THE RAM
" The Egyptian temples ," says Clement of Alexandria, "their porticoes and vestibules are magnificently constructed; the courts are surrounded by columns; precious and brilliant marbles of varied colours decorate the walls, so that everything is matched; the naos shine with the brilliance of gold, silver, electrum, and precious stones from India and Ethiopia; the sanctuaries are shaded by veils woven of gold; but if you advance to the back of the temple, and seek the statue of the God to whom it is consecrated, a pastophore or some other employee of the temple advances with a grave air, singing a pæan in the Egyptian language, and lifts the veil a little, as if to show you the God. What do you then see? a Cat, a Crocodile, a native Serpent, or some animal of that kind! The God of the Egyptians appears..... it is a wild beast, wallowing on a purple carpet! It was, in fact, a living animal that was contained in all the sanctuaries of the temples of Egypt; but what had so greatly excited the indignation of the Alexandrian philosopher seemed, on the contrary, to the eyes of the Egyptians a very simple and very natural thing. They thought that it was contrary to good sense and religion to address prayers and offerings to a purely material image of the Divinity, and to represent it in the sanctuary by a being totally deprived of its creative breath . This is why they chose living beings whose distinctive qualities indirectly recalled those that were worshipped in the Divinity itself. Each God had his sacred animal, which thus became his visible image in the temples of Egypt. Besides, the ancient Egyptians did not treat animals with as much contempt as modern peoples do; They believed, on the contrary, that animals were of the same family, and related to the Gods and men; the law ordered them to respect them, and even to feed them .
The Ram was the living symbol of the Egyptian Demiurge, of the first 6of the Gods, Amon or Amon-ra , the Jupiter-Ammon of the Greeks. It was mainly fed in the sanctuaries of Thebes and Sais ; for one of these cities was dedicated to Ammon, and the other to Neith, the first emanation of Ammon, a goddess who, according to all appearances, was also represented, like her father, with a Ram's head, as is found on the bas-reliefs of the temples of Nubia, published by M. Gau ; but unfortunately he did not draw the hieroglyphic legends of this criocephalic goddess. The medals of the Nomes Diopolite , Hypsélite , Xoïte and Maréote also prove that the Ram was the sacred animal of these Egyptian prefectures.
An immense number of monuments offer us the representation of the Ram, symbol of Ammon. The colored figure of this animal, engraved in our plate, is found on a mummy in the cabinet of M. Durand, a mummy which, like most of those brought back from Thebes, offers the representation of this living emblem of Ammon, eponymous God of this city. The sacred Ram, adorned with a necklace and a beautiful cover, is standing on an altar in a naos or richly decorated chapel. Its head is adorned with the disk and the two long feathers of various colors, which surmount the headdress of the God Ammon himself, either androcephalic or criocephalic . The kind of large fan which, in historical bas-reliefs, is only carried in the wake of Gods or Kings, is placed next to the Ram of Amun-re, on a small Egyptian stele which represents this sacred animal, standing on an altar, and adored by an Egyptian who presents him with offerings. This stele, found in Egypt by M. Thédenat, is now in my possession.
The sacred Ram, being only a symbolic image of Ammon, receives the same name and the same titles as the God himself; the legend Amon-re, king of the Gods , traced on our plate, accompanies the Ram sculpted on my small stele. In one of the steles of the Earl of Belmore , the sacred animal bears that of Amon-re, lord of the regions of the world. Finally, a very considerable number of scarabs and small amulets of enameled earth, present the image of the Ram, either standing or crouching, but always decorated with the name or honorary titles of the God Amon-re , of whom it is only the symbol.
