Egyptian religious poetry

46 EGYPTIAN RELIGIOUS POETRY

to find anything of the kind in writing. Oral teaching has always been customary in the East, and ancient Egypt was no exception to the rule. The few examples that remain show some of the fundamental beliefs which underlay the apparent polytheism.

Three are all gods, Amon, Ré and Ptah; there is none like them. Hidden in his name as Amon, he is Ré in face, his body is Ptah. Their cities on earth are established for ever, Thebes, Heliopolis, and Memphis, unto all eternity. When a divine message is sent from Heaven, it is heard in Heliopolis, it is repeated in Memphis to the Fair of Face, it is set in a letter in the writing of Thoth (and sent) to the city of Amon which is theirs. “Go forth”, says God. “Every utterance of his mouth is Amon.” The gods are established because of him according to the command of the divine message which has been sent : “ He shall slay or cause to live ; life and death are with him for all people.” He is manifest in Amon, with Ré and Ptah, the three united.

[z.A.s., xlii, 35]

The priests of Amon have left a short account of their God:

Beginning of existence in the beginning of Time. Amon existed from the beginning, none know his emergence. No god existed before him, no other god was with him who could tell his form. He had no mother to name him, no father to beget him and say, “ This is I.” He shaped his egg himself. Force, mysterious of birth, creator of his own beauty, God, Divine One, selfcreated. All gods came into existence after he began.

[z.A.S., xlii, 32]

It is in the theories of the Creation, of which there are many, that the religious philosophy is most clearly seen. The most important is found as early as the Pyramid Texts of the vith dynasty which, on the lowest computation, are more than two thousand years before the Christian era. At that early date