DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.30604#0103
IDEAS OF GOD.
xcv
it is not until the so-called Hyksos have been expelled from Egypt by the Theban
kings of the XVI Ith dynasty that Amen, whom the latter had chosen as theirgreat
god, ancl whose worship they had declined to renounce at the bidding of the Hyksos
king Apepi,1 was acknowledged as the national god of southern Egypt at least.
Having by virtue of being the god of the conquerors obtained the position of
head of the company of Egyptian gods, he received the attributes of the most
ancient gods, and little by little he absorbed the epithets of them all. Thus
Amen became Amen-Ra, and the glory of the old gods of Annu, or Heliopolis,
was centred in him who was originally an obscure local god. The worship of
Amen in Egypt was furthered by the priests of the great college of Amen, which
seems to have been established early in the XVIIIth dynasty by the kings who
were his devout worshippers. The extract from a papyrus written for the princess
Nesi-Khonsu,2 a member of the priesthood of Amen, is an example of the exalted
language in which his votaries addressed him.
“ This is the sacred god, the lord of all the gods, Amen-Ra, the lord of the throne of the
“ world, the prince of Apt,3 the sacred soul who came into being in the beginning, the great
“ god who liveth by right and truth, the first ennead which gave birth unto the other two
“ enneads,4 the being in whom every god existeth, the One of One,5 the creator of the things
“ which came into being when the earth took form in the beginning, whose births are hidden,
“ whose forms are manifold, and whose growth cannot be known. The sacred Form, beloved,
“ terrible and mighty in his two risings (?), the lord of space, the mighty one of the form of
“ Khepera, who came into existence through Khepera, the lord of the form of Khepera ; when
“ he came into being nothing existed except himself. He shone upon the earth from primeval
“ time [in the form of] the Disk, the prince of light and radiance. He giveth light and
“ radiance. He giveth light unto all peoples. He saileth over heaven and never resteth, and
“ on the morrow his vigour is stablished as before ; having become old [to-day], he becometh
“ young again to-morrow. He mastereth the bounds of eternity, he goeth round about heaven,
“ and entereth into the Tuat to illumine the two lands which he hath created. When the
“ divine (or mighty) God,6 moulded himself, the heavens and the earth were made by his
1 The literature relating to the fragment of the Sallier papyrus recording this fact is given by
Wiedemann, Aegyptische Geschichte, p. 299.
3 The hieratic text is published, with a hieroglyphic transcript, by Maspero, Mkmoires publi'es par
les Membres de la Mission Archeologique Fra?i(aise au Caire, t. i., p. 594 ff., and pll. 25-27.
3 A district of Thebes on the east bank of the Nile, the modern Karnak.
4 See within, p. xcvii.
neter netra. M. Maspero translates “ dieu exergant sa fonction de dieu, dieu
en activite de service,” or “ dieu deisant.”
©
1
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xcv
it is not until the so-called Hyksos have been expelled from Egypt by the Theban
kings of the XVI Ith dynasty that Amen, whom the latter had chosen as theirgreat
god, ancl whose worship they had declined to renounce at the bidding of the Hyksos
king Apepi,1 was acknowledged as the national god of southern Egypt at least.
Having by virtue of being the god of the conquerors obtained the position of
head of the company of Egyptian gods, he received the attributes of the most
ancient gods, and little by little he absorbed the epithets of them all. Thus
Amen became Amen-Ra, and the glory of the old gods of Annu, or Heliopolis,
was centred in him who was originally an obscure local god. The worship of
Amen in Egypt was furthered by the priests of the great college of Amen, which
seems to have been established early in the XVIIIth dynasty by the kings who
were his devout worshippers. The extract from a papyrus written for the princess
Nesi-Khonsu,2 a member of the priesthood of Amen, is an example of the exalted
language in which his votaries addressed him.
“ This is the sacred god, the lord of all the gods, Amen-Ra, the lord of the throne of the
“ world, the prince of Apt,3 the sacred soul who came into being in the beginning, the great
“ god who liveth by right and truth, the first ennead which gave birth unto the other two
“ enneads,4 the being in whom every god existeth, the One of One,5 the creator of the things
“ which came into being when the earth took form in the beginning, whose births are hidden,
“ whose forms are manifold, and whose growth cannot be known. The sacred Form, beloved,
“ terrible and mighty in his two risings (?), the lord of space, the mighty one of the form of
“ Khepera, who came into existence through Khepera, the lord of the form of Khepera ; when
“ he came into being nothing existed except himself. He shone upon the earth from primeval
“ time [in the form of] the Disk, the prince of light and radiance. He giveth light and
“ radiance. He giveth light unto all peoples. He saileth over heaven and never resteth, and
“ on the morrow his vigour is stablished as before ; having become old [to-day], he becometh
“ young again to-morrow. He mastereth the bounds of eternity, he goeth round about heaven,
“ and entereth into the Tuat to illumine the two lands which he hath created. When the
“ divine (or mighty) God,6 moulded himself, the heavens and the earth were made by his
1 The literature relating to the fragment of the Sallier papyrus recording this fact is given by
Wiedemann, Aegyptische Geschichte, p. 299.
3 The hieratic text is published, with a hieroglyphic transcript, by Maspero, Mkmoires publi'es par
les Membres de la Mission Archeologique Fra?i(aise au Caire, t. i., p. 594 ff., and pll. 25-27.
3 A district of Thebes on the east bank of the Nile, the modern Karnak.
4 See within, p. xcvii.
neter netra. M. Maspero translates “ dieu exergant sa fonction de dieu, dieu
en activite de service,” or “ dieu deisant.”
©
1
\\