ample, can be filled in by necessary phases which are
missing in Egypt itself, but are preserved in Babylonia or Greece,
Persia or India, China or Britain, or even Oceania and America.

The incidents in the Destruction of Mankind may be briefly summarized:

As Re grows old "the men who were begotten of his eye"[188] show signs
of rebellion. Re calls a council of the gods and they advise him to
"shoot forth his Eye[189] that it may slay the evil conspirators.... Let
the goddess Hathor descend [from heaven] and slay the men on the
mountains [to which they had fled in fear]." As the goddess complied she
remarked: "it will be good for me when I subject mankind," and Re
replied, "I shall subject them and slay them". Hence the goddess
received the additional name of _Sekhmet_ from the word "to subject".
The destructive Sekhmet[190] _avatar_ of Hathor is represented as a
fierce lion-headed goddess of war wading in blood. For the goddess set
to work slaughtering mankind and the land was flooded with blood[191].
Re became alarmed and determined to save at least some remnant of
mankind. For this purpose he sent messengers to Elephantine to obtain a
substance called _d'd'_ in the Egyptian text, which he gave to the god
Sektet of Heliopolis to grind up in a mortar. When the slaves had
crushed barley to make beer the powdered _d'd'_ was mixed with it so as
to make it red like human blood. Enough of this blood-coloured beer was
made to fill 7000 jars. At nighttime this was poured out upon the
fields, so that when the goddess came to resume her task of destruction
in the morning she found the fields inundated and her face was mirrored
in the fluid. She drank of the fluid and became intoxicated so that she
no longer recognized mankind.[192]

Thus Re saved a remnant of mankind from the bloodthirsty, terrible
Hathor. But the god was weary of life on earth and withdrew to heaven
upon the back of the Divine Cow.

There can be no doubt as to the meaning of this legend, highly confused
as it is. The king who was responsible for introducing irrigation came
to be himself identified with the life-giving power of water. He was the
river: his own vitality was the source of all fertility and prosperity.
Hence when he showed signs that his vital powers were failing it became
a logical necessity that he should be killed to safeguard the welfare of
his country and people.[193]

The time came when a king, rich in power and the enjoyment of life,