Scarabs / The History, Manufacture and Symbolism of the Scarabæus in Ancient Egypt, Phoenicia, Sardinia, Etruria, etc.

FOOTNOTES:

V.ToC

The small sized scarabs were usually incised with hieroglyphics and perforated longitudinally; they are generally found on the breasts of mummies next the skin or suspended from the neck, by a wire of gold or other metal, or a string going through them, or worn like a ring stone on the forefinger of the left hand; and sometimes, grasped inside of the closed left hand. The inscriptions on them usually run from right to left. One method of wearing them by the living, a very ancient one, was by stringing them on a cord or a wire, so that they could be worn as a bracelet on the wrist, a necklace around the throat, or as a pendant to a necklace. The engraved base serving not only as an amulet but also as the private signet of the owner. Soldiers wore them suspended around the neck, as a talisman when going into battle and also to instil courage in them during the fray. But the most usual mode of mounting them by the living, was as a stone for a finger ring on a swivel, or a wire, passing through the longitudinal perforation and then curved into a ring shape; this was usually worn on the forefinger of the left hand, as that finger was thought by the Egyptians, to contain a nerve leading directly to the heart; the engraved part was turned next to the flesh. M. Mariette says, that the mummies of the XIth Dynasty nearly always have a scarab on the little finger of the left hand.[55]

Sometimes they were made of baked clay or cut in steatite, with the head of a hawk, cow, ram, dog, cat, lion, or even of a man, and such have been found buried with the mummies. Those found on the breasts of mummies embalmed most carefully and expensively, and in immediate contact with the flesh, have sometimes bodies of stone with extended wings, as if flying; these wings sometimes having been made of metal, frequently of gold, and at other times of cut stone.[56] Those found made of stone with extended wings, also had the latter often made of lead or silver; when of blue pottery, the wings were generally made of the same material.

On the lids of the outer cases of many coffins, especially of the finest; the position over the breast of the mummy was occupied by a large winged scarabæus, moulded apparently, of pasteboard or of successive layers of gummed linen, and then beautifully painted in colors. This was to act as the protector Khepra, of the ka or immaterial vitality of the sahu or mummy. The Egyptians had a complicated psychology which we will refer to more fully hereafter.

Those within the coverings were most probably put inside of the mummy wrappings to act as talisman, like the writing upon the linen wrappings, and the bandelettes inscribed with texts from the Book of the Dead, or, the Shait an Sensen, i.e., Book of the Breathings of Life, and as also were enclosed, copies of entire chapters and parts, of the Book of the Dead, written upon papyrus or linen; or inscribed on the large stone scarabs, which were put in the body of the corpse, to take the place of the heart, the last having been deposited with the lungs, in the jar of Tuamautef, one of the four Canopic jars. The idea being to drive away evil spirits, supposed to be injurious to the passage of the soul of the dead, upon its journey through the under-world to the new birth and power of transformation, in the eternal heaven of the Egyptians.

There appears to have been two divisions of that eternal heaven, one called Aar and Aanru, the place in which agricultural labors were performed, and the other Hotep, the place of repose. Both are mentioned in the Book of the Dead.

Indeed some chapters of the Book of the Dead were only inscribed on the linen winding sheet of the mummy, and the texts of the CLIVth chapter were only recovered recently, upon the unrolling of the mummy of Tehuti-mes, or Thotmes, IIIrd (1600 B.C.,) of the XVIIIth Dynasty, the great warrior king of Egypt, found a few years past at Dayr-el-Baharee; inscribed upon his linen winding sheet. As the winding sheet was the only proper place for this text, and as it is unique, it likely would not ever have been known, if this Pharaoh's mummy had not been discovered unmutilated.

The small scarabs were usually placed upon the eyes or the breast, sometimes over the stomach. They were strung into a net to cover the corpse and were sewed on the wrappings. As many as three thousand have been found in one tomb.

