cline, his conflict with the powers of
darkness, his decease and his resurrection, or the vengeance exacted
on his behalf by his successor, that are spoken of, in connection now
with one god and now with another.

Dynasties of Gods.--In the history of Egyptian religion one set of
such gods succeeds another as the prevailing dynasty, according as
the seat of empire in the country shifts to a new nome. These
religious changes could take place without great convulsions. It was
only the attempt to extinguish old established worships that was
fiercely resisted, not the addition of a new god, even as superior to
those already seated in the temple. In the earliest times known to us
Ra of Heliopolis is the chief god of Egypt; Osiris of Thinis (Abydos)
is also a great god, but the most characteristic development of
Osiris-worship belongs to a later period. Ptah of Memphis comes to
the front in the earliest dynasties. Much later is the rise of Amon
to the first place, which he held when the Greeks and Romans had to
do with Egypt. A very short account only can be given of the sets of
gods of which these are the heads.

Ra.--Ra means "sun"; his seat is Heliopolis or "On," where Joseph's
master Potiphera, or "Priest of Ra," lived. Heliopolis is the "house
of the obelisk," the obelisk being a representation of the sun. First
a kindly old king, he is later a warrior; he has to contend with the
serpent Apep, the dragon of darkness who appears pierced by the
shafts of Ra. But as Ra sinks in the conflict he is comforted by
Hathor, the goddess of the western sky, and avenged by Horus, the
ever young and ever victorious winged sun.[5] But Ra is a god of the
under as well as the upper world. King Pi'anchi, of the twenty-second
dynasty, entered into the great temple of Ra at Heliopolis and
penetrated to the inmost chamber of it, afterwards sealing it up
again. We are told what he saw there.[6] He looked upon "his father
Ra," and saw the two boats intended for the daily journey of the god.
Ra travels in his boat through the sky, but also at night through the
under-world, of which also he is lord. The progress of the god of
light through the world of darkness is a theme which was worked out
later in much detail in connection with Osiris; but it forms part of
the earliest known religious conceptions of the Egyptians, and Ra's
voyage through the "Am Duat" or under-world, is described in
considerable detail. Many figures accompany him in this v