Through the Eras

ReligionCLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA ON EGYPTIANRELIGIONINTRODUCTION: Clement of Alexandria (died 215 C.E.) wasan early Christian theologian. He wrote aboutEgyptian religion to discredit it for the Christianfaithful living in Egypt in his own time when Egyptianpaganism still thrived. Yet it is possible to derivesome facts about the Egyptian cult from hiswritings in spite of his prejudices.The temples [of the Egyptians] sparkle withgold, silver and mat gold and flash with coloredstones from India and Ethiopia. The sanctuaries areovershadowed by cloths studded with gold. If, however,you enter the interior of the enclosure, hasteningtowards the sight of the almighty, and look forthe statue residing in the temple, and if a [priest] oranother celebrant, after having solemnly lookedround the sanctuary, singing a song in the languageof the Egyptians, draws back the curtain a little toshow the god, he will make us laugh aloud aboutthe object of worship. For we shall not find the godfor whom we have been looking inside, the god towardswhom we have hastened, but a cat or a crocodile,or a native snake or a similar animal, whichshould not be in a temple, but in a cleft or a den oron a dung heap. The god of the Egyptians appearson a purple couch as a wallowing animal.SOURCE: “The Cult of the Ibis in the Graeco-Roman Period,”in Studies in Hellenistic Religions. Ed. M. J. Vermaseren.Trans. K. A. D. Smelik (Leiden, Netherlands: E. J.Brill, 1979): 225–226.human. Since the Egyptians apprehended their godsthrough the natural world, it is not surprising to findthat animals were viewed as manifestations of the divine.Several theories have been suggested as to why this wasthe case. The American scholar Henri Frankfort suggestedthat it was the apparently unchanging nature ofthe animals that impressed the Egyptians. From generationto generation, humans exhibit changes in appearance,while animals appear the same. An importantelement in Egyptian theology was that the perfect patternof existence had been established by the gods at thetime of creation, called the sep tepi, “the first time,” andit was important that this pattern be maintained. Animalswould seem to have been more successful than manat maintaining their form established at the first time.The German Egyptologist Hellmut Brunner suggestedalternatively that it was the animals’ possession of superhumanpowers, such as flight, speed, stealth, heightenedsenses, and strength that made the Egyptiansperceive them as beings through whom the gods weremanifest. One thing is certain: the Egyptians did not seea wide gulf separating gods and humans from the animals.The creative powers of the mind and tongue werethought to be operative in the gods, mankind, and animalsequally. A hymn to Amun states that he cares evenfor worms, fleas, mice in their holes, and insects. TheFirst Intermediate Period (2130–2008 B.C.E.) nomarchHenqu states that not only did he give bread to the hungryand clothing to the naked in his nome, but he alsoprovided the jackals of the mountains and the birds ofthe sky with food, putting good deeds towards humansand animals on the same level. Given the close associationbetween animals and the gods, it is not surprisingthat animals could be worshipped, not as gods but as themeans through which the gods manifested themselves,much as a statue was worshipped as a vehicle throughwhich the god was manifest. This distinction was lost onthe Greeks, who, when they encountered Egyptian religion,thought the Egyptians were worshipping the animalsas their gods, as the ancient Greek author Clementof Alexandria (died 215 C.E.) described.SACREDNESS. Evidence for the veneration of animalsdates back to the fourth millennium B.C.E. Predynasticburials of gazelles, dogs, cattle, monkeys and ramshave been found at the villages of Badari and Nagada insouthern Egypt, and Maadi and Heliopolis in northernEgypt. The care taken in the burial of these animals, andthe fact that they were buried with grave goods, is consideredto be evidence for a cult of sacred animals inEgypt at this early date. The earliest mention of a particularsacred animal, the Apis bull, dates to the reign ofAha, the first king of the First Dynasty (3100–2800B.C.E.). During the Twenty-sixth Dynasty (664–525B.C.E.) the cult of sacred animals received renewed emphasis,perhaps an expression of a resurgence of Egyptiannationalism after Kushite rule in the Twenty-fifthDynasty (760–665 B.C.E.). Animal cults reached theiracme during the rest of the Late Period (664–332 B.C.E.)and Ptolemaic Period (332–30 B.C.E.). Most of the largeanimal necropolises date to the latter period.CLASSIFICATION OF SACRED ANIMALS. There werethree types of sacred animal in ancient Egypt. One typeis the temple animal. These animals performed the samefunction as cult statues, and were considered vesselsthrough which the gods could make their wills manifest.These animals lived in or near a temple and were distinguishedby special markings. For example, the Apis222 Arts and Humanities Through the Eras: Ancient Egypt (2675 B.C.E.–332 B.C.E.)