The ancient Egyptian religion was, there fore, a kind of philosophical pantheism, the various attributes of the deity being divided among the different gods of the Pantheon. Un like the Greek, where a s.od was honored in a separate temple, each Egyptian divinity was accompanied by a pout, or °company)) of com panion-gods.
A few foreign deities became at the close of the 18th dynasty engrafted upon the religious system— as Bar, Baal; Ashtarata, Ashtaroth; Anta, Anaitis; Ken, Kiun ; Reshpu, Reseph; Set, or Sutekh, sometimes identified with Baal. All the gods had human passions and affections, and their mode of action was material; they walked on earth, or sailed through ethereal space in boats. First among the deities comes Ptah, the opener, represented as the creator of the world, the sun and moon, out of chaos (ka) or matter, to whom belong Sekhet, °the lioness* and Bast, Bubastis, lion-headed goddesses pre siding over fire, and Nefer-Tum, his son, a god wearing a lotus on his head. Next in the cosmic order is Chnum — worshipped at Elephantine the ram-headed god of the liquid element, who also created the matter of which the gods were made; and connected with him are the goddesses Heka the Frog, or °primeval formation ,° Sati, or °sunbeam° and Anuka, alluding to the gene sis of the cosmos. The Theban triad comprised Amen-ra, °the hidden)) power of the °sun,* the Jupiter; Mut, the °Mother° goddess of °Mat tel') the Juno; Nit, the °Shuttle,* the Minerva; and Khans, °Force° is Hercules, a lunar type. A subordinate type of Amon is Khem or Amsu, °the enshrtned,D who, as Harnekht, or Powerful Horns, unites beginning and end, or cause and effect.
A great variety of abstract principles and even animals and vegetables were, however, worshipped by the multitude, though the doc trine of one God was privately taught by the priests to a select few. Many of the ani mals, birds and reptiles were held sacred by the Ancient Egyptians; whoever killed a sacred animal, an ibis or a hawk, was put to death. If a cat died a natural death every per son in the house shaved his eyebrows; if a dog died, the whole body and the head were shaved. The cats were sacred to the goddess Bast and were buried at Bubastis and the dogs in the vaults of their own cities, field-mice and hawlcs at Buto, the ibis at Hermopolis and other ani mals where they were found lying. Of all animals the sacred bull, Apis, was the most revered. His chief temple was at Memphis. The cow, being sacred to Isis, was thrown into the Nile, which was considered sacred; and the Apis bull was buried in the Serapeum near Memphis.
Of the doctrines of the Egyptian religion little is accurately known. The existence of the spirit after death was believed and a future state of rewards and punishments inculcated, in which the good dwelt with the gods, while the wicked were consigned to fiery torments amid perpetual darkness. It was believed that after the lapse of ages the spirit would return to the body, which was therefore carefully em balmed. See BOOK OF THE DEAD ; EMBALMING;
MOHAMMEDANISM ; IDOLATRY ; PANTHEISM.
Social Organization, Manners and Cus The monuments are fuller than the enumeration of Herodotus and Diodorus, who name seven and five classes respectively. Herodotus gives priests, warriors, cowherds, swineherds, tradesmen, interpreters and boat men; Diodorus, priests, warriors, husband/nen, shepherds and artisans. All these existed, but the enumeration is defective. True caste was unlcnown. The population was divided into two great parts — nobles and slaves— while the middle class has left its traces from the Middle Empire onward. The upper class in cluded royalty and those in the service of the state or religion, a ruling class, far removed from the slave population, foreign and native. They formed the backbone of the state, filled all the higher offices and were obeyed by all their social inferiors. At the head of the gov ernment stood Pharaoh, °King of the Upper and Lower Egypt, son of Ra, eternal.° Rameses II is bombastically called "Horus, the mighty bull, beloved of the Goddess of Truth, pro tector of Egypt, subduer of barbarians, rich in years, great .in victory, chosen of Ra, Rameses, beloved of Ra.° Similarly the queen is called °the consort of the God, mother of the God, the great consort of the Icing°— god and king being interchangeable terms. She was usually of royal blood, often own sister of the king, his equal in birth and place — "Mistress of the. House.° Crown prince and princes came next in order. The upper classes consisted of °the nearest friend* of the king and friends of various grades, generals, high priests, officers, physicians, overseers, distnct chiefs, judges, keeper of the seal, master builders, treasurers, fan-bearers, scribes and others. Officialdom ramified in numberless class gradations, whether the order was priestly, military, literary, archi tectural or agricultural. Advancement went by royal or other favor. The middle class remained in the bacicground and is less laiown because its members could not, like Icings and nobles, erect those enduring tombs from which our knowledge of the times is obtained. After the removal of the necropolis from Memphis to Abydos during the Middle Empire and owing to the increasing practice of erecting memorial stelae, the monu ments of untitled persons begin to appear, giv ing a conception of their number and position. They possessed households similar to those of officials and in many ways appear to have been their equals. They were merchants, traders, artisans, free worlanen, weavers, potters, car penters, joiners, smiths, etc. The lowest class was composed of the slaves, native or taken in war, who were hewers of wood and drawers of water, performing all menial office& They were mere chattels, belonging to temple, necropolis, or landed estate and were often organized as a part of the military establishment. Closely allied to them were the shepherds, the pariahs of Egyptian society.