Egyptian religious poetry

32 EGYPTIAN RELIGIOUS POETRY

brutal Assyrians, and Egypt suffered all the horrors of an invasion by the most ruthless and cruel people of the ancient world. Upper Egypt never recovered from that orgy of devastation and plundering, and fades out of history completely. The seat of government was moved to the north, and in the xxvith dynasty Greek influence was paramount, until Cambyses added Egypt to the list of conquered provinces belonging to the Persian Empire. The disastrous period of Persian rule was ended by Alexander the Great's conquest, and with that conquest the true history of ancient Egypt comes to an end, for the Ptolemies were essentially Greek in their culture. They set up a dazzling facade of civilization and learning at Alexandria which blinded the eyes of their contemporaries to the condition of the people of the country. When Cleopatra, the last of the Ptolemies, died, Egypt was taken over as a dependency by the Roman Emperors, who regarded it as a place to be taxed to the utmost limit, and even beyond, to pay for their luxuries and pleasures.

As the arts cannot flourish when the struggle for life is too keen, there is very little poetry to be found after the xxvith dynasty, and what little there is cannot be regarded as truly Egyptian, for it is largely influenced by foreign thought and methods.

(b) RELIGION

In dealing with the religious poetry of any country a knowledge of the religion of that country is an obvious necessity. The religion of ancient Egypt, like the religion of most ancient countries, is confusing at first sight owing to the multiplicity of deities. The confusion is chiefly due to the method of presentation of the pantheon to foreign eyes. This process began as