Book /EO- 
 
 / 
 

 
 J2",- 
 
 u n a * 
 
AN 
 
 ANALYSIS 
 
 EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY: 
 
 TO WHICH IS SUBJOINED, 
 
 A CRITICAL EXAMINATION 
 
 OF 
 
 THE REMAINS 
 
 Of 
 
 Cgppttan £^onoloa£* 
 
 J. C. PRICHARD, M. D. 
 
 LONDON : 
 PRINTED FOR JOHN AND ARTHUR ARCH, CORNHIIA. 
 
 1819. 
 

 Printed by Browne & Manchee, Bristol. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The celebrated cc Pantheon iEgyptiorum " of 
 Paul Ernest Jablonski has been so long and so 
 justly held in the highest estimation by the 
 learned, that any new attempt to explain the 
 riddles of the ancient Egyptian Mythology may 
 seem, to those who are acquainted with that 
 work, to be a superfluous and a hopeless task. 
 To me, at least, it appears so probable that such 
 will be the impression with which many persons 
 will read the title of this volume, that I feel it 
 incumbent upon me to give some account of my 
 motives in offering it to the Public. 
 
 The following treatise owes its existence, or at 
 least its publication in the present form, to some 
 observations which a late writer of distinguished 
 learning has founded on a review of Jablonski's 
 work. The facts which it has developed, he 
 remarks, inevitably lead us to the conclusion 
 " that the Egyptian religion is the produce of 
 the country, peculiar to itself, and without any 
 
11 PREFACE. 
 
 marks of foreign improvement or innovation. 
 Isis, Osiris, Ammoun, Typhon, and Thoth, are 
 natives of Egypt, receive their names from its 
 vernacular language, and worship from its 
 physical situation."* 
 
 If this conclusion should be adopted, and 
 it should be allowed that the religion and 
 philosophy, as well as the language, and all the 
 other possessions of the Egyptian people, were 
 peculiar to themselves, and entirely unconnected 
 with those which belonged to other nations of 
 antiquity, we shall perhaps be obliged to admit 
 the inference which has been deduced respecting 
 the origin of the Egyptian race ;-f though it 
 contradicts the testimony of the Sacred Records, 
 the earliest memorials of mankind, and is at 
 variance with the general observations that result 
 
 * Travels of James Bruce, Esq. to discover the source of 
 the Nile. Third edition, Appendix to Book ii, No. 1 (by the 
 learned Editor.) 
 
 It must be remarked that although this is the conclusion to 
 which Professor Murray has been led by Jablonski's work, it 
 was by no means the opinion of that author himself. On the 
 contrary, he regarded the Egyptian mythology as allied in its 
 origin to the superstitions of Eastern Asia, and mentions the 
 writings of the Brahmans among the sources whence we may 
 expect to derive a further and most important elucidation of 
 its doctrines. See " Pantheon iEgyptiorum," in prolegomenis. 
 
 f The author cited above seems to infer that the Egyptians 
 were a race peculiar to Africa, and originally distinct from the 
 posterity of Noah and of Adam. 
 
PREFACE. Ill 
 
 from a survey of the organized world, and the 
 distribution of species over the globe.* 
 
 I have been induced by this consideration to 
 examine the data from which the conclusion 
 before mentioned has been obtained; and the 
 results of this inquiry, together with the grounds 
 on which it has proceeded, are laid before my 
 readers in the following pages. 
 
 In the composition of this work, and particularly 
 in the first Book, my labour has been greatly 
 facilitated by the ample collection of passages 
 from the ancient writers referring to Egypt, which 
 is comprised in the pages of Jablonski. No man 
 can be more willing than myself to admit the 
 high merits of this author, whose acuteness and 
 ingenuity were equal to his profound learning; 
 but it appears to me that he has been led into 
 some errors, the result of his fondness for refined 
 and erudite explanations, and for eliciting from 
 
 * I have elsewhere endeavoured to prove that the various 
 branches of mankind form but one species, and that the Law 
 or Method of Nature, in replenishing the earth with locomotive 
 beings, has been the original production of one stock, or 
 family in each species, and the subsequent dispersion of it 
 over the globe. Researches into the Physical History of 
 Man. London, 1813. 
 
 In the late work of Mr. Lawrence, entitled " Lectures on 
 Comparative Anatomy, and the Natural History of Man," the 
 unity of species in mankind has been demonstrated with 
 great ability, and by a more comprehensive survey of facts 
 than any former writer has attempted. 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 every popular superstition a dignified and 
 philosophical meaning. Another circumstance 
 has been unfortunate, unless I am mistaken, for 
 the accuracy of his conclusions : I mean the 
 undue reliance he placed on the doubtful 
 evidence of etymology, for which a profound 
 acquaintance with the remains of the Coptic 
 language and literature, joined to a great fertility 
 of conjecture, seems to have given him a 
 predilection. 
 
 In the following treatise I have placed no 
 dependance on that fallacious testimony which 
 has so often led the antiquarian astray, and 
 have confined myself to the evidence which I 
 have been able to collect from the ancient 
 authors, and from some collateral sources of 
 information that were scarcely accessible to the 
 author of the Pantheon. It may be objected that 
 I have transgressed the limits of my original plan, 
 which was the comparison of the Egyptian 
 doctrine with the Asiatic mythologies, by availing 
 myself of these very mythologies for explaining 
 the superstition of Egypt. But I have only 
 applied to this resource under certain restric- 
 tions, which have, as I hope, secured me from 
 the charge of reasoning in a circle. Having 
 once entered upon the subject, I became desirous 
 of presenting my readers with as complete an 
 account as the existing materials enabled me to 
 supply, of the Egyptian religion and philosophy ; 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 and, in order to elucidate, as far as possible, a 
 subject involved in no small degree of obscurity, 
 I found it necessary to examine the relations 
 which this system of mythology bore to the 
 doctrines and observances of other nations. 
 
 Although my ultimate object has been the 
 illustration of an historical question, I have made 
 no allusion to it in the following treatise. The 
 inferences I wish to deduce are sufficiently 
 obvious. 
 
 I am not without some further hope that this 
 work, as well as every other careful research into 
 heathen superstitions, may also tend to another and 
 a not less important result. The more diligently 
 we examine the moral and religious history of 
 those nations who were destitute of the light of 
 revelation, the stronger is our impression of their 
 extreme debasement and mental darkness, and the 
 more just will be our estimate of those means by 
 which Divine Providence has been pleased to 
 deliver us from the atrocious barbarism and 
 unmitigated depravity, in which our pagan 
 ancestors were involved. To this effect an atten- 
 tive survey of the religious dogmas and practices 
 of the most learned people of the primitive world 
 will not fail to contribute its due share. 
 
 I cannot but be sensible of many imperfections 
 in a work composed during the moments of relax- 
 ation from the duties of an active profession ; but 
 I am aware that the tribunal of criticism is 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 scarcely to be propitiated by any representations 
 of a private or personal nature, and that I must 
 be content to await a judgment that will 
 depend on the degree of success which my 
 attempt shall be thought to have attained. 
 
 Subjoined to the treatise on Egyptian Mytho- 
 logy is an Analysis of the Remains of the Chro- 
 nology and History of the same people, of which 
 it is necessary to give some account, as this is 
 not closely connected with the scope of the 
 preceding work. 
 
 The historical records of ancient Egypt have 
 been supposed to claim a degree of antiquity, 
 which far exceeds the duration of the human 
 race, as deduced from the Sacred Scriptures. 
 Various expedients have been devised for recon- 
 ciling this discrepancy, of which the hypothesis 
 of Sir John Marsham is the most celebrated. 
 Yet, it is a mere hypothesis, and is far from 
 having the support, as I have endeavoured to 
 show, of historical evidence, as far as such 
 evidence can be collected. 
 
 My readers will demand with what prospect 
 of success I have presumed to enter upon a field 
 which has been so often abandoned in despair? 
 — with what hope I have solicited their attention 
 to a disquisition on a mass of contradictory frag, 
 ments, which so many learned men have in vain 
 
PREFACE. Vll 
 
 attempted to reduce into order ? My reply must 
 be, that I believe myself to have fallen by chance 
 upon the clue by which the enigma is to be 
 solved. In repeatedly examining the fragments 
 of these Chronicles, I thought I perceived some 
 phenomena that seemed to explain the principle 
 on which they were originally constructed, and 
 promised to connect the whole into one system. 
 The more I investigated the matter, the more I 
 became convinced that I was not deceived by 
 fallacious appearances, or by merely accidental 
 coincidences. Of this, however, my readers will 
 now judge. I shall only premise that, if I am 
 correct in my conjectures, there is in reality no 
 want of harmony between the historical records 
 of the ancient Egyptians and those contained 
 in the Sacred Scriptures ; that, on the contrary, 
 the antiquity assumed for the Egyptian nation, 
 from their own archives, is far within the era 
 assigned by the chronology of the LXX, for 
 the second origin of mankind. 
 
 The treatise on Egyptian Chronology w r as 
 written, for the most part, some years ago ; and 
 I avail myself of the present opportunity of 
 presenting it to the Public. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Preface ~Pp. i.— viii. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ON THE SOURCES OF INFORMATION RESPECTING THE 
 LEARNING AND MYTHOLOGY OF EGYPT. 
 
 Four Sources of Information. 1. Facts recorded by personal 
 observers. Writers of this class subsequent to the Macedo- 
 nian Conquest — Under the Persian Era — Under the Kingdom 
 of the Pharaohs. 2. Ancient Writers on Mythology — Plutarch, 
 Porphyry, Macrobius, and others. Inquiry whence these writers 
 derived their information. 3. Ancient Schools, whose founders 
 borrowed their discipline from Egypt — Orpheus, Pythagoras, 
 Thales. 4. Comparison of the Egyptian Fables and Doc- 
 trines with those of the Brahmans. Coptic Etymologies — 
 fallacies , Pp. 1— -17 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 OF THE POPULAR RELIGION OF THE EGYPTIANS, COM- 
 PREHENDING THEIR THEOGONY, AND THE FABULOUS 
 HISTORY OP THEIR GODS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 OF THE NATURE OF THE EGYPTIAN GODS IN GENERAL. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Section I. Different Ideas respecting the Nature of the 
 Egyptian Gods , 19 
 
X TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Section II. Reference to the Mythologies of the Greeks 
 and Romans , 24 
 
 Section III. Testimonies of the Ancient Writers respecting 
 the Egyptian Mythology in general : of Diodorus — Macro- 
 bins — Chseremon — Eusebius — lamblichus. Conclusion.. 27 
 
 Section IV. Attempt to penetrate further into the Meaning 
 of the Egyptian Fables. Analysis of the Orphic^Fictions, 
 and other mystical Representations derived from Egypt . . 36 
 
 COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER I. 
 
