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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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