The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia

206 The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia

in Southern Egypt, to the seats of the gods in Northern Egypt,
(to the seats of the gods) in the other world, that it may drive all
evil from its neighbourhood.’Thoth brought it accordingly to all
places, as many as exist where there are gods and goddesses. It
is the winged solar disc which is placed over the sanctuaries of
all gods and goddesses in Egypt, since these sanctuaries are also
that of Hor-Be%udet.”^179
The legend is a curious combination of the traditions relative
to the conquest of the neolithic population by the Pharaonic
Egyptians, of the myth of Osiris, of etymological speculations
about the meaning of certain proper names, and of an attempt
to explain the origin of the winged solar disc. We may gather
from it that the disc was first used as an ornament at Edfu, and
that it was believed, like the winged bulls of Assyria, to have the
power of preventing the demons of evil from passing the door
over which it was placed. Whether, however, this was one of
the superstitions of the older people, or whether it was brought
[225] by the conquerors from their Babylonian home, is doubtful;
perhaps the fact that the disc was a symbolic and architectural
ornament, and was confined, so far as we know, to the temples
of the official gods, points in the latter direction. It is otherwise
with the temple relics mentioned in a legend which has been
preserved on a granite shrine of the Ptolemaic epoch, that long
served as a water-trough by the side of the well at El-Arîsh. The
temple from which it originally came was that of At-Nebes, the
sacred name of the city of Qesem or Goshen, now Saft el-Henna.
The legend begins by describing the reign of Shu, who fortified
At-Nebes against“the children of Apophis,”the Semites of“the
red desert,”who came from the East“at nightfall upon the road
of At-Nebes”to invade Egypt. Here he dwelt in his palace, and
from hence he“ascended into heaven,”when he had grown old
and the time had come for him to die. He was succeeded by his

(^179) Naville,Mythe d'Horus, pls. 12-18; Brugsch,Abhandlungen der Götting.
gelehrt. Akademie, xiv.