nd, if it be allied to these, it would be
an expression for 'fate' (like _'Au[d.]_). However, the stem is used in
the sense 'number, determine, assign,' and Man[=a]t may be the divine
determiner of human destinies. From this same stem comes the Biblical
_Meni_, and apparently the Assyrian _Manu_.[1193] The ordinary North
Semitic conception of the source of human destinies is that they are
determined by the gods and written on tablets or in a book,[1194] and
the same conception may have existed in the South Semitic area.[1195]
The other deity mentioned in Isaiah lxv, 11, is Gad; the word means in
Arabic and Hebrew 'fortune, good fortune,' and occurs as the name of a
deity in Phoenician and Aramaic inscriptions, but the data are not
sufficient to fix its original sense. It is the name of a Hebrew tribe,
which is perhaps so called from the tribal god, and the name of a
tribal god is probably concrete.[1196]

+700+. It seems, then, that for most if not all of the names of the
Semitic deities just mentioned abstract senses, though possible, are not
certain. Noeldeke remarks that most of these terms are poetical--they may
be ornate epithets given to old concrete divine figures, in which case
the real cults were attached to these latter and not to abstractions. It
must be regarded as doubtful whether Semitic religion created any
abstract deity.

+701+. _Egyptian._ The most prominent Egyptian abstract deity is Maat,
'truth.' She fulfilled an important function in the judgment-hall of
Osiris in the Underworld, and was widely revered, but had no mythical
history, and seems to have been rather a quasi-philosophical creation
than a vital element of the Egyptian religious life. A god Destiny is
mentioned, who generally bestowed a happy fate.[1197]

+702+. _Roman and Greek._ The most fully developed form of this
conception is found in the Roman cult.[1198] The civic genius of the
Romans led them to give prominence to the maintenance of public and
private rights; thus among their deities appear public safety or
salvation (Salus Publica), public faith or fidelity to engagements
(Fides), civic harmony (Concordia), connubial purity (Pudicitia), filial
devotion (Pietas), the boundary of property (Terminus), victory
(Victoria), liberty (Libertas). There are further the gods Youth
(Juventus and Juventas) and Desire[1199] (Cupido), perhaps as things
fundamental in human life.[1200] Fortune (Fortuna) is the mass of
evidence determining lif