 Note A. On the Nature of the Egyptian Gods 48 
 
 Note B. Physical Doctrine of Ocellus 51 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 OF THE WORSHIP OF ISIS AND OSIRIS, HORUS AND TYPHON. 
 
 Section I. Recapitulation of the Orphic Doctrine. Orphic 
 Dionusus and Damater, compared with Osiris and Isis. 
 
 Legend of Osiris and Isis 53 
 
 Section II. Interpretation of the Legend of Isis and Osiris . . 62 
 Section III. Continuation of the same subject. General 
 Conclusion respecting the nature of Osiris. Typhon, 
 Horus, Egyptian Triad, Harpocrates, Serapis 75 
 
 COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER II. 
 
 Note A. On the Five Deities of the Intercalary Days 95 
 
 Note B. On Coptic Etymologies of the name of Osiris 96 
 
 Note B. On the Isiac Festival 97 
 
 Note C. Great Festival of the Persians 98 
 
 Note D. Egyptian Festivals and System of the Calendar 103 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 OF THE OTHER EGYPTIAN GODS. 
 
 Section I. Of some Emblematical Representations of the Sun 105 
 Section II. Of the hypothesis of Jablonski, and some other 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. XI 
 
 PAG2 
 
 writers, respecting Serapis, Harpocrates, Horus, Jupiter 
 
 Amnion, Hercules, and Pan 107 
 
 Section III. Amnion, or the Egyptian Jupiter 112 
 
 Section IV. The Egyptian Hercules 115 
 
 Section V. Mendes, the Egyptian Pan 119 
 
 Section VI. Papremis, the Egyptian Mars 121 
 
 Section VII. Anubis 123 
 
 Section VIII. Thoth, the Egyptian Mercury 126 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 OF THE EGYPTIAN GODDESSES. 
 
 Section I. Of Isis 131 
 
 Section II. Of Bubastis, the Egyptian Diana 134 
 
 Section III. Of Eilethyia 140 
 
 Section IV. Of Isis in her maleficent or vindictive character. 
 
 Tithrambo, Hecate, or Brimo , 141 
 
 Section V. Nephthys, or Venus Urania 145 
 
 Section VI. Buto, or Latona , 151 
 
 COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Remarks on Jablonski's Opinion respecting Bubastis or 
 Diana, and Buto or Latona 155 
 
 SUPPLEMENT TO BOOK I. 
 
 Of the Egyptian Gods, collectively 157 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 ON THE PHILOSOPHICAL DOCTRINE, COSMOGONY, ETC, 
 OF THE EGYPTIANS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INQUIRY INTO THE ESOTERIC PHILOSOPHY OF THE 
 
 EGYPTIANS RESPECTING THE SUPREME DEITY, 
 
 AND THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD. 
 
XII TABLE OF CONTENTS, 
 
 TAGK 
 
 Analysis of the Orphic and Pythagorean Cosmogonies — Frag- 
 ments referring to the Egyptian Cosmogony compared 
 with the foregoing „ f t m 1(55 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 OF THE DOCTRINE OF ALTERNATE DESTRUCTIONS AND 
 RENOVATIONS OF THE WORLD. 
 
 Survey of this Doctrine as it occurs in the Philosophy of the 
 Grecian Schools — Cataclysm, or destruction by Water — 
 Ecpyrosis, or destruction by Fire. Connection of these 
 events with Astronomical Periods, and with the Moral 
 Corruption of the Human Race. Derivation of this 
 doctrine from Egypt 177 
 
 SUPPLEMENT TO CHAPTER II. 
 
 Illustration of the foregoing Fiction, from the Fables of other 
 Nations 189 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 OPINIONS OF THE EGYPTIANS RESPECTING THE FATE OF THE 
 
 DEAD. 
 
 Motives for embalming Bodies — Ultimate Allotment of the 
 Soul—Emanation from, and Refusion into the Deity .... 195 
 
 SUPPLEMENT TO CHAPTER III. 
 
 Further illustration of the Egyptian Doctrine respecting the 
 Soul. Comparison of the Egyptian Psychology with that 
 of the Hindoos , 313 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. X1U 
 
 BOOK III 
 
 ATTEMPT TO ILLUSTRATE THE EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY, 
 
 BY COMPARING IT WITH THE SUPERSTITIONS 
 
 OF THE EAST. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 TAGE 
 
 Section I. Preliminary Remarks 221 
 
 Section II General Observations on the History of the Indian 
 Mythology 223 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF THE HINDOO MYTHOLOGY. 
 
 Section I. Doctrine of the Emanation and Transmigration of 
 
 Souls 227 
 
 Section II. Of the Belief in Astrology, and of the Worship 
 
 of Nature ,...., 239 
 
 Section III Of the Doctrine of Two Principles 241 
 
 Section IV. Of the System of Pantheism 249 
 
 Section V. Continuation of the same subject. Succession of 
 Philosophical Doctrines and Mythologies in the East .... 252 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 COMPARISON BETWEEN THE SUCCESSION OF SUPERSTITIONS 
 
 IN THE EASTj AND THE HISTORY OF MYTHOLOGY 
 
 IN EGYPT. 
 
 Section I. General Resemblances between the Indian and 
 Egyptian Mythologies in the Conception of the Divine 
 Nature 2(55 
 
 Section II. Of the Forms of Eastern Mythology, to which 
 the Superstition of Egypt is particularly related. Indian 
 Iswara, or Rudra, compared with Osiris and Typhon — 
 Comparison of Bhavani with Isis 269 
 
XIV TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 FAGE 
 
 Section III. Indian Fables relating to Vishnu, compared with 
 the Egyptian Mythology. Fictions respecting Vishnu 
 resembling those that were connected with Horus , 283 
 
 Section IV 7 . Esoteric Philosophy of the Egyptians, compared 
 with the Doctrines of the Hindoos, in the earliest periods. 
 Egyptian and Hindoo Cosmogonies, &c 287 
 
 Section V. General Inferences respecting the Origin and 
 History of Mythology , 293 
 
 BOOK IV. 
 
 OF THE EXOTERIC OR POPULAR WORSHIP OF THE 
 
 EGYPTIANS, AND OF THE VARIOUS CIVIL 
 
 INSTITUTIONS EMANATING FROM 
 
 THEIR RELIGION. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 OF THE WORSHIP OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS. 
 
 Section I Introductory Remarks 301 
 
 Section II. Of the Veneration paid to Animals in general . . 303 
 
 Section III. Of the Worship of Quadrupeds : 1. Of Oxen. 
 2. Of Dogs. 3. Of Cats. 4, Of the Wolf. 5. Of the 
 Ram. 6. Of the Goat. 7. Of the Deer. 8. Of Monkeys 
 and Apes. 9. Of the Ichneumon. 10. Of the Shrew- 
 Mouse. 11. Of the Lion. 12. Of the Hippopotamos. 13. 
 Of Impure Animals * « 305 
 
 Section IV. Of the Worship of Birds: 1. Of the Hawk 
 2. Of the Crow. 3. Of the Vulture. 4. Of the Eagle. 
 5. Of the Ibis. 6. Of the Goose 317 
 
 Section V. Of fabulous Birds which are traced in the Egyp- 
 tian Mythology. The Phesnix 320 
 
 Section VI. Of the Worship of Reptiles, Insects, Fishes, 
 Plants, &c. L Of the Crocodile. 2. Of Serpents. 3. Of 
 Insects. 4. Of Fishes. 5. Of Plants. 6. Of Stones 323 
 
 Section VII. Of the Motives which led the Egyptians to 
 the Worship of Animals and Plants. Different Opinions 
 on this subject. Hypothesis of Diodorus and Plutarch — 
 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. XV 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Hypothesis of Lucian and Dupuis. True Explanation, sup- 
 ported by the testimonies of Porphyry, Plutarch, and 
 Diodorus — Egyptian Avatars, or Incarnations of the Gods 3 
 
 Explanation of the Worship of Plants and Stones 330 
 
 Section VIII. Of the Worship of Men 345 
 
 Section IX. Of the Antiquity of the Worship of Animals in 
 Egypt , . c * 350 
 
 NOTE ON BOOK IV. CHAPTER I. 
 
 Confirmation of the foregoing explanation from the Fictions of 
 the Hindoos. 1. Of the sacred Quadrupeds of the Hindoos. 
 2. Of their sacred Birds. 3. Of their sacred Fishes, 
 Reptiles, and Inanimate Objects 353 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 OF SACRIFICES, FESTIVALS, AND RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES 
 OF THE EGYPTIANS. 
 
 Notions connected with the Performance of Sacrifice. Of 
 Human Sacrifices. Of the Sacrifices of Animals — of Swine 
 — of Bulls — of Sheep — of Goats. Of Ceremonies relating 
 to Typhon. Annual Festivals of the Egyptians 359 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 OF THE CIVIL INSTITUTIONS OF THE EGYPTIANS. 
 
 Section I. Distribution of the People into Castes. Enume- 
 ration of the Castes, and Description of them 373 
 
 Section II. Description of the Hierarchy or Hereditary Priest- 
 hood, and its Subdivisions .'. 3/9 
 
 Section III. Religious Observances of the Sacerdotal Class 
 in Egypt , 3S9 
 
 NOTE ON BOOK IV. CHAPTER III. 
 
 Illustrations derived from the Institutions of the Hindoos . . 397 
 
XVI TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 COMPARISON OF THE MOSAIC ORDINANCES WITH THB 
 LAWS AND CUSTOMS OF THE EGYPTIANS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Section I. Introduction 405 
 
 Section II. Theological Doctrine of Moses compared with 
 that of the Egyptians 406 
 
 Section III. Political and Civil Institutions of Moses, com- 
 pared with those of the Egyptians 408 
 
 Section IV. Comparison of the Ceremonial Law of Moses 
 with that of the Egyptians 416 
 
 Section V. Origin of Circumcision , • « 424 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF THE REMAINS OF 
 EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 SURVEY OF THE SOURCES OF INFORMATION/ 
 COMPILATION OF MATERIALS. 
 
