THE TEMPLE AT AMADA.
It is evident the intrusion was from the south, because otherwise extreme south stars would not have been in question. We have, then, got so far. The worshippers of the southern star and of the winter months, including the solstice, were certainly not indigenous at Eridu. They were probably introduced from the south, and they were sea-borne.
The next question which concerns us is, was this worship in any way connected with Egypt?
One of the most definite and striking conclusions to which the study of temples has led, is that in Southern Egypt the temple worship was limited to southern stars, and, further, that there is a chain of temples, possibly dating from 6400 B.C., and oriented to Canopus. This certainly is an argument in favour of a worship similar to that traced at Eridu.
But is there any trace of Ía or of his son, the sun-god?
This god was, as we have seen, associated in some way with Asari. I am told that students will probably agree that the connection between this word and the Egyptian Osiris is absolute. Professor Sayce informs me that the cuneiform ideograms and the hieroglyphs have the same meaning, and indicate the same root-words.[163]
Ía was represented as a goat-fish, and was a potter and "maker of men." This being so, I confess the facts relating to the southern Egyptian god Chnemu strike me as very suggestive. He is represented goat-headed, and not ram-headed, as generally stated; he is not only the creator of mankind, but he is a potter, and he is actually represented at Philæ as combining these attributes in making man out of clay on a potter's wheel. Nay, according to Bunsen, he is stated to have formed on his wheel the divine limbs of Osiris, and is styled the "sculptor of all men."[164]
I give the following extracts from Lanzoni (p. 956):—
"χ{NUM.}—χ{num} [Chnemu] significa 'fabbricatore, modellatore.' ... Questo demiurgo apparisce come una delle più it antiche divinità dell' Egitto, ed aveva un culto speziale nello Nubia nell' isola di File di Beghe e di Elephantina.... Esso era il dio delle cataratte, identificato al dio Nun, il Padre degli dei, il principio Umido. Il grande testo geografico di Edfu parlando di Elephantina, quale metropoli del primo Nomo dell' Alto Egitto, ne ricorda la divinità, come una personificazione dell' Acqua dell' inondazione."