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they had pacified him, as they thought, he spoke to them pleasantly and began to make secure the stoppers of
all the skins.
In a short time he was chatting with the guards, and pretended to be much amused when they bantered him
over the accident. Then he invited them to drink, and they filled their flasks readily. So they began, and the
young man poured out wine until they were all made very drunk. When they fell asleep, the cunning fellow
took down his brother's body, and laid it upon the back of one of the asses. Ere he went away he shaved the
right cheeks of the soldiers. His mother welcomed him on his return in the darkness and was well pleased.
The king was very angry when he discovered how the robber had tricked the guards, but he was still
determined to have him taken. He sent forth his daughter in disguise, and she waited for the criminal. She
spoke to several men, and at length she found him, because he came to know that he was sought and desired
to deal cunningly with her. So he addressed her, and she offered to be his bride if he would tell her the most
artful thing and also the most wicked thing he had ever done.
He answered readily: "The most wicked thing I ever did was to cut off my brother's head when he was caught
in a trap in the royal treasure chamber, and the most artful was to deceive the king's guards and carry away
the body."The princess tried to seize him, but he thrust forth his brother's arm, which he carried under his
CHAPTER XI. Folk Tales of Fifty Centuries 82
EGYPTIAN MYTH AND LEGEND
robe, and when she clutched it he made speedy escape.
Great was then the astonishment of the king at the cunning and daring of the robber. He caused a
proclamation to be made, offering him a free pardon and a generous reward if he would appear at the palace
before him. The man went readily, and His Majesty was so delighted with his speeches and great ingenuity
that he gave him his daughter in marriage. There is no more artful people than the Egyptians, but this man
had not his equal in the land.
It was told that this same king journeyed to the land of Death, where he played dice with the goddess Isis
and now won and now lost. She gave to him a napkin embroidered with gold, and on his return a great
festival was held, and it was repeated every year thereafter. On such occasions it was customary to blindfold
a priest and lead him to the temple of Isis, where he was left alone. It was believed that two wolves met him
and conducted him back to the spot where he was found. The Egyptians esteemed Isis and Osiris as the
greatest deities of the underworld.
CHAPTER XII. Triumph of the Sun God
Rival Cults Ptah as a Giant His Mountain "Seat Paradise of Osiris Paradise of Sun Worshippers Ideas of
Hades The Devil Serpent The Great Worm of the Bible The Nine Gods of Heliopolis Stone and Sun
Worship The Horus Cult Various Conceptions of the God Union with other Deities Legend of the Winged
Disk Ra's Enemies slain Set as the "Roaring Serpent" Sun Worshippers as Kings Ptah Worshippers as
Grand Viziers Unas the Eater of Gods The Egyptian Orion.
THE rise of the sun god had both theological and political significance. Ra was elevated as the Great Father
of a group of cosmic and human deities, and his high priest, who was evidently of royal descent, sat upon the
throne of united Egypt. The folk tale about the prophecy of Dedi and the birth of three children who were to
become kings appears to have been invented in later times to give divine origin to the revolution which
abruptly terminated the succession of Khufu's descendants.
An interesting contrast is afforded by the two great rival religions of this period of transition. While the
theology of Heliopolis was based upon sun worship, that of Memphis was based upon earth worship. Ptah,
the creation elf of the latter city, had been united with Tanen (or Tatûnen), the earth giant, who resembles
Seb. The dwarfish deity then assumed gigantic proportions, and became a "world god" or Great Father. A
hymn addressed to Ptah Tanen declares that his head is in
the heavens while his feet are on the earth or in Duat, the underworld. "The wind", declared the priestly poet,
"issues from thy nostrils and the waters from thy mouth. Upon thy back grows the grain. The sun and the
moon are thine eyes. When thou dost sleep it is dark, and when thou dost open thine eyes it is bright again."
Ptah Tanen was lauded as "a perfect god" who came forth "perfect in all his parts". At the beginning he was
all alone. He built up his body and shaped his limbs ere the sky was fashioned and the world was set in order,
and ere the waters issued forth. Unlike Ra, he did not rise from the primordial deep. "Thou didst discover
thyself", sang the Memphite poet, "in the circumstance of one who made for himself a seat and shaped the
Two Lands" (Upper and Lower Egypt). The suggestion is that, therefore, of a mountain giant with his 'seat' or
'chair' upon some lofty peak, an idea which only a hill folk could have imported.
"No father begot thee and no mother gave thee birth," the poet declared; "thou didst fashion thyself without
the aid of any other being."
The further union of Ptah with Osiris is reflected in the conception of a material Paradise) where the souls of
the dead were employed in much the same manner as the workers in Egypt. Ethical beliefs pervaded this
CHAPTER XII. Triumph of the Sun God 83
EGYPTIAN MYTH AND LEGEND
religious system, as we have seen; men were judged after death; their future happiness was the reward of
right conduct and good living. Thus we find men declaring in tomb inscriptions:
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