Egyptian scarabs were found by Mr. Layard, in his explorations on the banks of the Khabour in Mesopotamia, at Arban; and he gives plates of the same.[57] Three are of the reigns of the Egyptian kings Thotmes IIIrd, and one of Amenophis IIIrd. They are mostly of steachist, and of the XVIIIth Dynasty. He found one of hard stone, an agate, engraved with an Assyrian emblem.[58] He also found at Nimrûd; cubes of bronze upon which were scarabs with outstretched wings, inlaid in gold,[59] and bronze bowls with conventional forms of the scarab, rather Phœnician than Egyptian, in the centre of the inside.[60]

After the Christian era the influence of cult of the scarab was still felt. St. Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan, calls Jesus: "The good Scarabæus, who rolled up before him the hitherto unshapen mud of our bodies."[61] St. Epiphanius has been quoted as saying of Christ: "He is the scarabæus of God," and indeed it appears likely that what may be called, Christian forms of the scarab, yet exist. One has been described as representing the crucifixion of Jesus; it is white and the engraving is in green, on the back are two palm branches; many others have been found apparently engraved with the Latin cross.[62]

FOOTNOTES:

VI.ToC

As I have already said: the larger scarabs are usually found in the body of the mummy in place of the heart, which was always taken out of the corpse and placed in one of the visceral vases, that of Tuamautef. The scarab was a symbol of the re-birth, resurrection and the eternal life of the soul, pronounced pure at the psychostasia; and we know from the Book of the Dead, that at the moment of resurrection, in analogy to the beginning of terrestrial life, it was the heart that was asserted to be given to the dead so as to receive the first vitality of the second birth, it was through the heart that the mummy would revive, thence the inscribed scarab was placed in the mummy in the place formerly occupied by its heart when in terrestrial life. Sometimes the representation of a human heart was engraved on the scarabæus. The small scarabs are not often found inside of the mummy. But frequently large stone scarabs have been found in it in the place of the heart, on which, incised in very small characters, are portions of the Book of the Dead. Those usually inscribed are, the XXXth chapter or those parts of the LXIVth, line 34, or of the XXVIIth chapters, which relate to the heart of a man. They begin usually with the formula: "My heart which comes from my mother, my heart which is necessary for my transformations," etc. They are, following the commands in the Book of the Dead, frequently set in gold, sometimes in bronze, and sometimes are incised with the shape of the hieroglyph for the heart.

At some very remote period, so remote that we cannot even surmise its date, the scarabæus symbol was considered as embodying not only the idea of the creator but also, the idea of the life beyond the grave in eternal futurity. Some scholars assert that the Egyptians rejected every abstraction and did not have any philosophy. This I do not and cannot believe from my investigations of their learning, but I do think, that we have not yet grasped nor understood that philosophy in its fullness, from the few remnants of it which have reached our day. The oldest texts and monuments show, a high condition of culture and thought as well as artistic feeling; the unknown deity was idealized and never represented to the eye on the monuments of early times; the Great Sphinx, itself a philosophical abstraction, was made long before the historical period; and the Book of the Dead, shows beneath its pages, a hidden religious metaphysical philosophy not yet unraveled. This was, likely, secretly taught by word of mouth as Qabbalah or Oral Tradition to the initiates, and was never put into writing. Some of these ideas we have just grasped, for instance, we now have some knowledge of the Egyptian divisions of the spiritual or immaterial part of man, of his psychology, and upon studying these divisions one can readily imagine, a secret religious philosophy accompanying those separations of the spiritual in man. We are also obtaining some knowledge, of their idea of God and of their kosmology and kosmogony.

Six thousand years ago Egypt had attained great advancement. "Its religion was established. It possessed a language and writing. Art under the IVth and Vth Dynasties had reached a height which the following Dynasties[63] never surpassed. It had an especially complicated administration, the result of many years. The Egyptians had civil grades and religious grades, bishops as well as prefects. Registration of land surveys existed. The pharaoh had his organized court, and a large number of functionaries, powerfully and wisely arranged, gravitated around him. Literature was honored and books were composed on morals, some of which have reached our day. This was under the Ancient Empire during which existed the builders of the Pyramids."[64] The deities of literature and of libraries already existed, they were Thoth, the Greek Hermes; Atmu, of Thebes; Ma or Maat, goddess of the harmony of the entire universe, or its law of existence, and of righteousness; Pacht, the mistress of thoughts; Safekh, goddess of books, who presided over the foundations of monuments and who was venerated at Memphis as early as the IVth Dynasty; Selk, who was also the goddess of libraries.

