CHAPTER IV
The signification of the obelisk and the worship of the sun.
The most interesting point to be touched upon in our further investigation concerning obelisks is undoubtedly that with regard to their meaning and signification, or, in other words, what the mind of the Egyptian priest saw expressed under the figure of an obelisk. This leads us into the religion and mythology of a nation that had some very lofty conceptions of life, death, and eternity. The objects which called forth such thoughts were pre-eminently the obelisk and the pyramid, the former representing life in the sunshine of glory, the latter death in the darkness of passing night.
In the cosmogony of the Egyptians the Sun plays the most important part. Its birth is thus aptly described from the monuments by Prof. Dr. H. Brugsch: "In the beginning there was no heaven or earth. A boundless water, shrouded in dense darkness, made up the universe. This held in its bosom the male and female germs or beginnings of the future world. The divine primeval spirit, inseparable from the matter of the primitive water, felt a longing after creative power, and his word called into being the world, whose figure and variegated form had already manifested themselves to him. Its corporeal outlines and colors corresponded, in consequence of their derivation, to Truth, that is, to the exact intention of the divine spirit with reference to his future work. The first act of creation consisted in the formation out of the primitive water of an egg, from which the light of day (Rā 'the sun') proceeded, which animated everything in the world. In this rising sun is embodied the almighty divinity in its grandest manifestation".
This new-born deity was destined to become greater than its parent, and to receive adoration in all its many phases. The path of the sun was frequently compared to the life of a man from infancy to old age. Hence the sun was called a boy in the morning, a youth in the midday, and an old man in the evening (
The sun-god Ra.
The obelisk was erected in honor of the sun in all its phases, both when rising and when about to set. The pyramids, on the other hand, symbolizing the sun after it had set, were always built in the region of darkness and death on the western bank of the Nile, and had only to do with Tum, the setting sun. Here, in the domain of Tum, the bodies of the departed were to rest securely until the light of an eternal morning should wake them again and endow them with the splendor of the rising sun, which also set in the west, entered the lower regions and bowels of the earth or Hades (the Egyptian
The sun-god Tum.
| Kheper, the night-sun: winter solstice. | Ra-Hor-Khuti, the morning-sun: vernal equinox. |
| Tum, the evening-sun: autumnal equinox. | Horus, the noon-sun: summer solstice. |
The various phases of the sun in its passage over the heavens are even represented by pictures on the monuments. The sun of morning is pictured as a hawk-faced deity (Horus) crowned with the snake-encircled disk of the sun, called Rā-Hor-Khuti; the sun of noon as the same deity wearing the double crown of Egypt, called Hor or Hor-Khuti; the sun of evening as a human-faced deity with the double crown of Egypt, called Tum or Atum; and the invisible sun of night as a human-faced deity with the sacred scarab above it, called Kheper or Ptah-Sokar-Osiris. These four deities also represented the beginning of the four seasons of the year: the vernal equinox, the summer solstice, the autumnal equinox, and the winter solstice. Some other names and forms under which the sun was worshiped are, besides the above, Amen-Rā (in Thebes), Sebek-Rā (in Ombos), and Khnum-Rā (in Elephantine).
| Sebek-Ra. | Khnum-Ra. |
All this proves the vast and supreme importance attached to the sun by the ancient Egyptians. But why should they have selected the sun as their principal deity? All the pictures, in which the sun or the sun-god is represented, give us the answer. On them it will be noticed that each deity holds in one of its hands the sign
Ra bestowing "life" on Amenophis IV. and his wife.
Having called attention to the belief of the ancient Egyptians in the sun as their guiding and illuminating deity, it will now be necessary to consider the place the obelisk occupies with regard to it. The first thing that greets our eyes on most obelisks is the figure of a bird on the top of each column of hieroglyphs. This represents the god Horus in the form of a sparrow-hawk (
Why did the Egyptians choose the hawk as the embodiment of their highest god? Perhaps on account of the lofty flight of the bird, or else because of its keen vision. In the "victory-stelé" of Thothmes III. the deity says to the king:
Horus of Edfu.
In common with the belief of all the ancient nations, the king was considered by the Egyptians not only as a mortal but also, by reason of his exalted rank, as a god on earth. He was the essence of the divinity and styled himself "the offspring of the gods" (
The king offering up libation to himself in the form of a sphinx.
The obelisk which was erected in honor of the sun could therefore also be used by the sun's offspring, the king, to promulgate his own worship. Inscriptions commemorating both the deity in heaven and his deputy on earth continually blend the two, the god and the king, together into one person, that we can easily find in the obelisk traces of a decided king-worship. If the enlightened age of an Alexander the Great or a Divus ("divine") Cæsar Augustus could tolerate such a thing, why should we feign surprise when we find the same thing to have happened some thousand years before their time in Egypt? It is just this one fact, the barefaced king-worship represented by the obelisk, that gives its translation such a repulsive sound to modern ears. No wonder that otherwise well-read and intelligent men turn about in amazement and ask: Can this really be the correct translation of the obelisk, why, this would turn those ancient kings of glorious renown into mere "vainglorious fools"? This conclusion is perfectly true, and consequently it is to be regretted that just such monuments as obelisks, which are a great source of attraction for the multitude, should display the poorest inscriptions that we meet with in the entire Egyptian literature. Under no circumstances must we base our estimate of the Egyptian literature on the inscriptions of the obelisks; for, on looking over the writings of this wonderful people, we would not only find ourselves most agreeably surprised, but would be constrained to admit that there is no ancient people which can boast of an equally grand and sublime literature as the Egyptian.
A portion of the "Book of the Dead" (Chap. I.). Two obelisks represented on a mummy-cloth. From the author's collection.
Summing up, we find the obelisks erected in honor of the sun-god by his son, the king, and used by him to further his own ambitious designs, glorify his own name, and turn the worship of his subjects both to himself and his sire above.
Note. Besides the frequent mention of the obelisk in the countless Egyptian inscriptions on stone, wood, leather, and papyrus, dating back to the earliest dynasties, we find the picture of two obelisks in many copies of the sacred writings of the Egyptians, the so-called "Book of the Dead" or the Egyptian Ritual. It forms part of the vignette of the first division of this book (1-15 chap.), which has mostly to do with hymns, prayers, and incantations addressed to the sun-god. No mention is made of the obelisk in the text of the Ritual. On the preceding page will be found the picture of the two obelisks on a piece of mummy-cloth in the possession of the author. The Hieratic words below the vignette form a portion of the first chapter of the Ritual.
