DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9059#0055
60
MONUMENTS OF UPPER EGYPT.
IV.-RELIGION.
Jamblichus, a writer who lived at the end of
the third century, represents the Egyptians as
believing in one God, unique, universal, un-
created — the Author of his own being, having
no beginning, existing from eternity. Jambli-
chus goes on to say that under this supreme deity
are a number of other gods who personify his
divine attributes. Thus Amnion is that hidden
force in nature which brings all things into life.
The supreme intellect, in which all other in-
tellects are summed up, is Imothis. Phtah is
the creative essence, which accomplishes all
things with perfection and with truth. Osiris is
the good and beneficent deity. If Jamblichus
is a faithful recorder of Egyptian traditions,
his statements would imply that, though degen-
erated by a belief in inferior gods personifying
the qualities of the Supreme Being, a peculiar
monotheism was once the foundation of the
Egyptian religion.
The monuments themselves give us some
glimpses of this belief. At Tell-Amarna, Aten
is often styled the One God. At Thebes and at
Memphis, Amnion and Phtah are clothed with
the attributes of the Supreme Deity. Ammon
MONUMENTS OF UPPER EGYPT.
IV.-RELIGION.
Jamblichus, a writer who lived at the end of
the third century, represents the Egyptians as
believing in one God, unique, universal, un-
created — the Author of his own being, having
no beginning, existing from eternity. Jambli-
chus goes on to say that under this supreme deity
are a number of other gods who personify his
divine attributes. Thus Amnion is that hidden
force in nature which brings all things into life.
The supreme intellect, in which all other in-
tellects are summed up, is Imothis. Phtah is
the creative essence, which accomplishes all
things with perfection and with truth. Osiris is
the good and beneficent deity. If Jamblichus
is a faithful recorder of Egyptian traditions,
his statements would imply that, though degen-
erated by a belief in inferior gods personifying
the qualities of the Supreme Being, a peculiar
monotheism was once the foundation of the
Egyptian religion.
The monuments themselves give us some
glimpses of this belief. At Tell-Amarna, Aten
is often styled the One God. At Thebes and at
Memphis, Amnion and Phtah are clothed with
the attributes of the Supreme Deity. Ammon