"In one of the tombs at Gizeh, a great functionary of the first period of the VIth Dynasty (circa 3300 B.C.,) takes the title of: 'Governor of the House of Books.' This simple mention incidentally occurring between two titles, more exalted, would suffice, in the absence of others, to show us the extraordinary development which had been reached in the civilization of Egypt at that time. Not only had that people a literature, but that literature was sufficiently large to fill libraries; and its importance was so great, that one of the functionaries of the court was especially attached to the care and preservation of the royal library. He had, without doubt, in his keeping with the contemporaneous works, the books written under the first Dynasties, books of the time of Mena and perhaps of kings anterior to Mena. The works in the library would be composed of religious works; chapters of the Book of the Dead, copied after authentic texts preserved in the Temples; scientific treatises on geometry, medicine and astronomy; historic books in which were preserved the sayings and doings of the ancient kings, together with the number of the years of their lives and the exact duration of their reigns; manuals of philosophy and practical morals and perhaps some romances," etc.[65]

The learned of that ancient people followed special lines of study and thought. There was a division of them known as the Herseshta, or Teachers of Mysteries. These were subdivided, among other divisions into: "The Mystery Teachers of Heaven," or, the astronomers and astrologers; "The Mystery Teachers of All Lands," or, the geographers and those who studied other peoples and countries; "The Mystery Teachers of the Depth," likely, the possessors of a knowledge of minerals, mining, varieties of rocks, etc.; "Mystery Teachers of the Secret Word," doubtless those interested in abstract thought, religious metaphysics and philosophy; "Mystery Teachers of the Sacred Language," men who devoted themselves to grammar and the form of writing; "Mystery Teachers of Pharaoh, or, 'of all the commands of Pharaoh,'" wise men, likely private scribes and secretaries of the king; "Mystery Teachers who examine Words," likely learned men who sat as judges to hear complaints, and sift the opposing statements of litigants and witnesses. The learned writers known as scribes were also divided into many branches.[66]

We cannot accept the statements of most of the Greek authors upon this subject, for the study of the last few years of the Ancient Egyptian papyri and other remains, shows that they either did not know or they willfully misrepresented, Egyptian abstract thought; about the only works, outside of the papyri and the monuments, from which we can gather as to it with any sureness, meagre details; are the writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistos; the Osiris and Isis, of Plutarch; the work ascribed to Horapollon, and the book of Iamblichus, entitled: A Treatise on the Mysteries. The Greek writers upon Ancient Egypt, Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, Thales, Plato, Pythagoras, Solon, and others, of less note; give but little assistance, indeed in many cases their statements are misleading. It is a question yet to be solved, as to how much of the foundations of the philosophy of Pythagoras, Plato, Solon and other Greek writers, were obtained from the learned men of Egypt or their writings.[67]

Chapter XXX. of the Per-em-hru, or, Book of the Dead, has frequently in the papyrus copies, a picture of the soul of the dead in adoration before a scarabæus set upright upon a support. This chapter is entitled: "Chapter of not allowing the heart of a man to have opposition made to it in the divine inferior region." It says towards the end: "This chapter is to be said over a scarabæus of hard stone, formed and set in gold, which should be placed in the breast of the man, after the opening of the mouth has been made and the head anointed with oil; then the following words shall be said over him in right of a magical charm: 'My heart which comes to me from my mother, my heart which is necessary to me for my transformations.'" See, Appendix A.

The whole of this chapter was frequently engraved upon the large scarabs, which were placed in the breasts of the mummies in place of the heart.

The LXIVth chapter of the Book of the Dead, is one of the oldest of the entire collection and line 34 et seq., uses the same language as to the heart, and says: "Put it on a scarabæus of hard stone set in gold, in the breast of the mummy, having engraved on it: 'My heart is my mother,'" etc. This chapter is fuller than the other just cited.

The CLXIIIrd chapter, lines 9, 10, says: "O Amen bull-scarabæus, master of the eyes: 'Terrible with the pupil of the eye' is thy name. The Osiris * * * (here the name of the deceased was inserted,) is the emanation of thy two eyes." That is, Amen is here invoked as the bull-symbol of generation and also as the scarabæus, that is, as the creator who has engendered himself.

Chapter CLXV. of the same book, has as a vignette or picture: The god Khem, ithyphallic, with the body of a scarab, etc., line 11 reads: "I do all thy words. Saying (them) over the image of the god raising the arm, having the double plume upon his head, the legs separated and the body of the scarabæus."

The rising sun or Horus, in whose arms it was asserted, the dead arose into the upper life, was represented by the scarabæus under the name of Khepra, Khepera, or Khepri, this name among its other meanings signifying: "The itself transforming," and this is hieroglyphically written by the use of the scarabæus. The body of Khepera as a deity is surmounted in some of the representations, by a scarab in place of a human head.

In chapter XXIV. of the Book of the Dead, we read: "Khepra transforms itself, (or, gives itself a form to itself,) on high, from the thigh of its mother." This is more fully developed in a papyrus in the Louvre which reads: "The majesty of this great god attains that reign (the twelfth division of the subterranean world, responding to the twelfth hour of the night,) which is the end of absolute darkness. The birth of this great god, when it became Khepra, took place in that region * * * It went out from the inferior region. It joined the boat mad. It raised itself above the thighs of Nut."

