s if the Aton had
never existed.

Having thus failed to become rational, Egyptian theology took refuge in
learning. The need for a more spiritual and intellectual interpretation
of the pantheon still remained, and gave rise to a number of theological
sciences. The names of the gods and the places of their worship were
catalogued and classified, and manuals were devoted to the topography of
mythological regions. Much ingenuity was expended on the development of
a history of the gods, the groundwork of which had been laid in much
earlier times. Re was not only the creator of the world, but he was also
the first king of Egypt. He was followed on the throne by the other
eight members of his Ennead, then by the lesser Ennead and by other
gods, and finally by the so-called "worshippers of Horus." The latter
were not wholly mythical personages, though they were regarded as
demigods (Manetho calls them "the dead," [Greek: nekues]); they have
been shown to be none other than the dim rulers of the predynastic age.
The Pharaohs of the historic period were thus divine, not only by virtue
of their connexion with Horus (see above), but also as descendants of
Re; and the king of Egypt was called "the good god" during his lifetime,
and "the great god" after his death. The later religious literature is
much taken up with the mythical and semi-mythical dynasties of kings,
and the priests compiled, with many newly-invented details, the
chronicles of the wars they were supposed to have waged.

Later developments.

In a similar manner, the ethical and allegorical methods of
interpretation came into much greater prominence towards the end of the
New Kingdom. The Osirian legend, as we have already seen, was early
accepted as symbolizing the conflict between good and evil. So too the
victories of Re over the serpent named Apophis were more or less clearly
understood as a simile of the antithetical nature of light and darkness.
In one text at least as ancient as the XVIIIth Dynasty (the copy that we
have dates only from the Ethiopian period) an ingenious attempt is made
to represent Ptah as the source of all life: from him, it is said,
emanated Horus as "heart" or "mind" and Thoth as "tongue," and through
the conjoint action of these two, the mind conceiving the design and the
tongue uttering the creative command, all gods and men and beasts
obtained their being. Of this kind of speculation much more must have
existed than has reached us