I \ v*^\ ^\. \^ A SECOND SERIES MANNERS AND CUSTOMS THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS, INCLUDING THEIR RELIGION, AGRICULTURE, &c. DERIVED FROM A COMPARISON OF THK PAINTINGS, SCULPTURES, AND MONUMENTS STILL EXISTING, WITH THE ACCOUNTS OP ANCIENT AUTHORS. By sir J. GARDNER WILKINSON, F.R.S. F.R.G.S. M.R.S.L. M.LB.A. &c. AUTHOR OF " A GENERAL VIEW OF EGYPT, AND TOPOGRAPHY OF THEBES," ETC. TWO VOLUMES, AND A VOLUME OF PLATES. VOL. L LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. MDCCCXLI. London : Printed by A. SpottiswoodE) New- St reel- Sq ii are. CENTER iiSRARy PREFACE. In the previous portion of this work I was under the necessity of omitting certain subjects, which, though intimately connected with the manners and customs of the ancient Egyptians, could not have been introduced without increasing it to a dispro- portionate size. But, in order to fulfil my original intention of giving a summary view of tlie most striking usages of that people, I have now put to- gether those which were omitted in the previous volumes ; and if there appears any want of con- nection in the agriculture and religion, it will be explained by the reason already stated. It may also occur to the reader, that I have repeated some remarks previously introduced ; but this I have sometimes thought preferable to a too frequent re- ference to the preceding part of the work, espe- cially when they were directly connected with the present subjects. It has been thought better to arrange the plates in a separate volume, many of which, from their size, might be inconvenient with the letter-press ; and thus the necessity of ])ublishing volumes of A 2 IV PREFACE. larger dimensions has been avoided, and the uni- formity of the two sets has been thereby main- tained. I have much pleasure in acknowledging the kind assistance of Mr. Burton and Mr. Pettigrew while writing the accompanying volumes, to the former of whom I am indebted for the Plates 85 and 86, which are copied from his drawings in the tombs of Thebes. In offering any remarks on so abstruse and mys- terious a subject as the religion of the Egyptians, I must observe that my view has been rather to present the result of observations derived from the Monuments, than to suggest my own opinion re- specting it ; feeling persuaded that the progress of discovery in hieroglyphical literature will at length explain the doctrines of that people without the necessity of unsatisfactory and doubtful conjecture. Whatever statements I have ventured to make are open to correction, and await the sentence of more matured opinions derived from the experience of future discoveries. Many interesting comparisons might be brought forward of the religious notions of the Greeks, Hindoos, and others, with those of the Egyptians; but a minute examination of them would lead to a lengthened disquisition, which neither the limits of this work (already too long), nor the taste of the generality of readers, would permit. Those PREFACE. V who are interested in the subject will find their curiosity amply repaid by a reference to the va- luable work of Dr. Prichard, and to the various publications which treat of the religions of other nations. They will find some striking analogies in most of them, which appear to connect them in a greater or less degree with each other ; and which, by proclaiming a common origin at a most remote period, tend, like the discoveries in lan- guage and other modern investigations, to point out the important truths of the Mosaical history of the world. London, July 1840. \icw of the modern town of Manfaloot. A 3 CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. (SECOND SERIES.) CHAPTER XI. Page Richness of Egypt. Shepherds, or Hycsos, a Tartar Race '2 Rich Countries exposed to Invasion. Duration of the Power of Egypt ...... 3 Attention paid to Agriculture. Resources and Army of Egypt -...._. 4. Egypt famed for Agriculture and Manufactures - - 5 Agricultural Representations. Origin of Geometry - 6 Measuring Land to ascertain the Extent of the Possessions of each Individual. Survey of the Country, and Deter- mination of the Levels - . _ . _ 7 Menes turned the Course of the Nile. Dykes, Sluices, and mechanical Inventions connected with the Inundation. Nilometers . . _ _ - 8 The Introduction of the Water by Canals into the Fields. Propitiation of the God of the River . - - 9 The Inundation. Rain rare in Egypt - - - 1() Early Study of Astronomy connected also with the In- undation - . - _ . - - H Books of Hermes. Ages of Civilisation even before Menes. Calculation of the Return of the Seasons - - 12 Division of the Year, originally into Lunar Months. Sub- stitution of Solar for Lunar Months. The Five Days - ].'3 A 4 Vlll CONTENTS. Page The Twelve Months, and the Three Seasons - - l^ Intercalation. Sothic Period - - - - 15 Sothic Year. Thoth the Name of the first Month. The early Intercalation of the Five Days. The Quarter Day. Doubts respecting its first Adoption - - - 16 Flocks and Herds, Breed of Horses, Wool. Egypt united the Advantages of an Agricultural and Manufacturing Country. Export of Linen - - - - 20 Manufactures. Important Discoveries arising from their Agricultural Pursuits - - - - - 21 Their Style of Building. Excavations under Ground. Temples not imitated from excavated Monuments - 22 Abundance of Grain. Export. Many sold their Corn, and lived on Doura Bread, — Esculent Roots - - 23 Three and Four Crops a Year. Profit to Government on Exportation of Corn. Egyptian Land Measures. The Aroura, Schcene, Cubit, Stade - - - 24 Plethrum. Measurements of the Pyramid, by Herodotus and others, uncertain - - - - - 25 The Cubit, supposed to vary at different Periods - 27 The Cubit appears to have been always of the same Length 28 Cubit of the Nilometer at Elephantine. Wooden Cubit of M, Jomard. Division of the Cubit - - - 29 M. Jomard's Calculations. Cubit of the Nilometer of Ele- phantine rudely divided - - - - 31 Royal Cubit. Double Cubit recently found at Thebes - 32 The Aroura, how divided. Modern Fedddn. The Stade of uncertain Length - - - - - 33 Cultivation of the Land. Governors of Provinces. The Peasants sowed what Crops they chose - - 34 Rented Land from the Rich. Water of the Inundation managed differently, according to Circumstances - 35 Canals. Agricultural Scenes in the Sculptures - - 36 Subsiding of the Nile. The Nile rises now as high as for- merly, vai'ying in different Years - - - 37 The Land sowed as soon as the Water had retired. Some- times previously prepared by the Plough and Hoe, some- times only dragged with Bushes, or the Seed trodden in by Animals - - - - - - 39 CONTENTS. IX Page Simple Process of Tillage. Slight Furrows of the Plough. The modern Khonfud, a sort of Harrow. Plough of Wood - - - - - - - 41 Parts of the Plough. Yoke. Driver - - - 42 Two different Animals not joked together - - 44 Plough and Hoe. Axe - - - - 45 Felling Trees with an Axe. Admission of Swine into the Fields. Opinion of Larcher - - - - 46 The Duties of the Ploughman arduous. Barrel placed in the Field, probably holding Seed. Seed put into a Basket. Scattered with the Right Hand - - 47 Cultivation of Land. Harrow and Rake unknown. Arti- ficial Irrigation. Dressing of Nitrous Soil - - 49 Component Parts of the Alluvial Deposit - - 50 Nature of the Two Branches of the Nile. Other Kinds of Dressing - - - - - - 51 The Edge of the Desert cultivated. Vestiges of ancient Cultivation in the Fyoom - - - - 52 Quality of the Crops. Productions of the Winter Sea- son -- -- - - -53 Carthamus tinctorius, an ancient Plant - - - 54 Oil extracted from various Plants - - -55 Castor-berry Tree. Mode of extracting the Oil - -56 Oil of Bitter Almonds. Length of Time to raise different Crops. Plants of the Summer Season. — (^Note.) Nature of some Ointment at Alnwick Castle, and Analysis of a Bronze Chisel found at Thebes - - - 58 Great Use of Vegetables. Names of some Roman Families derived from certain Pulse - - - 60 Names of Plants known to be grown in Ancient Egypt - 61 Indigenous Plants of Egypt. Desert Plants. Herbarium of Egypt. Those mentioned by Pliny - - 63 Trees of Ancient Egypt from the Paintings, and the Fruit or seeds of others discovered in the Tombs - - 76 Seeds and Fruits of India or Africa found there. Flowers represented not very intelligibly. Little Attention to the Growth of Plants and Trees in Modern Egypt - - 78 X CONTENTS. Page The Sont still grown for its Pods, which are used in tan- ning. Groves occupying their ancient Sites - - 80 Bees. Hives require much attention in Egypt - - 81 Woods used by the Egyptians. Tools. Cabinet-work. Woods, Ivory, and other Things brought by Foreign Tri- butary People __- - - -82 Wild Plants cultivated for medicinal Purposes. Their Use still known to the Arabs - - - - 83 The Rhamnus^ or Holy Thorn - - - - 84? Cultivation of Wheat and Barley. Mode of Reaping. Cropped a little below the Ear - - - 85 Threshing by Oxen. Song of the Threshers - - 88 The Tritura, or treading out the Grain by Cattle - 91 Two Scribes to check the Accounts - - - 92 Oxen unmuzzled while treading out the Grain, as with the Jews. Jewish Threshing Instruments - - - 92 The modern Noreg, or Corn Drag. Wheat bound in Sheaves, not generally the Custom. Mostly carried in Rope Nets, or Baskets. Modern Egyptians cut the Wheat close to the Ground - - - - - - 93 Sometimes, though rarely, the Oxen driven round the Heap of Corn placed in the Centre of the Threshing-floor. The modern Noreg - - - - - 94 The Tribulum. Horses fed on Straw. Cut up, as with the Jews, for Provender - - - - - 95 Stall-fed Cattle. Land prepared for a Second Crop. Artificial Irrigation --._.. gg Avoided Repetition of similar Crops. Wheat and Doora represented : the latter plucked up by the Roots - 97 Stripped off the Grain by a Machine. Flax. The Return of the Inundation anxiously looked for - - - 98 Inundation. Its Commencement. The Water then bad. Previously laid up in Jars - - - - 100 Colour of the God Nilus. Water entering the Canals. Flocks and Herds rescued from the Inundation. Care of the Dykes. Watched by Guards - _ . loi Cavalry and Infantry to protect them. Management of the Water to render a deficient Inundation available. Height of the Rise. Villages overflowed _ . . 203 CONTENTS. XI Pliny's Statement of its Rise. The Nile rises still in the same Proportion.* Elevation of the Bed and Banks - 104' Land about Elephantine and Thebes. Extracts from a Memoir presented to the Geographical Society - 106 Difference in the Height of the immediate Bank and the Interior. Section of the Land - - - 107 The Dykes : perpendicular Elevation of the Land, in con- sequence of which the Inundation extends farther E. and W. now than formerly ; proved by Examination of the Colossi at Thebes, and other Monuments - - 108 Encroachments of the Sand partial, and much exagge- rated - - - - - - - 113 Sand Drifts in some Places, as in other Countries. The Ba- lance in favour of the Advance of Alluvial Deposit. The Nature of the Desert. Its Mountains - - 115 Sections of the Desert between the Nile and Red Sea - 116 Other Sections. Sandstones and Granites cross the Nile. Quarries of Silsilis. Valley of Nubia very narrow - 117 Libyan Desert. Lake Mceris. Fyoom. High Table Land of Africa. The Oases Depressions in this Mountain Plain. Character of the Oases - - - - 118 Fancied Dangers from the Sand. The Simoom. Abrupt Separation of the most fertile and most barren Land - 120 The Udger cultivated. Good Soil for some Productions. The Vine. Remains of Canals there - - - 121 Roots of Vines, and Vestiges of once cultivated Fields. Festivals of the Peasants during the Inundation, and other Seasons - - - - - -122 Feast of First Fruits of Lentils, when instituted. Festival of Hermes. Rearing of Animals - - _ i25 Pastors, represented deformed - - - - 126 The Peasant who tilled the Land responsible for the Cattle feeding there. Stall-fed Oxen - - - 127 The Head Shepherd gave an Account of the Stock of Cattle and the Flocks on the Estate. Shepherds chosen by the Steward. Jews set over the Herds of Pharaoh - 128 Cattle brought into a Court to be counted - - 129 * The last inundation carried away several villages from the plain. XU CONTENTS. Page Sculptures with Numbers inscribed over the Animals. An- tiquity of the Tombs at the Pyramids - - 131 Geese numbered, as well as the Eggs - - 132 All done by Writing. Veterinary Art. Artificial Mode of Hatching Eggs of Hens and Geese . . - 133 The modern Ovens for Hatching Eggs ; and the Process - 134- Sheep twice shorn and twice produced Lambs in one Year. The Veterinary Surgeons - - - - 138 Wild Animals treated in the same Manner - - 140 CHAP. XII. Religious Opinions of the Egyptians - - - 141 Sacred Institutions of other Countries borrowed from Egypt. A particular Deity for each Month and Day. Astrology from Egypt _--.-- 142 Supposed themselves the first who taught Man the proper Mode of approaching the Deity. Study of Omens - 143 Divination of Children. Superstitious Notions. Sacrifices of Meat-OfFerings of very early Use in Egypt - - 144 The Opinions of Proclus and Macrobius of early Sacrifices. The Israelites. Victims. Passover - - - 145 Earliest Sacrifices of Animals. The first Offering - 146 Oxen and Geese offered in Egypt to the Gods. Oracles of very old Date. Origin of different Deities in Greece a new Idea - - .... 147 Borrowed from Egypt. Some not Egyptian. No Heroes among the Gods of Egypt. Statues of Mercury. Gods known in Egypt, though under other Names - - 148 Gods of Pelasgi without Names. Adopted from Egypt. Worship of Bacchus introduced by Melampus. Phallic Mercury - - - - - - 149 Oracle of Dodona of Egyptian Origin. Oracles of Egypt. Besa. Its Answers given, as at Heliopolis, in Writing, and sealed - - - - - - 150 Different Forms in consulting different Oracles. At Aphaca, the Presents sinking or swimming gave a good or bad Omen. Oracle of Ammon. ( Fic?e ^>^/ro, p. 248, 249.) - 151 CONTENTS. XIU Page Oracles consulted on all Occasions. To discover Theft. Predictions from Astrological Calculations; not very un- like our Moore's Almanac - - - - 15'3 Offerings of the Jews of various Kinds - - - 154 Offerings for various Occasions. With the Egyptians, also, they varied according to Circumstances. The Pig only offered to " the Moon and Bacchus." Different Animals sacrificed in different Parts of Egypt - - - 157 Certain Rites in some Provinces. The great Gods wor- shipped every where, though more respect was paid to the presiding Deity - - - - - 158 The same Sacred Animals not respected in different Places 159 Reasons for some being sacred, that they might abstain from eating them. Prejudice in favour of old Customs, as for the supposed Poems of Isis. The original Motive forgotten in Process of Time - - - - 1 60 Greeks derided the Religion of Egypt, particularly their Animal Worship . _ . _ . 151 Plutarch's Observation on the Remark of Xenophanes - 163 Unjust to mislead the People while the Priests had a Creed peculiar to themselves - - _ . 1(34 The Religion originally more simple, corrupted in Time. The Emblems often appeared ridiculous - - 165 The Explanations not to be taken literally. Certain Secrets confined to the Priests to prevent Perversion. Ignorance of the Uninitiated - - - - - 166 No Egyptian Gods once Human Beings - - 167 Ignorance of the Greeks respecting their own Religion. Derived from Egypt - - - - 168 The Greeks considered by the Egyptians Children in point of Antiquity (conf. Joseph, contra Apion. lib. 1.). They ridiculed the Greeks for deriving their Origin from Gods 169 The Word Piromi, and Remark of the Egyptians to Hero- dotus. Manifestation of Osiris on Earth, a different Idea 170 The Images of the Gods not intended to represent real Beings. Corruption of the Symbols. Adoration of them in lieu of the Original - - - 171 Various Forms of the One sole God under dift'erent Names. XIV CONTENTS. Page An abstract Idea. The Folly of the Greeks in calling themselves the Descendants of " Strength " (Hercules) 172 Many abstract Ideas made into Gods. Strange Gods of Greece and Rome. Physical Deities of Egypt - 173 Animals' Heads given to Gods served to distinguish them more clearly than any conventional Features. Too nu- merous for this. Greek Gods and Christian Saints dis- tinguished by certain Emblems ... 174. The Priests aware of the Nature of their Gods, which was concealed from the People. The Character of the Greek Vulcan degraded - - - - - 175 Egyptian Gods not reduced to the Level of Men. The Egyptian Religion based on the Belief in One Omnipotent God - - - - - - 176 Notion of some of the early Greeks. An ancient Theogony 177 Question if the Egyptians made any Representation of the Unity of the Deity. Many allegorical Figures supposed to be adopted for this Purpose. Snake with its Tail in its Mouth - - . _ . . - 178 Osiris not the Unity of the Deity. He became a Member of a separate Triad after his Death. Many Names of Osiris and Isis. The Divinity himself not represented. The Great Gods Characters of the Divinity himself - 179 Various Grades of Deities. Degraded Offices of some Greek and Roman Gods. The Twelve Great Gods of Rome and Greece called Consuentes or Consentes - 180 The Eight Selecti, and the Dii Semones. Arrangement of the Greek Gods according to Cicero and others - 181 The Cabiri. Division of Pythagoras and Plato - - 184 Eight Great Gods of Egypt. The Triad - - 185 Trinity. Elohim of the Bible. The Creative Power as a Trinity - - - - - - 186 Elohim " Gods." First Mention of Jehovah (Ihoah). The Trinity obscurely noticed in the Old Testament - 187 Connection between Truth and the Creative Power - 188 Osiris the Deity manifested on Earth. His curious History in a Chamber at Philge - - - - 189 CONTENTS. XV Page Tlie Monad or One Deity above and apart from the Triad. Tiie Three Intellects, the Three Kings of Plato - - 190 Triple Nature of the Deity under different Names - 191 Intelligence, Matter, and ^o«/«o*. Plato's Nuptial Diagram. The Triangle of Osiris, Isis, and Horus (Orus) - 192 Pythagorean Numbers, and those of Egypt - - 193 Pythagoras borrowed them from Egypt. His Numerical System now appears evidently to agree with theirs. Egyptian Hieratic Numbers - - - 197 Speculations of later Times have attached other Meanings to Numbers - - - - - 198 Manifestation of the Deity on Earth borrowed from early Revelation. Other Traditions, as of the Deluge, Ark, Sec. Altered by Speculations of later Times - - 200 Much corrupted by the Greeks and Romans; bringing Discredit on the Egyptians. The Religion at Alexandria much degraded from that of the Ancient Egyptians - 201 Errors of the Greeks respecting Egypt. The Pallacides of Amun - - - - - - 203 Little Dependence to be placed on the Theogony of Greece as illustrative of that of Egypt. Some Traces of their Connection discernible. Mistake respecting the Principles of the Egyptian Religion. Greek Fables, of various Kinds - 205 Rule of Egyptian Gods on Earth, explained to be that of the Hierarchy . _ _ . . 206 The early Portion of History fabulous. Old Tales still believed to a late Time, though no one would credit them if not sanctioned by Antiquity _ - - - 207 Greek Religion founded on popular Legends, with an Ad- dition of Metaphysical Speculation in after Times. Incon- sistency in the History of some Deities. Foreign Notions altered. Mythological Tales in the Religion of Greece 208 Historical Fable not Part of Egyptian Belief. Ground- work of their Religion. Sun and Moon - - 209 Sun, Chief of Heavenly Bodies. A Physical and Meta- physical Deity. Allegorical Portion of the Religion. Moral Emblems ..... 210 XVI CONTENTS. Page The Religion in early Times more simple. Sabaean Wor- ship. Belief in Future State, when introduced - 211 The Religion the same in the Time of the Erection of the oldest Monuments. Changes in the Number of the Gods, and in the Accessories of the Religion, but not in the Religion itself. The Alteration of the Name of Amun, and the Worship of the Sun at Tel-el- Amarna, not Changes in the Religion - - - - 212 Opinions of the Greeks on the Theogony of Egypt - 213 Erroneous Notion of the Planets and Stars being the real Gods of the Egyptians. Porphyry's Description of « Kneph" - - - - - - 214 Some correct Notions to be gleaned from Plato and others. Hermetic Books. Cosmogony of Egypt from lamblichus 215 Another Division, Emeph (Kneph), and the One before all 216 Sun and Moon. Heavens divided into certain Parts. The One - - - - - - 217 Principle of all Things, God and Intellect, Nature, Matter, Energy, Fate, Conclusion and Renovatio?i. Cheraemon relates only the lowest Principles. Almanacs - - 218 Doctrines of Plato - - - - - 219 Opinions of the Egyptians according to Plato. The Great Year. Deluge ; several Deluges. Atlantic Island - 221 Daemons employed in the Creation. Middle Order of Beings subject to Punishment _ . _ . 222 Pythagorean Doctrines, Idea or Form, Matter, and the World. Matter the Receptacle of Form; Mother - 223 Idea, Matter, and God, existed before the World - 224 The Monad preceded the Triad or Trinity of the Creative Power, according to lamblichus. The different- Characters of the Deity. The Sun and Moon. Other Rulers of Heaven - - - - - - 225 The Chaotic Egg, Masculo-feminine Being. Distortions of the new Platonists . - _ . 226 Authority of Plato and Pythagoras. Herodotus. The Eight Great Gods - . . . . 227 Re, Physical and Intellectual Sun. Offspring of Re. Grades of Deities - - - - - - 228 CONTENTS. XVll Page- Roman Gods. Children of Seb and Netpe. Manetho's Dynasties of Gods . . . „ 229 Names of Egyptian Gods. Neptune and the Dioscuri. Error respecting Pan and Diana - - - 230 Triads of Egyptian Towns - - - - 231 Funereal Triad. Stone with a Triad. Bait - - 232 Great Triads, King introduced in some of them - 233 CHAP. XIII. Egyptian Pantheon. Eight Great Gods. Neph, Nef the Spirit of the Deity . _ . .. 235 Idea handed down from the Sons of Ham - - 236 Division of the Attributes of the Deity. Form of Neph. Error respecting Amun _ . . . 237 Cneph, or Cnuphis, of Elephantine. Jupiter of Ethiopia. A Theban Deity ... . . 238 Asp of Neph and Ranno. Asp, Emblem of Dominion - 2S9 Asp opposed to the Vulture. The Uraeus Asp. De- scription of" Kneph," by Porphyry _ - . 24-0 Form and Colour of Neph. Worshipped in Ethiopia. Sheep sacred to Neph - - - - - 241 Large Flocks of Sheep in the Thebaid. Neph at Esneli. A Ram's Head given to the God - - 242 The Ram and Goat in Hieroglyphics. Amun-re - 243 Alteration in the Name of Amun ... 244 Gods assumed each other's Attributes - . 24.5 Rank of Osiris. Great Triad of Thebes. Amun of a blue Colour. Error respecting Amun and Anubis. Jupiter. Union of Amun and Re. Amun-re and Atin-re - 24G Amun-re and Amunre-Generator. Tv/o Theban Triads. Meaning of the word Amun - - . 247 Horned Snake. Meaning of Amun, Maut, and Khonso, Oracle of Thebes - - , . 248 Oracle of the Oasis. Pthah, the Creator . - 249 Accompanied by Truth. The Beetle belonged to him - 2.50 Other Characters of Pthah, The Greek Vulcan - 251 Name Hephaestus. Form of Pthah - - - 252 VOL. 1. — Second Series. n XVlll CONTENTS. Page Emblem of Stability. Pthah Toses. Pthah-Sokari- OsiRis, the God of Memphis - - - 253 Boat of Sokari. The Hearse of Osiris. Deformed Figure of this God - - - - - 255 Called also Sokari-Osiris. Pthah Tore, with a Scarabaeus on his Head. Frog-headed God, probably a Form of Pthah. - - ... - 256 Frog-headed Goddess. Khem. Pan, God of Pano- polis - - - - - - 257 Priapus. Hermes Statues . _ . - 258 Name of Egypt. Represented by a Tree. Egypt called Khemi - - - - - - 259 The Fig Tree. Error of Herodotus respecting Pan - 260 Mendes. Ham. Ham and Mizraim Egypt - - 261 Progeny of Ham and of Cush. Ethiopia - - 262 Memnon. Chemi black. Pan of Thebes - - 263 Khemj the Generative Power, a very ancient God - 264 Thriphis. Inscription at Athribis _ - _ 265 Sate, Juno. Greatly worshipped at the Cataracts - 266 The Heaven considered Masculine by the Egyptians. Errors of the Greeks from accidental Analogies in the History of the Gods of Egypt. Many Forms given to Juno - - - - - - 268 Human Sacrifices to Juno. The Great Goddesses of Egypt - - - - - - 269 Amenti and the West. The East the Beginning of the World - - - - - - 270 Ma UT, Nature? Buto. Oracle of Buto - - 271 Temple of Latona at Buto. Floating Island - - 272 Not certain that Maut and Buto were the same. Thriphis. The Mygale. Primeval Night ... 273 Night older than Day. Darkness. Night the Origin of all Things. Not the same as Evening - - 274- Custom of clothing Mysteries in the Guise of popular Tales - - - - - - 275 Dress of Maut. Hieroglyphical Name of Buto, or of Bu- bastis - - - - - - 276 Pasht, Bubastis, Diana. City of Bubastis. The Temple there - - . - - - - 277 CONTENTS. XIX Page Bubastis had the Head of a Lioness, or of a Cat. The Speos Artemidos. Bronzes - - - 278 Festival of Bubastis. Women striking Crotala. -270 Error respecting Bubastis or Diana. Not related to Isis. Story in Ovid of Diana and the Cat - - 280 Error of Juvenal. Different Characters of the Greek Diana. Cicero's Remark on the Uncertainty respecting the Gods - - ... 281 The Name of Hecate applied also to Pasht. The Moon a Male Deity. Neith, Minerva. Called Onka. Wor- shipped at Sais .... - 282 The Word Sais not the Olive. Town of Sais or Ssa - 283 The Olive not believed by the Egyptians to be given by Minerva. Athena. Name of Neith in Hieroglyphics - 284 It is confounded with another. Form of Neith. Armed as was Minerva. _ . . _ . 285 Supposed to be Air. Gods of the Second and other Orders _ . . . . . 286 Re the Sun, Phre, Phrah, Pharaoh - - - 287 The Sun, the Chief of Heavenly Bodies ; as the King, the Chief of all on Earth - - - - -288 Re in the Names of Kings. Early Worship of Heavenly Bodies probable . - . „ _ 289 Diodorus supposed Isis and Osiris to be the Moon and Sun. Macrobius calls Osiris the Sun, and Isis Earth, or Nature .-.._. 290 Early Sabaean Worship. Importance of Re - . 291 A Star connected with the Idea of Prayer. The principal Deities of Egypt not Physical Objects - . 292 Planets dedicated to, and called after, certain Deities - 293 Study of Astronomy unconnected with the Worship of Heavenly Bodies. Obelisks supposed to be always de- dicated to the Sun _ - . . ^ 294 Form of Re. Hawk and Scarabaeus Emblems of the Sun 295 Re of a Red Colour. Atin-re - - . 296 Lions Solar Animals. Sun and Horus. Atin-re - 297 Grottoes of Tel-el- Amarna. Emanations of Re. Characters of the Sun separated - - - _ . 298 a 2 XX CONTENTS. Page Baal. Several Deities made of the Sun - - - 299 Heliopolis. On. Wine not used by the Priests of the Sun 300 Potipherah, a Priest of On, or Heliopolis ; his Name in Hie- roglyphics answering to Heliodotus - - - 301 The Learning of the Priests of Heliopolis. Greeks studied there. The Colleges and Learning transferred to Alex- andria; with its Objlisks . _ - - 302 The Phoenix. Story of its Death - - -303 Represented in the Sculptures. Emblem of a Traveller - 304 Phcenix and Star, in Attitude of Prayer. Name of Phoe- nix. [Vide infra, voLii. p. 228.) Rising from its Ashes 305 Periodical Return of the Phcenix, probably the Sothic Period 307 See, Saturn, or Chronos. Differed from the Saturn of Greece, whose Temple was not admitted within an Egyp- tian City - - - - - - 308 Early Offerings. Lawful in Egypt to sacrifice Animals - 309 Children of Seb and Netpe. The Five Days of the Epact - 310 The Goose the Emblem of Seb, who was called the Father of the Gods. Netpe, or Rhea, his Wife, the Mother of Osiris and Isis - - - - - 312 The Sycamore Fig Tree sacred to her - - - 313 Netpe bears some Analogy to Lucina. O.siRis, Judge of the Dead - - - - - - 314- Souls of Men Emanations of the Divine Soul, Metempsy- chosis - - - - - -316 Numerous Characters of Osiris and Isis. Manifestation of the Deity under a Human Form. Osiris not a Human Being deified - - - - - -317 Doctrine of Emanations. The Origin of Animal W^orship supposed to be the Portion of the Divine Essence each possessed - - - - - -318 Osiris, Manifester of Good. Onuphis, or Ouon-nofre, called also " President of the West/' &c. - - - 320 Other Titles. Supposed Figure of Osiris in the British Museum - - - - - - 321 Name of Osiris applied to Men and Women after Death. Osiris, why called a God of the Third Order - - 322 (jods imparted Knowledge of various Kinds to Men. Osiris CONTENTS. XXI Pag. identified with Bacchus, and Pluto. In this Character spoken of with great reserve - - - - 324 Also identified with other Deities ... 325 The Names of Minos and Rhadamanthus have an Egyptian Character. Existence of Osiris on Earth an Allegory - 326 Mysteries of Osiris unknown. Origin of those of Eleusis. Ceremonies on the Lake of Sais. Herodotus scrupulous in mentioning them . - . _ . 327 The Thesmophoria brought from Egypt. Sepulchre of Osiris at Sais. Fete of Lamps. Fete of Busiris. Burial- places of Osiris . _ . . . 328 The allegorical Tales of Osiris, and his fabulous History. Compared to the Nile ; Isis, the Land of Egypt ; and Ty- pho, the Sea. Story of the Life of Osiris - - 329 Typho's Conspiracy. The Chest in which Osiris was car- ried away _.__-- 330 The 17th Day of Athyr. His Age Twent^'-eight Years. Pans and Satyrs. Koptos (Coptos). Nephthys, and the Melilot Garland (^vide iiifra. Vol. IL p. 266., note). Anubis - - - - 331 The Chest carried to Byblos. The Tamarisk Tree. Found by Typho. The scattered Members of Osiris. Many Sepulchres .-_--. 332 The Three Fish. Battle between Horus and Typho. Har- pocrates. Osiris the Inundation, Isis the Land, and Horus their Son, born from these two - - 333 Other Explanations of this Story - - - 334 The Details of the Story explained summarily - - 336 An Allegory, and not a real Event. The early Notion of a God who lived on Earth, and was the King and Father of Mankind - - - - - - 339 Colour of Osiris. The Leopard Skin answering to the iVeJm of Bacchus. Emblem of Stability; not a Nilo- meter ------- 341 Osiris in White Dress. Isis in many-coloured Robes, Osiris as Sokari. ( Vide also a form of Osiris, infra, Vol.11, p. 477., note on last page but six.) Phallic Cere- monies. Paamylia - - - 342 a S XXll CONTENTS. Pagi,- Puppets now used in Egypt. Name of Osiris in an Oval. Triad. Osiris and Isis admitted into every Temple - S't't Sepulchre of Osiris at Philae. His Temple at Abydus. Persons buried there from distant Towns. Apis at Memphis -....- 346 Names of Memphis, Busiris, and Taposiris. Apis the Bull of Memphis ; an Image of the SouVof Osiris - - 347 Apis, or Epaphus, known by certain Marks. His Colour. How produced . . _ _ _ 34.8 All clean Oxen belonged to Apis. Hapi his Egyptian Name. Kept at Memphis. Considered a God - - 350 Death of Apis. Said to be sometimes put to death - 352 Rites of Bacchus supposed to be very similar to the Cere- monies at his Funeral. Whence this Idea. Funeral of Apis ; its Expense _ - _ . - 353 Public Lamentation. Re-appearance of the Deity. Anew Apis sought, and discovered by certain Marks - - 354 Children inspired by him. Anger of Cambyses. Favour- able or unfavourable Omens derived from the Actions of Apis ------- 356 Crocodiles awed by Apis. His Two Stables. Care taken of him. Nile Water not given him, to prevent his be- coming fat ----- - 358 A Bull with Globe and Feathers. A black Bull on the Coffins a Representation of Apis. ( Vide infra, Vol. II. p. 315.) - - - - 359 A White Bull. Sarapis. His Worship, when introduced into Egypt -..-... 360 The Name of Sarapis the Union of Osiris and Apis ; the Sarapis of old Time being no other than Osiris - 364 Sarapis not really an Egyptian Deity, but attached by the Greeks to the Pantheon of Egypt. Isis confounded with other Deities . _ . - 366 Thermuthis. The Asp. Names of Isis - - - 367 The Nuptial Diagram of Plato. Anubis and Hecate - 369 Isis-Sothis. The Dog-Star. Legends of Osiris and Isis - 371 The Two Egyptian Years; the Sothic Period of 1460 Years - - 372 CONTENTS. XXlll Page The Egyptians had the Solar and Sidereal, or Sothic Year - 374 The Quarter Day, or Intercalary Day every Four Years, of Egyptian Origin, The Heliacal Rising of Sothis an im- portant Time in Egypt .... 376 The Twelve Months at the Memnonium. Isis-Sothis. Isis the greatest of Goddesses, in her mysterious Character - 378 Fete of Isis at Busiris. The Votaries beat themselves. The Carians cut themselves, showing they were not Egyptians. Heifers not allowed to be sacrificed in Egypt, being sa- cred to Isis _---.- 380 Abhorrence felt for the Greeks. Bulls and Heifers, how buried. Atarbechis the City of Venus. Connection of Isis and Athor ..... 38I Forms and Titles of Isis. Nursing the Infant Horus - 384 Married her Brother Osiris. This Custom in Egypt. Great Temple of Isis at Philae. Coptos. Festivals of Isis - 385 An Address to Isis. Athor - - _ _ 386 Her Name. Her Title in a Papyrus. Represented under the Form of a Cow. Comes from the Mountain^ perhaps as the Morning Star, Name of Fathyris a Part of Thebes - - - - - - 387 Athor answered to Night; not the original Night, or primeval Darkness. Notion of Jablonski on the Two Nights. The Cow Ehe, lo - - - - - 388 The Month Athor. Death of Osiris. Worshipped at Aboosimbel or Aboshek. Cow of Momemphis - 389 Aphroditopolis, Chusae, Atarbechis, Tentyris - - 390 Her Dress. President of the West. The Persea Tree sa- cred to her. Persea and Peach confounded - - 391 Patroness of Dress. Worship of the Cow, and the Indian Sepoys. No Argument to be drawn from their Respect to its Figure in Egypt. Reason of the Worship of the Cow, or Bull - - . . . 393 Horus, the Son of Isis and Osiris. Identified with Apollo. Slew the Serpent, corresponding to the Pytho of the Greeks and the Caliya of the Hindoos - - 395 The Aphophis of Plutarch. The War of the Gods and Giants. The Hawk of Horus. Aroeris, or the Elder a 4 XXIV CONTENTS. Page Horus, supposed to be Apollo^ and therefore usurping the Character of the younger Horus - - - 396 Other Deities claim the same Character ; and the Two Horuses are confounded. Peculiar Title of the younger Horus " the Defender of his Father Osiris " - - 398 Horus the Type of Majesty. The Steersman of the Sacred Boats - - - - - - - 399 Notions respecting Horus, his Colour and allegorical Cha- racter - - _ - - - 400 Mistaken for Priapus. Duties of Horus. The Hawk on Tablets and INIummy Cases of Horus - - 401 Horus and Ares. Horus was Apollo. Warlike Weapons given to several Deities. The HorcE - - 402 Horus and Ouro. Pharaoh or Phrah the Sun. Re and Horus both the Types of Majesty. Aroeris, the elder Horus, and Brother of Osiris. ( Vide infra, xxvi., the name of Aroeris) - ... 403 Aroeris, perhaps the Light or Splendour of the Sun. Har- pocRATES, the Infant Horus. Born of Isis after her Hus- band's Death. Fable of his being the tender Shoots of Pulse - - - - - - 405 Supposed to indicate Silence. The First Fruits of Lentils offered to him. The Peach Tree. Form of Harpocrates an Infant . _ . . . 406 Other Infant Deities. Wears the Emblem of Truth. May represent Youth in general. Resuscitation or New Birth. Dissolution the Cause of Reproduction - - 407 Triad of Isis, Nephthys, and Harpocrates. Harpocrates seated on a Throne supported by Lions. Called Horus - 408 Notion of his being the God of Silence erroneous. His Finger to his iNIouth does not indicate this. Ehoou, the Day ; hi Form similar to Harpocrates - - 409 Athor his Mother. The Rising Sun. The Deity Ehuou may be the Day or Morning, answering to Aurora, dis- tinct fi-om Venus or the Morning Star - - 410 Ehoou and Eos. The Lotus a Nymphaea ; and not the Ne- lumbo, as in India - - - - - 411 Hor-Hat or Agathodaemon. His Offices - - 412 CONTENTS. XXV Page His Form. The Good Genius, distinct from Ilanno. The winged Globe - - - - - 413 The God of Apollinopolis Magna. Ombte, Ablaut, or Ombo, the Evil Being. His Duties - - 414' His Name, related to Tithrambo. He was a Son of Netpe, and one of the Family of Seb in the Place assigned to Typho __..-» 415 His peculiar Head of a fabulous Animal*, not of an Ass. Confusion of the Greeks respecting the Name of Typho 417 Two Deities who answered to Typho. The Figure of Ombte always erased. Sacrifices offered to him though the Evil Being ..... 419 His Resemblance to Antaeus - - - - 420 The Good and Bad Principles - - . 422 Period when the Erasure of his Name and Figure took place. This Aversion, whence derived - - - 424 Distinction between the positively Good and the positively Bad --.-.. 426 Birthday of Typho inauspicious. Evil Being propitiated. Conclusion respecting the Erasure - - - 427 Supposed to be Joseph. Typho Gestation ? not the Son of Seb, but a Female Deity - - . _ 428 Her Name appears to read Typho, which has probably, by mistake, been given to Ombte by the Greeks. Her Form. Worshipped. Her Character and Office - - 429 Has even the Name Isis over her. Hippopotamus and Cro- codile the Emblems of Typho. Typho and Mars - 430 Buildings called Typhonia. Mammeisi, where the Third Member of theTriad was born. Death ? in a bad Sense 431 Character of this Deity. Where represented - - 432 Resemblance to Hercules. Connection of Death and In- fancy, or Horus. These Two sometimes united under one Form. An allegorical and mythological Subject - 433 Perhaps the same as Besa. Invocation of " Typhon Seth." Opinion of Professor Reuvens _ . „ 434 * Tlie two heads, oi the hawk and this animal, given to one (igure (in Plate 38. \ may allude to the fact of Aroeris and Typho (or ()nil)te) being twins. XXVI CONTENTS. Page Aphophts^ the Serpent. The Name signifies a Giant. The Fable of Pytho, and of the Giants _ . _ 435 Horus destroying the Serpent Aphophis. A Snake pursued Thueris. Nephthys supposed to have been the Wife of Typho - - - - - - 4.36 Opposed to her Sister Isis as the End, not in a bad Sense. Two Triads of Amenti. Her Character in the fabulous History of Osiris. Employed like Isis about the Dead. Her Name how composed _ . - - 437 Her Office and Resemblance to other Deities - - 438 The Termination of Lifenot Annihilation. She was distinct from Death. Perhaps she was the End of the Year, op- posed to Isis as the Beginning ... 439 Anubis, the Son of Osiris and Isis. Error of the Greeks in giving him the Head of a Dog ... 440 Explanation of his Character by Plutarch. Hecate. Time. Office of Anubis - - - - - 441 Corresponded to Mercurius Psychopompos. Represented with a Corpse. The Soul and the Symbol of Transmi- gration. Answered to Death in a good Sense - - 442 Whence thought to signify Time. Thoth and Anubis, their separate Offices. Story of Anubis accompanying Osiris in his Expedition. Anubis and Mace do Sons of Osiris - 443 Macedo. His Form uncertain - - - 444 No. 456. a. The name of Aroeris, Hor-Oeri. Philie. The word om' signifies "beautiful," "precious," "fine," &-c. ; and is applied to women, valuable gifts, and monuments. It readily calls to mind the Greek word *{«(«;, which is of similar import. LIST AND EXPLANATION WOODCUTS AND VIGNETTES. Device on the Cover of the Book, . . . the Ark of Neph. — The rams' heads are emblematic of that God ; the sphinx of the king. The centre of the upper part is intended to repre- sent a transverse section of the Great Hall of Assembly. (The Hall of the Assemblies or Panegyrics, infra, Vol.11, p. 288., and PI. 54., are in like manner sections of the cen- tral and lateral colonnades.) The column on the left is the centre avenue; that on the right is the side colonnade of lower columns, with its attic above, in which were windows, as at Karnak, the Memnonium, &c. The inner lines repre- sent the section of the Sekos or sanctuary, in which are the holy emblems, with the veil partially drawn aside. This stands in a boat ; and the whole having been borne by the priests hy means of the staves at the side of the sledge, is placed on a table. Vide infra, Vol. H. p. 271. 275. CHAP. XI. Page 1. Vignette K. Machine used as a harrow after the land is ploughed. — Heliopolis. 1 4'. Woodcut, No. 420. The twelve Egyptian months. 32. (not numbered) The two cubits (in note). 38. No. 421 . Goats treading in the seed when sown in the mud, after the retiring of the waters. 40. No. 422. Ploughing and hoeing. 42. No. 423. Yoke of an ancient plough. XXVlll EXPLANATION OF WOODCUTS, ETC. Page 44-. Woodcut, No. 424. Hoes. 46. No. 425. Hoeing, sowing, and felling trees. 47. No. 426. Ploughing, sowing, and reaping. 78. No. 427. Plants from the sculptures. 86. No. 428. Harvest scene. 87. No. 429. The tritura, with oxen. 88. No. 430. Song of the threshers to the oxen. 89. No. 431. Harvest scene. 90. No. 432. Tritura, and winnowing. 93. No. 433. Wheat bound in sheaves. 94. No. 434. Oxen sometimes driven round the heap, to tread out the grain. 98. No. 435. Gathering the doora, and wheat. 99. No. 436. Stripping off the grain of the doora. 102. No. 437. Cattle rescued from a sudden inundation. 126. No. 438. A deformed ox-herd. 128. No. 439. Giving an account of the cattle on the estate. 129. No. 440. Herdsman giving an account of the cattle. 130. No. 441. Cattle, goats, asses, and sheep, with their numbers over them. 132. No. 442. Geese brought and numbered. 135. No. 443. Modern ovens for hatching eggs. 139. No. 444. Herdsmen and poulterers treating sick animals. 140. No. 439. (repeated.) CHAP. XII. 141. Vignette L. The two colossi of Thebes before the temple built by Amunoph III., with the ruins of Luxor in the distance, during the inundation. 232. Woodcut, No. 445. Stone representing a triad. CHAP. XIII. 235. Vignette M. Pavilion of Remeses III. 253. Woodcut, No. 446. Pthah under the form of Stability. 276. No. 147. A name probably of Buto, or of Bubastis. EXPLANATION OF WOODCUTS, ETC. XXIX P^ # ^ /vW^A LLI III ic /wvv\ IiLJ I id /VWA llllj AVvW Name. J Coptic > Name. 3 Atlior. Ilatoor. 28 Oct. Paopi. Babeh. 29 Sept. Thoth. Toot, began 29 Aug. O.S. Season of t/ic Water Plants. nil ^ AVvVv II Kgyp. I Pharmuthi. Name._ Se'i Baramoodeh. 27 March. Phamenoth. Baramliat. Mechir. Imshcer. 2G .Tilly. Toobrh. 27 Dec. Season of Ploughing. (;$$^ /ww\ ^ «;^ /ww\ '^ II )J( /ww\ A^^v^A I^gJ'P- \ Mesore. Name. J Coptic 7 Name. 3 2.-. Julv. Epep. Ebib. 2.5 June. Baooneh . 2G May. Pachons. Beshens. 26 April. Season of the Waters. CHAP. XI. INTERCALATION. 1.5 where 1 have introdaced the modern names given them by the Copts, who still use them in preference to the lunar months of the Arabs; and, indeed, the Arabs themselves are frequently guided by the Coptic months in matters relating to agriculture, particularly in Upper Egypt. A people who gave any attention to subjects so important to their agricultural pursuits, could not long remain ignorant of the deficiency which even the intercalation of the five days left in the adjustment of tlie calendar ; and though it required a period of 1460 years for the seasons to recede through all the twelve months, and to prove by the deficiency of a whole year the imperfection of this system, yet it would be obvious to them, in the lapse of a very few years, that a perceptible alter- ation had taken place in the relative position of the seasons ; and the most careless observation would show, that in 120 years, having lost a whole month, or thirty days, the rise of the Nile, the time of sowing and reaping, and all the periodical occupa- tions of the peasant, no longer coincided with the same month. They therefore added a quarter day to remedy this defect, by making every fourth year to consist of 366 days; which, though still subject to a slight error, was a sufficiently accurate ap- proximation ; and, indeed, some modern astrono- mers are of opinion, that instead of exceeding the solar year, the length of the sidereal, computed from one heliacal rising of the Dog-star to another, accorded exactly in that latitude (in consequence of a certain concurrence in the positions of the 16 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XI. heavenly bodies) with the calculation of the Egyptians.* " This sidereal or Sothic year," says Censorinus, "the Greeks term *kvvixov,' the Latins ' canicularem/ because its commencement is taken from the rising of the Dog-star on the first day of the month called by the Egyptians Thoth t ; '* which, while it accords with the observations of Porphyry, that "the first day of the month is fixed in Egypt by the rising of Sothis," fully confutes the opinion of those who suppose that the name Thoth was applied to the first day alone, and not to the month itself. That the five days, called of the Epact, were added at a most remote period, may readily be credited; and so convinced were the Egyptians of this, that they referred it to the fabulous times of their history, wrapping it up in the guise of allegory ; and it is highly probable that the in- tercalation of the quarter day, or one day in four years, was also of very early date. On this subject, much controversy has been expended, without, as usual on such occasions, arriving at any satisfactory result ; many doubting that it was known to them before the late time of the Roman conquest, some confining it to the period of the Persian conquest, and others assign- ing to it the year 1322 before our era, which was the beginning of a Sothic period, when the solar year of 365 days coincided with the Sothic * Mure's " Calendar and Zodiac of Ancient Egypt," p. 8. f Censorin. de Die Nat. c. 13. Porphyry and Solinus say the Egyp- tians considered tliis period to commence at the beginning of the world. CHAP. XI. TFIE QUARTER DAY. 17 of 365^ days, or which, in other words, in- tercalated an additional day every fourth year. For the Egyptians, finding by observation that 1460 Sothic were equal to 14(il solar years, the seasons having in that time passed through every part of the year, and returned again to the same point, established this as a standard for adjusting their calendar, under the name of the Sothic period ; and though for ordinary purposes, as the dates of their Kings and other events, they con- tinued to use the solar or vague year of 365 days, every calculation could thus be corrected, by com- paring the time of this last with that of the Sothic or sidereal year. The sacred was the same as the solar or vague year ; and an ancient author, cited by Jablonski*, asserts that the Egyptian Kings took an oath in the adytum that they would not intercalate any month or day, but that the sacred year of 365 days should remain as instituted in an- cient times. If this be true, it argues that interca- lation of the additional day was coeval with the era of the Pharaohs, since the prohibition could only have been directed against this innovation. But without pretending to give a decided opinion re- specting the period of its first introduction, I may observe, that the positive testimony of Diodorust shows it to have been in use before the Roman con- quest, that historian having lived, and, as he says, ** visited Egypt, under Ptolemy Neus Dionysus"! ; * Jablonski, Panth. Egypt, lib. iv. c. 2. p. 210. f Diodor. i. 50. % Dioclor. i. 44. VOL. I. — Second Series. C 18 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XI. and the ignorance of Herodotus on the subject, who speaks * of the Egyptian year of 365 days having the effect of keeping the seasons in their proper places, is readily accounted for by the fact of the Egyptians only using this solar year for their ordinary calculations, the knowledge of the sidereal one being confined to the priests. For it is more reasonable to suppose the father of history to be mistaken in this, as he is on so many points relating to Egypt, than that so important a disco- very, which had escaped them whilst their astro- nomical skill was at its zenith, during the flourish- ing period of the Pharaohs, should be made at a time when "the wisdom" of Egypt had already declined, and, above all, during the confusion consequent upon the occupation of the country by the Persians. Nor does the circumstance of the Hebrews neglecting to adopt the Sothic year argue that it was introduced subsequently to the Exodus and the age of Moses : the Arabs, who conquered Egypt long after its universal adoption, persisted and still persist in the use of their imperfect lunar months ; as some Euro- peans are indifferent to the introduction of the Gregorian calendar ; but both these are not the less known, because unadopted, and no argument can fairly be derived from similar omissions. I do not, however, assert that the Sothic year was invented before the time of Moses, and it will, pro- bably, long remain uncertain when the Egyptians first introduced so important an innovation. * Herodot. ii. 4. CHAP. xr. MANUFACTURES. 19 The examination of the astronomical subjects in the tombs of the Kings and on other monu- ments may, perliaps some day tend to decide this question, when the complete interpretation of hieroglyphics does away with the necessity of conjecture ; in the mean time, I feel less regret in abstaining from the mention of many arguments which might be adduced to maintain the antiquity of the intercalation of the quarter day, as the learned M. Letronne has already prepared an elaborate essay on the subject, and is supported in his opinion by the authority of a Greek papyrus in the collection of the Louvre. And whilst men- tioning this, I must not omit my tribute of praise to another excellent work, in which this question is treated with great candour and learnuig; many valuable remarks being embodied in Mr. Mure's " Calendar and Zodiac of Ancient Egypt." I have also introduced some remarks on the adoption of the Sothic year, in another part of this work, extracted from a previous publication in the year 1828.* The pursuits of agriculture did not prevent the Egyptians from arriving at a remarkable pre-emi- nence as a manufacturing nation ; nor did they tend to discourage the skill of the grazier and the shepherd ; though the office of these last was looked down upon with contempt, and the occupa- tion of persons engaged in manufactures and all handicraft employments was, to the soldier at least, * Vide infra, Chap, xiii., on the Goddess Isis. c 2 20 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XI. ignoble and inimanly.* Large flocks and herds always formed part of the possessions of wealthy individuals ; the breed of horses was a principal care of the grazier, and besides those required for the army and private use, many were sold to fo- reign traders who visited the country t ; and the rearing of so many sheep in the Thebaid, where mutton was unlawful foodl^, proves the object to have been to supply the wool-market with good fleeces, two of which, owing to the attention they paid to its food, were annually supplied by each animal. That the Egyptians should successfully unite the advantages of an agricultural and a manufacturing country is not surprising, when we consider that in those early times the competition of other ma- nufacturing countries did not interfere with their market ; and though Tyre and Sidon excelled in fine linen and other productions of the loom, many branches of industry brought exclusive advantages to the Egyptian workman. Even in the flourish- ing days of the Phoenicians, Egypt exported linen to other countries, and she probably enjoyed at all times an entire monopoly in this, and every article she manufactured, with the caravans of the interior of Africa. Now, indeed, the case is widely different. The population of Egypt is so reduced as not to * Vide supra. Vol. I. p. 286. + 1 Kings, X. 28, 29. J Strabo says sheep were only sacrificed in the Nitriotic nome, lib. xvii. p. o52. CHAP. XT. MANUFACTURES. 21 suffice for the culture of the lands ; an over-grown miHtary force has drained the country of able-bo- died men, who ought to be employed in promoting the wealth of the community, by increasing the produce of the soil ; and a number of hands is con- tinually withdrawn from the fields to advance ma- nufactures, which, withoutbenefiting the people, are inferior (especially for exportation) to those of other countries. Add to this the great cost for machinery, which is quickly injured by the quantity of fine sand that constantly clogs the wheels and other parts, causing additional mischief from the nitre with which it is impregnated ; and it must be evi- dent that modern Egypt, with a population of not one million and a half, and with the competition of European manufacturing countries, is no longer in the same position as Egypt of the Pharaohs, with upwards of four times the population, less com- petition, greater variety of manufactures, and no comparative local disadvantages unexperienced by their rivals. 1 have attributed the early advancement of the Egyptians in land surveying, levelling, and various branches of geometry, to their great attention to the agricultural interests of the country ; and as it is reasonable to suppose the knowledge they thus acquired led to many other important discov^eries, we are not surprised to find them at a very early time well versed in numerous operations indicative of mathematical science and mechanical skill. Of these the most remarkable instances occur in the construction of those ancient and magnificent 22 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XI. monuments, the pyramids of Geezeh (where the beauty of the masonry of the interior has not been surpassed, and I may even say has not been equalled, in any succeeding age) ; in the transport and erection of enormous masses of granite ; and in the underground chambers excavated in the solid rock at Thebes and other places ; where we admire the combined skill of the architect, the surveyor, and the mason. The origin of these subterraneous works was derived from the custom of burying the bodies of the dead in places removed beyond the reach of the inundation, and not, as some have supposed, from the habit of living in caves, ascribed to the fabled Troglodyta; ; and it is a remarkable fact, that the excavated tombs and temples bear direct evi- dence of having derived their character from built monuments, in the architrave reaching from column to column, which is taken from the original beam supporting a roof, — a feature totally inconsistent with a simple excavated chamber. These feelings, derived from architecture, are carried still further ; we find them extended to statues, which are supported from behind by an obelisk, or a stela; and the figure of a king is ap- plied to a square pillar, both in built and exca- vated temples. The abundant supply of grain and other produce gave to Egypt advantages which no other country possessed. Not only was her dense population supplied with a profusion of the necessaries of life, but the sale of the surplus conferred considerable CHAP. XI. ABUNDANCE OF THE CROPS. 23 benefits on the peasant, in addition to the profits which thence accrued to the state ; for Egypt was a granary where, from the earliest times, all people felt sure of finding a plenteous store of corn*; and some idea, as I have already had occasion to observe t, may be formed of the immense quantity produced there, from the ch'cumstance of " seven plenteous years " affording, from the superabun- dance of the crops, a sufficiency of corn to supply the whole population during seven years of dearth, as well as " all countries '* which sent to Egypt *' to buy " it, when Pharaoh by the advice of Joseph t laid up the annual surplus for that pur- pose. The right of exportation, and the sale of super- fluous produce to foreigners, belonged exclusively to the government, as is distinctly shown by the sale of corn to the Israelites from the royal stores, and the collection having been made by Pharaoh only ; and it is probable that the landowners were in the habit of selling to government whatever quantity remained on hand, at the approach of each successive harvest. Indeed, their frugal mode of living enabled the peasants to dispose of nearly all the wheat and barley their lands produced, and they may frequently, as at the present day, have been contented witli bread made of tlie Doura § flour ; children, and even grown persons, according to Diodorusll, often living on roots and esculent * Gen. xii. 1 1. and xlii. 2. f Vol. I. p. 23^. X Gen. xli. 29. cl sc(i. ——' The difference in length of these AWVv two cubits was perhaps taken from the measurement at the upper side of the arm A to B, ^^.g—,, ^c ^"'^ ^^^^ under or outside from A to C, which would be a difference of about four fingers. •|- These towers were erected by Horns or Amun-men ? 9th King of the 18th Djaiasty, who reigned from 1408 to 1395 B.C., and who used stones from older monuments, bearing the oials of the King whose name occurs at Tel el Amarna (ride pi. 5. of my Materia Hierog. V. and W.), who had also erased the name of an Amunoph. CHAP. XI. A CUBIT LATELY DISCOVERED. 33 Elephantine was employed for ordinary purposes (differing from it only in '0250 decimal parts), and confirms my opinion respecting the general use of one and the same measure. This double cubit has the first division in its scale of 14 parts subdivided into halves, and the next into quarters, one of these last being equal to 1 digit. It is highly probable that the aroura, or square land measure, was divided into poles, answering to the kassoheh (reed) now used in Egypt, by which the Jedddn is measured ; and in the absence of any explanation of the ancient land measure, it may not be irrelevant to notice the mode of dividing the modern Jedddn. Till lately, it was a square of 20 keerdt (carrots), or 400 kassobeh (reeds) or rods ; and each kassobeh was divided into 24 kharooheh or kuhdeh. But various alterations have taken place in the modern land measure of Egypt ; and even supposing the ancient aroura to have been divided in a similar manner, nothing can be obtained respecting the real contents of it, be- yond what we learn from Herodotus, of its being a square of 100 cubits. There is also much uncertainty respecting the length of the stade. It is generally estimated at 600 feet or 606*87<5 ; though, from Herodotus at one time specifying "a stade of six pletlira*^'** it would seem that on ordinary occasions he uses another of a different length ; and the propor- tionate value of the measures, and of the dimen- * Herodot. ii. U9. VOL. I. — Second Series. D 34 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XI. sions of the monuments he describes hi Egypt, are far from satisfactory. Nor is the schoene accu- rately defined ; and Strabo *, on the authority of Artemidorus, states that the length of the schoene varied among the Egyptians. CULTIVATION OF THE LANDS. Of the nomes, or provinces, of Egypt I have al- ready treated t ; and have shown that the nomarchs, who were similar to *' the officers appointed over the land " by Pharaoh t, and answered to the bei/s of the present system, superintended all the agri- cultural regulations, established for the interests of the peasant, or connected with the claims of government. I do not believe that the govern- ment interfered directly with the peasant respect- ing the nature of the })roduce he cultivated, or that any of the vexations of later times existed under the Pharaohs. The peasants were natu- rally supposed to have obtained, from actual observ- ation, the most accurate knowledge on all subjects connected with husbandry ; and, as Diodorus ob- serves §, " being from their infancy brought up to agricultural pursuits, they far excelled the hus- bandmen of other countries, and had become ac- quainted with the capabilities of the land, the mode of irrigation, the exact season for sowing and reap- ing, as well as all the most useful secrets connected with the harvest, which they had derived from * Strabo, xvii. p. 553. f Vol. II. p. 72. 75. X Gen. xli. .31. ^ Dioclor. i. 72. CHAP. XI. IRRIGATION OF THE LANDS. 35 their ancestors, and had improved by their own experience." " They rent," says the same histo- rian, *' the arable land belonging to the kings, the priests, and the military class, for a small sum, and employ their whole time in the tillage of their farms;" and the labourers who cultivated land for the rich peasant, or other landed proprietors, were superintended by the steward or owner of the es- tate, who had authority over them, and the power of condemning delinquents to the bastinado ; and the paintings of the tombs frequently represent a person of consequence inspecting the tillage of the field, either seated in a chariot, walking, or leaning on his staff, accompanied by a favourite dog. * Their mode of irrigation I have already noticed.! It was the same in the field of the peasant as ir\ the garden of the villa ; and the principal difll^erence in the mode of tilling the former consisted in the use of the plough. The water of the inundation was differently ma- naged in various districts. This depended either on the relative levels of the adjacent lands, or on the crops they happened to be cultivating at the time. When a field lay fallow, or the last crop had been gathered, the water was permitted to overflow it as soon as its turn came to receive it from the nearest sluices ; or, in those parts where the levels w^ere low, and open to the ingress of the rising stream, as soon as the Nile arrived at a sufficient height ; but when the last autumn crop was in the ground, * Vol. II. p. 13G. t Vol. II. p. 1. 137. 139. D 2 36 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XI. every precaution was taken to keep the field from being inundated; and "as the water rose gradually, they were enabled," says Diodorus*, " to keep it out by means of small dams, which could be opened if required, and closed again without much trouble.'