 FACE 
 
 Section I. Origin of History. Probable Antiquity of the 
 
 Oldest Records *3 
 
 Section II Antiquity of the Egyptian Records. Historical 
 Books. Inscriptions. Syringes *4 
 
 Section 111. Authors from whom we have received Infor- 
 mation respecting the Egyptian History. Manethon. 
 Un Known Author of the Old Chronicle. Eratosthenes. 
 Syncellus. Ptolemy of Mendes. Apion. Chieremon. 
 Herodotus. jDiodoruSj and others *10 
 
 Section IV. Copy of the Old Chronicle and the Chronicle 
 
 of Manethon *19 
 
 Section V Comparison of the two foregoing Chronicles . . *36 
 
 Section VI. Series of Syncellus *39 
 
 Section VII. Egyptian Chronology according to Herodotus 
 and Diodorus Siculus *4 1 
 
 Section VIII. Remains of the Laterculus of Eratosthenes . . *44 
 
XV111 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 ANALYSIS OF THE FOREGOING DOCUMENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Section I. Preliminary Observations *49 
 
 Section II. Dates of the Egyptian Chronology computed 
 upward, from the Persian conquest to the accession of 
 Psammitiehus *51 
 
 Section III. Dates of the. Egyptian Chronology computed 
 upwards from Psammitiehus to the period when Egypt 
 became subject to the Ethiopian Kings *54 
 
 Section IV. Of the Four Dynasties which preceded the 
 Ethiopian Conquest, viz. the 21st, 22d, 23d, and 24th . . *53 
 
 Section V. Of the 19th and 20th Dynasties— Of the 18th 
 Dynasty, and the Period of the Exode of the Israelites 
 from Egypt — History of the Hycsos from Manethon— 
 Hycsos expelled by Tethmosis — Hycsos expelled by Ame- 
 nophis, under the guidance of Osarsiph, or Moses. History 
 of the Exode, as related by Chseremon, Lysimachus, 
 Apollonius, Tacitus, Diodorus. Date of the Exode, as 
 deduced from Egyptian Histories # 60 
 
 Section VI. Of the first Seventeen Dynasties in the Chronicle 
 of Manethon. Principles on which this Chronicle was 
 constructed. Date of the Commencement of the Egyptian 
 Monarchy *S7 
 
 Section VII. Connection of the Earlier and Later Parts of 
 the Egyptian Chronology. General Survey of the System 
 of the Egyptian Chronicles *I 12 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 NOTES TO THE TREATISE ON THE EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY. 
 
 Note A. On the Remains of Remote Antiquity, preserved in 
 the Book of Genesis *127 
 
 Note B. On the Scriptural Date of the building of Solomon's 
 Temple, and of the Exode *I31 
 
 Note C. On the Date of the Trojan War *135 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ON THE SOURCES OF INFORMATION RESPECTING THE 
 LEARNING AND MYTHOLOGY OF EGYPT. 
 
 There are four sources whence we may chiefly 
 expect to derive information respecting the learning, 
 the superstitious practices., and the religious fables,, 
 of the ancient Egyptians. 
 
 The most important of these, since it affords us 
 information of the most authentic description, is to 
 be found in the works of a few ancient writers who 
 visited Egypt, and who have described what they 
 personally witnessed. 
 
 The power of the Egyptian hierarchy had declined 
 from the age of Psammitichus, who first encouraged 
 the intercourse of his subjects with foreigners, and 
 thereby endangered the influence of those super- 
 stitions which, during some thousand years, had 
 maintained the character impressed by ancient 
 priestcraft on the people of Egypt. But the con- 
 quest of the whole country by the arms of Persia, 
 the wanton tyranny of Cambyses, and the continual 
 discountenance which the old religion sustained 
 while Egypt was under the dominion of a nation 
 who were disposed to persecute idolatry, must 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 have introduced many important innovations on the 
 ancient system. It is probable that some former 
 rites were discontinued during this period, the priests 
 finding them no longer practicable, or the people 
 being deterred from the performance of them. 
 
 After the Macedonian conquest, the state of things 
 was again altered. The Greeks bore no enmity to 
 the superstitions of Egypt: they were aware that 
 this country had been the cradle of their own mytho- 
 logy. The Ptolemies were desirous of gaining the 
 affections of the native people, and they patronised 
 the priesthood. The idolatrous worship of Egypt 
 recovered a portion of its former splendour; but its 
 features now bore an impression in many respects 
 different from that of antiquity. The rites and the 
 fictions of the followers of Hermes were blended with 
 the exotic customs and philosophy of their European 
 conquerors. The aspect of the national manners 
 and religion was less genuine and less peculiar. 
 
 From the time of the first Ptolemies, the mytholo- 
 gical learning and superstition of Egypt underwent a 
 gradual decline, but sustained no great catastrophe, 
 until the period when they were doomed finally to 
 vanish, together with all other forms of idolatry, be- 
 fore the increasing light of Christianity. The con- 
 quest of Egypt by the Romans introduced no sudden 
 change, and the old religion only suffered by the decay 
 of opulence, and the failure of local patronage, which 
 naturally ensued, in consequence of the reduction of 
 the country to the condition of a province. As late as 
 the time of Strabo, there were persons who assumed 
 the character and pretensions of the order of Sacred 
 Scribes, the depositaries of the Hermetic learning. 
 
SOURCES OF INFORMATION. 3 
 
 The old gods of the Egyptians were still fed in their 
 ancient temples ; nor does it appear that any attempt 
 was made to supplant them with Grecian or Roman 
 idols. The worshippers of serpents and crocodiles 
 had indeed to encounter the banter and ridicule of 
 the Greeks; but so far was this from putting them to 
 shame, or loosening the hold of their superstition, 
 that they bore triumphantly into the country of their 
 conquerors the strange magical ceremonies of their 
 native priests; and the pomps and mysteries of Isis 
 and Osiris, even in the metropolis of the civilized 
 world, disputed the palm with Jupiter of the Capitol. 
 
 The history of Egyptian superstition thus divides 
 itself into three periods. Its golden age was, while 
 the power of the hierarchy was unbroken, before the 
 Persian conquest, or the introduction of foreign 
 manners. The second period comprises the time 
 which elapsed from this era till the accession of the 
 Ptolemies. The third begins with the reign of Lagus, 
 and ends with the extinction of Paganism. 
 
 The information to be derived from travellers in 
 Egypt is to be prized nearly in proportion to the 
 antiquity of the writers. The accounts of those who 
 visited this country during the third period are less 
 valuable than the testimonies of the few travellers 
 who surveyed it while under the Persian sway; and 
 the latter may be supposed to afford us less genuine 
 information than we might have obtained from the 
 age of the Pharaohs. 
 
 We know the names of several Grecian travellers 
 who frequented the Egyptian colleges before the in- 
 vasion of Cambyses ; such as Orpheus, Thales, and 
 Pythagoras. The latter of these philosophers is said 
 
fk INTRODUCTION. 
 
 to have enjoyed more extensive opportunities of in- 
 struction than any of his countrymen. The greatest 
 misfortune is, that if these travellers wrote any 
 accounts of what they witnessed, none have survived 
 to our times. 
 
 There is only one author who has furnished us with 
 a record of his personal observation in the kingdom 
 of the Pharaohs. Moses was educated in the learn- 
 ing of the Egyptians; his accounts are the most au- 
 thentic, and the information they afford is extremely 
 valuable, though it is limited : it was not the design 
 of this historian to gratify the curiosity of modern 
 philosophers. 
 
 During the reign of the, Persians, Egypt was visited 
 by Hecataeus, Herodotus, and Plato. The works of 
 the former have perished, with the exception of a few 
 fragments; and the latter has left no narrative of his 
 voyage. Herodotus is our greatest authority: we 
 have only to regret that, either through ignorance, 
 or influenced by prudential motives, he has concealed 
 many circumstances relating to the Egyptian super- 
 stition, of which we might have hoped for an ample 
 explanation. Being entirely ignorant of the Egyp- 
 tian language, he was wholly dependant on the 
 information given him by interpreters. 
 
 Diodorus Siculus, and Strabo, saw Egypt under 
 the Csesars. These writers appear to have given us 
 faithful accounts of all that they witnessed. From 
 Tacitus, Ammianus Marcellinus, and some other 
 Romans, we derive the knowledge of a few facts. 
 
 II. A much larger portion of information, though 
 not altogether of so authentic a description, is 
 
SOURCES OF INFORMATION. O 
 
 contained in the works of several writers of a different 
 class, who flourished subsequently to the conquest 
 of Egypt by the Macedonians. These were chiefly 
 persons of an inquisitive turn, who, living in a more 
 enlightened age than their predecessors, had imbibed 
 the notion, dangerous to the established religions of 
 the Pagan world, that its mythological tales were not 
 to be received in their literal sense, but required a 
 philosophical analysis, in order to develope truths 
 which had been concealed in mysterious language 
 by the ancient hierophants. This, however, was the 
 last stand made by Paganism against the victorious 
 advances of a purer faith. In this contest the 
 advocates of the old religion turned themselves to 
 every quarter, where they hoped to find something 
 that afforded an excuse for former practices; and in 
 attempting to defend the fables of polytheism, they 
 were contented, and even anxious, to resolve them 
 all into allegories. These pretensions, though they 
 appear not to have been wholly without foundation, 
 were resisted by the Christian fathers; and in the 
 course of the controversy which ensued, many cu- 
 rious documents were brought to light, which would 
 otherwise have perished in oblivion, and which 
 contribute to throw very important light upon the 
 history of Pagan rites and fables. 
 
