to connect him, as his mysterious boat does, with the spirit that moved on the waters. He is said to be Agathodemon; and the Asp being his emblem, confirms this statement of Eusebius. 66 5. Pthah was the creative power, the maker of all material things, the father of the gods," and assimilated by the Greeks, through a gross notion of the Anuoupyós, or Opifex Mundi, to their Hephaestus (Vulcan). He was the god of Memphis. He had not so high a rank in Greece, nor in India, where Agni (ignis of Latin, ogan fire" of Slavonic) was an inferior deity to Mahadeva, or Siva. 66 6. Neith, the goddess of Saïs, answered to Athênê or Minerva ; she was self-born, and åpσevóenλus; she therefore sometimes had the sceptre given to male deities. (See note on ch. 62, Book ii.) 66 7. Khem, the generative principle, and universal nature, was represented as a phallic figure. He was the god of Coptos, the "Пar enẞar," and the Pan of Chemmis (Panopolis)-the Egyptian Pan, who, as Herodotus justly observes (ch. 145, Book ii.), was one of the eight great gods. Of him is said in the hieroglyphic legend, thy title is father of thine own father.'" (See notes and ch. 42, and App. Book iii. Essay i. § 11.) 66 on 3. 286 GODS OF THE SECOND ORDER. APP. BOOK II. 8. Pasht, Bubastis, answered to Artemis, or Diana; as at the Speos Artemidos. It is not easy to determine the 12 gods of the 2nd order; and I only do this temporarily, as I have long since done in my Materia Hieroglyphica (p. 58); but I must not omit to state that they do not appear always to have been the same, and that the children of the 8 great gods do not necessarily hold a place among those of the 2nd order. (For the forms of those of the other gods, whose names are mentioned below, see At. Eg. W., vol. v., Plates.) The 12 deities of the most importance after the 8, and who may have been those of the 2nd order, are: 1. Re, Ra, or Phrah, the Sun, the father of many deities, and combined with others of the 1st, 2nd, and even 3rd order. 2. Seb, Chronos, or Saturn. He was also the Earth. Being the father of Osiris, and other deities of the 3rd order, he was called "father of the gods." The goose was his emblem. (See note 9 ch. 72.) 3. Netpe, Rhea, wife of Seb. She was the Vault of Heaven, and was called "mother of the gods." 4. Khons, the 3rd member of the Great Triad of Thebes, composed of Amun, Maut, and Khons their offspring. He is supposed to be a character of Hercules, and also of the Moon. In the Etymologicum Magnum, Hercules is called Chon. 5. Anouké, Estia, or Vesta, the 3rd member of the Great Triad of the Cataracts, composed of Noum (Nou), Sáté, and Anouké. (See note on ch. 62.) Estia is Festia with the digamma. 9 6. Atmou, Atmoo, Atum, or Atm, is "Darkness," the Sun after sunset (comp. Atmeh, "darkness," Arabic), sol inferus, and called Re-Atum. Mr. Birch thinks him the negative principle, tem signifying "not." 7. Moui, apparently the same as Gom or Hercules, the splendour and light of the Sun, and therefore called a "son of Re." 8. Tafne (Daphne), or Tafne-t, a lion-headed goddess, perhaps the same as Thriphis, who is with Khem at Athribis and Panopolis. 9. Thoth, the intellect; Hermes or Mercury; the Moon (Lunus), a male god as in India; and Time in the sense of passing period. Anubis is also Time, past and future. (Plutarch de Is. s. 44.) 10. Savak, the crocodile-headed god, often called Savak-Re. |