DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.30604#0106
INTRODUCTION.
xcviii
heaven nor earth, and when neither gods had been born, nor men created, the
god Tmu was the father of human beings,1 even before death came into the world.
The first act of Tmu was to create from his own body the god Shu and the
goddess Tefnut ;2 and afterwards Seb the earth and Nut the sky came into being.
These were followed by Osiris and Isis, Set and Nephthys.
Dr. Brugsch’s version of the origin of the gods as put forth in his last work
on the subject3 is somewhat different. According to him there was in the
beginning neither heaven nor earth, and nothing existed except a boundless
primeval mass of water which was shrouded in darkness and which contained
within itself the germs or beginnings, male and female, of everything which was
to be in the future world. The divine primeval spirit which formed an essential
part of the primeval matter felt within itself the desire to begin the work of
creation, and its word woke to life the world, the form and shape of which it had
already depicted to itself. The first act of creation began with the formation of an
egg4 out of the primeval water, from which broke forth Ra, the immediate cause
of all life upon earth. The almighty power of the divine spirit embodied itself in
its most brilliant form in the rising sun. When the inert mass of primeval matter
felt the desire of the primeval spirit to begin the work of creation, it began to
move, and the creatures which were to constitute the future world were formed
1 Recueil de Travaux, t. viii., p. 104 (1. 664). The passage reads :—
QOD — JL
mes Pepi pen dn atf
Gave birth to Pepi this father
Tem an yepert
Tmu [when] not was created
□ d
F=si
pet an
heaven, not
yepert
was created
ta an XePey* re® nn niest neteru an yepert met
earth, not were created men, not were born the gods, not was created death.
<s>-
Recueil de Travaux, t. vii., p. 170 (1. 466).
3 Religion und Mythologie, p. 101.
4 A number of valuable facts concerning the place of the egg in the Egyptian Religion have been
collected by Lefebure, Revue de VHistoire des Re/igions, t. xvi., Paris, 1887, p. i6ff.
xcviii
heaven nor earth, and when neither gods had been born, nor men created, the
god Tmu was the father of human beings,1 even before death came into the world.
The first act of Tmu was to create from his own body the god Shu and the
goddess Tefnut ;2 and afterwards Seb the earth and Nut the sky came into being.
These were followed by Osiris and Isis, Set and Nephthys.
Dr. Brugsch’s version of the origin of the gods as put forth in his last work
on the subject3 is somewhat different. According to him there was in the
beginning neither heaven nor earth, and nothing existed except a boundless
primeval mass of water which was shrouded in darkness and which contained
within itself the germs or beginnings, male and female, of everything which was
to be in the future world. The divine primeval spirit which formed an essential
part of the primeval matter felt within itself the desire to begin the work of
creation, and its word woke to life the world, the form and shape of which it had
already depicted to itself. The first act of creation began with the formation of an
egg4 out of the primeval water, from which broke forth Ra, the immediate cause
of all life upon earth. The almighty power of the divine spirit embodied itself in
its most brilliant form in the rising sun. When the inert mass of primeval matter
felt the desire of the primeval spirit to begin the work of creation, it began to
move, and the creatures which were to constitute the future world were formed
1 Recueil de Travaux, t. viii., p. 104 (1. 664). The passage reads :—
QOD — JL
mes Pepi pen dn atf
Gave birth to Pepi this father
Tem an yepert
Tmu [when] not was created
□ d
F=si
pet an
heaven, not
yepert
was created
ta an XePey* re® nn niest neteru an yepert met
earth, not were created men, not were born the gods, not was created death.
<s>-
Recueil de Travaux, t. vii., p. 170 (1. 466).
3 Religion und Mythologie, p. 101.
4 A number of valuable facts concerning the place of the egg in the Egyptian Religion have been
collected by Lefebure, Revue de VHistoire des Re/igions, t. xvi., Paris, 1887, p. i6ff.