CHAPTER XXIX.

THE MYTHOLOGY OF ISIS AND OSIRIS.

A long parenthesis has been necessary in order to inquire fully into the yearly festivals of the Egyptian priests, the relation of the feasts to the rising of stars, and the difficulties which arose from the fact that a true year was not in use till quite late.

It is now time to return to the subject-matter of Chapters XIX.-XXII. in order to show that since the goddesses chiefly worshipped at Denderah and Thebes were goddesses whose cult was associated with the year, it is open to us to inquire whether we may not use the facts with which we are now familiar to obtain a general idea of that part of mythology which refers to them.

I will begin by taking a certain group of goddesses.

1. _There is evidence that many of the goddesses under discussion personified stars in exactly the same way that Isis personified Sirius and Mut_ γ _Draconis._--If we leave Denderah and Thebes for the moment, and consider the pyramid region of Gîzeh, we find that the temples there, which are associated with each of the pyramids, are not oriented to Sirius; but yet they are temples of Isis, pointing due east; therefore they could not have pointed to the same Isis worshipped at Denderah, or the same Hathor worshipped at Thebes.

Thus, in the case of the temple of Mut at Thebes, of Isis at Denderah, and the temples of Isis at the pyramids, and in many towns facing East, obviously different stars were in question, whatever the mythology might have been.

Further, it seems quite certain that the star symbolised as Isis in the pyramid worship was the star Antares (Serk-t) heralding the autumnal equinox, and it is probable that the Pleiades (Nit) were so used at the vernal equinox.

2. _There is evidence that many of the names of these goddesses are pure synonyms._--That is to say, we have the same goddess (or the same star) called different names in different places, and associated with different animal emblems, in consequence of the existence of different totems in different nomes. I have already referred to the symbolism of the goddess Mut. In one form she is a hippopotamus; in another she has a cow's horns and disk. The temple of Hathor at Denderah was probably associated with the crocodile or the hippopotamus; so that from the symbolism referred to we get the suggestion that the goddess Mut was really the Theban form of the goddess Hathor at Denderah. There is another delineation which shows that even more clearly: it is a drawing of the goddess with both the lion's and crocodile's head. One of the most wonderful things to be seen at Thebes is that marvellous collection of the statues of Sechet in the temple of Mut, all of them lion-headed. From evidence of this kind in addition to the temple inscriptions already referred to, we get a clear indication of the fact that Apet, Mut, Taurt, Sechet, Bast, were the same goddess under different names, and I may add that they, in all probability, symbolised the star γ Draconis.

3. _All these goddesses have a special symbol._--Hathor wears the cow's head and the horns with the disk. Taurt, the hippopotamus-goddess, is also represented with horns and disk. The horns and disk are also worn by Serk-t, Sati and Rā-t, the wife of the sun-god Rā; many other goddesses might be added to this list. Indeed, it looks as if all the goddesses who are stated to be variants either of Isis or Hathor have this same symbol.

This generic symbolism suggests that the names Isis and Hathor are themselves generalisations, meaning an accompaniment of sunrise, whether that light be the dawn, or an heliacally-rising star, or even the moon. The generic symbol is the sun's disk and horns, which, I think, may not impossibly be a poetic development of the sign for sunrise. Isis and Hathor are two different ways of defining or thinking about a rising star--that is, a star heralding the sunrise, for such were the rising stars _par excellence_.

All the goddesses so symbolised are either different forms of Isis or Hathor, or represent goddesses who personify or bring before us mythologically stars the rising of which was observed at the dawn at some time of the year or another.

But it must be added that these goddesses are not always represented with this head-gear, possibly because they had other functions besides their astronomical one.

The extent of this variation may be gathered from the two forms of Neith or Nit given on page 290.

4. _Many of the goddesses are represented as Isis nursing Horus._--It is very important not to forget that stars were chiefly observed rising in the dawn, and that mythologically such an event was represented by the Egyptians as Isis (the rising star-goddess) nursing Horus (the rising sun-god). The sun was supposed to be a youth in the morning, to be very young therefore at the moment of rising, and the goddess Isis was supposed to be then nursing him. Many of the goddesses are thus portrayed. I may mention Renen-t, Serk-t, Rā-t, Amen-t, as instances. Thus I hold that we get in this series of goddesses the statement, put mythologically, that certain stars to which the goddesses were sacred rose heliacally at some time of the year or another. Of course the record is far from complete, and probably it will become more complete when inquiries are made from this point of view. The original symbolism is that Isis or Hathor is a star rising in the dawn, watching over the sun or taking him from his cradle; and the young Horus, the rising sun, is, of course, the son of Isis. The emblem of the mother and child is thus shown to have been in established use for the expression of high religious thought at least 5000 years ago.

