It is now time to summarise the evidence concerning the north and south temple builders, including those who built pyramids as well.
To do this we must deal not only with the buildings, but with the associated mythology, or, rather, with the astronomical part of the mythology, for there seems to be very little doubt that in the earliest times, before knowledge replaced or controlled imagination, everything was mythologically everything else in turn. It is for this reason that trusting to genealogies especially seems like building on sand. That Father-ship and Son-ship in the earliest days were mythologically something quite different from what the words in their strict sense imply to-day will be agreed to by everybody; and there is evidence that many of the absolute contradictions met with, and statements which it is impossible to reconcile, may all depend upon the point of view from which the mythological statements were made.
But when astronomy helps us to the point of view, the mythological statements, and even the genealogies, become much clearer and unmistakable, and contradiction vanishes to a great extent; and it would seem as if genealogies en bloc were never propounded, hence it was a commonplace either that a god should be the father of his mother, or that he should have no father.
Thus, in one sense, Rā is father of all the gods; but in another Ptah is the creator of the egg of the sun because Capella setting heralded sunrise at a particular time of the year; and Isis is the mother of Horus because Phact = α Columbæ, Serk-t = α Centauri, Mut = γ Draconis, and other stars (Isis) did precisely the same; while in another connection Isis is the sister of Osiris, and therefore the mother of Horus. But here the relationship depends upon the association of the moon and warning star in the morning sky. I only offer these as suggestions; similar variations might be multiplied ad nauseam.
But while all this proves that genealogies may be manufactured without either end or utility, we gather that the association of mythological personages with definite astronomical bodies may in time be of great help in such inquiries, and ultimately enable us to raise the veil of mystery by which these old ideas have of set purpose, and partly by these means, been hidden.
There seems no doubt that we have got definite evidence that the very oldest mythological personages were closely connected either with the sun at some special time of the year, with the moon, or with the rising and setting of some star or another. Hence we ought to be able from the temple evidence to classify the northern and southern gods.
Northern Gods and Goddesses.
| GOD. | GODDESS. | |
| Ptah = Capella, April sun (1) | Bast-Isis = | α Ursæ Majoris. |
| Anubis = Northern constellations. | Taurt-Isis = | α Ursæ Majoris. γ Draconis. |
| Min: Khem = May Sun (2). |
Menat-Isis | Spica. |
| Autumn Sun | Serk-t-Isis | Antares. |
| Spring Sun | Nit-Isis | Pleiades. |
Southern Gods and Goddesses.
Osiris = Moon-god.
Chnemu = Sun-god, autumnal equinox.
Khonsu = Canopus, autumnal equinox, warner.
West horizon
followed by Serk-t = α Centauri
east horizon.
| Amen-Rā | A combined north and south god, established about 3700 B.C. |
Teχi-Isis | Phact (1) Sirius (2) |
|
| Amen-t-Isis | ||||
| Hathor-Isis |
The establishment of Amen-Rā gives us a fair indication of the changes which must have taken place among the early civilisations when the beginning of the year was altered. There can be no doubt, I think, that Chnemu was the first Sun-god of Southern Egypt; the cryosphinxes at Thebes are alone sufficient to prove it;[166] and if so, then the southern people must have come from a region where the autumnal equinox marked the most important time of the year for their agricultural operations. And this year had eventually to give way, as we know it did, about 3700 B.C., for one beginning at the summer solstice.
In the above list I have indicated Osiris as a Moon-god. Many inscriptions might be quoted similar to the following one:—
"Salute a te, Hesiri, il signore dell' eternità. Quando tu sei in Cielo, tu apparisci come sole, et tu rinnuovi la tua forma comme Luna."[167]
It has also to be borne in mind that the complicated head-dress, including the goat's horns, is represented in connection with Thoth Chnemu and Osiris.[168]
Later he was unquestionably a sun-god, but this would be certain to happen if the southern intruders worshipped the moon in the first line.
Further, if in later times he represented both sun and moon, as he certainly did, it is not probable that he did so from the beginning. All the special symbolism refers to him as a Moon-god; he is certainly a Moon-god in the myth of Isis and Osiris, for he was cut into fourteen pieces, the number of days of the waning moon.
Now, we can easily understand an evolution beginning with a Moon-god and ending with a Sun-god. But the contrary is almost unthinkable; besides, we know that in Egypt it did not happen; the solar attributes got hardened as time went on. The calendar evidence, as we have seen, in relation to the original year of 360 days is in favour of Moon-worship, and therefore of a Moon-god in the earliest times.
