ds was for the
initiated, and taught them the unity, spirituality, and creative power of
God.[190] The third order--the circle of Isis and Osiris--were for the
people, and were representative of the forms and forces of outward
nature. Between the two come the second series,--a transition from the one
to the other,--children of the higher gods, parents of the lower,--neither
so abstract as the one nor so concrete as the other,--representing neither
purely divine qualities on the one side, nor merely natural forces on the
other, but rather the faculties and powers of man. Most of this series
were therefore adopted by the Greeks, whose religion was one essentially
based on human nature, and whose gods were all, or nearly all, the ideal
representations of human qualities. Hence they found in Khunsu, child of
Ammon, their Hercules, God of Strength; in Thoth, child of Kneph, they
found Hermes, God of Knowledge; in Pecht, child of Pthah, they found their
Artemis, or Diana, the Goddess of Birth, protector of women; in Athor, or
Hathor, they found their Aphrodite, Goddess of Love. Seb was Chronos, or
Time; and Nutpe was Rhea, wife of Chronos.

The third order of gods are the children of the second series, and are
manifestations of the Divine in the outward universe. But though standing
lowest in the scale, they were the most popular gods of the Pantheon; had
more individuality and personal character than the others; were more
universally worshipped throughout Egypt, and that from the oldest times.
"The Osiris deities," says Herodotus, "are the only gods worshipped
throughout Egypt." "They stand on the oldest monuments, are the centre of
all Egyptian worship, and are perhaps the oldest original objects of
reverence," says Bunsen. How can this be if they belong to a lower order
of Deities, and what is the explanation of it? There is another historical
fact also to be explained. Down to the time of Ramses, thirteen hundred
years before Christ, Typhon, or Seth, the God of Destruction, was the
chief of this third order, and the most venerated of all the gods. After
that time a revolution occurred in the worship, which overthrew Seth, and
his name was chiselled out of the monuments, and the name of Amun inserted
in its place. This was the only change which occurred in the Egyptian
religion, so far as we know, from its commencement until the time of the
Caesars.[191] An explanation of both these facts may be given, founded on
the suppos