* In the sculptures of the tombs are sometimes represented canals conveying the water of the in- undation into the fields ; and the proprietor of the estate is seen, as described by Virgil t, plying in a light painted skiff or papyrus punt, and superin- tending the maintenance of the dykes, or other important matters connected with the land. Boats carry the grain to the granary, or remove the flocks from the lov»^lands ; and as the water subsides, the husbandman ploughs the soft earth with a pair of oxen, and tiie same subjects introduce the offering of firstfruits to the Gods, in acknowledgment of the benefits conferred by ** a favourable Nile." t These subjects, however, give little insight into the actual mode of laying out the canals, being rarely more than conventional pictures ; though we may infer from their general character, that the main canal was usually carried to the upper or southern side of the land, and that small branches leading from it at intervals traversed the fields in straight or curving lines, according to the nature or elevation of the soil. * Diodor. i. 3G. f Virg. Georg. iv. 289. " Adcolit effuso stagnantem flumine Niliim, Et circuin pictis vehitur sua rura phaselis." :{: This is a translation of the expression used in Egypt for a favour- ahle inundation : where they always speak of " the time of the Ni/e," or "a good Nile" — meaning the inundation. CHAP. XI. IRRIGATION OF THE LANDS. 37 As the Nile subsided, the water was retamed in the fields by proper embankments ; and the mouths of the canals being again closed, it was prevented from returning into the falling stream. By this means the irrigation of the land was prolonged considerably, and the fertilising effects of the inundation continued until the water was absorbed. And so rapidly does the ardent sun of Egypt, even at this late period of the season, — in the months of November and December, — dry the mud when once deprived of its covering of water, that no fevers are generated, and no ill- ness visits those villages which have been entirely surrounded by the inundation. For though some travellers pretend that the Nile ceases to rise to the same height as in the days of Herodotus, and assert that the villages no longer present the ap- pearance he describes *, of islands resembling the Cyclades in the ^gean Sea, it is not less certain that the great inundations have precisely the effect he mentions ; and I have seen the villages perfectly isolated, as in olden times. But this, as may be reasonably supposed, does not happen every year ; and, as in all ages of Egyptian history, the Nile sometimes rises to a great height, and at others falls short of the same limit ; and a casual observer, judging only of what he witnessed during a short stay in the country, may form too hasty an opinion, and draw conclusions which longer experience would prove to be erroneous. As soon as the canals were closed, tiie quantity of * Herodot. ii. 97. D 3 38 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XI. CHAP. XI. SOWING THE LAND. 39 fish collected in them afforded an abundant supply to the neighbouring villages ; and, as already ob- served*, the advantages arising from these fisheries were of the greatest importance both to the people and the revenue. The land being cleared of the water, and })re- senting in some places a surface of liquid mud, in others nearly dried by the sun and the strong N.W. winds (that continue at intervals to the end of au- tumn and the commencement of winter), the hus- bandman prepared the ground to receive tlie seed ; which was either done by the plough and hoe, or by more simple means, according to the nature of the soil, the quality of the produce they intended to cultivate, or the time the land had remained under water. When the levels were low, and the water had continued long upon the land, they often dis- pensed with the plough t, and probably, like their successors, broke up the ground with hoes, or simply dragged the moist mud with bushes t after the seed had been thrown npon the surface ; and then merely drove a number of cattle, asses, pigs, sheep, or goats into the field to tread in the grain. § "In no country," says Herodotus ||, '* do they gather their seed with so little labour. They are not obliged to trace deep furrows with the plough, * Vol. III. p. G.'i. -j- To this, perhaps, the 10th verse of Deut. xi. refers, where mention is made of tlie simple process of sowing the seed in Egypt " as a garden of herbs." J A sort of harrow seems to have been used as early as the time of Job (ch. xxxix. 10.). § Diodor. i. 36. Plin. xviii. 18. /'«/r woodcut, No. li^ I. II Herodot. ii. 14. n 4. 40 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XT. to break the clods, nor to partition out their fields into numerous forms, as other people do ; but when CHAP. XI. PLOUGHING. 41 the river of itself overflows the land, and the water retires again, they sow their fields, driving the pigs over them to tread in the seed; and this being done, every one patiently awaits the harvest." On other occasions they used the plough, but were contented, as Diodorus* and Columella t observe, with '* tracing slight furrows with light ploughs on the surface of the land ;" and others followed the plough with wooden hoes t to break the clods of the rich and tenacious soil. The modern Egyptians sometimes substitute for the hoe a machine §, called khonfud, ** hedgehog," which consists of a cylinder studded with projecting iron pins, to break the clods after tlie land has been ploughed ; but this is only used when great care is required in the tillage of the land : and they fre- quently dispense with the hoe; contenting them- selves, also, with the same slight furrows as their predecessors, which do not exceed the depth of a few inches, measuring from the lowest part to the summit of the ridge. This mode of ploughing was called by the Romans scarijicatio. The ancient plough was entirely of wood, and of very simple form, like that still used in Egypt. It consisted of a share, two handles, and the pole or beam ; which last was inserted into the lower * Diodor. i. 36. •f- Columella dc Re Rust. ii. 25. j Of this instrument, dedicated to the God of Gardens, I have given a remarkable instance in my Materia Hierog., Plate C, and in PI. 6. of the Pantheon, in this volume. J'idc, also, woodcuts. No. 422. and 424. § Vide the Vignette K. at the beginning of this Chapter. 42 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XI. end of the stilt, or the base of the handles, and was strengthened by a rope connecting it with the heel. It had no coulter, nor were wheels applied to any Egyptian plough : but it is probable that the point was shod with a metal sock, either of bronze or It was drawn by two oxen ; and the plough- iron. £.0 — o. ■s as: H = H man guided and drove them with a long goad, without the assistance of reins, which are used by the modern Egyptians. He was sometimes accom- CHAP. XI. THE YOKE. 43 panied by another man, who drove the animals*, while he managed the two handles of the plough ; and sometimes the whip was substituted for the more usual goad. The mode of yoking the beasts was exceedingly simple. Across the extremity of the pole, a w^ooden yoke or cross bar, about fifty-five inches or five feet in length, was fastened by a strap (the (^uyo?)S(r[xov of the Greeks), lashed backwards and forwards over a prominence (oixi^a'kov) projecting from the centre of the yoke, which corresponded to a similar peg, or knob, at the end of the pole ; and occasionally, in addition to these, was a ring passing over them, as in some Greek chariots, t At either end of the yoke was a flat or slightly concave projection, of semi-circular form, which rested on a pad placed upon the withers of the animal; and through a hole on either side of it passed a thong for suspend- ing the shoulder pieces, which formed the collar. These were two wooden bars, forked at about half their length, padded so as to protect the shoulder from friction, and connected at the low er end by a strong broad band passing under the throat. Sometimes the draught, instead of being from the shoulder, was from the head, the yoke being tied to the base of the horns tj and in religious • Vide instances of both in woodcut. No. 123. Vol. II. p. 136. -j- The parts, according to Homer, were called pi'nos, the pole; Zvyos, the yoke ; ofjKpaXov, a prominence in the centre of the yoke, corresponding with a peg or knob, torwp, at the end of the pole; to which it was con- nected by a ring, KpiKoc;, and then bound by the ^vyo^orfiov, or strap. II. Q. 268., and siqmi. Vol. I. p. 383. % Vide suprci, woodcut. No. 422. p. 40. 4,4, THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XI. ceremonies oxen frequently drew the bier, or the sacred shrine, by a rope fastened to the upper part of the horns, without either yoke or pole. * From a passage in Deuteronomy t, " Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together," it might be inferred that the custom of yoking two different animals t to the plough was common in Egypt ; but since no representation of it occurs in the sculptures, we may conclude, if it ever was done there, that it was of very rare occurrence ; and it is probable that the Hebrew lawgiver had in view a practice adopted by some of the people of Syria, whose country the Israelites were about to occupy, rather than the land of Egypt they had recently quitted. No. 424. Wooden hoes. Fig. 1. From the sculptures. Fig. 2. Found in a tomb. The name of the plough was 8>h^i § ; ploughed land appears to have been af>T, a word still traced * nrfc ?■«/;•«, the Funeral Ceremonies. f Deut. xxii. 10. % I have often .seen it clone in ltal\-. The cruelty of the custom is evident, the horn of the ox wounding its companion. ^ This being the name of the capital of the Great Oasi-s, the plough was adopted as the hieroglyphic for that city. CHAP. XI. PLOUGH AND HOE. 45 in the Arabic luirtj which has the same import ; and the Greek a/jrjxpov, and Roman (natrum, appear to indicate, like the apoypa, an Egyptian origin. The hoe was of wood, and in form not unlike our letter A, with one limb shorter than the other, and curving inwards : the longer limb, or handle, being of uniform thickness, round, and smooth ; and the lower extremity of the other, or the blade, being of increased breadth, and either terminated by a sharp point, or rounded at the end. The blade was fre- quently inserted into the handle *, and they were bound together, about the centre, with a twisted rope. They are frequently represented in the sculptures ; and several, which have been found in the tombs of Thebes, are preserved in the museums of Europe, t The figure of the hoe in hieroglyphics is well known : its alphabetic force is an M, though the name of this instrument was in Egyptian, as in Arabic, Tore. It forms the commencement of the word Mai., *' beloved^'' and enters into numerous other combinations. I hav^e found no instance of hoes with metal blades; nor is there evidence of the ploughshare having been sheathed with metal ; though, as I have already observed, probability suggests that on some occa- sions the Egyptians may have adopted this simple improvement in their implements of husbandry. The axe had a metal blade, either bronze or iron ; and the peasants are sometimes represented * Vklc woodcut, No. 424. f Vide supra. Vol. III. p. 248. 46 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XI. felling trees with this implement ; while others are employed in hoeing the field preparatory to its N'o. 425. Hoeing and sowing the land, and felling trees." Thebes. being sown, — confirming what I before observed, that the ancient, as well as the modern, Egyptians frequently dispensed with the use of the plough. There has been some doubt respecting the admis- sion of swine into the fields after the inundation, and considerable criticism has been expended on the statement of Herodotus above quoted.* Some have objected, that their voracious habits were more likely to injure than to benefit the cause of the husbandman, and that many other animals might be chosen for the purpose of treading in the grain, without the fear of their destroying what they were intended to preserve : but the learned Larcher very properly suggests, that muzzling them would effectually ob^date this inconvenience, and that the historian may allude to their admission into the fields previous to the sowing of the grain, for the purpose of clearing tlie land of roots and noxious weeds, whose growth was favoured by the water of the inundation : an opinion which is strengthened by the representation of some pigs given in a previous part of tliis work, from a tomb * Supra, p. 39. CHAP. XT. CULTIVATION OF THE LANDS. 47 at Thebes *, wliere the introduction of water plants seems to indicate the use for which they were employed. Nor, indeed, considering how unclean those animals were considered by the Egyptians, — the swineherd being deemed unworthy to inter- marry with other persons t, — is it likely that they were kept for any but agricultural purposes ; and no one has a greater appearance of probability than that to which I have alluded. The heat of the climate rendered the duties of the ploughman particularly arduous, and care was taken to provide a supply of water, which was sometimes kept cool by suspending the skin that held it in a tree. At Beni Hassan, a barrel is represented placed at the extremity of the furrows, w^iich calls to mind the description given by Homer t of the ploughing scene on the shield of Achilles, where, as soon as each ploughman arrived at the end of the field, a man presented him with a cup of wine ; but, as already observed §, it seems more probable that it contained the grain intended for sowing the field after the plough had passed. Like the Romans, they usually brought the seed in a basket ||, which the sower held in his left hand, or suspended on his arm, (sometimes with a strap round his neck,) while he scattered the seed with his right ^ ; and, judging from the paintings of * Vol. in. p. .34. t Siqjra, Vol. I. p. 239. J Hoin. II. K. 541. F/V/f- woodcut, No. 422. § Vol. in. p. 182. 184. II The Roman basket of'sced contained three pecks or modii. Colum. ii. 9. % Conf. Plin. xviii. 24. 48 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XI. ^"A-Cr, .5 5 5* >> 2 •= >- n •o o CHAP. XI. CULTIVATION OF THE LANDS. 49 the tombs, the sower sometimes followed the plough, in those fields which required no previous prepara- tion by the use of the hoe, or from their elevated level were free from the roots of noxious herbs. The mode of sowing was what we term broadcast, the seed being scattered loosely over the surface, whether ploughed or allowed to remain unbroken ; and in no agricultural scene is there any evidence of drilling, or dibbling. Nor were the harrow* or rake known in Egypt ; and the use of the spade was supplied by the hoe, as it still is throughout the valley of the Nile. Corn, and those productions which did not stand in need of constant artificial irrigation, were sown in the open field, as in other countries : but for indigo, esculent vegetables, and herbs, which re- quired to be frequently watered, the fields were portioned out into square beds like our salt pans, surrounded by a raised border of earth to keep in the water, which was introduced by channels from the shadoofs or poured in with buckets t; and it is probably to tliis method of sowing the land and turning the water from one square to another, by pushing aside the mud to open one and close the next with the foot, that reference is made in a pas- sage of Deuteronomy, already noticed, t Sometimes, as we are informed by Pliny §, they used a dressing of nitrous soil, which was spread over * Vide supra, p. 39. note J . f These square beds are represented in woodcut, No. 356. Vol. II. p. L37. t Vol.11, p. 5. ^ Plin. lib. xix. c. 5. VOL. I. — Seconu Series. £ 50 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XI. the surface ; a custom continued to the present day : but this was confined to certain crops, and principally to those reared late in the year ; the fertilising pro- perties of the alluvial deposit answering all the pur- poses of the richest manure. * Its pecuhar quality is not merely indicated by its effects, but by the appearance it presents ; and so tenacious and sili- cious is its structure, that when left upon rock, and dried by the sun, it resembles pottery, from its brittleness and consistence. Its component parts, according to the analysis given by Regnault in the "Memoires sur I'Egypte*," are — 11 water. 9 carbon. 6 oxide of iron. 4 silica. 4< carbonate of magnesia. 18 carbonate of lime. 48 alumen. 100 the quantity of silica and alumen varying ac- cording to the places whence the mud is taken, which frequently contains a great admixture of sand near the banks, and a larger proportion of argil- laceous matter at a distance from the river. The same quality of soil and alluvial deposit seems to accompany the. Nile in its course from Abvssinia to the Mediterranean ; and though the * Cor>f. Plin. xviii. 18. " Niliis ibi coloni vice fungens." Macrobius attributes the use of manure to Saturn. Lib. i. c. 7. ■f Tome i. p. 351. CHAP. XI. ALLUVIAL SOIL. 5i White River is the principal stream, being much broader, bringing a larger su})})]y of water, and ]))-()- bably coming from a greater distance tlian the Bhie River, or Abyssinian branch, which rises a little beyond the lake Dembea, still this last claims the merit of possessing the real peculiarities of the Nile, and of supplying those fertilising properties which mark its course to the sea. The White River, or Avestern branch, likewise overflows its banks, but no rich mud accompanies its inundation ; and though, from the force of its stream (which brings down numbers of large fisli and shells at the com- mencement of its rise, probably from passing- through some large lakes), there is evidence of its being supplied *by an abundance of heavy rain, we may conclude that the nature of the mountains at its source differs considerably from that of the Abyssinian ranges. Besides the admixture of nitrous earth, the Egyptians made use of other kinds of dressing for certain produce ; and in those places where the vine was cultivated on alluvial soil, we may conclude they found the addition of gravel be- neficial to that valuable })lant, — a secret readily learnt from its thriving condition, and the supe- rior quality of the grape in stony soils ; and some produce was improved by a mixture of sand. Nor were they neglectful of the advantages offered by the edge of the desert for the growth of certain plants, which, being composed of clay and sand, was peculiarly adapted to such as recpiiied a liglit soil ; and the cultivation of this additional tract, E 2 52 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XI. which only stood in need of proper irrigation to become highly productive, had the advantage of in- creasing considerably the extent of the arable land of Egypt. In many places, we still find evidence of its having been tilled by the ancient inhabitants, even to the late time of the Roman empire ; and in some parts of the Fyoom, the vestiges of beds and channels for irrigation, as well as the roots of vines, are found in sites lying far above the level of the rest of the country. The occupation of the husbandman depended English Name. Botanical Name. Wheat - Triticuni sativum. (Arab. Kumh.) Barley - - - Hordeum vulgare. (Arab. SJiayeer.) Beans - - - Vicia faba. (Arab. Fool.) Peas ? - - - - Pisum arvense. (Arab. Bisilleh.) Lentils ~ - - Ervum lens. (Arab. Ads.) Vetches - - - (Hommos) Cicer arietinum. (Arab. Hommos.) Lupins - Lupinus Tennis. (Arab. Termus.) Clover Trifolium Alexandrinum. (Arab. Bersim.) Trigonella fcenum-graecum. (Arab. Helheh.) Lathyrus sativus. (Arab. Gilhdn.) A sort of French Bean - Dolichos lubia. (Arab. Loobieh.) CHAr. XI. FIRST cRors. 58 much on the produce he had determined on rearing. Those who solely cultivated corn, had little more to do than to await the time of harvest ; but many crops required constant attention, and some stood in need of frequent artificial irrigation. In order to give a general notion of the quality of the crops, and other peculiarities relating to their agriculture, I shall introduce the principal productions of Egypt in the two following tables ; of which the first presents those raised after the retirement of the inundation : — Remarks. Sown in November; reaped in beginning of April, a month later than barley; conf. Exod. ix. 32. Sown at same time ; reajDed, some in 90 days, some in the 4th month.* Sown in October or November; cut in about 4 months. Sown in the middle of November; ripen in 90 or 100 days. Sown in the middle or end of November ; ripen in 100 or 110 days. Id. Called S^H^/xoc ill Coptic, which is still retained in the modern Arabic name Ternius. Sown in beginning of October ; first crop after 60 days, second after 50 more days, third left for seed ; if a fourth crop is raised by irriga- tion, it produces no seed. The Helbeli, or Trigonella focnum-grajcum, sown in November; cut in about 2 months. Lathyrus sativus, a substitute for clover, gathered in GO days ; seed ripens in 110. Sown at same time as wheat in November, ripens in 4 niontlis. A crop raised by the Shadoof in August, gathered in about 3 months ; its beans for cooking in GO days. * PHny says in the sixth, and wheat in the seventh, mouth after sowing, xviii. "; E .3 54. THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XI. English Name. Botanical Name. Safflower - - Carthamus tinctorius. (Arab. Korfiim.) Lettuce - . i Lactuca sativa. (Arab. KJiiis.^ Flax - " Linum usitatissimum. (Arab. Kettd/i.) Coleseed - Brassica oleifera. (Arab. Selgam.) Hemp? - " Cannabis sativa. (Arab. Hasheesh.) Cummin " " Cuminum Cyminum. (Arab. Knmmoon.) Coriander - - Coriandrum sativum. (Arab. Koosbera.) Poppy - - Papaver somniferum. (Arab. Aboondm.) Water Melon, and several Cucurbita citrullus. other Cucurbitie. (Arab. Bateekh.) Cucumber, and other Cu- Cucumis sativus. cumis. Door a. Holcus Sorghum. (Arab. Doora Say fee.) All these, the ordinary productions of modern Egypt, appear to have been known to and cultivated by the ancient inhabitants : and according to Dios- corides, from the HelbeJi, or Trigonella, was made the ointment, called by Atheneeus* * Telinon.* The Carthamus tinctorius is now proved, by the discovery of its seeds in a tomb at Thebes, to have been an old Egyptian plant ; and there is reason to believe the coleseed to be an indigenous production, though it may be doubted if peas and hemp were formerly grown in the valley of the Nile. The Carthamus was not only cultivated for the * Athen. lib. v. p. 195. CHAP. XI. PRODUCTIONS OF THE WINTER. 55 Remarks. Die flowers used for dyeing: the seeds giving an oil. Sown middle of November; seeds ripen in 5 months. Cultivated for oil. Sown in middle of November; seeds rii)en in 5 months. Sown middle of November ; plucked in 110 days. Yields an oil. Sown middle of November; cut in 110 days. Sown middle of December ; cut in 4 months. Sown end of November; seeds ripen in April. The Arabic name sig- nifies father (of) sleep. Sown middle of December; cut in 90 days. Cut in 60 days. Independent of the crop raised by the Shadoof, and that during the in- undation ; sown middle of November; ripens in 5^ months. dye its flower produced, but for the oil extracted from its seeds. The ancient, as well as the modern Egyptians, also obtained oil from other plants, as the olive, simsim or sesamum, the cici or castor- berry tree, lettuce, flax, and selgam or coleseed. This last, the Brassica oleifera of Linnaeus, appears to be the Egyptian raplicuuis mentioned by Pliny *, as " celebrated for the abundance of its oil," unless he alludes to the seeuiga, or Raphanus oleifer of Linnaeus, which is now^ only grown in Nubia and the vicinity of the first cataract. The seeds of the simsim also afforded an excellent oil, and they were * Plin. xix. .3., and xv. 7. E '1. 56 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XI* probably used, as at the present day, in making a peculiar kind of cake, called by the Arabs, Koosheli, which is the name it bears when the oil has been previously extracted. * When only bruised in the mill, and still containing the oil, it is called Talieeiieh ; and the unbruised seeds are strewed upon cakes, or give their name and flavour to a coarse conserve, called Haloiceh simsemeeh. The oil of simsim (called seerig) is considered the best lamp oil of the country ; it is also used for cooking, but is reckoned inferior in flavour to that of the lettuce, t The castor-berry tree is called by Herodotus t Sillicyprion, and the oil kiki (cici), which he says is not inferior to that of the olive for lamps, though it has the disadvantage of a strong unpleasant smell. Pliny§ calls the tree c/c?", which, he adds, "grows abundantly in Egypt, and has also the names of croton, trixis, tree sesamum, and ricinus." The mode he mentions of extracting the oil by putting the seeds into water over a fire, and skimming the surface, is the manner now adopted in Egypt ; though he says the ancient Egyptians merely pressed them after sprinkling them with salt. The press, indeed, is employed for this purpose at the present day, when the oil is only wanted for lamps 1|; but by * Plin. xviii. 10. ■\- Pliny allows it was inferior to the oil of the cj-pros, since they were in the habit of " adulterating the cyprine with the sesamine oil." xiii. 1. X Herodot. ii. 94. § Plin. XV. 7. II Pliny evidently had an aversion to castor oil, in which he cannot be considered singular. He calls it " cibis foedum, lucernis utile." Conf. Strabo, xvii. p. 566. CHAP. XI. THE RICINUS AND OTHER OILS. 57 the other method it is more pure, and the coarser quaHties not being extracted, it is better suited for medicinal purposes. Strabo says, " Ahnost all the natives of Egypt used its oil for lamps, and work- men, as well as all the poorer classes, both men and women, anointed themselves with it," giving it the same name, kiki, as Pliny, which he does not confine, like Herodotus, to the oil : and of all those by wliich it was formerly known in Egypt or Greece, no one is retained by the modern Egyptians. It grows in every part of Upper and Lower Egypt ; but the oil is now little used, inconsequence of the extensive culture of the lettuce, the coleseed, the olive, the carthamus, and the simsim, which affoi'd a better quality for burning: it is, therefore, seldom employed except for the purpose of adulterating the lettuce and other oils ; and the Ricinus is rarely cultivated in any part of the country. Herodotus tells us the ancient Egyptians adopted both metliods, of pressing and boiling the seeds, which is much more probable tiian the statement of Pliny ; the choice of the two depending, as I have observed, on the quality of the oil they required. *' The cnicon, a plant unknown in Italy, according to Pliny *, was sowii in Egypt for the sake of the oil its seeds afforded ; " the chorticon, urtica, and amaracust were cultivated for the same purposed, and the cypros, "a tree resembling the ziziphus in its foliage, with seeds like the coriander, was noted in Egypt, particularly on the Canopic branch * Plin. xxi. 1.). t Plin. xxi. II. 22. J Plin. XV. 7., antl xxii. 13. 58 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XI. of the Nile, for the excellence of its oil."* Egypt was also famed for its "oil of bitter almonds t ;^' and many other vegetable productions were encouraged for the sake of their oil, for making ointments, or for medicinal purposes, t In the length of time each crop took to come to maturity, and the exact period when the seed was put into the ground, much, of course, depended on the duration of the inundation, the state of the soil, and other circumstances ; and in the two accompanying tables I have been guided by ob- servations made on the crops of modern Egypt, which, as may be supposed, differ in few or no particulars from those of former days ; the causes that influence them being permanent and un- varying. "The plants of the summer season," as I have English Name. Botanical Name. Rice 11 Door a _ _ - Orj'za sativa. (Arab. Kooz or Aroos.) Holeu-s Sorghum. (Arab. Doora Kaydee.) * Plin. xii. 24., xiii. 1., and xxiii. 4. Atheii. xv. p. 688. t Plin. xiii. 1. j: Vide S2tp>Yi,Yo\. II. p. 214., and Vol. III. p. 378. In the former place, I have mentioned some ointment preserved in a vase at Ahiwick Castle, upon which I have lately received some observations by Dr. Ure, who says, " In consistence, tliis unguent is intermediate between tallow and hog's lard. It has an orange yellow colour. Its specific gravity is 0'991 ; and this density would seem to indicate the presence of rosin. It gives a greasy stain on paper, not removable by heat. It is soluble in hot oil of turpentine and in hot alcohol, but it precipitates from the latter in the cold. From these results I am of opinion, that it is of the nature of a fixed fat, which may have been flavoured with an essence or volatile oil; but it does not belong to the class of stearopteries, like otto of rose, or the precious oriental perfumes." I may also here introduce CHAP. XT. PRODUCTIONS OF THE SUMMER. 59 elsewhere observed §, " which succeed the above mentioned, either immediately or after a short in- terval, are produced solely by artificial irrigation." "But the use of" the .shadooj' is not confined to the productions of summer ; it is required for some in spring, and frequently throughout the winter, as well as in autumn, if the inundation be deficient ;" and the same system was, of course, adopted by the ancient Egyptians. The chief productions sown the half year before, and during the inundation, are enumerated in the table eblow. Herbs and esculent roots were cultivated in great abundance by the Egyptians ; experience having taught them, that a vegetable diet was highly conducive to health in their climate ; and the sculptures, the authority of Pliny ^, the fact of Remarks. Cut in 7 nioiitlis : in October. Grown in the Delta. Sown in beginning or end of April ; cut at rise of Nile in 100 days. Its seed sown as Byood. tlie analysis which Dr. Ure has favoured me with of a bronze chisel, alluded to in Vol. III. p. 2o-2. Of 100 parts, 94"0 are copper. 5-9 tin, 0"1 iron. 100-0 ($ Topography of Thebes and (icneral View of Egypt, p. 263. II It is not certain that rice was cultivated formerly in Egypt. 1 Conf Plin. xxi. \5. " Ilerbac sponte nasccntcs, qiiibus plcneque gentium utuntur in cibis, niaximeque ^gyptus, .... tanta est ciboruni ex herbis abundantia." 60 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XI. English Name Botanical Name. Byood or autumn Doora - Holcus Sorghum. (Arab. Z>. Byood, or Dimeeree. Yellow Doora Id. (Arab. D. Saffra ) Millet Holcus saccharatus. (Arab. Dohhn.) Cotton _ - . Gossyjiium herbaceum. (Arab. KotoH.) Simsim, Sesame Sesamum orientale. (Arab, Simsim.) Indigo ... Indigofera argentea. (Arab. Neeleh.) Henneh - . . Lawsonia spinosa et inerrais. Water Melon And other Cucurbitae. (Arab. Bateekh, &c.) Onion (Leek, and Garlic) - Allium Cepa, &c. (Arab. Bussed.) Bdinia ... Hibiscus esculentus, or perhaps only the H. prtecox. four thousand persons being engaged in selling ve- getables at Alexandria when that place was taken by Amer, and the habits of the people at the pre- sent day, show how partial they always w^ere to their use. The same may be remarked of the Italians ; and it is a curious fact, that several Roman families of note received their names from the cultivation of certain pulse, t * Pliny says, "All kinds of pulse appeal* above the ground, in Egypt, on the third day." xviii. 7. f As the Lentuli, Fabii, Pisones. CHAP. XI. KNOWN PLANTS OF ANCIENT EGYPT. Gl Remarks. Sown middle of August ; cut in 4 months ; but its seed, no longer prolific, is all used for bread. Sown when the Nile is at its height, in middle of August, and banked up from the inundation: ripens in 120 days. Only in Nubia and the Oases : sown at same time as the Doora. Planted in March, and summer. In good soil, some is gathered the 5th month. Gives an oil. Ripens in about 100 days. Sown 10 days after the Doora Byood. Sown in April : the first crop in 70 days ; second in 40 ; third in 30 ; fourth in 25, in the first year: it is then left without water all the winter, and watered again in March. Then the first crop is cut after 40 days; second in 30; third in 30; and the same in the third year. After three years it is renewed from seed. The first year's crop is the best. Used for the dye of its leaves. During the rise of the Nile, and in March, on the sandbanks of the river. Sown in August. Mostly in gardens. Gathered in 50 or 60 days, in September and October. Many other vegetables were raised at diflTerent seasons, by artificial irrication.* Having, in the preceding tables, shown the seasons when the principal productions of Egypt were raised, I proceed to enumerate those which appear from good authority to have been grown by the ancient Egyptians. Wheat \ barley ', doora -, peas^?, beans ^ lentils'', Jiommos'^, gilbdn"?, cartha- " Exod. ix. 31, .32., and the seed found in the tombs. 2 The seeds found in the tombs. 3 Said to be found in the tombs. •> Herodot. ii. 37. Diodor. i.89. Plin. xviii. 12. ' Virg. Georg. i. 228. Plin. xviii. 12. " Duo genera ejus in Egypto." Plut. de Is. s. 68. Aul. Gell. xvii. 8., and in the tombs. 6 Cicer arietinum. 7 Lathyrus sativus. 62 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAF. XI. mus^ lupins^ bamia^, fis^^^^ simsim^^, indigo '% sinapis or mustard '^ origanum'^, succory ^^ flax '^ cotton '^ cassia senna'^ colocinth^^ cummin-'', co- riander-', several Cucurbitse, " cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, garlic^-," lotus-^ nelumbium-\ cy- perus esculentus'% papyrus^^ and other Cyperi-^ are proved to have been cultivated by them ; and the learned Kircher-^ mentions many productions 8 Found in the tombs. !' Hibiscus esculentus, 1" Raphanus sativus, var. ediilis, of Linnaeus. Herodot. ii. 125. Plin. XV. 7., and xix. 5. 11 Plin. XV. 7. i-i Cloths found dyed with it. 13 Plin. xix. 8. " Semen (sinapis) optimum yEgyptium." 1^ Plin. xix. 8. li Plin. xix. 8., XX. 8., and xxi. 15. Cichorium intybus, Linn. Pliny calls it " Erraticum intubuni." 16 Exod. ix. 31. &c. 17 Plin. xix. 1. &c. IS An indigenous plant, called by the Arabs Senna mehkeh : the best is brought from Ethiopia and the interior of Africa. I I An indigenous plant. •^0 Plin. XX. 15. Seeds used on bread in Egypt, as at the present day. Plin. xix. 8. '^1 Plin. XX. 20. In Numbers, xi. 7., the manna was compared to coriander seed, which the Israelites had seen in Egypt. The name of Manna, properly men or min, signifies " what:" for '• when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another,' JfV/ff/ (is) this '? ' (it is manna) for thev wist not lu/iat it was." Exod. xvi. 15. "And the house of Israel called the name thereof what (manna)." Ver. 31. •i^ Numbers, xi. 5, -:;' Buds found in the tombs. Herodot. ii. 92. &c. Plin. xiii. 7. 2+ Herodot. ii. 92. It now only grows in India. It is called by PHny Colocasia as well as Cyamon. (xxi. 15.) ■■23 The seeds found in the tombs. 2'3 Plin.xiii.il. Herodot. ii. '92. Isaiah, xix. 7., and found dried in the tombs. '27 Indigenous. J'/rfe Plin. xxi. 18. cs Antifimas, or minor Centaurea. Asoiit, or Plantago major. Mene, or Satvrion, called Panion. Orhbioke, or Op/iite/jioca, Pentaphyllum. Kemenestphe, or Nesphe, Chamaepythys. Anesen, or Artemisia. Sapht, or Hyoscvamus. Sephseph, or Sophosph, (Arab. Zarawend,) Aristo- lochia? Linn. Semmeori, or Samur, Chamaslea. Eminion, or Ascle- jmis. probably the Osher, or Asclepias gigantea. Pemptempht, Verbena ?. Antouerm'boi'i.s, Lingua bovis, (Lman-etor,) Borrago officinalis ? Linn, CHAP. Xr. INDIGENOUS PLANTS OF EGYPT. Go of the country, principally on the authority of Apuleius, and early Arab writers. But the greater part of these last are wild plants : and, indeed, if all the indigenous productions of Egypt (which unquestionably grew there in ancient as well as modern times) were enumerated, a large catalogue might be collected, those of the desert alone amounting to nearly 250 species. For though the Egy])tian Herbarium is limited to about 1300, the indigenous plants constitute a large proportion of that number, and few countries have a smaller quantity introduced from abroad than Egypt, which, except in a few instances, has remained contented with the herbs and trees of its own soil ; and the plants of the desert may be considered altogether indigenous, without, I believe, one single ex- ception. It is true, as I have observed, that these last belong to ancient as well as modern Egypt, but I do not think it necessary to enter into any description of them in the present work ; and shall content myself with a brief enumeration of those mentioned by Pliny, together with the most Asterope, or jMarruhiiini, or Prasion (P/iraseeon,) Marnihiuni Alyssiini, Ijiim. Sidctlto, or Squill, Scillaiiiaritima, (Bu.isalclfar). Scnict, or Nastur- tium?. TWAo/v'/;, ( Chamomile, )( Arab. Z?^/iooHe^,) San tolinafragrantissima, Fors/c. iS/^'w/V//, (Saiii^uinaria,) Pohgonum. Palalla, or Cyclaminus. Jit/idoiii, or Venus's Ilair, Adiaiitlmm Capillus Veneris, Linn. Kisine, or Heliotrope. ]\Ieni})ht, or Dictamnus. Lotometra, or Lotus, Nym- phaca Lotus, Linn. Soumonas, or Mint, {Xaanaa,) Mentha Kaiiirina, Fursk. Sonii, or Ahsynthium Marinum, or Scri()hiuni. Aplilo])lioi, or Mcrcurialis Ilerha. Tliixlon, or Bn/onia, Vitis alba. Phrpre, or Sco- lopendra. A^alkosdcnion, or Cyclaminus. PanldgaUta, or Origanum. Aiineox, or wild Myrtle. Dtnilorobon, or Coscuta. jlTotnioufin, or Portulaca, (Olera'.'ca ?). Iraloria, or Bctonica. Oclicon, or Coriander. Ani/si, or Salvia. Vide Kirchcr, Prod, ct Lex. Sup. c. 8., and CEdipus. 64 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XI. striking characteristics or properties he ascribes to them. I have arranged them in the order in which they are given by the natiirahst, not according to their botanical classification, some being un- Name from Pliny. A plant producing ladanum. Tree producing JNIy robalanum, Myro balanus Palma f called A dip SOS. Sphagnos, Bryon, Sphacos ;} lib. Botanical Name. 12. r Cypres Maron ( ■1 ■{ -) Elate (Abies?),Palma, J or Spathe -\ Amygdalus, Almond Palma, Palm Myxa Ficus iEgyptia (Ce7-au?iia siliqua) - { 12. 21. J 23. 5. 1 12. 22. 12. 23. 28. 1 24-. 6. \ 13. 1. J 12. 24. 1 13. 1- \ 23. 4. J 12. 24. 12. 25. 12. 28. 1 5. j 23. 13. 1. 13. 4. Cistus ladaniferus. Moringa aptera?* (Arab. Yessur, fruct. Hab-ghdlee.) ■? Parmelia parietina? ( A rab . Sh egeret eneddeh.) Lawsoniaspinosa et iner- mis. (Arab. Henneh.') Teucriura Iva? (Arab. Miskeh?) Amyris Opobalsamum. (Arab. Belisdn.') •? Amygdalus communis. (Arab. Loz.) Phoenix dactylifera. (Arab. Nahhh) Cordia Myxa, Sebestena domestica, Alpin. (Arab. Mohhdyt.^ 7. \ Ficus Sycomorus. 7. J (Arab. Gimmayz.^ 8. Ceratonia Siliqua. (Arab. Kharoob.^ * There appears more reason to suppose it the moringa than the Balanites ^gyptiaca, or Myrobalanus Chebukis (Arab, arbor, Eglceg, fruct. Lalob). They both grow in the Egyptian de§ert. The former is called Yessur: the seeds, con- tainecfin a long poil, are called Hab-gh;ili. This and the Balanites are very different ; but Phny's description is very indefinite, and might apply to one or the other. Theophrastus and Dioscorides neither agree with each other, nor with Pliny. 13. 13. 23. 13. CHAP. XI. PLANTS FROM PLINY. 65 known ; and in assigning the botanical names, I have received much assistance from the Paris edition of Pliny, by M. Desfontaines, from whom I have in few instances found reason to dissent. Remarks. " The plants which produce ladanum, introduced into Egypt by the Ptolemies." Pliti. " Producing a fruit from which an oil or ointment was extracted. Grow- ing in the Thebaid." Plin, " Gathered before ripe : that which is left is called Phcenicobalanus, and is intoxicating." Plin. " Said to grow in Egypt." Plin. A sort of lichen growing on trees. Oil extracted from it. Plin. 13. 1. " Bearing leaves like the Zizyphus. Cooked in oil to make the ointment called Cyprus. The best grown about Canopus. Leaves dye the hair." Plin. There are four or five other species of Teucrium in Egypt. Balsam in Egypt, according to Dioscorides and Strabo, till lately culti- vated at Heliopolis. *' Of use for ointments." Plin. It is supposed to be the sheath of the palm flowers. Vide Dioscor. 1. 150. (Arab. Sabdt, conf. Spathe.) " Oil of bitter almonds made in Egypt." Plin. " Vide supra, Vol. II. p. 176. " Thebaic palms." Plin. 23. 4. " Wine made from the fruit in Egypt." Plin. " Fruit growing on the stem itself." Plin. and At/teti. Deipn. ii. p. 5J. (Locust tree, or Kharooh, said by Pliny not to grow in Egypt. It is now an Egyptian tree.) -j- Pliny appears to mention two trees which produced myrobalanuni, the myrohalanus, and the "pahiia (luae fert myrobalanuni." (Lib. xxiii. 5.) The fruit of this last beinu; without any stone, " nullo intus lijino," or " ossa non hal)cns," was owing to their gathering it w hen young. When full grown, it was called Phce- nico-balanus. VOL. L — Second Series. F 66 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XI. Name from Pliny. Persica or Peach* Cuci ■{ Spina ^^gyptia, Acanthus of dotus and Strabo Quercusf, Oak. (Persea) ,, the r Hero--| abo - [_ Oliva, Olive - | Prunus iEgyptia Papyrus or Biblus -\ Lotus - - -j Punicum malum or I Granatum, Pome- granate. Ub. c. 13. 9. 15. 13. 13. 9. I 13. 24. 13. 13. 13. 9. 15. 3. 13. 10. 9. 11. 1 11. 12. J Botanical Name. 13. 11. 24. 11. 13.§ 17. 24. 2. 13. 19. 12. Amygdalus Persica. (Arab. Khokh.) Cucifera Thebaica. (Arab. Dom.) Mimosa Nilotica. (Arab. So7it.) Quercus { Balanites ^Egyptiaea. (Arab. Egleeg. fruct Lalob.) Olea Europaea. (Arab. Zaytoon.) Rhamnus X Spina Christi or R. Nabeca, Forsk. (Arab. Nebk.) Cyperus papyrus.) { Ar 6m, or Theban palm.t Syco- more wood was em})loycd for coffins, boxes, small idols, doors, window shutters, stools, chairs, and cramps for building ; for handles of tools, wooden pegs or nails, cramps, idols, small boxes, and those parts of cabinet work requiring hard compact wood, tiie So fit, or Acacia Nilotica was usually preferred ; and spears were frequently made of other acacias, which grew in the interior, or on the confines of the desert. In tools of various kinds, the wood of the Tamarix orientalis was likewise much used, and even occa- sionally in pieces of furniture, for which purpose the Kgleeg was also employed ; but the principal woods adopted by the cabinet-maker for fine work were ebony, fir, and cedar. The first came from the interior of Africa, and formed, with ivory, gold, ostricli feathers, dried fruits, and skins, the j)rincipal object of the annual tribute brought ♦ Vol.ir. p. UG.c/scq. f Vol.11, p. 178. CHAT. XI. WOODS AND MEDICINAL PLANTS. 83 to Egypt by tiie conquered tribes of Ethiopia and the Soodan ; fir and cedar behig imported from Syria. The two last were in great demand for ornamental furniture, for coffins, small boxes, and various objects connected with the dead; and many woods of a rare and valuable kind were brought to Egypt by the people of Asia tributary to the Plia- raohs the beauty and value of which may be esti- mated by the frequent custom of imitating them, for the satisfaction of those who could not afford to purchase furniture or trinkets of so expensive a material. There is reason to believe that the ancient Egyptians encouraged, or at least profited by, the growth of many wild plants of the desert, which were useful for medicinal purposes. Many of them are still known to the Arabs, as the Salvadora Persica, Heliotropium inebrians, Lycium Euro- paeum, Scilla maritima. Cassia Senna, Ochradenus baccatus, Ocimum Zatarhendi, Linaria yEgyptiaca, Spartium monospermum, Hedysarum Alhagi, San- tolina fragrantissima, Artemisia Judaica (mono- sperma and inculta), Inula undulata and crispa, Cucumis Colocynthis, &c. : and many others have probably flillen into disuse from the ignorance of the modern inhabitants of the country, who, only know them from the Arabs, by whom the traditions concerning their properties are preserved. From w^hat Homer tells us of " the infinity of drugs pro- duced in Egypt," the use of " many medicines" mentioned by Jeremiah*, and the frequent al- * Vide supra. Vol. 111. p. W2. G 2 84 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XI. lusion by Pliny to the medicinal plants of that country, we may conclude that the productions of the desert (where those herbs mostly grow) were particularly prized ; and several were found of great use in dyeing, tanning, curing skins, and various other purposes. Of these, the most remarkable were the fungi, for dyeing; the pods of the Acacia Nilotica, the bark of the Acacia Seyal, and the wood and bark of the Rhus oxy- acanthoides, for tanning ; and the Periploca Se- camone*, for curing skins. The process adopted in the employment of these plants I shall not now stop to describe, nor shall I enter into any detail of their me- dicinal use, and the maladies they are said to cure : this will more properly form part of a dis- sertation on the botany of Egypt, reserved for a future work. But I may be allowed to make one observation on the Owseg, Oiu.slies, or Lycium Eu- ropaeum, though not immediately connected with the subject of Egypt. This thoiny shrub, called by the Copts Ramnus, which is common in the hills, throughout Lower Egypt and Syria, has a better claim to the title of "the holy thorn," of which the Saviour's crown is said to have been made, than any other plant. The modern and ancient Greeks agree with the Copts in giving it the name Ramnus ; and Pliny t evidently had in view the Oivshefi, when he says *'it is called by the Greeks Rhamnus, and is a flowering thorny plant, * This climbing plant appears to be represented in the tomb of Remeses III. at Thebes, used in lieu of the ivy, which in its leaf it slightly resembles. -{■ Plin. xxiv, li. CHAP. XI. RHAMNUS. WHEAT. 85 with spreading branches, having thorns, not curved like other briars, but straight, and larger leaves ; " though the name of Rhamnus has been applied by modern botanists to a different genus.* CULTIVATION OF WHEAT. Of the erroneous statement made by Herodo- tus respecting the use of wheat, I have already spoken t ; and have shown that wheat and barley were abundantly cultivated in every part of Egypt. The former was cut in about five, the latter in four months t ; the best quality, according to Pliny, being grown in the Thebaid.§ The wlieat, as at the present day, was all bearded, and the same varieties, doubtless, existed in ancient as in modern times || ; among which may be mentioned the seven-eared quality described in Pharaoh's dream. ^ It was cropped a little below the ear ** with a toothed sickle, and carried to the threshing floor in wicker baskets upon asses +t, or in rope tt nets, the gleaners following to collect the fallen ears in hand baskets. The rope net, answering to * Lianaeus gives the name of Rhamnus Spina Christi, to a different plant : and the Nebeca or Nebk, the Zizyphus, and others of this kind, come under the general denomination of Rhamnus. There appears to be some confusion lietween the Lycium and the Rhanmus. t Vol. II. p. 397. if Conf. Diodor. i. 36. " They return after four or five months to cut the corn." Pliny (xviii. 7.) says barley in the 6th and wheat in the 7th month. § Plin. xviii. 18. II Vide my (ieneral View of Egypt, p. 261. IT Genes, xli. 22. ** Conf. Job, xxiv. 24. " Cut off as the tops of the cars of corn." ft fide woodcut, No. 4-29. Jigs. -t. and .5. Xt f'v>^ t-_^ //III /WWVV\ I I I I I I . 1 I l^_ A/WWWV I I I No. 430 Song of the threshers to tlie oxen. Eilelhyas. phics over oxen treading out the grain, of which he gives this translation: — *'(l)Thresh for your- selves (twice repeated 11), (2) O oxen, (3) thresh for * Those of the Romans were paved, or more usually formed of clay, well laid down and smoothed by rollers. Virg. Georg! i. 178. f As with the Romans. Vide Coluni. i. 6. X Conf. Matthew, iii. 12. {\ Lettres sur I'Egypte, 11th and 12th letters, p. 146. 196. |] This sign of twice occurs at « and b. CHAP. XI. HARVEST SCENE. 8,9 90 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XI. yourselves (twice) (4) measures for yourselves*, (5) measures for your masters ; " similar to which may !S C O •g s -g « 2 c tt ~ -a CO 9 ■^2 5 'Hi |.r!l be found other songs in the sculptured tombs t of Upper Egypt. * Chanipollion has omitted this. f Vide Rosellini, vol. i. part ii. p. 311. CHAP. XI. THRESHING AND WINNOWING. 91 A certain quantity was first strewed in tlie centre of the area, and wlien this had been well triturated by the animals' feet, more was added by means of large wooden forks, from the main heap, raised around and forming the edge of the thresh- ing floor ; and so on till all the grain was trodden out. This process was called by the Latins tri- tura *, and was generally adopted by ancient, as by some modern people. Sometimes the cattle were bound together by a piece of wood or a rope fastened to their horns, in order to force them to go round the heap, and tread it regularly, the driver following behind them with a stick. t After the grain was trodden out, they winnowed it with wooden sliovels ; it was then carried to the granary in sacks, each containing a fixed quan- tity, which was determined by wooden measures, a scribe noting down the number as called by the teller who superintended its removal. Sweepers with small hand-brooms were employed to collect the scattered grain that fell from the measure ; and the " immense heaps of corn" mentioned by Diodorus t, collected from '* the field which was round about every city §," fully accord with the representation of the paintings in the tombs i|, and with those seen at the present day in the villages of the Nile. Sometimes two scribes ^ were pre- sent ; one to write down the number of measures taken from the heap of corn, and the other to check * Sometimes by horses. Plin. xvii. 30. Virg. Gcorg. iii. 13:^. f Vide woodcut, No. 4-^9. X Diodor. i. 3(i. ^ Genes, xli. 48. II /71. f Memoires sur I'Kgypte, vol. iv. p. 6. VOL. I. — Sf.coni) Series.' I 114 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XI. tlie irrigated land, and the canal of Joseph, after so many ages of bad government, would have been long since filled up." In some places, he adds, this has happened, as at Werdan in the province of Geezeh, where the sand has advanced to the distance of a league ; but the position of the place, — at the outlet of a gorge in the Libyan Mountains, — is perhaps partly the cause of this : an opinion which per- fectly coincides with my own observations. In many places where valleys open upon the ])lain, the sand is found to accumulate, and sometimes to form drifts upon the land, which, when no precautions are taken, by planting the bushy tamarisk, increase so fiir as to prevent the overflow of the Nile from covering a portion of the previously irrigated soil ; but these incursions of sand are only partial, and in particular spots, bearing a very small proportion to the whole valley of Egypt ; and it must be re- membered that the desert, or gradual slope of the hdgeri between the limestone range and the arable land, is not a plain of moving sand, as some have imagined, but is composed of clay and stony ground mixed with a proportion of sand, or an old detritus of the neighbouring rocks. On the eastern side of the valley, very few sand drifts are to be met with, except those seen from Cairo, beyond Heliopolis and the Birket el Hag, or the Suez road : but these do not encroach upon the arable land, from which they are far distant : and since I have shown that on the W., or Libyan, side also, the places where sand encumbers the valley are partial, it may be readily imagined how slight an effect these must CHAP. XI. CHARACTER OF THE DESERT. 11,5 have, compared with the whole extent of the country. In the Delta, tlie only sandy places of consequence are here and there on the Libyan shore, and on the coast of the Mediterranean, bearing an imperceptible proportion to the whole superficies of that })rovince ; and, indeed, the sand on the coast is not worthy of notice, nor can it be attributed in any way to the advance of the desert upon the land of Egypt. In many countries, — as in France, about Dun- kerque, the Landes, and other places ; in Scot- land, about Nairn ; and in several parts of Europe, — sand drifts occur of great size and extent ; but the same theories are not formed upon their ag- gressions; and we have in this, a proof how far opinions are influenced by the name and by the idea of a desert. I am far from affirming that no encroachment of the sand takes place; my arguments are only intended to show, that, taking into consideration the relative advance of the sand, and of the allu- vial deposit, the balance is greatly in favour of the latter ; and the result is, that whatever partial in- jury the sand may have it in its power to inflict on certain spots, the extent of the land is constantly increasing, and the number of square miles of in- undated arable soil is much greater now than at any previous period. I must also make some remarks on the nature of the desert, which will be found to differ much from received o])inion ; as the simple mention of ranges of primitive mountains reaching an elevation I 2 116 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XI. of 5000 feet will suffice to show. I allude now to the desert lying between the Nile and Red Sea ; but in order to give a just notion of this tract, and the nature of the mountains in various parts, I must refer to my map*, and to the accompanying sections in different latitudes. The leading characteristic of the Eastern desert, particularly in the northern part, is its gradual ascent from the valley of the Nile to a certain dis- tance eastward, where you arrive at a plain nearly level, and of some extent, from which all the valleys or torrents running in a westerly direction empty themselves into the Nile, and those to the eastward into the Red Sea, following a descent in the op- posite direction to the coast. A section taken E. and W., about latitude 29°, will explain the ap- pearance of the desert in that part.t These are all limestone mountains. The ascent from the Nile to A is about 30 miles ; the high plain A B is about 1() miles broad ; the descent then commences towards the Red Sea, which is about .50 miles distant. In that part where the primitive range com- mences, and joins the secondary hills, about latitude 28° 26', the section E. and W. presents the appear- ance given in the next figure of the plate, t In latitude 28° 10', passing by the lofty Gharib, which is the highest peak in this desert, having an elevation of about 6000 feet, the section is of a dif- ferent character.§ * This will be published by Mr. J. Arrowsmith early next spring, f ride Plate 18. No. 7. f Vide No, 8. § Vide No. 9. CHAP. XI. THE CATARACTS AND NUBIA. 1 17 Another section is taken in latitude 'i8° from Gebel E' Zayt, on the Red Sea, to Gebel Aboo Fayda on the Nile. * The last of those in the Eastern desert, in lati- tude ^7° t, crosses the great range of the Ummum- fayah, which is about 5000 feet high. From a comparison of which it appears that this desert has one general character in its levels from the Nile to the Red Sea. A little above Esneh, about latitude 25° 10', the sandstones approach the Nile on the East bank ; a Httle farther South they cross the river, near Edfoo, whence they continue on either bank ; and at Silsilis are the quarries from which the sandstone used in the temples of Egypt was taken. Fourteen miles above Ombos, and on the eastern bank, the granites appear ; and at Esouan, 14 miles farther S., they cross the river. Amidst these are the cataracts, a succession of rapids, of which no single fall is more than about five feet. In Nubia, the valley is very narrow ; the rocks of the eastern and western mountains often coming- close to the river, and leaving little or no space for the deposit of alluvium : in other places on the Libyan side, the sand covers the whole level space between the hills and the bank ; and the character of the country between the first and second cataract is totally different from Egypt. The river about Kalabshe rises between 30 and 40 feet durinaf the inundation ; and after it has subsided, in February, * Plate 18. No. lU. f No. J I. I 3 il8 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XI. the stream runs at the rate of two or three knots an hour. But I return to the deserts of Egypt. In going to the western or Libyan desert, in the direction of the Oasis Parva, one road passes by the Fyoom ; which province is considerably lower than the valley of the Nile, and the Lake Mceris is about 100 or 120 feet below the level of the banks at Benisooef. I have given a section across that part of the country from the Nile to the moun- tain range lying behind the Lake Moeris*; and thence to the Oases : from which it is evident, that on leaving the Fyoom in a southerly direction, or in going from the Nile westward, you gradually ascend till you arrive at the summit of an elevated plain, which continues on a level, or with slight un- dulations, for a considerable distance, and forms the extensive table land of this ])art of Africa. The Oases and other valleys are depressions in this lofty plain ; and, on descending to them, you find the level space or plain of the Oasis itself similar to a portion of the Valley of Egypt, surrounded by steep clifts of limestone, at some distance from the cul- tivated land, which vary in height in the different Oases. Those of the Southern Oases are much higher, and consequently the level of those Oases is much lower than of the Oasis Parva, as may be seen from the last section, taken N. and S. t From this it appears that the water of the Oasis Parva does not come directly from the Nile, and that we must look for the origin of its springs at a more * Vide Plate 18. No. 12. f Vide No. 13. CHAP. XI. THE OASES. 119 southerly point. The mountains of the high plain are limestone; the low plain of the Oases is sand- stone on clay ; and it is from this last that the water rises, and by this it is retained. The limestone mountains of the Thebaid rest in like manner on clay; and thus we may conclude that the water is conveyed from some point to the South of, and at a greater elevation than, the Oasis, its escape to the surface taking place wherever the limestone superstratum is removed ; and that a continuation of the same bed of clay conducts it northward to the Oasis Parva, — occasional opportunities being afforded it for rising, as at Farafreh, and other places on the way. Though I have represented the mountains, as if the tableland of their summit were perfectly level, in order to show the comparative depressions of the Oases, it is not to be supposed that they are perfectly horizontal : if so, those of Lower Egypt would be more elevated than in the Thebaid, which is not the case ; the mountains of Thebes being 1200 feet above the Nile, which is a much greater elevation than any in the latitude of Cairo. From what has been said, it is evident that the Oases are not fertile spots in the midst of a sandy plain, but depressions in the lofty table land of Africa, where, by the removal of the su- perincumbent limestone strata, the water has the power of rising to tlie surface ; nor is the desert a dreary plain of sand, which has overwhelmed a once fertile country, whose only traces are the isolated gardens of the Oases ; where the traveller I 4 120 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS, CHAP. XI. runs a risk of being overwhelmed by sand, as the army of Cambyses was reported to have been.* The notion is of old date, from Herodotus to the modern traveller who confines his experience to the valley of the Nile ; and if Strabo were listened to, it would require some degree of courage to visit the site of Memphis, lest, as he observes, the imprudent stranger should expose himself to ** the danger of being overtaken by a whirlwind on his way."t Strabo, like other travellers^ must have braved great dangers during his voyage ; the ancients were alarmed at the sand, and wondrous monsters ; and we now often read of narrow escapes from the effects of a simoom .- but however disagreeable this really is, and though caravans run the risk of losing their way if incautious enough to continue their route in its dense fog of dust, and consequently to perish in this waterless region, the very impleasant death, it has been reported to cause, is an exagge- ration ; and, speaking from the experience of many a violent simoom in the most sandy parts of the desert, I can only say that it is bad enough wilh- out being exaggerated, but that it is much more frightful in a book of travels than in the country itself. A remarkable feature in the Valley of Egypt, which must strike every one who crosses the edge of the alluvial land, is the line of demarcation be- tween this and the desert, which is so strongly * Amman, sand, and the dust of the Pharaohs being united against it. \ Strabo, lib. xvii. p. 555. CHAP. XI. CULTIVATION OF THE IIAGER. 