"O Khepra who created itself on high, from the thigh of its mother, i.e., Nu, or Nut."[68]

Nut was the goddess personifying the vault of heaven, the sky, and the space, in which the sun was supposed to have been born. The scarab it must be remembered was in the Egyptian thought, an androgyne.

In a papyrus now in Turin, Italy, we may read: "I am Khepera, the morning; Ra, the midday; Tum, the evening." It is said of Khepra as of Horus, that it produced the Ma, i.e., the law or harmony which uphold the universe, and it is merged with a form of Horus, under the name of: "Harmakhis-Khepra who gives itself its form." One of the parts played by Khepra in Ancient Egyptian thought, is condensed in that figure which we find on the top of some of the Osirian naos's or arks, the scarab in the middle of the disk emerging from the horizon.

The perpetuity of the transformations or the power to become, whenever it pleased, the form it desired; was everywhere recalled to the mind of the people of Ancient Egypt, by the symbolic figure of the scarab, the hieroglyph of the words: To become, to be, to be existing, as also creator, an amulet of power above all others. "Khepra in its bark is Har-em-Khu (or, Harmakhis) himself," (chapter XVII. Book of the Dead, line 79.) The latter is the sun re-born every day at sunrise in the East under the name of Horus, it is: "Horus in the horizon," the conqueror of darkness. The scarab as Tum-Ra-Khepra is the, "illuminator of the double earth at its going out of the under-world, great god, and master of the Ma:" that is, of the Harmony and Law, whereby the universe came into being and exists.

The similarity attached to the idea in the symbolism of the sphinx, causes the close student of Egyptology to see, that the scarab and the sphinx represent similar ideas. The Great Sphinx of Gizeh near the Great Pyramids, is an image of Ra-Harmakhis or, "Horus in the two horizons," (the rising and the setting sun;) one of the names of the sphinx is seshep (i.e., to make the light.) The sphinx is said to be, an emblem of energy and force united to intellect, it is one of the very earliest of the Ancient Egyptian emblems, that of Gizeh was old and needing repairs when the Pyramids were being built; (circa 3733 B.C.) That abstraction does not appear to me, to be beyond the philosophy of the archaic Egyptians. The head of the Great Sphinx signified the Khu, or intellectual part of the soul, in their psychology; and the lion-shaped body, signified force, vitality or energy, the life principle or Ka.[69]

The promise of the resurrection of the soul was symbolized, by the Great Sphinx of Gizeh, old at the beginning of the Ancient Empire; by the Phœnix, and by the Scarab, the antiquity of the symbolism of which no Egyptologist has yet fathomed. We have it set forth in writing on the inscriptions of the earliest Dynasties.[70]

On a stele found between the paws of the Great Sphinx of Gizeh is: "The majesty of this beautiful god speaks by its own mouth, as a father speaks to his child, saying: Look to me, let thine eye rest on me, my son Thutmes! I, thy father, Harmakhu-Khepra-Ra-Tum, I give thee the kingdom." This monarch was Thutmes IVth (1533 B.C.)[71]

In the interior of the pyramid of Mer-en-Ra (or Mirinri Ist,) 3200 B.C., was inscribed on the walls: "And they installing this Mihtimsaouf Mirini upon their thrones at the head of the divine Nine, mistress of Ra, it who has its dwelling fixed, because they cause that Mihtimsaouf Mirini may be as Ra, in its name of the Scarabæus, and thou hast entered as to thyself as Ra," etc.[72]

"Salutation to thee Tumu,[73] salutation to thee, Scarabæus-god, who art thyself; thou who liftest up, in that holding thy name of lifter up ('from the earth,' 'the stairway,' or 'stairs,') and who art (Khopiru) in this, holding the name of the Scarabæus-god (Khopiru)! Salutation to thee Eye of Horus, whom it has furnished with its two creating hands (Tumuï,)" etc.[74]

Chapter XVII., line 75, of the Book of the Dead, reads: "O Khepra in its boat! the society of the gods is its body, in other words, it is Eternity."

Chapter XXIV., lines 1, 2, say: "I am Khepra who gives to itself a form on high, from the thigh of its mother, making a wolf-dog, for those who are in the celestial abyss, and the phœnix, for those who are among the divine chiefs." That is, as Harmakhis.

Chapter XV., lines 3, 4, read: "Salutation to thee, Harmakhis-Khepra who to itself gives a form to itself! Splendid is thy rising in the horizon, illuminating the double earth with thy rays." The same chapter, line 47, reads: "Khepra, father of the gods! He (the defunct) has never any more injury to fear, thanks to that deliverance."