Further, if we accept this, the myth of Horus becomes a complete historical statement, of which parts have already been shown to refer to astronomical facts past all dispute. It is well here to give Naville's remarks upon it. It will be seen that they strengthen my view.[169]
"La 363^{me} année de son règne, le dieu part avec son fils pour l'Égypte. Voilà donc une date précise de l'un de ces rois qui, selon les traditions égyptiennes, avaient occupé le trône de l'Égypte avant les souverains indigènes. Cette année-là, Horhut chassé Typhon de l'Égypte, et s'établit en roi sur tout le pays. Cela concorderait donc avec ce que nous disent Manéthon et Eusèbe, que, dans la première dynastie des dieux, Typhon précéda immédiatement Horus. La succession se serait faite par droit de conquête.
"Horus a avec lui des compagnons qui sont nommés partout ses suivants: les Schesou Hor. M. de Rougé a déjà fait remarquer que, dans plusieurs inscriptions, ces hommes sont considérés comme les habitants primitifs de l'Égypte, les contemporains des dynasties divines. Ce sont ces Mesennou dont il a déjà été question dans la série précédente. Le rôle qu'ils jouent dans ce récit montre, plus clairement encore, que l'époque dont il s'agit est la fin des temps mythologiques auxquels Ména devait succéder. C'est une tradition relative aux événements qui ne doivent avoir précédé que de peu les temps historiques.
"Horhut monte dans la barque de son père, qui le suit pendant toute l'expédition, et lui donné son appui et ses conseils. Les dieux poursuivent Typhon tout le long du fleuve; Horhut livre plusieurs batailles dans des lieux qui recevront des noms propres à rappeler ses exploits, et qui seront plus particulièrement voués à son culte. C'est à Edfon qu'ont lieu les premiers combats, puis dans le 16me nome de la Haute-Égypte. Le nome de Mert, celui du Fayoum et du lac Moeris, est le théâtre de plusieurs épisodes de la lutte. C'est dans la ville de Sutenchenen, appelée ici Nanrutef, un sanctuaire important d'Osiris, que s'établissent les Schesou Hor. Enfin, lorsque Set a été chassé du nome de Chent-ab, le 14me de la Basse-Égypte, le pays est délivré, et la royauté est assurée à Horhut. Son père, qui, à chaque nouvelle victoire, lui a décerné quelque honneur special, lui accorde d'être représenté sous la formé du disque ailé, ou du scarabée, sur tous les temples de la Haute et de la Basse-Égypte. Horus devient le seigneur des deux régions, s'assied dans un sanctuaire ou il est adoré comme Horchuti, avec qui il finit par se confondre.
"Telle est cette seconde légende, bien mieux caractérisée que la première, car elle est rattachée à des localités connues et à une époque déterminée. Elle me semble même assez claire pour qu'on puisse y voir une tradition, qui aurait à sa base un fait historique. Set est un dieu bien connu dans l'histoire d'Égypte; c'est le dieu des ennemis, et particulièrement des populations sémitiques, qui conquirent une fois le pays et le mirent souvent en danger. Si nous considérons qu'il est chassé par Horus, le dieu qui lui a succédé dans la royauté, et par les habitants primitifs du pays à un moment donné des annales divines, n'est-il pas naturel d'expliquer ce mythe par une guerre entre les Égyptiens venus de Nubie, et les Sémites qui auraient été chassés du pays; soit que cette guerre soit plus ancienne que les temps historiques, soit que, venue plus tard, elle ait passé dans le domaine de l'histoire légendaire? Les textes relatifs aux dynasties divines sont encore trop rares pour que nous puissions pousser très-loin ces recherches. Le temple d'Edfou nous fournira peut-être un jour de nouvelles indications sur ces époques préhistoriques, et sur l'origine si mysterieuse de la civilisation de l'Égypte."
In another passage Naville remarks:
"Typhon n'est pas simplement le dieu du mal, l'adversaire personnel d'Osiris, c'est un souverain qui occupe avec ses alliés la plus grande partie de l'Égypte depuis Edfou jusqu'a l'Orient du Delta."[170]
It was suggested (page 154) that Horus slaying Set represented by a hippopotamus was a reference to a time antecedent to 5000 B.C., when the constellation of Draco was circumpolar; and we now learn from Chapter XXXII. that Set represented the Northern-Star worship brought in from the N.E.
Horus, then, represented a conquering force coming from the South.
He was recognised as a Southern god. Naville remarks:
"Horchuti est par excellence le dieu de la Nubie; c'est à lui que sont consacrés plusieurs des temples pharaoniques qui existent le long du Nil entre Ouadi-Halfa et Philæ."[171]
But this is not all. The sequence of the Divine Dynasties is as follows, according to Maspero:—[172]
Neglecting the first four, we find Osiris preceding Set, and are driven to the conclusion that in Osiris, in this connection, we are dealing with the Moon, for the Sun-gods Atmu and Rā head the list. Besides, the worship of Set did not kill the worship of the Sun, for the power of Rā finally became paramount.
