(2) See in particular his monograph “On the significance of the Geographical Distribution of the Practice of Mummification” in the Memoirs of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, 1915.

One weakness of this particular strand is that the Egyptians themselves possessed no tradition of the Deluge.  Indeed the annual inundation of the Nile is not such as would give rise to a legend of world-destruction; and in this respect it presents a striking contrast to the Tigris and Euphrates.  The ancient Egyptian’s conception of his own gentle river is reflected in the form he gave the Nile-god, for Hapi is represented as no fierce warrior or monster.  He is given a woman’s breasts as a sign of his fecundity.  The nearest Egyptian parallel to the Deluge story is the “Legend of the Destruction of Mankind”, which is engraved on the walls of a chamber in the tomb of Seti I.(1) The late Sir Gaston Maspero indeed called it “a dry deluge myth”, but his paradox was intended to emphasize the difference as much as the parallelism presented.  It is true that in the Egyptian myth the Sun-god causes mankind to be slain because of their impiety, and he eventually pardons the survivors.  The narrative thus betrays undoubted parallelism to the Babylonian and Hebrew stories, so far as concerns the attempted annihilation of mankind by the offended god, but there the resemblance ends.  For water has no part in man’s destruction, and the essential element of a Deluge story is thus absent.(2) Our new Sumerian document, on the other hand, contains what is by far the earliest example yet recovered of a genuine Deluge tale; and we may thus use it incidentally to test this theory of Egyptian influence, and also to ascertain whether it furnishes any positive evidence on the origin of Deluge stories in general.

(1) It was first published by Monsieur Naville, Tranc.  Soc.  Bibl.  Arch., IV (1874), pp. 1 ff.  The myth may be most conveniently studied in Dr. Budge’s edition in Egyptian Literature, Vol.  I, “Legends of the Gods” (1912), pp. 14 ff., where the hieroglyphic text and translation are printed on opposite pages; cf. the summary, op. cit., pp. xxiii ff., where the principal literature is also cited.  See also his Gods of the Egyptians, Vol.  I, chap. xii, pp. 388 ff.

(2) The undoubted points of resemblance, as well as the equally striking points of divergence, presented by the Egyptian myth when compared with the Babylonian and Hebrew stories of a Deluge may be briefly indicated.  The impiety of men in complaining of the age of Ra finds a parallel in the wickedness of man upon the earth (J) and the corruption of all flesh (P) of the Hebrew Versions.  The summoning by Ra of the great Heliopolitan cosmic gods in council, including his personified Eye, the primaeval pair Shu and Tefnut, Keb the god of the earth and his consort Nut the sky-goddess, and Nu the primaeval water-god