Chapter CXXXIV., line 2, says: "Homage to Khepra in its boat who every day overthrows Apap." Comp., chapter CXXX., line 21, XLI., line 2. Apap was the evil serpent, the executioner of the gods, that is, the principal evil one; and Khepra, the scarabæus deity, overthrows the principal evil one, every day, according to this text.

"The Osiris * * * (name of the defunct was inserted in this blank,) is considered as a lord of eternity, he is considered as Khepra, he is lord of the diadem, he is in the eye of the sun," etc., says chapter XLII., lines 12, 13 et seq.

And in chapter XVII., which is one of the oldest chapters of the Per-em-hru, lines 76, 77, 78, is; "O Khepra in thy boat! (i.e., as Harmakhis) the body of the gods is even thy body, or so to say, it is Eternity. Save Osiris * * * from those watching judges (i.e., Isis and Nephthys,) to whom the master of spells has entrusted, at his pleasure, the watching of his enemies—whom the executioner will strike—and from whose observation none escape. Let me not fall under their sword; let me not go into their place of torture; let me not remain supplicating in their abodes; let me not come into their place for execution; let me not sit down in their boilers; let me not do those things which are done by those whom the gods detest," etc.

Further according to the Book of the Dead, the soul of the dead man, says: "I fly among those of the divine essence, I become in it, Khepra ... I am that, which is in the bosom of the gods." (Chapter LXXXIII., lines 1, 2.)

Another text reads: "O it who establishes the mysteries which are in me, produce the transformations as Khepra, going out of the condition of the disk so as to give light (or, to enlighten.)" Chapter LXIV., line 16. (Comp. also chapter XCIII.)

Another text says: "I give vigor to the murdering sword which is in the hand of Khepra against the rebels." (Chapter XCV., line 3.)

Khepra is also called, Tum-Khepra. (Chapter CXLI., line 6.)

Reaching the eternal abode, the soul, says: "I am intact, intact as my father Osiris-Khepra, of whom the image is, the man whose body is not decomposed." (Chapter CLIV., lines 1, 2.)

On articles of furniture, on toys, on the coffins of mummies, on papyri and linen and other monuments, the scarabæus appears and sets off in a strong light, the Egyptian belief in the resurrection and re-birth of the pious dead. The very idea of the transformation is shown, by the hieroglyph of the scarab for the word Kheper, i.e., to be, to become, to raise up. One of the most urgent prayers to be found in many places, in the Book of the Dead as made by the deceased, is, that he may go out of the under-world to the higher regions of light, and have power to "go forth as a living soul, to take all the forms which may please him." Chabas says as to this: "We know that such was the principal beatitude of the elect in the Egyptian heaven; it allowed the faculty of transformation into all the universe under the form wished for." The god Khepra with folding wings symbolized these metamorphoses.

It figures continually in the sepulchral paintings on the walls of the hypogea of Thebes, and it announces the second birth of the soul to the future eternal life. Some figures have the scarab over the head, sometimes in place of the head. In the Great Temple at Edfu a scarab has been found portrayed with two heads, one of a ram, the symbol of Amen, or Ammon; the hidden or mysterious highest deity of the priesthood especially of Thebes; the other of a hawk, the symbol of Horus, holding in its claws a symbol of the universe.[75] It may symbolize by this form, the rising sun and the coming of the Spring sun of the vernal equinox in the zodiacal sign of the ram, but more likely has a much deeper religious meaning.[76] Represented with the head and legs of a man the scarab was an emblem of Ptah.

FOOTNOTES:

VII.ToC

The human heart, the first life principle of human existence and regeneration, the first apparent individuality of embryonic human life; was symbolized, in the Per-em-Hru, i.e., the Book of the Dead, by Khepra, the scarabæus deity; this is one reason why the texts (chapters XXX. and XXVII., see also LXIV.,) which related to the heart, were those usually inscribed on the funeral scarabæi, and consecrated to the preservation of the heart of the dead. The condition of death was described by the Egyptian expression: "The one whose heart does not beat." The resurrection or re-birth from the dead only began, according to the Egyptian idea, when this organ, so essential and necessary to all animal life, was returned to the deceased Ba, i.e., responsible soul, by the decree of Osiris and the judges of the dead, which Thoth registers: "To him is accorded that his heart may be in its place." Indeed most of the texts of the Per-em-Hru, as we have seen, are dedicated to the preservation of the heart of the dead one. The philosophic student can therefore from this, at once see, the great value of the scarabæus symbol to the whole religious thought-world of Ancient Egypt. It was the symbol, when returned to the dead, of the regenerated and resurrected life of the dead one to the heavenly regions of the blessed for all eternity, to the second birth in the regions of eternal rest and happiness.

