The Egyptian Pantheon was a gradual accretion, the result of
amalgamating the various local cults; but these continued predominant in
their several localities; and practically the only deities that obtained
anything like a general recognition were Osiris, Isis, Horus, and the
Nile-god, Hapi.

[Illustration: FIGURE OF BES.]

Besides the common popular religion, the belief of the masses, there was
another which prevailed among the priests and among the educated. The
primary doctrine of this esoteric religion was the real essential unity
of the Divine Nature. The sacred texts, known only to the priests and to
the initiated, taught that there was a single Being, "the sole producer
of all things both in heaven and earth, himself not produced of any,"
"the only true living God, self-originated," "who exists from the
beginning," "who has made all things, but has not himself been made."
This Being seems never to have been represented by any material, even
symbolical, form. It is thought that he had no name, or, if he had, that
it must have been unlawful to pronounce or write it. He was a pure
spirit, perfect in every respect--all-wise, almighty, supremely good. It
is of him that the Egyptian poets use such expressions as the following:
"He is not graven in marble; he is not beheld; his abode is not known;
no shrine is found with painted figures of him; there is no building
that can contain him;" and, again: "Unknown is his name in heaven; he
doth not manifest his forms; vain are all representations;" and yet
again: "His commencement is from the beginning; he is the God who has
existed from old time; there is no God without him; no mother bore him;
no father hath begotten him; he is a god-goddess, created from himself;
all gods came into existence when he began."