Mariette, Auguste; Dickerman, Lysander [Hrsg.]: The monuments of Upper Egypt (Boston, 1890)

RELIGION.

Si

is father to himself; he is the generating spirit
from the very commencement, the twofold Be-
ing, at once father and mother, and existing
from all eternity.

On this foundation rests the whole edifice of
the Egyptian religion. To the initiated of the
sanctuary, no douht, was reserved the knowl-
edge of the god in the abstract, the god con-
cealed in the unfathomable depths of his divine
essence. But for the less refined adoration of
the people who required, so to speak, a pal-
pable and a tangible god, were presented the
images of the divinities sculptured on the walls
of the temples. Such are the ideas which thus
far have been accepted by the scientific world,
and the only classical authority on which the
whole tradition rests is the passage in Jam-
blichus.

Unfortunately, the more one studies the
Egyptian religion, the greater becomes the
doubt as to the character which must defini-
tively be ascribed to it. A most fertile source
of, materials has recently been placed at our
disposal by the excavations of the temples of
Denderah and of Edfou. From one end to
another, these temples are covered with legends,