Taking as a model the daily course of the sun, which rising in the morning as Horus; reaching the zenith at noon as Ra; setting in the evening, in the regions of darkness as Tum; and absent during the night and until the morrow as Osiris; upon which, victorious over the chaotic darkness, it arose in triumph again as Horus; the birth and journey of man on earth, was considered by the Ancient Egyptians as similar to the solar journey; and death, the end of that journey, was assimilated to the course of the sun when at night it was, according to their astronomical knowledge, supposed to be in the Lower Regions or Underworld, the abode of Osiris. When he died, the Egyptian became as Osiris, "the nocturnal sun;" resurrected, he became Horus, the new-born and rising sun; in midday, he was Ra. Horus was: "The Old One who rejuvenated himself." Such a re-birth of the dead to immortality, was the recompense promised by the Egyptian religion, to the soul of the man pious and good during this life, but the wicked were to be tortured, transformed into lower forms, or annihilated.[77] Matter, according to it, does not perish but only changes and the earth itself, was deified as Seb, Isis, Ta-nen, and Ptah-Tatunen.

What then did matter become, it was transformed, the deities were transformed. Matter was transformed,—this is explained to us through the symbolism of the scarab, the hieroglyph of the word Kheper, i.e., "to be," "to exist," "to become," "to create," "to emanate;" of which, as I have said, the Great Sphinx is the symbol, and has therefore the philosophical value of creator and created.[78] God and His universe, existence and change or transformation, death and dissolution, all which were only considered as regeneration and re-birth in another form. Thence becomes apparent to us, the great value and importance to the Egyptian people of the symbolism of the scarab, it was, to them, the emblematic synthesis of their religion as to-day to Christians, the Latin or the Greek cross, is the emblematic synthesis of Latin or Greek Christianity. The philosophic Egyptian, thought, the atoms and molecules of all bodies and of all matter, were never destroyed or lost, they were always in motion but were only transformed and changed, by death or the dissolution of forms. Death on this earth did not destroy the personality of the human being, that continued beyond death on our earth, and as to those who had been good and pious during their life here, their personality continued eternally; but the punishment of the wicked was, the annihilation of that personality or an immobility which was almost the same. The work entitled, Hermes Trismegistos, contains a resumé of that idea, saying, among other things: "What was composed is divided. That division is not Death, it is the analysis of a combination; but the aim of that analysis is not destruction, it is the renewment. What is in effect the energy of life? Is it not movement? What then is there in this world, immovable?"[79]

The everlasting interchange of life and death, flows throughout all the religious philosophy of the Ancient Egyptians; basing itself on the continual return of day from night and of day to night, and upon the apparent course of the sun, they seem to have formulated the idea of the immortality of the soul of man after death.

Herodotus tells us,[80] that the Egyptians believed, that the soul of the departed passed into an animal, and after having gone through all the ranks of the animal world, was at the end of three thousand years reunited to the human body; but from the remains of the Egyptian religion we have to-day, next to nothing has been found that will confirm this statement, but much that shows the Greek authors were frequently in error. In the realm of the dead, according to the texts of the Book of the Dead, (chapter LXXXIX. and other places,) the responsible soul or Ba of the deceased, may become a sparrow-hawk, an adder, a crocodile-headed being, etc., but only to deceive its demon enemies;[81] not until after this, is the Khu, the intellectual soul, which accompanies the Ba, which is represented under the symbolized form of a sparrow-hawk with a human head, reunited to the Ba. This however all occurs, not on earth, but in the realms of the dead. The Ancient Egyptian believed, that as the setting of the sun was an actual separation of the body and soul of the sun-god; and its rising, a reunion of the two; so it happened to the future of the spiritual of man, and that after man's death on this earth, his spirit, as did that of the sun-god; would arise again to life, but it would be to a life of immortality in a higher sphere. I am inclined also to think, that they believed the spiritual body of the new-born child came down from the sun-disk or from some very exalted sphere.[82]

The following quotations from Eugène Grébaut's translation in French, of the Hymn to Ammon-Ra, are important for an understanding of the positions of Khepra and of Turn during the Theban Dynasties.

