The mythology has exactly the same origin as the mythology of our own Aryan ancestors. The early language had no words to express abstract conceptions, and the operations of nature were spoken of in terms which would now be thought poetical or at least metaphorical, but were then the simplest expressions of popular intuition. The nomina became numina.
The Egyptian mythology, as far as I can see, dealt only with those phenomena of nature which are conspicuously the result of fixed law, such as the rising and setting of the sun, moon and stars.[1] The recognition of law and order as existing throughout the universe, underlies the whole system of Egyptian religion. The Egyptian maāt, derived, like the Sanskrit rita, from merely sensuous impressions, became the name for moral order and righteousness.
Besides the powers recognized by the mythology, the Egyptians from the very first spoke of the Power
- ↑ This is my reason for being inclined (see p. 109) to identify the goddess Tefnut with the Dew, rather than with the Rain. Tefnut, as a common noun, is undoubtedly some form of moisture, but rain, though far from unknown in ancient Egypt, must always have been a comparatively rare and apparently irregular phenomenon. Otherwise it would be very tempting to identify the two lions, Shu and Tefnut, children of Rā, with the Wind and the Rain. I do not find any god as the personification of Thunder, which rather appears as the roaring of a lion-god, or the bellowing of a bull-god. This illustrates the position which occasional phenomena occupy in Egyptian mythology. The position of Fire in this mythology affords matter for an interesting inquiry.
