Lecture VI. The Gods Of Egypt. 133
of Thebes, became paramount in the State religion of Egypt.
But before we trace the history of his rise to supremacy, it is
necessary to say a few words regarding the Egyptian goddesses.
The woman occupied an important position in the Egyptian
household; purity of blood was traced through her, and she even
sat on the throne of the Pharaohs. The divine family naturally
corresponded to the family on earth. The Egyptian goddess was
not always a pale reflection of the god, like the Semitic consort
of Baal; on the contrary, there were goddesses of nomes as well
as gods of nomes, and the nome-goddess was on precisely the
same footing as the nome-god. Nit of Sais or Hathor of Dendera
differed in no way, so far as their divine powers were concerned,
from Pta%of Memphis or Khnum of the Cataract. Like the gods,
too, they became the heads of Enneads, or were embodied in
Trinities, when first the doctrine of the Ennead, and then that of
the Trinity, made its way through the theological schools. They
are each even called“the father of fathers”as well as“the mother
of mothers,”and take the place of Tum as the creators of heaven
and earth.^114
Nit rose to eminence with the Twenty-sixth Dynasty. Her city
of Sais had previously played no part in history, but both its
goddess and its sanctuary were of old date.^115 Of the nature of [144]
the goddess, however, we know little. She is represented as a
woman with a shuttle as her emblem, and in her hands she carries
a bow and arrow, like Istar of Assyria or Artemis of Greece.
But the twin arrow was also a symbol of the nome, which was a
border district, exposed to the attacks of the Libyan tribes. The
Greeks identified her with their Athêna on account of a slight
similarity in the names.
Sekhet, or Bast of Bubastis, is better known. Sometimes she(^114) Brugsch,Religion und Mythologie, pp. 3, 248, 348.
(^115) Her name is already mentioned in the Pyramid texts, and inPepiii. 131
she is described as the eye of Horus and“the opener of the paths,”the ordinary
title of Anubis as god of the dead.