Egypt : handbook for travellers : part first, lower Egypt, with the Fayum and the peninsula of Sinai . ut along the sinuosities of the serpent Apep,the enemy of the setting sun, who is subdued and held in bondageby the companions of Ra. In rising Ra is born, and in setting he dies; but his life isdaily renewed by an act of self-procreation taking place daily inthe bosom of nature, which was termed Is is, Muth, or Hathor. Thisgoddess is frequently called the ruler of the nether regions, and isrepresented with the head of a cow, or in the form of a cow, whichevery morning gives birth to the youn
Egypt : handbook for travellers : part first, lower Egypt, with the Fayum and the peninsula of Sinai . ut along the sinuosities of the serpent Apep,the enemy of the setting sun, who is subdued and held in bondageby the companions of Ra. In rising Ra is born, and in setting he dies; but his life isdaily renewed by an act of self-procreation taking place daily inthe bosom of nature, which was termed Is is, Muth, or Hathor. Thisgoddess is frequently called the ruler of the nether regions, and isrepresented with the head of a cow, or in the form of a cow, whichevery morning gives birth to the young sun. Twelve human figures,each bearing the orb of the sun or a star on his head, represent thehours of the day and night. The animals specially sacred to Ra werethe hawk; the Upper Egyptian light-coloured Mnevis bull, which alsobelonged at a later period to Ammon Ra, and a specimen of whichhad even before that time been kept in the temple of the sun atHeliopolis ; and, lastly, lions with light skins. The Phoenix, or birdfrom the land of palms, called by the Egyptians bennu, which, I-2s according to the well known myth, awakes to new life after beingburned, and brings its ashes to Ileliopolis once every five hundredyears, was also associated with the worshipof Ka. As Apis is associated with Ptah , sothis bird by the side of Ka is a symbol ofthe soul of Osiris. — Ka is generally re-presented with the head of a hawk, and co-loured red. He holds in his hands the sym-bols of life and sovereignty, and wears onhis head a disk with the Uranis serpent, orbasilisk. According to tlie esoteric and pan-theistic construction of the inscriptions onthe tombs of the kings, Ra is the great Uni-verse (to Ttfiv), and the gods themselves aremerely so many impersonations of hisvarious attributes (see Ammon Ra, p. 138). Turn, ox Atum, a manifestation ofBa,whose name is perhaps akin to temt, signi-fying the universe, was tirst worshipped inLower Egypt, particularly at Heliopolis andat t
Size: 1038px × 2407px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookidegypthand00k, bookyear1885