These and other facts may be brought together in a tabular form, to show what apparently the complete mythology of Isis meant.

ISIS = ANYTHING LUMINOUS TO THE EASTWARD HERALDING SUNRISE.

DAWN. MOON. γ DRACONIS. ANTARES. α COLUMBÆ. (3000 B.C.) (3700 B.C.) (Before 3000 B.C.)

Isis Isis Isis Serk-t Teχi Hathor (hawk and (N. Egypt) Amen-t hippopotamus) Mut (vulture) Sechet } Lion or α Centauri Bast } cat 3700 B.C. Menkh (S. Egypt) Tafnet Apet Nebun

SIRIUS. DOUBTFUL. (After 3000 B.C.) (Probably late.) Isis Anuqa Hathor (cow) Hak } Rā-t Haka } Hak-t } Hequet} Maloul

It will be seen that in the case of Isis we are not dealing merely with a rising star, while, so far as I know, Hathor is limited to stars.

If we accept the general statement regarding Isis, namely, that it was a term applied to anything appearing to the eastward and heralding sunrise, many of our difficulties at once disappear. The Isis of the pyramid-temples and of the smaller temple of Denderah symbolised different celestial bodies, though they served the same purpose. The Hathor of the greater temple of Denderah, and the Hathor of Dêr el-Bahari, symbolised different celestial bodies, but their function was the same. On the other hand, the Hathor of Denderah and the Mut of Thebes were neither different divinities, nor did they personify different stars; they were simply local names of γ Draconis.

We are thus enabled to understand the doubling of the symbolism in the case of Hathor. The hippopotamus and the cow generically are dealt with as rising stars; specifically we deal with γ Draconis in one case, and Sirius in the other.

The evidence goes to show that these two stars were those to the risings of which very great importance was attached, but they did not stand alone. We get another form of Isis (referring, it is possible, to the star α Columbæ, before even Sirius was used), so that we have a northern star and a southern star observed at the same time--the two eyes of Rā. Idle other goddesses which have not yet been worked out probably refer to one or other of these stars, or to others which lie more to the south. These are represented rather in the temples above the first cataract than in those below. This fact will be enlarged upon in the sequel.

The study of orientation, then, combined with mythology, supplies us with other rising stars besides Sirius, and, indeed, although the date given by Riot for the first heliacal rising of Sirius at the solstice--3285 B.C.--seems a very remote one, it is practically certain that α Columbæ was previously used, because before that time it was conveniently situated to give warning of the sunrise at the Summer solstice, as Sirius was subsequently. The worship would be kept up after the utility had gone.

Dümichen's view with regard to the local cult of Hathor and its astronomical origin is not very different from mine. He writes:--

"Der Cult der Göttin Hathor geht in die ältesten Zeiten der ägyptischen Geschichte zurück. Schon die Pyramideninschriften erwälmen eine Heliopolitische Hathor und Priester und Priesterinnen dieser Göttin werden in denselben Grabkapellen nicht selten genannt. Die Hathor war keine speciell lokalisirte Gottheit, sondern eine allgemein in sämmtlichen Tempeln Aegyptens verehrte Form eines Cultes, dessen Urgedanke, im weitesten Sinne, die Auffassung des weiblichen Principes gegenuber dem männlichen Principe der Gottheit war. In dieser Auffassung erscheint sie geradezu identisch mit der Isis, weshalb auch beiden Göttinnen die Kuh das geheiligte Thier war. Da in jeder Stadt, vor allen aber in jeder Nomos-Hauptstadt eine Hathor als Schutzgöttin des betreffenden Ortes aufgeführt wird, so ist es erklärlich, dass die lokalen Formen dieser Göttin in den Inschriften der Tempel in grösster Anzahl aufgeführt werden. Im Tempel von Edfu werden Beispiels halber an der Decke des Pronaos über 300 Namen der Göttin mit ihren lokalen Beziehungen hergezählt mit besonderer Bevorzugung derjenigen lokalen Formen, welche in den einzelnen Nomos-Hauptstädten sich eines hervorragenden Cultes erfreuten. Die letzteren berühren vorzüglich eine Sieben-Zahl von Hathoren, welche als die grossen bezeichnet werden und von denen fast in allen grösseren Tempeln Listen an den Wänden zu lesen sind.

"In der älteren Zeit bezeichnet Hathor einen kosmischen Urbegriff. Schon ihr Name verräth aufs Deutlichste die kosmogonische Wurzel. Ha. t. hor wörtlich übersetzt "Wolnung des Horus--Behausung Gottes" d. i. die Welt, die Darstellung Gottes in der sichtbaren Welt, die Natur, in welcher die Gottheit wirksam ist."[83]

Before I pass on, it will, I think, be well to point out that the argument I have used to show that Isis was really a generic name is enforced when we consider the allied points relating to Osiris.

