[Transcriber's note: refer to the more detailed notes at the end of this etext for more information.]

Religions Ancient and Modern

EGYPTIAN GODS. PETRIE COLLECTION

THE RELIGION OF
ANCIENT EGYPT

By

W. M. FLINDERS PETRIE

D.C.L., LL.D., LIT.D., PH.D., T.R.S., F.B.A., F.S.A. SCOT.
EDWARDS PROFESSOR OF EGYPTOLOGY,
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON

LONDON
ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE & CO LTD
16 JAMES STREET HAYMARKET
1906

Edinburgh: T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to His Majesty

CONTENTS

PRINCIPAL WORKS ON EGYPTIAN RELIGION

LANZONE.—Dixionario di Mitologia Egizia, 1881-86. 1312 pp., 408 pls. About £4 second hand. (The indispensable storehouse of facts and references.)

WIEDEMANN.—Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, 1897. 307 pp, 73 figs. 12s. 6d. (The best general view of the subject.)

WIEDEMANN.—Article in supplement to Hastings's Dictionary of the Bible. (Excellent outline.)

WIEDEMANN.—Ancient Egyptian Doctrine of Immortality, 1895. 71 pp., 21 figs., 2 pls. 3s.

MASPERO.—Dawn of Civilisation, see pp. 81-222, 1894. 25s. (A popular outline by a master.)

MASPERO.—Études de Mythologie, 1893, 895 pp.

MASPERO.—Inscriptions des Pyramides de Saqqara, 1894. 456 pp., 9 pl.

RENOUF.—Book of the Dead, 1893-1902. 308 pp., 53 pl. £2. (The standard translation with the illustrations.)

BUDGE.—Gods of the Egyptians, 1904. 908 pp., 131 figs., 98 pls. £3. 3s. (Useful repertory, but illustrations not exact.)

SAYCE.—Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia, 1902. 509 pp. 7s. 6d. (Useful for comparative view.)

PETRIE.—Religion and Conscience in Ancient Egypt, 1898. 176 pp. 2s. 6d. (A study of the nature of conscience, and the tribal aspect of religion.)

THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT

CHAPTER I

THE NATURE OF GODS

Before dealing with the special varieties of the Egyptians' belief in gods, it is best to try to avoid a misunderstanding of their whole conception of the supernatural. The term god has come to tacitly imply to our minds such a highly specialised group of attributes, that we can hardly throw our ideas back into the more remote conceptions to which we also attach the same name. It is unfortunate that every other word for supernatural intelligences has become debased, so that we cannot well speak of demons, devils, ghosts, or fairies without implying a noxious or a trifling meaning, quite unsuited to the ancient deities that were so beneficent and powerful. If then we use the word god for such conceptions, it must always be with the reservation that the word has now a very different meaning from what it had to ancient minds.

To the Egyptian the gods might be mortal; even Ra, the sun-god, is said to have grown old and feeble, Osiris was slain, and Orion, the great hunter of the heavens, killed and ate the gods. The mortality of gods has been dwelt on by Dr. Frazer (Golden Bough), and the many instances of tombs of gods, and of the slaying of the deified man who was worshipped, all show that immortality was not a divine attribute. Nor was there any doubt that they