 The most judicious of the apologists of Paganism, 
 are Plutarch and Macrobius, who profess to found 
 their interpretations of ancient fables on the remains 
 of mystical literature and mythology. Porphyry, 
 who lived at a period when these subjects were 
 keenly agitated, possessed, though under the in- 
 fluence of strong prejudices, great discernment, and 
 
O INTRODUCTION. 
 
 an uncommon share of erudition. Iamblichus was a 
 strenuous votary of the occult sciences, and full of 
 the worst mysticism of the Alexandrine school; yet 
 his works contain valuable information respecting 
 the prevailing opinions of the most learned Pagans 
 of his own and of preceding ages. But the most 
 compendious and instructive writer is Diodorus, who 
 must be mentioned also among the authors of this 
 class, since he has not confined himself to giving us 
 the fruit of his own personal observation, but has 
 collected whatever he deemed most valuable from 
 other writers. 
 
 In the same department we may reckon several 
 Fathers of the Church, as Clemens, Origen, Eusebius, 
 and Augustin, who, in their writings in refutation of 
 Paganism, have preserved many extracts from various 
 authors, whose works are lost. 
 
 The value of most of these remains depends on 
 the solution of the inquiry, from what quarters 
 the authors derived their materials. Was there any 
 original and genuine fund of ancient literature and 
 philosophy, from which they have drawn their eluci- 
 dations? or have they only given us the reveries of 
 Grecian speculators? This is a question which it is 
 not easy to determine satisfactorily. 
 
 It seems, indeed, to be unquestionable, that a great 
 number of books were preserved in the Egyptian 
 temples, composed at various times by learned men 
 of the sacerdotal order, which treated of the different 
 branches of philosophy and mystical learning. These 
 were called Hermaic books, or books of Hermes ; the 
 name importing, not that they had been all written 
 by the sage who bore that celebrated name, but that 
 
SOURCES OF INFORMATION. 7 
 
 the authors were persons favoured and inspired by 
 the god of wisdom.* Clemens informs us that thirty- 
 six of these books were carried by the several orders 
 of priests in the religious processions in honour of 
 Isis. These were the books which it was necessary 
 for the different classes of priests to study, in order to 
 learn their respective duties. The first contained 
 the hymns that were to be sung in honour of the 
 gods; the second, precepts referring to the duties 
 and conduct of the king. Four books treated of 
 astrology, the positions of the fixed stars, the con- 
 junctions of the sun and moon, and the risings of the 
 heavenly bodies, with reference, as it should seem, 
 to the predictions founded upon them. The ten 
 hieroglyphical books comprised cosmography, geo- 
 graphy, the movements of the sun and moon, and 
 five planets ; the topography of Egypt and the Nile ; 
 a description of the instruments used in sacrifice, and 
 the places appointed for its celebration. Ten other 
 books described the honours to be paid to the gods, 
 and the method of the Egyptian rites, respecting 
 sacrifices, first-fruits, hymns, prayers, processions, 
 festivals, and other similar matters. Ten books, 
 which were distinguished by the term Sacerdotal, 
 comprised the laws, the history of the gods, and the 
 whole discipline of the priests. Besides these thirty- 
 six books, there were six others that treated of medi- 
 cine, viz. on the structure of the body, on distempers, 
 on surgical instruments, on drugs, on diseases of the 
 
 * Iamblichus says, that Hermes was the god of all celestial 
 science; that he inspired the priests, who, accordingly, 
 inscribed their own commentaries with the name of Hermes. 
 — Iamblich, de Myst, 
 
8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 eyes, and on complaints peculiar to women. This 
 enumeration contains the most important of the 
 books ascribed to Hermes ; but it appears, from 
 the expressions of Clemens, that it did not comprise 
 the whole number. 
 
 Galen has cited an Hermaic book, relating to 
 medicine, which seems to have been different from 
 any of those before mentioned. He says it treated 
 of the thirty-six herbs of the horoscopes. It probably 
 contained a system of incantations by drugs ; for we 
 are elsewhere informed that the Egyptians believed 
 the human body to be distributed into thirty-six 
 parts, each of which was under the particular go- 
 vernment of one of the decans or aerial daemons, who 
 presided over the triple divisions of the twelve signs. 
 Origen adds, that when any part of the body was 
 diseased, a cure was obtained by invoking the daemon 
 to whose province it belonged.* 
 
 Other writers mention the Hermaic books as au- 
 thentic sources of information, and as the depositories 
 of ancient learning. Plutarch cites them by hearsay, 
 or reports facts which were said to be derived from 
 them. It is evident that he was unacquainted with 
 them, and doubtless he was unable to read the sacred 
 characters or the language of Egypt. Iamblichus 
 says, the number ofbooks termed Hermaic amounted 
 to thirty-six thousand five hundred and twenty-four: 
 an incredible account. 
 
 On the whole, it seems historically certain that a 
 great number of books were preserved in the temples 
 of Egypt, written partly in hieroglyphics and partly 
 in other characters, which were ascribed to Hermes., 
 
 * Celsus apud Origen. — Lib. viii. p. 416, ed. Cantab. 
 
SOURCES OF INFORMATION. V 
 
 or rather dedicated to him, and supposed to have 
 been written under his spiritual superintendance; 
 that these books contained the principal doctrines 
 of the Egyptian priests, and the concealed inter- 
 pretation of their fables, together with all that they 
 possessed of learning and philosophy. The litera- 
 ture of ancient Egypt was then preserved, not only 
 down to the age of the Macedonian conquest, but as 
 long as the Pagan superstition survived.* 
 
 But all this was locked up and sealed under the 
 impenetrable veil of sacerdotal mystery. We have 
 no reason to believe that any Greek or Roman of the 
 Ptolemaic or Imperial ages ever became acquainted 
 with the native language of Egypt. The memorials 
 inscribed on the pillars of Thoth, or in the books of 
 the thrice great philosopher, were alike inaccessible 
 to strangers, whether they were written in the hiero- 
 glyphic or in common characters. Had it depended 
 on them, the wisdom or folly of antiquity would have 
 passed away without leaving any discernible vestiges 
 to later times. But the learned natives of Egypt 
 were attracted, by the magnificence of the Ptolemies^ 
 
 * It may be asked, if this were true, why the Christians, 
 who translated the Scriptures into the Egyptian language, did 
 not adopt the ly/woia* y^ujj^ta, or the national or epistolary 
 character of the old Egyptians, instead of inventing a new 
 letter. Probably the knowledge of these characters as well as 
 that of the hieroglyphics, was confined to the priests; and if 
 so, , they were only adopted in the ancient or sacerdotal dialect, 
 and unknown to the Christian converts. Besides, we have as 
 yet no proof that these characters were alphabetic letters ; and 
 if they were founded on the hieroglyphics, they must have been 
 so intimately connected with the old superstitions, as to be 
 very unfit instruments for expressing the truths of Christianity. 
 
10 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 to the school of Alexandria. There they imparted 
 their knowledge of astronomy and other branches 
 of science to their conquerors, and acquired the 
 Greek language, which continued for a thousand 
 years to be the medium of learned conversation and 
 writing through a great part of the civilized world. 
 Here they were encouraged to transf r the memo- 
 rials of their dynasties, and the institutes of their 
 ancient hierarchy, into the Greek language. It is 
 true that they acquired, together with the idiom of 
 their conquerors, modes of thinking which were 
 widely different from their ancient domestic habits. 
 Accordingly we cannot believe that their writings 
 displayed the genuine representation of Egyptian 
 antiquity, altogether free from the prejudices and 
 distorted conceptions of the Greeks. Yet it is just 
 to suppose that their works contained whatever was 
 the most important or most singular in the ancient 
 Hermetic volumes. 
 
 lamblichus, indeed, assures us that faithful trans- 
 lations of the Egyptian books existed in the Greek 
 language; he adds, that these were unjustly sus- 
 pected of being impostures, from the circumstance 
 that they contained expressions which savoured of 
 more modern doctrines. This arose from the fact, 
 cc that the persons, who translated them into the 
 Greek language, were men not unacquainted with 
 the Grecian philosophy; and that they accordingly 
 used the phraseology of the Platonic school, in set- 
 ting forth doctrines originally derived from the lessons 
 of Hermes." Cyril of Alexandria informs us that there 
 existed an edition of the Hermaic books, entitled, 
 'Epfiaixa TTsvTsxaiosxci &&u£ — (C Fifteen Books of 
 
 
SOURCES OF INFORMATION. 11 
 
 Hermes/' It appears, indeed, that certain compo- 
 sitions ascribed to Hermes, under the title of Geniea, 
 or Genetic books, containing chronological compu- 
 tations, were extant in the time of Eusebius, and 
 even as late as that of Syncelhis. 
 
 Besides the translations of the Hermetic books, 
 the compositions of Manethon and Chasremon, who 
 were both members of the priesthood, seem to have 
 contained a large portion of Egyptian learning, 
 transferred into the Greek language. 
 
 But the misfortune is, that these Greek copies have 
 met with the same fate that has befallen their Egyp- 
 tian prototypes. The Hermetic books are wholly 
 lost, unless we may except those compositions pub- 
 lished by Ficinus and Patricius, under the title of 
 " The Books of Hermes." Of these, a great part 
 evidently originated in the pious fraud of some mis- 
 taken Christians; and those which contain no un- 
 doubted proof of imposture, on account of the topics 
 they comprise, are of little or no value. Yet it is 
 satisfactory to know that a great fund of genuine 
 information respecting the antiquities of Egypt sur- 
 vived long enough to afford the means of instruction 
 to the writers of the ages we have before referred to. 
 In the works of Diodorus, Plutarch, Macrobius, 
 Porphyry, Iamblichus, Clemens, Origen, Eusebius, 
 and Augustin, we find a great many fragments of 
 older writers, and many pieces of the Egyptian 
 philosophy, which are extremely interesting and 
 instructive, provided we may rely on their genuine- 
 ness; and we have no longer reason to doubt of this, 
 when we find that there existed, in the age of these 
 authors, sufficient means of obtaining that knowledge 
 of which they appear to have been very desirous. 
 
