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IF the author of
Juventus Mundi could but turn to Egypt, and make a first-hand
acquaintanceship with its Symbolism, I think it would enlighten him more than
any amount of listening round to those deluding Aryanists, respecting the
origin, derivation and meaning of the Greek Mythology.
2. For example, let us
take the case of the god Apollo, who is related to the sun, and yet is not the
sun itself. The Solarites can shed no light upon the darkness of Mr.
Gladstone's difficulty. Writers who talk about mythology being a
"disease of language," and know nothing of the gods as Celestial Intelligencers
and time-keepers for men—chief of which was the sun, when the solar year had
been made out; still earlier, the moon in its various phases—can lend us no aid
in penetrating the secrets of this ancient science. "Solar-worship"
is good enough for them, but it will not explain mythology to us, or to itself.
The child of the sun, re-born as Lord of Light in the moon, has never come
within the range of their vision. Yet it is the simple fact in natural
phenomena, which was represented mythically as the mode of making it known, of
teaching it by means of the Gnosis or science of knowledge, as one of the
mysteries, so soon as the discovery had once been made; and this is one of the
most important of all the factors in mythology.
3. I would suggest to
Mr. Gladstone that the Greek Apollo is the same soli-lunar personification
as is Thoth (Taht or Tehuti), and Khunsu (or the soli-lunar Horus), this is, the
child of the supreme divinity in Egypt, the solar Ra, as his light by
night—whilst he himself is the god who is hidden from sight in the
under-world—his vice-dieu of the dark. Apollo is designated
Lukgenes, or light-born. He is the image of the solar deity, the
reflection of his glory in the lunar disk.
4. Every phase of
character in which Apollo appears, especially as represented by Homer, can be
identified as pertaining to the male moon-god in Egypt, and the common basis of
all may be found in those natural phenomena which are indicated in previous
pages. In these natural phenomena, there is a common source, or
foundation, to which the functions and attributes of Apollo and Taht (or the
lunar Horus) can be referred, and by which the characters may be satisfactorily
explained. The relationships of Apollo to Zeus, are exactly like
those of Taht to Osiris, the supreme being. I t is Taht who gives the
Ma-Kheru, or Word of Truth, to the sun-god himself. As representative of
Ra, his lunar logos, his light in the darkness, he is the Word whose promise is
fulfilled and made truth by the Supreme Being, the sun that vivifies and
verifies for ever. By his Word, he drives the enemies from the solar
horizon, the insurgent powers of darkness which are fighting eternally against
Ra. This is the character of Apollo as the defender of heaven against
every assault. These powers of darkness, continually in revolt, ever
warring with the sun, were called the giants which Taht-Khunsu, the
giant-killer, slays by night, or during the lunar eclipse. Apollo
also figures as the destroyer of the giants who were at war with heaven.
It is said in the Egyptian texts that Ra created this god, Taht, as "a beautiful
light to show the name of his evil enemy," i.e., Sut-Typhon, the eternal
enemy of the sun. He held up the lamp by night that made the
darkness visible; showed the name, the face, the personal presence, of his
lurking foe. This also is a character of Apollo, as a representative
and kind of deputy providence for Zeus.
5. Apollo is god of the
bow! Taht carries the bow of the crescent moon upon his head! Now
the hero in the folk-tales who is always successful in drawing the great bow in
the trial where all his competitors fail, is this god of the new moon,
who alone can
bend the bow, or bring the orb to the full circle of light once more.
He can be identified in the Hindu form of the Mythos as Krishna "with the Bow of
Hari." The crescent on the head of Taht is the bow prepared and ready to
be drawn to the full against the power of night, and every form of evil that
dwells in the darkness. Thus the lunar representative of Ra, with
the bow of the young moon on his head, who prepares it month after month, and
draws it to the full circle night after night, may be called the preparer of
bows; and in Egyptian the name Apuru signifies a preparer of bows; it also means
the Guide and Herald. As the u in Egyptian stands for o, and r for
l, we have Apuru=Apollo; the preparer of bows=the god of the bow as male
divinity of the moon, who was the offspring of the sun and moon, the bowman of
the solar god. Mr. Gladstone doubts whether the root of Apollo
is Greek, and says he would not be surprised to find it Eastern. All the
evidence tends to prove it Egyptian by nature and by name. Apollo is the
god of knowledge, past, present, and to come; Taht is the deity of knowledge,
past, present, and future—the founder of science, lord of the divine words, and
secretary of the gods. Apollo is the god of poetry and music.
So was Taht. He is the psalmist and singer; he is fabled to have
torn out the sinews of Sut-Typhon to form the lyre—the lyre or harp with seven
strings being an image of the new moon, like the bow.
6. Apollo was the god
of healing. Taht is the supreme physician and healer; "He who is the
good Saviour," as it is written on a statue in the Leyden Museum.
Apollo was the bringer of death in a form that was serene and beautiful, as
became the lunar Lord of light, and enlarger of the lunar light to the full,—the
character and function being afterwards applied to the light of life that
suffered the passing eclipse of death. One name of Taht is Tekh,
which signifies to be full!
7. Of course the Greeks
did not simply take over the Egyptian mythology intact, nor did they preserve
the descent quite pure on any single line. In re-applying the
legendary lore, derived from Egypt, to the same phenomena in nature, there would
be considerable mixture, amalgamation, change of name, and consequent confusion.
The blind Horus of Egypt reappears as the blind Orion in the Greek mythos.
This is as certain as that the constellation of Orion, the star of Horus, was
named Orion after Horus! His lunar relationship is shown by the recovery
of his sight on exposing his eyeballs to the rays of the rising sun,—just as the
eye of Horus was restored to him through the return of light at dawn.
Horus in his lunar character is one with Taht and Khunsu in the other cults;
that is, the lunar child may be Horus as son of Osiris, or Taht as the offspring
of Ra, or Khunsu as the child of Amen; the myth being one in different
religions. It follows that so far as Orion is identical with Horus he is
also, or once was, identical in character with the lunar Apollo, and therefore
like him of twin-birth with Artemis. Links of this lunar
relationship remain. He lives and hunts along with Artemis when his
sight has been recovered. He was beloved by Artemis and slain by her
because he made an attempt upon her chastity—which is a common charge brought
against the man in the moon mythology!
8. The bringing on of
the lunar mythos upon two different lines of descent, Apollo being a
continuation of Taht-Khunsu, and Orion of Horus, would account for the later
mixture in the relationship of the various personations—the fact in nature being
represented under different names for the same character in mythology, as it had
been previously in Egypt.
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