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LUXOR (Ancient city) EGYPT
Cnuphis (Knouphis), an Egyptian divinity, so called by Strabo (xvii.); while other writers,
such as Plutarch, probably more in conformity with the genuine Egyptian name,
call him Cneph (Kneph). Plutarch (de Is. et Os. 21) states, that all the Egyptians
contributed to the maintenance of the sacred animals, with the exception of the
inhabitants of Thebais, who did not worship any mortal divinity, but an unborn
and an immortal one, whom they called Cneph. This statement would lead us to the
belief, that the inhabitants of Thebais worshipped some spiritual divinity to
the exclusion of all others, and that consequently their religion was of a purer
and more refined nature than that of the other Egyptians; but we know front other
sources, that in Thebais, as well as in other places, animals were worshipped,
such as the crocodile (Herod. ii. 69), the eagle (Diod. i. 87; Strab. xvii. p.
559), the ram, and a kind of harmless snake (Herod. ii. 74). The god Cneph himself
was worshipped in the form of a serpent, as we learn from Strabo and Eusebius
(Praep. Ev. i. 10), the latter of whom states, that Cneph was called by the Phoenicians
Agathodaemon, a name which occurs also in coins and inscriptions of the time of
the Roman empire, in which the god himself is represented in the form of a serpent.
It was probably the idea of which the serpent is the symbol, that gave rise to
the opinion of Plutarch and others, that Cneph was a spiritual divinity; and when
this notion had once become established, the symbol of the god became a matter
of less importance, and was changed. Thus Eusebius (Praep. Ev. iii. 11) informs
us, that the Egyptians called the creator and ruler of the world (demiourgos)
Cneph, and that he was represented in the form of a man, with dark complexion,
a girdle, and a sceptre in his hand. Cneph produced an egg, that is, the world,
from his mouth, and out of it arose the god Phtha, whom the Greeks called Hephaestus.
Most modern writers entertain about Cneph the same or nearly the same views as
were propounded by the Greek philosophers, and accordingly regard him as the eternal
spirit, and as the author of all that is in the world. Cnuphi is said to signify
in the Coptic language the good spirit, like Agathodaemon. (Jablonsky, Panth.
Aegypt. i. 4)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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