On the other hand, Haroêris when at Denderah descended from the supreme rank, and was nothing more than the almost useless consort of the lady Hâthor. His name came first in invocations of the triad because of his position therein as husband and father; but this was simply a concession to the propriety of etiquette, and even though named in second place, Hâthor was none the less the real chief of Denderah and of its divine family.[*] Thus, the principal personage in any triad was always the one who had been patron of the nome previous to the introduction of the triad: in some places the father-god, and in others the mother-goddess.
* The part played by Haroêris at Denderah was so
inconsiderable that the triad containing him is not to be
found in the temple. "In all our four volumes of plates, the
triad is not once represented, and this is the more
remarkable since at Thebes, at Memphis, at Philse, at the
cataracts, at Elephantine, at Edfû, among all the data which
one looks to find in temples, the triad is most readily
distinguished by the visitor. But we must not therefore
conclude that there was no triad in this case. The triad of
Edfû consists of Hor-Hut, Hâthor, and Hor-Sam-ta-ui. The
triad of Denderah contains Hâthor, Hor-Hut, and Hor-Sam-ta-
ui. The difference is obvious. At Edfû, the male principle,
as represented by Hor-Hut, takes the first place, whereas
the first person at Denderah is Hâthor, who represents the
female principle" (Mariette, Dendérah, Texte, pp. 80, 81).
2 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a statuette in the Gîzeh
Museum (Mariette, Album du Musée de Boulaq, pl. 4).
The son in a divine triad had of himself but limited authority. When Isis and Osiris were his parents, he was generally an infant Horus, naked, or simply adorned with necklaces and bracelets; a thick lock of hair depended from his temple, and his mother squatting on her heels, or else sitting, nursed him upon her knees, offering him her breast.[*] Even in triads where the son was supposed to have attained to man's estate, he held the lowest place, and there was enjoined upon him the same respectful attitude towards his parents as is observed by children of human race in the presence of theirs. He took the lowest place at all solemn receptions, spoke only with his parents' permission, acted only by their command and as the agent of their will. Occasionally he was vouchsafed a character of his own, and filled a definite position, as at Memphis, where Imhotpû was the patron of science.[**]
* For representations of Harpocrates, the child Horus, see
Lanzone, Dizionario di Mitologia Egizia, pis. ccxxvii.,
ccxxviii., and particularly pl. cccx. 2, where there is a
scene in which the young god, represented as a sparrow-hawk,
is nevertheless sucking the breast of his mother Isis with
his beak.
** Hence he is generally represented as seated, or
squatting, and attentively reading a papyrus roll, which
lies open upon his knees; cf. the illustration on p. 142.
But, generally, he was not considered as having either office or marked individuality; his being was but a feeble reflection of his father's, and possessed neither life nor power except as derived from him. Two such contiguous personalities must needs have been confused, and, as a matter of fact, were so confused as to become at length nothing more than two aspects of the same god, who united in his own person degrees of relationship mutually exclusive of each other in a human family. Father, inasmuch as he was the first member of the triad; son, by virtue of being its third member; identical with himself in both capacities, he was at once his own father, his own son, and the husband of his mother.
Gods, like men, might be resolved into at least two elements, soul and body;[*] but in Egypt, the conception of the soul varied in different times and in different schools. It might be an insect—butterfly, bee, or praying mantis;[**] or a bird—the ordinary sparrow-hawk, the human-headed sparrow-hawk, a heron or a crane—bi, haï—whose wings enabled it to pass rapidly through space;[***] or the black shadow—khaîbît—that is attached to every body, but which death sets free, and which thenceforward leads an independent existence, so that it can move about at will, and go out into the open sunlight.
* In one of the Pyramid texts, Sâhû-Orion, the wild hunter,
captures the gods, slaughters and disembowels them, cooks
their joints, their haunches, their legs, in his burning
cauldrons, and feeds on their souls as well as on their
bodies. A god was not limited to a single body and a single
soul; we know from several texts that Râ had seven souls
and fourteen doubles.
** Mr. Lepage-Renouf supposes that the soul may have been
considered as being a butterfly at times, as in Greece. M.
Lefébure thinks that it must sometimes have been incarnate
as a wasp—I should rather say a bee or a praying mantis.
*** The simple sparrow-hawk is chiefly used to denote the
soul of a god; the human-headed sparrow-hawk, the heron, or
the crane is used indifferently for human or divine souls.
It is from Horapollo that we learn this symbolic
significance of the sparrow-hawk and the pronunciation of
the name of the soul as bai.