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"They are satisfied, as the common people were, with a degraded literalism," she went on. "Nut was the Heavens, who spread herself across the earth in the form of a woman; Shu, the vastness of space; the ibis typified Thoth, and Hathor was the Patron of the Western Hills; Khonsu, the moon, was personified, as was the deity of the Nile.
In the thirty-third year of the happy reign of Ramses XII, Egypt celebrated two festivals which filled all its faithful inhabitants with pride and delight. In the month of Mechir that is, during January the god Khonsu returned to Thebes covered with costly gifts.
Each sculptured tableau must, therefore, be repeated at least twice in each temple on a right wall and on a left wall. Amen, on the right, receives the corn, the wine, the liquids of the south; while on the left he receives the corn, the wine, and the liquids of the north. As with Amen, so with Maut, Khonsû, Mentû, and many other gods.
Here were fixed four great wooden masts, formed of joined beams and held in place by a wooden framework fixed in the four openings above mentioned. Such was the temple of Khonsû, and such, in their main features, were the majority of the greater temples of Theban and Ptolemaic times, as Luxor, the Ramesseum, Medinet Habû, Edfû, and Denderah.
On her head was the double crown of Egypt and the uræus crest, and in her hand the looped cross, the sign of Life eternal. To his left sat Khonsu, the hawk-headed god of the moon. On his head was the crescent of the young moon carrying the disc of the full moon; in his right hand he also held the looped cross, the sign of Life eternal, and in his left the Staff of Strength.
From the twenty-sixth dynasty down to late Roman times the infant Horus, or the young boy, was the most prominent subject on the temples, and the commonest figure in the homes of the people. The other main group of human gods was Amon, Mut, and Khonsu of Thebes. Amon was the local god of Karnak, and owed his importance in Egypt to the political rise of his district.
"You must be our dragoman, Mr. Hill; I understand you are up on all this," said the lady, adhering closely to his side. "Where are we now?" "Temple of Khonsu," said Billy with bitter brevity. Ahead of them Arlee's blonde head was uptilted toward Falconer's remarks. "Khonsu? I never heard of him! Or is it her?" Lady Claire laughingly demanded.
Little is known about her otherwise, and she disappears in the later theology. +Khonsu+ is a youthful god combined in the Theban system as the son of Amon and Mut. He is closely parallel to Thōth as being a god of time, as a moon god, and of science, 'the executor of plans. A large temple was dedicated to him at Karnak, but otherwise he was not of religious importance.
Erman, in an admirable paper contributed to the Zeitschrift, 1883, showed it to have been a forgery concocted by the priests of Khonsû during the period of the Persian rule in Egypt, or in early Ptolemaic times. Ancienne des Peuples de l'Orient, chap, vi., pp. 287, 288.
"This temple at Karnak is the temple of the god Amon, and so it was natural for old Rameses the third to put the temple to Khonsu under the father's wing like this but it spoils the effect of the entrance from this pylon. You don't get Karnak's bigness at a burst but wait till you reach the court ahead. Then you'll see Karnak."
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