1'21 defined, that you may almost step with one foot upon the richest, and with the other on the most barren land ; for, as Strabo says, all is sterile in Egypt where the Nile does not reach; but it only requires to be irrigated by the fertilising water of the river, to become productive ; as the flower of the female plant only awaits the pollen of the male, to cause it to produce, — an idea analogous to the fable of Osiris (as the inundation) approaching the bed of Isis (the soil it irrigates), or more properly of Nepthys (the barren land), who also produced a son on being visited by Osiris. Besides the land inundated by the Nile, the ancient Egyptians took into cultivation a consider- able portion of the Hdger, or edge of the desert, which, being a light soil, consisting of clay mixed with sand or gravel, was peculiarly adapted for certain produce, particularly bulbous plants ; and many with long fibrous roots were found to thrive in that soil. Those parts where a greater propor- tion of gravel prevailed, were peculiarly adapted to the culture of the vine ; and we are not surprised to find that the wines of Anthylla, Mareotis, and other places situated at the confines of the desert, were superior in quality to those from the interior of the irrigated land. In some places, as in the Fyoom, where little change has taken place in the appearance of the surface of the land, I have fre- quently observed the traces of former cultivation : even the vestiges of fields appear, with channels for water, far above the level of all modern canals ; and in the vicinity of the Lake Mocris are 122 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XI. several watercourses and canals, with the roots of vines and other trees, which are distant more than twelve miles from the nearest irrigated land. I do not pretend to affirm that these are actually of the early time of the Pharaohs; but they doubt- less owe their origin to the system of cultivating the Jiciger adopted by the ancient Egyptians, and this extensive culture of the vine is at least prior to the Arab invasion. Indeed, by the universal confession of the inhabitants themselves, no canals or cultivation have been maintained in this spot within the period of Moslem records ; and tradi- tion asserts that the province of Fyoom> which now contains about eighty villages, had once more than four times that number, in the Hourishing periods of the Pharaonic Kings. FESTIVALS OF THE PEASANTRY. During the inundation, when the Nile had been admitted by the canals into the interior, and the fields were subjected to the fertilising influence of its waters, the peasantry indulged in various amuse- ments which this leisure period gave them time to enjoy.* Their cattle were housed, and supplied with dry food, which had been previously prepared for the purpose ; the tillage of the land and all agricultural occupations were suspended ; and this season was celebrated as a harvest home, with games and recreations of every kind. They in- dulged in feasting and the luxuries of the table ; * Diodor. i. 36. CHAP. XI. FETES OF THE HUSBANDMEN. V23 games were celebrated in some of the principal towns, in which the competitors contended for prizes of cattle, skins, and other things suited to the taste or wants of the peasant, and some amused tliemselves with wrestling-matches, bull-fights, and gymnastic exercises ; which, while they suited the habits of an active and robust people, contributed to invigorate them, and to prevent the baneful effects of indolence during a period of repose from the labours of the field. According to JuUus Pollux *, the Song of Maneros was among those adopted by the Egyptian peasant ; and this fabled personage was celebrated as the inventor of hus- bandry, — an lionour generally given to the still more fabulous Osiris. It is probable that many songs and games were appropriated to certain festivals; and this adaptation of peculiar ceremo- nies to particular occasions, and the aversion of the Egyptians for any change in the cnstoms of their ancestors, are remarked by several ancient writers.! They had many festivals connected with agri- culture and the produce of the soil, which happened at different periods of the year. In the month Mesore, they offered the firstfruits of their lentils to the God Harpocrates, " calling out at the same time, * The tongue is Fortune, the tongue is GodI ;" and the allegorical festival of " the delivery of Isis was celebrated immediately after the Vernal * Jul. Poll. iv. 7 (KJft-a Mg \iyv7rro)v, " yi(a>t(>wt; .... Mai'ifnui; yto>pyi((c ivpi-)]r, 'S\fairHi)v fia9i]Tt]s." f Fid£ Hcrodot. ii. 79. t Plut. de Is. s. 68. 124 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XI. Equinox*," to commemorate the beginning of har- vest. " Some," says Plutarch, " assimilate the history of those Gods to the various changes which happen in the air, during the several seasons of the year, or to those accidents which are observed in the production of corn, in its sowing and ripening ; ' for,' they observe, * what can the burial of Osiris more aptly signify, than the first covering the seed in the ground after it is sown ? or his reviving and reappearing, than its first beginning to shoot up ? and why is Isis said, upon perceiving herself to be with child, to have hung an amulet about her neck on the 6th of the month Phaophi, soon after sowing time, but in allusion to this allegory ? and who is that Harpocrates, whom they tell us she brought forth about the time of the winter tropic, but those weak and slender shootings of the corn, which are yet feeble and imperfect?' — for which reason it is, that the firstfriuts of their lentils are dedicated to this God, and they celebrate the feast of his mother's delivery just after the vernal equinox." From this it may be inferred that the festival of the lentils was instituted when the month Mesore coincided with the end of March ; for since they were sown at the end of November, and ripened in about 100 or 110 days, the firstfruits might be gathered in three months and a half, or, as Plutarch tells us, "just after the vernal equinox," or the last week in March. It is not stated on what day of Mesore this festival took place ; we can, therefore, only arrive at an approximate calculation respect- * Plut. de Is. s. 65. CHAP. XI. THE CARE OF ANIMALS. 12.5 ing tlie period when it was first instituted ; which, su})posing it to have fallen in the middle of the month, will carry it hack 2G50 years hefore our era, 330 years hefore the accession of Menes. ** On the 19th day of the first month (Thoth), which was the feast of Hermes *, they eat honey and figs, say- ing to each other, 'how sweet a thing is truth!'" — a satisfactory proof that the month itself, and not the first day alone t, was called after and dedi- cated to Thoth, the Egyptian Hermes; and another festival, answering to the " Tliesmophoria of the Athenians," was established to commemorate the period when " the husbandmen began to sow their corn, in the Egyptian month Athyr."t Many of the sacred festivals of the Egyptians were connected with agriculture ; but these I shall have occasion to notice under the head of their re- ligious ceremonies. REARING OF ANIMALS. I now proceed to another point connected with il-e occupations of the peasantry, — the care and rearing of animals. The rich proprietors of land possessed a large stock of sheep, goats, and cattle ; gazelles, and other wild animals of the desert, were tamed and reared with great care on their estates ; and they bestowed the greatest attention to the breed of horses, asses, and other beasts of burthen. The pastors, it is true, were a class apart from the peasantry, and one whicii was held in disrepute * Pint. s. 68. t Vide supra, p. 10. t Pint. s. 69. 126 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XI. by the Egyptians, partly in consequence of the nature of their occupation, and partly from the feeling excited against them by the remembrance of cruelties exercised upon their country by a shepherd race*, which had held Egypt in sub- jection during a long period ; and the swineherds were looked upon witli such abhorrence, that He- rodotus affirms they could not even enter a tem- ple, or contract marriages with any other of their countrymen, t But the denomination of pastors did not extend to the farmers who bred sheep or cattle ; it merely applied to those who tended the flocks, or had their immediate care : and the Egyp- tian artists, as if to show the contempt in which these people were held, frequently represented them lame or deformed, dirty and unshaven, and sometimes of a most ludicrous appearance. No. 438. A deformed oxlierd. Tombs near the Pyramids. This feeling, however, was not carried to the ex- tent mentioned by Josephust, who asserts that " the Egyptians were prohibited to meddle with the feeding of sheep ; " and the sculptures of * Vide Vol. II. p. 16. % Joseph. Antiq. ii. 7. 5. f Vol. I. p. 239. CHAP. XI. THE CARE OF ANIMALS. 1^7 Thebes, and every part of Upper and Lower Egypt, abundantly prove tliem to have kept numerous flocks and herds, wliich were tended by native Egyptians. Their condition was humble ; they lived in sheds* made of reeds, easily moved from place to place, whicli continued to be used by tliem to the time of Diodorus, as they are by the Abab- deh tribe, a pastoral race, in the npper part of the Thebaid, to the present day; and it is ])robable that parts of Egypt peculiarly adapted for pasture were inhabited by large bodies of native shepherds, dis- tinct from those employed by rich individuals upon their own farms. In the extensive domains of wealthy landed pro- prietors, those who tended the flocks and herds were overlooked by other persons connected with the estate. The peasant, who tilled the land on which they were fed, was responsible for their proper main- tenance, and for the exact account of the quan- tity of food -^hey consumed; some persons were ex- clusively employed in the care of the sick, which were kept at home in the farmyard ; the super- intendent of the shepherds regulated the different arrangements connected with them, determined re- specting those which were to graze in the field, and those which were to be stall-fed t, and attended at stated periods to give a report to the scribes belonging to the estate, by whom it was submitted to the steward ; and the latter was res])onsible to his employer for this as well as every other portion of his ])ossessions. * Diodor. i. 43. -j- J'ulc supra, p. 9(). •1^28 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XI . In tlie accompanying woodcut, the head shep- herd presents himself to give an account of the Giving an account to the scribes of the stock on the estate. Thebes. Before fig. 1. is the sachel, and above fig. 2. the box for holding writing implements and p.ipyri. They are writing on boards : in their left hands are the inkstands with black and red ink. stock upon the estate, and behind him are the flocks committed to liis charge, con.sisting of sheep, goats, and wild animals belonging to the person of the tomb, in which this subject is represented; and the expressive attitude of this figure, with Iiis hand to his mouth, is well imagined to convey the idea of his endeavour to recollect the numbers he is giving from memory to the scribes. The shepherds on the estate were chosen by the steward, who ascertained their character and skill, previous to their being appointed to so important a trust ; as is shown to have been done in the case of the Israelites, on their arrival in the land of Goshen; Pharaoh expressly commanding Joseph, whom he had made superintendent " over all the land of Egypt," to select from among his brethren such CHAP. xr. herdsmen's account of cattle. 129 as were skilful in the management of the flocks or herds, and " make them rulers over his cattle."* The cattle were brought into a court attached sf 1 1: -5, s'S s > § — 7^ ^ in «■ to the steward's house, or into the farmyard, and counted by the superintendent in the presence of * Gen. xlvii. 6. VOL. I Second Series. K 130 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS- CHAP. XI- the scribes. Every care was taken to prevent or CHAP. XI. NU.MBEItS OVER CATTLE. 131 detect frauds, and the bastinado was freely * ad- ministered, whenever the peasant or the shepherd neglected the animals entrusted to their care. The accompanying woodcuts fully illustrate the mode of bringing the cattle ; and the last is particularly interesting, from the numbers being written over the animals, answering, no doubt, to the report made to the steward, who, in the pre- sence of the master of the estate, receives it from the head shepherd. First come the oxen, over which is the number 834, cows 220, goats 3^34^, asses 760, and sheep 974 ; behind which follows a man carrying the young lambs in baskets slung upon a pole. The steward, leaning on his staff, and accompanied by his dog, stands on the left of the picture ; and in another part of the tomb, the scribes are represented making out the statements presented to them by the different persons em- ployed on the estate. The tomb where this subject occurs, is hewn in the rock near the Pyramids of Geezeh, and possesses additional interest from its great antiquity, having the namet of a king who lived about the era of the founders of those mo- numents, as well as from the subjects it contains, which show the Egyptians to have had the same customs at that early time, and to have arrived at the same state of civilisation as in the subsequent ages of the 18th and later dynasties, — a fact which cannot but suggest most interesting thoughts to an * Vide Vol. II. [).+!., where the keepers of oxen are bastinadoed for neglecting the animals. t Given in Vol. III. p. 278. Woodcut, No. 380./g. 4. K 2 i3'2 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XI. inquiring mind, respecting the state of tlie world at that remote period. An account of the geese and other fowl was also brought to the steward at the same time ; and so scrupulous were they in the returns made to him, that the number of eggs was even ascertained _ I ^"2 « 2 . Z Ml 2 rt l-S ' >£< *- oj Oj: a and reported, with the same care as the calves, or the offspring of the flocks. CHAP. XI. POULTERERS. 133 Every thing in Egypt was done by writing. Scribes were employed on all occasions, whether to settle public or private questions, and no bar- gain of any consequence was made without being sanctioned by the vouchure of a written document. The art of curing disease in animals of every kind, both quadru})eds and birds, w^as carried to great perfection by the Egyptians ; and the au- thority of ancient writers and of the sculptures is curiously confirmed by a discovery of the learned Cuvier, who, findmg the left humerus of a mum- mied ibis fractured, and reunited in a particular manner, proved the intervention of human art. The skill they possessed, says Diodorus *, in rearing animals, was tiie result of knowledge in- herited from their parents, and subsequently im- proved by their own observation, their whole lives being occupied in this pursuit ; and the in- formation handed down to them respecting the best mode of treating cattle when ill, and their proper food at all times, was increased not only by the improvements arising from continued ex- perience, but by the emulation common to all men. " What most excites our wonder," adds the historian, "and deserves the greatest praise, is the industry shown by the rearers of fowls and geese, who, not contented with the course of na- tural procreation known in other countries, hatch an infinite number of birds by an artificial process. Dispensing with the incubation of tlie hens, they * Diodor. i. 74. K 3 134 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XI. with their own hands bring the eggs to maturity; and the young chickens thus produced are not in- ferior in any respect to those hatched by natural means."* This artificial contrivance has been handed down to the present day, and continues to be employed by the modern inhabitants of Egypt, particularly the Copts, who may be considered to have the best claim to the title of descendants of the ancient Egyptians. I have given an account of it in a former work t ; but as it has now an increased in- terest from being again introduced into England, T shall insert it here in connection with the pastors and poulterers of ancient Egypt. The custom is for the pro})rietors of tlie ovens to make the round of the villages in the vicinity, to collect the eggs from the peasants, and to give them in charge to the rearers, who, without any previous examination, place all they receive on mats strewed with bran, in a room about 11 feet square, with a flat roof, and about 4 feet in height, over which is another chamber of the same size, with a vaulted roof, and about 9 feet high ; a small aperture in the centre of the vault (at/") admitting light during the warm weather, and another (e) of larger diameter, immediately below, communicating with the oven, through whose ceil- ing it is pierced. By this also the man descends to observe the eggs : but in the cold season both are closed, and a lamp is kept burning within; * Conf. Plin. X. 54. t Egypt and Thebes, p. 24-G. CHAP. X[. EGGS ARTIFICIALLY HATCHED. 135 another entrance at the front part of the oven, or lower room, being- tlien used for the same purpose, and sliut inmiediately on his quitting it. By way of distinction, I call the vaulted (a) the upper room, and the lower one (b) the oven. In the No. 443. Modern ovens for hatching eggs. Fig. 1. I'lim of the building, showing the form of the upiier rooms A A, the entrance room (; (J, and the passage F. At art are the f.res. cc the aperture com- municating with the oven. 2. Section of the same, sliowing the upper rooms A and 15. 3. Plan of upiier room, in which the fires arc placed at a b, and cit. 4. Lower room, in which the eggs arc placed. 5. 6. Sections, from the back and front of the upper and lower rooms A and 15. former are two fires in the troughs a b, and c d, which, based with earthen slabs, three quarters of an inch thick, reach from one side to the other, K 1. 136 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XI. against the front and back walls. These fires are hghted twice a day : the first dies away about midday ; and the second, lighted at 3 p.m., lasts until 8 o'clock. In the oven, the eggs are placed on mats strewed with bran, in two lines correspond- ing to, and immediately below, the fires n h and c di where they remain half a day. They are then removed to a c and h d ; and others (from two heaps in the centre) are arranged at « Z» and c tians, that which is in our power depends on the motion of the stars." ^ Herodot. ii. 8-2. CHAP. XII. EARLY KITES IN EGYPT. I iS and then carefully watching those of a similar nature, they predict the issue from analogy, being- persuaded that it will be the same." In like man- ner, observes tlie historian, to the Egyptians is con- ceded the honour of teaching mankind the proper mode of approaching the Deity* ; and Lucian t as- serts, *' that they were reputed the first who had a conception of the Gods, an acquaintance with reli- gious matters, and a knowledge of sacred names;" an opinion expressed in the words of an oracle of Apollo quoted by Eusebiust, which declares that *' they, before all others, disclosed by infinite ac- tions the path that leads to the Gods." And lam- blichus§ not only considers them "the first of men who were allowed to partake of the favour of the Gods, but that the Gods when invoked rejoiced in the rites of Egypt." The inspection of the entrails of victims, the study of omens, and all those superstitious customs which the religions of antiquity so scrupulously observed, were deemed highly important among the Egyptians ; and the means adopted for divining future events, or the success of any undertaking, were as varied and fanciful, as the derb e* 1'ummel, 4uul other trials of chance used by Oriental people at the present day. || * Herodot. ii. 58. f Lucian, de Syria Dea. i " Anrtivri yap ooo<; i^iaKctpiov, Tn7])(ita n ttoWoi' 'Ka\Ko?>iTOiQ ra rrptora Siotyfievyj TrvXioinnr. ATpaTTiTOL ce laaniv ctOtacpaTot tyytyaviat, Ac ijpdiToi nipoTTioi' tir (tTTiipora 7rf)ij'^ii' Kjnitud', O'l TO K-a\oi> TTii'OVTfr vcojf) Nf(/\(.jr(("os «(//s." § Iambi. (Ic Myst. sect. vii..j. [| yUie Lane't) Modern Egyptian.'^, vol. i. [>. .311. cl ncq. 144 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII. They even, says Plutarch *, " look upon children as gifted with a kind of faculty of divination, and they are ever anxious to observe the accidental prattle they talk during play, especially if it be in a sacred place, deducing from it presages of fu- ture events." Omens were frequently drawn from common accidents, as tokens of good and bad luck ; and thus the circumstance of the engineer sighing, while he superintended the transport of a mono- lithic shrine from Elephantine to Sais, was suffi- cient to stop its further progress, and to prevent its introduction into the sacred place intended for its reception t; and Amasis, though a man of strong mind, and more free from prejudices than the generality of his countrymen, was induced to give way to this superstitious fancy. Sacrifices of meat offerings, libations, and incense, were of the earliest date in their temples ; and if the assertions of Proclus be true, that " the first people who sacrificed did not ofi'er animals, but herbs, flowers, and trees, with the sweet scent of in- cense," and that "it was unlawful to slay victims," they only apply to the infant state of mankind, and not to that sera, when the Egyptians had already modelled their religious habits and belief into the form presented to us by the sculptures of their monuments. And when he adds, that " no animal should be offered in sacrifice to the gods, though permitted both to good and evil demons," we are not to conclude that the victims slain before the * Pint, de Is. et Osir. s. 14. f Herodot. ii. 175. CHAP. Xir. EARLY OFFERINGS. 145 altars in the Egyptian sculptnres were confined to the minor Deities, or that this typical institution had not its origin in a very remote age. Macro- bius, indeed, affirms * that " it was never permitted to the Egyptians to propitiate the Gods with the slaughter of animals, nor with blood, but with prayers andincensealone;" an idea expressed alsoby Ovid t, who says, that men in former times were reported to have made use of milk t and whatever herbs the earth spontaneously produced, and every one offered for himself the sacrifice he had vowed. But these remarks do not apply to tlie Egyptians, who off^ered victims on the altars of all tlieir Gods ; and the privilege mentioned by Ovid, which every individual enjoyed, of offering for himself his own sacrifice, though permitted to the Jews before the Exodus, seems only to have been conceded to the Egyptians on particular occasions. With the Israelites, the custom was to offer fruits, the fat and milk of animals, the fleeces of sheej), or the blood and flesli of victims ; the right of making the offering being usually confined to the Elders, to the head of a family, and to those who were most esteemed for virtue, or venerated for their age. When keeping the sacrifice of the Passover, they were commanded to " take every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house," "a male of the first year§," * Macrob. Sut. i.4. lie is even guilty of statinj; tliis to lie the case iiiuler the Ptolemies, when Sarapis and Saturn were introclucei.1 into -|- Ovid. Fast. lib. v. 1 Conf. Plin. xiv. 12. '• lloniuhun lacte, nou vino, libasse." 5 Exod. xii. .3. 3. VOL. I. — Second Series. L H<6 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII. either " from the sheep, or from the goats ;" and to the head of the family belonged the honour of slaying the victim in the name of the whole house. This custom is retained in the East to the pre- sent day; and the sheikh of a tribe, or the master of a house, is expected to slay the victim at the feast of the Eed, which the Arabs and other Mos- lems celebrate on the 10th day of Zoolhegh, the last month of their year. The ceremony is per- formed in commemoration of the sacrifice of Abra- liam ; and it is remarkable that this patriarchal privilege has never been transferred by them to the priests of the religion. Another point which appears singular to us in this traditional custom is, that the ram then slain is said to be a record of the substitute presented to Abraham in lieu of his son Ishmael, and not of Isaac. The earliest sacrifices of animals appear to have been holocausts ; and, as it was deemed unlawful to eat it, the flesh of the victim was consumed by fire : but in after times, as with the Jews, certain portions only were burnt, and in some cases the residue belonged to the priest who sacrificed, or to the individual who made the oflf'ering. * And if the fruit of the earth may be considered the Jirat oflTering made by man t, yet a " first- ling of the flock, and the fat thereof," were the sacrifice looked upon as peculiarly acceptable to the Deity t; and most people appear to have adopted this method of propitiating Him, and of * As in the peace offerings. Levit. viii. 31. f Gen. iv. .3. \ Gen. iv. 4, 5. CHAP. Xir. NAMES OF THE GODS. 117 expiating sin. Indeed, it always continued to be regarded as the most suitable species of offering ; and the descriptive formula on Egyptian tablets dedicated to Osiris, and to some other deities, is so worded as to leave no doubt respecting the nature of the most important Egyptian sacrifices ; in which we find oxen and geese, with cakes and wine, incense and libation, invariably mentioned ; flowers and herbs being presented as a separate oblation. Of that primitive notion which led man to con- sider sacrifice the type of a more complete ex- piation, or of the vestiges of early revelation on this point, it is not necessary here to treat ; but I shall have occasion to mention some curious ideas re- pecting the manifestation of the Deity upon earth, which occur in examining the mysteries of ancient Egypt. Oracles were of very remote date among the Egyptians; and the Greeks, as well as some other people, were indebted to them for their institu- tion. " The origin of the different deities," says Herodotus *, " their form, their nature, and their immortality, are with the Greeks only notions of yesterday ; and the first who have described them in their theogony, are Hcsiod and Homer, who are only my predecessors by 400 years. They men- tioned their names, their worship, their offices in heaven, and their general appearance ; and tiic poets who are said to have preceded those two, came, in my opinion, some time after them." " Nearly all * lleroilot. ii. 53. L 2 148 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII. the names of Greek Divinities," says the same his- torian *, *' came from Egypt, or at least the greater part; for, with the exception of Neptune, the Dio- scuri t, Juno, Vesta, Themis, the Graces, and Ne- reids, the names of all the Gods have been always known in Egypt. In stating this, I only repeat what the Egyptians themselves acknowledge to be the case ; and the names of deities unknown to them I suppose to have been of Pelasgic origin, with the exception of Neptune, which is from Libya, where that Deity has always been held in particular veneration. With regard to Heroes, theij receive no funereal ho7iours from the Egyptians. The Greeks, indeed, borrowed from the Egyptians the religious rites used among them, many of which I shall have occasion to notice ; but it is not from them, but from the Pelasgi, that the Athenians, and after them the other Greeks, derived the custom of giving to the statues of Mercury a phalhc atti- tude, the religious reason of which may be found explained in the mysteries of Samothrace." He- rodotus states that the Egyptians were strangers to the names t of the above-mentioned Deities; but we are not thence to infer that the Deities them- selves were unknown to them ; and there is direct evidence of three, Juno, Vesta, and Themis, hold- ing a distinguished position in the Pantheon of Egypt. Juno was called Sate, Vesta Anouke, and Themis was doubtless derived from the Egyptian * Herodot. ii. 53. f Castor and Pollux, the reputed sons of Jupiter. J But surely tliey were not strangers even to the 7ia»ie of Themis, being so closely allied to the Thmci of Egypt. CHAP. XII. WORSHIP OF GODS FROM EGYPT. 119 Tlimeit the Goddess of Truth and Justice, from wlioip. were borrowed both her attributes and name. The historian then goes on to observe*, "that the Pelasgi did not at first assign any name to their Divinities, but merely applied to them the general apj)ellation of Gods, according to the order of the different parts which constituted the universe, and the manner in which they had organised them. It was not till a late j)eriod that they came to know their names, which were introduced from Egypt; and they learnt that of Bacchus long after those of the other Gods. In process of time they went to consult the oracle of Dodona upon this very point ; and having received for answer that they might adopt the names taken from foreigners, the Pelasgi thenceforth used them in their sacrifices, and the Greeks borrowed them from the Pelasgi." If the ceremonies and worship of Bacchus were introduced into Greece by Melampus t, and if some trifling changes were made in them, it was only done in order to suit the taste of the new votaries ; and it is evident, says Herodotus, from the great variance that exists between their rites and Greek manners, and from their resemblance to those of the Egyptians, that they were derived from that people. Other religious ceremonies introduced from Egypt, also underwent certain changes, as in the case of the Phalhc Mercury above alluded to; and thou2;h Herodotus t derives the form of tliat deity from a Samothracian custom, there is great * Herodot. ii. 52. f Ileroilot. ii. 49. J Herodot. ii. 51. h 3 150 THE AXCIEXT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII. reason to suppose that it was borrowed from the figure of the Pan of Chemmis.* The ancient oracle of Dodona was allowed, even by the priestesses themselves, to have been of Egyptian origin t, as well as that of the Libyan Amnion ; and the oracles of Diospolis, or Egyptian Tliebest, bore a strong resemblance to the former of those two. The principal oracles in Egypt were of the Theban Jupiter, of Hercules, Apollo, Minerva, Diana, Mars, and above all of Latona, in the city of Buto, which the Egyptians held in the highest veneration ; but the mode of divining differed in all of them, and the power of giving oracular answers was confined to certain Deities. § There was also an oracle of Besa, according to Ammianus l! in Abydus, a city of the Thebaid %y where that Deity was worshipped with long esta- blished honours ; though others assign a different position to his celebrated temple, in the vicinity of Antinoe, v/hich place is supposed to have usurped the site of the old town of Besa. The mode of obtaining answers was here, as at Heliopolis **, through the medium of persons deputed for the * Both from tlie office of Mercury, and from what he says of the mysteries of the Cabiri. ■f Herodot. ii. 55. j Herodot. ii. 58. § Herodot. ii. 83. 15-2. II Ammian. Marcell. lib. xix. 12. " Besje Dei .... oraculum quon- dam fiitura [jandebat, priscis circumjacentium regionum cserinioniis so litum coli chartulse seu raembranK continentes quae petebantur post data quoque responsa interdum remanebant in fano." % Ammianus says, " at the extremity of the Thebaid," which was not the situation of Abydus. I am inclined to think he should have said Antinoe. ** Macrob. Saturn, lib. i. .30. " Consulunt hunc dcum (He'iopoli- CHAP. XII. ORACLES. lol purpose, who carried the questions in writing, ac- cording to a proper formuhi *, and deposited them sealed in the temple, the answers being returned in the same secret and ceremonious manner. Zo- simus relates, that in the time of Constantius, some of the sealed answers, which, as usual, had been left in the temple, were sent to the Emperor, and the discovery of their contents subjected many persons to imprisonment and exile ; apparently in conse- quence of the oracle hav'ing been applied to re- specting the fate of the empire, or the success of some design against his life. Different forms were required in consulting dif- ferent oracles. At Aphaca, a town between He- liopolis and Byblus, where Venus had a temple, was a lake, into which those who went to consult the oracle of that Goddess threw presents, of what- ever kind they chose, and derived omens from their sinking, or swimming on the surface. If agreeable to the Goddess, they sank, if not they floated ; and Zosimus states, that in the year pre- ceding their ruin, the offerings of the Palmyrenes sank, and the following year a contrary result pre- dicted the calamity which befell them.t " On consulting the god at the Oasis of Ammon, it was customary," says Quintus Curtius, " for tiie tanum), et abscntcs missis diplomatibus consignatis : rescribitquc ordiiic ad ea quEu consultationc abdita continentur." * Pliny (xxviii. 2.), speaiving of" consulting oracles, says the greatest care was taken lest a word should be omitted, or even pronounccil wrong, and all was according to a set form. Conf. Juvenal. Sat. vi. .390. " dictataque verba " Protulit, (ut mos est,) et aperta palluit agna." f Jlcle Banier, Mytholog. tome ii. liv. i. c. i. p. 40. L 4 152 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII. priests to carry a gilded boat, ornamented with nu- merous silver paterce hanging from both its sides, behind which followed a train of matrons and virgins singing a certain uncouth hymn, in the manner of their country, with a view to propitiate the Deity, and induce him to return a satisfactory answer." The oracle of Amnion enjoyed for ages the high- est celebrity, and was looked upon by foreigners, as well as Egyptians, with the most profound respect, missions from all countries being sent to consult it, and learn its infallible answers : but in Strabo's * time it began to lose its former renown ; the sibyls of Rome and the soothsayers of Etruria having sub- stituted omens drawn from the flight of birds, the inspection of victims, and warnings from heaven, for the longer process of oracular consultation ; though, according to Juvenal t, the answers of Ammon continued in his time to be esteemed in the solu- tion of diflicult questions, after " the cessation of the oracle of Delphi." Oracles were resorted to on all occasions of im- portance ; and sometimes messages were sent from them spontaneously to those, whom they intended to advise, in the form of warnings against an approaching calamity, or as an indication of the divine will. Mycerinus was censured for not having accomplished the intentions of the Gods, and received intimation of his approaching death ; Sabaco retired from the kingdom in consequence * Strabo, xvii. p. 559. f Jiiv. Sat. vi. 554: " credent a fonte relatiim ITammonis : quoniam Delphis oracula cessaiit." CHAr. XII. ASTROLOGICAL PREDICTIONS. 153 of the predictions and promises of an oracle*; and Neco was warned not to continue the canal from the Nile to the Red Sea, lest he should expose his country to foreign invasion. t Oracles were also consulted, like the magicians of the present day, in cases of theft; and Amasis is reported to hav^e be- stowed presents on those which he found capable of returning true answers, and remarkable for dis- crimination. They predicted future events, both relative to private occurrences, and natural phenomena ; for which purpose, Diodorus t tells us, they took ad- vantage of their skill in arithmetical calculations; this last being of the highest importance to them in the study of astrology. *' For the Egyptians most accurately observe the order and movement of the stars, preserving their remarks upon each for an incredible number of years; that study having been followed by them from the earliest times. They most carefully note the movements, revolu- tions, and positions of the planets, as well as the influences possessed by each upon the birth of animals, whether yjroductive of good or evil. And they fi'equently foretell what is about to happen to mankind with the greatest accuracy, showing the failure and abundance of crops, or the epidemic dis- eases about to befal men or cattle: and earthquakes, deluges, the rising of comets, and all those phjeno- mena, the knowledge of which appears impossible to vulgar comprehensions, they foresee by means * Ilcrodot. ii. 133. 139. |- Ilcrodot. ii. I.J8. J Diodor. i. 81. 154 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII. of their long-continued observations. It is, indeed, supposed that tlie Chaldeans of Babylon, being an Egyptian colony, arrived at their celebrity in as- trology in consequence of what they derived from the priests of Egypt." ** The art of predicting future events, as prac- tised in the Greek temples," says Herodotus, '*came also from the Egyptians; and it is certain that they were the first people who established festivals, public assemblies, processions, and the proper mode of approaching or communing with the Divinity."* The manner of doing this depended on the object of the votary, and a proper offering was required for each service. Meat and drink offerings, and oblations of dif- ferent kinds, made by the Jews, were in like manner established by law, and varied according to the oc- casion. *' Some were free-will offerings t, others of obligation. The firstfruits, the tenths, and the sin- offerings were of obligation; the peace-offerings, vows, offerings of wine, oil, bread, salt, and other things made to the temple, or the ministers of the Lord, were of devotion. The Hebrews called offerings in general Corhan ; but those of bread, salt, fruits, and liquors, as wine and oil, presented to the temple, they termed Mincha. Sacrifices, not being properly offerings, were not generally included under this name. Offerings of grain, meal, bread, cakes, fruits, wine, salt, oil, were common in the temple. These were sometimes presented alone ; sometimes they accompanied the * Heroilot. ii. 58. f r/(/c Calmet ;" Offerings." CHAT. XII. OFFERINGS OF THE JEWS. 155 sacrifices : but honey was never offered with sacri- fices ; though it might be presented alone, as first- fruits.* *' There were five sorts of offerings called Mincha {Minkheli) or Corban Mincha t: 1. — Fine flour or meal. 2. Cakes of several sorts, baked in the oven. 3. Cakes baked on a plate. 4. Another sort of cakes, baked on a plate with holes in it. 5. The firstfruits of the new corn ; wliich were offered either pure and without mixture, roasted, or parched, either in the ear, or out of the ear. The cakes were kneaded with olive oil, fried in a pan, or only dipped in oil after they were baked. The bread offered to the altar was without leaven, for leaven was never offered on the altar, nor with the sacrifices t; but they might make presents of common bread to the priests and ministers of the temple. These offerings were ap- pointed in favour of the poor, who could not afford the charge of sacrificing animals ; though, when living victims were offered, they were not excused from giving meal, wine, and salt, as an accompani- ment to the greater sacrifices. Those who made oblations of bread, or of meal, presented also oil, incense, salt, and wine, which were in a mannei- their seasoning. The priest in waiting received the offerings from the hand of him who brought them, laid a part on the altar, and reserved the rest for his own subsistence, as a minister of the Lord. Notliing was wholly burnt up but the incense, of which the priest retained none.§ When an Israelite offered * Levit. ii. 1), 12. f Lcvit. ii. !. X Levit. ii. 11. ^ T^A- Lcvit. ii. 2. 10. Niimh. w. 4, 5. lo6 THE ANCIEXT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII. a loaf to the priest, or a whole cake, the priest divided it into two parts, and having set aside the portion re- served for himself, he broke the other into crumbs, poured on it oil, salt, wine, and incense, and spread the whole on the fire of the altar. If these offerings were accompanied by an animal for a sacrifice, this portion was all thrown on the victim, to be con- sumed with it. If the offerings were ears of new corn (wheat or barley), they were parched at the fire, or in the flame, and rubbed in the hand, and then offered to the priest in a vessel ; who put oil, incense, wine, and salt ov^er the grain, and burnt it on the altar, first having taken his own portion.* *' The greater part of these offerings were volun- tary, and of pure devotion. But when an animal was offered in sacrifice, they were not at liberty to omit them. Every thing proper was to accompany the sacrifice, and serve as seasoning to the victim. In some cases, the law required only offerings of corn, or bread ; as when they offered the firstfruits of harvest, whether on the part of the nation, or as a mark of devotion from private persons. As to the quantity of meal, oil, wine, or salt, to accom- pany the sacrifices, we cannot see that the law deter- mined it. Generally, the priest threw a handful of meal or crumbs on the fire of the altar, with wine, oil, and salt in proportion, and all the incense ; the rest belonging to himself, and the quantity de- pending on the liberality of the offerer. Moses ap- pointed t an assaron (ni^ti^y asJiirefh), or the tenth part of an ephah, of fine flour, for those who could * Levit. ii. l:t, \.j. f Levit. viii. 11., and xiv. 21. CHAP. XII. VARIOUS OFFERINGS. 157 not bring two turtle doves, or two young pigeons, and had not wherewith to offer the appointed sin- offerings. In the solemn offerings of the firstfruits for the whole nation, they offered an entire sheaf of corn, a lamb of a year old, two tenths of fine meal mixed with oil, and a quarter of a liin of wine for the libation.* In the sacrifice of jealousy, when a husband accused his wife of infidelity, the husband offered the tenth part of an ephah of barley meal, without oil or incense, because it was an offering of jealousy," " an offering of memorial t;" and the priest pronounced a curse upon the woman, in the event of her having committed a sin, making her drink a cup of bitter water to prove her innocence, or her guilt. In like manner, among the Egyptians, a peculiar mode of addressing a })rayer, or of offering a sacri- fice, was required for different occasions, as well as for different Deities ; numerous instances of which occur in the sculptured representations of sacrifices in their temples. Nor do ancient authors fail to inform us of this fact ; and it w^as forbidden, says Herodotus t, to immolate the pig to any Deity ex- cept the Moon and Bacchus. That different animals were chosen for sacrifice in various parts of Egypt, is evident from the re- corded customs of some of the nomes and cities, where thev abstained from oficrino- such as were sacred ; and consequently, the same animal which was revered and forbidden to be slaughtered tor * Levit. xxiii. 10. ct seq. Xiunb. v. \5. f Niiinl). V. I.i. /'/V/c- Call net. J lleroilot. ii. 47. 1.58 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII. the altar or the table, in one part of the country, was sacrificed, and eaten in another. Thus the Mendesians, who offered up sheep, abstained from goats, which they held in particular veneration; and the Thebans, who permitted no sheep to be slain, immolated goats on the altars of their Gods.* On the fete of Jupiter, a ram was slain, and the statue of the Deity being clad in the skin, the people assembled about the temple to make a solemn la- mentation, and inflict numerous stripes upon their persons, in token of their regret for the death of the sacred animal, whose corpse was afterwards de- posited in a consecrated case. Plutarch affirms t, that, " of all the Egyptians, none eat sheep except the Lycopolites ; and that because the wolf does so, which they revere as a Deity;" and thus it was that, in one part of the country, certain rites were performed, which differed totally from those of the rest of Egypt. This, however, did not extend to the worship of the great Gods of their religion, as Osiris t, Amun, Ptliah, and others, who were universally looked upon with becoming reverence, and treated, not as arbitrary emblems, but as the mysterious representations of some abstract qualities of the Divinity itself; and if one or other of them was more peculiarly worshipped in certain cities or pro- vinces of Egypt, it was from his being considered the immediate patron and presiding deity. But * Herodot. ii. 4-2, 46. f Pliit. de Is, s. 72. J If Osiris was not nominally one of the eight great Gocls,he in reality lield a rank eqnal to any. CHAP. XII. RITES IN DIFFERENT TOWNS. 159 thougli liis protection and assistance were particu- larly invoked by the inhabitants, other Deities shared with him the honours of the sanctuary, under the name of Contemplar Gods, whose united favours they did not fail to implore. With this feeling, the dedication and votive prayers put up in the temples were addressed to the presiding Deityandthe Con- templar Gods* ; and if the former held the most conspicuous post in the adytum and other parts of the temple, the latter received all the respect due to them as equally sacred, though not enjoying the same external honours in that building. And thus, again, we find that separate temples were raised to various Deities in the same city. In the worship of sacred animals the case was different; and it frequently happened, that those which were adored in some parts of Egypt, were abhorred and treated as the enemies of mankind in other provinces : deadly conflicts occasionally re- sulting from this worship or detestation of the same animal. The arbitrary choice of peculiar emblems, and the adoration paid to animals and inanimate ob- jects, frequently depended upon accident, or some peculiar local reason ; and though great respect was shown to the ichneumon, from its destroying the eggs of the crocodile, in places where that animal was considered an enemy of man, it obtained no honours in those where the crocodile was a sacred * For instance, at Onihos, where the presiding Deity was Aroeris, the dcdicaticn says that the " Infantry and cavalry and others stationed in tlieOinbitenome, dedicated the adytum to Aroeris, tlic great Cnxj Apollo, anil to the contcni[)lar deities, for their benevolence towards them." 160 THE ANCIEXT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII. animal, as the type of a beneficent Deity. This remark applies equally to other sacred emblems, as I shall have occasion to show in describing the sa- cred animals. But if, in most instances, the motives assigned for their choice appear capricious and un- satisfactory, we frequently discover some plausible pretext derived from a sanatory notion, as in the case of their abstinence from the meat of swine, from beans and *' most sorts of pulse *," and from certain fish of the Nile ; or connected with some advantage to mankind ; and in order to command the observ- ance of these injunctions, and to prevent the pos- sibility of their being disregarded, many forbidden things were denominated sacred, or reputed to par- take of the nature of the Gods. *' For," says Por- phyry, " the Egyptians either considered animals to be really Deities, or represented their (jods with the heads of oxen, birds, and other creatures, in order that the people might abstain from eating them, as they did from using human flesh, or for some other more mysterious reason ; " and religious prejudice commanded respect for them as for " their melo- dies, which were preserved through successive ages as the actual poems of the Goddess Isis." t In process of time, the original motive was for- gotten, and mere blind adoration took its place : but Plutarch says t, " it is evident that the religious rites and ceremonies of the Egyptians were never instituted on irrational grounds, or built on mere fable and superstition ; all being founded with a * These ami fish were forbidden to the priests. Jlde Plut. de Is. s. 5. f Plato, Sd Book of Laws, p. 790. t Pint, de Iside, s. 8. CHAP. XII. RIDICULE OF THE GREEKS. 161 view to promote the morality and happiness of those whose duty it was to observe tliem." Tlie Greeks frequently delighted in deridinp- the religious notions of the Egyptians : and, in- deed, considering the strange animals, the fish, and even vegetables, admitted to a participation of di- vine honours, and the lamentations they uttered when death or any accident befell them, we may readily conceive that the lively wit of a Greek, who looked upon this superstitious custom in a literal point of view, would not fail to seize the points most open to ridicule. Antiphanes *, in his Lycon, speaking jestingly of the Egyptians, says, " Be- sides, clever as they are reputed in other things, they sliow tliemselves doubly so in thinking the eel equal to the Gods ; for surely it is more worthy of honour than any Deity, since we have only to give prayers to the Gods ; but we must spend upon the eel at least 12 drachmas or more, merely to smell it, — so perfectly holy is this animal!" Anaxan- dridest, in his play of the Cities, addressing the same people, observes, — *' I cannot agree with you ; our customs and laws differ so widely: you adore tlie ox ; I sacrifice it to the Gods : you think the eel a very great Deity ; we look upon it as the most delicious dainty: you abstain from the flesh of swine ; I delight in it above all things : you adore the dog ; I give him a good beating whenever I catch him stealing any meat. Here a priest * Athen. Dcipn. vii. p. -BOO. eel. Cas. f Athen. loc. cit. VOL. I. — Second Seuies. M 162 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII. is required to be whole in every part ; with you, it appears, they are mutilated. If you see a cat in- disposed, you weep ; I am delighted to kill it, and take its skin : the mygale, with you, has great in- fluence ; with us, none." Timocles *, also, in his Egyptians, says, *' How could the ibis or the dog have preserved me ? for when persons irreverent towards those, who are really confessed to be Gods, escape immediate punishment, whose offences shall be visited by the Altar of a Cat?" The favourable opportunity of indulging in sa- tire, presented by the superstitions of Egypt, could not escape the severe lash of Juvenal, who thus commences his Fifteenth Satire : — " Who knows not, Bithynian Volusius, what monsters Mad Egypt can worship ? tliis place adores a crocodile ; That fears an il)is saturated with ser|)ents. A golden image of a sacred Ccrcopithecus shines Where the magic chords resound from the half Mcmnon, And ancient Thebes lies overthrown with its hundred gates. There a sea-fish, here a river-fish, there Whole towns worship a dog, nobody Diana. It is a sin to violate a leek or an onion, or to break them with a bite, () holy nation, for whom are born in gardens These Deities ! every table abstains from animals bearing Wool ; it is there unlawful to kill the offspring of a she-goat. But lawful to be fed with human flesh." f The animal worship of the Egyptians naturally struck all people as a ludicrous and gross supersti- tion ; but when Xenophanes and others deride their religious ceremonies by observing, — If your Gods are really Gods, weep not for them; if men, do not offer them sacrifices, — the objection comes badly * Athen. loc. cit. -}• This is an exaggeration and a licence of satire. CHAP. Xrr, THEIR SUPERSTITIONS. l63 from a Greek ; and, as Clemens justly remarks, that people had little reason to criticise the religion of the Egyptians j for into the Pantheon of Greece a greater number of deified men were admitted, than into that of any ancient people ; and the legendary tales of the deities degraded their nature by attri- buting to them the most inconsistent and disgust- ing vices. On the superstition of the Egyptians in consider- ing animals or herbs to be Gods, and in lament- ing their death, Plutarch observes *, — *' Struck with the manifest absurdity of these things, Xe- nophanes the Colophonian, and other philosophers who followed him, might not only have said to the Egyptians, — 'if ye believe them to be Gods, why do ye weep for them ? if they deserve your lamentations, why do ye repute them Gods?' — - but they might have added, that it was still more ridiculous to weep for the fruits of the earth, and at the same time to pray for them, that they would appear again, and bring themselves to maturity, to be again consumed, and again lamented : '* and nothing could be more open to censure than the folly of the Egyptians in paying divine honours to the brute creation. For whatever may have been their original motive, the natural consequence of its introduction ought to have been foreseen : they may have deified some to insure their preservation, because they were useful to the country ; others may have been called sacred, to prevent their un- wholesome meat becoming an article of food ; and * Pint, tic Is. s. 71. ivi 2 164 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII. some may have been selected as emblems of certain Deities, from various reasons : but the result ought to have been anticipated, and an enhghtened priest- hood sliould have guarded men's minds against so dangerous a fallacy. For, as Plutarch observes *, " The Egyptians, — at least, the greater part of them, — by adoring the animals themselves, and reverencing them as Gods, have not only filled their religious worship with many contemptible and ridiculous rites, but have even given occasion to notions of the most dangerous consequence, driving the weak and simple-minded into all the extravagance of superstition." It was likewise unjust and inconsistent that the priesthood should have a creed peculiar to them- selves, and the people be left in utter ignorance of the fundamental doctrines of their religion ; that in proportion as their ideas were raised towards the contemplation of the nature of a God, tlie other classes, tyrannically forbidden to participate in those exalted studies, should be degraded by a be- lief totally at variance with the truths imparted to the initiated ; and whilst these last were acquainted with the existence of one Deity in Unity, and the operations of the Creative power, that the unin- structed should be left and even taught to worship a multiplicity of Deities, whose only claims to ador- ation were grounded upon fable. The office of the Gods was, perhaps, in early times more simply defined, their numbers smaller, their attributes less complicated; but the weakness * Plut. de Is. s. 71. CHAP. Xir. IGNORANCE OF THE PEOPLE. l6.5 of men's minds, wlicn untutored on religious sub- jects, soon paved tlie way for idle superstition ; the belief of genii, and spirits, pervading the universe, led to the adoration of fancifid beings ; and perverted notions respecting the Deity, obliterating every trace of the simple original, effectually prevented the uninitiated from suspecting the real nature of their religion. And so gross at length became their ideas, that the character of the Gods they worshipped was degraded, their supposed actions censured, or their non-interference avenged by an insult to their statues or their names. It is not, then, surprising that foreigners should be struck with the absurdities which, from outward appearances, the religion of Egypt piesented; and the animals chosen as emblems of the Gods, or as substitutes for the divine rulers of the world, were frequently calculated to give a very low o})inion of the exalted personages of whom they were thought to be proper representatives ; and however a})pro- priately the hieroglyphics might indicate a cliild by a goose*, the God of learning could scarcely be flattered by being figured under the form of an Ape, or the Creator of the world, who made all things perfect, under the deformed character of the pigmy Pthah. An Egyptian priest, it is true, might object to his religion being judged by the standard of our ideas ; he might insist upon the necessity of secrecy in the mysteries, in order to prevent tlie dan- * In fact, merely in consequence of its phonetic or al[)liabetic value. M 3 166 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII. gerous speculations of those who were not subject to the oaths of mitiation ; and he might suggest that, in the most simple and pure religions, many expressions had secret meanings, and that a literal interpretation of them would offend against the spirit of the religion itself. In justice, therefore, some allowance should be made for the allegorical religion of the Egyptians : and when we reflect tliat it contained many im- portant truths, founded upon early revelations made to mankind, and treasured up in secret to prevent their perversion ; we may be disposed to look more favourably on the doctrines they enter- tained, and to understand why it was considered worthy of the divine legislator to be " learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians." That the reasons assigned for tlie worsliip of certain objects are highly ridiculous, cannot be doubted, and no satisfactory motive can be disco- vered for many of the religious customs estabhshed in Egypt ; but we may be satisfied that ancient authors were not sufficiently acquainted with the subject to place these points in their proper hght — much less to give any satisfactory explanation ; and their origin and tendency becoming at length en- veloped in a cloud of fanciful speculation, few even of the Egyptians themselves were capable of un- derstanding the intricacies of their own religion. It is evident, indeed, that no Egyptian, who was not initiated into the mysteries, understood the purport of the ceremonies he witnessed, or ob- tamed any notion of the nature of the theogony, CHAP. XII. MISTAKEN OPINIONS OF THE GREEKS. iGj beyond that, usually entertained by the votaries of a polytheism : and the fabulous existence of the Gods on earth supplied, among the uninstructed, the place of abstract notions, which the initiated were taught to apply to the external forms they worshipped. It was this ignorance of the nature of the Gods which led the Greeks to believe their positive ex- istence upon earth in a human form, and to receive all the legendary tales of their actions as literal truths ; bringing down the Deities, as Cicero ob- serves, to the level of men, instead of raising men to the level of the Gods. But we find that Plutarch* was so far acquainted with those secrets, (to a par- ticipation of which he had, in a certain degree, been admitted,) as to deride the idea of the Deities having been once human, or having t lived among men ; and a remark made by the Egyptians them- selves to Herodotus and Hecatasus, shows how ig- norant they considered the Greeks on this subject. " For many," says Origen, " listening to accounts they do not understand, relative to the sacred doc- * Plut. dc Is. 22, 23. f Ciccro.says : " Quid ubsurdius quam ant res sordidas, atqne dcfor- mcs, deoi'Lim lionore afficere, aut lioiiiines jam luortc deletes rcponere ill Deos, quorum omnis cultus essct futurus in Inctu 'r " — Nat. Deor. i. The only appearance of a man having the character of a deity occurs in the temple built by Thothmes III. at Sannieh, where Osirtasen III. is represented performing tiie same offices as a God, but we do not know how far he was assimilated to a Deity, and he merely wears a roj/a/ cap. Tiiere are also offerings of Kings, as of other persons, to their deceased parents ; but these are only made to them in tlie character they assumed after death, when they received the name of Osiris, from being supi)oscd to return, after a virtuous life, to the great origin from which they were emanations. Sometimes the King even offers to u figure of himself and his Queen, seated on thrones, before whom he stands as an officiating priest. 108 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII trines of the Egyptian philosophers, fancy that they are acquainted with all the wisdom of Egypt, though they have never conversed with any of the priests, nor received any information from persons initiated into their mysteries. *' Greece,'* observes the Abbe Banier *, *' never had but a confused idea of the liistory of her re- ligion. Devoted without reserve on this important point to her ancient poets, she looked upon them as her first theologians; though these poets, as Strabot judiciously remarks, either through ignorance of antiquity, or to flatter the princes of Greece, had arranged in their favour all the genealogies of the Gods, in order to show that they were descended from them. AVlienever, therefore, any heroes are mentioned in their writings, we are sure to find Hercules, Jupiter, or some other God at the head of their genealogies ; and if the desire to pass for very ancient is common to nearly all people, the Greeks were, of all others, the most conspicuous for this folly. It is, indeed, surprising that they, who could not possibly be ignorant of their having re- ceived many colonies from Egypt and Plioenicia, and with them the Gods and ceremonies of their religion, should venture to assert that those same Deities were of Greek, or Thracian, or Phrygian origin ; for it is to this conclusion that their poets pretend to lead us. But two words of Herodotus, who says that the Gods of Greece came from Egypt, are preferable to all that their poets have put forth * La Mythologie expliquee par THistoire, vol.i. liv. 2. c. 5. -f- Strabo, lib. x. CHAP. Xn. NO MEN DESCENDED FROM GODS. 1^9 on this subject;" and Plato tells us that " when Solon inquu'ed of the priests of Egypt about ancient affairs, he perceived that neither he nor any one of the Greeks (as he himself declared) had any know- ledge of very remote antiquity." "• And as soon as he began to discourse about the most ancient events which happened among the Greeks, as the traditions concerning the first Phoroneus and Niobe, and the deluge of Deucalion and Pyrrha*, one of the more ancient priests exclaimed, ' Solon, Solon, you Greeks are always children, nor is there such a thing as an aged Grecian among you : all your souls are juvenile ; neither containing any ancient opinion derived from remote tradition, nor any dis- cipline hoary from its existence in former periods of time.' "t Justly did the priests deride the ridiculous vanity and ignorance of the Greeks, in deriving their origin from Gods ; and they assured Herodotus t, that dining the long period which elapsed from the commencement of the Egyptian monarchy, to the reign ofSethos, (comprising 341 generations,) "no Deity had appeared on earth, in a human form, nor even before, nor since that time ; " and when *' Hecatgeus," says the historian, " boasted of his genealogy to the priests of Jupiter at Thebes, claiming for his family the honour of being de- scended from a God, whom he reckoned as his * Tlie priests said to Solon, " You mention one deluge on!y, whereas many liii|)i)enctl." Plat, in Tim. p. 46G. trans. Ta\lor. f Plat, in Tim. p. 467. ± Ilcrodot. ii. 142. 