12 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 III. Some information respecting the subject of 
 our inquiry may be derived from a third source, 
 namely, from the doctrines and institutions of ancient 
 mystics or legislators, who are well known to have 
 visited Egypt before the decline of the priesthood, 
 and to have introduced with them, into Europe or 
 Asia, a variety of Egyptian customs or dogmas. 
 Orpheus/* Pythagoras, Thales, and other founders 
 
 * Orpheus lias indeed been called a Thracian; yet the 
 learned seem to be unanimous in the opinion, that his philo- 
 sophy was wholly of Egyptian origin. According to Diodorus, 
 Orpheus travelled in Egypt, and there learned those tenets 
 of mythology which he afterwards introduced into Greece. 
 However this may have been, we have good authority for re- 
 garding the fragments of the Orphic philosophy, or the Orphic 
 verses, which remain to our times, as the production of the 
 older Pythagoreans, rather than of Orpheus himself. We are 
 now speaking of such pieces as have a title to be considered 
 as genuine, having been preserved in the works of respectable 
 authors. The ancients uniformly ascribe these verses to the 
 Pythagorean sect, though they are not precisely agreed respect- 
 ing the names of the authors. According to Ion of Chios, 
 Pythagoras himself composed some of them. Sextus Empi- 
 rScus attributed them to Onomacritus, a follower of Pythagoras, 
 who lived at Athens in the time of the Pisistratidae. (Clemens 
 Alex. Strom, lib. i.) Cercops, another Pythagorean, was suppo- 
 sed by Cicero to have been the author of them. (De Nat. Deor. 
 lib. i.) Others suppose that Cercops wrote a part of them. 
 (Clemens, ubi supra.) Grotius has shown that the Pythago- 
 reans were accustomed to attribute their own poetical compo- 
 sitions on mythological subjects to Orpheus and Linus. It is 
 certain that these pieces were held in great esteem among the 
 Greeks, as containing the genuine doctrine of their mystical 
 philosophy. Compare Clemens; Cudworth's Intellect. System, 
 p. 295; Jablonski's Pantheon, lib. i. cap. 2; and Grotii Prole- 
 gom. i:i Stobeei citata. 
 
SOURCES OF INFORMATION. 13 
 
 of philosophical sects in Greece, studied, as we are 
 assured, in Egypt; and they appear to have modelled 
 the tenets of their respective schools on the instruc- 
 tions they there received. Hence the doctrines of 
 these schools may assist us, to a certain degree, in 
 forming our conclusions respecting the tenets of 
 the Egyptian hierarchy. 
 
 We cannot safely avail ourselves of this resource, 
 without exercising some discrimination. The Greek 
 philosophers may have derived some of their doc- 
 trines from other sources. They may have inter- 
 mingled foreign tenets with the lessons delivered by 
 the successors of Hermes. This appears to have 
 
 The physical and metaphysical tenets, attributed more 
 immediately to Pythagoras, are essentially the same with 
 those contained in the Orphic fragments. God, according to 
 Pythagoras, was the Soul which animated all nature, not 
 extrinsic to the world, but embodied in it, as the human soul 
 in the human body. From this universal soul, all the gods, 
 demi-gods, as well as the souls of men and inferior animals, 
 and even of plants, were emanations. Such are the accounts 
 which we gather from Cicero, (Nat. Deor. lib. i. cap. 12,) 
 Plutarch, (de Placitis phil.) Laertius, (lib. viii.) and others; 
 from all which, Brucker concludes that the physical doctrine 
 of Pythagoras scarcely differed from that afterwards adopted 
 by Zeno (Brucker, Hist. Crit. Philosophise). The Stoics may 
 indeed be considered as the disciples of the Pythagoreans, as 
 far as respects their opinions concerning the system of nature. 
 
 As for the Pythagorean doctrine, no doubt was ever enter- 
 tained that it was purely Egyptian. Pythagoras was initiated 
 in the mysteries of the Egyptians, to obtain which privilege, 
 he is said to have undergone circumcision. He is reported 
 to have been the disciple of Sonchedes, an Egyptian chief 
 prophet, or high-priest. (Clemens Strom, lib. i.) 
 
14 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 happened,, from the frequent contradictions which 
 are found between the doctrines of different schools. 
 We cannot therefore rely upon them as giving' a 
 faithful transcript of the Egyptian philosophy. 
 
 But there are some occasions on which we may 
 with advantage avail ourselves of the instruction 
 derived from this quarter. When we know, from the 
 express testimony of historians,, that any particular 
 dogma was prevalent among the Egyptians,, and are 
 assured that it was borrowed from them by some 
 foreign sect, we may apply to the latter for informa- 
 tion respecting the particular mode or peculiar 
 representation under which this tenet was taught in 
 the Egyptian schools. It must be allowed that this 
 method of inquiry is liable to some fallacies; but 
 these may be avoided, if we follow its suggestions 
 with sufficient caution. 
 
 This remark may be illustrated by a particular 
 example; and we cannot select abetter instance than 
 the doctrine of the metempsychosis, which we know 
 to have been taught by Pythagoras and his followers 
 among the Greeks, and which they certainly derived 
 from the Egyptians. As the Pythagoreans have left us 
 a more particular account of the notions entertained 
 respecting the Soul than those that we receive directly 
 from the Egyptians, we may, without incurring any 
 great risk of mistaking our way, take the Pythago- 
 reans as our guides, in attempting to penetrate the 
 sense of the Egyptian fables relating to the same 
 subject. 
 
 IV. To these three sources of information we 
 venture to add a fourth, which may seem to be of 
 
SOURCES OF INFORMATION. 15 
 
 more suspicious character; yet we may hope to derive 
 from it some illustrations, of considerable value. 
 We refer to the comparison of the Egyptian doc- 
 trines and theological fables with those of the Indian 
 Brahmans. In seeking for information in this quarter, 
 we must not advance a single step without examining 
 the ground on which we proceed. This is still more 
 necessary than in the instances before alluded to: 
 for we are informed, by the undoubted testimony of 
 history, that the tenets of the Grecian schools were 
 copied from the doctrines of the Hermetic colleges; 
 but we have no historical information respecting any 
 intercourse between the philosophers of the Nile 
 and those of the Ganges, further than what results 
 from internal evidence, in the resemblance of their 
 tenets and representations. We shall therefore fall 
 into that kind of sophism which is termed reason- 
 ing in a circle, if we infer that some communica- 
 tion existed between the schools of Asia and Africa, 
 from the resemblance of their philosophy, and at 
 the same time presume that this resemblance was 
 more extensive than we can prove it to have been. 
 These considerations show the necessity of proceed- 
 ing in a very circumspect manner, when we attempt 
 to elucidate the Egyptian fables by reference to the 
 Indian mythology. We must never take for grant- 
 ed any coincidence which is not clearly manifest; 
 and, to avoid all ambiguity and confusion, must 
 separate the inferences afforded by this comparison 
 from the results of those inquiries which may appear 
 to be pursued with more satisfactory evidence. With 
 these precautions it will be shewn, that a very im- 
 portant light may be reflected from the literature of 
 
16 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the East on the philosophy and superstition of 
 Egypt, and especially on the successive develope- 
 ment of doctrines, and the history of mythology in 
 the latter country. 
 
 Some authors, at the head of whom is the learned 
 and ingenious Jablonski, have placed much reliance 
 on the names of the Egyptian gods, and by means of 
 etymologies, derived from the scanty remains of the 
 Coptic language, have attempted to discriminate 
 the attributes and functions of all the fabulous beings 
 in the theogony. This plan seems, at the first view, 
 to afford some hope of extending the narrow limits 
 of our knowledge; but an attentive consideration of 
 the subject tends materially to lessen any expec- 
 tation we may have formed respecting it, and to 
 confirm the suspicions with which etymological 
 researches are generally regarded. It would appear 
 that the original import of many names in the list of 
 Egyptian gods had become the subject of vague 
 conjecture in the time of Plutarch. This is evident,, 
 from the variety of meanings assigned by authors of 
 that period to a single epithet, and from the doubtful 
 terms in which they offer the interpretation. Possibly 
 some of these appellatives were originally derived 
 from an idiom foreign to Africa, or at least to Egypt. 
 But if they were all indigenous, still, as the Egyptian 
 language had already undergone so great a change, 
 while it was yet a living dialect, that their sense could 
 only be guessed at, how can we hope to interpret 
 them with any degree of certainty, by means of the 
 poor remains of Coptic literature, the oldest specimens 
 of which bear a date subsequent to the introduction 
 of Christianity? But nothing can afford a more 
 
SOURCES OF INFORMATION. 17 
 
 complete proof that these etymologies are worthy of 
 no confidence than the facility with which they are 
 contrived. Jablonski has experienced no difficulty 
 in producing a compound appellative in the Coptic 
 language, corresponding not only with every name, 
 but with every fancied explanation of it that can be 
 traced in the ancient writers. 
 
 Perhaps we ought to have mentioned the remains 
 of sculpture and painting, among the most valuable 
 resources for illustrating the mythology of Egypt. 
 This is a source which is still open, and whence we 
 may hope to derive more than has yet been obtained. 
 If modern researches should succeed in unfolding 
 the mystery of the hieroglyphics, which seems now 
 more than ever probable, the remains of sculpture 
 and painting will acquire a degree of importance 
 which we are not at present able to appreciate. 
 
BOOK THE FIRST. 
 
 OF THE POPULAR RELIGION OF THE EGYPTIANS, 
 COMPREHENDING THEIR THEOGONY, AND THE 
 FABULOUS HISTORY OF THEIR GODS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 OF THE NATURE OF THE EGYPTIAN GODS IN GENERAL. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 Different Ideas respecting the Nature of the Egyptian Gods. 
 
 The nature of the Egyptian gods, and the origin of 
 those strange and absurd fictions that were connec- 
 ted with them, is a subject which has engaged the 
 attention of many learned and ingenious men,, 
 both in ancient and modern times. Yet it must be 
 allowed, that this inquiry has not led to any very 
 satisfactory conclusion ; at least this would appear 
 to be the case, from the variety of notions which 
 have prevailed respecting the superstitious rites 
 and ideas of the Egyptians. Some writers have 
 been persuaded, that the religion of that ancient 
 people consisted chiefly of the divine honours paid 
 by them to renowned chieftains or philosophers, to 
 the inventors of useful arts, or the founders of cities 
 and civilized communities; others describe it as an 
 idolatrous veneration of birds, beasts, fishes, and 
 even plants; while a third class of authors would 
 convince us that the Egyptians solely directed their 
 
20 POPULAR RELIGION OF THE EGYPTIANS. 
 
 adorations towards the sun, the moon, and other 
 striking and conspicuous objects in the visible 
 universe. If, as many believe, there is some truth 
 in all these accounts, it is difficult to imagine what 
 connection could subsist between ideas so remote 
 from each other, and how they could be so combined 
 as to form one system of mythology. 
 
