The healing gods of ancient civilizations / by Walter Addison Jayne.

  • Jayne, Walter Addison, 1853-1929.
Date:
1925
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The healing gods of ancient civilizations / by Walter Addison Jayne. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    myths, and a mass of surprising inconsistencies that have bewildered all late observers.4 Egyptian reticence. The priests were extremely reticent respecting their religion, and such explanations as they made in response to inquiries were in enigmatical terms, hints of half- truths, mystical suggestions, and intimations of symbol¬ ism which confused their hearers and served further to obscure the meaning of their religious rites, rather than reveal their sentiments. The Egyptians believed that 4 ‘ words are a great mystery.’ ’ The ‘ Divine Books ’ and the books of the ‘double house of life? were sacred, and none but the initiated were permitted to see them; “ it is not to be looked at” (Papyrus Leyden, 348, recto 2, 7) by any except him for whom it was intended.1 ‘ The eye of no man whatsoever must see it; it is a thing of abomination for [every man] to know it. Hide it therefore; the Book of the Lady of the Hidden Temple is its name. ’,5 The Egyptians, however, illustrated and liberally portrayed the practical application of their religious beliefs and customs on their monuments; but they were silent concerning their philoso¬ phy and theology, while it is doubted whether they ever attempted to formulate theories or to establish principles. Character of the early religion. The religion of the Egyptians appears to have had its origin in animism, out of which its polytheistic pantheon is assumed to have developed.6 From prehistoric times it had grown out of their crude beliefs and, without control or guidance, had evolved the innumerable traditional 4 Breasted, Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, p. 369. 5 Budge, Egyptian Magic, p. 116; also Baillet, Idees morales dans VEgypte antique, pp. 72-75. 6 Miiller, Mythology, Egyptian, pp. 15, 214.