170 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII. l6th ancestor, they made the same observation to him as to me, though I had said nothing respect- ing my ancestry. Having taken me into a large consecrated chamber, they showed me a series of as many wooden statues as there had been high priests during the above-mentioned period ; for each high priest, while yet living, had his image placed there ; and having counted them all before me, they proved that every one had succeeded his father at his demise, beginning from the oldest, and coming down to the last. The same had been done before Hecatseus, when he boasted of his ge- nealogy ; and in opposing his pretensions by the number of their high priests, they denied that any man was descended from a Deity. Each statue, they argued, represented a Piromis engendered by a Firomis * (a man engendered by a man) ; and having gone through the whole number of 345, they showed that every one was the son of his predecessor, without a single instance of any being descended from a God, or even a hero." Of their idea respecting the manifestation of the Deity on earth, which the Egyptians entertained in common with the Hindoos, but which is far more remarkable in their mode of treating it, I shall not speak at present. This question is totally different from that of the existence of the Gods on earth, alluded to by Herodotus, and must be looked upon vmder a very different aspect, as the most curious * Piromi is the Egyptian word signifying " the man," which Hero- dotus, from his ignorance of the language, has translated "good and virtuous." The sense itself ought to have pointed out the meaning of the word, romi, " man." CHAP. XII. GODS WITH HEADS OF ANIMALS. I7I mystery which has been traced in the rehgion of Egypt. That the images of the Egyptian Deities were not supposed to indicate real beings, who had actually existed on earth, is abundantly evident from tlie forms under which they were represented; and the very fact of a God being figured with a human body and the head of an ibis, might sufficiently prove the allegorical character of Thoth, or Mer- cury, the emblem of the communicating medium of the divine intellect, and suggest the impossibility of any other than an imaginary or emblematic ex- istence ; in the same manner as the sphinx, with a lion's body and human head, indicative of physical and intellectual power, under which the Kings of Egypt were figured, could only be looked upon as an emblematic representation of the qualities of the monarch. But even this evident and well- known symbol did not escape perversion ; and the credulous bestowed upon the sphinx the cha- racter of a real animal. It signified little, in the choice of a mere emblem, whether it was authorised by good and plausible reasons ; and if, in process of time, the symbol was looked upon with the same veneration as the Deity of whom it was the representative, the cause of this corruption is to be ascribed to the same kind of superstition whicli, in all times and in many re- ligions, has invested a relic with a multiplicity of supposed virtues, and obtained for it as high a veneration as the person to whom it belonged, or of whom it was the type. 172 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII. This substitution of an emblem, as an animal, or any other object, for the Deity, was not the only corruption which took place in the religion of the Egyptians : many of the deities themselves were mere emblematic representations of attributes of the one and sole God : for the priests who were initiated into, and who understood the mysteries of, their religion, believed in one Deity alone ; and, in per- forming their adorations to any particular member of their Pantheon, addressed themselves directly to the sole ruler of the universe, through that par- ticular form. Each form (whether called Pthah, Amun, or any other of the figures representing various characters of the Deity) was one of his attributes ; in the same manner as our expressions " the Creator,*' " the Omniscient," "the Almighty," or any other title, indicate one and the same Being ; and hence arose the distinction between the great Gods, and tliose of an inferior grade, which were physical objects, as the Sun and Moon ; or abstract notions of various kinds, as "valour," "strength," "intellectual gifts," and the like, personified under different forms ; and it is evident that no one, who understood the principles on which the groundwork of the Egyptian Pantheon was based, could suppose that the God of valour, of strength, or of intellect, had ever lived on earth ; and we may readily conceive how the Egyptian priests derided the absurd notions of the Greeks, who gave a real existence to abstract ideas, and claimed a lineal descent from '^strength,'* or any deified attribute of the Divinity. CHAP. Xn. ABSTRACT IDEAS BECAME GODS. 17-3 Upon this principle it is probable, that Gods were made of the virtues, the senses, and, in short, every abstract idea which had reference to the Deity or man ; and we may therefore expect to find, in tliis catalogue, intellect, might, wisdom, creative power, the generative and productive principles, thought, will, goodness, mercy, compassion*, divine vengeance, prudencC; temperance, fortitude, fate, love, TTodog, hope, cliarity, joy, time, space, infinity, as well as sleep, harmony t, and even divisions of time, as the year, month, day, and hours, and an innumerable host of abstract notions. These, in like manner, were admitted into the Pantheon of Greece and Rome, with the addition of some not very delicate or elegant personages; who were frequently permitted to supersede and usurp the place of the more respectable divinities of earlier times. There were also numerous physical Deities in the Egyptian Pantheon, as earth, heaven, the sun and moon, and others, revered for the benefits they con- ferred on man : though the view they took of the elements mentioned by Seneca, a])pears rather to have been a metaphysical than a religious doctrine ; and if they divided each of the four elements into two, making one masculine, the other feminine, it was in order to establish a distinction which ap- peared to correspond to a difference in their nature, * The rahman, and rciliim of the Arahs. ■j- Phitarcli says Harmony was the offspring of Mars and Venus : de Is. s. 48. Tin's, as tlie idea of Minerva sjjringing from the head of Jove, and other simihir fables, shows that many of tlie Greek (iods were, in like manner, personifications of ideas, and attribntes of the Deity. 174 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII. as between the active wind and the passive mist, or inert atmosphere ; between sea and fresh water ; between fire which burns, and light which shines ; between stone and rock, as part of earth, and as cultivable land ; the former of all these being masculine, the latter feminine.* Different people have devised various modes of representing the personages connected with their religion. The Egyptians adopted a distinguishing mark for their Gods, by giving them the heads of animals, or a peculiar dress and form, which gene- rally, even without the hieroglyphic legends, suf- ficed to particularise them ; but they had not arrived at that refinement in sculptiu'e which enabled the Greeks to assign a peculiar face and character to each Deity. This was an effort of art to which none but the most consummate masters could attain : and even the Greeks sometimes de- viated from these conventional forms; the Apollo, or the Bacchus, of one age, differing from those of another; and the lion skin, the dolphin, the crescent, or the eagle, were generally required to identify the figures of a Hercules, a Venus, a Diana, or a Jove. Indeed, in so extensive a Pantheon as that of Egypt, it would be impossible to maintain the peculiarities of features, even if adopted for the principal Gods ; and the Christians have found k necessary to dis- * Vide Senec. Nat. Quaest. iii. l-t. p. 870. " ^Egyptii quatuor ele- menta fecere : deinde ex singulis bina, marem et foeminara. Aerem mareni judicant, qua ventus est, foeminam qua nebulosus et iners. Aquam virilem vocant mare, muliebrem omnem aliam. Ignem vocant masculam qua ardet flamma, et foeminam qua lucet innoxius tactu. Terram fortiorcm marem vocant, saxa cautesque ; foeminae nomen assig- nant huic tractabili ad culturam." CHAP. XII. GODS KEPT DISTINCT FROM MEN. IJS tinguisli the Apostles and saints by various accoin- jianying devices, as the eagle, the lion, a wheel, or other symbols. Though the priests were aware of the nature of their Gods, and all those who understood the mys- teries of the religion looked upon the Divinity as a sole and undivided Being, the people, as I have already observed, not admitted to a participation of those important secrets, were left in perfect ignorance respecting the objects they were taught to adore ; and every one was not only permitted, but encouraged, to believe the real sanctity of the idol, and the actual existence of tlie God whose figure he beheld. The bull Apis was by them deemed as sacred and as worthy of actual worship as the Divinity of which it was the type ; and in like manner were other emblems substituted for the Deities they represented- But, however the ignorance of the uninstructed may have misinter- preted the nature of the Gods, they did not commit the same gross error as the Greeks, who brought down the character of the creative power, the de- miurge who made the world, to the level of a black- smith ; this abstract idea of the Egyptians being to the Greeks the working Vulcan, with the ham- mer, anvil, and other implements of an ordinary forge. The Egyptians may have committed great ab- surdities in their admission of emblems in lieu of the Gods ; they were guilty of the folly of figuring the Deities under the forms of animals ; but tliey did not put them on an equality with earthly beings, by 176 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII. giving them the ordinary offices of men : they al- lowed tliem still to be Gods ; and their fault was rather the elevation of animals and emblems to the rank of Deities, than the bringing down of the Gods to the level of mankind. In noticing the religion of the Egyptians, it is not my intention to enter into a detailed account of the offices and attributes of the numerous Gods who composed their Pantheon, nor, indeed, have we as yet sufficient data to enable us to penetrate into all the intricacies of this curious question ; I shall therefore confine mvself to the o'eneral forms and characters of the Deities, and endeavour to explain the principle on which the superstructure of their Theogony was based. In the early ages of mankind, the existence of a sole and omnipotent Deity, who created all things, seems to have been the universal belief; and tra- dition taught men the same notions on this subject, which in later times have been ado})ted by all ci- vilised people. Whether the Egyptians arrived at this conclusion from mere tradition, or from the conviction resulting from a carefid consideration of the question, I will not pretend to decide ; suffice it to know that such was their belief, and the same which was entertained by many philosophers of other nations of antiquity. Some of the Greeks, in early times, had the same notions respecting their theogony, as we learn from a very old author, "if it be true," as the Abbe Banier * observes, * Mytholog. vol. i. lib. 2. c. 5. CHAP. XII. EARLY NOTIONS OF THE GREEKS. 177 " that Pronapides adopted them, who was the pre- ceptor of Homer, as Boccaccio* affirms, on the authority of" a fragment of Tlieodontiiis. Accord- ing to this ancient theogony, the most rational of all, there was only one eternal God, from whom all the other Deities were produced. It was not per- mitted to give any name to this first Being f, and no one could say who he was. Anaxagoras thought to have defined him, by saying that he was voui,-, understanding. However, as the most simple ideas have been altered in after times, Lactantius, the scholiast of Statins, calls this sovereign Being Dai- mogorgon, as does the author above alluded to, in imitation of Theodontius. His name signifies the Genius of the Earth ; but, from the description given of this God, it scarcely agrees with the idea tliat the first philosophers entertained of Him ; for it is right to observe that the poets, who were the earliest theologians of Greece, have, as it were, personified their ideas, and made out theogonies according to their fancy, though they appear always to suppose a Being really independent. Most of them agree in an eternity, an ontogony, or gene- ration of beings, some of whom are heavenly, others earthly or infernal ; but Daimogorgon and Aclilys, according to their system, were before the world, even anterior to chaos. Their Acmon, their Hypsistus, existed before the heavens, which the Latins called Coelus, and the Greeks Ouranos. * Genealog. of -the Gods, i. c. 3. ■j- Statins says, " Et triplicis imindi sumnuim, qiicm scire nefastiim est, ilium sod tacco." Thcbais, lib. 4. v. .'31(). VOL. I Second Serifs. N 178 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII. According to them, the Earth, Tartarus, and Love preceded Coelus, since we find m Hesiod that this last was son of the Eartli * : and some considered Ac- mon to be the father of Coelus, and the son of Manes. Coelus also was the parent of Saturn, who was himself the father of the other Gods. The giants, sons of the Earth, came afterwards, andTyphon was the last of them ; after whom were the Demigods, engendered by an intercourse between the Gods and the inhabitants of the earth.*' It is still doubtful if the Egyptians really repre- sented, under any form, their idea of the unity of the Deity ; it is not improbable that his name, as with the Jews, was regarded with sucli profound respect as never to be uttered ; and the Being of Beings, *' who is, and was, and will be," was perhaps not even referred to in the sculptures, nor supposed to be approachable, unless under the name and form of some deified attribute, indicative of his power, and connection with mankind. Many allegorical figures are supposed to have been adopted for this purpose ; and Greek writers have imagined that tlie snake curled into the form of a circle, with its tail in its mouth, and other si- milar emblems, were used by the Egyptians to in- dicate the unutterable name of the eternal Ruler of the universe : but these are merely symbols of his deified attributes, (if, indeed, the snake in that form can be admitted among the number t ;) and neither the snake, the emblem of Neph, the hawk, * Though Saturn was said to be son of CceIus and Terra, ■j- It does not appear to be met with singly in the ancient temples as the representative of any Egyptian Deity. CHAP. Xir. THE UNITY OF THE DEITY. 179 nor any other emblem, can be considered in any way connected with the unity of the Deity. Even Osiris liimself cannot be looked upon as the Deity in Unity; though his character of Judge of the dead in the region of Amenti, and his mys- terious nature as an Av^atar, give him a higher and more comprehensive rank than any other God*: and it is not a little remarkable that he there appears as one of two members of a separate triad, though he had returned, after performing his duties on earth during his manifestation, to that state from which he was supposed to proceed. One of the most perplexing parts of the Egyptian system is the varied character of the same Deity ; and the many names of Osiris, as the title *' M^r'wnijmus" (J^ with ten thousand names,"') given to Isis, show the difficulty of ascertaining their office on different occasions. It appears then that the Divinity himself was not represented in the Egyptian sculptures, and that the figures of the Gods were deified attributes in- dicative of the intellect, power, goodness, might, and other qualities of the eternal Being; which, in some measure accords with the opinion of Damas- cius, who observes, that " nearly all philosophers prior to lamblichus asserted that there was one su- peressential God, but that the other Deities had an essential subsistence, and were deified by illumin- ations from the one." Some, which belonged to the Divinity himself, were considered the great Gods of the Egyptian Pantheon ; the next class of Dei- * Vide infra. Chap. xiii. on Osiris. N 2 180 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII. ties were emanations from the same source ; and the minor divinities of various grades were the re- presentatives of inferior powers, of physical objects connected with the Creator, and of different ab- stract ideas, whose relative rank depended on the near or distant connection they were deemed to possess with a divine origin. Some, again, were mere deifications of physical objects; and supersti- tion raised to a sacred rank a useful animal, or an unwholesome plant. The same may be observed in the religion of the Greeks and Romans; and to such an extent was this carried by the latter, and so degraded did the office of a deity become, that one was chosen to preside ov'er the common sewers of the city, and a God of coughing* was invented as a suitable pendant to the Goddess Fever, t The Egyptians, like the Greeks and Romans, divided their Gods into different classes or grades. Among the latter, they consisted of the 12 great Gods, — the Dii majorum gentium, or Dii consu- entes, and the Dii minorum gentium ; and the Egyptians, in the same manner, distinguished their eight great Gods from those of an inferior rank. The names of the twelve great Gods of the Greeks have been preserved by Ennius in the following couplet : — " Juno, Vesta, Minerva, Ceres, Diana, Venus, Mars, Mercurius, Jovis, Neptunus, Vulcanus, Apollo ; " each of whom presided over one of the months * It must be allowed that Tussis is not mentioned bj' anj' Latin writer, and rests on mere local tradition, f Cicero, v. 2. " We see a temple to Fever on the Palatine Hill." CHAP. Xir. CLASSES OF GREEK GODS. 181 of the year ; and one of the follies of which Alex- ander was guilty, according to Arrian, was his wishing to be enrolled among these, and to become the thirteenth of the first class of Deities. To the twelve great Gods, the Romans added eight others, called Selecti, or chosen Deities, who were Janus, Satnrn, Genius, the Sun, the Moon, Pluto, Bacchus, and the ancient Vesta, or the Earth. After these ranked the Dii Semones or Seminomi- nes, the demigods ; and then the Indigetes, and those who were attached to certain localities, the household gods, the genii of woods, or rivers, nymphs, and other inferior beings. "Cicero* arranges the Gods in three classes: first, the Dii celestes, who are the same as the Dii ma- jorum gentium ; then the Demigods and the Indi- getes; and, thirdly, the Virtues, which raise man to heaven, and have been themselv'es deified.*' " Varro maintained," says the Abbe Banier, " that there were known and unknown Gods ; and reduced all the Gentile Deities to two classes. In the first were those whose names and offices were defined, as the Sun, Moon, Jupiter, Apollo, and others ; and in the second were placed those of whom nothing positive was known, and to whom it was not lawful to raise altars, or offer sacrifices. The philosopher Albricus considers the seven planets as the seven first Gods of the heathen, whom he arranges in this order : Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Apollo, Venus, Mercury, and the Moon; Pausaniast, Cicero, Hesychius, * De Legib. lil). ii. VideBim. Myth. 1.5. c. 5. f In Eliacis, N 3 IS'2 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII. and many others, speak of altars raised to unknown Deities ; and, in the Acts of the Apostles, St. Paul mentions an altar to the unknown God. " Epemenides, the great prophet of the Cretans, was the author of this notion. " Clemens of Alexandria endeavoured to include all the Pagan deities under seven classes. In the first he placed the stars or heavenly bodies ; in the second, the fruits of the earth and the Gods who presided over them, as Ceres, Pomona, Vertum- nus, Bacchus, and others; thethird comprehended the Furies, and otlier Gods of punishment; in the fourth he placed those of the passions and aflections, as love, modesty, and others ; the vir- tues, as Concord, Peace, and the rest, forming, ac- cording to him, the fifth class. The great Gods, or Dii majorum gentium, occupied the sixth ; and those of health, as Esculapius, Hygieia, Teles- phore, and some more, constituted the seventh. " lamblichus *, a Platonic philosopher, divided the Gods into eight classes. In the first he placed tlie great Gods, who, invisible by their nature, per- vaded the whole universe : that is, doubtless, tlie universal Spirit. The higher order of spirits, whom he called Archangels, occupied the second rank ; and others of an inferior grade, or angels, formed the third. In the fourth were the Demons (oaz/xovs^); those whom he names greater Archontes, — that is, genii who presided over this sublunary world and over the elements, — constituted the fifth ; and the * lainbliclnis dc M3steriis, sect. ii.c. 1. CHAP. XII. GODS OF THE GREEKS. 183 sixth was composed of the minor Archontes, whose power extended over the gross and terrestrial mat- ter. Heroes formed the seventh ; and the souls of men admitted to the order of Gods, occupied the eighth and last class. Other philosophers of the same sect included all the Deities, or we may say, all the Genii, in two classes: those called auAo<, immaterial, and u7>.ajo/, material, occupying the first ; and the mundane and supra-mundane, the second. ** Mercury, or Hermes Trismegistus, is said to have admitted three classes of Gods. In the first were those whom he called heavenly ; in the second, the empyrean ; and in the third, the ethe- rean. *' The Gods were also divided into public and private : the former being those whose worship was established and authorised by law ; the latter, those who were chosen by individuals to be the peculiar object of their worship, as the gods Lares, the Pe- nates *, and the souls of ancestors. ** The most general division is that which classed the Gods under the two heads of the natural and the living Deities : the former consistiniir of the stars and other physical objects ; the latter, of men who had received divine honours. But these did not comprehend all the Deities, since the genii of different kinds were there omitted. Finally, the * This word might be derived from Pi-noute, " the God," but tliat we have a difficult}' in accountinf: for the use of an Egyptian name at llonic. The origin of the pcnatcs is doubtful ; some attributing their introduction to iEneas, which is an idle fable : and a difl'erence of opinion exists about their names ; some supposing them to be Neptune and Apollo ; others, Jove, Juno, and Minerva ; and others, Coelus and Terra. N 4 iSi THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII. system which we should prefer in treating of the Deities of Greece and Rome, divides them into Gods of heaven, of earth, and of the lower regions." These do not seem to accord with the divisions of the Egyptian Pantlieon ; and we may find in the Phoenician Cabiri, a stronger analogy to the great Gods of Egypt, — being, like them, eight in number, and their name implying that they were the great * Gods of the country. The belief of their being the offspring of one great father, called ' Sydik,' ' the just,' may also accord witli the presumed notion of the Egyptians respecting the indivisible one mentioned in the books of Hermes. Herodotus describes the Cabiri in Egypt, as sons of Pthah, or Vulcan, whose statues t resembled those of the Egyptian creator, and speaks of their temple atMemphis, which no one but the priest was allowed to enter; but the mystery observed respecting them, and the slight information obtained by the historian on the subject, render his statement of little use in forming an opinion of their character and office. Though the Egy})tians may have admitted two general divisions of the Gods, which were adopted by Pythagoras and Plato, under the head of vor,Toi^ inteUigibles, and ato-drjroi, sensibles, or metaphysical and physical deities, yet many other distinctions subsisted in the members of their Pantheon ; and the gradations, even among those of the first-men- tioned class, were marked and numerous. The * Kabir, or Kebir, " great," the common Hebrew and Arabic won!, in use to the present day ; as is Sadek, or Sedeek, the "just." \- Their statues were of wood, as were those of old times in Egypt, and in Greece, according to Pausanias (Corinlh. ii. 19.). CHAP. XII. THE GREAT GODS OF EGYPT. 185 aKyQrjTQi, or sensibles, were also distinctly separated from the emblematic types of their divinities. The great Gods of the Egyptians * were, Ncph, Amnn, Pthah, Khem, Sate, Maut, (or perhaps Biito,) Bubastis, and Neith, one of whom generally formed, in conjunction with other two, a triad, which was worshipped by a particular city, or district, with peculiar veneration. In these triads, the third member proceeded from the other two ; that is, from the first by the second, thus : the intellect of the Deity, having operated on matter, produced the result of these two, under the form and name of the world, or created things, called by the Greeks xoo-^o^t; and on a similar principle appear to have been formed most of these speculative combinations. The third member of a triad, as might be supposed, was not of equal rank with the two from whom it proceeded; and we therefore find that Khonso, the third person in the Theban triad, was not one of the greatGods, as were the other two, Amun and Maut: Horus, in the triad of Philge, was inferior to Osiris and Isis ; and Anouke to Neph and Sate, in tlie triad of Elephantine and the Cataracts. I do not })retend to decide respecting the origin of the notions entertained by the Egyptians of the triad into which the Deity, as an agent, was divided ; nor can I attempt to account for their belief in his * Diodorus (lib. i. s. 13.) mentions eight names, but fails lo inform us if they were the eight great Deities of Egypt. They are, " Sol, Saturn, Khea, Jupiter, Juno, Vulcan, Vesta, Mercury." Evander says the eight (ioJs of Egypt were Saturn, Hhea, Osiris, spirilns, heaven, earth, night, and day. f Vide Plutarch k\q Iside, s. oG. 186 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII. manifestation upon earth : similar ideas had been handed down from a very early period, and having been imparted to the immediate descendants of Noah, and the patriarchs, may have reached the Egyptians through that channel, and have been j)reserved and embodied in their religious system. And this appears to be confirmed by the fact of our finding the creative ipowevy whilst in operation upon matter, represented by Moses as a Trinity, and not under the name indicative of unity until after that action had ceased. For the name given to the Deity by the divine legislator, when engaged in the creation of material objects, is not Ihoah *, ('* who is, and will be,") but Elohim t, *'the Gods;" and tliis plural expression is used until the seventh day, when the creation was completed. t That the name Elohim is not intended to refer really to a plurality of Gods §, is shown by the use * Written by us Jehovah, and translated in our version " the Lord, or, when combined with Elohim, " the Lord God." Clemens says, " arap Kai to rsTpnypa^t^oi' oi'o^n to uvutikoj' (niHS) " irtpiiKUVTO o\g Hovoiq rav alvTOV \3a(Jtiiov 7]i', Kfytrai tf laov, b f^itQtp^n]VtvtTcn 6 mv kui 6 fcrofitroc." Strom, lib. v. p. 240. INIany are of opinion that the PhcEnician leuo, the Greek laio, Iukxoc, or Iw^aKyog, and Javo, whence Jovis (the ancient name of Jupiter), Janus, Diana, and others are derived from this name. Vide Hofman's Lexicon. -j- That this word Elohim exactly answers to our word Gods, as ap- plied to all Gods generally, is evident from Exodus, xxii. 20., and other parts of Scripture. J It has been supposed that the Deity then returned to his unity under the name of Ihoah, and under that of Ihoah-Elohim he appears in connection with Man as an intellectual being : man as a material animal having been already noticed, " n)ale and female," among the creations of the first chapter of Genesis (ver. 27.), where the Deity only occurs as Elohim ; and being mentioned in the next as an intellectual being, when God for the first time has the name of Ihoah added lo the previous Elohim, under which he appeared as the creati\ e power. § Some have thought to trace in tiiis an analogy to the notion of Plato, mentioned at the end of this chapter. CHAP. XII. DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY. 187 of the singular verbs, *' baroy" created, *' ira," saw, *' iamer,'^ said, and others, following the plural Elohim, as may be seen throughout the first chapter of Genesis ; and the first verse of that chapter bears the literal translation, " In the beginning jf/c- the Gods created tlie heavens and the earth," or more intelligibly and more closely in the Latin, *' In principio Dii creavit * coelum et terram," where the plural substantive is followed by a sin- gular verb. Thus, the very first verse of the Bible inculcates the doctrine of the Trinity ; but under the title of "He the Gods," or "Gods Almighty," alone was the Deity known to the Patriarchs be- fore the time of Moses ; and the name of Ihoah was not revealed to the Hebrew lawgiver, until the future deliverance of the Israelites from the hand of Pharaoh was promised, when the Deity made a covenant with him under that sacred name ; God saying to Moses t, " I am the Lord (Ihoah), and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God (Gods) Almighty (Elohim Shadai t) ; but by my name Jehovah § was I not known to them." It may appear singular that the principle of a Trinity should be so obscurely noticed in the Old Testament ; but the wise caution of the divine lecis- lator foresaw the danger likely to result from too * Or in French, " Lcs Dieiix cre«." t Exod. vi. 3. X Or Shidce. § Calmet observes, that when Moses uses the name (Ilioah), in speaking of times prior to this appearance ((Jen. iv. '^G. &c.), lie adopts it by way of anticipation, and because at the time lie wrote the Jews were ae(iiiaintcd with it ; that is, he followed the custom cf iiis own day, and not that of the patriarchs. 188 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII. marked an allusion to what a people, surrounded by idolatrous polytheists, might readily construe into the existence of a plurality of Gods : the knowledge, therefore, of this mystery was confined to such as were thought fit to receive so im- portant a secret ; and thus dangerous speculations and perversions were obviated, of which the fancies of an ignorant people, predisposed to idolatry, would not have failed to take advantage. It is unnecessary to enter into the question re- specting the connection between the name of Ihoah and the nature of man, as represented in the second chapter of Genesis ; but 1 have considered it proper, in noticing the adoption of the two, Elohim and Ihoah, to show the possibility of the Egyptian no- tions of a Trinity having been derived from early revelation, handed down through the posterity of Noah ; and I now proceed to mention some other remarkable coincidences with scriptural data. Of these, the most singular are the character of Osiris, and the connection between ti'uth and the creative power. In the latter, we trace the notion, which occurs in the Christian belief, that the Deity " of his own will begat us with the word of truth* ;'' and not only do the sculptures of the earliest periods express the same, and connect the Goddess of Truth with Pthah the creative power, but lamblichus also, in treating of the ancient mysteries, asserts it in these words : *' Whereas he * Epistle Gen. of James, i. 18. Orpheus says, " I call to witness the word of the fatiier, which he first spoke, when he established the universe by his will." — Justin Martyr, Orat. ad Gentes, CHAP. XII. MANirESTATION OF OSIRIS. 189 makes all things in a perfect manner, not decep- tively, but artificially, together with tvuth^ he is called Pthah; but the Greeks denominate him He- phaestus, considering him merely as a physical or ar- tificial agent," and not looking upon him, as tiiey ought, in an abstract or metaphysical light. But the discloser of truth and goodness on earth was Osiris ; and it is remarkable that, in this character of the manifestation of the Deity, he was said to be " full of goodness (grace) and truth," and after having performed his duties on earth, and fallen a sacrifice to the machinations of (Typho) the evil one, to have assumed the office in a future state of judge of mankind. At Philse, where Osiris was particularly wor- shipped, and which was one of the places where they supposed him to have been buried, his mys- terious history is curiously illustrated * in the sculptures of a small retired chamber, lying nearly over the western adytum of the temple. His death and removal from this w^orld are there de- scribed ; the number of twenty-eight lotust plants points out the period of years he was thought to have lived on earth ; and his passage from this life to a future state is indicated by the usual at- tendance of the Deities, and genii, who presided over the funeral rites of ordinary mortals, t He is then represented witli the feathered cap, which he * A copy of these sculptures is given in the plates of the K. S. of Literature, p. GG, 67, G8, and G9. f I had made an error in the number in my former drawing. X Conf. Pint, de Is. s. 35., "the rising again of Osiris, and his new life." 190 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII. wore in his capacity of judge of Amenti ; and this attribute shows the final office he held after his re- surrection, and continued to exercise towards the dead, at their last ordeal in a future state. I have already stated that the Monad, or single Deity, was placed above and apart from the Triads, and that the great Gods of the Egyptian Pantheon were the deified attributes of the " o?ze." The same idea of a Monad, and even of a triple Deity, was admitted by some of the Greeks into their system of philosophy ; and " Amehus," according to Proclus, *'says, the Demiurge (or Creator) is triple, and the three Intellects are the three kings — he who exists, he who possesses, he who beholds. And these are different ; therefore the First Intel- lect exists essentially, as that ivhich exists. But the Second exists as the Intelligible in him, though possessing that which is before him, and partaking altogether of that, wherefore it is the Second : but the Third exists as the Intelligible in the Second, as did the Second in the First; for every Intellect is the same with its conjoined Intelligible ; and it possesses that wliich is in the Second, and beholds or regards that which is in the First ; for by how much greater the remove, by so much the less intimate is that which possesses. These three Intellects, therefore, he supposes to be the Demiurgi, the same with the three Kings of Plato, and with the three whom Orpheus celebrates under the names of Phanes, Ouranus, and Cronus, though, according to him, the Demiurge is more particularly Phanes."* * Procl. in Tim. 2. 93. Con, p. 305. CHAP. XII. TRIPLE NATURE OF THE DEITY. IQl Several others also mention the triple nature of the Deity, and "from the different Orphic frag- ments, we find," as Mr. Cory* observes, that "the Orphic trinity t consisted of Metis, Phanes or Eros, Ericapaeus : which are interpreted, Will, or Liglit, or Love. Life, or Life-giver. Counsel. From Aciisilaus : Metis, Eros, Ether. From Hesiod, according to Damascius : Earth, Eros, Tartarus. From Pherecydes of Syros : Fire, Water, Spirit, or Air. From the Sidonians : Cronus, Love, CloudyDarkness. From the Phoenicians : Uloinus, Chusorus, The Egg. From the Chaldaean and Persian oracles of Zo- roaster : Fire, Sun, Ether. Fire, Light, Ether. From the later Platonists : Power, Intellect, Father. Power, Intellect, Soul, or Spirit. By the ancient theologists, according to Macro- bins, tlie sun was uivoked in the mysteries, as Power of Light of the Spirit of the the world, world, world; * Cory, p. 335. -j- The Orphic ceremonies, according to Ileroclotus, were the same as those of the Pythagoreans and Egyptians. Fire, Light, Plutarch * gives Intelligence, Matter, the first being the same as Plato's the se( Idea, Mother, Exemplar, Nurse, Or Father, Recepta 192 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII. and to this may, perhaps, be added, from Sanco- niatho, the three sons of Genus, Flame." Kosmos, beauty, or- der, or the world ; lid, and the third, Offspring, e of I Production, generation, J " Of these three, intelligence, matter, and Kosmos,*^ he says, " universal nature may be con- sidered to be made up, and there is reason to con- clude that the Egyptians were wont to liken this nature to what they called the most beautiful and perfect triangle, the same as Plato himself does in that nuptial diagram he has introduced into his Commonwealth. Now in this triangle, which is rectangular, the perpendicular is imagined equal to 3, the base to 4, and the hypothenuse to 5. In which scheme the perpendicular is designed to re- present the masculine nature, the base the femi- nine, and the hypothenuse, the offspring of botli ; and accordingly, the first will apply to Osiris, or the prime cause ; the second, to Isis the receptive power ; and the last, to Orus, or the effect of the other two. For three is the first number composed of even and odd ; four is a square, whose side is equal * Pint, tie Is. s. oG. CHAP. Xir. PYTHAGOREAN NUMBERS. 19-3 to the even number 2 ; but 5, being generated as it were out of both the preceding numbers, 2 and 3, may be said to bear an equal rehition to both, as to its common parents. So, again, the mere word which signifies the universe of beings, is of a similar sound with this number (Travra, ttsvtsX as to coiuit Jive* is made use of for counting in ge- neral." On the subject of numbers, the same author makes the following remarks : " It is my opinion, when the Pythagoreans appropriate the names of several of the Gods to particular numbers, as tliat of Apollo to the unit, of Diana to the duad, of Minerva to the 7> and of Neptune to the first cubet, that they allude to something which the founder of their sect saw in the Egyptian temples, to some ceremonies performed in them, or to some symbols there exhibited t:'* the same " Pythagoreans also look upon Typho to have been of the order of Demons, as, according to them, *he was produced in the even number 5Q.^ For as the power of the triangle is expressive of the nature of Pluto, Bacchus, and Mars; the properties of the square of Rhea, Venus, Ceres, Vesta, and Juno ; and of the dodecagon of Jupiter ; so (we * The word " TrtixTraffaa-Gcu" is taken from counting by the five fingers, — a primitive method in early times. The Egyptians some- times represented the number 5 by a star, having, as usual, five rays ; because, as Horapollo pretends, that is the number of the planets. Ilorapollo, i. 13. -|- " Simplicius, in his Commentary on Aristotle's Treatise de Ccelo, tells us that a cube was called by the Pythagoreans, harmony, because it consists of twelve bounding lines, eight angles, and six sides; and twelve, eight, and six, are in harmonic proportion." Vide Taylor's Theor. Arithm. p. 153. X Plut. s. 10. VOL, I. — Second Series. O 194< THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII. are informed by Eudoxiis) is the figure of 56 angles expressive of the nature of Typho."* They have hkewise " a great detestation for the number 1 17," and " call the 17th day of the month the dav of obstruction ;" " for the middle number 17, falling in between the square 16 and the paral- lelogram 18 (the only two plain numbers whose circumferences are equal to their areas), stops up the way between them, divides them from each other, and hinders them from uniting." In another placet, he says, " The Pythagoreans honour numbers and geometrical diagrams, with the names of the Gods : thus they call the equi- lateral triangle, head-born Minerva, and Trito- geneia, because it may be equally divided by three perpendicular lines, drawn from each of the angles : the Unit they term Apollo, as to the number two they have affixed the name of Strife and Audacious- ness, and to that of three Justice ; in like manner the number S^^ their tetrakys, or sacred quaternion, being composed of the four first odd numbers added to the four first even ones, as is commonly reported, is looked upon by them as the most solemn oath they can take, and called Kosmos (the worlds or order)'' " To the good principle they give the names of 'the unit, the definite, the fixed, the strait, the odd, the square, the equal, the dextrous, and the lucid;' whilst to the evil one they give the appellation of ' the duad, the in- definite, the moveable, the crooked, the e\^en, the oblong, the unequal, the sinistrous, and the dark.'"§ * Plut. S.30, + lb. s. 42. X lb. s. 76. ^ lb. s. 48. CHAP. XII. EGYPTIAN NUMBERS. 195 Without entering into all the abstruse specu- hitions respecting numbers, I shall add a few obser- vations, principally in reference to the opinions en- tertained by the Egyptians. " According to their doctrine, Thales defined numbers to be a collection of monads ; " and "some of the Pythagoreans said that the monad was the confine of number and parts ; for from it, as from a seed, and an eternal root, ratios are con- trarily increased and diminished ; some through a division to infinity being always diminished by a greater number, while others being increased to infinity are again augmented." * They also " called the monad intellect, male and female, God, chaos, darkness, Tartarus, Lethe, the axis, the Sun, and Pyralios, Morpho, the tower of Jupiter, Apollo, the prophet," and many other names ; and Da- mascius, in his treatise Tlspi Ap;^c«v, informs us that " the Egyptians asserted nothing of the tirst prin- ciple of things, but celebrated it as a thrice un- known darkness transcending all intellectual per- ception." To the duad they gave the appellation "audacity, matter, the cause of dissimilitude, the interval between multitude and the monad," ascribing it to Diana and some other Deities, to Fate and Death ; and the triad was considered by them to be intellect, the origin of virtue, and to belong to Justice, Saturn t, and many other Di- * Vide Taylor's Theoretic Arithmetic, p.-i.; and Aristotle. -|- This nuinber is observable in the " Tria virginis ora Diance," the tritlent of Neptune, tlic " trifiJum fiilmen Jovis," the three sons of Saturn, the three-headed Cerberus, the tliree Fates, the Graces, the Furies, tiie three judges of Hades, and others. The e.xpression of Virgil O 2 196 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII. vinities. According to Servius, "they assigned the perfect number three to the Great God ; " and the tetrad they looked upon as the greatest miracle, a God after another manner than the triad, a mani- fold, or rather every Divinity ; peculiarly applied to Mercury, Vulcan, Hercules, and Bacchus ; and they held that the power of the duad subsisted in the four. Thus Pythagoras asks, ** How do you count?" — Mercury. " One, two, three, four." — Pyth. " Do you not see, that what are four to you, are ten and our oath?" those 1, 2, 3,4, added together forming ten, and four containing every number within it. Four was particularly connected with Mercury, as the Deity who imparted intel- lectual gifts to man ; to Vulcan it was assimilated as the demiurge, whence the rsrfxxxtvs was the mystic name of the creative power ; and three they looked upon as " embracing all human things." * " Know God," says Pythagoras, *' who is number and harmony ;" " the human soul," ac- cording to that philosopher, was *' number moving itself;" and some styled number '* the father of Gods and Men." Many were the fanciful meanings attached to numbers, by the Pythagoreans, which it is unne- (Eel. viii. 75.) " Numero Deus impare gaudet," applies to the same number, as is shown by the preceding verses : — " Tcrna tibi haec prim urn trhpUci diversa colore Licia circumdo, toque haec altaria circum Effigiem duco : " and by the " Necte tribus nodis ternos, . . . colores." Conf. ^n. vi, 229. et alib. * " Tiavra ra ayOpwTrii'a avi'exc" CHAP. XII. PRIMITIVE NUMBERS. 197 cessary here to introduce : I shall therefore only observe, that the opinion respecthig the 9 was, that *' there could be no number beyond it, and that it circulates all numbers within itself, as is evident from the regression of numbers. For their natural progression is as far as 9 ; after which their retrogression takes place, 10 becoming once more the monad. Again, 9 being added to each of the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and the rest, it will pro- duce 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, &c. : no elementary number can therefore be beyond the ennead ; " whence the Pythagoreans called it " ocean and the hori- zon, all numbers being comprehended by, and revolving wdthin, it ; " but the " decad was called heaven, being the most perfect boundary of number ; " and some characterised numbers as the envelopes of beings. That Pythagoras borrowed from Egypt his ideas on this subject, is highly probable : such appears to have been the opinion of the ancients themselves ; and it would be curious to ascertain if our common multii)lication table, for which we are indebted to that philosopher, w^as of Egyptian origin. It is however evident from modern discoveries in tlie language and writing of that people, that the nu- merical system of the Pythagoreans tallies with the formation of the Egyptian numbers, according to that mode of representing them in tlie hieratic character, which is applied to the days of the month, in the sense of the 1st, 2d, 3d, &c., where 1, 2, 3, and 4 alone, are perfect numbers ; 5, 6, 7, and 8 being composed of 3 + 2, 3 -{- 3y o 3 198 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII. 3 + 4, and 4 -|- 4*; 9, from its completing the series, being a single and perfect number, '* cir- culating," as the Pythagoreans say, "all numbers within itself," and 10 commencing a new series, and " becoming again the monad." The hieroglyphic numbers t are different, being arranged in units, tens, hundreds, and thousands; and the ordinary hieratic are partly formed from the hieroglyphic units, the 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9, being ciphers, as is also one form of the 4. For an illus- tration of which and the former statement, I refer the reader to the accompanying Plate, t The speculations of later times have ascribed the same and some other significations to the numbers, as to "1- — Unity. Divine thought. Wisdom. Divinity. The universal principle, and centre of all. 2. — Will. Water. The two natures of man. Perversity. c" 3. — Action. Matter. Temporal immaterial agents who do not think. ^4. — Intellect. Intellectual man. Wisdom. All that is active. Religion. Imma- terial agents who think. 5. — The evil being. Idolatry. Self suffi- ciency. 3 + 2. 6. — Formation of the world. Radius, and * Vide Plate 19. Part I. f VuleThte 19. Part 2. j For further accounts of the Egyptian numbers, see the Grammar of Champollion (vol. i.), by whom the numerical system commenced by Dr. Young was very fully demonstrated and carried out. CHAP. XII. MANIFESTATION OF THE DEITY. 199 the natural division of the circle. Piety. 3+3. 7. — Source of man's intellectual and sensible properties. Relating to the end of the world. Love of esteem. Intel- lectual agents (having taken the place of man). 4 -{- 3. 8. — Intellectuality both in body and soul. The divine united with the human nature. Love. Good will. Justice. 4 + 4. 9. — Man not purified from sin. Physical envelope of man. Creation of the body, and its nature. Curiosity. The number of every spiritual limit. In- tellect united with sin. 4 -i- 5. 10. — Limit of all. Man purified from sin, returning by a new birth to unity, whence he proceeded. Decomposi- tion of the circle, or the world. Having now mentioned some of the numerous meanings attaclied to numbers*, I return from this digression to the consideration of the religious doctrines of the Egyptians. The manifestation of the Deity, his coming upon earth for the benefit of mankind, and his expected interposition, were ideas which, even in the patri- archal tunes, had always been entertained, having been revealed to man from the earliest periods, * It is unnecessary to point out those wliich so frequently occur ia the Bible, and every one must perceive that the constant occurrence of 4, 7, and other numbers is not accidental. o 4 200 THE AXCIEXT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII. and handed down through successive ages even to the time when that event took place ; we are therefore less surprised to find it introduced into the religion of the Egyptians, and forming one of the most important tenets of their belief. Indeed, nothing can be more satisfactory, than this addi- tional proof of its having been a tradition among the early inhabitants of the earth ; and it was natural that the Egyptians should anticipate tlie fulfihnent of this promise, and found thereon the great mystery of the relative connection between the Deity and mankind. The fact of this, and the doctrine of a trinity being entertained by so many distant nations, naturally leads to the inference that they had a common origin ; and most persons will admit that they appear to have been derived from immediate revelation, or from the knowledge imparted to the early inhabitants of the world, rather than from accidental speculation in distant parts of the globe, — a remark which applies equally to the creation of man, the deluge, the ark or boat, and numerous mysterious doctrines common to different people. From whatever source the Egyptians originally borrowed their ideas on these subjects, it is evi- dent that they refined upon them, and rendered their metaphysical speculations so complicated, that it required great care and attention on the part of the initiated to avoid confusion, and to obtain a perfect understanding of their purport. Hence it happened that those, who had only ob- tained a limited insio:ht into this intricate sub- CHAP. XII. PERVERSION OF THE RELIGION. 201 jcct, speedily perva^rted the meaning of the very grouiuhvork itself; and the Greeks and Romans, wlio were admitted to participate in a portion of those secrets, fell into a labyrinth of error, Avhich gave to the whole system the character of an absurd fable. Indeed, they went still further, and taking literally certain enigmatical ceremonies, they converted speculative and abstract notions into physical realities, and debased the rites they bor- rowed irom Kgypt by tlie most revolting and pro- fane excesses, tending to make religion ridiculous, and to obviate all the purposes for which it liad been instituted. For, however erroneous the notions of the ancients were, however mistaken in the nature of the Deity, and liowever much truth was obscured by the worship of a })lurality of Gods, still the morality inculcated by religion and practised by good men was deserving of com- mendation ; and we cannot but censure those who degraded what was good, and added to eiror bv the misap])lication of mysterious secrets. This perversion of certain allegorical rites, and the misinterpretations given by the Greeks and Romans to some religious customs of the Kgyj)- tians, have, in many instances, led to the idea that the priesthood of Thebes and Memphis, under the plea of religion, were guilty of enormities, which would shock the most de})raved; and an erroneous judgment has been formed from the mode in which the worship of Osiris was conducted by his votaries at Rome. I will not pretend to say that the Romans did not find the ceremonies of that worship 202 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIL. already degraded, in the Grgeco-Egyptian city of Alexandria: this is highly probable; but the reason of its perversion there resulted from the same cause as at Rome — the misapplication by foreign votaries of tenets they failed to compre- hend ; for it may be doubted if such rites were at any time known to the Egyptians ; and if any external ceremonies carried with them an appear- ance of indelicacy, they were merely emblematic representations, as in the case of the phallic figures, indicating the generative principle of nature. Here, as usual witli the Egyptians, it was the abstract idea which alone occurred to the mind of those who understood the religion they pro- fessed ; but the Greeks and Romans, owing to the grossness of their imaginations, saw nothing beyond the external form that presented itself to the eye, and instead of the power, or abstract cause, they merely thought of its physical cha- racter. Hence the absurd worship of the mere agent in lieu of a first cause, and hence, in con- sequence, all those revolting scenes, by which religion was degraded, and the human mind cor- rupted ; the more deplorable, since mankind is ever prone to commit the greatest excesses when their acts are believed to have the sanction of religion. Indeed, even at a time when speculative doctrines.have not yet suffered any gross perversion of their principles, the ignorance and credulity of man frequently distort what is reasonable ; and some minds are not possessed of sufficient judg- ment to separate the really religious, from the su- CHAP. XII. MISTAKES OF THE GREEKS. 203 perstitious part of their creed, or to discriminate between the mysterious or metaphysical, the fabu- lous, and the moral. A remarkable instance of the perverted meaning of a religious custom, by the ignorance of Greek and Roman writers, occurs in the Pallacides or Pellices of Amun, mentioned by Diodorus * and Strabo. The former, it is true, only describes them under the name of ■KaL}0^a.yM}zs (Pallacides) of Ju- piter, in noticing their tombs ; but Strabo t asserts that, at Thebes, " a virgin, conspicuous for birth and beauty, was sacrificed to Jupiter, the Deity of that city, and that a class of persons, called pellices (harlots), dedicated to his service, were permitted to cohabit with any one they chose." That certain women, of the first families of the country, were devoted to the service of the God of Thebes, is perfectly true, as I have had occasion t already to remark; and they were the same whom Herodotus mentions under the name of y^vaixag ipr;. p 2 212 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII. belief at the earliest periods of which any records exist, and Osiris the judge and president of Amenti is mentioned in tombs belonging to cotemporaries of the Kings who erected the pyramids, upwards of 2000 years before our era. Indeed, if at any early period the religion of Egypt bore a diiFerent cha- racter, or if any great change took place in its doc- trines, this must have been long before the found- ation of the monuments that remain ; and, with the exception of some addition to the catalogue of minor Deities, and an alteration in the name of Amun*, we perceive no change in the religion from the earliest times to the reigns of the Ptole- mies and Caesars. That several Genii, or minor Gods, particularly those who were supposed to per- form inferior functions in a future state, and some local Divinities, were added at various periods, is highly jn'obable, but no change appears to have taken place in the form of worship, or in the main tenets of the religion : the ceremonies of the temple may have become more splendid, the offer- ings more rich, or the increased dimensions of the temples may have admitted a larger number of con- templar Gods ; and in the time of the Ptolemies and Caesars the rites of Osiris may have become more generally preferred ; but no change was effected in the religion itself, and the preference given to any peculiar Deity was only what had always hap- pened in Egypt, where each town or district paid the greatest honours to the God who was supposed immediately to preside over it. Even tiie alter- * I shall have occasion to mention this afterwards in Ch. 13. CHAP. XII. RELIGION UNCHANGED. 213 ation which took place in the name of Amun, and the introduction of the worsliij) of the Sun witli rays, represented at Tel-el- Amarna, and some other places, about the time of the 18th Dynasty, cannot be looked upon as changes in the religion ; and Sarapis, of foreign introduction, was obliged to conform to the customs of the Pantheon, to which he was rather attached, than admitted, by the caprice of a foreign monarch. Unfortunately, an impenetrable veil, concealing from our view the earliest periods of Egyptian his- tory, forbids us to ascertain the original character of the religion ; we are introduced to it as to the civilisation of that people, when already fully per- fected ; and we can only speculate on its previous condition, before metaphysical theories had mo- delled it into the form in which we now behold it in the sculptures of the existing monuments. Before we proceed to inquire into the nature and attributes of the Gods, it may not be improper to examine the opinions of Greek writers, re- specting the Thcogony of Egypt. Diodorus *, who seems to borrow his ideas respecting the creation of the world from the Egyptians, says, that in the beginning the heavens and earth had only one form, being united in their nature ; but having become separated afterwards, the world took the character we now behold. By the movement of the atmosphere, the igneous parts rose, which gave to the Sun and other heavenly bodies their rotatory movement ; and a solid matter was precipitated to * Diodor. ii. 7. p 3 214 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII. form the sea and earth, from which fish and animals were produced, nearly in the same manner as we still see in Egypt, where an infinity of insects and other creatures come forth from the mud, after it has been inundated by the waters of the Nile. * *' Eusebius," as the Abbe Banier remarks, ** has justly observed that this system, as well as that of the Phoenicians, w^hicli is derived from the same source, gives to the Creator no part in the form- ation of the universe. To confirm his opinion, he quotes a passage of Porphyry, who, in his epistle to Anebo, an Egyptian priest, writes, that Chaeremont and others had thought that nothing was anterior to this visible world ; that the planets and stars were the real Gods of the Egyptians, and that the sun ought to be looked upon as the guar- dian of the universe ; and it may be remarked, that the summary of Egyptian theology given by Dioixenes Laertius from Manetho and Hecataeus is in the same spirit, which considers that matter was the first principle, and the Sun and Moon the first Deities, of that people. It has, however, been shown from Eusebius, that the Egyptians believed in an intelligent Being called Cneph, who presided over the formation of the world. Porphyry states that they represented him under the figure of a man holding a girdle and a sceptre, with large feathers on his head, from whose mouth an egg proceeded, out of which another Deity came, called by them Phtha, and by tiie Greeks Vulcan : * Conf. Ovid. Met. i. 8., v. i22. ; and Plin. ix. 58. f Vide Cory, p. 287. CHAP. XII. STATEMENTS OF THE GREEKS. 215 and according to their explanation of this mys- terious figure, the feathers denoted the hidden and invisible nature of this intelligence, the power, it had of giving life, the dominion over all things, and the spirituality of its movements; and the egg which came from his mouth indicated the world, of which he was the maker. This opinion is confirmed by the testimony of lamblichus, who, in the time of Eusebius, applied himself to the study of Egyptian theology, and who endeavours to prove \vhat Cha^remon had stated, that the general belief of the Egyptians was not that an inanimate Being was the cause of all things, but that in the world, as well as in ourselves, they recognised the soul superior to nature, and the intelligence which created the world superior to the soul." But I have already shown how unsatisfactory are the opinions of Greek writers respecting the religion of the Egyptians ; and, with the exception of a few notions, which may be gleaned from the tenets of those who had studied, and were initiated into, the mysteries of Egypt, little can be learnt of their philosophy, or their religious system. lamblichus, Plato, and some others, indeed, have contributed to throw some liglit on the subject, and the former gives the following account of the Cosmogony of Egypt from the ancient Hermetic books. ''Before all things that essentially exist*, and before the total principles, there is one God, prior to the first God and King, remaining innnoveablo * This is the translation j^ivcn in Mr. Cory's valuable collection of " Ancient Fragments," p. 283. p 4 216 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII. in the solitude of his Unity ; for neither is the Intelligible immixed with him, nor is any other thing. He is established, the exemplar of the God who is the father of himself, self-begotten, the only fiither, who is truly good. For he is something greater, and the first, the fountain of all things, and the root of all primary Intelligible Existing forms. But out of this one, the self-ruling God made himself shine forth ; wherefore he is the flither of himself, and self-ruling : for he is the first Principle, and God of Gods. He is the Monad from the One, before essence, yet the first principle of essence, for from him is entity and essence ; on which account he is celebrated as the chief of the Intelligibles. These are the most an- cient principles of all things, which Hermes places first in order, before the ethereal and empyrean Gods, and the celestial. " But, according to another division, he (Hermes) places the God Emeph*, as the ruler of the celes- tial Gods ; and says that he is Intellect, under- standing himself, and converting other intel- ligences to himself. And before this he places the indivisible One, which he calls the first Effiiries, denominating him Eicton ; in whom, indeed, is the first Intellect, and the first Intelligible ; and this One is venerated in Sileiice. Besides these, other rulers are imagined to exist, which govern the fabrication of things apparent; for the demiurge intellect, which properly presides over truth and wisdom, when it proceeds to generation, and leads * Generally supposed to be a mistake for Kvi

