Benson, Margaret; Gourlay, Janet: The temple of Mut in Asher: an account of the excavation of the temple and of the religious representations and objects found therein, as illustrating the history of Egypt and the main religious ideas of the Egyptians (London, 1899)

82

THE TEMPLE OF MUT.

[part iii.

satisfactory to the Egyptian mind as it is to
our own.

Yet even in our own time people are not scarce
who are capable of acting on a variety of inconsistent
principles without feeling any urgent need of unifica-
tion ; but our race and time have so far advanced
that in the religious as well as in the intellectual
region wre have a feeling of disquiet in proportion
as we realise our inconsistency. It appears that
the Egyptian either did not realise his incon-
sistencies or supported the situation with complete
serenity.

We advance a step towards comprehension when
we know that it is the explanation of the Egyptian
religion as a phenomenon, not the reconciliation of
it as a system, that is chiefly needed. But even on
these lines we need expect to have no certain and
concurrent explanation.

The main elements of the problem are these :
we have enimal gods, gods with a human character,
gods which represent forces or facts of nature, gods
which are hypostases of abstractions. These are
grouped, arranged, identified, but on no real system
and on no invariable lines. The worship of certain
gods spread throughout Egypt ; the worship of
others was almost entirely local. Most had pre-
eminence in some locality, recognition in others.

The question to be solved is : What causes
brought together the assemblage ; what was the
historical development of the worship of divinities