and Ra the sun-god of Heliopolis, so permeated
each other that none could say where the one began and the other ended.

Each of the feudal gods representing the sun cherished pretensions to
universal dominion. The goddesses shared in supreme power. Isis was
entitled lady and mistress of Buto, as Hathor was at Denderah, and as
Nit was at Sais. The animal-gods shared omnipotence with those in human
form. Each of the feudal divinities appropriated two companions and
formed a trinity; or, as it is generally called, a triad. Often the
local deity was content with one wife and one son, but often he was
united to two goddesses. The system of triads enhanced, rather than
lowered, the prestige of the feudal gods. The son in a divine triad had
of himself but limited authority. When Isis and Osiris were his parents,
he was generally an infant Horus, whose mother nursed him, offering him
her breast. The gods had body and soul, like men; they had bones,
muscles, flesh and blood; they hungered and thirsted, ate and drank;
they had our passions, griefs, joys and infirmities; and they were
subject to age, decrepitude and death, though they lived very far beyond
the term of life of men.

The _sa_, a mysterious fluid, circulated through their members, and
carried with it divine vigour; and this they could impart to men, who
thus might become gods. Many of the Pharaohs became deities. The king
who wished to become impregnated with the divine _sa_ sat before the
statue of the god in order that this principle might be infused into
him. The gods were spared none of the anguish and none of the perils
which death so plentifully bestows on men. The gods died; each nome
possessed the mummy and the tomb of its dead deity. At Thinis there was
the mummy of Anhuri in its tomb, at Mendes the mummy of Osiris, at
Heliopolis that of Tumu. Usually, by dying, the god became another
deity. Ptah of Memphis became Sokaris; Uapuaitu, the jackal of Siut, was
changed into Anubis. Osiris first represented the wild and fickle Nile
of primitive times; but was soon transformed into a benefactor to
humanity, the supremely good being, Unnofriu, Onnophris. He was supposed
to assume the shapes not only of man, but of rams and bulls, or even of
water-birds, such as lapwings, herons, and cranes. His companion goddess
was Isis, the cow, or woman with cow's horns, who personified the earth,
and was mother of Horus.

There were countless gods of the people: trees, serpent