natures, and apparently bodily constitutions that were similar to those of men.  Like men also they were supposed to feel emotions and passions, and to be liable to the accidents that befell men, and to grow old, and even to die.  The greatest of all the gods was Ra, and he reigned over Egypt for very many years.  His reign was marked by justice and righteousness, and he was in all periods of Egyptian history regarded as the type of what a king should be.  When men instead of gods reigned over Egypt they all delighted to call themselves sons of Ra, and every king believed that Ra was his true father, and regarded his mother’s husband as his father only in name.  This belief was always common in Egypt, and even Alexander the Great found it expedient to adopt it, for he made a journey to the sanctuary of Amen (Ammon) in the Oasis of Siwah in order to be officially acknowledged by the god.  Having obtained this recognition, he became the rightful lord of Egypt.

THE DESTRUCTION OF MANKIND

This Legend is cut in hieroglyphs on the walls of a small chamber in the tomb of Seti I about 1350 B.C.  When Ra, the self-begotten and self-formed god, had been ruling gods and men for some time, men began to complain about him, saying, “His Majesty hath become old.  His bones have turned into silver, his flesh into gold, and his hair into real lapis-lazuli.”  His Majesty heard these murmurings and commanded his followers to summon to his presence his Eye (i.e. the goddess Hathor), Shu, Tefnut, Keb, Nut, and the father and mother gods and goddesses who were with him in the watery abyss of NU, and also the god of this water, NU.  They were to come to him with all their followers secretly, so that men should not suspect the reason for their coming, and take flight, and they were to assemble in the Great House in Heliopolis, where Ra would take counsel with them.  In due course all the gods assembled in the Great House, and they ranged themselves down the sides of the House, and they bowed down in homage before Ra until their heads touched the ground, and said, “Speak, for we are listening.”  Then Ra addresing Nu, the father of the first-born gods, told him to give heed to what men were doing, for they whom he had created were murmuring against him.  And he said, “Tell me what ye would do.  Consider the matter, invent a plan for me, and I will not slay them until I have heard what ye shall say concerning this thing.”  Nu replied, “Thou, O my son Ra, art greater than the god who made thee (i.e. Nu himself), thou art the king of those who were created with thee, thy throne is established, and the fear of thee is great.  Let thine Eye (Hathor) attack those who blaspheme thee.”  And Ra said, “Lo, they have fled to the mountains, for their hearts are afraid because of what they have said.”  The gods replied, “Let thine Eye go forth and destroy those who blasphemed thee, for no eye can resist thine when it goeth forth in the form of Hathor.”  Thereupon the Eye of