as regarded
with awe, any object used in the divine ritual could at a given moment
be envisaged as a deity. Thus the boat of Osiris (Neshemet) and those of
the sun-god were goddesses; and various wands and sceptres belonging to
certain gods were imagined as harbouring the divine being. Truly it
might have been said in ancient Egypt: of the making of gods there is no
end!

Theological combinations.

For such order as can be discerned in the mythological conceptions of
the Egyptians the priesthood was largely responsible. At a very early
date the theological school of Heliopolis undertook the task of
systematizing the gods and the myths, and it is mainly to them that is
due the Egyptian religion as we find it in the Pyramid texts. Their
influence is particularly conspicuous in the prominent place accorded to
the sun-god Re, and in the creation-legend that made him the father of
gods and men. First of all living things was Re; legend told how he
arose as a naked babe from a lotus-flower that floated on the primeval
ocean Nun. Others held the view that he crept from an egg that lay on a
hill in the midst of a lake called Desdes; and a third, more barbarous,
tale related his obscene act of self-procreation. Re became the father
of the pair of gods Show and Tefnut (Tphenis), who emanated from his
spittle. They again gave birth to Keb and Nut, from whom in their turn
sprang Osiris and Seth, Isis and Nephthys. These nine gods were together
known as the great Ennead or cycle of nine. A second series of nine
deities, with Horus as its first member, was invented at the same time
or not long afterwards, and was called the Lesser Ennead. In later times
the theory of the Ennead became very popular and was adopted by most of
the local priesthoods, who substituted their own favourite god for Re,
sometimes retaining and sometimes changing the names of the other eight
deities. Thus locally many different gods came to be viewed as the
creators of the world. Only in two instances, however, did a local god
ever obtain wide acceptance in the capacity of demiurge: Ptah of
Memphis, who was famed as an artist and master-builder, and Khnum of
Elephantine, who was said to have moulded mankind on the potter's wheel.

Already in the Pyramid texts the importance of Osiris almost rivals that
of Re. His worship does not seem to have been due to Heliopolitan
influence, and may possibly have been propagated by active missionary
effort. It is appa