Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 12 (Egyptian and Indo-Chinese).djvu/53

Rh adversaries which apparently symbolize clouds and eclipses; and its perils increase still further at night, when it passes the western mountain ridge, the limit of the earth, and enters hostile darkness. In the morning, however, it always emerges victorious over the eastern mountains; the sun himself and his brave rowers and soldiers have scattered all opponents, sailing successfully through the subterranean course of the Nile or crossing the abysmal ocean into which the sun dips at even ing. 9 During the night (or part of it) the sun-god illumines the regions of the dead, who for a time awaken from their sleep when his rays shine upon them, and who are sometimes believed to tow the sun s ship through the dead or windless

, FIG. 10. THE SUN-GOD AT NIGHT-TIME

lower waters or

.1 i With &quot;Wisdom&quot; and &quot;Magic&quot; in his boat, he is drawn by

through espe- the spirits of the underworld cially difficult

parts of them, 10 or who assist it there against its enemies. At night the sun may also take rest in its special abode in the nether world, in &quot;the island of flames,&quot; u where the fiery ele ment has its proper centre.

To speak more exactly, the sun-god has two different ships: one the Me enzet for the day, and the other the Semektet 12 for the night; sometimes he enters the &quot;evening ship&quot; in the afternoon. This distinction is no more difficult to understand than the later differentiation of the sun into three distinct personalities during the day-time, when he is called Horus (or Har-akhti, &quot;Horus of the Horizon&quot;) in the morning, Re* (his ordinary name) at noon, and Atum(u) toward evening. The latter form, taken from the local god of Heliopolis, 13 is depicted as human, very rarely in the oldest