eth_
girls attached to her service. The position on a lion is a well-known
one of Hittite goddesses.

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Figures of foreign goddesses are often found in Egypt; they are of
pottery, coarsely made, nude, and with the breasts held in the hands.
They probably represent Ashtaroth.

We may also here mention some theories about the foreign connections of
the Egyptian gods. The early Sumerians of Babylonia worshipped Asari,
'the strong one,' 'the prince who does good to men.' This has a strong
resemblance in name and character to Asar, Osiris, of Egypt. But the
connection which is proposed, from both names being written with the
signs of an eye and a place, seems baseless, as the syllabic values of
the signs were reversed in the two languages; either the writing or the
sound of the name must be only a coincidence. Istar, another Sumerian
deity, became softened in Semitic speech to Athtar, the moon-goddess of
Southern Arabia; and the connection of this moon- and cow-goddess with
the similar Hathor of Egypt seems very probable. Ansar was another
Sumerian god, meaning 'the sky,' or the spirit world of the sky; and
this might have passed into Anhar, the sky-god, known both in Upper and
Lower Egypt. These connections are all with Sumerian gods, but may
have been derived through their later Semitic forms. They have a
general {66} probability from the names and nature in each instance;
but until we can trace some point of connection in place and in period,
we can only bear these resemblances in mind as material for some larger
view of early history.

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CHAPTER X

THE COSMOGONY

Man in all times and places has speculated on the nature and origin of
the world, and connected such questions with his theology. In Egypt
there are not many primitive theories of creation, though some have
various elaborated forms. Of the formation of the earth there were two
views. (1) That it had been brought into being by the word of a god,
who when he uttered any name caused the object thereby to exist.
Th[=o]th is the principal creator by this means, and this idea probably
belongs to a period soon after the age of the animal gods. (2) The
other view is that Ptah framed the world as an artificer, with the aid
of eight _Khnumu_, or earth-gnomes. This belongs to the theology of
the abstract gods. The primitive people seem to have been content with
the eternity of matter, and only personified nature when they described
sp