"Hail to thee Ra, lord of the maat, (the) mysterious in his shrine. Master (i.e., father) of the gods, Khepra in its boat, (it) sending forth the word (i.e., the creative word,) the gods came into existence. Hail god Tum, maker of intelligent beings, who determines their manner of existence, artisan of their existences; (and who) distinguishes (their) colors, one from the other."[83] "Author of humanity, making the form of all things to become (or, former who produced every thing;) it is in thy name of Tum-Khepra."[84] "Khepra is father of the gods and the producer of the maat."[85]

The deities go out of the mouth of their father Khepra, and are nourished by the maat, i.e., the Harmony or Law of the universe;[86] men go out of its eyes, that is from the light of the deity, and it is this light which vivifies the entire universe. The Hymn says: "O Form, ONE, producing all things, the ONE, who art Alone; producing existences! Men come forth from Its two eyes, the gods come into existence from Its Word. Author of the green pastures, which nourish the cattle, and of the nutritious plants for the use of mankind. It who maketh that fishes live in the rivers and the winged fowl in the air; who giveth the breath of life to (the germ) in the egg. It maketh to live birds of all species, and likewise the insects which creep and also those which fly. It maketh provision for the rats in their holes, and nourisheth the birds that are on the trees. Hail to Thee, O Author of the totality of all forms. The ONE who art alone, yet numberless through Thy extended arms: watching over all humanity when it sleeps, seeking the good of Its creatures."[87] I have used the neuter It and not He, the Egyptian idea of the highest deity was, that it was androgenic not masculine. Although it would seem that this Hymn, of which I have cited but a small portion, applied to Ammon-Ra, yet it expressly says, that: Its name is also Tum (or, Atmu,)—Khepra.[88]

Another text reads: "O Bull of the western region[89] concealed in the concealed region (i.e., Amenti or the Underworld) from whom emanates all the gods (and all) the goddesses who are with him! The Osiris, the Hathor * * * (the name of the dead was inserted here) the justified (or, triumphant,) comes towards thee; the becoming which is in the becoming of all things when they become.[90] Powerful lords, beneficent, divine, judging the speech (words) of the inhabitants of the countries; lords of Truth![91] Hail to thee! gods, essence of the essences without their bodies, ruling the generations of Ta-nen (i.e., of this earth) and the births (begettings) in the temple of Mesxen[92] (they raise the generations?) from the first essence of the divine essences, third greatness above the father of their fathers; invoking the soul from its Almightiness when are produced its Desires (Will;) adoring their Father in his glorifications; divine Prototypes of the Types of all that exists, Fathers and Mothers of the solar disk, Forms, Great Ancients, Divine Essences, first from Atum (i.e., chaos,) emanating humanity; causing to emerge the forms of all forms; lords of the divine sustenance; homage to thee! Lords from everlasting, possessing eternity," etc.[93] "All that is done and said upon earth has its source in the heights, from whence the essences are dispensed to us with measure and equilibrium; and there is not anything, which does not emanate from on high and which does not return thereto."[94]

The verb Kheper usually translated "to be," "to exist," "to become," also has the meaning of "to roll" or "revolve." The sun apparently rolled or revolved around the earth. In the British Museum, in a hieratic papyrus (No. 10,188,) Khepera is identified with the deity Neb-er'-ter, and the latter says, in it:—"I am He (It?) who evolved Himself (Itself?) under the form of the god Khepera. I, the evolver of evolutions, evolved Myself, the evolver of all evolutions, after a multitude of evolutions and developments which came forth from My mouth.[95] There was not any heaven, earth was not, animals which move upon the earth and reptiles existed not in that place. I constructed their forms out of the inert mass of watery matter. I did not find any place upon which I could stand. By the power which was in My Will I laid the foundation (of things) in the form of the god Shu[96] and I created (emanated?) for them every attribute which they have. I alone existed, for I had not, as yet, made Shu emanate from Me, and I had not ejected the spittle which became Tefnut (i.e., the deity or personification of, moisture.) There did not exist any other to work with Me. By My own Will I laid the foundation of all things, and the evolutions of things, and the evolutions which took place from the evolutions of their births, which took place through the evolutions of their offspring, became multiplied. My shadow[97] was united with Me, and produced Shu and Tefnut from the emanation of Myself, * * * thus from one deity I became three deities * * * I gathered together My members and wept over them, and from the tears which fell from My eye, men and women sprung into existence."

