Identifier: religionsofanc00rawl (find matches)
Title: Religions of the ancient world, including Egypt, Assyria, and Babylonia, Persia, India, Phoenicia, Etruria, Greece, Rome
Year: 1880 (1880s)
Authors: Rawlinson, George, 1812-1902
Subjects: Religion
Publisher: London, Relig. Tract Society
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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Text Appearing Before Image:
While the entire pantheon of Egypt was thus
multiform and manifold, practically the deities
who received worship in each several town and
district were but few. Local triads were almost
universally recognised, and in each place its special
triad monopohsed, so to say, the religious regards
of the inhabitants.³ At Memphis, the established

¹ So Wilkinson ("Ancient Egyptians", vol. iv. p. 431). Others
regard Bes as simply a name of Set or Typhon (Birch, Dic-
tionary of Hieroglyphics, p. 581).
² Wilkinson, "Ancient Egyptians," "Supplement," pi. 42.
³ "Egypt from the Earliest Times," "Introduction," p. xi-;
Wilkinson, "Ancient Egyptians," vol. iv. pp. 230-233.

32 THE RELIGIONS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD.

triad consisted of Phthah, Sekhet, and Turn; at
Thebes, of Ammon-Ka, Maut, and< Khons; at Heli-
opolis of Ea, Nebliept (= Athor), and Horus ; at
Elephantine of Kneph, Sati, and Anuke; at Abydos,
of Osiris, Isis, and Horus; at Ombos of Savak,
Athor, and Khons ; at Silsilis, of Ka, Phthah, and
the Kile god, Hapi or Neilus. Sometimes a fourth
Text Appearing After Image:

TRIAD OP SAVAK-RA, ATHOR, AND KHONS.

god or goddess was associated wdth the principal
three, as Bast at Memphis, Neith at Thebes,
Nephthys at Abydos, and Hak at Elephantine;
but the fourth was always quite subordinate.
Occasionally a city recognised more than one
triad; for instance, Silsisis held in honour, besides
Ra, Phthah, and Hapi, a triad consisting of Set,

THE RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS 33.

Thoth, and Netpe; and another comprising
Ammon, Ea, and Savak.
Another peculiar feature of the Egyptian re-
ligion, and one which, though it may have had some
redeeming points, must be pronounced on the
whole low and degrading, was the worship of live
animals. In the first instance, certain animals
seem to have been assumed as emblems of certain
gods,- from some real or fancied analogy : after
which, in course of time, the animals themselves
came to be regarded as sacred; specimens of them
were attached to the temples, kept in shrines, and
carefully fed and nurtured during life, and at death
embalmed and buried in sacred repositories, while
the entire species had a sacred character assigned
to it universally or partially.

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