Lecture VI. The Gods Of Egypt. 131
The Pharaonic Egyptians brought their own gods with them, and
these naturally became the divinities of the nomes. When the
river had been embanked and its waters been made a blessing
instead of a curse, the sacred animals and the gods of the nomes
were too firmly established to be displaced.^112
But the backwardness of the State religion was made up for
by the piety of individuals. Hymns to the Nile, like those which
were engraved on the rocks of Silsilis by Meneptah and Ramses
III., breathe a spirit of gratitude and devotion which can hardly
be exceeded—
“Hail to thee, O Nile!
who manifestest thyself over this land, [142]
and comest to give life to Egypt!
Mysterious is thy issuing forth from darkness,
on this day whereon it is celebrated!
Watering the orchards created by Ra
to cause all cattle to drink,
thou givest the earth to drink, inexhaustible one!...
Lord of the fish, during the inundation,
no bird alights on the crops.
Thou createst the wheat, thou bringest forth the barley,
assuring perpetuity to the temples.
If thou ceasest thy toil and thy work,
then all that exists is in anguish.
If the gods suffer in heaven,
then the faces of men waste away....
No dwelling (is there) which may contain thee!
None penetrates within thy heart!
Thy young men, thy children, applaud thee(^112) The Nile-gods, representing the Nile and the canals, are depicted as stout
men with large breasts, crowned with flowers, and wearing only the narrow
girdle of prehistoric Egypt. The human form agrees well with the fact that
the Nile was first engineered, and so made a source of life for Egypt, by the
Pharaonic Egyptians. Babylonia was the country, it must be remembered,
where river engineering and irrigation were originally developed.