It is quite clear that some of the gods symbolised setting stars. We already know that the setting sun became Osiris, Atmu, or Tmu, and, whatever the names, they were all represented as mummies. But the sun was not the only body that was symbolised as Osiris; the moon and stars were at times symbolised in the same way. We may, indeed, venture to make the following generalised statement:--

OSIRIS = ANY CELESTIAL BODY BECOMING INVISIBLE.

SUN MOON PLANET STARS BODIES PALING AT DAWN. SETTING. WANING. SETTING. SETTING. Stars. Planets.

Osiris Osiris Venus Khons-Osiris Sah-Osiris Venus as Osiris Ptah-Osiris Star of Osiris Min-Osiris

It will be observed with what fulness the antithesis of Isis is indicated.

I have already pointed out that the possible temple of Osiris at the pyramids points to the westward, but our special reference now is to stars. When we come to look for this mummy-symbolism among the gods other than sun-gods (it is entirely and remarkably absent among the goddesses), we find Khons, Ptah, and Khem pictured as mummies; that is, they become a sort of Osiris. Supposing that these gods were worshipped, there would probably be temples dedicated to them; still, the absence of such temples would not be decisive, since they might have been destroyed. However, very fortunately for this inquiry, there are two temples still extant at Thebes, known as the temples of Khons and Ptah. If there is anything, then, in the idea that there must be some relation with the western horizon in the case of these gods represented as mummies, these temples should point to the west. _They do point to the west._

Very fortunately, also, these temples have a pretty good history: that is, one knows, within some hundreds of years at all events, when they were founded. Therefore, by help of those astronomical methods to which I have previously referred, it is not difficult to get at the stars. They turn out to be a southern star--Canopus--in the case of the temple of Khons, and Capella in the case of the temple of Ptah. Now, there is another very important temple at Thebes, it is a temple without a name, at right angles to the temple of Mut. This also points to the west. Although the evidence is not complete, it clearly suggests that this temple was dedicated to the god Min or Khem, and was oriented to the star Spica; so that at Thebes alone it looks as if the three gods represented by mummies--different stellar forms of Osiris--Khons, Ptah and Min, have all been run to earth in the three stars Canopus, Capella, and Spica.

_Provisionally, we way hazard the assertion that the mummy form marks a setting star, as the horns and disk mark a rising one. We get the antithesis between Osiris and Isis._

We gather, then, that the wonderful old-world myth of Isis and Osiris is astronomical from beginning to end, although Osiris in this case is not the sun, but the moon. But I have not yet finished with the mummy form; the waning moon is also Osiris. It is supposed to be dying from the time of full moon to new moon. The Egyptians in their mythology were nothing if not consistent; the moon was called Osiris from the moment it began to wane, as the sun was Osiris so soon as it began to set. A constellation paling at sunrise was also Osiris.

I have previously noted the symbolism of Sirius-Hathor as a cow in a boat associated with the constellation of Orion. There is a point connected with this which I did not then refer to, but which is of extreme importance for a complete discussion of the question now occupying us. We get associated with the cow in the boat, Orion (Sah) as Horus, but in other inscriptions we get Orion as a mummy--that is to say, in the course of Egyptian history the same constellation is symbolised as a rising sun at one time and a setting sun at another. Now, that must have been so if the Egyptian mythology were consistent and rested on an astronomical basis, because Sah rose in the dawn in one case and faded at dawn in the other. From the table giving a generalised statement with regard to Osiris, similar to that we have already considered for Isis, it looks as if the mythology connected with Osiris is simply the mythology connected with any celestial body becoming invisible. We have the sun setting, the moon waning, a planet setting, stars setting, constellations fading at dawn. We see, therefore, that the Egyptian mythology was absolutely and completely consistent with the astronomical conditions by which they were surrounded; that, although it is wonderfully poetical, in no case is the poetry allowed to interfere with the strictest and most accurate reference to the astronomical phenomena which had to be dealt with.

The argument, then, for the use of Isis as a generic name is greatly strengthened by the similar way in which the term Osiris, which is acknowledged to be a generic name, is employed.

Now to return to Denderah in the light of the preceding discussion. A curious and interesting thing is that we find that the temple of _Isis_, which is very much ruined, does not contain emblems of the Sirius worship; but that all these appear in the temple of _Hathor_, which, of course, pointing as it does to the north-east, could never have received any light from a star south of the equator. There has been a change of cult.

On the other hand, the temple of Isis presents so many emblems thought to relate to the worship connected with γ Draconis, to which the temple of Hathor was in all probability directed, that it was named the Typhoneum by the French Commission.