 The greater number of modern writers, who have 
 touched upon this subject, have adopted the former 
 representation respecting the fables of the Egyptians : 
 they have regarded the gods of that people as deified 
 heroes. It is probable that the moderns derived 
 this notion from the Greek writers, with whom it 
 was a familiar and certainly a very natural one, since 
 it cannot be disputed that the objects of worship 
 among their own countrymen, or at least a part of 
 them, were originally celebrated warriors, or authors 
 of useful discoveries, or the destroyers of wild beasts. 
 It has been remarked also, that the Fathers of the 
 Christian Church were disposed to favour this opi- 
 nion, because it furnished them with a striking argu- 
 ment against their Pagan adversaries. It was not 
 the chief design of these pious men to inquire deeply 
 into the doctrines of philosophers, or the fables of 
 heathen mystics; but to expose, by a well-placed 
 censure, the gross absurdities of the popular belief, 
 and of rites which, whatever was their origin, only 
 tended in practice to foster the most depraved 
 inclinations of their devotees. 
 
 The second representation of the Egyptian idola- 
 try has furnished abundance of room for banter and 
 ridicule. Accordingly, we meet with frequent allu- 
 sions to it in the works of satiric writers. Juvenal 
 
NATURE OF THE GODS. 21 
 
 laughs at the people whose gods grow in their gar- 
 dens, and who fall prostrate in multitudes before a 
 hound, while nobody cares for the goddess of the 
 chace; and in the following fragment of Anaxandri- 
 des, we find a specimen of the keen and humourous 
 derision with which the Greeks were accustomed to 
 treat the religious practices of that nation from whom 
 they had originally borrowed the fables of their own 
 mythology.* 
 
 Ovx olu huvaipLrjU (rupiia-x/iv ufjuv eyco, 
 oufl' of rpojroi yap ou.ovou<r outf hi vop,oi 
 rjfjLcSi/j a7r aXhr\hwv hi hisyouanv ttoT^u. 
 
 Bouts Trpocrxuvslg' syco hi &6a) rolg 6so7g' 
 t5}V i'yxj-'hvv fjJyi(TTQV i\yzi hai^ova, 
 r^usig hi twp o-fywv yLsyicrou Trapo. 7roAu. 
 
 OXJX £(TQiSig VSIOL, £ym OS y TjhOfJLOll 
 
 [xaTiKrra rovroig* kuvol (rz^eig, tv7Tto) ft eyeo, 
 
 Totyov xarsvQiovfrav r\vii& av ha£a). 
 rovg hpiag svQoloe [a,Iv oXoxT^poog vo^og 
 sivoti' itolq v[LiV ft 3 wg soixev, airy pyphovg' 
 <rv [A,sv tqu afaoupov xaxov zy^oVT, r)v r (hj]gj 
 xkaisig' sym ftyhiirr aTroxriwag hi pay' 
 hvuarat Trap up.iv [xuyaXr), it op s[ao) hi y ou. 
 
 The following is a Translation. 
 
 'Tis plain that you and I can ne'er agree, 
 So opposite are all our ways and rites. 
 Before a bull, four-legged beast, ye bend, 
 With pious terror smitten: at the altar, 
 I offer him a victim to the gods. 
 You fancy in the little eel some power 
 Of daemon huge and terrible, within 
 
 * Anaxand. in Civitat. apud Athensei Deipnos, lib. vii. p. 299. 
 
22 POPULAR RELIGION OF THE EGYPTIANS. 
 
 We stew it for our daintiest appetite. The flesh 
 Of fatted swine you touch not : 'tis the best 
 Of all our delicate meats. The yelping cur 
 Is in your creed a god : I whip the rogue 
 Whene'er I catch him stealing eggs or meat. 
 Our priests are whole in skin from foot to head : 
 Not so your circumcised and shaven seers. 
 You cry and wail whene'er ye spy a cat 
 Starving or sick : I count it not a sin 
 To hang it up, and flay it for its skin. 
 Ye say the paltry shrew-mouse is a god. 
 
 The worship of the sun and moon, and the ele- 
 ments of nature, is less frequently touched upon by 
 the more popular writers, partly as it was not con- 
 fined to the Egyptians, and partly because it was not 
 so obviously unreasonable and preposterous as the 
 adoration of dead men, or dogs and cats. Yet these 
 circumstances render it probable that we are to look 
 in this quarter for the fundamental principles of the 
 Egyptian superstitions. Among all the different 
 forms of paganism, the worship of the visible ele- 
 ments of nature is the most natural, and it has been 
 more general than any other. Hence arises a pre- 
 sumption that this was the basis of religious fables 
 among the Egyptians. Indeed it was long ago ob- 
 served, that we cannot imagine how the adoration 
 of heroes could subsequently become connected 
 with the worship of the heavenly bodies. " We 
 cannot conceive how a mighty conqueror could 
 become the sun ; but we can readily imagine how 
 the sun, in poetic imagery or hieroglyphic painting, 
 might be equipped like a hero, and at length 
 
NATURE OF THE GODS. 23 
 
 worshipped as a god/'* nor is it difficult to point out 
 the way by which the worship of men and of animals 
 may have been derived from that superstition which 
 represents all nature as animated, and pays religious 
 veneration to its various parts. 
 
 These reflections might lead us to suspect, that 
 many of the stories relating to the Egyptian gods 
 had their origin in figurative descriptions and 
 
 * Nothing is more common in poetry than such a figure. 
 A striking example occurs in the beginning of the Phcenissse : 
 
 £1 frj'v h acTpoig ov^ccvou Ts^ycuv ofiov 
 xcu XpVffOXOWyjfOlO'lV spGsSwg §l<$>poi$ 
 HAi£, focu$ ?&moi<riv slXl(r<rcov tpXoya. 
 
 So natural are these figures, that we find in Shakespeare 
 lines which are almost a translation of the foregoing: 
 
 " As when the golden sun salutes the morn, 
 And, having gilt the ocean with his beams 
 Gallops the zodiac in his glistring coach. *' 
 
 The same imagery is found in Nonnus's poem, clothed in 
 the gorgeous style that distinguishes the writers of his age : 
 
 Aa-Tpo^Wouv Hpccxksg, avat itvpog, opyai^z xoo-pov, 
 HiAts, ^poreaio tlou Soki^ocrxis itoi^v, 
 lititkvuov hXiwihv oKov, KoKov ct^oin Siena:, 
 vice xpovov XvytchtavtcL Suajfisxccuyvov kXl<ra"jov 
 xvkXqv ctyeig psrcl kvxXqv. 
 
 M Heracles, girt in star -bespangled robes, 
 Thou fiery ruler of the spacious world ! 
 Shepherd of mortals, darting far askant 
 The lengthened shadow j who on high dost ride 
 In circles vast the orbit of the day 3 
 Rolling around, on never-ceasing wheels, 
 The annual term that bears twelve waning moons." 
 
24: POPULAR RELIGION OF THE EGYPTIANS. 
 
 allusions; but what is far more conclusive on this 
 point is; that we are assured that the best-informed, * 
 even among the ancient priesthood of Egypt, were 
 aware that many of their external rites bore a secret 
 reference to something removed from vulgar appre- 
 hension, and that the fables that were related of their 
 gods had originally an allegorical or recondite sense. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 Reference to the Mythologies of the Greeks and Romans. 
 
 Even in the mythologies of the Greeks and 
 Romans, and perhaps more especially in the latter, 
 there are many things which the learned are nearly 
 unanimous in explaining in this way; and it does not 
 require a very abstruse research into the classical 
 fables of antiquity, to perceive that a great part of 
 their theology resolves itself into physical observa- 
 tions or theories expressed in a mystical style, and 
 quite different in their origin from historical tradi- 
 tions; though they appear to have become, at a later 
 period, so intermixed with fragments of embellished 
 or poetical history, that it is very difficult to distin- 
 guish these portions from each other. The chief 
 objects of worship, among the ancient Greeks and 
 Romans, f are explained by the most learned of 
 their own antiquarians, as personifications of the 
 
 * Plutarch, de Iside et Osiride in praefat. Origen adv. 
 Celsum. lib. i. pag. 1J. lamblich. Vit. Pythagor. cap. 23. 
 t Euseb. Praep. Evang. lib. iii, proem, et cap. 1. 
 
NATURE OF THE GODS. 25 
 
 elements or as merely allegorical beings. Such 
 obviously was Minerva, or Wisdom, who sprang 
 from the head of Jupiter. Vesta, according to Ovid, 
 was fire, the animating principle of nature. 
 
 (i Nee tu aliud Vestam quam vivam intellige flammam."* 
 
 " Nor deem thou Vesta other than the flame 
 " Of living, lambent fire." 
 
 But Euripides interprets Vesta as the earth. 
 
 XOU ToUOL [JLTJTSp' JL(TtI<XV &£ <T 01 <TQ$oi 
 GpOTWV XOLhQXHT iV 3 ^BV7]V SV OllQspl.f 
 
 " Thou mother Earth, whom wisest men proclaim^ 
 " Vesta, self-poised in circumambient air." 
 
 Jupiter is allowed by all to have been the visible 
 firmament personified. As such, he is described in 
 the following beautiful lines of Euripides ;J 
 
 (ypoLg tov u-fyou tov $ a.7rsipov alQipa. 
 
 xa) yijv 7repi% £%ovfl c uypoiig h ayxaXutg, 
 
 toutov vqjj.i%£ Zt\vol } tov $ r^you deait. 
 
 " Behold on high the etherial element 
 
 " Boundless, upholding in its watery arms 
 
 <f On every side out-stretched, this earthly globe; 
 
 <s Such deem the mighty Jove, thy king, thy god*" 
 
 * Ovid. Fasti. 6. 
 
 f Fragm. ex incert. Tragced. citat. apud Macrob. Saturnal. 
 lib. i. cap. 23. 
 
 t Eurip. Fragment, Cressarum. 
 
 E 
 
26 POPULAR RELIGION OF THE EGYPTIANS. 
 
 The same idea is conveyed hi a well-known verse 
 of Ennius, quoted by Cicero : 
 
 * Aspice hoc sublime caudens, quern invocant omnes Jovem." 
 
