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)

CHAP. VIII.]

KAS

OF THE GODS.

123

a number of similar statues. We could imagine
worshipping a gold and ivory Athene, but not three
or four hundred statues on exactly the same pattern,
and of approximately the same size. The votive
statuettes also seem to connect this place in a
peculiar manner with provision for the Ka.

On the other hand we cannot from the theory of
the mortality of gods conclude that the gods of
Thebes, like the god Osiris, were dead gods and
gods of the dead. The Egyptian is not so syste-
matic. All gods potentially die, but few are cele-
brated as dead. The son of Mut is potentially in
his turn husband, but the permanent honours of the
great god are paid to Amen.

Thus, though the Ka of Mut should be so pro-
vided with hundreds of statues, it does not follow
that Mut is celebrated as a dead goddess. She is
always living; it is only theoretically that she
can die.

As with men, so with gods, the dwelling-place is
not a prison. The god has his headquarters at one
place but visits at others. The images of Karnak
paid an annual visit to Luxor, travelling in pro-
cession to the water's edge, and by boat up the Nile.
So, too, the triad which had its headquarters at
Thebes was worshipped as far as Ethiopia, but the
Mut worshipped at Gebel Barkal, under the Ethi-
opian kings who built a temple to her, as to Amen,
was still Mut, Lady of AsJier. There she might
be worshipped, there accept sacrifices, and grant