constitution of the heaven in
which he hoped to live everlastingly, and about its Maker. The
translations given in the preceding pages prove that the theologians of
Egypt were ready enough to describe heaven, and the life led by the
blessed there, and the powers and the attributes of the gods, but they
appear to have shrunk from writing down in a connected form their
beliefs concerning the Creation and the origin of the Creator. The
worshippers of each great god proclaimed him to be the Creator of All,
and every great town had its own local belief on the subject. According
to the Heliopolitans, Atem, or Tem, and at a later period Ra, was the
Creator; according to Memphite theology he was Ptah; according to the
Hermopolitans he was Thoth; and according to the Thebans he was Amen
(Ammon). In only one native Egyptian work up to the present has there
been discovered any connected account of the Creation, and the means by
which it was effected, namely, the British Museum Papyrus, No. 10,188.
This papyrus was written about 305 B.C., and is therefore of a
comparatively late date, but the subject matter of the works contained
in it is thousands of years older, and it is only _their_ forms which
are of a late date. The Story of the Creation is found in the last work
in the papyrus, which is called the "Book of overthrowing Aapep, the
Enemy of Ra, the Enemy of Un-Nefer" (_i.e._ Osiris). This work is a
liturgy, which was said at certain times of the day and night in the
great temple of Amen-Ra at Thebes, with the view of preventing the
monster Aapep from obstructing the sunrise. Aapep was supposed to lie in
wait for the sun daily just before sunrise, with the view of doing
battle with him and overthrowing him. When the Sun-god arrived at the
place where Aapep was, he first of all cast a spell upon the monster,
which rendered him helpless, and then he cast his fiery rays upon him,
which shrivelled him up, and the fire of the god consumed him entirely.
In the temple of Amen-Ra the priests recited the spells that were
supposed to help the Sun-god to burn up Aapep, and they burnt waxen
figures of the monster in specially prepared fires, and, uttering
curses, they trampled them under foot and defiled them. These spells and
burnings were also believed to break up rain clouds, and to scatter fog
and mist and to dissipate thunder-storms, and to help the sun to rise on
this world in a cloudless sky. Aapep was a form of Set, the god of evil