. I. — Skcond Sekies. Q 226 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAT. XII. feminine Being of the Orphic philosophy, produced in the Chaotic Egg and acting upon its elements;** and quotes this passage of Horapollo* in support of his opinion : — " The world seems to the Egyp- tians to consist of a masculine and feminine na- ture, and they designate Minerva by a vulture (and a beetle), and Vulcan by a beetle (and a vulture) ; for these are the only Gods which are represented by the Egyptians as having a double nature, or as being both masculine and feminine.*' He thence concludes with Jablonski, that *' the Goddess, whom the Greeks call Minerva, and who was wor- shipped at Sais, was the counterpart of Phthas, or the same Being in his feminine character.** But this is not supported by the evidence of the mo- numents, nor is there any relation between Pthah and the Egyptian Minerva. I have here, and in other places, introduced several theories of Greek and Roman writers on the subject of mythology, and have mentioned some of the speculations of philosophers who studied in or visited Egypt. But I must not omit to observe that the opinions of late writers, as Porphyry, lam- blichus, Proclus, and all the new Platonists of the Alexandrian school, should be admitted with considerable caution. Though many of their spe- culations were derived from an Egyptian source, the original was often even more than parce dis- torta ; and no doctrine of theirs can be accepted as illustrative of Egy])tian notions, which is not confirmed by the monuments, or expressly stated to be taken from the philosophy, of Egypt. * Horapollo, lib. i. c. 12. CHAP. XII. WHAT AUTHORITIES ADMITTED. 227 The works of Plato and other more ancient writers evidently contain much that owes its origin to the knowledge they acquired from the Egyptians, and Pythagoras imitated many notions of his instructors with scrupulous precision. Such authorities are of the greatest use in the examination of the dogmas of this j^eople, and they had the advantage of stu- dying them at a time and place, in which religion was not exposed to fanciful innovations. But w^hen it had been encumbered with the superstructure of arbitrary fancy, which the schools of Alexandria heaped upon it, the original form became distorted, meanings were attached to various symbols which they never possessed, and the attributes of one Deity were ignorantly assigned to another of a to- tally different character, I have already had oc- casion to notice the misconceptions of the Greeks and Romans on the most ordinary subjects con- nected with the religion of Egypt ; and little reliance can be placed upon their information re- specting the abstruse and recondite speculations of the Egyptian philosophers, when they changed the very forms of well-known Deities, and mistook the attributes of those which were presented to them on every monument. I now proceed to compare the statements of Herodotus and others with data derived from the monuments. If it be true that the number of the great Gods of the Egyptians was limited to eight, we may suppose them to be — 1. Neph, or Kneph. 3. Phthah, or Ptiiah. 2. Amun, or Amun-Re. 4. Khem. Q 2 2^8 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII. 5. Sate. 7. Bubastis ?. 6. ]\Iaut (or perhaps 8. Neith. Buto ?). Re, or Ra*, the physical Sun, might also appear to enjoy an equal claim to a rank among the great Gods of Egypt : and in a former workt I had in- troduced that Deity instead of Bubastis ; but it is more probable that Amun-Re and Re were not of the same class of Deities, as the intellectual was of a more exalted nature than tlie physical Sun. From Re proceeded a number of other Deities, and the most remarkable of those styled the off- spring of the Sun, are the Goddess of Truth or Justice, Ao, Tafnet, Selk, and Xehimeou. Herodotus mentions the eight great Gods, but -without giving their names. He states, however, that Pant (Khem) and Latona§ (Buto) were among the number, and that to the eight great Gods suc- ceeded twelve others of inferior rank, who were followed by the minor Deities. These last con- sisted of many different grades, according to their character and office ; and besides the heavenly and infernal Deities, were Genii of various kinds, as well as inferior Divinities, worshipped in particular places, or by certain individuals. Diodorus || seems to agree in the iiumher of eight great Gods ^ ; giving the names of " the Sun, Saturn, Rhea, Jupiter (called by some Amnion), Juno, Vulcan, Vesta, and Mercury." Chapremon thinks they * It was written Re, ami pronounced Ra. f Materia Hieroglyphica, p. 2. J Herodot. ii. 145. § Herodot. ii. loG. || Diodor. i. 13. Vide supra, p. \S5. \ Though not directly stated, he evidently means the Gods of Egypt. CHAP. XII. THK GREAT GODS. 229 were ten. Twelve and eight were tlie numbers applied to the Dii Consentes and Selecti of the Romans ; but of these the twelve held the first rank. From Seb also, who was confounded by the Greeks with Saturn, other Gods proceeded, and the offspring of this Deity and Netpe were Osiris, Isis, Aroeris, Typlio, and Nephthys. According to IManetho's Chronology, given by Syncelhis, two dynasties of Gods preceded the first Kings of Egypt; one consisting of seven Gods, the otiier of sixteen Demigods. Gods. Years. Days. Dkhi GODS. Years. Vulcan, who reignei 1 7241 and i Horus, who •eigned - 25 The Sun - so' Mars - - - 23 Agathodaemon - - 5Gh — 10 Anubis - - - 17 Cronus, Salurn - 40 1 Hercules - - - 15 Osiris \ - .35 Apollo - - - 25 Isis J Amnion - - - 30 Tvpho - 29 Tithoes - - - 27 Zosus - - - 32 Zeus . - - 20 The usual mode of accounting for this reign of the Gods is by referring it to the time during which the priests of each Deity held the supreme authority, when Egypt was governed by a hier- archy, previous to the election of a King j but great doubts are thrown on the accuracy of this list of Deities from its inconsistency, the names of some of the great Gods being classed in the order of Demigods. It were to be wished that more dependance could be placed on the accounts of Herodotus and other Greek writers ; but when they so erro- Q 3 230 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII, neously suppose that the statues of the Theban Jupiter (Amun) "represented him with the liead of a ram*," and that " Pan was called Mendest by the Egyptians," and " figured by them, as by the Greeks, with the head and legs of a goat," we must despair of obtaining correct information upon tlie subject before us, and only receive their evidence after cautious investigation. That Nep- tune and the Dioscuri were not known t to the Egyptians is very probable ; and another remark of Herodotus is equally consistent, tliat *' Isis was the greatest of all the Deities §," and that she en- joyed with Osiris the same honours throughout every part of Egypt ; — a privilege not granted to tlie other Gods. 1| But lie has confounded Pan, whom lie allows to be one of the eight Gods^, with jNIandoo **, an inferior Deity ; and Bubastis (Diana) was not, as he affirms, the daughter of Isis and Osiris, ft These instances of inaccuracy suffice to make us careful in taking so dubious an authority ; and we cannot even be certain that Buto held the rank he gives her among the first class of Deities, tt If in every town or district of Egypt the principal temple had been preserved, we might discover the nature of the triad worshipped there, as w^ell as the name of the chief Deity who presided in it, and thus become better acquainted with the character of the * Herodot. ii. 42. f Herodot. ii.4G. J Herodot. ii. 43. and 50. Vide infra, Chap, xiii., on Anouke. § Herodot. ii. 40. Lifrd, p. 378. || Herodot. ii. 42. IT Herodot. ii. 145. ** Herodot. ii. 46. ft Herodot. ii. 156. f J Id. CHAP. XII. SOME OF THE TRIADS. Q31 great Gods, and of most of the persons composing the numerous Egyptian triads. Few, however, can now be ascertained ; and in Lower Egypt and the Delta little information is offered by the imper- fect remnants of isolated monuments. At Thebes, The great triad consisted of Amun or Amun-Re, Maut, and Khonso. The smaller triad, of Amun-Generator, Tamun, and the young Harka. At Syene, Elephantine, and the Cataracts, Neph, Sate (Juno), and Anouke (Vesta). At Philae, Osiris, Isis, and Horus or Harpocrates. At (Edfoo) Apollinopolis Magna, Hor-Hat, Athor, and Hor-Sened-To. At (Esneh) Latopolis, Neph, Nebou (a form of Neith), and Hake. At Silsilis, Re, Pthah, and Nilus ; where also are Tj/pho?y Thoth, andNetpe; and Amun- Re, Re, and Savak. At the quarries of the Troici lapidis, near Mahsara, Thoth, Nehimeou, and Horus (or Aroeris). At Ombos, The great triad consisted of Savak, Athor, and Khonso. The lesser triad of Horus (or Aroeris), Tson-t-nofre, and the young Pneb-to. At Hermonthis, Mandoo, Reto, and their child Hor-pire. Q 4 232 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII. The funereal triad, composed of Osiris, Isis, and Neplitliys, occurs in all the tombs throughout the country ; and many others, variously combined, in different towns and provinces of Egypt. I have also seen a triad represented on a stone *, consisting of Re, Agathodaemon or a winged asp, and a Goddess apparently with a frog's head ; in a Greek inscription upon the reverse of which men- tion is made of Bait, Athor, and Akori. e/cA0wpMr i ATUlNBlAeiC\\ AeAKWPJXA(P6\\ rr ATG P KOCMOYX A \ peTPfMop9eo60Cj No. 445. Stone mentioning a triad, in these words : " One Bait, one Athor (one of the Bia), and one Akori ; hail, father of the world ! hail, triformous God !" Bait seems to be the Baieth of Horapollo ; but it is not easy to assign the Greek names to each figure on the obverse ; and as it is of late time, the authority both of these, and of the Greek names, is of very little weight. The inscription, however, is curious, from the analogy it bears to some of those ascribed to the early Christian Gnostics, and serves to show the idea entertained by the Pagan Egyptians of a " triformous Deity," " the father of the world," who assumed different names according to the triad under which he was represented. * In the possession of Mr. Hertz, with whose permission I have in- troJiicecl the accompanying copy of it. The above is the real size. CHAP. XII. MEMBERS OF THE TRIADS. '233 Tlie great triads were composed of the principal Deities, the first two members being frequently of equal rank, and the third, which proceeded from the first by the second, being subordinate to the others ; as in the case of Osiris, Isis, and liorus, or Amun, Maut, and Khonso. Other triads were formed of" Deities of an inferior class ; and it some- times happened that, with the unworthy feeling of paying a high compliment to the ruling Monarch, a sort of triad was composed of two Deities and the King, as at Thebes, where Remeses III. is placed between Osiris and Pthah; at Aboukeshayd*, where the Great Remeses occurs between Re and Atmoo ; and others in other places. At Silsilis, the King Pthahmen offers to a triad composed of Osiris, Isis, and Remeses the Great, the latter taking the place of Horus, to whom the Egyptian Kings were frequently likened ; and to such a point was this prostitution of religion carried in the time of the Ptolemies, that at Hermonthis a triad com- posed of Julius Ca[?sar, Cleopatra, and Neocesar, their illegitimate son, took the place of the three Deities, Mandoo, Reto, and Ilor-piret, worslii])ped in that city. With regard to the former of these combinations, in which a King is represented as proceeding from two Deities, and forming the third person of a triad, some excuse may be offered, upon the plea of their selecting the most important result of the * Oh tlif Sue/ canal. A copy (»' the stone containing tlicse three figures is given in my Materia Hieroglyi)Iiica, Appendix, No. IV". f ChanipolHon, lettres 8. and 1:^., p. 106. and -406. 234 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII. power of the Deity, upon this principle : the influ- ence of i7itellect on matter * producing the created being in the King ; and this the noblest work of the Creator being put forth in lieu of the whole creation. But the same apology cannot be offered for the latter ; and to the servile flattery of some members of the priesthood, and to the abuses intro- duced under the Ptolemies, is to be attributed this great profanation of the religious customs of the Egy})tians. * Vide supra, p. 185. ; and infia, p. 248. liJ\I/i^^> ^iJ^yytl Offerings of onions made by a priest to his deceased parents. CHAP. XII r. EGYrXIAN TANTIIEON. 23.5 VlONETTE M. ravilion of Remcscs III. at Medeenet Haboo. Thebes. CHAP. XIII. THE EGYPTIAN PANTHEON. Form and Attributes of the different Gods. the eight great gods. Neph, Nef, Kneph, Cnouphis, Cnoubis, Noub, Nou? In noticing the character and attributes of tlie Egyptian Gods, I shall introduce each separately, commencing with the eight great Deities. And as it is useless to stop to inquire which of these held the highest rank, I commence with Neph, who was par- ticularly worshipped in the island of Elephantine, throughout Ethiopia, and in the southern part of the Thebaid. In the word Neph, or Nef, we may pro- bably trace the idea of the Spirit of the Deity, if, 236 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. in his mention of Jupiter, Diodorus * had in view the God Neph : Jupiter t, he observes, signifying, among the P^gyptians, the Spirit, "being the cause of Hfe in animals, and, therefore, the father of all" The same idea may have led to the Greek and Persian notion t, of Jupiter being the air which surrounds the world. " If, as I have observed in a previous work §, the sons of Ham taught their de- scendants, the early inhabitants of Egypt, the true worship of one spiritual and eternal Being, who had disposed the order of the universe, divided the light from the darkness, and ordained the creation of mankind, the Egyptians, in process of time, for- sook the pure ideas of a single Deity, by admitting his attributes to a participation of that homage which was due to the Divinity alone ;" and thus the sole indivisible God was overlooked and be- came at length totally unknown, except to those who were admitted to ])articipate in the important secret of his existence. Kneph, or more properly Neph or Nef ||, was retained as the idea of the 'Spirit^ of God, which moved upon the face of the waters.' But having separated the Spirit from the creator of tlie uni- verse, and purposing to set apart, and deify each at- tribute which presented itself to their imagination, * Diodor. i. 12. f The name, Ai'c, Atoe, Oios, and the Latin Deus, are evidently from the same origin ; the Deity par excellence. i. Ilerodot. i. 131. Conf. Hor. " Manet sub Jove frigido." I. Od. i. 25. § Materia Hierog. Part i. p. 1, 2. jl Nef, which signified spirit or breath, is still retained in the Arabic of the present day. The Emeph of lanibHchus was probably corrupted from Kneph by the copyists. J7r/c p. 216. 243. t HorapoUo says, " the snake is the emblem of the Spirit which per- vades the universe." CHAP. XIII. THE GOD NEPII. 237 they found it necessary to form another Deity from the creative power, whom they called Pthah," equal to Neph, being another character of the same original God. " Some difference was observed be- tween the power which created the world, and that which caused and ruled over the generation of man, and continued to promote the continuation of the human species: this attribute of the Divinity was deified under the appellation of Khem ; and many more, as his goodness, perfection, and other quali- ties, which struck them most worthy of their rever- ence, were made to participate in similar honours. *' Neph was represented with a ram's head*, sometimes surmounted by an asp or a vase; which last, as a hieroglyphic, was the initial of his name. By the Romans he was known under the names of Jupiter-Hammon-Cenubis, and Chnoubis, as at Elephantine; of Amenebis, as in the Oasis; and Jupiter Hammon with the head of a ram, * unde recurvis . . . cum cornibus Ammon,' the reason of which error it is not necessary here to inquire," but which is not without a parallel, as I have already shown, in the Roman mode of re- presenting Anubis with the head of a dog. " It seems, indeed, that the ram-headed God never had the title of Amun, except when represented with the attributes of Neph," a case of very rare occur- rence; '*nor can I trace that distinction between the figure before us and one of similar form, which the learned Champollion has considered a different Deity, presiding over the inundation ; since the * Materia Ilierog. Pantheon, p. 2. 238 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIIT. God of Elephantine has the same office as that ascribed to the one he distinguishes by the name of Cnouphis." This is further confirmed by my having " found an inscription in that island beginning Xvou|3/ 0Ha>/," where a temple dedicated to him stood till lately amidst the ruins of the ancient town, the same mentioned by Strabo as that of Cnuphis. It is, indeed, as consistent to suppose the Deity of the inundation to be one of the characters of the God Neph, as **the president of the Western Mountain" to be one of the characters of the Goddess Atlior. Herodotus*, Diodorus, and other writers, in speakingofthe Jupiter of Ethiopia, evidently had in view the God Neph ; and there is less difficulty in accounting for the notion of his being the same as Jupiter, since he was, if not the King, at least the leader, of the Gods. He corresponded to no other Deity of the Greek Pantheon ; and the triad of the cataracts, by uniting him with Sate or Juno, appears to give liim a claim to the name of Jove. There is not, however, she same excuse for confounding Neph with Amun, or giving to the latter Deity the head of a ram. *' The inhabitants of the Thebais, says Plutarcht, worship their God Kneph only, whom they look upon as without beginning so without end, and are exempt from the tax levied for the maintenance of the sacred animals." But tiiis could only be true if he alludes to the earliest inhabitants of that dis- trict; for the v/orship of Amun, or Amun-Re, was * Herodotus says the only two Gods worshipped at Meroe were Ju- piter and Bacchus ; meaning Nejih and Osiris. Jlde p. 249. 267. f Pint, de Is. et Osir. s.^21. CHAP. XIII. THE ASP OF NEPII. 239 much more general tliroughout the Thebaid, except at the island of Elephantine, and Syene. Eusebius seems to confound him with Agathodaemon, but this name applies rather to another Deity, the hawk- headed Hor-Hat, whose emblem was the winged globe, placed over the doors and windows of the Egyptian temples, and overshadowing tlie sacred person of the Monarch ; or to the asp, frequently represented in the tombs of Thebes, guarding the wine-presses and gardens of the Egyptians, which was dedicated to another Divinity, the Goddess Ranno*, who is sometimes figured with the head of that snake. The asp was also sacred to Neph ; and that Deity is frequently represented in the tombs stand- ing in a boat, witii the serpent over him ; and he is not unfrequently seen with this emblem on his head, without any other ornament. At the cataracts I have found him with the asp rising from between his horns, and bearing the crown of the Lower Country on its head, as if intended to indicate the dominion of the Deity there as well as in the The- baid. This serpent was the type of Dominion ; for which reason it was affixed to the head-dress of the Egyptian Monarchs; and a prince, on his accession to the throne, was entitled to wear this distinctive badge of royalty, which, before the death of his father, he was not authorised to adopt. Many other parts of the royal dress were ornamented witli * M. ChampoUion was perfectly correct iu considering the Asp of Neph different from this guardian genius. I had supposed this last to belong also to Neph. 240 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. the same emblem ; and " the asp-formed crowns," mentioned in the Rosetta stone, were exclusively appropriated to the Kings or Queens of Egypt. The Asp also signified, in hieroglyphics, a ** God- dess ;** and when opposed to the Vulture, ^Hhe Lower Country* ;*' and it was given to Re, the physical Sun, probably as an emblem of that domi- nion which he held over the Universe, and from his character of prototype of the Pharaohs. M. Champollion has satisfactorily accounted for the nameUraeus given to the snake, by suggesting that the word derives its origin and signification from ourOy in Coptic "a King," answering, as Hora- pollo tells us t, to the Greek (^amXia-xos, "royal ;" and it is from this last word that the name basilisk has been applied to the asp. But I do not know on what authority that ingenious savant supposes the royal Asp to be different from the Asp " of Cnouphis."1: The description given by Porphyry § of" Kneph with a human head, azure black colour, bearing a feather on his head," agrees exactly with the God Ao, but not with Neph ; and these two Deities can in no way be related, — the latter being one of the great Gods, and the former always having the title " Son of the Sun," and being of an inferior order of Divinities. Nor does any representation occur of " the egg proceeding from his mouth, which Porphyry conjectures to signify the world ; and from which proceeded another God called Phta, the * Vide infra, on the God Omhte, and the Genius of Lower Egypt. •]- Horapollo, Hierog. i. 1. " The Egyptians call it Ouraius, which, in the Greek language, signifies /SaTiXio-^-ot-." J Champollion, Pantheon, Nef. ^ Jlde siqna, p. 214^. CHAP. XIII. THE RAM-HEADED GOD. 24<1 Vulcan of the Greeks ; " and, indeed, this cannot be apphed to any Deity of the Egyptian Pantheon. The figure of Neph was that of a man with tlie head of a ram, frequently of a green colour ; sheep were particidarly sacred to him ; and with Sate (Juno), and Anouke (Vesta), he formed one of the great triads of Upper Egypt. His worship, as I have already observed, was very generally admitted in the cities of Ethiopia, particularly above the second cataract, where the ram's head, his emblem, was used as a common or- nament, or as an amulet by the devout; and in that part of the country lying between the first cataract and the modern Shendy, the ram-headed Neph, or Cnouphis, was the principal God. One Deity alone shares with him equal honours, but this is in the two temples of VYady Owateb and Wady Benat alone*, where the lion-headed God appears to be the prin- cipal object of worship. At Napata, the capital of Tirhaka (now Gebel Berkel) Neph received the highest possible honours ; and it may not be unrea- sonable to conclude that Napata, Noubat, and the Nobata3 were called from this Deity, whose name has the varied sound of Kneph, Neph, Cnouphis, Chnoubis, Noub, and apparently even of Nou, in some of the hieroglyphic legends of the Thebaid. Herodotus states, that in consequence of sheep being sacred to the Theban Jupiter t, the people of that nome never sacrifice them, but always select * Vide infrd. Chap, xiv., on tlie Lion. -|- Some have derived this from Noub, " sold." X Ilerodot. ii. A2. More ]ir()|)oily to Neph, who was represented with the head of a ram, and not Anuni, as lie supposes. VOL. I. — Second Series, II 242 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIIT. goats for their altars ; and this is confirmed by the sculptures of Tliebes, by which we find that sheep were never immolated for the altars of the Gods, nor slaughtered for the table. The large flocks of sheep in the Thebaid were kept for their wool alone ; and the care bestowed upon them, so that they might have lambs twice a year, and be shorn twice within the same period; the number of persons employed there in making w^oollen cloths ; and the consequence which the sculptures show to have been attached to those animals ; testify the importance of the wool trade in Egypt, and serve as an additional proof of the advancement of this people in manufactures. At Esneh, Latopolis, Neph is represented under the form of a ram, from between whose horns rises the Sacred Asp : and in some of the legends, the name over it is followed by those of Osiris, Re, Ao, and another God with whom Neph is connected on this occasion. He is also figured as a man having two or four rams' heads; but this is of rare occurrence, except on monuments of a late date, or in subjects relating to the dead and the mysteries of a future state. At Esneh instances occur of Neph with the additional title Re, which then connects him with the Sun, and may perhaps be an argument in sup- port of the opinion I have mentioned of the early Sabaean worship of Egypt. To Neph were given not only the ordinary horns of the sheep, curving* downwards, but also the long * Owing to the error respecting Amun, they have been the origin of the name of the Ammonite ; and thus has this misnomer been perpe- tuated in stone. CHAP. XIII. AMUN, OR AMUN-RE. 243 projecting horns of that animal, which, from their twisted form, being" readily mistaken* for those of tliegoat, have caused some difficulty respecting two characters in the names of the Caesars, both being supposed to represent the same animal, and also to stand for the two letters h and s. It is, how- ever, evident that the latter was the sheep or ram (esiou), which had the alphabetic force of .s- as in Trajanu.v, and that the former was the goat (baampe), which was chosen to represent the letter h or V, as in Tiberius, Seyerus, and vSeiastus. Amun, or Amun-re — Jupiter. It may appear singular that Amun should be placed second to Neph ; I have, however, noticed them in this order, not from any superiority of the latter, but because he is said to have been the oldest Deity of Upper Egypt ; and, since some alteration has been made in the name of the God known to us as Amun, it may even be supposed that in the earliest times, he had not the same cha- racter as in the age of the last Kings of the 18th Dynasty. Indeed, if Neph really answered to the Spirit which pervaded and presided over the cre- ation, and was the same whom lamblichus describes from the books of Hermes t, he may in justice claim a rank above Amun, or any other of the eight great Gods. The alteration to which I allude is a circumstance well worthy of attention ; and, as I * I had supposed in consequence that he united the cnihleiii of the generative principle with his own. -|- Vide supra, p. -Z\(i Where tlie name Emcph is given, as is sup- posed, in Heu of Kneph. R 2 244 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. have elsewhere observed *, has been remarked by me on many of the oldest monuments of Egypt, where *' the hieroglyphics or phonetic name of Amun-re have been continually substituted for others, the combinations of which I could never discover, being most carefully erased, and the name of Amun, or Amun-re, placed in their stead. The figure of the God remains unaltered, as is also the case with that of Khem, when in the character of Amunre-Generator, whose phonetic hieroglyphics, and not figure, have been changed. To make this last observation more intelligible, I must acquaint the reader with a fact not yet mentioned, — that Amun-re, like most of the Gods, frequently took the character of other Deities ; as of Khem, Re, and Neph t ; and even the attributes of Osiris ; but he is then known by tlie hieroglyphics accom- panying his figure, which always read Amunre, and therefore differ from those given the Deities in their own character." In examining the sculptures of an early period t, I have found that, wherever the name of Amun occurs, the substitution has been so systematically made, that nothing short of a general order to that effect sent to every part of Egypt, and executed with the most scrupulous care, can account for it ; and from this alteration § being confined to monu- * Materia Hierog. Pantheon, p. 4-. J'ide also i?ifrd, p. 263. ■f But still as a member of the triad of which Amun was the chief. I have even found him with a hawk's head, styled " Amunre Re Atmoo, Lord of Thebes." % It may be seen on the Obelisk of S. Giovanni Laterano, at Rome. ^ The 7iame Amun existed long before. Witness the Kings of the 17th Dvnastv. CHAP. XIIl. CHANGE IN AMUN's NAME. 245 ments erected previous to and during the reign of the third Aniunoph, we may conchide that it dates after his accession, or about the year 1420 B.C. Another peculiarity is observable in the name of Amun, — that the hieroglyphics which compose it frequently face the wrong way ; that is, they turn in a different direction from the rest of the inscription : the reason of which it is not easy to determine. 1 have stated that Amun-re and other Gods took the form of different Deities, which, though it appears at first sight to present some difficulty, may readily be accounted for when we consider that each of those whose figure or emblems were adopted, was only an emanation or deified attri- bute of the same Great Being, to whom they ascribed various characters, according to the se- veral offices he was supposed to perform. The intellect of the Deity might be represented with the emblems of the almighty power, or with the attributes of his goodness, without in any manner changing the real character of the heavenly mind they pourtrayed under that peculiar form ; and in like manner, when to Osiris, or the goodness of the Deity, the emblems of Phthah the creative power were assigned, no change was made in the character of the former, since Goodness was as much a part of the original Divinity from whom both were derived, as was the power wath which he had created the world. And if, as some- times happens, Amun-re is represented making offerings to Osiris, it will be recollected that one R S 246 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII, attribute might be permitted to show respect to another, without derogating from its own dignity, and that Osiris in his character of Judge of Amenti, and as the object of the most sacred and undivulged mysteries, held a rank above all the Gods of Egypt. Amun, or Amun-re, formed with Maut and Khonso the great triad of Thebes. The figure of Amun was that of a man, with a head-dress sur- mounted by two long feathers*; the colour of his body was light blue, like the Indian Vishnoo, as if to indicate his pecuharly exalted and heavenly nature ; but he was not figured with the head or under the form of a ram, as the Greeks and Ro- mans supposed, and the contortis cornibus Ammon is as ina])plicable to the Egyptian Jupiter, as the descri])tion of the dog-Jieaded Anubis to the Mer- curius Psychopompos of the region of Amenti. He was considered by the Greeks the same as Jupiter, in consequence of his having the title *' King of the Gods ; " and under the name Amunre he was the intellectual Sun, distinct from Re, the physical orb. This union of Amun and Re cannot fail to call to mind the Jupiter Belus of the Assy- rians, Baal or Bclust being the Sun : and if it be true that Amunti, or Amenti, signified the "giver and receiver," the name Amun-re may be opposed to Atin-re, and signify the Sun in the two capacities * Q. Curtius, speaking of tlic Deity of the Oasis of Amnion, says, " Id quod pro Deo colitur, non eandeni efligicni liabet, qtiani vulgo Diis artifices accommodavernnt, Unibriculo niaxiiiie similis est habitus, sniaragdis et genunis coagnientatus." •j- " The Lord "par excellence. CHAP. XIII. AAIUNRE-GENEUATOR. 247 of the '* receiver and giver." As in most religions tlie supreme Deity was represented in the noblest form that could be suggested, that of a human being, and Amun was therefore figured as a man, whom Holy Writ states to have been made after the image of his Creator. At Thebes, "the King of the Gods" may be con- sidered under two distinct characters, as Anuin-re, and as Amunre-Generator ; in this hist assuming the form and attributes of Khem, the God of Generation. It is probable that he was then the same whom the Greeks styled the " Pan of Thebes*;" the chief of a second Theban triad, the other members of wliich were Tamun and Harka ; the former a character of Neith, and per- haps a sort of female Amun ; tlie latter the ofi- spring of the two first, as Khonso was of Amun-re and Maut. According to Manetho, the word Amunt means " concealment ;" and HecataDus ob- serves t, that, so far from being the proper name of the God, it was a word in conniion use, signifying " come §," by wdiich his benignant influence and presence were invoked ; and lamblichus says, it implies " that which brings to light ||, or mani- festation." If the observation of Manetho or of Hecataius be true, it is not improbable that the name of this God was merely a mysterious title. The word Amoni signifying to envelope, or conceal, * Hjioc CT£ ll«)' Oiifiov, in an inscription at the Breccia quarries, on the Kossayr road, with the figure of Khem. yh/e infra, [i. -dd'S. + Not related to amnioun, " sand." I Phit. de Is. s. 9. § The word "come," or " come ye," is a^uoivi in Coptic. II Vide supra, p. 217. R 4 248 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. (which seems to be applied in hieroglyphics to a man enveloped in a cloak,) confirms the statement of Manetho; as Amoini, "come," accords with that of Hecataeus ; and the change in the hieroglyphic legends of the God, and the introduction of the word Amun throughout the sculptures, may be explained by supposing it a title, rather than the actual name of the Deity.* We are told by Herodotus t, that the horned snake was sacred to this Deity, and buried in his temple at Thebes ; but the father of history was wrong in supposing the vipera cerastes to be harm- less t; and it was fortunate he did not prove by ex- perience the fatal effects of its deadly bite. It is not unusual to find these snakes embalmed in the tombs of Koorna, the modern name of the Necropolis of Thebes, and its vicinity. Of Amun, Maut, and Khonso, consisted the great Triad of Thebes ; and though it is difficult to ascertain the exact character and relative offices of these three Deities, we may suppose them to be " demiurge intellect," mother, and created things. The oracle of Jupiter at Thebes was celebrated, and according to Herodotus §, the divine gift was imparted to a priestess as she slept in the temple, where the Deity was also believed to pass the night. He supposes it to have been the origin of the oracle of Dodona || ; though his story of " the women consecrated to the service of that Deity * Vide infra, p. 264-. f Herodot. ii. 7+. if Diodorus is correct in placing it among poisonous reptiles, lib. i. 8 87. * § Herodot. ii. 54. 38. || Herodot. i. 182. CHAP. XIII. NEPH, GOD OF MEROE. PTHAH. 249 having been carried o^ from Tliehe.s by the Phoe- nicians," is too absurd to be pardoned, even on his usual excuse of having received it from the Egyptian priests. His statement, that the " Libyan oracle of Ammon" was derived from the Thebaid, is liiglily probable ; though he makes the common and unaccountable error of supposing the God of Thebes to have had the head of a ram *, which lias led to much confusion respecting the Deity wor- shipped at Meroe. For to this place a procession, carrying the statue of the Theban Jupiter, with a ram's head, is said annually to have gone from Thebes ; though the Jupiter of Thebes was Amun, and the great Deity of Ethiopia the ram-headed Neph.t In the legends of Thebes, Amun has generally the title " King of the Gods," accompanying his name, and these two are sometimes inserted in an oval, or royal Cartouche, as are the names of Osiris, Isis, and Athor. Phthah or Pthah, Heph^stus, Vulcanus. Pthah, or in the Memphitic dialect Phthah, was the demiurge, or creative power of the Deity ; the "artisan," as lamblichus styles him, "and leader of mundane artisans, or the heavenly Gods." The same author gives a singular confirmation of the fact, as I have elsewhere observed t, of the Goddess, who bears on her head a single ostrich * Herodot. ii. 42. &c. ■\ Vide siqira, p. 148. ; and hifrn, beginning of Chap, xv, j Materia Hierog. Pantheon, p. 7. 250 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. feather, being Justice or Truth ; which I shall have occasion more fully to notice, in speaking of that Divinity. In the sculptures of Thebes, we find Pthah not only accompanied by her, but bearing the title " Lord of Truth^^' in his hieroglyphic legend; and lamblichus who calls "the artisan In- tellect* the Lord of Truth,*' observes, *' that whereas he makes all things in a perfect manner, not de- ceptively, but artificially, together ivith Truths he is called Pthah," though the Greeks denominate him Hephaestus, considering him merely as a phy- sical or artificial agent. ** Pthah is then the Lord of Truth, which was itself deified under the form of the above-men- tioned Goddess ; and the connection between the creative power and truth is a singular coincidence in the Egyptian and Christian systems. He was said to be sprung from an ^^^^^ produced from the mouth of Neph, who was therefore considered his father." At least, this is the account given by Porphyry t, though the monuments of Egypt do not tend to confirm it, nor does his description of the form of that God agree with the ram-headed Neph of the Egyptians. " The Scarabaeus, or beetle, was particularly sacred to him, and signified the world, or all creation % ; and in consequence of there being, as Plutarch § says, ' no females of this species, but all males, they were considered fit types of the creative power, self-acting and self- * V'lde supra, p. 189. and 217. -f- Vide supra, p. 214. and 240. X Conf. HorapoUo, i. 12, ^ Plut. de Is. s. 10. CHAP. XIII. CHARACTERS OF TTHAH. ^51 sufficient.' The beetle was also an emblem of the Sun, being chosen, according to Horapollo*, * from its having thirty fingers, equal to the num- ber of days in an (ordinary solar) month ; ' and the frog was another symbol of Pthah, because, as Horapollo says, * it was the representative of man in embryo,' that is, of the being, who, like the world, was the work of the creative power, and the noblest production of his hands." "There are other characters t of Pthah, as Pthah-Sokari-Osiris, and Pthah Tore ; but since they are represented by the Egyptians as different and separate Divinities, I have thought it better to keep them apart from the God of whom they were, perhaps, originally emanations," and treat of them as distinct Deities. It is also possible, that to Pthah, the creative power, were ascribed four or more different offices, each being a separate form of that Deity, as, 1. The creator of the universe generally; 2. The creator of the world we inhabit ; 3. The creator of all animal and vegetable life ; and, 4. The creator of mankind. The Greeks, as I have already stated, considered the Pthah of Egypt the same as their Vulcan or Hephaestus, and it is more than probable that their idea of this Deity w-as derived from the Demiurge in the Egyptian Pantheon ; the error they made in the character of the opifex, or framer of the world, proceeding from their degrading him to the * Horapollo, nierog. i. 10. ; ani.1 Porplivry says, " Cantharuiii i>oli acconniiociatum." f The passages between inverted connnas are extracted from my Materia Hieroglyphica. 252 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. level of a mere physical agent, as lamblicbus has very properly remarked. According to Cicero, there were several Deities who bore the name of Vulcan, and one was reputed to be the son of the Nile, from which we may infer his Egyptian origin. The Greek name, according to Phurniitus, is supposed to have been taken ol-ko too i^(pSaiy (sig- nifying to " burn ;") and other etymologies have been offered by various writers ; but the word Hephaestus, and still more the derivation suggested by Phurnutus, sufficiently indicate the real root of the name in the Egyptian Ptiiah. The form of this Deity is generally a mummy, not holding in his hands the flagellum and crook of Osiris, but merely the emblems of life and stability, with the staff of purity; which last is common to all the Gods, and to many of the Goddesses, of Egypt. Tlie absence of the fla- gellum and crook serves to distinguish him from another Deity*, Khonso, the third member of the Theban triad, even when his hieroglyphical name is wanting; and this last has, in addition, a disk and crescent, or short horns, on his head, which are not given either to Pthah or Osiris. The ordinary head-dress of Pthah, when in the form of a mummy, is a close cap without any orna- ment ; but he occasionally wears a disk with the lofty ostrich feathers of Osiris, and holds in each hand a staff of purity, in lieu of the emblems of sta- bility and life. The sculptures of the tombs also represent Pthah bearing on his head, or clad in, the * I have found one instance of Pthah with the flagellum and crook. CHAP. XIII. PTHAH-SOKAIlI-OSmiS. 253 symbol of stability, which is occasionally given to Osiris ; showing how closely he is sometimes allied to the character of that Deity. Pthah even a})pears under the entire form of this emblem, which is sur- mounted by a winged scarab supporting a globe, or Sun, and is itself supported by the arms of a man kneeling on the heavens. I have also met with an instance of the God* oc- cupied in drawing with a pen the figure of Harpocrates, the emblem of youth ; probably an allusion to the idea first formed in the mind of the creator of the being he was about to make.t With regard to the adjunct Toses, which is sometimes applied to his name, I am inclined to believe it indicates an attribute of the creative power, rather than a different character of Pthah : NO 446 Pthah I ii^ive therefore preferred placing subug''"'"'""' Pthah-Toses as one of the forms of the same Deity. And, indeed, the commencement of the word seems to relate to his office as creator of the *' world," which, in the Egyptian language, was called " To" Pthah-Sokari-Osiris. Pthah- Sokari- Osiris was that form of Pthah, or Vulcan, particularly worshipped at IMemphis. * Vidr Plate 23. fig. 5. Pthali is alone introduced in tlic plate. It is from Dendera. f If so they believed the first man to have commence il his career in early youtli, not as a full grown man; like Jujiiter, Hercules, and other of the Gods of Greece. 254 THE ANCJENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. Herodotus* describes him as a pigmy figure, re- sembling the Pataikos, placed by the Phoenicians at the prows of their vessels ; and says that Cam- byses, on entering the temple at Memphis, ridi- culed the contemptible appearance of the Egyptian Hephaestus. Kepresentations of this dwarf Deity are frequently met with at Memphis and the vicinity ; and it appears that dwarfs and deformed persons were held in consideration in this part of Egypt, out of respect to the Deity of the place. He usually has a Scarabasus, his emblem, on his head ; he sometimes holds the crook and flagellum of Osiris ; and he frequently appears with a hawk's head, both when worship])ed in the temples, and when placed on the sarcophagi of the dead. I have even seen the lids of coffins at Memphis formed in the shape of this God t ; the necklace, whose two extremities are surmounted by a hawk's head, peculiarly belonged to Pthah-Sokari ; and it is not impossible, that his name Sokar t maybe derived from the hawk. But this is merely a conjecture. Besides the Scaraba^us and hawk, the Capricorn also belonged to him, and the prow of his boat or ark was ornamented with the head of that animal. The ceremony of bearing this boat in solemn procession was one of the most important of all the rites practised by the Egyptians ; and the * Herodot. iii. 37. f Vide Chap. xvi. ; and PI. 24. a. figs. 2. and 5. ; and PI. 43. figs. I. and 2. X The Egyptian God ^oxapis, mentioned in a verse of Cratinus, is, as M. ChanipoUion supposes, the same Deity. Vide Hesych. voc. Paamyles. CHAP. XIII. BOAT OF SOKARI. 255 sanctity with wliicli it was regarded by the whole country is sufficiently indicated by the conspicnous place it held in the temples of Thebes. Indeed, I believe that it was nothing less than the hearse of Osiris, and that this procession recorded the funeral of that mysterious Deity ; a conjecture strongly confirmed by the frequent occurrence of the hawk-headed figure and name (Sokari-Osiris) in those sculptures at Phil^r, which represent his apotheosis, or rather his return from this world to that state, whence he had come to manifest himself for the benefit of mankind. It is, perhaps, to this funeral ceremony that Athenagoras alludes, when he says, " They not only show the sepulchre of Osiris, but even his embalmed body." The Deity under the form of Sokari is also carried forth by the four Genii of Ainenti, in the same chamber at Philae ; where he appears to have passed through this intermediate state, previous to his assuming his final office of judge of the dead ; and his body being placed on a bier, within the same boat or ark, seems to leave no doubt respecting the truth of my conjecture.* The deformed figure of this God probably gave rise to the fable of the lameness of Vulcan in the Greek mythology, who is represented to have been thrown from heaven by Jupiter, and to have broken his leg in falhng upon the Isle of Lemnos. Pthah-Sokari-Osiris is sometimes seated, at- tended by Isis, " the potent mother Goddess," who protects him with her wings ; he is then more * Vide Plates of R. S. of Literature, PI. 68. and G9. Q56 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. closely connected with Osiris than Pthah, of which two Deities he unites the characters. He is fre- quently styled Sokari-Osiris, ivitliout the prefix Pthah ; and it appears that he is then more par- ticularly connected with the passage of Osiris from this life to another state, and his mysterious re- turn from his human to his divine nature. Tore, or Pthah Tore. Tore is another form of Pthah, to whom in this character also the Scarabseus was particularly sacred. It stands for the first letter or syllable of his name*, and may be emblematic of his office as creator of the world, of which this insect was the type. He was sometimes represented with the Sciu'aba'us, in lieu of a head, either with closed or outspread wings ; but his usual form was a human figure with the head of a man, wearing the globe of the Sun, and an asp, the emblem of kingly, or divine Majesty. Batrachocephalus. The frog-headed Deity is also a form of Pthah, particularly in reference to his creation of man. Horapollo tells us that "man in embryo was re- presented by a frog," and it was therefore con- sidered a fit symbol to form the base of the palm branch of years, held by Thoth, as the Deity who superintended the life of man. The arms in the » Vide supra, p. 253. CHAP. XIII. FROG-HEADED DEITIES. KHEM. 257 hierogiyphic legend of the God Batrachocephalus, also connect him with this notion ; they recal the figure illustrativ^e of human life which so frequently occurs* on the monuments, and a man with arms on liis head is sometimes given as an emblem of Pthah. Batrachocephale. Of the peculiar office of this Goddess, I am ignorant. She has a frog's head, without the scarab of the former Deity ; and it is probable that she is only an Emanation of Pthah, or in a sub- ordinate capacity among the Genii, or lower order of Gods. Khem, Chemmo, Pan. Khemt, the generative principle, particularly worshipped atChemmis or Panopolis, and, according to the evidence of Diodorust and the sculptures, " treated with marked reverence by all the Egyp- tians," was another of the deified attributes of the almighty founder of the Universe, and, as Herodotus justly observes, one of the eight great Gods. His office was not confined to the procreation and con- tinuation of the human species, but extended even to the vegetable world, over which he presided; whence we find his statue accompanied by trees and plants, and Kings offering to him the herbs of the * The same as on the cover of this book. f Pronounced Kham. J Diodor, i. 18. VOL. I. — Second Series. S 258 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. ground, cutting the corn before him, or employed in his presence tilling the land, and preparing it to receive the generating influence of the Deity. It was from this circumstance, that the Greeks and Romans assigned to Priapus the office of presiding over their gardens * ; and the idea of his frightening away thieves with his right handt, was probably derived from the flagellum placed over the uplifted arm of the Egyptian Khem. It is also possible that the Hermes figures, placed on the public roads, were borrowed from one of the mummy-formed Gods of Egypt. All statues in Greece, before the time of Daedalus, were similarly rude imitations of the human figure, the legs being iniited, and the arms attached to the body ; but we may reasonably suppose that some other reason be- yond the mere retention of ancient custom induced them to give to these statues alone so remarkable a form ; and it is evident that the Hermes figures bear a stronger resemblance to the Egyptian mummy than to a statue of the ancient Greek style. From * Hor. Epoil. ii. 17. " Vel, qiuim decorum niitibus pomis caput Autumnus arvis extulit, Ut gauclet insitiva decerpens pyra, Certantem et uvam purpuras, Qua muneretur te, Priape, et te, pater Silvane, tutor finium." A figure of Priapus, engraved by Boissart, has this inscription, " Hortorum custodi, vigili, conservatori propaginis villicoruni." Banier, Myth. iv. p. 453. t Conf, Hor. Sat. I. viii. 3. " Deus inde ego, furium aviuinque Maxima formido ; nam fures dextra coercet, Ast importunas volucres in vertice arundo Terret fixa, vetatque novis considere in hortis." CHAP. XIII. NAME OF KHEM. 259 their name, it might be inferred that tliey were pe- cuhar to the God Mercury; but this depended on the head they bore ; those with the face of Apollo being styled Hermapollos ; of Minerva, Herma- thenas ; and others, according to their respective combinations. The Hermes fissure was therefore the exclusiv'C name given to statues of a peculiar form, and not to those of Mercury alone. For, besides the fact of the latter being represented in a perfect form like the other Gods, we find from Cicero, that these Hermes statues were forbidden to be erected upon a tomb, which would seem to be the most appropriate situation for a figure of Mercury, the Deity to whom the care of the dead was particularly confided. In one of several groups of hieroglyphics signi- fying " Egypt,'' a tree is introduced as the symbol of that country; but whether any peculiar tree was sacred to the God Khem, or its name resembled the word " Chemi" (Egypt), I will not pretend to decide ; trees of the same form, as that occur- ring in the name of Egypt*, accompany the shrine of the God t, and they may be emblems both of the country, and of the Deity whose name it bore. For Egypt was denominated '* Chemi (Khemi), or the land of Ham," as we find in the hieroglyphic legends ; and the city of Khem, or Panopolis, was called in Egyptian Chemmo, of which evident traces are preserved in that of the modern town * See the Rosetta stone. Vide Vol. II. p. 186.; also, Chap, xiii., Name of the Goddess 'S.tini, or Egypt, and the Woodcut. \ Vide Plate 20. behind the figure of the God. s 2 260 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. E'Khmim. * Indeed, the name of the God appears from the hieroglyphics to have been Chemmo or Khemot, and when in the character of Amunre- Generator, the title of Khemo is added to that of Amun. Plutarch sayst that " the leaf of the fig tree re- presented both their King Osiris, as well as their native country ;" and it is possible that this notion was founded upon the circumstance of the fig tree itself being the symbol of Egypt ; but from what he afterwards says of the Priapean character of Osiris, we may conclude he has confounded that Deity with the God Khem. If this be true, the tree above mentioned may be the fig, or more pro- bably the Ficus sijcomoriis ; and the conventional form adopted by the Egyptians for this and all trees, excepting the palm, D6)n, pomegranate, and a few others, appears to justify this conjecture. The sycomore was particularly sacred to the Goddess Netpe, as the Persea to Athor ; but these I shall have occasion to mention hereafter. The assertion of Herodotus §, that the Eg_y|)tians represented the God Pan, like the Greeks, with the head and legs of a goat, applies neither to the God Khem, nor to any other Deity in the Egyptian * It is singular, that this town should have had the name given to the whole country of "Kfiemi;" and another, Coptos (Koft or Kebt), have retained that of '• Egi/pt,^' which is (lypt with a prefixed letter or diphthong. J M;iy not the name Ok-iai.ir]c, said by Diodorus originally to have been siven to the Nile, be taken from the word ya/if, black? The river in earlv times also bore the name of Egypt. Vide supra. Vol. I, p. 8. Diod.'i. 19. X Plut. de Is. s. 36. $ Herodot. ii. 46. CHAP. Xlir. HAM, KHEM, MIZRAIM. 26l Pantheon*, and is as little worthy of credit as the statement he afterwards makes respecting an occur- rence in the Mendesian nome ; where he also states that "the Goat and the God Pan both have the name Mendes in the Egyptian language." The description of the God worshipped at Panopolis, given by Stephanus of Byzantium t, accords exactly with the Egyptian Pan, or Khem, which the learned Prichard has supposed to be " Osiris or Horus," and it is Khem, and not Mendes, to whom belong the attributes of the God of Generation. The Hebrew word Ham is identical with tlie Egyptian Khem, Qn being properly written Khm, Kham, or Khem ; and is the same which the Egyptians themselves gave to their country, in the sculptures of the earliest and latest periods. The Bible also applies to Egypt the name of Mizraim (or Mitzrim), a dual or plural word, which, as I have before observed!, seems to refer to the two regions of Egypt, the Upper and Lower country, over which the Pharaohs are always said in their regal titles to hold dominion. It is, how- ever, remarkable that the word itself docs not occur in hieroglyphics, though traced in the mo- dern name Musr or Misr, by which both Cairo and Egypt are known at this day. According to the scriptural account§ of the peo- pling of the world by the sons of Noah, it appears * Vide infra, Mantloo. ■f Stephanus says, " Ecrn Kai rov Gsor ayaX/xa ^ityu, opOuiKov (%"''' '■" aicoiop' (Tcaipti Ti fiaanyag ry ^ttiif. nf\i)vy, i]r ii^wXov (pantv etvai rov rirti'a." Voc. riai'Of -oXiQ. Vide I'ricliaril, p. 120. J Vide supra. Vol. I. p. 2. § Gen. x. G. s 3 26^ THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. that Ham (Khem) colonised the lands of Cush (Ethiopia), Mizraim Lower Egypt and the Thebaid* Phut Libya ?, and Canaan Syria ; the four being mentioned as " sons of Ham ;" which may refer to the migration of an Asiatic tribe to those coun- tries, and tend to confirm my opinion respecting the Oriental origin of the inhabitants of the valley of the Nile. Ham or Khem may have been the original name of that tribe which settled in the two districts called Mizraim ; and the Egyptians may have retained the appellation which they had as conquerors, in preference to that of the country they occupied. The progeny of Cush is equally remarkable. Cush * is the name of Ethiopia, both in Scripture, and in tlie hieroglyphics of the earliest periods ; and was applied to that country lying above the second cataracts t, inhabited, as at present, by a copper-coloured race. After the Bible has enumerated the sons of Cush, it mentions an offset in Nimrod, who founded the kingdom of " Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calmeh in tiie land of Shinar," from which country the Assy- rian founders of Nineveh emigrated, t This con- nection between an African and Asiatic Ethio- pian race, is the more remarkable, as the same is noticed by profane writers : the Ethiopian Mem- * In Hebrew it signifies " blackness," therefore applied to the " black country," like the word Ethiopia. f Tirhakah was King of Cush. 2 Kings, xix. 9. The capital of Tir- hakah's dominion was at El Berkcl, the ancient Napata. Sulpitius Severus calls him Tirchac. :|: Genes, x. 8. 10. CHAP. XIII. ETHIOriANS. CIIEMI. 2C)3 non was said * to be a general of Teutamis, tlie twenty-first King o^ Assyria after Semiramis, and to have been sent with a force of 10,000 Ethiopians, and the same number of Susans, to assist Priam, when Troy was besieged ; and the Cushites of Africa are also called Ethiopians. Besides the hieroglyphic group composed of the tree above alluded to, indicating Egypt, was one consisting of an eye and the sign land which bore the same signification t; and, since the pupil or black of the eye was called Chemi, we may con- clude this to be a phonetic mode of writing the name of Egypt, which Plutarch X pretends was called Chemmia from the blackness^ of its soil. To the God Khem, the Egyptians dedicated their ex-votos in the quarries of the Kossayr road ; nor were temples and votive inscriptions put up in honour of Sarapis till the time of the Romans, and in a few instances during the reigns of the Ptole- maic Kings. In the Greek ex-votos he is styled the " Pan of Thebes," but the hieroglyphic in- scriptions have not the title Amunre, though it is })robable that in this character he was the same as Amunre-Generator. || I should not be surprised to find that the name of Khem was that for which Amunre was substituted ; in which case, these would be two characters of Khem, instead of * Diodor. ii. 22. f Vide the name of the Goddess X ///<(. t Plat, de Is. s. .3.3. $ Chame is " black " in Coptic, Egypt is (lliemi ; and it is remarkable that Khom or Chom Q^H '^ "•''^'' '" Hebrew for " black " or " brown," as in Gen. xxx. 32, 33. 35. and 10. II Vide supra, p. 247. S 'I 264 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. Amun-re. * Either this may have been the case, or the original legend may have contained a name of the Deity, which in after times was deemed too sa- cred to be exposed to the eyes of the profane, when the uninitiated had become acquainted with the previously occult meaning of hieroglyphic writing. Khem was considered the generating influence of the Sun, whence perhaps the reason of his being connected with Amunre : and in one of the hie- roglyphic legends accompanying his name he is styled the Sun ; that is, the procreating power of the only source of warmth, which assists in the continuation of the various created species. I have twice found hieroglyphic legends stathig him to be " engendered by the Sun," and in another he is called the " Son of Isis," which might seem to deny him a place among the eigiit great Gods ; but these may refer to a distinct office he was sup- posed to bear on some occasions, and his intimate connection with Amun-re fully establishes his claim to the rank Herodotus has given him in the Egyp- tian Pantheon, t " The Greeks," says the historian, " consider Hercules, Bacchus, and Pan as the most modern of their Gods ; the Egyj)tians, on the con- trary, look upon Pan as very ancient, holding a rank among the first eight Deities ; Hercules they place in the number of the twelve, called the second order ; and Bacchus ranks with those of the third order, who are engendered by the twelve." It is not improbable, then, that Khem was also * llde siiju-d, p. 244. f Herodot. ii. 145. CHAP. XIII. THE GODDESS THRIPHIS. Q65 considered by the Egyptians the generating prin- ciple of nature itself; and this will accord with the idea they entertained of his extending his imme- diate influence over all the animal and vegetable world. On the Kossayr road I have met with a tablet in which the God Khem is represented as a hawk, with liuman legs, and an arm holding up the usual flagellum, his head crowned with the long feathers of Amun ; but this is an unusual form of the Deity, and of uncertain date. Thriphis was the favourite and contemplar com- panion of Khem, as w^ell at Panopolis, as in the temple of Athribis or Crocodilopolis, whose ruins are still seen to the westward of Soohag. She appears to be one of the Goddesses represented with a lion's head ; but I have been unable exactly to ascertain her attributes and office. The Greek inscription at Athribis* designates the town by the same name, Thriphis. It is still called by the Arabs Atrib, and by the Copts Athrebi ; and the honours with which the Goddess was there worshipped may be inferred from the dimensions of her temple, 200 feet in length and 175 in breadth. Part of the inscription is lost, but may be easily restored; and the name of the Emperor mentioned in it occurs also in the hieroglyphics, which on the other face of the same architrave present the ovals of Tiberius Claudius Caesar (Germanicus ?). In the Greek is the name of the Empress Julia, the * The Aral) triulition, meiuioiunl h}' the historian Macrizi, of tlie four sons of iMizraim, — Oshinun, Ahih, Sa, and Koft, — is, like many others which abound in Eg^pt, in order to account for the names of cities.. 