The duplicate copy of this chapter reads: "I developed Myself from the primeval matter which I made. My name is Osiris, the germ of primeval matter. I have worked My Will to its full extent in this earth, I have spread abroad (or, expanded Myself,) and fitted it * * * I uttered My Name as a Word of Power, from My own mouth, and I straightway developed Myself by evolution. I evolved Myself under the form of the evolutions of the god Khepera, and I developed Myself out of the primeval matter which has evolved multitudes of evolutions from the beginning of time. No-thing existed on this earth (before Me,) I made all things. There was none other who worked with Me at that time. I made all evolutions by means of that soul, which I raised up there from inertness out of the watery matter."[98] This is a most important papyrus for a knowledge of Ancient Egyptian philosophy.

"'In the beginning: When there was not yet heaven, when there was not yet earth, when there were not yet men, when the gods were not yet born, when there was not yet death.'[99] Nu alone was existing, the water (or humid) principle of all things, and in that primordial water, Tumu, the father of the gods.[100] The day of creation came, Shu raised the waters upon the staircase which is in Khmunu.[101] The earth was made even under his feet, as a long united table; heaven appeared above his head as a ceiling of iron (or steel) upon which rolled the divine Ocean. Hor (Horus) and his sons Hapi, Amsit (or Mestha,) Tuamautef and Qebhsennuf, the gods of the four cardinal points, went out at once and posted themselves at the four corners of the inferior table, and received the four angles of the firmament upon the point of their sceptres; the sun appeared and the voice of the god, the first day is arisen and the world was thereafter constituted, such as it ought to ever remain!"[102]

"Glory of all things, God, the divine and the divine nature. Principles of the beings; God, the Intelligence, nature and matter. Wisdom manifests the universe, of which the divine is the principle, the nature, energy, necessity, the end and the renewing.

There was darkness without limit over the abyss and the water, and a subtle and intelligent spirit, contained in chaos by the divine power. Then gushed forth the holy light, and under the sand (i.e., the atomic dryness) the elements went forth from the humid essence, and all the gods distributed the fecundity of nature. The universe being in confusion and disorder, the buoyant elements ascended, and the heavier were established as a foundation under the damp sand, (and) everything became separated by fire and suspended, so as to be raised by the spirit."[103]

The Ancient Egyptians made many more statements which undoubtedly referred to an unknown, all-powerful, ideal deity of the highest order, I have a great number of such, but will not bring them forward in this writing; I refer the reader for some quotations on this subject, to the valuable writings of Mr. P. Le Page Renouf, especially to his; Religion of Ancient Egypt (Hibbert Lectures for 1879), which I have already cited in several places.

It will be seen from these quotations, that Khepra, the scarabæus deity, especially as Tum-Khepra; occupied a most elevated position, I might say the most elevated, of all the religious conceptions of the Ancient Egyptians, for beyond it, was the unknown ideal deity whom none could form a conception of. Khepra was asserted to have generated and caused to come into existence, itself through itself, it united in itself, the male and female principles of life. It was androgenic. The scarabæus was the hieroglyph of the creator, the to be, to become, to exist, the eternal, the coming into being from chaotic non-being, also the itself transforming or becoming, the emanating or creating power, also, the universe. Khepra was "Father of the gods," connected with the idea of the rising of the sun from the darkness of night, Khepra was used to typify the resurrection from the dead of the spirits of men. It represented the active and positive in antithesis to Atmu, or Tum. With Atmu as Atmu (or, Tum)-Khepra, it represented the positive and negative united, spirit and matter.

Atmu, Tum or Tmu, was the symbol of the eternal night or darkness of Chaos, which preceded the emanation of light, it was the type of senility and absolute death, the negative and end. It was the nocturnal or hidden sun, as Horus was the rising sun, and Ra the risen sun, proceeding in its course each day through the firmament. Tum was not however considered as absolutely inert, it was the precursor of the rising sun, and the point of departure of the setting sun, and was the nocturnal sun, and was also a point of departure into existence, of all the created and emanated in the universe. It, as well as Khepra, in some of the texts is called "Father of the gods."[104]

This deity was the unknown and inaccessible, primordial deity of chaos, "existing alone in the abyss," before the appearance of Light. One of the texts reads:

"Homage to thee, sun at its setting, Tum-Harmakhis, god renewing and forming itself in itself, double essence. * * Hail to thee author of the gods, who hast suspended heaven for the circulation of thy two eyes, author of the earth in its extent, and from whom the light is, so as to give to all men the sensation of the sight of his fellow creature."[105]

It is of the greatest importance to an understanding of the Egyptian religion and philosophy, and especially of the Per-em-hru, the so-called, Book of the Dead; that the Egyptian psychology be comprehended; in order to enable the reader to do this, I have prepared the following condensed statement of the same.