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Lewis Spence. Myths and Legends of Ancient Egypt
Myths and Legends of Ancient Egypt
Table of Contents
PREFACE
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTORY
Local Gods
Animism
Fetishism and Totemism
Creation Myths
The 'Companies' of the Gods
The Egyptian Idea of God
Deities of the Pyramid Texts
Early Burials
The Pyramid
Pyramidal Architecture
'Lost' Pyramids
Mummification
Funeral Offerings
The Ka
The Ba
CHAPTER II: EXPLORATION, HISTORY, AND CUSTOMS
The Nile Valley
Racial Origin
Egyptian Exploration
Early Researches
Town Planning
Palaces and Mansions
Life and Law in Ancient Egypt
Commerce
Agriculture
Legal Code
Science
The Peasantry
Costume
CHAPTER III: THE PRIESTHOOD: MYSTERIES AND TEMPLES
The Priesthood
The College of Thebes
Mysteries
The Greek Mysteries
The Egyptian Temple
The Holy Place
CHAPTER IV: THE CULT OF OSIRIS
Osiris
The Myth of Osiris
Set, the Enemy
The Tamarisk-tree
The Grief of Isis
The Vengeance of Horus
Sir J.G. Frazer on Osiris
Primitive Conceptions of the Moon
Osiris and the Persephone Myth
A New Osirian Theory
Isis
Isis as the Wind
Manifold Attributes of Isis
Horus
The Dream of Thothmes
Heru-Behudeti
The Myth of the Winged Disk
The Slaughter of the Monsters
Other Horus Legends
The Black Hog
Nephthys
Set
Set and the Ass
Anubis
Thoth
Thoth as Soul-Recorder
Maāt
The Book of the Dead
A 'Discovery' 3400 Years Old
The Three Recensions
The Place of Reeds
The Journey of Osiris
The Place of Punishment
The Egyptian Heaven
How the Blessed Lived
CHAPTER V: THE GREAT GODS
Ra, the Sun-God
Rat
Fusion of Myths
Ra and Osiris
The Sacred Beetle
Amen
Amen's Rise to Power
The Oracle of Jupiter-Ammon
Mut the Mother
The Seker-boat
Sekhmet
The Seven Wise Ones
Bast
The Festival of Bast
Nefer-Tem
I-em-hetep
Khnemu
The Legend of the Nile's Source
Satet
Anqet
Aten
A Religion of One God
A Social Revolt
Aten's Attributes
A Hymn to Aten
Hathor
Hathor as Love-Goddess
The Slaying of Men
The Forms of Hathor
Hapi, the God of the Nile
Counterparts of Hapi
Nut
Taurt
Hekt
Khonsu
Minor Deities
CHAPTER VI: EGYPTIAN LITERATURE
Egyptian Language and Writing
The Hieroglyphs
Literature
The Cat and the Jackal
Travellers' Tales
The Story of Saneha
The Shipwrecked Sailor
The Fable of the Head and the Stomach
The Rebuking of Amasis
Tales of Magic
The Parting of the Waters
The Prophecy of Dedi
The Visit of the Goddesses
Lyric and Folk Poetry
The True History of Setne and his son Se-Osiris[7]
Se-Osiris
A Vision of Amenti
The Reading of the Sealed Letter
The Contents of the Letter
Magic versus Magic
The War of Enchantments
How Setnau Triumphed over the Assyrians
The Peasant and the Workman
Story of the Two Brothers
The Treachery of Bitou's Wife
The Doomed Prince
The Visit of Ounamounou to the Coasts of Egypt
The Story of Rhampsinites
Civil War in Egypt: The Theft of the Cuirass
The Birth of Hatshepsut
How Thoutii took the Town of Joppa
CHAPTER VII: MAGIC
Antiquity of Egyptian Magic
The Wandering Spirit
Coercing the Gods
Names of Power
'Right Speaking'
A Magical Conspiracy
Amulets
Spells
The Gibberish of Magic
The Tale of Setne
A Game of Draughts with the Dead
Medical Magic
Alchemy
Animal Transformation
Dreams
Mummy Magic
CHAPTER VIII: FOREIGN AND ANIMAL GODS: THE LATE PERIOD
Foreign Deities
Asiatic Gods
Ashtoreth
Semitic and African Influence
Sacred Animals
Apis
The Apis Oracle
The Crocodile
The Lion
The Lion Guardian
The Cat
The Dog
The Hippopotamus
Other Animals
The Ibis
Sacred Trees
The Lotus
Religion of the Late Period
A Religious Reaction
The Worship of Animals
Religion under Persian Rule
The Ptolemaic Period
Fusion of Greek and Egyptian Ideas
The Legend of Sarapis
An Architectural Renaissance
Change in the Conception of the Underworld
Twilight of the Gods
CHAPTER IX: EGYPTIAN ART
The Materials of Painting
New Empire Art
Egyptian Art Influences
Artistic Remains
Egyptian Colour-harmonies
The Great Simplicity of Egyptian Art
GLOSSARY AND INDEX
THE PRONUNCIATION OF EGYPTIAN
Отрывок из книги
Lewis Spence
Published by Good Press, 2019
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Khepera then wept copiously, and from the tears which he shed sprang men and women. The god then made another eye, which in all probability was the moon. After this he created plants and herbs, reptiles and creeping things, while from Shu and Tefnut came Geb and Nut, Osiris and Isis, Set, Nephthys and Horus at a birth. These make up the company of the great gods at Heliopolis, and this is sufficient to show that the latter part of the story at least was a priestly concoction.
But there was another version, obviously an account of the creation according to the worshippers of Osiris. In the beginning of this Khepera tells us at once that he is Osiris, the cause of primeval matter. This account was merely a frank usurpation of the creation legend for the behoof of the Osirian cult. Osiris in this version states that in the beginning he was entirely alone. From the inert abyss of Nu he raised a god-soul—that is, he gave the primeval abyss a soul of its own. The myth then proceeds word for word in exactly the same manner as that which deals with the creative work of Khepera. But only so far, for we find Nu in a measure identified with Khepera, and Osiris declaring that his eye, the sun, was covered over with large bushes for a long period of years. Men are then made by a process similar to that described in the first legend. From these accounts we find that the ancient Egyptians believed that an eternal deity dwelling in a primeval abyss where he could find no foothold endowed the watery mass beneath him with a soul; that he created the earth by placing a charm upon his heart, otherwise from his own consciousness, and that it served him as a place to stand upon; that he produced the gods Shu and Tefnut, who in turn became the parents of the great company of gods; and that he dispersed the darkness by making the sun and moon out of his eyes. After these acts followed the almost insensible creation of men and women by the process of weeping, and the more sophisticated making of vegetation, reptiles, and stars. In all this we see the survival of a creation myth of a most primitive and barbarous type, which much more resembles the crude imaginings of the Red Man than any concept which might be presumed to have arisen from the consciousness of 'classic' Egypt. But it is from such unpromising material that all religious systems spring, and however strenuous the defence made in order to prove that the Egyptians differed in this respect from other races, that defence is bound in no prolonged time to be battered down by the ruthless artillery of fact.
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