266 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. widow of Agrippa and daughter of Augustus, with the date of the 9th year of Tiberius, which shows that her death could not have happened as early as is generally supposed. The dedication to " the most great Goddess Thriphis," and the mention of " Apollonius prefect of the cifi/ of Thriphis," show them both to have borne the same name ; as the ovals of Ptolemy the eldest son of Auletes, which occur in another part of the building, prove that the foundation of the temple dated before the Em- pire, and that the inscription of Tiberius was only attached to repairs or additions made during his reign. The Greek inscription at Panopolis is of the time of Trajan. It has the date of his 1^2th year, and mentions Pan and Thriphis as the chief Deities of the place. The story of Pan having been the lieutenant- general of Osiris, in his Indian expedition, and by the fright he caused to the enemy having given rise to the expression "Panic terrors," is an idle legend, whicli, too, cannot apply to the Pan of Egypt. It is mentioned by Plutarch and Polyenus. Sate, Juno. The Goddess Sate, or Juno, always accompanies Neph in the ex-votos at tlie Cataracts of Syene, and the Island of Sehayl ; where she forms the second member of a triad composed of Neph, Sate, and Anouke. This triad frequently occurs on diflerent monuments in the vicinity of Syene, it being customary for every town to assign a con- CHAP. xiir. SATE, JUNO. 267 spicuouspost in their temples to tlie chief Deities, and to the pecuHar triad, worshipped by their neighbours, as a mark of respect not only to the Gods, but to the inhabitants of the adjoining- districts. And the general adoration paid to the principal member of this triad throughout Nubia, readily accounts for its constant occurrence in the temples between the first and second cataracts. At Dakkeh, the manner in which it is mentioned over one of the doors is remarkable ; the Ethiopian King Ergamun being styled, on one side, *'Son ofNeph, born of Sate, nursed by Anouke," and on the other, *' Son of Osiris, born of Isis, nursed by Nephthys." The Island of Sehayl was formerly called Sete, a name not unlike that of the Egyptian Juno, — and a Greek inscription there mentions the dedication of a temple to the above-mentioned triad. In another, inscribed upon a column at the granite quarriesof Caracalla, near Syene, Jupiter-Hammon- Cenubis and Juno are said to preside over the hill near whose summit it was erected ; but these would not have been sufficient to identify the Goddess, had not the sculptures presented the name of an arrow (which, piercing a standard, forms her hieroglyphics) written in phonetic characters, and expressing the word Sate. Horapollo affirms that Juno (Sate) presided over the lower part of heaven, and Neith (Athena) over the upper hemi- sphere ; but it is possible that he may have con- founded Neith with Netpe ; though some con- firmation of his remark may be derived from the fact of the cap worn by Neith signifying, in hiero- 0,68 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. glyphics, "Upper Egypt," and that of Sate, the *« Lower country." Horapollo is fully borne out by the hieroglyphics in what he afterwards says, — that " the Egyptians think it absurd to designate the heaven in the mas- culine Tov oupoivov, but represent it in the feminine rrjv oupavov," "inasmuch as the generation of the Sun and Moon and the rest of the stars is per- fected in it, which is the peculiar property of a female." * The marriage of Jupiter with his sister Juno, in Greek mythology, was probably derived from the story of Osiris and Isis, who were also brother and sister and the children of Scb, considered by the Greeks the same as Saturn ; but the confusion caused by their judging of the identity of their own and the Egyptian Deities from casual analogies is so great, that to Jupiter alone are attributed legendary tales taken from Amun, Neph, and Osiris. The statues of the Greek Juno were not always confined to one particular form ; and to that God- dess were sometimes given the attributes of Pallas, of Diana, of Venus, of Nemesis, of the Fates, and otber Divinities. In this respect they resembled many of the Deities of Egypt, who, as already observed t, borrowed each other's attributes, and could only then be recognised by the hieroglyphic legend placed above them. The Goddess Sate does not appear to have played so important a part in Egyptian mythology * Horapollo, i. 11. f Vide suprci, p. 214, CHAP. XIII. GODDESSES OF THE TIIEBAJfD. Q()9 as the Juno of Greece. Nor will I pretend to decide if she presided over marriages : and little is known of her from the accounts of ancient writers. Dio- dorus *, Horapollo, and some other authors merely make a cursory mention of the Egyptian Juno, and little dependance can be placed on what Manetho relates concerning her. According to Porphyry t, the priest of Sebennytus states that three men were daily sacrificed to the Juno of Egypt, after having been examined like the clean calves chosen for the altar ; which ceremony was abolished by order of Amosis. And to this Plutarch alludes, when he says, " We are informed by Manetho, that they were formerly w^ont, in the city of Idi- thya t, to burn men alive, giving them the name of Typlios, and winnowing their ashes through a sieve : which sacrifices were performed in public, and at a stated season of the year, — in the dog- days." If, indeed, this were ever the case, it could only have been at a very remote period, long- before the Egyptians were the civilised nation we know them from their monuments ; as I shall have occasion to show in treating of the Sacrifices. § According to Herodotus, the great Goddesses of Egypt were Neith (Minerva), Buto (Latona), Bubastis (Diana), and Isis ; the Greeks having become acquainted with their names, from being worshipped in Lower Egypt ; and to their igno- * Diodor, i. 13. 15. f Porpliyr. de Abst. ii. 55. X Probalily Ilcthya or Eilethyia, the city of Lueina, a title given to the Greek Juno. Phit. de Is. s. 73. ^ Vide infra, on Sacrifices, Chap. xiv. 270 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. ranee of the Deities of the Thebaid may be at- tributed their silence respecting Maut, the great Goddess of Thebes, and Sate, the second member of the triad of Elephantine. Sate was represented as a female figure, wearing on her head tlie cap or crown of the Upper Coun- try, from which projected the horns of a Cow: and in her hand she holds the usual sceptre of the Egyptian Goddesses. Another Goddess appears also to lay claim to the name of Sate ; but her form and character differ from those of the Egyptian Juno ; and she seems rather to represent the Western bank of the Nile. * From her occurring frequently in tombs, it is probable that she had some office in Amenti. Indeed, the evident connection, and the similarity in the name, o^ Amenti, '* the lower regions," and Ement, *' the West," are remarkable ; and the idea of the end of the world being in the West, as its commencement in the East, is thus noticed by Plutarch: — The Egyptians make "a sacred dirge or lamentation over Osiris, bewailing him who was born on the right side of the world, and who perished on the left. For it must be observed that the Egyptians look upon the East as the front or face of the world, upon the North as its right side, and upon the South as its left."t * Vide Plate 53. Part 3. ; infra, Chap. xiii. f Plut. de Is. s. 32. The Arabs call the North the left, being on their left as thev look towards the East, or towards Mekkeh. chap. xiii. maut, mother. 271 Maut, Mother, Nature?. This Goddess was the second member of the Theban triad. Her name Maut, or Tmau *, signifies '* mother ; " and though many Divinities, as Isis, Netpe, and others, have the title " Motlier God- dess," the name Maut was peculiarly applied to the one before us, who may with much reason be supposed to represent in tliis capacity Nature, the mother of all. From the presence of the Vulture in her hieroglyphics, she has been supposed the same as Neith (Minerva) ; but that bird is merely a phonetic character signifying ** mother," and not an emblem of the Goddess herself. For the Vul- ture, as Horapollo observes t, being the peculiar type of a female, and of maternity, " the Egyptians, whenever they wish to designate a mother, repre- sent this bird." Some may be disposed to identify her with Buto, the Latona of Egypt, and imagine that the name she bears refers to the office she held in the creation of the world, or to her duties as nurse of Horus. Some indeed have confounded Buto with Minerva, who was said to have been the tutor of Bacchus.t The oracle of Buto was one of the most ce- lebrated in the world, and the honours rendered this Goddess by the Egyptians were doubtless very great, since, as Herodotus states, they had greater veneration for her oracle §, than that of * Or Mail, t being the female sign. f Ilorapollo, i. 1 1. J Diodor. iii. 09/ i Ilcrodot. ii. 83. 272 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. any other Deity. " It is consecrated to her," says the historian *, *' in a large city (also called Biito) situated near the Sebennytic mouth of the Nile. You pass it in going from the sea by that branch of the river. It contains several temples; — of Apollo, of Diana, and of Latona. In this last the oracles are delivered. It is of very great size, having porticos 10 orgyes (fathoms) in height. But of all that I observed within the enclosure sacred to Latona, the chapel of the Goddess caused me the greatest surprise. Its sides are of a single stone, square both ways, measuring in length and breadth 40 cubits ; and another block, whose thickness is 4 cubits, forms the roof. Nothing, in fact, in the whole of this consecrated spot is more worthy of admiration. Next to this is the Isle of Chemmis, situated in a deep and spacious lake near the temple of Latona at Buto. According to the Egyptians, it is a floating island ; but I confess I neither saw it float, nor even move, and I was much surprised to liear that any islands did float. In it is a large cliapel of Apollo, with three altars. The soil produces a number of palm and other trees without culture, some of which bear fruit. ** The following reason is given by the Egyp- tians for its floating. Latona, one of the eight most ancient Divinities, who lived at Buto, where her oracle now is, having been charged by Isis with the care of Apollo, concealed him in this island, which is now called the Floating Island, * Herodot. ii. \o5. T^7rfc also, ii. 75. Strabo, xvii. p. 551. CHAP. XITI. BUTO PRIMAEVAL DARKNESS. 273 though formerly fixed and stationary. She pre- served him there in safety, while Typhon was searching every where for tlie son of Osiris : for they say that Apollo and Diana are born of Bac- chus and Isis, and thatLatona was their nurse and preserver. Apollo is called Orus (Horns) in Egyp- tian ; Ceres is Isis ; and Diana, Bubastis." Of the form and attributes of the Egyptian Latona we are completely ignorant. It is far from certain that Maut and Buto are two characters of the same Deity; and unfortunately the sculptures of her tem- ple, mentioned by Herodotus, are no longer in ex- istence to clear up the difficulty. But if Strabo be correct in stating that the mygale or shrew mouse was worshipped at Athribis, it is very probable that the lion-headed Goddess Thriphis *, who gave her name to that city, was the same as the Egyptian Latona. The mygale is universally allowed to have been sacred to Butot: it was buried in the city of that name: and if the Egyptians really assigned the reason mentioned by Plutarch for the worship of this animal, we may believe that the Goddess Buto represented, as M. ChampoUion supposes, the darkness which covered the deep. *' The mygale,'* says that writer, "received divine honours by the Egyptians, because it is blind, and darkness is more ancient than light." t This idea of night being older than day was * Strabo, xvii. p. 559. Vide supra, ]).2iilj.; and ?/{//•«, Chap xiv., on the Mygale. f lleroclot. ii. 67. j Plut. Sympos. iv. Quaest. 5. Vide Gen. i. 2. and 3. VOI^. I. — Second Series. T 274 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. very ancient, and commonly entertained. We find in Genesis, that " the evening and the morning were the first day ;" which is retained to the pre- sent time by the Arabs, in the expression layl oo nahi\ " night and day." *' The Egyptians," says Damascins, "celebrated unknown darkness as the one principle of the universe.*" According to Hesiod, from chaos arose Erebus and black night : from night, ^ther and dayt:" and Aristotle tells us, '' the theolo- gians consider all things to be born from night." t Aristophanes makes " chaos, night, Erebus, and Tartarus the first ;" and in the Orphean Fragments we find, ** I will sing of Night, the genitor of Gods and men ; Night the genesis of all things." The Anglo-Saxons also, like Eastern nations, began their computations of time from night, and the year from that day corresponding with our Christmas, which they cailed *' Mother Night § ; " and '' the Otahei- tans refer the existence of their ])rincipal Deities to a state of darkness, which they consider the origin of all things." This darkness was not, however, the same as night, or evening, in the ordinary acceptation of the word, when the Sun withdraws its light from the earth, but that primaeval night, or darkness, from whicli all created nature had its commence- ment. And if Buto represented darkness the * Vide Cory, p. 320. •|- Hosioil. Thcogon. V. 123. Vide supra, |i.21«, j /7(/(' Metapli. xii. (J. ; ami Aiistuph. Birds, *) Vide Cory, p. 320. CHAT. XIII. POPULAR TALES. ^^15 companion of chaos, or " night the genesis of all things," another Goddess claimed the post of night, wlio, under the name of Athor, received the Sun into her arms, as he retired behind the Western mountain, of which she was the presiding Deity. Porphyry and otliers seem to confound the two, and suj)pose I^atona to be the atmosphere, which ap])ears light and dark beneath the Moon ; de- riving the name of Leto from the fovgetfulne.ss caused by sleep during the night, over which they suppose her to preside. This, like many other mysteries, being clothed by the Egyptian priests in the guise of a po- pular tale, suited to the comprehension of the people, was placed beyond the reach of the unin- structed or the profane ; and the sanctity of the mygale was attributed to the protection it afforded to Latona, who, under its form, eluded the pursuit of Typho. It is this custom of explaining the nature of the Gods in two different ways, — the one intended for the instruction of the initiated, the other to satisfy the profanum vulgus, who were excluded from all participation in metaphysical truths, which has been the cause of so much apparent contradiction in the character of the Egyptian Deities ; and we may readily conceive the labyrinth into which the human mind was led by similar explanations. But the object of the priests was obtained by these means. For, since they presented no difficulties to the comprehension of a su})erstitious people, they had tile appearance of truth, and effectually ])re- T 2 276 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. vented their indulging in speculation upon the religion they were taught to obey. Maut is represented as a female figure wearing on her head the Pshent, or double crown, of the Upper and Lower countries, placed upon a cap ornamented with the head, body, and wings of a vulture. This Pshent is not worn by her as by the Kings, the one crown placed within the other, but side by side, — a mode of arranging it adopted also by Atmoo and some other Deities. Instances also occur of Maut with the head of a lion, or of a cat. She probably, then, has the attributes of Pasht or Bubastis, or of Thriphis above mentioned. But it is frequently difficult to ascertain whether these heads are of a lion or of a cat ; even the ears are not always a sufficient guide, though generally the latter are erect and pointed, and the others round. The black basalt sitting figures in the British Museum, and other European collections, represent the Egy})tian Bubastis. The hieroglyphical name of Buto I have as yet been unable to determine; it may possibly be that given in the accompanying Woodcut, which fre- tf tt ."* /t t, No. 447. A name probably of Buto, or of Bubastis. qiiently occurs in Lower Egypt over a Goddess with a cat's head, unless, indeed, it be another form of the name Bubastis. CHAP. Xlir. TEMPLE OF I3UBASTIS. 277 Pasht, Bubastis, Diana. This Goddess was princij)ally worshipped in the Delta and Lower Egypt. Great lionours were also paid her in the Upper Country, and at Thebes her figure holds a conspicuous j)lace among the contemplar Deities. The city of Bubastis, where she was particularly adored, stood E. of the Delta, and at a short distance from the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, where lofty mounds, called Tel Basta, still mark its site. " Here," says Herodotus *, " is a temple of Bubastis deserving of mention. Other temples are larger and more magnificent, but none more beautiful than this. The Goddess Bubastis is the same as the Greek Diana. Her temple stands in an island surrounded on all sides by water, except at the entrance passage. Tw^o separate canals lead from the Nile to the entrance, which, diverging to the right and left, surround the temple. They are about TOO feet broad, and planted with trees. The vestibule is 10 orgyes (fathoms) high, ornamented with very fine figures 6 cubits in height. The temple stands in the centre of the town, and in walking round the place you look down upon it on every side, in consequence of the foundations of the houses having been ele- vated, and the temple still continuing on its original level. The sacred enclosure is encompassed by a wall, on which a great number of figures are sculp- tured; and within it is a grove, planted round >0*^0 persons of both sexes are present, besides children." * Heroilot. ii. 59, GO. -f- Vklf supra, Vol. II. p. 'Ml, .'JlH. The crotala were cither cymbals, or a sort of clap|)cr of wood or metal. Perhaps tiie same as the cylin- drical maces meiuioiied in Vol. IF. p. "2.37. Coiif. Propcrt. iv. Eleg. i.\. l.'j. " Nile, tuns tibicen erat crotalistria Phillis." 280 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. Pasht, or Bubastis, is a member of the great triad of Memphis, and the usual companion of Pthah ; by whom she is said, in the hieroglyphic legends, to be ** beloved." Herodotus considers her the daughter of Bacchus (Osiris t) and Isis. Were this true, she could not hold a rank among the eight great Deities, but those of the third or even fourth order; and his assertion is fully disproved by the exalted character she bears in the temples of Thebes. This error I believe to have arisen from the sup- posed identity of Horns (the son of Osiris) and the Sun, or the Apollo of the Greeks, whose sister Diana was reputed to be. Horus tlie elder, whom they called Aroeris, was brother of Osiris, and said to be the same as the Sun; whence he also was considered by the Greeks to answer to Apollo. But it was the younger Horus who was the son of Isis and Osiris, and lie had no .sister ; nor, indeed, could Bubastis have been the sister of the Egyptian Aroeris. Another mistake respecting this Goddess arose from the idea that Isis was the same as the Moon ; and the relationship of Isis and her brother Aroeris confirmed the Greeks in this erroneous fancy. Isis, however, w^as distinct from the Moon ; she was in no way connected with Bubastis ; and the latter Goddess was not the representative of that luminary. Ovid has reported the fabulous story of the Egyp- tian Diana (if, indeed, she can be called by that name) assuming the form of a cat, to avoid the * Herodot. ii. 156. CHAP. Xril. CHARACTERS OF DIANA. 281 enmity of Typlio.* But Juvenal has banished her from the Pantheon of Egypt : "Oppidatota canem venerantur, 7iemo Dianam," not, as the learned Prichard supposes, because " her worship had been discontinued, or had sunk into obscurity, before Egypt fell under the Roman yoke," but because Juvenal, in common with so many other persons who visited the country, was ignorant of the na- ture of its religion. The Greeks, indeed, gave to Diana three different characters. As the Moon, she was Lucina ; as Goddess of the Chace, Diana ; as a Deity of the lower regions, Proserpine or Hecate. Hence the poets styled her ^'trifor- mis/' and they sometimes represented her with three heads t, — that on the right being of a horse, that on the left of a dog, and that in the middle of a wild boar, — though Pausaniast thinks this custom neither ancient nor universal. But the form and attributes of nearly all the Greek Deities were very uncertain ; and Cicero has shown how confused were their genealogies and origin. He even confesses that the mode of representing them depended on tlie caprice of painters and fabulists §, who committed the palpable absurdity of repre- senting tlie Gods subject to anger, lust, and other bad passions, and exposed to tlie infirmities of human natiu'e. * " Fele soror Phoebi . . . latiiit . . . Cyllenins ibidis alis." Ovid. Met. lib. V. .3.^0. f Virg. /En. lib. iv. ill. " Tergeiiiinamque Ilccatcni, tria virgiuis ora Diana?." t Pans, in Corinth, c. 30. J Cicero (Nat. Door.) says, " Nos Dcos onincs cii facie novinuis, qua pictores fictoresrjue voluerunt." 282 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII The idea of a connection existing between Pasht and Hecate seems to be in some degree authorised by the sculptures of the Egyptian temples, since we find the hieroglyphical name of the latter at- tached to the Goddess before us * ; and the cha- racter and title of Hecate were also applied to Maut and Isis. Another reason that the Moon in the Egyptian mythology could not be related to Bubastis, is, that it was a male and not a female Deity, per- sonified in the God Thoth. This was also the case in some religions of the West. The Romans recognised the God Lunus ; and the Germans, like the Arabs, to this day, consider the Moon masculine, and not feminine, as were the Selene and Luna of the Greeks and Latins. Neith, Minerva. Neith, the Egyptian Minerva, was particularly worshipped at Saist, in the Delta ; Pausanias pre- tends tliat Minerva at Thebes was styled Onka, as in Phoenician, and Sais in other parts of Egypt ; but it is evident that she was called Neith, both in the Upper and Lower Country ; and Plato t and Eratosthenes are correct in stating this to be her Egyptian name. "There is," says the former, "a * Plate 27. Part 2. Hierog. No. 2. f Cicero is correct in saying, " Minerva secunda, orta Nilo, quam ^gyptii Saitae colunt." Nat. Deor. iii. p. 248. J " noXfiof (/. c. Sais)3-fof apx']7^<^ eifrd, on Athor ; and PI. 29. fig. 4. CHAP. XIII. ATIN-RE. 297 He was usually accompanied by the asp, the emblem of royalty and dominion, as well as by the symbols of life and purity, in token of his vivify- ing infiueuce over all the animated creation ; and in his concave resting-place, the lower firmament of heaven, he was sometimes supported on the backs of lions. This calls to mind an observation of Proclus *, that lions were considered solar animals. It also confirms the statement of Horapollo, that " the Egyptians place lions under the throne of Horus, showing that the animal bears a very great resemblance to the Sun : for the Sun is called by them Horus. t " And though he may be wrong in identifying the Sun with Horus, it is evident that he alludes to a similar mode of representing the Sun supported by lions. They were placed back to back, seated or lying down; and when made of stone, pottery, or other materials, they were united together, forming one body terminated by a head on either side. They were worn as amulets and orna- ments,— the ring by which they were attached an- swering to the Sun ; and I have found one instance of a cow*s head substituted for that of one of the lions.t The name Atin-re cannot fail to call to mind Attin, or Atys, the Phrygian Sun ; and from the ovals of the King, who was noted for the })eculiar worship of the Sun represented at the grottoes of * Proclus cle Sacrif. " Some animals are solar ... as lions. Vide Plate 29. fig. 6. -|- Horapollo, i. 17. ; and infra, on Horus. j Vide Macrob. Saturn, i. 26. 298 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. Tel el Amarna*, being always so systematically erased, some may argue the animosity of the people against a King, who had made an unwelcome foreign innovation in the religion of the country, or at least in the mode of worshipping that Deity. But the name of Atin-re already existed at a very early period; and though the subjects of Tel el Amarna rarely occur t, except in those grottoes and the vicinity, some traces may elsewhere be found of the Sun represented with similar rays, in sculp- tures of the time of the great Remeses. If, as I have already remarked t, Amenti signifies the receiver and giver, Amun-re may be opposed to Atin-re, in the same sense. Many other subdivisions or emanations of the God Re may be traced in the characters of other Egyptian Deities, as Aroeris, Mandooli, and others of whom I shall have occasion to treat hereafter. We also find Neph standing in the Sun accom- panied by the Scarab, in which character he may bear some relation to the God Re. It is probable that they separated the light from the heat of the Sun, as the Greeks considered Phoebus distinct from Apollo. The latter, too, made a distinction between Apollo and Helios (" the Sun"); and their mythology, according to Cicero, admitted four Deities who bore the name of Apollo ; one of whom, the reputed son of Vul- * Vide Plate 30. -f- I found some of the sculptures of this King at Koos, Apollinojjolis J)arva, near Thebes ; and have since heard of others at the Temple of Karnak, destroyed and built over by Amunoph III. J Vide sttprd, p, 246. CHAP. XIII. CHARACTERS OF THE SUN. 299 can, was supposed to be the same as tlic Aroeris of Egypt. There is reason to believe that the God Re corresponded to the Syrian Baal (bvn), ii name implying *' Lord *," which was given par excel- lence to the Sun : and tlie same idea of peculiar sovereignty vested in that Deity may have led the Egy})tians to take from Re (Phra) the regal title of their Kings. Heliopolis, in Syria, still re- tains the name of Baalbek, " the city of (the Lord, or) the Sun;" and tlie same word occurs in tlie names of distinguislied individuals among the Phoenicians, and their descendants of Carthage t, as Aumbaly AsdruZ»o/, and others. If the Egyptians separated the orb from the rays of the Sun, they were not singular in that idea ; the same was common to the Greeks ; for, as the philosopher Sallust says t, '*it is only from esta- blished custom that we are induced to call the orb of the Sun and its rays the Sun itself;" and they, also, found reason to deify those two, and to make of them two separate Divinities. Indeed, it ap- pears that the Egy})tians made of the Sun several distinct Deities : as the intellectual Sun, the phy- sical orb, tlie cause of heat, the author of light, the power of the Sun, the vivifying cause, the Sun in the firmament, and the Sun in his resting-place ; * As Beelzebub or Baalzebub 2.113* ^V^' " ^1^^ lortl of fi'ies." Baalim, " lords," or " idols." Jiidg. ii. 11. -f- Servius, on these verses of Virgil — " Iin|)levitqiie mere pateram, quaiii Bclus et onincs A Bclo soliti,"— /En. i. 73.3. .says," Lingua' i'linicii Bal Dcus dicitiir, apud Assyrios autem Bel dicitur." J In his fourth book on the (iods of the world. 300 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. and many other characters of the Sun were pro- bably admitted into the Pantheon of Egypt. Heliopolis, (Ainshems, or Bethshemesh,) the On of Scripture, a small but celebrated city of Lower Egypt, was the place where the worship of Re was peculiarly adopted. Plutarch says*, "Those who minister to the God of Heliopolis never carry any wine into the temple, — looking upon it as in- decent to drink it during the day, when under the immediate inspection of their Lord and King. The priests of the other Deities are not altogether so scrupulous on this point ; making use of it, though sparingly, unless at some of their more solemn ])urifications, when they wholly abstain from it. Indeed, they give themselves up wholly to study and meditation, hearing and teaching those truths which regard the divine nature." This, however, does not appear to refer to the ordinary libations made to the Sun, which were doubtless of wine t; as the usual drink-offerings presented to the Gods ; but to a regulation which prevented the priests from indulging in the use of wine ; and we hnd abundant proofs, from the sculptures in other places, of its having been offered to the Sun, Plutarch continues to observe, that '* even the Kings themselves, being of the order of priests, have their wine given them according to a certain measure prescribed in the sacred books, as we are told by Hecata?us ; and it is only since the reign of Psammetichus, that this indulgence has been granted them ; for, before that time, they drank no * Plut. de Is. s. 6. t nde supra, Vol. II. p. 164-. note f. CHAP. XIII. RENOWN OF HELIOrOLIS. 301 wine at all ; and if they made use of it in their li- bations to the Gods, it was not because they looked upon it as in its own nature acceptable, but as the blood of those enemies whoformerly fought against them, which, being mixed with the earth, produced the vine ; and hence they think that drinking wine in quantities makes men mad, being filled with the blood of their own ancestors. These things are re- lated by Eudoxus, in the second book of his Tour, as he had them from the priests themselves.'* The assertion, however, respecting the prohibition of wine, previous to the time of Psammetichus, is er- roneous ; and I have already shown * , that the Kings . and priests were permitted its use at the earliest pe- riods, as the sculptures abundantly prove, as well as the scriptural account of Pharaoh's butler, t It was of Heliopolis, or On, that Potipheraht was a priest, whose daughter Asenath was given in marriage to Joseph; and the name of that person, VIQ 'DID* is evidently compounded of Phrc or Phrah, " the Sun," and answers to the Egyptian Pet-phrc, or Heliodotus, which, in hieroglyphics, would be thus written : No. 450 Name of rotiphiTali, Pet-phro, or Pet-re. The priests of the Sun at Heliopolis, like those of Thebes and Memphis, were celebrated for their learning ; and it was to this city that Plato, Eu- * Vide Vol. I. p. 253., and Vol. II. p. 165. t Gen. xl. 11. J GcMi. xli. 45. 302 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. doxus, and other Greek sages repaired, in order to study " the wisdom of the Egyptians ; " and " Py- thagoras," according to Phitarch*, *' was the disci- ple of Oinuphis the HeUopohte.'* Astrononny and all branches of science were studied at Heliopolis : and tlie priests of tlie Sun enjoyed the greatest re- putation for learning. Their city, though small, was the university of Egypt ; and near it was an observatory, which Strabot attributes to Eudoxus, but which we may conclude with greater reason belonged of old to the city, whither he had gone from Greece to study the secrets of the Egyptian wisdom. In tlie time of the geographer, the reputation of this seat of learning had already declined; the spacious mansions in which the priests lived were pointed out to him as objects of bygone days ; and the inhabitants spoke of the former sojourn of learned men among them. Tlie colleges, as well as the doctrines they taught, no longer existed in Heliopolis; nor was any one shown to him who occupied himself in the pursuits of former times. Alexandria was the seat of learning at that period : philosophy seemed to have sought an abode and patronage near the court ; even its obelisks were removed with its learning from Heliopolis, and all that could give it splendour or celebrity was taken to the new city. The hawk, as before stated, was peculiarly sacred to the Sun. Herodotus also mentions a bird called * Pint, de Is. s. 10. f Strabo, xvii. p. 555. CHAT. XIII. THE THCENIX. 303 the Phoenix, of which he gives the following ac- count* : — *'I have never seen it but in a painting, for it seldom makes its appearance, and, if we may believe the Heliopolitans, it only visits their country once every 500 years, on the death of its father. If it is like its picture, its wings are partly gold, partly red, and its general appearance is similar to an eagle both in form and size. They relate a peculiarity respecting it, which to me appears incredible. It comes, as the Egyptians say, from Arabia, bringing with it the body of its father enveloped in myrrh, and buries it in the temple of the Sun. For this purpose it makes a mass of myrrh into the form of an egg, of the weight which it thinks itself capable of carrying, and having raised it and found it por- table, it proceeds to hollow out the mass ; and then introducing the body of its father, and closing the orifice with myrrh, the egg is found to be of the same weight as when solid ; and this being done, it brings it to Egypt and deposits it in the temple of the Sun." *' The Phoenix of Arabia," says Pliny t, "sur- passes all other birds ; but I do not know if it be a fable that there is only one in the whole world, and that seldom seen. According to report, it is the size of an eagle, of a gold colour about the neck, the rest being purple, its tail blue, varied with red feathers, its face and head richly feathered, with a tuft on the top. Manilius observes that no man ever saw it feeding; that in Arabia it is held sacred * Herodot. ii. 73. f Plin. x. 2. 304> THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP, XIII. to the Sun ; that it lives 660 years, and when it grows old it builds a nest with twigs of cassia and frankincense, and having filled it with aromatics, dies upon it. A worm is afterwards produced from its bones and marrow, which, having become a young bird, carries the entire nest to the city of the Sun, near Panchaea, and there deposits it on the altar. Manilius also says that the revolution of the great year agrees with the life of this bird, in which the seasons and stars return to their first places ; be- ginning at noon on the day when the Sun enters Aries." This imaginary bird, of which so many tales have been handed down to a late period, is fre- quently represented in the paintings and sculptures of the temples of Egypt, though without appearing peculiarly emblematic of, or sacred to, the Sun. It occurs in the ornamental details of cornices, friezes, and other parts of buildings, at the bases of columns, and on the sails of ships ; and sometimes a Monarch is seen presenting it as an offering to the Gods. According to Horapollo *, it was the emblem of one who had returned home after travelling over distant countries ; and it was, therefore, very pro- perly chosen to ornament monuments erected by the victorious Monarchs of Egypt, after achieving conquests, that shed a lustre over their names, and claimed the congratulations of a grateful country for their safe return. The Egyptian Phoenix is represented under the form of a bird with wings partly raised, and seated * Horapollo, i. 35. CHAP. XIII. THE PIKENIX. 305 upon its open claws, having at the back of its head a small tuft of feathers similar to that of the crested plover, so common in Egypt ; and in front it raises two human arms as if in an attitude of prayer. But it may be doubted if this be the same whose picture Herodotus mentions ; and from the slight description he gives of it, we might rather suj)])ose he had in view the hawk, which was the emblem of Re, and which is seen on obelisks and other monuments, whether dedicated to the Sun or other Deities. They sometimes represent the Phoenix under the form of a man with wings, in the same attitude of prayer, and bearing the tuft of feathers on his head*, accompanied also by a star, which, as I have observed, seems to have been connected with the idea of adoration, t Of its name in the Egyptian language we are ig- norant ; Ovid says, " the Assyrians call it Phoenix ; " and from this bird and the palm tree having the same name in Greek, we are sometimes in doubt to which of the two ancient writers in that language allude, as in the case of the . 292. % Plin. xiii. 4. \'()L. I. — Second Series. X 306 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. its ashes issued a worm which changed itself into a Phoenix ; and the early fathers of the Greek and Latin Church availed themselves of this accredited fable as a proof of the resurrection. * But though the story of its rising from its ashes may have been a late invention, the Phoenix itself was of very ancient date, being found on monuments erected about the commencement of the 18th Dynasty. And we even find mention of this long-lived bird in the book of Job.t This, at least, is the opinion of Bede, who, in accordance with the Septuagint translation of the word we render " sand" reads *' I shall die in my nest, and shall multiply my days as the Plimnix :" and Dr. Prichard, Gesenius, and others, adopt the same interpretation of the passage. Several ancient writers mention the periodical return of the Phoenix : some agreeing with He- rodotus in fixing it at about 800 years ; while others state it to have been 660, 600, 500, 340, or 1460. "Various," says Tacitust, "are the opinions respecting the number of years. They most com- monly allow 500, though some extend the interval to 1461, and assert that the bird appeared in the age of Sesostris, of Amasis, and tlie third Ptolemy." But these two periods do not agree : that from Sesostris (or Remeses the Greatj to Amasis being * Ambrosius says : " Phoenix avis in Arabiae locis perhibetur .... doceat igitiir nos haec avis exemplo sui resurrectionem credere." Hex- aemer. lib. v. c. 23. It is also celebrated by Lactantius, Gregory Na- zianzenus, and Tertullian. t Job. xxix. 18. The Hebrew name is 7Tn Hoi or AV^o/, which also means " sand," as in our version. The Septuagint has ^oivd. X Tacit. Annal. vi. 28. Sen. Ep. 42. CHAP. XIII. RETURN OF THE PHCENIX. 307 about 780 years; that from Amasis to Ptolemy III. about 330. Some have thought that, by tlie Phoenix, tlie Egyptians intended to indicate the appearance of Comets ; and I have seen a ])aper written to prove that the average * number of years assigned to the return of the Phoenix corresponded to tlie great Comet of 1680. Without however assenting to the opinion of Seneca t (who thinks, "because Eudoxus, having studied in Egypt, and thence introduced into Greece the knowledge of the motions of the planets, took no notice of comets, that the Egyp- tians, the greatest observers of celestial phgeno- mena, had not attended to this part of the sub- ject,") I must confess that the reappearance of the Phoenix appears rather to indicate, as Pliny, on the authority of Manilius, supposes, the re- turn of a certain period. And the mention of the number 1461 argues strongly in favour of the opinion that the Sothic period was the real Phoenix of Egypt. This, as I have elsewhere shown t, was the number of years that elapsed be- fore the Solar year of 365 days coincided with the Sothic or fixed year of 365^ days. It was also called the Great Year of the Egyptians, at the end of which all the planets returned to the same place they occupied at its commencement. * The average of 600 and 5-tO years is taken ljy the writer, being 575. f Sen. Nat. Qua;st. lib. vii. c. 3. j Vide supra, p. 87.; and infra, on Isis. X 2 308 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. Seb, Sev, Saturn as Chronos. * Seb, the father of Isis and Osiris, was supposed to be the same as Saturn, probably from his having the title "Father of the Gods.*' This, however, referred to liis being the parent of the Deities above mentioned, and not to any resemblance he bore to the Sire of Jove ; for the Saturn of Egypt *' the father of Osiris," was said to be '* theyoungest of the Gods." Indeed, the character of Saturn differed essentially from that of the Egyptian Seb ; and the rites of the former, when introduced by the Ptolemies, were looked upon by the Egyptians to be so much at variance with their religious notions, that his temple, like that of Sarapis, w'as not ad- mitted t within the precincts of their cities; and it was not without compulsion that the worship of these two Deities was tolerated by the people. Macrobius says, — " Through the tyranny of the Ptolemies they were obliged to receive those Gods into their worship, after the manner of the Alex- andrians, by whom they were particularly adored ;'* the opposition made to their introduction being, as he thinks, in consequence of the novel custom of slaying victims in their honour. He states, that it was not lawful for the Egyptians to propitiate the Gods by sheep and blood, but with prayers and incense only; and Porphyry t expresses a similar opinion, when he says, *' Those in earlier times, * Chronos, or Time. Vide infra, on Savak. -|- Macrob. Saturn, i. 4. j Porph. de Abstin. lib. ii. CHAP. XIII. OFFERINGS TO THE GODS. 309 who performed sacrifices, offered herbs, flowers, and trees, or incense of aromatic substances ; for it was unlawful to slay animals." " Among the offerings * made to the Egyptian Deities, libations and incense hold, it is true, a promi)ient place, as well as flowers, fruit, and other productions of the soil ; but geese, and other birds, gazelles, capricorns, the legs and bodies of oxen or of the wild goat, and, what is still more remark- able, the head of the victim t, are also placed be- fore them : " and thus the reason given by Ma- crobius is fully disproved. Herodotus also tells us that the oxen, after having been examined by a priest, and marked with his seal, were led to the altar and sacrificed ; and this is fully confirmed by the sculptures in every part of Egypt. I shall not here stop to inquire if really, in early times, the Egyptians or other ancient people con- tented themselves with offerings of herbs, incense, and libations, and abstained from sacrifices of victims. This, if it ever was the case, could only have been in their infancy as a nation ; and it is more ])robable, as I have already observed t, that the kind of offering considered most acceptable to the Deity, which was "a firstling of the flock,'* had been established and handed down from the very earliest period, as a type of" the destined per- fect propitiation for sin, which man was taught to expect, * Materia Ilierog. p. 15. -|- J'ide my Materia Hierog. p. IC; and supra. Vol. II. p. 377. j Vide siq)}'(i, p. 144. 146. x 3 310 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. The story of the birth of the children of Saturn, mentioned by Plutarch*, abounds with contra- dictions. " Rhea," who is Netpe, " having had intercourse with Saturn by stealth, was discovered by the Sun, who thereupon denounced a curse upon her, ' that she should not be delivered in any month or year.' Mercury, however, being like- wise in love with the same Goddess, in recompence for the favours which he had received from her, played at tables t with the Moon, and won from her the seventieth part of each of her illuminations. These several parts, making in the whole 5 new days, he afterwards joined together, and added to the 3()0, of which the year formerly consisted; which days, therefore, are even yet called by the Egyptians the epact, or superadded, and observed by them as the birthdays of their Gods. For upon the first of them, they say, was Osiris born, at whose entrance into the world, a voice was heard, saying, *The lord of all the Earth is born.*" .... *' Uj)on the second was Aroeris born, whom some call Apollo, and others distinguish by the name of the elder Horus. Upon the third, Typho came into the w^orld ; being born neither at the proper time, nor by the right place, but forcing his way through a wound which he had made in his mother's side. Isis was born upon the fourth, in the marshes of Egypt ; as Nephthys upon the last, w^hom some call Teleute and Aphrodite, and others Nike. Now, as to the fathers of these * Plut. (]e Is. S.I ■^. t "m-ta." CHAP, XIII. CHILDREN OF SEB. 311 children, the two first of them (Osh'is and Aroeris) are said to have been begotten by the Sun, Isis by Mercury, Typho* and Nephthys by Saturn; and accordingly the third of these superadded days, because it was looked upon as the birth- day of Typho, was regarded by the Kings as in- auspicious, and consequently they neither trans- acted any business on itt, nor even suffered them- selves to take any refreshment until the evening. They further add, that Typho married Nephthys ; and that Isis having a fond affection for Osiris while they were yet together in their mother's womb, became pregnant by her brother, and from this commerce sprang Aroeris, whom the Egyp- tians likewise call the elder Horus, and the Greeks Apollo." According to this account, Osiris was the son of Netpe (or Rhea), by the Sun ; Isis, by Mercury : how, then, could they be twins? And " Saturn," we are told by Plutarch, " intrusted the care of the child Osiris to Paamyles ; " which could not reasonably be expected, unless he were his own son. Were Plutarch our only guide, we might remain in uncertainty upon the subject ; but fortunately the hieroglyphics solve the difficulty, and establish the claims of Seb (or Saturn) to the title of father of Osiris. Seb is sometimes represented with a goose stand- ing upon his head, which is the initial of his pho- * The word T3pho is to be preferred to T^plum. -|- An unlucky day. Some [jcrsons are eijually superstitious about unlucky days, even in these enlightened times. X 4 312 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIll. netic name ; and, in the hieroglyphics, he has the title " Father of the Gods." This alludes to his being the father of Osiris, and the other Deities born on tlie days of the Epact; and the frequent occurrence of the formula, which the Gods are made to utter, " I give you the years of Seb," appears to connect this Deity with Xpovo^, or Time*, the Saturn of the Greeks, distinct as he was from the Saturn of Roman mythology. His dress, and that of Netpe, his consort, are remarkably simple. Netpe, Netphe, Rhea. '* Netpe has frequently been mistaken for Neit, but the discovery of hieroglyphics calling Osiris the son of Netpe and Seb, leaves no room for further doubt upon the subject.! It is not al- together impossible, that Horapollo may have ascribed to Neith, what in reality belongs to the wife of Seb ; since the firmament is her emblem, or, at least, indicates the last syllabled of her name." Another Goddess, with whom, from the similarity of name, she might possibly be confounded, is Nephthys ; but the sister of Isis differs entirely from the Egyptian Rhea ; and Tpe, the Goddess of the * Vide Macrob. Sat. i. 5. f Materia Hierog. p. 18. ; and Plate 13. No. 7. j Dr. Young was not wrong in stating, that syllables (or, at least, the initial letter for the whole syllable) were used occasionally in hieroi^lvphics, as J/ for Jfo/, the hare for oituii, and others ; independent of the omission of the intermediate vowels between consonants, as in Arabic and Hebrew. CHAP. XIII. NETPE, RHEA. 313 heavens, enclosing the Zodiacs, is also distinct from her, as from Neith and Netpe." ** She is sometimes represented with a vase on her head, the initial of her name; and she frequentlv occurs in the paintings of the tombs, standing in the sycomore fig tree, pouring a liquid from a vase, which the deceased and his friends, and even the soul of the former under the form of a bird with a human head, are catching in their hands. Besides this nectar of heaven, she presents them with a basket of fruit from the sacred tree." It is to Netpe, and not to Athor, that the sycomore was dedicated ; and " the number of instances I have met with of Netpe in this tree, leave no doubt of the fig, which gave the name of Hierosycaminon to a town of Nubia*, being sacred to the mother of Osiris." The representation of this tree at Hiero- sycaminon, is very rude, and of the late era of the Roman Empire: if, therefore, the Goddess seated beneath it has rather the character of Isis, or of Athor, than of Netpe, the authority of such a period is of little weight ; and we liave abundant proofs from the oldest monuments, that the syco- more was consecrated to Netpe, as the Persea to Athor. The Athenians had a holy fig tree, which grew on the " sacred road," where, during the celebration of the Eleusinian mysteries, the procession which went from Athens to Eleusis halted. This was on the sixth day of the ceremony, called lacclius, in * Now Maharraka, or Oofideeua. 314 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII- honour of the son of Jupiter and Ceres, who ac- companied his mother in her search for Proserpine; but the fig tree of Athens does not appear to have been borrowed from the sycomore of Egypt, unless it were in consequence of its connection with the mother of Isis and Osiris, whom they supposed to correspond to Ceres and Bacchus. In one of the hieroglyphic legends* given in the Plate, Netpe appears to be identified with' Lucina, and to preside over births and nursing. Indeed, it is probable that mothers looked to her for pro- tection, being the fabled parent of their favourite Deities Isis and Osiris, from which she derived the title " Mother of the Gods." Of the Egyptian Lucina, worshipped at Eilethyas, I shall have occa- sion to speak hereafter. OsiRi, Osiris, Pluto, Bacchus. "Osiris, in his mysterious character, was the greatest of all the Egyptian Deities ; but little is known of those undivulged secrets, which the an- cients took so much care to conceal. So cautious indeed, were the initiated t, that they made a scruple even of mentioning him;" and Herodo- tus, whenever he relates any thing concerning this Deity, excuses himself from uttering his name. His principal office, as an Egyptian Deity, was to judge the dead, and to rule over that king- dom where the souls of good men were admitted * Plate 32. Hierog. No. 2., from Dendera. f Her odot. jmssm. Plut. de Is. s.21. &c. CHAP. XIII. OFFICE OF OSIRIS. 315 to eternal felicity.* Seated on his throne, ac- companied by Isis and Nephthys, with the four Genii of Amenti, who stand on a lotus growing from the waters, in the centre of the divine abode, he receives the account of the actions of the deceased, recorded by Thoth. Horus, his son, introduces the deceased into his presence, bringing with him tlie tablet of Thoth, after his actions have been weighed in the scales of Truth. To Anubis, who is styled the "director of the weight," belongs this duty; and, assisted by Horus, he places in one scale the feather or the figure of Thmei, the Goddess of Truth, and in the other a vase emblematic of the virtuous actions of the judged. A Cynocephalus, the emblem of the Ibis-headed God, sits on the upper part of the balance ; and Cerberus, the guardian of the palace of Osiris, is present. Sometimes also Harpocrates, the symbol of resuscitation and a new birth, is seated on a crook of Osiris, before the God of letters, — expressive of the idea entertained by the Egyptians and other philosophers t, that no- thing created was ever annihilated ; and that to cease to be, was only to assume another form, — dissolution being merely the passage to repro- duction. Some of the figures of the dead are represented wearing round their necks the same emblem which appears in the scales, after they have passed their ordeal, and are deemed worthy of admission into * Conf. Pliit. de Is. s. 79. f Vide siqjid, p. 218., " conclusion and renovation." 316 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XUI. the presence of Osiris ; the purport of which is, that they are justified by their works, weighed and not " found wanting." To men and to women also was given after death the name of Osiris*, — im- plying that, in a future state, the yirtuous returned to the fountain of all good, from which they origin- ally emanated; and that the soul, being separated from its material envelope, was pure and intellec- tual, divested of all the animal feelings which a dis- tinction of sex might indicate, and free from those impurities or imperfections to which human nature was in this life subject. They also considered the souls of men to be emanations of that divine soul, which governed and pervaded the Universe ; each eventually re- turning to its divine origin, provided the virtuous course of life it had led in this world showed it to be sufficiently pure to unite with the imma- culate nature of the Deity. It was their opinion, that those which had been guilty of sin were doomed to pass through the bodies of different animals, in order so to purify them that they might be rendered worthy again to mix with the parent Soul whence they emanated ; the number and duration of these transmigrations, and the kind of animals through which they passed, depending on the extent of their impieties, and the consequent necessity of a greater or less degree of purification. This doctrine of the metempsychosis, or trans- migration of the soul, was afterwards adopted by * Conf. Plut. de Is. s. 28. Vide also infra, p. 322. CHAP. XIII. TRANSMIGRATION OF THE SOUL. SI7 Pythagoras, with many other opinions he acquired during Iiis stay in Egypt. The idea of the return of tlie Spirit to the Deity seems also to have been admitted by the Jews, in the time of Solomon ; since we find in Ecclesiastes*, "Then shall the dust return to the Earth as it was ; and the Spirit shall return unto God who gave it.*' The characters of Osiris were numeroust, as were those of Isis, who was thence called Myrio- nymus, or '* with 10,000 names." He was that attribute of the Deity which signified the divine Goodness t ; and in his most mysterious and sacred office, as an avatar, or manifestation of the Divinity on earth, he was superior to any even of the eight great Gods. And though, as Herodotus informs us§, all the Egyptians did not worship the same Gods witli equal reverence, the adoration paid to Osiris and Isis was universal, and he considers Isis the greatest of all the Divinities of Egypt. || Of the manner in which the Egyptians supposed this manifestation of the Deity in a human form to have taken place, I will not pretend to decide. This was always a profound secret, revealed only to some of those who were initiated into the higher order of mysteries. Suffice it to say, that Osiris was not believed by them to have been a human being, vv'ho after death was translated into the order of Demigods ; for, as I have already observed, no * Eccles. xii. 7. -j- Hence confounded with other Deities. Vide Diodor. i. 25. X Vide supra, p. 189. 217. § Herodot. ii. 42. II nerodot. ii. 40. 318 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. Egyptian Deity * was supposed to have lived on earth, and to have been deified after death, as with the Greeks and other people. Pythagoras also borrowed from the Egyptians his notion respecting emanation. He held that the Deity was the soul which animated all nature, — the anima mundi, or soul of the universe, — not an external influence, but dwelling within it, as the soul of man within the human body ; and from this universal soul all other Gods, as well as the souls of men and other animals, and even of plants, directly proceeded. Plutarch, indeed, attempts to show that the worship of animals in Egypt was borrowed from this ideat, when he says, " On the whole, we ought to approve the conduct of those who do not reverence these creatures for their own sakes, but who, looking upon them as the most lively and natural mirrors wherein to behold the divine perfections, and as the instruments and workmanship of the Deity, are led to pay their adoration to tliat God who orders and directs all things. Concluding, on the whole, that whatever is endued with soul and sensation is more excel- lent than that which is devoid of those perfec- tions — even than all the gold and precious stones in the universe, though collected into one mass. For it is not in the brilliancy of colour, in the ele- gance of form, or in the beauty of surface, that the Divinity resides. So far from it, those things which never had life, and have not the power of * Vide supra, p. 167. \ Vide infra, beginning of CIi. xiv., on the Sacred Animals. CHAP. XIII. EMANATIONS FROM THE DEITY. 319 living, are in a much lower degree of estimation than tliose that once enjoyed existence, though they may since have lost it. But whatever beings are endued with Hfe, and the faculty of seeing, with a principle of voluntary motion in them, and are able to distinguish what belongs to and is proper for them ; all these, as Heraclitus says, are to be regarded as the effluxes, or so many portions of that supreme wisdom which governs the uni- verse ; so that the Deity is not less strikingly re- presented in these, than in images of metal and stone made by the hand of man." This doctrine is well described by Virgil, in the following; beautiful lines * : — " Principio coeliim, ac terras, camposque liquentes Lucentemque globum liiiias, Titaniaque astra, Spiritus intiis alit, totamque infiisa per artus Mens agitat inolem, et niagno se corpore iniscet. Iiule hominum pccudumque genus, vitEeque volantiim, Et quae marmoreo fert monstra sub sequore pontus. Igncus est ollis vigor, et coelestis origo Scniinibus. ...... Quia et supremo cum lumine vita reliquit, Kon tamcn omne malum miseris, ncc funditus omnes C'or[)orete exceciiuit pcstes ; peuitusque necesse est INIulta diu concreta modis inolescere miris. Ergo exerccntur pa-nis, veterumque malorum Supplicia expendunt. .... Donee longa dies perfecto temporis orbc Concretam exemit labem, purumque reliquit ji^thereum sensum, at que aurai siinplicis ignem. Has omnes, ubi mille rotam volvere per annos, LethiL'um ad fluvium Deus evocat agmine magno : Scilicet immemores supera ut convexa revisant, Rursus et incii)iant in corpora velle reverti." The same is mentioned by Eusebius as the opinion expressed in the old Hermaic books called * V'irg. JEn. vi. 724. 320 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. Genica*: " Have you not been informed by the Genica, that all individual souls are emanations from the one Soul of the Universe ?" and Porphyry says, *' The Egyptians perceived that the Divinity not only entered the human body, and that the (divine) soul dwelt not, while on earth, in man alone, but passed in a measure through all animals." Osiris was called t the " manifester of good," or the " opener of truth," and said to be '*full of good- ness (grace) and truth." He appeared on earth to benefit mankind ; and after having performed the duties he had come to fulfil, and fallen a sacrifice to Typho the evil principle, (which was at length overcome by his influence, after his leaving the world,) he *' rose again to a new lifet, " and became the judge of mankind in a future state. The dead also, after having passed their final ordeal and been absolved from sin, obtained in his name, which they then took, the blessings of eternal felicity. The title '' manifesfer of good** accords well with what Plutarch § says of Osiris, that he was a '■^good being, and sometimes styled Omphis (Onuphis), which signifies a benevolent and beneficent power ; " the word Onuphis being evidently the Egyptian ap- pellation of this God Ouon-nofre, ** tJie opener of good" This was his principal title. He was also fre- quently styled "President of the West," "Lord of Abydus," (which may either be Ehot Abydus, or Eht the East,) "Lord of the world," " Lord of * J7f/r Prichard, p.208. f Vide sitj7iri, p. 189. X Pint, de Is. s. 33. $> Plut. de Is. s. 42. CHAP. XIII. TITLES OF OSIRIS. 