There has been an apparent change of _rôle_ and cult, due either to the fact that in time the observation of the rising of Sirius superseded that of the rising of γ Draconis, or that the worship of Set was replaced.

With regard to this change of cult, we moderns should have no difficulty. We go to Constantinople and see Mahommedans worshipping in St. Sophia; we go to Greece or Sicily and find Christian worship in many of the old temples. Thus the change of cult in Egypt, which I claim to have demonstrated on astronomical grounds at Denderah, is a thing with which we are perfectly familiar nowadays. The great point, however, is that in Egypt the change of cult might depend upon astronomical change--upon the precession of the equinoxes, as well as upon different schools of religious or astronomical thought. We gather from this an idea of the wonderfully continuous observations which were made by the Egyptians of the risings and settings of stars, because, if the work had not been absolutely continuous, they would certainly never have got the very sharp idea of the facts of precession which they undoubtedly possessed; and it is also, I think, pretty clear that future astronomical study will enable us to write the history of those changes which are now hidden by that tremendous mythological difficulty, which has not yet been faced. That, of course, is not the only difficulty, because the question is clouded by the absence of authentic dates and the perpetual reference to the past which is met with in all the monuments. The Egyptians were much more anxious to bring back to knowledge what happened 1000 years before than to give an idea of the current history of the country.

We have, then, at length arrived at a possible explanation of the difficulties acknowledged in regard to the temples of Denderah in Chapters XIX. and XX.

It is, briefly, that at some epoch observations of the star Sirius replaced, or were added to, those made of γ Draconis. Mythologically, a new Isis would be born.

This point will be referred to later; one of the longest-lasting astro-theological strifes in Egypt was the fight for supremacy between the priests of Amen and the priests of Set. At Denderah the former were ultimately victorious, and hence the change of cult.

This suggestion is based on the following considerations:--

(1) While the Denderah Hathor was represented by the disk and horns on a hippopotamus, at Thebes (the city of the "Bull" Amen) Hathor is represented by a cow with a like head-dress.

(2) Isis, represented originally as a goddess with the two feathers of Amen, standing in a boat, is now changed to a cow with the disk and horns.

(3) Hathor was the "cow of the western hills" of Thebes. It is in these hills that the temple Dêr el-Bahari lies; and this temple, if oriented originally to Sirius, would have been founded about 8000 B.C., when Sirius at rising would have an amplitude of 20° S. of E.

(4) A temple was built or restored later at Denderah, and Sirius with the cow's horns and disk became the great goddess there; and when her supremacy all over Egypt became undoubted, her birthplace was declared--at Denderah--to have been Denderah.[84]

(5) In the month-list at the Ramesseum the first month is dedicated to Sirius, the third to Hathor. This is not, however, a final argument, because _local_ cults may have been in question.

(6) "Set" seems to have been a generic name applied to the northern (? circumpolar) constellations, perhaps because _Set_ = darkness, and these stars, being _always visible_ in the night, may have in time typified it. Taurt, the hippopotamus, was the wife of Set. The Thigh was the thigh of Set, etc. γ Draconis was associated therefore with Set, and the symbolism for Set-Hathor was the hippopotamus with horns and disk. Now if, as is suggested, Sirius replaced γ Draconis, and the cow replaced the hippopotamus, the cult of Set might be expected to have declined; and as a matter of fact the decline of the worship of Set, which was generally paramount under the earlier dynasties, and even the obliteration of the emblems on the monuments, are among the best-marked cases of the kind found in the inscriptions.

(7) The _Isis_ temple of Denderah was certainly oriented to Sirius; the _Hathor_ temple was as certainly _not_ so oriented. And yet, in the restorations in later times (say, Thothmes III.--Ptolemies), the cult has been made Sirian, and the references are to the star which rises at the rising of the Nile.

So far, then, mythology is with me; but there is a difficulty. According to the orientation theory, the cult must follow the star; this must be held to as far as possible. But suppose the processional movement causes the initial function of a star to become inoperative, must not the cult--which, as we assume, had chiefly to do with the heralding of sunrise at one time of the year or other--change? And if the same cult is conducted in connection with another star, will not the old name probably be retained?

I do not see why the Egyptians should have hesitated to continue the same cult under a different star when they apparently quite naturally changed Orion from a form of Osiris (Sah-Osiris) and a mummy (as he was represented when the light of his stars was quenched at dawn at the rising of Sirius) to that of Sah-Horus (when in later times the constellation itself rose heliacally).

And, moreover, the antagonism of rival priesthoods has to be considered. It is extremely probable that the change of a Set temple at Denderah into a Theban Hathor-temple was only one example of a system generally adopted, at least in later times.