 Accordingly,, the thunderbolt was wielded by the 
 hand of Jupiter, and, as ruler of storms and showers, 
 he received the titles of O^piog and Pluvius* He is 
 represented as having his seat on the cloud-capped 
 summit of a mountain, Ida or Olympus, or as ruling 
 aloft in the air. 
 
 Ops, the wife of Saturn, according to Macrobius, 
 was the Earth. f Saturn himself, as his name indi- 
 cates, was the Sowing of seed which fertilizes the 
 Earth, and causes her to produce her offspring. Such 
 was the description of Ops, or Fatua, in the Ponti- 
 fical books; and, as representing the Earth, she was 
 adored with the sacrifice of a pregnant sow. The 
 Grecian Cronus, who differed from the Roman 
 Saturn, represented, according to an old interpreta- 
 tion which we owe to the same author, Time, or 
 that portion of eternity and of boundless space in 
 which the existence of the present limited sphere is 
 included. Cronus was begotten of Uranus, the 
 infinite Heaven. He emasculated his sire; and the 
 birth of Aphrodite, the goddess of propagation, was 
 connected with this exploit. By this fable, says 
 Macrobius, the ancient mystics meant to indicate, 
 that, after the finite world was completed in all its 
 parts, the productive or creative influences which 
 had descended from the heavens on the earth and had 
 called forth new creatures into being, were cut off, 
 
 * Tibull. lib. i. eleg. vii. v. 2&. f Macrob. Saturnal. lib. i. 
 
NATURE OP THE GODS. 27 
 
 or entirely ceased ; and that the maintenance of ani- 
 mal and vegetable nature was thenceforth supported 
 by another method, viz. by that of propagation. 
 This learned author always prefers physical expla- 
 nations of the fables of the Greek and Roman my- 
 thology; and Varro, whom Cicero and St. Augustin* 
 regard as the most profound of the Roman antiqua- 
 rians, refers the Latin deities of the first order, such 
 as Jupiter, Juno, Saturn, Vulcan, and Proserpine, 
 to the elements or departments of the world. f 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 Testimonies of the Ancient Writers respecting the Egyptian 
 Mythology in general. 
 
 But if this method of interpreting has any appli- 
 cation to the fables of the Greeks and Romans, it 
 stands on a much firmer ground when applied to 
 the mythologies and superstitious practices of the 
 Egyptians. Indeed the most intelligent of the ancient 
 writers, who have alluded to this subject, have assured 
 us that the principal objects of Egyptian worship 
 were those physical agents, whose operative energy is 
 the most conspicuous in the phaenomena of nature. J 
 
 In the several nomes or provinces of Egypt, pe- 
 culiar religious customs were established, and the 
 
 * St. Augustin. Civit. Dei. lib. vi. cap. 2. See Vossius de 
 Origine et Progressu Idolotatriae, lib. ii. where that writer has 
 collected a great number of authorities on this subject. 
 
 f See Varro de Lingua Latina, lib. iv. ubi de coelestibu* 
 agitur. 
 
 X See Commentary on Chap. 1, Note A. 
 
28 EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY IN GENERAL. 
 
 natives of each directed their devotions to particular 
 deities.* But besides these separate superstitions,, 
 which however were all conceived in the same spirit, 
 and, like the worship of favourite saints among the 
 Roman Catholics, had more or less of relation to a 
 connected system, the whole Egyptian people par- 
 ticipated in the rites of Isis and Osiris, to which we 
 may add those of Serapis, who, under a particular 
 character, was identified with Osiris. The worship 
 of these deities has been always regarded as the 
 national religion of Egypt. f Let us observe in what 
 manner the ancient writers speak of it. 
 
 " The first generation of men in Egypt/' says 
 Diodorus, cc contemplating the beauty of the superior 
 world, and admiring with astonishment the frame 
 and order of the universe, supposed that there were 
 two chief gods that were eternal, that is to say, the 
 Sun and the Moon, the first of which they called 
 Osiris, and the other, Isis, both names having proper 
 etymologies; for Osiris, in the Greek language, 
 signifies a thing with many eyes, which may be very 
 properly applied to the sun, darting his rays into 
 every corner, and, as it were, with so many eyes 
 viewing and surveying the whole land and sea; 
 with which the poet agrees, who says, 
 
 u Riding on high, the Sun all sees and hears." 
 
 Some also of the ancient Greek mythologists call 
 Osiris, Dionysius, and surname him Sirius, amongst 
 whom Eumolpus, in his Bacchanal verses, 
 
 * Herodotus, lib. ii. Porphyr. de Abstinentia, lib. iv. 
 t Accordingly Plutarch entitled his essay on the religion of 
 Egypt, <c Hspi l(ri$6$ koli 0<riQ&os" 
 
NATURE OF THE GODS. 29 
 
 " Dionysius darts his fiery rays. 
 
 And Orpheus,, 
 
 " He is called Phanetes and Dionysius." 
 
 Some likewise set him forth clothed with the spotted 
 skin of a fawn (called Nebris), from the variety 
 of stars that surround him. Isis likewise,, being 
 interpreted, signifies ancient, that name being as- 
 cribed to the Moon from eternal generations. They 
 add likewise horns to her, because her aspect is 
 such in her increase, and in her decrease, represent- 
 ing a sickle ; and because an ox, among the Egyp- 
 tians, is offered to her in sacrifice. They hold that 
 these gods govern the whole world, cherishing and 
 increasing all things; and divide the year into three 
 parts, viz. spring, summer, and winter, by an invi- 
 sible motion, perfecting their constant course in that 
 time; and though they are in their natures very 
 different one from another, yet they complete the 
 whole year with a most excellent harmony and con- 
 sent. They say that these gods in their natures 
 contribute much to the generation of all things, the 
 one being of a hot and active nature, the other 
 moist and cold, but both having something of the 
 air; and that by these all things are both brought 
 forth and nourished; and therefore that every 
 particular being in the universe is perfected and 
 completed by the Sun and Moon, whose qualities as 
 before declared are five; a spirit or quickening 
 efficacy, heat or fire, dryness or earth, moisture or 
 water, and air, of which the world consists, as a man 
 is made up of head, hands, feet, and other parts/' 
 
30 EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY IN GENERAL. 
 
 " These five objects were regarded as gods, and the 
 people of Egypt, who first possessed an articulate 
 language, gave names to each of them in their own 
 dialect. They termed the spirit, or animating ether, 
 Jupiter; fire, Vulcan; the earth, Demeter or Ceres; 
 water, Ocean us; and the air, Minerva or Tritogenia.*" 
 
 Macrobius gives us the same general idea, of the 
 Egyptian superstition. He says, c( It is well known 
 that Osiris is the sun, and Isis the earth, or nature in 
 general/'* {C Hence the Egyptians represent Osiris 
 in their hieroglyphics by the figure of a sceptre con- 
 taining an eye; by which they indicate that this god 
 is the sun, and that he looks down from on high, like 
 a monarch, on the sublunary world/' Hence also, as 
 the same author observes in another place, the images 
 of Isis were formed with many breasts, indicating 
 that Nature is the universal nurse, nourishing from 
 her bosom an infinite and various progeny. 
 
 But a still more explicit testimony is that of Cha> 
 remon, one of the sacred scribes, an order which held 
 a very dignified rank in the Egyptian priesthood, as 
 the sole depositories of ancient learning. Porphyry, 
 in his epistle to the priest Annebon, which contains 
 a number of inquiries respecting the secret sense of 
 the Egyptian mythology, has given a summary of the 
 doctrine of Chaeremon. The following is a transla- 
 tion of the passage that contains it. 
 
 " I wish to be informed/' says Porphyry, cc what 
 opinion the Egyptians entertain concerning the first 
 
 * Diodorus, translated by Booth, Book I. 
 
 f Nee in occulto est, neque aliud esse Osirin quam solem, nee 
 Isin aliud esse quam terram, naturamve rerum. — Saturnalia, 
 lib. i. 
 
NATURE OF THE GODS. SI 
 
 cause ; whether they conceive it to be intellect, or 
 something distinct from intellect." ff For Chaeremon 
 and others acknowledge nothing anterior to the visi- 
 ble worlds, taking the gods of the Egyptians as the 
 foundation of their reasonings,* and acknowledging 
 no other deities than the planets and the asterisms of 
 the Zodiac with their paranatellons, the subdivisions 
 of the signs called Decani, and Horoscopes, and 
 those stars termed mighty chiefs, the names of which 
 are inserted in the almanacks, together with their 
 supposed influence in curing diseases, and the prog- 
 nostics that were drawn from their risings and set- 
 tings. For he observed that those Egyptians, who 
 considered the Sun as the demiurge or creator, also 
 referred the adventures of Osiris and Isis, and all the 
 sacred fables, to the stars and their appearances, their 
 settings and risings, or to the increases and w r anings 
 of the moon, or to the journey of the sun in the noc- 
 turnal or diurnal hemisphere, or to the river Nile; 
 and in general that they give all their mythologues a 
 physical explanation, and refer none of them to spi- 
 ritual or living beings." He adds, that most of these 
 persons connected human affairs with the motions of 
 the stars, binding all things in the indissoluble chains 
 of necessity, which they term fate, and making them 
 depend on the divinities abovementioned, whom they 
 revere in temples, and by means of statues and in 
 other methods, as the only beings who have power 
 over destiny, f 
 
 * The original passage is here manifestly corrupt: I have 
 endeavoured to give the sense with as little alteration in the 
 text as possible. 
 
 f Epist. Porphyrii pr&miss. lamblich. de Myster. /Egypt. 
 
32 EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY IN GENERAL. 
 
 The opinion of Chseremon is cited by Eusebius, 
 in his Evangelical Preparation; and that learned 
 author concludes from it that the Egyptian theology, 
 even in its recondite and isoteric sense, which was so 
 much boasted of by the philosophers, referred to no 
 other objects of worship than the stars and planets, 
 and recognized or incorporeal principle, no invisi- 
 ble intelligence, as the productive cause of the 
 universe.* The same passage has been cited by 
 some authors of more recent date, whose object it 
 has been to give a degrading picture of the science 
 and learning of ancient Egypt.f In opposition to 
 such writers, Dr. Cud worth, the strenuous advocate 
 of the wisdom of antiquity, has adduced the tes- 
 timony of Iamblichus, who, under the fictitious 
 name of Abammon, has replied to the inquiries con- 
 tained in the letter of Porphyry. J The following is 
 a translation of the passage of Iamblichus, in which 
 the opinion of Chagremon is alluded to. 
 