321 life," ** the Eternal Ruler," and *' King of the Gods." These, with many others, are commonly found in the hieroglyphic legends accompanying his figure, as may be seen in the annexed Wood- 1 td ^\Z 9 ::hi 51 „^ ^ +1 Some of the titles of Osiris. cut ; and the papyri frequently present a list of 49 names of Osiris in the funeral rituals. In the British Museum, is a strange figure, supposed by some of Osiris, which ap- pears to have been intended for holding a papyrus; a purpose to which the small wooden statues of that God deposited in the tombs are often applied. But its form is unusual, and, until more is known of its date and use, we may scruple to admit it as No.452. Supposed figure of Osiris, a fiiiurc of Osir 1 s.T hc 1) ic- roglyphics, it is true, painted on the pedestal that VOL. I. — Second Series. Y 322 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XlII- supports it, are of early time, and present the name of "Osiris" on one side, and of " Osiris, Amun-re, Lord (of the thrones?) of the world, president of Thebes, Aroeris?" on the other; but it is evident that this did not belong originally to the statue, having been applied to it, probably by those who found it at Thebes, (like some more in this and other museums,) to increase its support, its beauty, or its value. There is therefore great uncertainty, both respecting its age, and the person it represents. The custom of applying the name of Osiris both to men and women, who were supposed to par- take sufficiently of the qualities of the good being to be worthy that honour, appears to have some connection with the Greek notion of Dionysus or Bacchus (who was thought to answer to Osiris) being both male and female. * It is also worthy of remark, that Servius, in commenting on the ** mystica vannus lacchi," of Virgil, affirms that *' the sacred rites of Bacchus pertained to the pu- rification of souls." If Osiris was represented as one of the Gods of the third order t, (who, according to their extra- vagant calculation, lived 15,000 years before the reign of Amasis, and consequently later than Her- cules, Pan, and other Deities of the second class,) we may suppose that this was intended to show that he visited the earth after the religion of Egypt had been long established ; or that it was an idea intro- * As in Aristides, p. 52. 8., and 52. 10.; and the Orphic poems, hymn 30., and 42. 4. Vide supra, p. 316. ■f Herodot. ii. 145. CHAP. XIII. OSIRIS OF EARLY DATE. 323 duced into their religious system subsequently to the systematic arrangement of the other members of their Pantheon. The sculptures, however, of the oldest monuments abundantly prove that, if it were of more recent introduction, the change must have occurred at a very remote period, before the erection of any building now extant in Egypt; as the tombs in the vicinity of the Pyramids, belong- ing to individuals who were cotemporary with their founders, show that Osiris had at that time the same offices as in the age of the Ptolemies and Caesars. In an ancient inscription, this Deity is made to say, " Saturn, the youngest of all the Gods, was my father ; I am Osiris : " and in another, " I am the eldest son of Saturn, of an illustrious branch, and of noble blood ; cousin of the day ; there is no place where I have not been, and I have liberally distributed my benefits to all man- kind." But the character of Osiris given by Tibullus*, — " Priimis aratra roanu solerti fecit Osiris, Et tenerem ferro solicitavit hiinmni ; Primus inexpertis commisit semina terrae, Pomaque non notis legit v.b arboribus," — as the teacher of agriculture, seems to refer to Khem rather than to the son of Seb; and the at- tributes of the Egyptian Pan have, in moi-e than one instance, been given to Osiris. The notion, that the Gods imparted to men the arts of ci- vilisation, was common to the Egyptians as to the Greeks. Ombte is represented teaching the * Tibiill. i. Elcg. 7. y '2 3'24 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. Kings the use of the bow; Nepli shows them the potter's art ; and Thoth instructs tliem in the mode of catching birds with the net, in tlie art of writing, and in every thing connected with cal- culation, medicine, and astronomy. In all cases, however, it was an abstract idea representing the different means by which intellectual gifts were im- parted from the Deity to man. The Greeks identified Osiris with Bacchus *, in consequence of his reputed conquest of India, and some other analogies in the attributes or charac- ter of those two Deities. " The histories," says Phitarch t, " on wliich the most solemn feasts of Bacchus, the Titania and Nuktelia, are founded, exactly correspond with what we are told of the cutting to pieces of Osiris, of his rising again, and of his new life." He was also supposed to an- swer to Phito t, from his office of ruler of Hades or Amenti ; "a circumstance of which the priests,'* according to Plutarch §, " never speak but witli the utmost caution and reserve. For the erroneous acceptation of this truth has given occasion to much disturbance, — the minds of the vulgar not being able to conceive how the most pure and truly holy Osiris should have his dwelling under the earth, amongst the bodies of those who ap- pear to be dead. This God is, indeed, removed as far as possible from the earth, being free from all * pint, (le Is. s, 37. 13. The ancient Bacclnis of Greece was repre- sented with a long heard ; the youthful Bacchus, on Greek vases, dates after the time of Alexander. t Pint, de Is. s. 35. % Pint, de Is. ct Osir. ss. 27, 28. § Pint, de Is. s. 79. CHAP. XIII. OSIRIS MANIFESTED ON EARTH. 3'25 communication witli such beings as are liable to corruption and death. As, therefore, the souls of men are notable to participate of the divine nature while encompassed with bodies and passions ; so, when they are freed from these impediments, and remove into the pure unseen regions which are not discernible to our senses, it is then that this God becomes their leader and King, and they be- hold that beauty for which Isis has so great an affection." " Osiris," says Diodorus *, " has been con- sidered the same as Sarapis, Bacchus, Pluto, or Ammon. Others have thought him Jupiter, many Pan ; and some look upon Sarapis as the same with the Greek Pluto." The historian also en- deavours to identify him with the Sun, as Isis with the Moon ; — an opinion maintained by other an- cient writers ; but wiiich I have already t shown to be at variance with the authority of the monu- ments, and the well-known character of Osiris. Many fanciful notions have been derived from his fabled rule on earth ; and comparisons have been made with Osiris and other Deities, which, as in the case of Isis, are mere speculations of a late time, totally at variance with the opinions of the Egyptians, — at least, of those who understood their religion and the nature of the Gods. Di- vested, then, of all the fancied connection with the Sun and the many Deities to whom Osiris is compared, we see in him the goochie.ss oi' the Deity, which was supposed to have been manifested upon * Diodor. i. 2.3. f Vide supra, p. 289. Y 3 3^6 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XUl. earth for the benefit of mankind, and in a future state the Judge of the world. There were other personages in the lower regions, according to the Greek mythology, whose names bear the stamp of an Egyptian origin *, though they cannot be themselves exactly traced amongst the Deities of Amenti. These are, Minos, ^acus, and Rhadamanthus, the judges of the dead ; in the first of which the Egyptian Min or Men is easily re- cognised, and in the last the name of Amenti itself. Numerous explanations have been given of the* mythological history of Osiris, many of which are the result of fancy, as those of Diodorus and Ma- crobius t, already mentioned. I have stated, that the principal character of Osiris was the goodness of the Deity, who was supposed to have visited the world ; but upon the story of his imaginary life on earth were engrafted numerous allegorical fables, and diflferent interpretations were given to them, according to the circumstances to which his history appeared to be adapted. The existence of Osiris on earth was, of course, a speculative theory, — an allegory, not altogether unlike the avatars of the Indian Vishnoo ; and some may be disposed to think that the Egyptians, being aware of the promises of the real Saviour, had anticipated that event, recording it as though it had * Plato, in the Gorgias, makes Jiii)iter say, that he " has made his sons judges: two from Asia, — Minos and Rhadamanthus ; and one from Europe:" and that " he will confer this additional dijinity on Minos, — that he shall decide whatever may be inscrutable to the other judges." Taylor, Trans, vol. iv. p. 453. •f Macrob. Saturn, i. 21. Vide sup) a, p. 290. CHAP. XIII. MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS. 327 already happened, and introducing that mystery into their religious system.* Of the mysteries and of the festiv^als in honour of Osiris, we can obtain Uttle or no information from ancient authors. The former were too sacred to be divulged ; and few of the Greeks and other strangers were admitted even into those of the lesser order. They w^ere divided into the greater and less mysteries ; and before admission into the former, it was necessary that the initiated should have passed through all the gradations of the latter. But, to merit this great honour, much was expected of the candidate, and many even of the priesthood were unable to obtain it. Besides the proofs of a virtuous life, other recommendations were re- quired ; and to be admitted to all the grades of the higher mysteries, was the greatest honour to which any one could aspire. It was from these that the mysteries of Eleusist were borrowed. For, though celebrated in honour of Osiris, they applied more immediately to Isis, and to the grief she felt for the loss of her consort, as the former recorded the lamentations of Ceres at the fate of her daughter. The Themophoria, in honom* of the same Goddess, were also derived from Egypt. § Herodotus mentions a ceremony on the Lake of Sais, in which the history of Osiris was represented. They styled it the Mysteries. "Though," adds the historian t, " I am well ac(piainted with them, * Supra, p. 200. f Vide Diotlor. i. 29. J Herodot. ii. 171. § Vide infra. Chap. \\. Y 4 328 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. I refrain from revealing any, as well as those re- lating to the institutions of Ceres, called by the Greeks Thesmophoria ; and I shall only mention as much of them as my religion permits. The daughters of Danaiis brought them from Egypt, and taught them to the Pelasgic women ; but at length, the Dorians having expelled the ancient in- habitants of Peloponnesus, these rites were lost, ex- cept amongst the Arcadians, who, not being driven out of the country, continued to preserve them." *' At Sa'is," says the same author, " they show the sepulchre of him whom I do not think it right to mention on this occasion : it is in the sacred in- closure, behind the temple of Minerva, and close to the wall of this temple, whose whole length it occu- pies." " They also meet at Sai's to offer sacrifice * during a certain night, when every one lights in the open air a number of lamps around his house. The lamps consist of small cups filled with salt and oil, having a wick floating in it which burns all night. This fete is called of the burning lamps. The Egyptians who are unable to attend, also observe the sacrifice and burn lamps at home ; so that not only at Sa'is, but throughout Egypt, the same illu- mination takes place. They assign a sacred reason for the fete celebrated on this night, and the re- spect they have for it." Of the ceremonies during the fete of Busiris, I shall speak m describing the Goddess Isis. It was held in honour of her and of Osiris; Busiris, like Philae, Abydus, Memphis, Taposiris, and other * Herodot. ii. 62. CHAP. XIII. FETES AT SALS. S29 places, claiming the honour of being the supposed burial place* of this mysterious Deity. Having noticed the metaphysical character of Osiris, I proceed to examine some ^of the allegories founded upon his fabulous history ; though, as al- ready stated t, I believe them to be for the most part mere fanciful speculations, forming no part of tlieir religious belief, but rather designed to amuse the ignorant and satisfy the people with a plausible story; while the real purport of all connected with the Deity was reserved for those alone who were admitted to a participation of the mysteries. Of these, the principal one is that in which he is compared to the Nile, and Isisto the land of Egypt. "By Osiris," says Plutarch t, " they mean the Nile ; by Isis, that part of the country which Osiris or the Nile overflows ; and by Typho, the sea, which, by receiving the Nile as it runs into it, does as it were tear it into many pieces, and entirely destroy it, excepting only so much of it as is admitted into the bosom of the earth in its passage over it, which is thereby rendered fertile." x'Vnd the notion of Osiris being born on the right side of the world, and perishing on the left, is explained *' by the rising of the Nile in the South country, which is the left, and running northwards till it is swallowed up by the sea." The story of the supposed life of Osiris is briefly as follows. § "Osiris, having become King of Egypt, applied himself towards civilising his * Plut. de Is. s. 21. + Vide supra, p. 290. ; ami iiifni, on Isis; and ("hap. xv., on tlie Fetes. i Pint, de Is. s. 32. ^ Plut. de Is. s. 13. 330 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN'S. CHAP. XIII. countrymen, by turning them from their former barbarous course of Hfe, teaching them moreover to cultivate and improve the fruits of the earth. . . . With the same good disposition, he afterwards travelled over the rest of the world, inducing the people every where to submit to his discipline, by the mildest persuasion. . . . During his absence fi'om his kingdom, Typho had no opportunity of making any innovations in the state, Isis being ex- tremely vigilant in the government, and always on her guard. After his return, liowever, having first persuaded seventy-two other persons to join with him in the conspiracy, together with a certain Queen of Ethiopia named Aso, who chanced to be in Egypt at the time, he contrived a proper strata- gem to execute his base designs. For, having pri- vily taken the measure of Osiris's body, he caused a chest to be made exactly of that size, as beautiful as possible, and set off with all the ornaments of art. This chest he brought into the banqueting room, where after it had been nuich admired by all present, Typho, as if in jest, promised to give it to any one of them, whose body upon trial it might be found to fit. Upon this, the whole company, one after the other, got into it ; but as it did not fit any of them, last of all Osiris laid himself down in it ; uj)on which the conspirators immediately ran together, clapped on the cover, and then, fastening it on the outside with nails, poured melted lead over it. "After this, having carried it away to the river side, they conveyed it to the sea by the Tanaitic mouth of the Nile, which for this reason is still CHAP. xiir. HISTORY OF osniis. 331 held in the utmost abhorrence by the Egyptians, and never named by them but with proper marks of detestation. ** These things happened on the 17th day of the montli Athyr, when the Sun was in Scorpio, in the 28th year of Osiris's reign ; though others say he was no more than 28 years old at tlie time. " Tlie first who knew the accident, that had be- fallen their King, were the Pans and Satyrs who lived about Chemmis ; and they, immediately ac- quainting the people with the news, gave the first occasion to the name of Panic terrors. . . . Isis, as soon as the report reached her, cut off one of the locks of her hair, and put on mourning; whence the spot where she then happened to be has ever since been called Koptos, or the city of mourning. * And being informed that Osiris, deceived by her sister Nephthys, who was in love with him, had unwit- tingly taken her to his embraces instead of herself, as she concluded from the Mellilot garland, which he had left with her, she proceeded to search out the child, the fruit of their unlawful union. For her sister, dreading the anger of her husband Typho, had exposed it as soon as it was born ; and it was not without great difficulty, that by means of some dogs, she discovered the place of its concealment. Having found it, she bred it up ; and it afterwards obtained the name of Anubis." t * It is needless to remark, that a Greek origin for this name is as in- admissible as the derivation of Isis from ucng, knowledge, also given by P'.utarch, s. 2. f Like other Greek and Roman writers, Plutarch commits the error of givins Anubis a dog's head. 332 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. " At length she received more particular news of the chest. It had been carried by the waves of the sea to the coast of By bios, and there gently lodged in the branches of a Tamarisk bush, which in a short time had shot up into a large tree, growing round the chest, and enclosing it on every side, so that it could not be seen ; and the King of the country, having cut down the tree, had made the part of the trunk wherein the chest w^as con- cealed, a pillar to support the roof of his house. . . . Isis, having gone to Byblos, obtained possession of this pillar, and then set sail with the chest for Egypt. . . . But intending a visit to her son Horus (Orus), who was brought up at Butus, she depo- sited the chest in the mean time in a remote and unfrequented place. Typho, however, as he was one night hunting by the light of the Moon, ac- cidentally met with it, and knowing the body en- closed in it, tore it into fourteen pieces, disposing them up and down in different parts of the country. *' Being acquainted with this event, Isis set out once more* in search of the scattered members of her husband's body, using a boat made of the pa- pyrus rush, in order more easily to pass through the lower and fenny parts of the country. . . . And c.ie reason assigned for the many different sepul- chres of Osiris shown in Egypt, is, that wherever rny one of his scattered limbs was discovered, she buried it in that spot; though others suppose that it was owing to an artifice of the Queen, who presented each of those cities with an image of her * Plut. de Is. s. 18. CHAP. XIII. THE MKINIBERS OF OSIRIS. 333 liusband, in order that, if Typho should overcome Horus in the approaching conquest, he might be unable to find the real sepulchre. Isis succeeded in recovering all the different members, with the exception of one, which had been devoured by the Lepidotus, the Phagrus, and the Oxyrhinchus ; for which reason these hsh are held in abhorrence by the Egyptians. To make amends, therefore, for this loss, she consecrated the Phallus, and instituted a solemn festival to its memory." " A battle at length took place between Horus and Typho, in which the latter was taken prisoner. Isis, however, to whose custody he was committed, so far from putting him to death, set him at liberty; which so incensed Horus, that he tore off the royal diadem she wore ; but Hermes substituted in its stead a helmet made in the shape of an ox's head. After this, Typho publicly accused Horus of illegi- timacy ; but, with the assistance of Hermes, the question was set at rest by the judgment of the Gods themselves ; and at length two other battles were fought, in which Typho was defeated. *' It is also related, that Isis had intercourse with Osiris after his death, and, in consequence, brought forth Harpocrates, who came into the world before his time, and lame in his lower limbs." Proceeding with the examination of the different parts of this allegorical fable, Plutarch observes*, that, " Osiris being the inundation of the Nile, and Isis the land irrigated by it," from the conjunction of these two, Horus was born, meaning thereby, * Plut. de Is. s. 38. 334 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. that just and seasonable temperature of the cir- cumambient air, which preserves and nourishes all things. Horus is, moreover, supposed to have been brought up by Latona, in the marshy country about Butus, because a moist and watery soil is best adapted to produce those vapours and exhal- ations which serve to relax the excessive drought arising from heat. In like manner, they call the extreme limits of their country, their confines, and sea shores, Nephthys (Teleute, or the end), whom they suppose to have been married to Typho. Now, as the overflowings of the Nile are some- times very great, and extend to the boundaries of the land, this gave rise to the story of the secret intercourse between Osiris and Nephthys, as the natural consequence of so great an inundation would be the springing up of plants in those parts of the country, which were formerly barren. Hence they imagine that Typho was first made acquainted with the infidelity of his wife, by the Mellilot garland which fell from the head of Osiris while in her company ; and that the legitimacy of Horus, the son of Isis, may thus be explained, as well as the illegitimacy of An u bis, who was born of Nephthys. "Furthermore, by the conspiracy of Typho and his tyranny, are to be understood the force and power of drought, which overcome the moisture whence the increase of the Nile proceeds. His being assisted by the Queen of Ethiopia refers to the southern winds, blowing from that country ; which, when strong enough to prevail against the CHAP. XIII. THE HISTORY EXPLAINED. 335 Etesian or annual northern ones, that carry the clouds towards Ethiopia, prevent those showers of rain from falling, and contributing to the in- crease of the Nile. ... As to the shutting up of Osiris in a chest, this signifies the withdraw- ing of the Nile within its own banks, when the Etesian winds have ceased, which happens in the month Athyr. *' About this time, in consequence of the in- creasing length of the nights, the power of dark- ness appearing to prevail, whilst that of light is diminished, the priests practise doleful rites, in token of the grief of the Goddess. One of these is to expose to ])ublic view a gilded ox, covered with a ])all of tine black linen ; this animal being regarded as tlie living image of Osiris. The cere- mony lasts four days, beginning on the 17th of the month, and is intended to represent four things : — 1st, The falling of the Nile, and its return within its own channel : ^dly, The ceasing of the north winds : 3dly, The length of the nights and decrease of the days ; and, lastly. The destitute condition in which the land then appears. Thus they com- memorate what they call the loss of Osiris. But upon the 19th of the month Pachon, they march in procession towards the sea, whither the .stolistce and priests carry the sacred chest, containing a vessel of gold, into which they pour some river water, and all present exclaim, ' Osiris is found.' Then throwing frcsji mould into the water, and mixing witii it aromatics and precious incense, they make an image in the form of a crescent, which 336 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. is dressed up and adorned, to show that these Gods are the powers of earth and water.* " Isis havmg recovered the body of Osiris, and brought her son Horus to maturity, (whose strength, by means of exhalations and clouds, was continu- ally increasing,) Typho was in his turn conquered, though not totally destroyed. For the Goddess, who is the Earth, in order to maintain a proper temperament of heat and cold, would not permit this enemy of moisture to be quite extinguished, but loosed his bonds and set him at liberty, well knowing that it was impossible for the world to subsist in perfection, if the force of heat was to- tally extinguished." To sum up the details of this story according to the foregoing interpretation, we may apply to each its distinct meaning, as follows : — Osiris, the inundation of tlie Nile. Isis, the irrigated portion of the land of Egypt. Horus, their offspring, the vapours and exhal- ations reproducing rain. Buto (Latona), the marshy lands of Lower Egypt, where those vapours were nourished. Nephthys, the edge of the desert, occasionally overflowed during the high inundations. Anubis, the son of Osiris and Nephthys, the pro- duction of that barren soil, in consequence of its being overflowed by the Nile. * Conf. Clem. Recogn. lib. x. 27., " Osiri aquam, Hammoni arie- tem ; " Origen. V. in Celsum, p. 65., " Osiris water, and Isis earth ;"' or the ^"ile, according to Heliodoriis, lib. ix. ; and Clem. Honiil. vi. 9., " aquam terra inferiorem. . . . Osirin nuncuparunt." CHAP. XIII. MEANING OF EACH PART. 337 Typlio, the sea, which swallowed up the Nile water. The conspirators, the drought overcoming the moisture, from which the increase of the Nile proceeds. The cliest in whicli Osiris's body was confined, the banks of the river, witliin whicli it retired after the inundation. The Tanaitic mouth, the lake and barren lands about it, which were lield in abhorrence from tlieir being overflowed by the river without producing any benefit to the country. The 28 years of his life, the " 28 cubits to which the Nile rises at Elephantina*, its greatest height." The 17th of Athor, the period wlien the river retires within its banks. The Queen of ^(Ethiopia, the southern winds preventing the clouds being carried south- wards. The difi^erent members of Osiris's body, the main channels and canals by which the in- undation passed into the interior of the coun- try, where each was said to be afterwards buried. That one which could not be reco- vered was the generative power of the Nile, which still continued in the stream itself; or, as Plutarch thinks, it was said to have been thrown into the river, because '* water or moisture was the first matter upon which the generative power of the Deity operated, and * Plut. dc Is. s. 43. VOL. I. — Second Series. Z 838 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. that principle by means of which all things capable of being were produced." The victory of Horus, the power possessed by the clouds in causing the successive inundations of tlie Nile. Harpocrates, whom Isis brought forth about the winter solstice, those weak shootings of the corn produced after the inundation had sub- sided. * According to another interpretation t, *' by Ty- pho is meant the orb of the Sun, and by Osiris that of the Moon ; the former being of a scorching, the latter of a moistening and prolific, nature. When, therefore, they say that Osiris's death happened on the 17th day of the month, it means that the moon is then at its full, and from that time is continually on the wane. In like manner, Osiris is said to have lived or reigned 28 years, alluding to the number of days in which she performs her course round the eartli. As to his being torn into fourteen pieces, this is sup- posed to mark out the number of days in which the Moon is continually decreasing from the full to its change ; and by the war between Typho and Horus is meant, that in this terrestrial system, sometimes the principle of corruption prevails, and sometimes that of generation, though neither of them is ever able entirely to conquer or destroy the other." For other explanations of this history, I refer the reader to Plutarch's treatise of Isis and Osiris ; who very properly observes, that we are not to suppose the adventures there related to be " really * Plut. de Is. s. 65. . f Plut. de Is. s. 41. CHAP. Xlir. THE PARENT KING AND GOD. 339 true, or ever to have happened in fact."* He treats it, as it really was, in the hght of a metaphysical question ; for, he adds, he alone is competent to understand it, " who searches into the hidden truths it contains, and examines the whole by the dictates of reason and philosophy." t " And taking a proper view of these matters, we must neither look upon water, nor the Sun, nor the earth, nor the heavens, simply as Osiris and Isis ; nor must we by Typho understand either fire, or drought, or the sea ; but, in general, whatever in these bodies is ir- regular and disorderly, or whatever is bad, is to be attributed to Typho ; as, on the contrary, whatever is good and salutary is the operation of Isis and the image of Osiris. "t Many, however, were disposed to clothe with realitv all the emblematic characters of Osiris, looking upon abstract ideas or allegories as positive facts. With this view, they deemed him the Deity of humidity, instead of the abstract quality or be- nefit arising from it \ and lience " the votaries of Osiris abstained from destroying a fruit tree, or marring any springs of water. "§ A similar notion also induced them *' to carry a water jar at the head of the sacred processions in honour of this God." || In the fabulous history of Osiris, we may trace a notion, common to all nations, of a God, who in the early ages of their history 5F lived on earth, and * Plut. dels. s. 11.20. t Plut. cle Is. s. 3. X Plut.dels. S.64. $ Plut. de Is. s. 35. Il Plut. de Is. s. 36. h The Bisharee tribe of Arabs still speak of their founder Bega, who was their first parent, as well as God. z 2 340 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. Xlll. was their King, their instructor, and even the father of their race ; who taught tliem the secrets of husbandry, the arts of civilisation, and the advan- tages of social intercourse ; and who, extending his dominion over the whole world, permitted all mankind to partake of his beneficent influence. They represent him to have been assailed by the malignant attacks of some monster, or enemy of man, either as an evil principle, or the type of a destructive power. He is sometimes exposed to the waters of the sea, (an evident allusion to the great deluge,) from which he is saved, by taking refuge in a cavern, or by means of a floating island, a lotus, or a snake, which bears him safely to the summit of a mountain. He is frequently aided by the interposition of some female com- panion, who is his sister, his daughter, or his wife, and the mother, as he is the father, of the human race, which springs from their three sons ; like the family of Adam, repeated in that of Noah. But though we observe some analogy between these and the history of Osiris, it is only in par- ticular points that any positive resemblance can be admitted : the office of Osiris was of a more important character than that usually assigned to the hero God and parent of man ; as the notion of a Trinity was of a more exalted nature than that given to the material work of its hands, — the three sons of Noah and his prototype. Osiris is frequently represented of a black colour, as Plutarch observes *, but more usually green ; * Plut. de Is. s. 33. CHAP. XIII. FORM OF OSIRIS. 341 and when Judge of Amenti, he has the form of a mLimmied figure, holding in his crossed hands the crook and flagellum. He is clad in pure white, and wears on his head the cap of Upper Egypt decked with ostrich feathers ; which head-dress, if not ex- clusively, at least peculiarly, belongs to this Deity.* In the sculptures, a spotted skin is sometimes sus- pended near him, —an emblem supposed to connect him with the Greek Bacchus t; and occasionally assuming the character of " stability," he appears with his head and even face covered with the four- barred symbol t, wliich in hieroglyphics has that signification, and wliich may also refer to the in- tellect of the Deity. In former times, the four-barred symbol of sta- bility was mistaken for a " Nilometer," as the sign of life (or crux ansata) was compelled to submit to the unintelligible name of " Key of the Nile. 80 far, however, is the latter from any connec- tion with the river, that it is less frequently seen in the hand of the God Nilus than any Deity of the Egyptian Pantheon ; and the former never occurs among the numerous emblems or offerings he bears. It is represented as a sort of stand or support in workmen's shops, where, for the sake of the goods they wished to sell, we may charitably ho])e it required no graduated Nilometer to measure the height of the intrusive inundation. * Vide Plate 33. fig. 3. -f- Vide Dioclor. i. 1 1 . The skin is usually representee! without the liead ; but some instances where this is introduceil siiow it to be the leopard or panther ; which, as well as the nebris, belonged to Bacchus. X Vide Plate 33. fig. 5.; and .snprd, p. •^.■)3. z 3 342 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. Osiris also takes the character of the God Benno, with the head of a crane, pecuharised by a tuft of two long feathers ; and he sometimes appears as a human figure, with a simple cap surmounted by two ostrich plumes.* The statement of Plutarch t, that the dress of Osiris was of one uniform shining co- lour, is confirmed by the paintings, which generally represent him clad in white. Isis was dressed in robes of various hues, because, according to the same writer, " her power was wholly conversant about matter^ which becomes all things and admits all, light and darkness, day and night, fire and water, life and death, beginning and end." Osiris also appears, when in the character of Sokari-Osiris, with the head of a hawk.t Under that title he has some connection § with Pthah ; and it is then that he is considered to have risen from the dead after his visit to the world. ll The Phallic ceremonies, said to have been per- formed in honour of Osiris, appear rather to have belonged to the generative principle^ of the Deity worship])ed under the name of Khem ; though Phitarcii and other writers assert that they derived their origin from the search made by Isis for the scattered members of her husband.** Plutarch, in another place, says ft, the festival of the Paamylia, which bears a great resemblance to the Phallepho- ria of Greece, was kept in honour of the birth of * Plate 33. figs. 5. and 1. f Plut. de Is. s. 78. X Conf. Plut. de Is. s, 51. § Vide infra, on Isis, ad fin. note. II Vide supra, p. 255. S Vide infra, on the Ceremonies, Chap. xv. •* Plut. de Is.s. 18. ft Plut. de Is. s. 12. CHAP. XIII. THE PAAMYLIA. 343 Osiris, and so called from Paamyles, to whom the education of Osiris had been intrusted by his father Saturn. " From the manner of celebrating it," he adds*, "it is evident that Osiris is, in reality, the great principle of fecundity. They therefore carry about in procession and expose to public view a statue of this God with the triple phallus, signifying that he is the first principle, and that every such principle, by means of its generative faculty, mul- tiplies what proceeds from, or is produced by, it. The phallus being threefold merely implies a great or indefinite number;'* or it probably refers to the action of that principle upon matter, which was represented by the number three. It is probably the same to which Herodotus al- ludes t, as a fete of Bacchus. t " On that occasion, every one killed a pig before his door, at the hour of dinner ; and then restored it to the person of whom it had been purchased. The Egyptians," he adds, " celebrate the rest of this festival nearly in the same manner as the Greeks, excepting the sacrifice of pigs ; but, in lieu of phalli, they make little puppets about a cubit high, which women carry about the towns and villages, and set in motion by means of a string. They are accom- panied by a chorus, with a flute-player § at their head, singing the praises of the Deity." The histo- rian then describes the appearance of these })l)allic figures, which he ascribes to a sacred reason; and it * Plut. de Is. s. 36, t Herodot. ii. 48. I Vide also, Pint, de Is. s. 8. J Vide Chap, xv., on the Ceremonies. z 4 344 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. is a curious fact that similar puppets are made by the Egyptians on the occasions of public rejoicing at the present day. The name of Osiris is frequently enclosed in an oval like those of the Kings ; but the hieroglyphics forming the name itself generally precede it, and within is the title, " manifester of goodness and truth." His usual appellation is *' Osiris, president of Amenti," or "Lord of Abydus;" and I have found an instance of his being styled " King of the Gods." He was the first member of the triad composed of Osiris, Isis, and Horus; his worship was universal throughout Egypt ; and every city assigned to him a conspicuous post among the con- templar Gods it worshipped. Each town had its protecting Deity, who pre- sided over it ; and the post of honour in the Adytum, as in the most conspicuous parts of the temple erected in his honour, was assigned to him. The peculiar triad of the place also held a pro- minent station in the sculptures ; and to the con- templar Gods was assigned a post according to the consideration they there enjoyed. But the Deities worshipped in the towns of one nome, or province of Egypt, did not always receive the same honours in another; and it frequently happened that, though acknowledged to be Deities of their country, and treated with every mark of respect, many of them were omitted in the list of contemplar Gods. This must necessarily have happened in small temples, which could only admit a portion of the Egyptian Pantheon, especially as the tutelary Deity of the CHAT. XIII. GODS DIFFERENTLY HONOURED. 345 place alone occupied many and the choicest places. But few temples, if any, denied a post to I sis and Osiris, *' the greatest of all the Gods."* *' For," says Herodotus, " the Egyptians do not give equal honours to all their Gods, and the only two to whom the same worship is universally paid are Isis and Osiris." t With regard to the sacred animals, they were looked upon with feelings so different in various parts of the country, that those wor- shipped in one town were often held in abhorrence in another ; as is shown by the civil war between the Oxyrhinchites and the people of Cynopolis, mentioned by Plutarch t, and by a similar contest related in Juvenal § between the people of Ombos and Tentyris. But, as T have elsewhere observed ||, though the objects of their worship varied, it is not probable that such excesses were committed in early times, during the rule of their native Princes. Philai and Abydus were the two places where Osiris was particularly worshipped ; and so sacred was the former, that no one was permitted to visit that holy island without express permission ; and in the temple which still remains there, his mys- terious history is recorded in the manner already mentioned. % Besides the celebration of the great mysteries, which took place at Philas (as at Sais and Biisiris), a grand ceremony was performed at a par- ticular time, when the priests in solcnm procession visited his tomb and crowned it with flowers.** * Herotlot. ii. -iO. f Ik-rodot.ii. 4:^. X Pint, dc Is. s. 72. § .Tuv. Sat. \v. .36. II Bcpinninpof Chap. xiv. i[ Vide sirprd, p. 189. 255. ** Pint, cle Is. s. 21. 31^6 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. Plutarch even pretends that all access to the island was forbidden at every other period, and that no bird would fly over, or fish swim near, this conse- crated ground. " The sepulchre of Osiris at Phi- lae," says Diodorus *, " is revered by all the priests throughout Egypt ; and 860 cups are filled daily with milk t by priests expressly appointed for this purpose, who, calling on the names of the Gods, utter a solemn lamentation ; wherefore the island can only be approached by the priests ; and the most solemn oath taken by the inhabitants of the Thebai'd is to swear by Osiris, who lies buried at Philse." The temple of this Deity at Abydus was also par- ticularly honoured ; and so holy was the place itself considered by the Egyptians, that persons living at some distance from it sought, and perhaps with difficulty obtained, permission to possess a sepulchre within its Necropolis ; in order that, after death, they might repose in ground hallowed by the tomb of this great and mysterious Deity. This fact is noticed by Plutarch t, and confirmed by the dis- covery of inscriptions there, which state the de- ceased were natives of Thebes and other places. I have observed § that Memphis,Busiris,Taposiris, and other towns also claimed the honour of being the burial places of Osiris ; and the reason that Apis, " which they looked upon as the image of the Soul of Osiris, was kept at Memphis, seems to liave been in order to place it as near his body as * Diodor. i. 22. f Milk was used in early times for libations, as by Romulus. f. Plut. do Is. s. 20. ^ Siqva, p. 328. CHAP. Xlir. BURIAL PLACES OF OSIRIS. 347 possible." * Indeed, the name of that city, whicli signifies the " place of good," appears to refer to, and perhaps to have been called from, Osiris, who was the *^ Good?iess'' of the Deity; and from its being his reputed burial place, and the abode of his representative on earth, the bull Apis, we may find reason to prefer this explanation to that given by Plutarch t, who considers Memphis to mean the "haven of good men." The name of Busiris im- plies t, as Diodorus observes §, the burial place of Osiris ; and the same interpretation is given to Taposiris, though the word is not Egyptian as the former, but Greek ; as are most of the names of towns mentioned by ancient writers. Hapi, Apis, Apis-Osiris. Osiris was also worshipped under the form of Apis, the Sacred Bull of Memphis, or as a human figure with a bulFs head, accompanied by the name *' Apis-Osiris." According to Plutarch ||, " Apis was a fair and beautiful image of the Soul of Osiris;" and the same author^ tells us that " Mnevis, the Sacred Ox of Heliopolis, was also dedicated to Osiris, and honoured by the Egyp- tians with a reverence next to that paid to Apis, whose sire some pretend him to be." This agrees with the statement of Diodorus, who says. Apis ♦ Plut. de Is, s. 20. t Plut, de Is. s. 21. J There were more than one phice in Egypt of this name. Diodor. i. 17.; and Plin. v. 10., and xxxvi. 12. § Diodor. i. 88. || Plut. de Is. ss. 29. and 20. IT Plut. de Is. s. .33. 348 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. and Mnevis were both sacred to Osiris, and wor- shipped as Gods throughout the whole of Egypt * ; and Plutarch suggests that, from these well-known representations of Osiris, the people of Elis and Argos derived the idea of Bacchus with an ox's head ; Bacchus being reputed to be the same as Osiris. Herodotus t, in describing him, says, *' Apis, also called Epaphus, is a young bull, whose mother can have no other offspring, and who is reported by the Egyptians to conceive from light- ning sent from heaven, and thus to produce the God Apis. He is known by certain marks : his hair is black ; on his forehead is a white triangular spot, on his back an eagle, and a beetle under his tongue, and the hair of his tail is double." Ovid speaks of him as " varius coloribus ^pis." Strabo describes him with the forehead and some parts of his body of a white colour, the rest being black, by which signs they fix upon a new one to succeed the other when he dies." Plutarch t observes, that, " on account of the great resemblance they imagine beween Osiris and the Moon, his more bright and shining parts being shadowed and ob- scured by those that are of a darker hue, they call the Apis the living image of Osiris, and suppose him begotten by a ray of generative light, flowing from the Moon, and fixing upon his dam at a time when she was strongly disposed for generation." Pliny § speaks of Apis " having a white spot in the form of a crescent upon his right side, and a * Diodor. i. 21. t Herodot. iii. 28. X Plut. de Is. s. 43. § Plin. viii. 46. CHAP. xrii. APIS AND MNEVIS. 349 lump under his tongue in the form of a beetle." Ammianus Marcellinus * says the white crescent on his right side was the principal sign by which he was known : and /Elian mentions 29 marks by which he was recognised, each referable to some mystic signification. But he pretends that the Egyptians did not allow those given by Herodotus and Aristagoras. Some suppose him entirely black, and others contend that certain marks, as the pre- dominating black colour, and the beetle on his tongue, sliow him to be consecrated to the Sun, as the crescent to the Moon. Ammianus and others say that " Apis was sacred to the Moon, Mnevis to the Sun;" and most authors seem to describe the latter of a black colour. With regard to the accuracy or inaccuracy of Herodotus respecting the peculiar marks of Apis, In the possession of Miss Rogers. 1. Bronze figure of Apis. 2. The marks on his back. it is difficult to determine. There is, however, evidence from the bronzes discovered in Egypt, * Anim. Marc. xxii. l-t. 350 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. that the Vulture (not Eagle) on his back was one of his characteristics, supplied, no doubt, like many others, by the priests themselves. To Apis belonged all the clean oxen *, chosen for sacrifice ; the necessary requisite for which, according to Herodotus, was, that they should be entirely free from black spots, or even a single black hair; though, as I shall have occasion to re- mark in treating of the Sacrifices, this statement of the historian is far from accurate. It may also be doubted if the name Epaphust, by which he says Apis was called by the Greeks in their language, was of Greek origin. He is called in the hieroglyphic legends Hapi ; and the bull, the demonstrative and figurative sign following his name, is accompanied by the crux ansatay or emblem of life. It has seldom any or- It::-*"? ^-^^« ^ •^^ 'I ^H^ I m Hieroglyph ical name of Apis. nament on its head ; but the figure of Apis- (or Hapi-)Osiris generally wears the globe of the Sun, and the Asp, the symbol of divine Majesty ; M'hich are^also given to the bronze figures of this bull. Memphis was the place where Apis was kept, and where his worship was particularly observed. He was not merely looked upon as an emblem, but, as Pliny and Cicero say, was deemed "a God * Herodot. ii. 38. f Herodot. ii. 28. 153., and iii. 27. CHAP. XIII. APIS KEPT AT MEMPHIS. 351 by the Egyptians*:" and Strabot calls "Apis the same as Osiris." Psammaticiist there erected a grand court, ornamented with figures in lieu of columns 12 cubits in heiglit, forming a peri- style around it, in which he was kept when exhi- bited in public. Attaclied to it were probably the two stables, " delubra," or " thalami," mentioned by Pliny §: and Strabo says, " Before the enclo- sure where Apis is kept, is a vestibule, in which also the mother of the Sacred Bull is fed ; and into this vestibule Apis is sometimes introduced, in order to be shown to strangers. After being brought out for a little while, he is again taken back. At other times he is only seen through a window." " The temple of Apis is close to that of Vulcan; which last is remarkable for its archi- tectural beauty, its extent, and the richness of its decoration." The festival in honour of Apis lasted seven days ; on which occasion a large concourse of people as- sembled at Memphis. The priests then led the Sa- cred Bull in solemn procession, every one coming forward from their houses to welcome him as he passed ; and Pliny and Solinus affirm that children who smelt his breath were thought to be thereby gifted with the power of predicting future events. Diodorus 1| derives the worship of Apis from the * " Quid igitur censes ? Apin, ilium sanctum .?^gyptiorum bovem, nonne Deum videri /Egyptiis?" Cicero, de Nat. Deor. 1. Plin. viii. 46. -j- ytrabo, xvii. p. 555. When iElian says, " they compare Apis to Horus, being the cause of fertility," he evidently means Osiris. JE\. xi. 10. X Herodot. ii. 153. § Plin. lib. viii. 46. II Diodor. i. 85. 35^ THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII I. belief of " the soul of Osiris having migrated into this animal, who was thus supposed to manifest himself to man through successive ages ; though some report that the members of Osiris when killed by Typho having been deposited in a wooden ox, enveloped in byssine cloths, gave the name to the city of Busiris, and established its worship there." When the Apis died *, certain priests chosen for this duty went in quest of another, who was known from the signs mentioned in the sacred books. As soon as he was found, they took him to the City of the Nile preparatory to his removal to Memphis, wliere he was kept 40 days ; during whicli period women t alone were permitted to see him. These 40 days being completed, he was placed in a boat, with a golden cabin, prepared to receive him, and he was conducted in state down the Nile to Memphis. Pliny and Ammianus, however, affirm that they led the bull Apis to the fountain of the priests, and drowned him with much ceremony, as soon as the time prescribed in the sacred books was fulfilled. This Plutarch states to be 25 years, (the square of 5, and the same number as the letters of the Egyp- tian Alphabet,) beyond which it was forbidden that he should live ; and having thus put him to death, they, with great lamentations, sought another to take his place. His body was embalmed, and a grand funeral procession took place at Memphis, * Plut. de Is. s. 56. f The rest of the statement, which at most could only be hearsay, is improbable ; unless, perhaps, in Roman times. CHAP. Xlir. DEATH OF ATIS. 353 when his coffin, " placed on a .sledge *, was followed by the priests," "dressed in the spotted skins of fawns, bearing the thyrsus in tlieir hands, uttering the same cries, and making the same gesticulations as the votaries of Bacchus during the ceremonies in honour of that God." This resemblance, however, to the Bacchic rites will cease to be as striking as Plutarch supposes, when we observe that the spotted skins were merely the leopard-skin dress worn by the Pontiffs on all grand ceremonies, which I have had frequent oc- casion to mention. The thyrsus was probably either their staffT of office, the long-handled censer, or the vase for libation, — the last two being usually carried by the high priests when about to officiate, either at the temple or the tomb. They relate that when the Apis died a natural death, his obsequies were celebrated on the most magnificent scale ; and to such extravagance was this carried, that those wdio had the office of taking charge of him were often ruined by the heavy ex- penses entailed upon them. On one occasion, during the reign of the first Ptolemy, upwards of 50 talents were borrowed to defray the necessary cost of his funeral t ; " and in our time," says Dio- dorus, " the curators of other sacred animals have expended 100 talents in tlieir burial." As soon as he was buried, permission was given to the priests to enter the temple of Sarapist, * Effi axtcuiQ. Pint, do Is. s. 35. \ Diodor. i, 84. \ Probably of Osiris or Apis. VOL. I. — Sf.cond Seiues. A A 3.54. THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. tlioiigh previously forbidden during the whole of the festival. From whatever cause the death of Apis took place, the people performed a publiclamentation *, as if Osiris himself had died : and this mourning lasted until the other Apis, his successor, had been found. They then commenced their rejoicings, which were celebrated with an enthusiasm equal to the grief exhibited during the late mourning. The notion entertained by the Egyptians re- specting the reappearance of the Deity under the same form, and his entering the body of another bull as soon as the Apis died, confirms the ophiion of Diodorus, that they believed in the transmigration of the Soul of Osiris into the body of this animal : and the choice of it as the representative of Osiris was probably owing to the doctrine of emanation already mentioned- Of the discovery of a new Apis, Pliant gives the follow^ing account. " As soon as a report is circulated that the P^gyptian God has manifested liimself, certain of the sacred scribes, well versed in the mystical marks, known to them by tradi- tion, approach the sj)ot where the Divine Cow has deposited her calf, and there following the ancient ordonnance of Hermes, feed it with milk during four months, in a house facing the rising- Sun. When this period has passed, the sacred scribes and prophets resort to the dwelling of * Conf. Tibull. lib. i. Eleg. vii. 28. " Barbara INIcmphitem plangere docta bovem." -f iElian, xviii. 10. CHAP. XIII. A NEW APIS. 355 Apis, at the time of the new Moon, and placing him in a boat prepared for the purpose, convey him to Memphis, where he has a convenient and agreeable abode, with pleasure grounds, and ample space for wholesome exercise. Female compa- nions of his own species are provided for him, the most beautiful that can be found, kept in apart- ments, to whicli he has access when he wislies. He drinks out of a well or fountain of clear water ; for it is not tliought right to give him the water of the Nile, wliich is considered too fattening. *' It would be tedious to relate what pompous processions and sacred ceremonies the Egy})tians perform on the celebration of the rising of the Nile, at the fete of the Theophania, in honour of this God, or what dances, festivities, and joyful assemblies are appointed on the occasion, in the towns and in the country." He then says, " the man froui whose herd the divine beast lias sprung, is the happiest of mortals, and is looked upon with admiration by all people; " which refutes his previous statement respecting the divine Cow : and the assertions of other writers, as well as probability, show that it was not the mother which was ckosen to produce a Calf with particular marks, but that the Apis was selected from its having them. The honour con- ferred on the cow which bore it, was retros])cctive, being given her after the Apis with its pro])er marks " had been found " by the {)riests ; and this is consistent with the respect paid to the possessor of the favoured herd, in which the Sacred Bull had been discovered. " Apis," contiuucs the natu- A A '2 356* THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. ralist, " is an excellent interpretation of futurity. He does not employ virgins or old women sitting on a tripod, like some other Gods, nor require that they should be intoxicated with the sacred potion ; but inspires boys, who play around his stable, with a divine impulse, enabling them to pour out pre- dictions in perfect rhythm." It was in consequence of these festivities that the anger of Cambyses was so much excited against tlie people of Memphis. Srq^posing that they in- tended to signify their satisfaction at tlie defeat of liis army in the Ethiopian war*, he sent for the priests, and asked them the reason of tlieir re- joicings. They replied, tliat it was the celebration of the manifestation of tlie God Apis, who had been a long time without appearing amongst them. Cambyses, little pleased with this reply, ordered the pretended Deity to be brought before him ; when, drawing his sword, he })lnnged it into the animal's body; and having killed it, he ordered the priests to be beaten, and all those who were found celebrating the festival to be put to death. The Egyptians not only paid divine honours to the bull Apis, but, considering him the living imaget and representative of Osiris, they consulted him as an oracle, and drew from his actions good or bad omens. They were in the habit of offering him any kind of food, with the hand : if he took it, the answer was considered favourable t; if he refused, * Herodot. iii. 27. f Pint, de Is. s. 39. Amm. Marcellin. lib. 22. j Plin.lib. viii. c. 48. CHAP. XIII. OMENS DERIVED FROM Al'IS. S5'7 it was thouglit to be a sinister omen. Pliny and Ammianus observe, that lie refused what tlic iin- fortiuiate (jermanicus presented to him ; and the death of that prince, which happened shortly after, was thought to confirm most unequivocally the truth of those presages. The Egyptians also drew omens respecting the welfare of their country, ac- cording to the stable in which he happened to be. To these two stables he had free access ; and when he spontaneously entered one, it foreboded benefits to Egypt, as the other the reverse ; and many other tokens were derived from accidental circumstances connected with this sacred animal. Pausanias * says, that those who wisiied to con- sult Apis, first burnt incense on an altar, filling the lamps with oil which were lighted there, and de])o- siting apiece of money on the altar to tlie right of the statue of the God. Then placing their mouth near his ear, in order to consult him, they asked whatever question they wished. This done, they withdrew, covering their two ears until they were outside the sacred precincts of the temple ; and there listening to the first expression any one uttered, they drew from it the desired omen. Children, also, according to Pliny and Solinus, who attended in great numbers during the pro- cessions in honour of the divine bull, received the gift of foretelling future events ; and the same authors mention a superstitious belief at Mem- phis, of the influence of Apis u})on the Croco- * Pausan. HI), viii. A A 3 358 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. dile, during the seven days when his birth was celebrated. On this occasion, a gold and silver patera was annually thrown into the Nile, at a spot called from its form the " Bottle :" and while this festival was held, no one was in danger of being attacked by crocodiles, thougli bathing carelessly in the river. But it could no longer be done w4th impunity after the 6th hour of the 8th day. The hostility of that animal to man was then observed invariably to return, as if permitted by the Deity to resume its liabits. Apis was usually kept in one or other of the two stables, — seldom going out, except into the court attached to them, where strangers came to visit Iiim. But on certain occasions he was conducted through the town with great ])oinp. He was then escorted by numerous guards, who made a way amidst the crowd, and prevented the approach of the profane ; and a chorus of children singing hymns in his honour headed the procession. The attention paid to Apis, and the care they took of his health by scrupulously selecting the most wholesome food, were so great, that even the water he drank was taken from a particular well set apart for his use ; and it was forbidden to give him the water of tlie Nile, in consequence of its being found to have a peculiarly fattening property. ** For," says Plutarch*, "they endeavour to prevent fatness as well in Apis as themselves ; always stu- dious that their bodies may sit as light about their souls as possible, in order that their mortal })art may * Pint, tie Is. s. 5. Supra, p. 355. CHAP. XIII. ISIS IN COMPANY WITH APIS. 359 not oppress and weigh down the more divine and immortal." Their idea of the fecundating quahties of the Nile water led the Egy])tian shepherds to raise it from the river for tlieir flocks, especially for ewes, or goats, which were not prolific* ; and to this ^lian attributes their {)roducing hve at a birth. I have seen an instance of a bull, with the globe and feathers between its horns, standing on a mo- nument built at the side of a mountain, — probably the Libyan range behind Memphis, — and over it the name " Pthah-Sokari- Osiris, the God of the West ; " which was probably intended to represent Apis, in the character of that Deity. On the opposite side was a Cow, also coining from a moun- tain, with a similar head-dress, and the long horns usually given to Athor, over which was the name Isis. This is one of many proofs of the analogy between the two Goddesses; the more remarkable, from Isis being introduced with Apis, as she usually is with Osiris. A black bull with a white crescent on its slioulder, or a white spot upon the shoulder, and others on the haunch, the nose, round the eye, and on its legs, carrying a dead body, covered with a red pall, is sometimes represented at the foot of a mummy case, or on a board deposited in the tomb. This appears to be the Apis, in some office connected with Osiris, ars Ruler of Amenti. It runs in haste over the hills, on its way to the Western region, where Osiris })residcd : and it is remarkable that the King, when running into * ^I'Llian, iii. '.V.i. A A 4 360 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. the }3resence of the Gods, with vases or other emblems in his hand*, is sometimes accompanied by a bull. A "white" bull also attended in the procession at the coronation of the Pharaohs. Sarapis, Serapis. The account given by Plutarch t of the intro- duction of this Deity into Egypt, is as follows : — " Ptolemy Soter had a dream, in which a colossal statue, such as he had never seen before, appeared to him, commanding him to remove it as soon as possible from the place where it then stood, to Alexandria. Upon this, the King was in great perplexity, not knowing where the statue was. Sosibius, however, who was a great traveller, de- clared that he had seen one answering its de- scrij)tion at Sinope. Soteles and Dionysius were, therefore, sent thither, and with much difficulty succeeded in bringing the statue to Egypt. Timotheust the interpreter, and Manetho the Sebennite, as soon as it arrived and was shown to them, concluded, from the Cerberus and dragon, that it represented Pluto, and persuaded the King- that it was no other than Sarapis. For it was not so called at Sinope ; but, on its arrival at Alexan- dria, it obtained the name of Sarapis, which, with the Egyptians, answers to Pluto. The observation of Heraclitus the physiologist, that Hades (Pluto) and * lldc iiifm, on the Ceremonies, beginning of Ciiap xv. t Plut. de Is. s. 28. X Tacitus says he was an Athenian. CHAP. XIII. SARAPIS NOT EGYPTIAN. SGi Bacchus are the same, leads to a similar conclusion : Osiris answering to Bacchus, as Sarapis to Osiris, after he had changed his nature ; for Sarapis is a name common to all, as those know who are ini- tiated into the mysteries of Osiris. The opinion of those who pretend that ' Sarapis is no God, but the mere denomination of the Sepulchral Chest, into which the body of Apis, after death, is de- posited,' is perfectly absurd. Tiie priests, indeed, — at least, the greatest part of them, — tell us, that Sarapis is no other than the mere union of Osiris and Apis into one word*; declaring that 'Apis ought to be regarded as a fair and beautiful image of the Soul of Osiris.' For my own part, I cannot but think that this word is expressive of joy and gladness, since the festiv-al which the Greeks call Charmosyna, or the feast of joy, is by the Egyptians termed Sarei." Tacitus t gives the same account of the in- troduction of Sarapis into Egypt, which is con- firmed by Macrobius and Pausaniast ; and Cle- mens of Alexandria § states, "on the authority of some persons, that the statue was sent as a present by the people of Sino])e to Ptolemy Phihidelphus, who had relieved their city from famine by a supply of corn. It was a representation of Pluto, and was placed in the promontory now called Racotis, where the temple of Sarapis stands. Others, however, affirm this Sarapis to be a Pontic * Clemens (Orat. Adhort. p. "21. ), also, says the iiaiiie of Sarapis is composed of Osiris and Apis. f Tacit. Hist. iv. c. 83, 84. J PaiL^aii. in Allien. ^ Clem. Orat. Adhort. p. 20. 