From Fetish To God Ancient Egypt

E.A. Wallis Budge

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9781317792826
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Egyptian Ancient History
• Index: History

First published in 2005. Written by eminent Egyptologist, E.A. Wallis Budge, this work addresses Egyptian religion and mythology in all of its manifestations, from times when earth, sea air and shy were filled with hostile spirits and men lived in terror of the Evil Eye, to the moment when Egyptians hailed Amen-Ra as their one god. Topics include the predynastic cults, magic, gods (cosmic, stellar, borrowed and foreign), Memphite theology, judgement of the dead, and the underworld. Important hymns and legends, in English translation are included.

PART I

I

THE RELIGIONS OF ANCIENT EGYPT

THE most cursory perusal of the religious texts of every period of Egyptian History will convince the reader that from first to last the EGYPTIAN was a very religious man. But it will also show him that many religions flourished simultaneously in EGYPT, and that as the EGYPTIAN advanced in civilization he unhesitatingly changed his religious views. Which, then, of these religions was the ‘Egyptian Religion’? The early Egyptologists talked and wrote about the religion of EGYPT which was revealed to them by a limited number of papyri and inscriptions upon stone monuments, and they spoke of the ‘Egyptian Religion’ as we speak of Judaism, Christianity, and Muhammadanism (i.e. Islâm), not realizing how greatly they were hampered by their imperfect knowledge of the Egyptian language. It is now evident that there never existed in EGYPT a form of religion which was generally accepted and practised throughout the country. And there is reason for thinking that in the earliest period the EGYPTIANS had no religion of any kind, and only an elaborate system of magic which satisfied their elementary spiritual needs, and at a later period became not only the foundation of all the various schemes of religion which came into being, but formed the larger and most important part of each of them in the minds of the people. This is not to be wondered at, for the texts written in the dynastic period prove that the EGYPTIAN in every period of his history was a lover of the drama. The ceremonies, or rituals, were performed in connexion with the utterance of spells and the recital of words of power, i.e. magical formulae, and he was content to believe that their efficacy was at least as great as the magical or holy words.

Even with the help of the large amount of material with which the scribes and priests of the dynastic period have provided us, it is by no means easy to describe accurately all that the EGYPTIANS believed in respect of the future life during that period. It is more difficult still, nay, it is impossible, to give even in outline a connected account of the various stages of the beliefs of the predynastic EGYPTIANS from the time when they worshipped the stars and the sun and moon, animals, fetishes or idols, evil spirits, &c., to the period when they adopted the cult of OSIRIS. It is tolerably certain that the predynastic period lasted several thousands of years, but who shall say how many? Our old friend the ‘general reader’ must be necessarily greatly disturbed in mind when he compares the systems of chronology proposed by the various Egyptologists. According to Dr. BREASTED, MENES began to reign about 3400 B.C., and according to Sir FLINDERS PETRIE about 5500 B.C., the difference between the two dates being 2,100 years. Such views are so widely divergent that nothing can well reconcile them (H. P. COOKE, Osiris, p. 165). Either we have not sufficient information to decide which authority is correct, or we have misinterpreted such facts as we have. One or the other authority may be right, but I believe that both are wrong. LEPSIUS and BIRCH thought that MENES began to reign about 3800 B.C., following MANETHO fairly closely, and their opinion is undoubtedly sound and sane.

The flints which have been collected from the deserts on the banks of the NILE in EGYPT and the Egyptian SÛDÂN show that there was both a Palaeolithic and a Neolithic period in EGYPT, but of the former we possess nothing but its flints, and of the latter such remains as we have belong to the two or three centuries which immediately precede the dynastic period. It is futile to attempt to assign a date for the beginning of the predynastic period, but our greatest authority on flints is inclined to think that the Neolithic period began about 10000 B.C. There is absolutely no authority for the statement, which has appeared in various papers, that there was a civilization in EGYPT as early as 15000 B.C. The remains of the latter part of the Neolithic period which are now in the great collections preserved in LONDON, PARIS, BERLIN, AMERICA, and EGYPT, were found in UPPER EGYPT, and owe their existence to the dryness of the soil in which they were buried. In LOWER EGYPT, i.e. the Delta, the annual NILE flood has destroyed not only the bodies of its predynastic inhabitants but also their works.

The monuments prove that towards the close of the Neolithic period the EGYPTIANS had reached a comparatively high state of civilization. EGYPT was divided into two parts, each of which was ruled by a king, a fact which the evidence of the PALERMO STONE makes certain. The southern part or kingdom included that portion of the NILE valley which lies between ÂL-KÂB and CAIRO, and the northern part or kingdom was formed by the Delta. Each kingdom was divided into provinces, which we know as Nomes, and each nome acknowledged a tutelary deity. We have no written records to help us in finding out what the religious beliefs of the predynastic EGYPTIAN were, for the art of writing was unknown to him until almost the close of the predynastic period. But many of his ‘gods’ were adopted by the Heliopolitan theologians of the early centuries of the dynastic period, and their fundamental doctrines were based upon predynastic beliefs which were well established and had been current...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• INTRODUCTION. The Early Egyptologists and the Egyptian Religion
• PART I
• PART II
• INDEX