counterpart of Shu, represents rain, dew, and moisture. We have
already seen that these twin gods proceeded from Khepera, and
the words which are used to express the idea of emission, i.e.,
dshesh D, aand n tef ' D indicate the processes by
which they came into being as separate entities. The creation of
Shu made a space between the heavens and the/ earth into which
the Eye of Nu could rise from out of the waters and shine, and
because the sunlight immediately followed the creation of Shu that
god is sometimes identified with light, and is regarded as its
personification. The general sense of the passage under discussion
makes it necessary to assume that Nu is identified with Khepera,
and vice versd.
The next passage refers to the creation of man, and the god,
presumably Khepera, says, "Now after these things, I united my
"members, and I wept over them, and men and women came into
"being from the tears which came forth from my eye." Of this
passage there are two interpretations possible. We may either
assume that the tears which fell from the Eye of Nu, or Khepera,
are the rays of light which fell from the sun, and that men and
women are the offspring of the light, or what is far more probable,
that men and women are the product of the tears of water which
fell from the eye of the god upon his members,1 and that they
turned into human beings straightway. Meanwhile the god Nu or
Kheperhhad made another Eye, by which we are, no doubt, to
understand the Moon, and it is said that when the first Eye found
that a second had been made it raged at the god; now when the
god saw this he endowed the second Eye with some of the power
(or, splendour) which he had made, and having made it take up
its position in his face it henceforth ruled the whole earth. After
this the god brought about the creation of plants, and herbs, and
reptiles, and creeping things. Finally, the gods Shu and Tefnut
produced the gods and goddesses Seb and Nut, Osiris and Isis, Set
and Nephthys, and IIeru-khent-An-maati, i.e., the " Blind Horus,"
one after the other at one birth, and these deities multiplied