ḫeper, like the German Werden, has primarily the sense of turning, hence of becoming. It never has the sense of creating.
ḫeper t’esef is the equivalent of the Greek αὐτογενής, like that word is sometimes used for spontaneous productions of the mineral kingdom, as salt or natron as contrasted with artificial products of the same nature. It cannot be used for plants, as they have an origin in something external to themselves.
[6.] The Land of the Gods and Punit are the countries lying east of Egypt. When it is said that gods ‘come from Punit,’ it is not meant by this that they are of Arabian origin, but simply that Sun, Moon, and Stars, and Daylight rise in the East. “Ex oriente Lux.”
[7.] In many places the divine name Nut has for determinative the sign
. Is this an oversight on the part of the scribe, or is it one more proof that the Egyptians certainly believed in a sky below the horizon? If so, I have never seen it misplaced.
[8.] The Ant and the Abṭu are sometimes represented by the side of the solar bark. From the egg of the Abṭu there rises the great Cat, the Sun. It is, as M. Loret has proved, the Tortoise of the Nile. As