36*2 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. statue, brought to Alexandria in consequence of the great concourse of strangers in that city." From the foregoing statement of Plutarch, it is evident that tlie Sarapis, wliose worship was intro- duced by the first Ptolemy from Sinope, was a new^ Deity, previously unknown in the Pantheon of Egypt; and Macrobius* affirms, that, though the Egyptians were compelled to receive Sarapis and Saturn into the order of Gods, and to celebrate their rites after the manner of the Alexandrians, their temples were never admitted within the precincts of their towns. We therefore find no mention of Sarapis till the time of the Greeks and Romans ; and that, principally in cities founded or greatly frequented by them, as Alexandria, Canopus, Antinoopolis, and Berenice, in small Roman towns of the Oasis, in the Nitriotist, or in quarries and stations in the deserts, where he was also invoked under the names of Pluto and Sol inferus.t The form of Sarapis, according to the statues found at Rome, is totally different from that assigned to him in the Gneco- Egyptian temples of Egypt ; where he appears to be merely a modification of Osiris himself; and the same character is given him in a statue lately found at Alexandria §, by Mr. Harris, to whom I am indebted for the drawing given in the Plate. Clemens describes the figure of the God to be of an azure colour approaching to black. * Macrob. Saturn, i. 4. f Strabo, xvii. p. 552. % These inscriptions usually begin Ml HAini IMErAAni 2APAniAI. § VUe Plate 31. Part 3. fig.'2. CllVr. Xlir. MADE TO ACCOUI) WITH OSIRIS. 363 Indeed, from what Plutarcli says, that Sarapis answered to Osiris after he had clianged his nature, (that is, when Judge of Amenti, or, as Diodorus says, in the character of Pluto*,) and that Sara})is was a name given to all persons after tlicir death t ; it is evident that he was thought to resemble Osiris, in his character of President of the Lower Regions. But the mode of celebrating his worship was repugnant to the religious scruples of the Egyptians ; he was tlierefore kept distinct, and refused a place amongst the Gods of their Pan- theon. Tacitus+ tells us, that so great was the difference of opinion respecting this Deity, that some thought him to be yEsculapius, others Osiris, others Jupiter, and others Pluto. According to Macrobius§, " the Egyptian Sarapis being asked who lie was, replied in these verses : — ' Fajii ^eog roiog cc /^laOctv otov Kdyio ei~io' Ovpnj'Log KOUjioQ Kf.carYj^o7^og xai sxas^yog A.7ro70^aiv, and the destroyer of the Serpent. If the Greeks assigned to Mars, Apollo, and Minerva, the use of destructive weapons, which might appear exclusively to belong to the Gods of War, the Egyptians in like manner ex- tended the privilege to several Deities independ- ent of their God Ranpo. The spear was given to Horus, and to Ao ; the bow and arrows to Neith, to Sate, and to Khemi, wlio also holds the battle-axe and spear; and the shield and arrows were not denied as an emblem to a Goddess who has the office of nurse, t The fanciful notion of Diodorus, Macrobius, Horapollo, and others 1:, that the (uf>ai, liorce^ "hours" and "seasons," received their name from Horus, because the Sun was so called by the Egyp- tians, is on a par with many other Greek ety- * Horapollo, Hierog. i. 8. f Vide Plate 65. Part 4. \ Diodor. i. 26. Macrob. Satuni. i. 2G. Horapollo, i. 17. CHAP. XUr. AROERIS, THE ELDER HORUS. 403 molog'ies, with this difference, — that the Greeks usually derived tlie words of other languages from their own. The analogy between Horus and Ouro, *'King," mentioned by Salmasius*, is remarkable, as Horus was the representative of Majesty among the Gods, and tiie hawk is put to designate a Pharaoh. But, as I have frequently had occasion to observe, it is from Re or Phre (and not from Horus, or, as Josephus supposes, from ouro), that the word Phrah (Pharaoh) was derived. The close affinity in some instances between Re (the Sun), and Horus, makes it difficult to distin- guish between them, especially as the hawk is an emblem of both. But the hawk bearing on its head the Disk of the Sim belongs to Re ; and that which wears the Pshent to Horus, the son of Osiris, (who, like Re, was the type of Majesty ;) though, as already stated, this crow^i is sometimes appropriated by other hawk-headed Deities, as Aroeris, and Hor-Hat. HoR-OERi, Aroeris, the Elder Horus, the Brother of Isis and Osiris, Phcebus, the Light of the Sun ?. I have noticed the difficulty which presents itself in deciding which of these Deities, the elder or younger Horus, corresponds to the Greek Apollo. It is true that Aroeris is mentioned in the Greek dedication at Apollinopolis parva, as the Deity of the place, answering to A])ollo ; and the same * Vide Jal)loiiski, ii. 4. |). 222. d d 2 404 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. occurs again at Ombos, where he is figured as Horus, though not as the son of Osiris. But the many points of resemblance brought forward by Herodotus, Plutarch, and others, between Apollo and the son of Osiris, argue strongly in favour of the opinion that the younger Horus answers to the Greek Apollo. Aroeris was son of Seb and Netpe ; and in a hieroglyphic legend at Philae he is styled son of Netpe, and represented under the singular form of a hieraco-sphinx. Plutarch thinks him to have had the Sun for his father, and to have been born on the second day of the Epact. Little more is re- lated concerning him, nor does he appear to have acted a very prominent part in the mythological history of his brother Osiris. In a papyrus published by M. Champollion, he is styled " Haroeri, Lord of the Solar Spirits, the beneficent Eye of the Sun ;" and it is in this last sense that he appears to bear some analogy to Apollo, who, according to Plato, received his name from *' the emission of the rays of light." A})ollo and the Sun were distinct in the mythology of Greece*; and it is probable that the Egyptians separated the light from the heat, and perhaps even from the splendor of the Sun ; considering it in the va- rious characters to which I have already alluded. i Hor-oeri, or Aroeris, may be considered the eye and light t, or the splendor and brightness of the * Vide supra, p. 298. f Supra, p. 299. J This cannot fail to call to mind the aor, "light," of the Hebrews ; though not resembling the Egyptian word of the same meaning. CHAr. XIII. HAIIPOCRATES. 405 Sun, like the Greek Phoebus ; and if his connection with Re is not sufficiently obvious, the statements of Greek writers, added to the testimony of dedi- catory inscri])tions at Ombos and Apollinopolis parva, authorise this opinion, while the younger Horus may enjoy an undisputed claim to the cha- racter of Apollo. HOR-PHOCRAT ?, HaRPOCRATES, THE InFANT HoRUS. Harpocrates was born of Isis after the death of her husband, and is therefore distinct from Horus, her elder son by Osiris, who is said at that time to have been engaged in war with Typho. Plutarch tells us*, that " Harpocrates, being the offspring of the intercourse of Osiris with Isis after his death, and having come into the world before his time, was lame in his lower limbs." This allegorical fable he explains t by interpreting " Harpocrates, whom she brought forth about the time of the winter solstice, to be those weak and tender shootings of the corn, which are as yet feeble and imperfect; for which reason the Egyptians dedicate the first- fruits of their lentils to this God, and celebrate the feast of his mother's delivery just after the Vernal Equinox." " We must not, however," he addst, " really look upon Har])ocrates as an infant and im- })erfect Deity, or as the young and tender shoots of the pulse, but rather as the governor and rectifyer * Pint, lie Is. s. 19. t Pint, lie Is. s. 60. X I'liit. lie Is. s. G8. U D 3 406 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. of those weak, incomplete notions, which we are apt to form of the divine nature. For which reason, we see him described with his finger pointing to his mouth, — a proper emblem of that modest and cautious silence we ought to observe in these matters. So, when they offer him the first-fruits of their lentils in the month Mesore, they at the same time exclaim, ' The tongue is Fortune, the tongue is God : ' and hence it is, that, of all Egyptian plants, the peach tree is looked upon peculiarly sacred to Harpocrates ; because of the resemblance observed between its fruit and the heart, and between its leaves and the human tongue." There is, however, reason to believe that this is one of the many errors with which the ac- counts of Greek writers abound. The peach tree (unless it be the same as Persea) was not sacred to any Deity ; and it is evident that he had in view the holy tree of Athor, whose fruit, as rej)resented in the sculptures, so strongly resembles the heart.* Harpocrates is represented as an infant nursed by Isis, or with his finger to his mouth, having a lock of hair falling from the side of his head. The same figure is commonly employed by the Egyp- tians to indicate a child. He is generally in a sitting posture ; instances, however, occur of his standing upright, and walking alone, or at the side of his mother. The lock of hair, the distinguish- ing mark of a child, though one of his principal characteristics, is not confined to Harpocrates : it * Vide supid, p, 392. CHAP. XIII. OTHER INFANT DEITIES. 40? is given to the young members of other Egyptian triads, as Ehoou, Hor-sened-to, Pneb-to, Hor-pirc, Harka, and Hake, who in form and general attri- butes are simihu' to the child of Isis. It is also worn by Khonso, the offspring of Amun and Maut, in the great Theban triad ; and the priest who of- ficiates in tlie leopard-skin dress, even though he be the King himself, assumes this badge of youth, probably emblematic of that spotless innocence with which it became the supreme Pontiff to ap- proach the presence of the Gods. I have occasionally met with Harpocrates wearing round his neck a vase, the emblem of Thmei, the Goddess of Truth; which probably refers to "the amulet," said by Plutarch* to have been *' worn by Isis at the time she brought him into the world, which was reported to mean ' speaking the truth.'" As the child of Isis, he may represent youth in general : and when seated in Hades before Osiris, or in the sepulchral chambers containing the sarco- phagi of the dead, he is the symbol of resuscita- tion, or new birth. This alludes to the change of state which every one undergoes at his death, pur- porting that dissolution is only the cause of repro- duction t; that nothing perishes which has once existed t ; and that things which appear to be de- stroyed, only change their natures and pass into another form. The same idea is probably repeated * Plut. dc Is. s.(J8. \ Vide supra, p. 218. .315. ; and infm, p. 437. 4.39. j " ()j'>j(Tioa vovhv Toiv ytyj'o/jff'i.j)'," of the Chrysippus of Euripides. Conf. Plato, PhiEdo. " The living are generated from the dead, no less than the dead from the living." p. -^SO. Trans. Taylor. D U I 408 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. in the triad (so often found in the tombs made of blue pottery or other composition), consisting of Isis, Neplithys, and Harpocrates, which I suppose to signify the beginning, the end, and reproduc- tion after death. * It may also be traced in what Macrobius says of the mode of representing the Sun by an image having a lock of hair, on the right side of its head, which was emblematic of the reappearance of that luminary f after it was con- cealed from our sight at its setting ; or of the return of the Sun to the solstice."! But this seems rather to apply to the God Ehoou. In some monuments of the late date of the Ptolemies and Caesars, Harpocrates is represented seated on a throne, supported by lions, and even placed upon the backs of those animals§; which cannot fail to call to mind the remark of Horapollo ||, that "tlie Egyptians put lions under the throne of Horus, — this being their name for the Sun:" though he is wrong in supposing the Sun to be the same as Horus. Harpocrates is called " Horus, the son of Isis and Osiris ; " but there is no trace of the termination pocrates in the hieroglyphic legends. The notion respecting his being the God of Si- lence appears to be of Greek origin : for, as I have * The supposed connection in Hebrew between Mout, " death," and Maut, " mother," is an erroneous notion ; since the latter is Om or Am, and not Maut. -j- INIacrob. Saturn, i. 2G. " Rursum einergendi uti capillos habere substantiani." J Macrob. Saturn, i. 26. " Rursus emergens ad Eestivuni haemisphae- rium tanquam enascens in augmenta porrigitur." $ Firfe Rosellini, PL 18. || Horapollo, i. 17. CHAP. XIII. EHOOU, THE DAY. . 409 already observed*, the Egyptians did not indicate it by the finger, but by placing tlie whole hand over the mouth. The position of Harpocrates's finger, therefore, a})pears rather to refer to a habit common to children in all times and in every country: and that the form of his body, witli a prominent ab- domen, was aptly chosen to indicate extreme youth, is sufficiently proved by the appearance of Egyp- tian children at the present day. Instances occur of Harpocrates with the cap and feathers of Amun ; but as tliese are bronze statues, and unaccompanied by hieroglyphics, there is no possibility of ascertaining the exact character he bore when so represented. The connection between Harpocrates, as well as other of these infant Deities, and the God, gene- rally called Typhonian, whom I have supposed to represent Death, is very remarkable. But I shall treat of it more fully in another place, when de- scribing the attributes and character of that Deity. Ehoou, the Day. The form and attributes of this youthful Deity are similar to those of Harpocrates, from whom the hieroglyphic legends alone distinguish him. He is the third member of the triad of Dendera, and son of Athor, by whom he is nursed. This God- dess, in the character of mother of an infant, ap- pears to have borrowed the attributes of Isis ; but the same office is assumed by other Goddesses. * Sitpid, Vol. III. p. 46. 410 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. Athor occurs again at Edfoo as the mother of Hor-sened-to, her son by Hor-Hat ; and Nebou, a form of Neith, is at Esneh the mother of the young Hake. Like Harpocrates, and other of these infant Deities, he is represented with his finger to his mouth, tlie sign of extreme youth ; and he is some- times represented sitting on the flower of a Lotus. He is then supposed to signify the Sun in the winter solstice, or the rising Sun ; and tlie crook and flagellum, the emblems of Osiris, which he somethnes carries, may be intended to indicate the influence he is about to exercise upon mankind. The vase from which the plant grows is a lake of water, and the usual initial of the word ma or moo^ " water." **They do, indeed," says Plutarch*, "characterise the rising Sun as though it sprang every day afresh out of the lotus plant ; but this implies, that to moisture we owe the first kindling of this lumi- nary." I may, however, venture to offer another in- terpretation, suggested both by the allegory itself, as w^ell as by his hieroglyphical name Ehoou, — that he corresponds to the day or morning ; and in this character he may answer to Aurora. Some might perhaps apply to him the name Phosphorus, which seems to accord with an inscription mentioned by Jablonski, — " Bono Deo Puero Phosphoro \ : " * Pint, de Is. s. 1 1. t Jablonski, ii. 6. p. 256. CHAP. XIII. THE LOTUS AND NELUMBO. 411 but he was distinct from Venus, or the Morning Star.* The resemblance, indeed, between Ehooii, or Peho, " Mtr diuj^''' m Egyptian, and Eos, the Greek Aurora, is sufficiently striking : and if for the " Sun " rising every morning from a lotus flower, we substitute the " day^'' we find the remark of Plutarch justly applies to this Deity : and we may readily pardon his error in mistaking him for Har- pocrates, whom he so much resembles. It may, then, be supposed that he represents the day ; and he is with justice considered the child of Athor, or night, from which every new day was supposed to spring. I must, in conclusion, make this remark on the lotus plant on which he is represented seated, — that it is always the Nymphjiia Lotus, and in no in- stance the Nelumbo. And though this last is men- tioned by several ancient authors among the plants of Egypt, it is never introduced into the sculptures as a sacred emblem, nor, indeed, as a production of the country ; a fact which goes far to disprove one of the suj)posed analogies of the Egyptian and Indian objects of veneration. With regard to the common lotus, so frequently represented as a fa- vourite flower in the hands of the Egyptians (as the rose or others might be in the hands of any modern people), there is no evidence of its having been sacred, much less an object of worship, though it is an emblem of the God Nofre-Atmoo. * Vide supra, p. 387. 412 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. Hor-Hat, Hat, Agathod^mon. As there appears to be some connection between this Deity and Horus, I introduce him with the members of the family of Seb. Hat, or Agathodffimon, was the Good Genius, under whose protection the persons of the Kings and the temples of the Gods were placed. In the form of a Sun supported by two asps and outspread vul- tures' wings, he occurs over the doorways and fa- 9ades of buildings. Sometimes he is represented as a winged Scarabaeus, supporting a globe or Sun with its fore feet ; as a hawk, he hovers over the Mon- arch while offering sacrifices in the temples, or on other occasions ; and as a Deity of human shape, with a hawk's head, he pours alternate emblems of life andhpower over the Prince at his coronation. In this office he is assisted by tlie God Nilus, Thoth, or Ombte ; one of whom, placed opposite him, pours a stream of similar emblems from another vase over the King who stands between them. His place is sometimes taken by one of those Deities. When opposed to Ombte, he appears to represent the Upper, as the latter the Lower, Country. He also assists in binding the throne of the Monarch with the stalks of water plants, in company with Nilus, or with Thoth, — one using those emblematic of the Upper, the otlier of the Lower, Country. The ceiemony itself refers to the dominion of the King over Upper and Lower Egypt.* * Vide infra, the God Xilus. CHAP. XIII. HOR-HAT, agathod.t:mon. 413 When represented as a man, with a hawk's head, he appears to be related to the AgatliodiLMnon of the Phoenicians ; wliich, according to Euscbius, was supposed (though erroneously) to be the same as Neph, with "the head of a hawk." In tiie cha- racter of the winged globe, he unites the attributes of Re, Neph, and Maut, — the Sun, asp, and vul- ture's wings. He may then be said more particu- larly to deserve the name of the Good Genius; though, as I have already observed, the Agatho- daemon, which presided over the affairs of men as the guardian spirit of their houses, was the Asp of Ranno*; according with another statement of Eu- sebiust, that Agathodaemon was figured under the form of a serpent. The winged globe may perhaps call to mind the " land shadowing with wings t ; " as the figures kneehng at either end of the sacred arks, or boats, recall the winged Seraphim. The name of this Deity is written Hat, when under the form of a hawk, and of the winged globe, in attendance on the Kings ; and when under the name and character of Hor-Hat, he usually wears the Pshent, or crown of Up})er and Lower Egypt, which seems to connect him with Horus. He is sometimes represented with wings, holding a spear, and crowned with the Pshent of Horus ; but this is in temples of a Ptolemaic ycra. He frequently appears at Dendera, and also in the oldest temples, in ali tiiese characters ; and * Fide supra, p. 239. ; and infra, on Ranno. -)- Enseb. Prepar. Evangel, i. 10. J Isai. xviii. 1. 414 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. the temple of Edfoo, or Apollinopolis magna, being dedicated to him, seems to give him a claim to the name of Apollo. * At this last place, an instance occurs of the God Hor-Hat with the head of a Lion and the Solar disk, holding a monkey in his hand. He stands in a boat ; and before him Thoth, Isis, Nephthys, and two other Goddesses, raise their hands in an attitude of prayer, while Horus pierces the head of Aphophis with a spear. Ombte, Obte, Abtaut, Ombo (Tithrambo?, Taut-ambo ?), Ambo, Embon, The Evil Being. This Deity is sometimes represented, as already observed, in company with, and in the same office as, the last mentioned God, pouring the emblems of life and power over the Kings, in the place of Thoth ; and in teaching them the use of the bow t, together with the same hawk-headed God, Hor- Hat. It might appear that Ombte was connected with the Lower Country t, as Hor-Hat with Upper Egypt, to whom he was opposed. For, in the ceremony of the Panegyrics, where the King is represented running to the temple to perform the accustomed rites, we find this Deity introduced on the side of the picture, corresponding to Lower Egypt, with all the emblems of that part of the country, as the asp, the Northern water plant, and the Genius of Lower Egypt; the King also wearing the cap of that district. But Ombte generally has, * Vide supra, p. 398. f Vide Plate 39. J Vide Plate 79. CHAP. XIII. OMBTE, ABTAU T, OR OMBO. 415 in his hieroglyphic legend, the title " Lord of the region of the Upper Country," as is the case even in the subject to which I have above alluded, though accom})anied by the emblems of Lower Egypt. This, then, may be intended to indicate the combined protection of the Deities of both regions. In the cartouches of Osirei and other Pharaohs, his figure is introduced as a substitute for Osiris ; probably in consequence of his name commencing with the same letter, O or A, but not, as some have been disposed to think, from his being one of the characters of Osiris. I have supposed, from the hieroglyphics, that he was called Ombte, Obte, Ombo, or Abtaut ; but there is some uncertainty respecting their alphabetic value ; and the first cha- racter being the same as in the word Ombos, may require his name to read Ombte, or Ombo. He ap- pears, both from his name and character, to be the Deity mentioned by Jablonski under the name of Ambo, or Embon*, the same as Tithrambo (Taut- Ambo?), but distinct from the Egyptian Hecate. In the hieroglyphic legends on the monuments t, he is shown to have been the son of Netpe ; on the Wooden Cubits found at Memphis, the names of Seb and Netpe are followed by Osiris, Isis, Ombte, Nephthys, and Aroeris ; and I have met with a group of figures t, repiesenting the family * J7A' Jablonski, Pantli. .Egypt, i. c.o. s. 2. He attaches to the name the meaning of anger, wiiicli is tlie sense oi embon or viboit in Co|)tic. J An instance of this occurs on the ObeHsk of Luxor, at Thebes. On a seal in the possession of Chevalier Kestner, the Hanoverian minister at Komc. 416 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. of Netpe, in which he occurs with Osiris, Aroeris*, Isis, and Nephthys, as the third son of that Goddess. This agrees with the statement of Plutarch t, that Osiris was born on the first, Aroeris on the second, Typho on the third, Isis on the fourth, and Neph- thys on tlie fifth day. Hence it is evident that the Deity before us was one of the characters of Typho, and the reason of his figure being erased on ahnost all the monu- ments where it occurs, was owing to the hatred with which they viewed the Evil Being he repre- sented ; though, as I shall have occasion to show, the good and bad principles were viewed with a different feeling by the philosophers of early times. He is figured under a human form, having the head of a quadruped with square topped ears, which some might have supposed to represent an Ass with clipped ears, if the entire animal did not too frequently occur to prevent this erroneous conclusion. That it was an imaginary creature is evident, from its form, and from being placed at Beni Hassan with Sphinxes t and other fanciful animals ; all conjecture is therefore useless, both regarding its name and the reason for which it was selected. * This Deitv wears the Pshent like Horus. t Plut. de is. s. 12. j The Sphinx was chosen as an emblem of the Kine, and was in- tended to imply the union of physical and intellectual force, by its body of a lion, and its human head ; or, as Clement of Alexindria says, the " union of force, with prudence or wisdom." oXkijc rt av fitra irvnatojg t) ffcf'iyw, Strom. 5. He runs into the usual error of considering the Sphinx female; the Egyptians making it invariably male, which is con- sistent with its being a representative of the King. CHAP. XIII. THE EVIL BEING. 417 Had the head of this Deity been that of the Ass, its adoption would have suited the character of the Evil Being, and have accorded with the state- ment of Plutarch, who says the Egyptians consi- dered that animal emblematic of Typho. " Hence the Coptites have the custom * of throwing an ass down a precipice ; and the inhabitants of Busiris and Lycopolis carry their detestation of it so far as never to make use of trumpets, fancying that their sound is similar to the braying of an Ass. Indeed, this animal is generally regarded by them as unclean, on account of its supposed resem- blance to Typho ; for which reason, the cakes offered with their Sacrifices, during the two months Paiini and Phaophi, have the impression of an Ass bound, stamped upon them." Even if the entire quadruped itself w^ere not present to decide this point, their mode of repre- sentiniij animals was too accurate to admit of such a misconception ; and a figure with the head of an ass represented among the numerous Genii in the temple of Tuot, or Tuphium, suffices to show the marked distinction between it and the one before us. The inaccuracy of Greek writers presents con- siderable difficulty in deciding upon any point not elucidated by the Egyptian monuments. We are told that Typho was the name of the Evil Being, who was the son of Netpe, and brother of Osiris. But, judging from tlie hieroglyphiclegends, there is * Plut. de Is. s. 30. VOL. I. — Second Series. E E 418 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. reason to believe Typho to be a female Deity, ap- parently distinct from the Evil Being who was the persecutor of Osiris ; and we are unable to trace in the name of Ombte, or Abtaut, any of the titles, Seth, Bebo, Babys*, or Smyt, given by Plutarch to Typho. On this last point, however, I shall not insist, since the force of the hieroglyphics t composing it is not positively ascertained ; but we may be certain that the name Typho was not ap- plied to this Deity, though he fulfilled the office of the Evil Being opposed to the good Osiris, his brother, and answered in every respect to the cha- racter of the third son of Netpe. It appears that the Egyptian Mythology ac- knowledged two Deities, who answered to the de- scription given by the Greeks of Typho ; — one, who was the son of Netpe, and was opposed to his brother Osiris, as the bad to the good principle ; the other bearing the name of Typho, and, an- swering to that part of his character which repre- sents him as the opponent of Horus. From the constant and almost universal era- sure of his figure, the Egyptians seem to have looked upon this Deity as a hateful being, the enemy of mankind. But the offices he sometimes bore, the presentation of prayers and offerings, and the respect frequently paid to him in temples of the oldest periods, where he occurs as one of the contemplar Gods, show that his character was not * Jlde Athen. Deipn. lib. xv. p. G80. t Plut.de Is. S.62. 49. j He sometimes seems to have a title similar to Seth. CHAP. Xlll. SACRIFICES OFFERED TO HIM. 419 always the same as ascribed by us to the wicked Satan ; but an abstract notion of what was hurtful and bad, acting in opposition to the good, yet still necessary to mankind, and })art of the system or- dained by the divine intellect. " For the harmony of the world," as Heraclitus observes*, "like that of a harp, is made up of discords, consisting of a mixture of good and evil;" and Earipides says, " Good and evil cannot be separated from each other, though they are so tempered as to produce beauty and order." If such was the opinion of the Egyptians, we are not surprised to find that sacri- fices were offered to the bad principle, as though his votaries considered themselves benefited by his. interposition. And it is probable that they so viewed the connection between the good and bad, as to consider that nothing injurious to mankind was not ordained for a good purpose ; that virtue even was a vice, when carried to an extreme ; and that no bad quality of the mind could not be turned to a good purpose, if properly tempered by the judg- ment and understanding. These ideas may be obscurely hinted at, in the emblematic figure of this Deity with the head of a hawk added to his own, as though it represented the union of his at- tributes with those of Horus, or of Osiris. t The same may also be traced in the office per- formed by this Deity, in company with Plorus, of placing the crown on the head of the King ; or with Hor-Hat (Agathodaemon), of pouring over * Pint, de Is. s. 45. t Vide Plate 38. Part 2. fig. 2. E E 2 420 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. him, from a vase, the emblems of hfe and pm'ity. This ceremony might imply, that during his life, and the distinguished career he had entered upon, even the Monarch himself could only expect, in the ordinary course of events, an alternation of good and bad fortune ; and that he ought, therefore, un- ceasingly to appeal to the protection of the Gods, who alone could avert calamities and insure his happiness. In the mythological history of Osiris, there is one person who, from having the double character of a friend and an enemy of the Gods, bears a re- semblance to the Deity before us. This is Antaeus. Even his name, which, without the Greek ter- mination, is reduced to Antae, may not appear to disagree with the Egyptian Ombte. According to Diodorus *, when Osiris undertook his expedition from Egypt, in order to visit and dispense benefits to the different countries of the world, he left Isis in charge of the affairs of his kingdom, aided by the counsels of Mercury. Hercules was appointed generalissimo of Egypt ; Busiris, of the sea coast, with the parts adjacent to Phamicia ; and Antaeus, of the /Ethiopian and Libyan districts. After tlie death of Osiris, his murderer Typho was defeated by Isis and Horus, at a spot on tlie Arabian side of the river, near to the village of Antaeus, so called from the Antaeus whom Hercules punished during the life-time of Osiris. Whence it appears that Typho and Antaeus * Diodor, i. 17. 21. CHAP. XIII. DOUBLE CHARACTER OF ANT.^US. 421 were the enemies of the good Deities Osiris and Hercules. Antasus, however, was admitted into the Egyptian Pantheon ; temples were erected to him ; and the city of Antaiopolis, the capital of a nome of the same name*, and the successor of the village mentioned by Diodorus, acknow- ledged the God whose name it bore. In this we perceive the origin of the fable re- specting the Giant Antaeus, in Greek mythology t; of which, however, I do not stop to inquire the meaning. It is of little moment, if Anta?us, ac- cording to one of the many allegories devised for explaining the story of the wars of the Gods, re- presented the sand of the desert, and was thence reputed to be the offspring of the Earth. The only point of importance for my present object is the double character of Antaeus, like that of the God Ombte, which I think clearly established, and the error of the Greeks, who confounded the latter Deity with Typho, may be readily accounted for, by the connection between Typho and Antaeus, in the account given by Diodorus. At Gau, the ancient Antaeopolis, a temple, till lately, stood on the banks of the Nile ; but the last standing column was swept away by the river in 1821 ; and we have now lost the only monu- ment which could decide this interesting question, to confirm or disprove the identity of Ombte and Antaeus. * Pliii. V. 9. f Juv. iii. 89. Piiular, Pytli. ix. 185. Luc. Phars. iv. 615. Stral)o, x\-ii. p. -570. etl. Cas. Plin. v. \. E E 3 422 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. Sufficient proof exists of the possibility of the same Deity being looked upon in two different cha- racters ; and Plutarch has given * some of the various theories respecting the two principles. *' Some," he says, " assert that there are two Gods of two con- trary offices, — one the cause of all that is good in the world, the other of all that is evil. Others, again, call the good principle only God, — giving the name of Daemon to the Evil Being, — in which number is Zoroaster the Mage, who is reported to have lived 5000 years before the Trojan War. That philosopher named the good principle Oro- mazes (Ormusd), and the evil one Arimanius (Ariman) ; between whom he supposed another intermediate being, called Mithras, considered by the Persians the Mediator. He also taught, that sa- crifices for future or thanks for past benefits were to be offered to the Good Being, as those for the purpose of averting misfortunes to the evil one. " In the writings of Empedocles, the good prin- ci])le is sometimes defined by the name of Love and Friendship, and frequently by that of sweet- looking Harmony ; the evil one being denominated pernicious Enmity and Strife. By the Pytha- goreans, the good one is called ' the Unit, the Definite, the Fixed, the Straight, the Odd, the Square, the Equal, the Dexterous, and the Lucid ;* and the evil one, * the Duad, the Indefinite, the Moveable, the Crooked, the Even, the Oblong, the Unequal, the Sinistrous, the Dark.* Anaxagoras * Plut. de Is. s. 46. et seq. CHAP. XIII. GOOD AND EVIL. 423 styles the one Intelligence, the other Infinity ; and Aristotle describes them by the names of Form and Privation. Plato, in his books of laws, observes that *this world is not moved by one soul only, but per- haps by many, — certainly not fewer than two ; one of whom is of a benevolent disposition, and the author of every thing tliat is good ; whilst the other is of a contrary turn of mind, and the author of every thing that is evil.' In the Egyptian theory, we are to understand by Osiris, the faculties of the universal soul, such as intelligence and reason; and in the general system of matter, whatever is regular, permanent, and salutary, such as orderly seasons, a due temperament of the air, and the stated revolu- tions of the heavenly bodies. But those powers of the universal soul which are subject to the influence of passions ; and in the material system, whatever is noxious, as irregular seasons, bad air, eclipses of the Sun and Moon ; are ascribed to Typho." *' Upon the whole, however, Osiris, or the good principle, has the superiority ; which seems likewise to have been the opinion both of Plato and Aristotle." * Looking, therefore, upon the bad as a necessary part of the universal system, and inherent iu all things equally with the good, the Egyptians treated the Evil Being with divine honours, and propitiated him w^ith sacrifices and prayers. It is not, how- ever, impossible that they may have looked u})on this Deity with different feelings in later times, and have ceased to ])ay him the respect he formerly enjoyed. During the 18th and 19th Dynasties, and * Pint, dc Is. s. o9. E E 4 424 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. perhaps long after that period, he continued to re- ceive the homage of numerous votaries; but sub- sequently a general feeUng of hatred seems to have sprung up against him, and his figure was erased from the sculptures. This does not appear to have been done in a systematic manner, as the re- sult of a general order given by the priesthood to that effect, but in a moment of anger, as would be the case when the people acted from sudden impulse, or excitement. It therefore happens that the figure sometimes escaped this indignity; which could not have been the case, had the careful scrutiny of the priesthood been employed to detect and deface it. There is some difficulty in ascertaining the exact time when the erasure took place. The monu- ments of the later Dynasties offer few of the sub- jects in which this Deity usually took part. It is not, therefore, right to conclude that he had then ceased to be worshipped as in olden times : and, indeed, there is so much uncertainty on this head, that we are not sure if the erasure was the work of the Egyptians or of the early Christians. But this last is far from probable, since they could have had no reason to respect or hate any particular Deity of a Pagan temple. If so marked an aversion for his figure really in- dicates a change in the feelings of the Egyptians towards this Deity, it is possible that it may have had some connection with the invasion of Persia, — the God having fallen into disgrace in consequence of that event; as the Roman Deities were sometimes CHAP. XIII. CHANGE OF FEELING TOWARDS HIM. 425 punished for their supposed neglect of tlie interests of their votaries. * But it is evident that it could not date at the early period of the Exodus, since the temple of Uenieses III. alone suffices to sliow he was in fav^our long after that event. Whether owing to a change in the religious fan- cies of the Egyptians, or to any other cause, it is not a singular instance. We have already noticed the erasure and substitution of hieroglyphics in the name of Amun : and though the Egyptians were great conservatives in their religious institutions, some innovations were introduced during the long period of their history. Nor can any one sup- pose that the accessories of their religion under- went no modifications, that the simplicity of the early worship had not many new ideas engrafted upon it, and that speculative theories did not from time to time increase the number of the Egyptian Gods, t I am even disposed to think that a change of this kind might proceed from another cause : that good and bad, which were viewed abstractedly at one period, were afterwards treated literally; nothing then remaining but the mere opposition of Osiris and Typho, the positively good and the positively bad Being, — the one all that was beneficial, the other all that was noxious to mankind. If the one was the Nile, which fertilised the country; the * Like the modern Italian saints. Witness San Gennaro and otliers. This was also the case in Ei,'ypt, as Plntarch tells us, with the sacred animals. Pint, de Is. s. 73. Vide infra, on the Sacred Animals, Chap. xiv. \ Vide siijjri), p. IGj. "il2. 426 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. other was the desert, which destroyed all vegetable life : and they no longer entertained the opinions of those earlier philosophers, who contended that good and bad formed part of one great principle ; that evil proceeded from good, as good from evil ; and that both were intended for the benefit of man- kind. It was not until men considered the bad distinctly separate from the good, in a positive and literal sense, that Typho was treated as the enemy of man. Such was tlie idea entertained by the Roman vota- ries of Osiris. There is even reason to believe that a similar change in the sentiments of the Egyp- tians towards this Deity is hinted at by Plutarch*, when he says, — "It is evident they hold Typho in great abhorrence, though they still make offer- ings to him, as if to console him for tlie loss of his power, which had become less formidable than for- merly." '* It was in consequence," he adds, " of their hatred of Typho, that they treated with igno- miny those persons who, from the redness of their complexions, were imagined to bear a resemblance to himt;" and, '* from a similar notion, they made choice of red oxen in their sacrifices." The *' Ass was also selected as an appropriate emblem of the Evil Deity, from its being usually of that colour." Diodorus t even asserts, that *' men of red com- plexions were formerly sacrificed to Osiris, in con- sequence of their supposed resemblance to T}^ho ; " though this may be reasonably doubted, as so many * Plut. de Is. s. 30. f y^ide infra, on the Sacrifices, Chap. xv. J Diodor. i. 88. CHAP. XIII. THE EVIL BEING PROPITIATED. 427 tales related by the Greeks respecting the customs of the Egyptians. The supposed birthday of Typho was, in like manner, looked upon as inauspicious ; and "accord- ingly, on the third day of the Epact, the Kings nei- ther transacted any business, nor even suffered them- selves to take any refreshment till the evening." * If it appears singular that this hatred of the Evil Being did not prevent their propitiating him on certain occasions, the custom is not confined to the Egyptians ; far less speculative people have adopted it even to the present day ; and philo- sophers have offered many conflicting opinions on the abstract theory of the good and bad, the origin of sin, and the power, cause, and nature of evil. The fact of the figure of this Deity being so generally erased, and the change in the name of Amun, go far to prove that certain innovations took place in the religious theories of the Egyptians ; and if we could discover earlier monuments than those which now remain, we might find the number of Deities more limited than in the time even of the 18th Dynasty. From what has been said it appears, 1°. That the Evil Being was admitted, in early times, to divine honours. 2°. That these were discontinued from some calamity befalling the country, or from the good and bad being made entirely distinct. * Pint, de Is. s. 12. Jlde supra, p. 210. It is singular that tiic name " Typlion " (Tiplioon) was applied to a '* siuklcn w liirlwinci " in former times (Plin, ii. 48.), as at the present day ; and tliat Tuphun is the Arabic name of the Deluge. 428 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. 3. That the Evil Behig, though the brother of Osiris, had not the name of Typho ; this being given to a different Deity, who was opposed to Horus, as were another Typhonian monster, and the Serpent Aphophis. Mr. Cory * is disposed to think this figure with square ears represented the Patriarch Joseph. But the fact that the Egyptians never admitted human beings into the order of Gods, the improbabihty of so great an honour being paid to a Hebrew stranger, even during the reign of the King his patron, and liis being styled the son of Netpe, sufficiently disprove this opinion. Nor would the virtuous Joseph have had reason to feel flattered by a repre- sentative of so equivocal a character in the cata- logue of Gods. Ta?, Tipo?, Typho?, Typhon?, Parturition?, OR RATHER GeSTATION ?. I have already observed, that there is reason to consider the Evil Being, the son of Netpe, distinct from Typho; and this last to be a female rather than a male Deity. The former, whom, in the uncertainty which still attends the reading of his name, I suppose to be called Ombte or Ambo, has evidently no office in connection with Horus t ; but the figure in the accompanying Plate is represented opposed to the son of Osiris, and holds a conspicu- ous place in those temples and sculptures which refer to his mysterious history. She appears to be * Chronological Inquiry, p. 4o. f Vide supra, p. 4:18. CHAP. XIll. FORM OF TYPIIO. 429 tlie principal personage amidst the frightful and ca- priciously formed figures which appear as the Evil Genii of the Egyptian mythology ; and in astrono- mical subjects, she may be supposed to represent, as Plutarch says of Typlio, the eclipses of the Sun and Moon, and the occultations of the Stars, or to preside over the birth of the Sun. Her hierogly- phics appear to read Tipo or Typho. She has the body, apparently, of a hippopotamus, or of a bear, with the head sometimes of a hippopotamus, some- times of a crocodile, the tail of the latter, and the hands and breasts of a woman ; and she frequently wears on her head the globe and horns of Athor, with two long feathers. Her hand reposes on an emblem not very unlike a pair of shears ; and she sometimes rests one hand upon a crocodile's head, standing on its tail. At the quarries of Silsilis, she is worshipped as a Deity, accompanied or followed by Thoth and a Goddess, apparently Nepte, before whom, as a triad, the Queen of Remeses the Great holds two Sistra. She has a human head, with the usual body of a monster standing erect on its hind legs ; and I have met with the same Deity with a human figure and head of a hippopotamus, on a tablet, where she is the first person of a triad made up of Eilethyia and Athor. She sometimes ap- pears to be connected with the idea of parturition, or gestation, — which may account for her being- introduced with the Egyptian Lucina. Her figure in the hieroglyphic legends of Isis* andNetpet * Vide Plate 34. Hierog. No. 7. f J7A' Plate 32. Ilierog. No. 2. 430 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. appears to refer to her capacity of protectress of mothers. I have also found an instance of this Goddess with the name Isis over her, in an as- tronomical subject on a mummy case now in the British Museum. The hippopotamus and the crocodile were em- blems of Typho, except, perhaps, in those towns where they happened to be worshipped; as at Pa- premis, the city of Mars, which held the former among the animals dedicated to its protecting Deity ; and at Ombos, and other places, where the crocodile was sacred. '' At Hermopolis, " says Plu- tarch *, ** there is shown a statue of Typho, which is a hippopotamus with a hawk upon its back fight- ing with a serpent. By the hippopotamus is meant Typho ; and by the hawk, the power he frequently assumes by violence, and then employs to his own annoyance and to the prejudice of others. So, again, the Cakes they offer on the 7th day of Tybi, to celebrate the return of Isis from Phoenicia, nave the impression of a hippopotamus bound, stamped upon them. The solemn hunt of the crocodile in the city of Apollo, when every one is obliged to eat of its fiesh, is, in like manner, established to show their abhorrence of Typho, whose emblem it is. The same feeling is the origin of their hatred of the Ass." The connection of Typho and Mars, of both of whom the hippopotamus was said to be an emblem, is singular ; and there appears to be a great analogy * Plut. de Is. s. 50. CHAP. XIII. DEATH, DESTROYER. 431 between Hercules and other of the reputed Ty- phonian figures. * In the buildings called by some Typhonia, and in many of the mysterious subjects above alluded to, she is accompanied by another figure of hideous shape, which has also been considered Typhonian. This monster forms the ornamental part of the capitals of the columns around the Mammeisi Temples, formerly called Typhonia, as at Den- dera and other places.! The name of Typhonium has been improperly applied to these monuments, since they were not consecrated to Typho, but are rather connected with the mysterious rites of Harpocrates and other infant Deities, relating to their birth, or generally to the principle of re- generation. The ingenious Champollion has as- signed to them the appellation of Mammeisi, the " lying in places" where the third member of the triad, worshipped in the adjoining temple, was born, and nursed by the Deities, who were supposed to perform that office in Egyptian Mythology. Death ?, Mors ?, Besa ?. The name of this Deity is as yet doubtful. His appearance is of a short deformed man, with a tail, a curly beard, and a head-dress of long feathers : but little is known of his office and attributes, nor have I been able to ascertain if he be the husband of Typho. The story of Nephthys being the wife of Typho, even if Typho were a God, is not au- * Vide the next Deity, and Hercules. f Vide Plate 24. a. fig. 4-. 432 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. thorised by the sculptures ; and the origin of this notion is probably owing to Nephthys being placed in contradistinction to Isis, as the end to the be- ginning, and in the funereal rites being in an office opposed to that of her sister. I have reason to believe that he represented * Death,' in a bad sense, as the dissolution of the animal part of man, and the decay of all things, applied to animals as well as to mankind ; and this will readily account for the presence of the peculiar Demonstrative sign — the hide of an animal with the tail attached to it — which always follows the le- gends denoting ' a beast.' He is also said to " adore his lord," — alluding to the attitude in which he stands before Harpocrates, who in the character of renovation, or new life, might properly be adored by the God of Death. He occurs, as already stated, on the columns of the Mammeisi of Dendera and other places ; and he presents the same appearance in some of the temples of Southern Ethiopia. He is found at the distant Kermesat, in Wady Ker- beccin, beyond Wady Benat ; and in the sculptures of the supposed hunting palace of Wady Benat, where he is represented armed with a shield and sword, slaying the captives he grasps in his hand. Images of this Deity are also found at Thebes and other places, armed in the same manner with the emblems of War, which may argue his being death in the sense of destruction ; and an instance occurs of his having the dress of a Roman soldier*; which * Vide Plate 41. fig. I. The shrine he bears on liis head is remark- able. But this figure is of late date. CHAP. Xni. DEATH AND INFANCY UNITED. 433 seems to connect him with the God of War, in tlie same sense of the destroying power. In a papyrus of M. Reuvens, he approaches near to the figure of Hercules, whom I shall presently have occasion to notice ; and we might even suppose him to be the Deity of Strength. If he represented Death, his frequent occurrence in company with the infant Horus may readily be explained by the connection sujiposcd to subsist between death and reproduction ; and I have seen a statue which combhies the attributes of both those Gods, under the form of a youth with the lock of Childhood descending from his head, and the beard and unseemly features of this aged monster.* Sometimes, and indeed more generally, the head of the latter is placed over that of the youthful Deity, who, holding in one hand two snakes with a scorpion and Capricorn, in the other similar snakes with a lion and scorpion, stands upon two crocodiles, and is surrounded by the emblems and figures of different Gods. Though most of these are well known, I do not pretend to offer an ex- planation of the whole subject t, whicli appears to bear an astrological as well as a mythological sense, t The three principal figures — the crocodile, the young Horus, and the monster head — may signify darkness §, the origin of all things, existence or production, and death. They may also explain an * Vide Plate 24. «. fig. 3. f Vh/c Plate 4-3. a. J I7f/r Macrob. Saturn, i. 26. Clemens (Strom. 5.) says, " The Egyptians sometimes represent tlie Sun in a boat, sometimes on a crocodile." § Vide SKprd, 274'.; and irifrd, on Xjj/u ; ami llorapoUo, i. G9, 70. VOL, I. — Second Series. F F 434 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. apparent resemblance between this Deity and a re- presentation of Pthah the creative power.* These groups are, I believe, of late date — of Ptolemaic or Roman time ; and it is generally observable, that similarly complicated subjects are of a period when the religion of Egypt was overgrown with fanciful speculation, which the simplicity of earlier sculptures had not adopted. May this Deity have been Besa, whose oracle is placed by ancient writers in the vicinity of Aby- dus or of Antinoe ? His name in some of the hie- roglyphic legends resembles that of the unknown Besa ; and if his character appears little likely to justify the notion of his possessing an oracle, it will cease to present an objection, when we re- collect that, in Greece, even the monster Geryon, slain by Hercules, was deemed worthy of a similar honour. Professor Reuvenst gives an invocation to Typhon Seth, *'who destroys and renders de- sert, and is surnamed ' he who agitates, and is invincible ;*** which seems to suit the character of this destroying Deity, and to account for his presumed connection with Typho. The fact of his being thus invoked corresponds with his am- biguous title and appearance ; and the learned Professor's X opinion, that he was derived from Pthah, (or from Cneph,) is sufficiently plausi- ble. But I should exclude the name of Cneph, and for Pthah should substitute that of the pigmy Pthah-Sokari- Osiris, to which I have already al- * Vide Plate 2+. a. fig. 2., and PI 43. figs. 1. 2. -j- Reuvens, lettre i. p. 39. J Lettre iii. p. 78, 79. CHAP. XIII. APHOnilS, THE SERPENT. 435 ludcd. This also calls to miiul the connection between the operation of the creator and of the destroying power. Aphophts, The Serpent. Having mentioned the bad principle, and shown the distinction between Typho and the son of Netpe, it may not be out of place to introduce another character of the Evil Being ; in which we cannot fail to recognise the Serpent the enemy of mankind, and from which the Pytho of Greek my- thology was evidently derived. Aphophis, or Apop, which in Egyptian signifies a ^' giant "wan the name given to the Serpent of whicli Horus is represented as the Destroyer. From this, the Greeks borrowed the story of Apollo's destruc- tion of the Serpent Pytho ; as from the name Apho. phis, the wars between the Giants, or Titans, and the Gods. " For," as Plutarch observes*, '* those wars, which are so much spoken of by the Greeks, the detestable actions of Saturn, and the combats between Apollo and Pytho, the flights of Bacchus, and the wanderings of Ceres, are of the same nature as the adventures of Osiris and Typho." In another placet, he speaks of " Apopis as a prince, who was brother to the Sun, and made war upon Jupiter, by whom he was defeated through the assistance of Osiris," which tends to the same point ; and it is remarkable that the * Pint, lie Is. s. 25. t Plut. de Is. s. 36. F F 2 436 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. combat of the Gods and Giants occurs under various forms in many religions. With regard to the name Aphophis given to the Evil Being as a serpent, some may be disposed to trace in it the word Hof, Hfo, in Coptic a "snake:" but this does not appear to be tiie origin of the name of Aphophis; which is evidently the Coptic Aphoph, the " Giant," as I have already stated. The destruction of the Serpent by Horus, who, standing in a boat, pierces his head with a spear, as he rises above the water, frequently occurs in the sculptures ; and whether it has the body of a snake with the head of a man, or assumes the entire human form, it appears to be the same monster. The representation of Typho, men- tioned by Plutarch, at Hermopolis*, evidently refers to this conflict of Horus and Aphophis. I will not decide whether the Serpent Aphophis has any relation to " the snake, which, when Thu- eris, the concubine of Typho, deserted to Horus, was killed by his soldiers" as it pursued her ; *'an event," says Plutarch t, " still commemorated by the ceremony of throwing a rope into the midst of their assemblies, and then chopping it in pieces." Nepthys, Nephthys, Neb-thy, The End. Nephthys, the sister of Isis, and youngest daugh- ter of Netpe, was supposed by the Greeks to have been the wife of Typho ; but, as I have already * Vide supra, p. 430. f PI"'- '■^^ Is. s. 19. CHAP. XIII. NEPHTHYS OPPOSED TO ISIS. 437 observed, this notion probably arose from her being placed in opposition to Isis, particularly in funereal subjects, where Isis stands at the head and Nephthys at the feet of the deceased. She represented the end, as Isis the beginning, of all things ; but she was not opposed to her sister in a bad sense, as Typho to Osiris. In the regions of Amenti, a triad was composed of Osiris, Isis, and Nephthys ; and another consisted of Isis, Nephthys, and Harpo- crates.* In the fabulous history of Osiris t, she may have been considered as the sea-shore, and the confines of Egypt, from being opposed to Isis, who was that part of the land irrigated by the inundation of the Nile; without the idea of her possessing the injurious nature which was attached to Typho. Even in this character, her inferiority miglit be of a negative kind, not that of a positive agent of evil, being merely the representative of a barren soil, whose unproductiveness was owing to its not having received the fertilising influence of the in- undation. Like Isis in her mysterious character, Nephthys was principally employed in offices con- nected with the dead ; and she is represented as- sisting her sister to perform the last rites to Osiris, when he quitted the Earth to assume his duties in Amenti as judge of the dead. She is, therefore, appropriately styled "rectrix of the lower regions, "i Her name, written Neb-thy, or Neb-tei, signifying * Vide supra, p. 408. ; and itififi, p. 439. t Plut. de Is. s. 38. % Plate 35. Part 2. F F 3 438 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. " the lady of the abode," consists of a bowl or basket, called neb, placed upon a house, answering to ei or tei. These she wears upon her head ; as Isis has the throne, her hieroglyphic emblem. She is frequently styled the Sister Goddess, re- ferring to her relationship to Isis and Osiris; and I have met with an instance of her being called •*Nephthys, the Saviour Sister Goddess, Anouke."* This connects her with Anouke theEgyptian Vesta, and accords with the Greek notion of Vesta being the daughter of Saturn and Rhea, who answered to the Seb and Netpe of the Egyptian Pantheon. In another hieroglyphic inscription over a door at Dakkeh, the Ethiopian King Ergamun is said to be *' a son of Osiris, born of Isis, and nursed by Neph- thys ; " and the two triads, of which she was a member, frequently occur in the Egyptian tombs. She is sometimes called '* a daughter of the Sunt," though Plutarch t supposes her begotten by Saturn; and the same author gives to her the names of Teleute (or the end), Aphrodite, and Nike. He considers her§, in one of her characters, ** the lower and invisible, as Isis was the upper and visible, parts of the world ; " and he says ||, that " the Sistrum having the face of Isis on one side and of Nephthys on the other, symbolically represents generation and corruption." This idea, like that previously expressed respecting the contradistinc- tion of Isis and her sister, did not convey the im- * Plate 35. Part 2. t Plate 35, Part 2. X Plut. de Is. s. 12. ^ Pint, de Is. s. 44. II Plut.de Is.s.63. CHAP. XIII. NEPHTHYS, THE END. 439 pression of a malevolent Deity ; corruption or the termination of life not being looked upon as anni- hilation, as I have already had occasion to observe.* All persons, therefore, who died, were thought to pass, through the influence of Nephthys, into a future state; and the presence of Netpe on the coffins of the dead also purported that, being born again and assuming the title of Osiris, each indivi- dual had become the son of Netpe, even as the great Ruler of Amenti, to whose name he was entitled when admitted to the mansions of the blessed. But though Nephthys was the " End," she was distinct from " Deaths'** whom I have mentioned as a separate Deity, t I have once met with an instance of Nephthys with the adjunct Sothis, connecting her with the Dog-star. This is perhaps an assumption of the attributes of her sister, or may refer to that star at the end instead of the beginning of the year, from which its heliacal rising was usually calculated : but, being of rare occurrence, it is not import- ant, nor does it suffice to connect the Dog-star with the sister of Isis. According to Hesychius, " the Egyptians worshipped a Goddess, whom the Greeks called A4>po6iT7] SxoT