We must hold, then, that the Southern Sun-god Horus, the son of Osiris, was the son of a Moon-god, and it becomes necessary to inquire if such an idea occurred to other early peoples. Professor Sayce[173] tells us—
"According to the official religion of Chaldæa, the Sun-god was the offspring of the Moon-god," and he adds, "Such a belief could have arisen only where the Moon-god was the supreme object of worship.... To the Semite the Sun-god was the lord and father of the gods."[174]
If we, then, with this precedent, are prepared to take Osiris as the Moon-god of the Southern race, there is no doubt that the first Sun-god was Chnemu, and the first Southern Star-god—the star which heralded sunrise at the Autumnal Equinox—Khonsu (Canopus). Thoth also must be named, for it is certain that the Calendar which he leads was of Southern origin, because New Year's Day at the Summer Solstice was heralded first by Phact and afterwards by Sirius, both Southern stars.
There is likewise ample temple evidence to show that the Autumnal Equinoctial Sun was also heralded, and in even earlier times, first by Canopus and next by α Centauri, and it becomes a question whether the original moon-calendar of Thoth did not refer to a year beginning at the Autumnal Equinox. This is a suggestion resulting from later inquiries, and hence I have not referred to it in the chapters on the year.
And here, perhaps, in their dependence upon the Moon-god Osiris, we find the real reason that Khonsu and Thoth have lunar instead of solar emblems; Thoth led the initial lunar year, Khonsu only heralded the advent of the son of the Moon.
If this be so, before the foundation of the temple of Annu by "la grande tribu des Anou,"[175] the Southern (originally Moon-worshipping) race had already made its appearance in force in Northern Egypt, otherwise the divine dynasties would not have included Osiris; we need not be astonished that the temple evidence has disappeared there. The most northern ancient temple of Osiris was at Abydos; that also has gone, while those at Philæ and Edfû remain, the latter, at some time subsequent to its original foundation, dedicated to a female Horus.
These things being presumed, we can now bring together in a working hypothesis the temple evidence so far as it bears upon the mythology and interaction of the North-and South-Star worshippers.
| Date B.C. | |
| 6400 | A swarm from the south with Osiris, Thoth, Khonsu (Moon Gods), Chnemu(Sun God) come down the River. |
| They find a population worshipping Rā and Atmu. Possibly they were merely worshippers of the dawn and twilight. | |
| The Moon worship is accepted as an addition, and the divine dynasty of Osiris begins. | |
| The swarm brings a lunar year of 360 days with it, and the Egyptian Calendar beginning I. Thoth commences. | |
| They build temples at Amada, Semneh, Philæ, Edfû, and probably Abydos. All these were probably Osiris temples, so called because Osiris, the Moon-god, was the chief deity, and they were used for the determination of the Sun's place at the Autumnal Equinox, at which time their lunar year probably began. | |
| 5400 | A swarm, or swarms, from the N.E. One certainly comes by the Red Sea, and founds temples at Redisieh and Denderah; another may have come over the isthmus and founded Annu. They bring the worship of Anu.[176] |
| The Divine dynasty of Set is founded, and we can imagine religious strifes between the partisans of the new northern cult and the southern moon-worshippers. | |
| These people might have come either from North Babylonia, or other swarms of the same race may have invaded North Babylonia at the same time. | |
| ±5000 | [This date is fixed by Hippopotamus not being circumpolar after it. It might have been much earlier, but not much later.] |
| Horus with his "blacksmiths" comes down the river to revenge his "father Osiris" by killing his murderer Set (the Hippopotamus). The 6400 B.C. people, who came from the South, had been worsted by the last (5400 B.C.) swarm from the N.E., and have sent for southern assistance. | |
| The South people by this time had become Sun-worshippers, and "Osiris" now means Sun as well as Moon. | |
| The N.E. people are beaten, and there is an amalgamation of the Original and Southern cults. The N.E. people are reduced to second place, but Set is retained, and Anubis looks after sepulchres, soon to be replaced by Osiris as Southern priestcraft prevails. The priestly headquarters now are at Annu and Abydos. At the former place we have an amalgamated cult representing Sun and N. Star gods. At Abydos Osiris (changed into a Sun-God) is supreme. | |
|
Pyramid Times [Mariette 4200, Brugsch 3700.] |
Another Swarm from N.E., certainly from Babylonia this time, and apparently by isthmus only, since no E.-W. temples are found on Red Sea roads. |
| They no longer bring Anu alone. There is a Spring Equinox Sun-God. | |
| 3700 | Southern people at Barkal and Thebes in force; temple-building on a large scale. Chnemu begins to give place to Amen-Rā. Still more blending between original and Southern peoples. |
| 3500 | Final blending of North and South cults at Thebes. Temples founded there to Set and Min, on the lines of Annu and An. |
| 3200 | Establishment of worship of Amen-Rā at Thebes. Supremacy of Theban priests. |