Now, associated with the introduction of these new worships in pyramid times was the worship of the bull Apis, this worship preceding the building of pyramids. Mena is credited by some authors with its introduction,[100] but at any rate Kakau of the second dynasty issued proclamations regarding it,[101] and a statue of Hapi was in the temple of Cheops.[102]
APIS. APIS.
The ground being thus cleared, I now state the working hypothesis to which I have referred above.
1. The first civilisation as yet glimpsed, so far as temple building goes, in Northern Egypt, represented by that at Annu or Heliopolis, was a civilisation with a non-equinoctial solar worship, combined with the cult of a northern star.
MNEVIS.
2. Memphis (possibly also Saïs, Bubastis, Tanis and other cities with east and west walls) and the great pyramids were built by a new invading race, representing an advance in astronomical thought. The northern stars were worshipped possibly on the meridian, and a star rising in the east was worshipped at each equinox.
3. The subsequent blank in Egyptian history was associated with conflicts between these and other races, which were ended by the victory of the representatives of the old worship of Annu, reinforced from the south, as if north-star and south-star cults had combined against the equinoctial cult.
After these conflicts, east and west pyramid building practically ceased, Memphis takes second place, and Thebes, a southern Annu, so far as the form of solar worship and the cult of Sit are concerned, comes upon the scene as the seat of the twelfth dynasty.[103]