MYTHS AND LEGENDS
ANCIENT EGYPT
by
LEWIS SPENCE
Author of "The Myths of Mexico and Peru,"
"The Civilisation of Ancient Mexico," "The Popol Vuh,"
"The Myths of the North American Indians"
BOSTON
DAVID D. NICKERSON & COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
1915
The Presentation of Ani to Osiris From thePapyrus of Ani
Reproduced from the Facsimile
by Permission of theDirector of the British Museum
PREFACE
In this volume the religious history of ancient Egypt has been reviewedin the light of the science of modern mythology. Few Egyptologistsare well informed regarding the basic laws of that science, and muchmisapprehension regarding the character and attributes of many ofthe deities worshipped in the Nile Valley in times past has therebyresulted. The statement that Egyptian religious ideas cannot be collatedwith barbarian and savage conceptions simply because they are Egyptianand therefore 'classic' and inviolate will no longer remain unquestionedamong that section of the public accustomed to think for itself, andsuch pronouncements as that the animal gods of Egypt have no connexionwith totemic origins will shortly assume their proper perspective.
In advancing ideas so iconoclastic—which all will remember wereadumbrated by the late Mr. Andrew Lang and strongly buttressed by SirJames Frazer—it is essential that I should at the outset protectmyself against any charges of lack of acquaintance with the science ofEgyptology. Such a work as this, which attempts to further recent viewsconcerning a well-worn subject, must by the very circumstances of itseffort be cast and written in popular style. That such a treatment issufficient to prejudice it in the eyes of a certain type of critic I amwell aware. A long series of handbooks and articles had prepared criticsfor my work in this series upon Mexican and Peruvian myth, and it wasgenerally admitted that I spoke upon these subjects out of the authorityof long experience.
I find it necessary to state, then, that the study of Egyptianhieroglyphs is not new to me. For several years I laboured atthese assiduously, studying the[Pg viii] languages, Semitic and African,including Coptic, which are cognate with the Egyptian. In the studyof hieroglyphic systems I was attracted toward the wonderful systemof writing which prevailed among the Maya of Central America, andthrough it to the consideration of Mexican archæology in general. Mygrounding in the Egyptian language has also stood me in good stead, andif for reasons connected with the necessity for popular presentationmy pages are not littered with hieroglyphs, I can lay claim to such aknowledge of Egyptian linguistic origins as can control any derivationshere attempted—which, however, have not been ventured upon withoutthe countenance of other and higher authorities. If I have differedfrom Egyptologists of standing in matters mythological, I have beensedulously careful not to attempt the impertinence of contradicting themin matters linguistic.
Their lifelong acquaintance with original texts gives them, of course,authority to which I gladly bow, but I feel, on the other hand, thatmy own close studies of mythological problems, which are as vital tothe interests of the science as its linguistic and archæological sides,entitle me to advance m