Chapter 43 (part 96)

500, Paris, 1879, p. 27. 4 Pyramid of Unas, l. 564.] Disguised in female forms, the four goddesses go to the house of Ra-user, and, professing to have a knowledge of the art of midwifery, they are admitted to the chamber where the child is about to be born; Isis stands before the woman, Nephthys behind her, and Heqet accelerates the birth. When the child is born Meskhenet comes and looking upon him says, "A king; he shall rule throughout this land. May Khnemu give health and strength to his body." The word meskhenet is as old as the pyramid times, and seems then to have had the meaning of luck, destiny, etc. The god Amen , his wife Mut and their associate Khonsu have nothing whatever to do with the Book of the Dead; but Amen, the first member of this great Theban triad, must be mentioned with the other gods, because he was usually identified with one or more of them. The name Amen means the "hidden one," and the founding of the first shrine of the god recorded in history took place at Thebes during the XIIth dynasty; from that time until the close of the XVIIth dynasty, Amen was the chief god of Thebes and nothing more. When, however, the last kings of the XVIIth dynasty had succeeded in expelling the so-called Hyksos and had delivered the country from the yoke of the foreigner, their god assumed an importance hitherto unknown, and his priests endeavoured to make his worship the first in the land. But Amen was never regarded throughout the entire country as its chief god, although his votaries called him the king of the gods. The conception which the Thebans had of their god as a god of the underworld was modified when they identified him with Ra and called him "Amen-Ra"; and, speaking generally, in the time of the XVIIIth dynasty and onwards the god became the personification of the mysterious creating and sustaining power of the universe, which in a material form was typified by the sun. By degrees all the attributes of the old gods of Egypt were ascribed to him, and the titles which among western nations are given to God were added to those pantheistic epithets which Amen had usurped. The following extracts from a fine hymn will set forth the views of the priesthood of Amen-Ra concerning their god. [1. Erman, Die Märchen des Papyrus Westcar , Berlin, 1890, Bl. 10, 11. 13, 14. 2. Compare ###, "the night of thy birth, and the day of thy meskhenet "; see Recueil de Travaux , t. vii., p. 161 (l. 397). 3 See Grébaut, Hymne à Ammon-Ra , Paris, 1874; and Wiedemann, Die Religion , p. 64 ff.] "Adoration to thee, O Amen-Ra, the bull in Annu, the ruler of all the gods, the beautiful and beloved god who givest life by means of every kind of food and fine cattle. "Hail to thee, O Amen-Ra, lord of the world's throne, thou dweller in Thebes, thou bull of thy mother that livest in thy field, that extendest thy journeys in the land of the south, thou lord of those who dwell in the west, thou governor of Punt, thou king of heaven and sovereign of the earth, thou lord of things that exist, thou stablisher of creation, thou supporter of the universe.