characteristic of the Egyptian fellah, and a few years of peace sufficed
to repair losses which apparently were irreparable. Local religion
was the tie which bound together those divers elements of which each
principality was composed, and as long as it remained, the nomes
remained; when it vanished, they disappeared with it.
[Illustration: 105.jpg PAGE IMAGE]
[Illustration: 106.jpg PAGE IMAGE]
CHAPTER II.--THE GODS OF EGYPT
_THEIR NUMBER AND NATURE--THE FEUDAL GODS, LIVING AND DEAD--TRIADS----
THE TEMPLES AND PRIESTHOOD--THE COSMOGONIES OF THE DELTA----THE ENNEADS
OF HELIOPOLIS AND HERMOPOLIS._
_Multiplicity of the Egyptian gods: the commonalty of the gods, its
varieties, human, animal, and intermediate between man and beast; gods
of foreign origin, indigenous gods, and the contradictory forms with
which they were invested in accordance with various conceptions of their
nature.
The Star-gods--The Sun-god as the Eye of the Shy; as a bird, as a calf,
and as a man; its barks, voyages round the world, and encounters with
the serpent Apopi--The Moon-god and its enemies--The Star-gods: the
Haunch of the Ox, the Hippopotamus, the Lion, the five Horus-planets;
Sothis Sirius, and Sahu Orion.
The feudal gods and their classes: the Nile-gods, the earth-gods, the
sky-gods and the sun-god, the Horus-gods--The equality of feudal
gods and goddesses; their persons, alliances, and marriages: their
children--The triads and their various developments.
The nature of the gods: the double, the soul, the body, death of men and
gods, and their fate after death--The necessity for preserving the body,
mummification--Dead gods the gods of the dead--The living gods, their
temples and images--The gods of the people, trees, serpents, family
fetiches--The theory of prayer and sacrifice: the servants of the
temples, the property of the gods, the sacerdotal colleges.
The cosmogonies of the Delta: Sibu and Nait, Osiris and Isis, SU and
Nephthys--Heliopolis and its theological schools: Ra, his identification
with Horus, his dual nature, and the conception of Atumu--The
Heliopolitan Enneads: formation of the Great Ennead--Thot and
the Hermopolitan Ennead: creation by articulate words and by voice
alone--Diffusion of the Enneads: their connection with the local triads,
the god One and the god Eight--The one and only gods._
[Illustration: 107.jpg PAGE IMAGE]
THE GODS OF EGYPT
The incredible number of religious scenes
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