d it one after
another, accommodating it to the exigencies of local patriotism. Each
placed its own nome-god at the head of the Ennead as "god of the Nine,"
"god of the first time," creator of heaven and earth, sovereign ruler
of men, and lord of all action. As there was the Ennead of Atumu at
Heliopolis, so there was that of Anhuri at Thinis and at Sebennytos;
that of Minu at Coptos and at Panopolis; that of Haroeris at Edfu; that
of Sobkhu at Ombos; and, later, that of Phtah at Memphis and of Amon
at Thebes. Nomes which worshipped a goddess had no scruples whatever in
ascribing to her the part played by Atumu, and in crediting her with the
spontaneous maternity of Shu and Tafnuit.

Illustration: 206.jpg [PLAN OF THE RUINS OP HERMOPOLIS MAGNA. 1]

1 Plan drawn by Thuillier, from the _Description de l'
Egypte_, Ant., vol. iv. pl. 50.

Nit was the source and ruler of the Ennead of Sais, Isis of that of
Buto, and Hathor of that of Denderah.[**] Few of the sacerdotal colleges
went beyond the substitution of their own feudal gods for Atumu.
Provided that the god of each nome held the rank of supreme lord, the
rest mattered little, and the local theologians made no change in the
order of the other agents of creation, their vanity being unhurt even by
the lower offices assigned by the Heliopolitan tradition to such powers
as Osiris, Sibu, and Sit, who were known and worshipped throughout the
whole country.

** On the Ennead of Hathor at Denderah, see Mariette,
Denderah, p. 80., et seq., of the text. The fact that Nit,
Isis, and, generally speaking, all the feudal goddesses,
were the chiefs of their local Enneads, is proved by the
epithets applied to them, which represent them as having
independent creative power by virtue of their own unaided
force and energy, like the god at the head of the
Heliopolitan Ennead.

The theologians of Hermopolis alone declined to borrow the new system
just as it stood, and in all its parts. Hermopolis had always been one
of the ruling cities of Middle Egypt. Standing alone in the midst of the
land lying between the Eastern and Western Mies, it had established upon
each of the two great arms of the river a port and a custom-house, where
all boats travelling either up or down stream paid toll on passing. Not
only the corn and natural products of the valley and of the Delta, but
also goods from distant parts of Africa brought to Siufc by Sou