Legends of the Gods | Page 4

assisting Khepera in his first
creative acts; and we may assume that he thought out in his heart what
manner of thing be wished to create, and then by uttering its name
caused his thought to take concrete form. This process of thinking out
the existence of things is expressed in Egyptian by words which mean
"laying the foundation in the heart."
In arranging his thoughts and their visible forms Khepera was assisted
by the goddess Maat, who is usually regarded as the goddess of law,

order, and truth, and in late times was held to be the female counterpart
of Thoth, "the heart of the god Ra." In this legend, however, she seems
to play the part of Wisdom, as described in the Book of
Proverbs,[FN#3] for it was by Maat that he "laid the foundation."

[FN#3] "The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his
works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever
the earth was. When there were no depths I was brought forth . . . . . . .
Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth:
while as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest
part of the dust of the world. When he prepared the heavens I was there:
when he set a compass upon the face of the depth: when he established
the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep: when
he gave to the sea his decree, . . . . . . when he appointed the
foundations of the earth: then I was by him, as one brought up with
him. . . . . . ." Proverbs, viii. 22 ff.}

Having described the coming into being of Khepera and the place on
which he stood, the legend goes on to tell of the means by which the
first Egyptian triad, or trinity, came into existence. Khepera had, in
some form, union with his own shadow, and so begot offspring, who
proceeded from his body under the forms of the gods Shu and Tefnut.
According to a tradition preserved in the Pyramid Texts[FN#4] this
event took place at On (Heliopolis), and the old form of the legend
ascribes the production of Shu and Tefnut to an act of masturbation.
Originally these gods were the personifications of air and dryness, and
liquids respectively; thus with their creation the materials for the
construction of the atmosphere and sky came into being. Shu and
Tefnut were united, and their offspring were Keb, the Earth-god, and
Nut, the Sky-goddess. We have now five gods in existence; Khepera,
the creative principle, Shu, the atmosphere, Tefnut, the waters above
the heavens, Nut, the Sky-goddess, and Keb, the Earth-god.
Presumably about this time the sun first rose out of the watery abyss of
Nu, and shone upon the world and produced day. In early times the sun,
or his light, was regarded as a form of Shu. The gods Keb and Nut were

united in an embrace, and the effect of the coming of light was to
separate them. As long as the sun shone, i.e., as long as it was day, Nut,
the Sky- goddess, remained in her place above the earth, being
supported by Shu; but as soon as the sun set she left the sky and
gradually descended until she rested on the body of the Earth-god, Keb.

[FN#4] Pepi I., l. 466.

The embraces of Keb caused Nut to bring forth five gods at a birth,
namely, Osiris, Horus, Set, Isis, and Nephthys. Osiris and Isis married
before their birth, and Isis brought forth a son called Horus; Set and
Nephthys also married before their birth, and Nephthys brought forth a
son named Anpu (Anubis), though he is not mentioned in the legend.
Of these gods Osiris is singled out for special mention in the legend, in
which Khepera, speaking as Neb-er-tcher, says that his name is Ausares,
who is the essence of the primeval matter of which he himself is
formed. Thus Osiris was of the same substance as the Great God who
created the world according to the Egyptians, and was a reincarnation
of his great-grandfather. This portion of the legend helps to explain the
views held about Osiris as the great ancestral spirit, who when on earth
was a benefactor of mankind, and who when in heaven was the saviour
of souls.
The legend speaks of the sun as the Eye of Khepera, or Neb-er-tcher,
and refers to some calamity which befell it and extinguished its light.
This calamity may have been simply the coming of night, or eclipses,
or storms; but in any case the god made a second Eye, i.e., the Moon, to
which