Sometimes they were equipped with a full crew, like that of an Egyptian boat—a pilot at the prow to take soundings in the channel and forecast the wind, a pilot astern to steer, a quartermaster in the midst to transmit the orders of the pilot at the prow to the pilot at the stern, and half a dozen sailors to handle poles or oars. Peacefully the bark glided along the celestial river amid the acclamations of the gods who dwelt upon its shores. But, occasionally, Apôpi, a gigantic serpent, like that which hides within the earthly Nile and devours its banks, came forth from the depth of the waters and arose in the path of the god.[*] As soon as they caught sight of it in the distance, the crew flew to arms, and entered upon the struggle against him with prayers and spear-thrusts. Men in their cities saw the sun faint and fail, and sought to succour him in his distress; they cried aloud, they were beside themselves with excitement, beating their breasts, sounding their instruments of music, and striking with all their strength upon every metal vase or utensil in their possession, that their clamour might rise to heaven and terrify the monster. After a time of anguish, Râ emerged from the darkness and again went on his way, while Apôpi sank back into the abyss,[**] paralysed by the magic of the gods, and pierced with many a wound.
* In Upper Egypt there is a widespread belief in the
existence of a monstrous serpent, who dwells at the bottom
of the river, and is the genius of the Nile. It is he who
brings about those falls of earth (batabît) at the decline
of the inundation which often destroy the banks and eat
whole fields. At such times, offerings of durrah, fowls, and
dates are made to him, that his hunger may be appeased, and
it is not only the natives who give themselves up to these
superstitious practices. Part of the grounds belonging to
the Karnak hotel at Luxor having been carried away during
the autumn of 1884, the manager, a Greek, made the customary
offerings to the serpent of the Nile.
** The character of Apôpi and of his struggle with the sun
was, from the first, excellently defined by Champollion as
representing the conflict of darkness with light.
Occasionally, but very rarely, Apôpi seems to win, and his
triumph over Râ furnishes one explanation of a solar
eclipse. A similar explanation is common to many races. In
one very ancient form of the Egyptian legend, the sun is
represented by a wild ass running round the world along the
sides of the mountains that uphold the sky, and the serpent
which attacks it is called Haiû.
Apart from these temporary eclipses, which no one could foretell, the Sun-King steadily followed his course round the world, according to laws which even his will could not change. Day after day he made his oblique ascent from east to south, thence to descend obliquely towards the west. During the summer months the obliquity of his course diminished, and he came closer to Egypt; during the winter it increased, and he went farther away. This double movement recurred with such regularity from equinox to solstice, and from solstice to equinox, that the day of the god's departure and the day of his return could be confidently predicted. The Egyptians explained this phenomenon according to their conceptions of the nature of the world. The solar bark always kept close to that bank of the celestial river which was nearest to men; and when the river overflowed at the annual inundation, the sun was carried along with it outside the regular bed of the stream, and brought yet closer to Egypt. As the inundation abated, the bark descended and receded, its greatest distance from earth corresponding with the lowest level of the waters. It was again brought back to us by the rising strength of the next flood; and, as this phenomenon was yearly repeated, the periodicity of the sun's oblique movements was regarded as the necessary consequence of the periodic movements of the celestial Nile.
The same stream also carried a whole crowd of gods, whose existence was revealed at night only to the inhabitants of earth. At an interval of twelve hours, and in its own bark, the pale disk of the moon—Yâûhû Aûhû—followed the disk of the sun along the ramparts of the world. The moon, also, appeared in many various forms—here, as a man born of Nûît;[*] there, as a cynocephalus or an ibis;[**] elsewhere, it was the left eye of Horus,[***] guarded by the ibis or cynocephalus. Like Râ, it had its enemies incessantly upon the watch for it: the crocodile, the hippopotamus, and the sow. But it was when at the full, about the 15th of each month, that the lunar eye was in greatest peril.
* He may be seen as a child, or man, bearing the lunar disk
upon his head, and pressing the lunar eye to his breast.
Passages from the Pyramid text of Unas indicate the
relationship subsisting between Thot, Sibû, and Nûît, making
Thot the brother of Isis, Sit, and Nephthys. In later times
he was considered a son of Râ.
** Even as late as the Græco-Roman period, the temple of
Thot at Khmûnû contained a sacred ibis, which was the
incarnation of the god, and said to be immortal by the local
priesthood. The temple sacristans showed it to Apion the
grammarian, who reports the fact, but is very sceptical in
the matter.
*** The texts quoted by Chabas and Lepsius to show that the
sun is the right eye of Horus also prove that his left eye
is the moon.
4 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the ceiling of the
Ramesseum. On the right, the female hippopotamus bearing
the crocodile, and leaning on the Monâît; in the middle,
the Haunch, here represented by the whole bull; to the
left, Selkit and the Sparrow-hawk, with the Lion, and
the Giant fighting the Crocodile.
The sow fell upon it, tore it out of the face of heaven, and cast it, streaming with blood and tears, into the celestial Nile, where it was gradually extinguished, and lost for days; but its twin, the sun, or its guardian, the cyno-cephalus, immediately set forth to find it and to restore it to Horus. No sooner was it replaced, than it slowly recovered, and renewed its radiance; when it was well—ûzaît—the sow again attacked and mutilated it, and the gods rescued and again revived it.