 " Chaeremon, and some others who treat of the 
 first causes of the phenomena of the world, enume- 
 rate in reality only the lowest principles ; and those 
 writers who mention the planets, the zodiac, and 
 the decans and horoscopes, and the stars termed 
 mighty chiefs, confine themselves to particular 
 departments of the productive causes. Such topics 
 
 * Eusebius. Evan. Praep. lib. iii. cap. iv. 
 
 f Dr. Cudworth's Intellectual System. 
 
 J Chaeremon is also much extolled by Dupuis, who re- 
 peatedly cites his evidence, in order to prove that the idea of 
 an intelligent and spiritual cause is a fiction of modern times, 
 and that the philosophers of the ancient world were too wise 
 to indulge in any such absurd reverie. 
 
EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY IN GENERAL. S3 
 
 indeed as are contained in the almanacks,, constitute 
 but a very small part of the institutions of Hermes ; 
 and all that relates to the apparitions or occultations 
 of the stars, or the increasings or wanings of the 
 Moon, has the lowest place in the Egyptian doctrine 
 of causes. Nor do the Egyptians resolve all things 
 into physical qualities ; but they distinguish both the 
 animal and intellectual life from nature itself, not 
 only in the universe, but in man. They consider 
 intellect and reason, in the first place,, as existing by 
 themselves, and on this principle they account for 
 the creation of the world." In the sentence which 
 immediately follows, and of which Dr. Cudworth has 
 taken no notice, lamblichus proceeds to give this 
 doctrine a form more consistent with other repre- 
 sentations of the Egyptian philosophy. After ob- 
 serving that ic they rank first the Demiurgus as the 
 first parent of all things that are produced, and 
 acknowledge that vital energy which is prior to, 
 and subsists in the heavens, and place pure intellect 
 at the head of the universe/' he adds, that they 
 iC allot one invisible soul to the whole world, and 
 another divided one to all the spheres/'* 
 
 If we attentively consider this passage of lambli- 
 chus, and divest it of the jargon of the later Platonic 
 school, with which that author himself informs us 
 that the Egyptians, who wrote after the Ptolemaic 
 age, were accustomed to clothe the doctrines of 
 Hermes or the native philosophy of Egypt, we shall 
 find that it may easily be reconciled with the tenour 
 of the evidence before adduced. By comparing 
 
 * lamblichus de Mysteriis iEgyptiorum^ sect. viii. cap. iv. 
 
34 NATURE OF THE GODS. 
 
 all that the ancients have left, concerning the 
 superstitions of the Egyptians, we learn that the 
 worship of that nation was directed towards physical 
 objects, or the departments and powers of nature. 
 It may be questioned whether the people had any 
 exalted idea of the invisible author, as distinguished 
 from his works. On the other hand, it is equally 
 repugnant to reason, and to the testimonies of the 
 ancient writers, to suppose that they paid adoration 
 to inanimate bodies, regarding them as such. ei This," 
 says Dr. Cudworth, <c would be a sottishness, and 
 contradictious nonsense, that is not incidental to 
 human nature." The Egyptians, as Iamblichus as- 
 serts in the passage above quoted, considered every 
 part of the visible universe as endowed with an 
 inherent life, energy, and intelligence ; they wor- 
 shipped the intelligent and active cause of the phe- 
 nomena of nature, as it is displayed in its most 
 striking and powerful agencies, but, as we shall 
 hereafter find reason to conclude, without accurately 
 discriminating the cause from the effect; or they 
 believed, as men seem naturally prone to imagine, 
 that the elements themselves were animated. 
 <c Such," says Eusebius, " was the doctrine of the 
 Egyptians, from whom Orpheus deriving his theology, 
 represented the universe as a god, formed or com- 
 posed of a number of subordinate divinities as inte- 
 grant parts of himself; for we have already shown," 
 he adds, " that the Egyptians reckoned the depart- 
 ments of the world itself as gods."* The opera- 
 tions of the elements, described in a mystical 
 
 * Euseb. Evan. Praep. lib. iii. cap. ix. 
 
 
EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY IN GENERAL. 35 
 
 and poetical style, were perhaps mistaken, by 
 the vulgar, for the adventures of gods or daemons ; 
 but the original sense of these theogonical fables 
 would appear to have been merely physical, or 
 founded on that species of paganism which Euse- 
 bius declares to be the most ancient, namely, the 
 worship of nature.* Barbarous nations have ever 
 regarded storms, winds, and the moving bodies in the 
 heavens, as animated and guided by genii ; and the 
 same superstition, decorated and reduced to a system 
 of mystical representations, appears to have been the 
 popular religion of the most cultivated nations of 
 antiquity. 
 
 * Varro affirmed that the forms, decorations, and whole 
 attributes of the gods, were invented as sensible representa- 
 tions, in which men might contemplate and revere the truegods. 
 These, according to him, were the soul of the world, and its 
 parts, which were distributed to the heaven, earth, air, sky, 
 land, water. See St. Augustin. de Civit. Dei, lib. vii. c. 5 
 and 6. 
 
 But, besides these physical deities, Varro enumerated a series 
 of gods, or daemons, who presided over all the acts of a man's 
 life, even the most trivial, from Janus, who ushered him into 
 the world, to Naenia, the goddess of the songs recited at old 
 men's funerals. Ibid. cap. ix. lib. 6. 
 
36 NATURE OF THE GODS. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 Attempt to penetrate farther into the Meaning of the 
 Egyptian Fables. Analysis of the Orphic Fictions, and 
 other Mystical Representations derived from Egypt. 
 
 Such is the general view which the ancients give 
 us of the religion of the Egyptians; and thus far we 
 advance on tolerably safe ground, because the evi- 
 dence on which we rely is nearly unanimous. But 
 when we attempt to proceed further, and to analyse 
 the particular portions of this intricate system of 
 mythology, we find the sources of our information 
 extremely defective. It seems too probable that 
 before the time of the Greek writers, who have given 
 us the most extensive discourses on these topics, 
 the interpretation of many allegorical fictions was 
 either wholly lost, or had become the subject of 
 doubtful speculation. Hecataeusand Herodotus, who 
 travelled in Egypt during the period when its native 
 hierarchy still flourished, saw only the outward form 
 of its mythology, or have studiously concealed their 
 knowledge of its recondite sense. It is only through 
 the medium of the doctrines of the Pythagoreans and 
 the followers of Thales, and the older philosophy of 
 Orpheus, which were the lessons of the initiated, 
 that we can hope to penetrate the veil of Egyptian 
 mystery, and become acquainted with the dogmas 
 that were delivered in secret to the pupils of the 
 thrice-great Hermes. 
 
 The Orphic fragments contain the oldest speci- 
 mens of the sacerdotal philosophy of the Greeks, or 
 
ANALYSIS OF THE ORPHIC FABLES. 37 
 
 of those mystical interpretations of the popular super- 
 stition which were preserved among 1 the hierophants, 
 who transplanted the worship of the gods from the 
 banks of the Nile to the hamlets of Argos and Attica. 
 It probably received corrections and additions,, from 
 time to time, from learned Greeks who travelled into 
 the East, and studied in the Egyptian schools. The 
 Orphic verses themselves were chiefly the works of 
 Pythagoreans. They contain that representation of 
 the system of the world which has been termed Pan- 
 theism, declaring all the departments of nature to be 
 animated by living powers, which are portions of the 
 supreme or universal soul, into whose essence all 
 finite beings are resolved. Sometimes the entire 
 universe is represented as one great living whole ; at 
 others, its parts are spoken of as having an indivi- 
 dual nature, which has emanated from and will again 
 be resolved into the universal being. The former of 
 these ideas is conveyed by the following verses cited 
 by Eusebius from the works of Porphyry.* 
 
 Zsvg 7ruflja^v yatys ts xa) oupavou a(rrsp6suros' 
 
 Zsvg 7t6vtov p?£a, Zsvg r\\iog tJSs (rzhrprf 
 
 cv xpaTog, slg Sa/juwov ysvsro, [jusyas fyxpS a7raVTOiV 3 
 
 SU &£ §S[AOLS SoMTlXglOV, SV (6 TOt^S TtOVTa XUX'hSlTai, 
 
 7ruf) xa) uficop xa) yaia xa) aiSyp, v6{£ rs xa) Tjfxap' 
 {xa) MrJTiSs wpwros ysvsrcop, xa) Epa>£ 7ru7^ursp7r^s) 
 7T0LUT0L yap h Ztjvos [xsyaT^co rafts ara)[Aari xs7rar 
 rou §yjtoi xsfyaT^v jasv ISsTv xa) xaT^a 7rp6<ra)7ra 
 oupavos a\y'hr\sis> ov xpixrsal ajJt$i£ hQsipai 
 dcrrpcou pap^apsaiV irspixaXhsss yspsQovrai. 
 
 Procl. in Tim. p. 95. Euseb. Prsep. Evang* 
 
38 NATURE OF THE GODS. 
 
 " Jupiter is the foundation of the earth and the 
 starry heaven : Jupiter is the root of the ocean ; he 
 is the sun and the moon: He is one power, one 
 daemon, the great ruler of all. He is one mighty 
 body, in which fire, water, earth, ether, night and 
 day revolve: all these are contained within the great 
 body of Jupiter. Would you view his head and 
 majestic face? Behold the radiant heaven: his 
 golden ringlets are diffused on every side, shining 
 with resplendent stars." 
 
 Similar ideas are contained in the following lines, 
 preserved by Proclus, in his Commentary upon the 
 Timaeus.* 
 
 Touvzxa (rbv rep 7ravri Aiog irahiv svrog sr6^Qr} 
 aiQspog 1 eupei7)£, tJ8 ovpavov ayT^aov tyog, 
 7T0VT0U 8* arpuyirox), ycdr\g K IpixvMog evprj, 
 wxsavog rs [xiyag, xcCi vkiara raprapa yair\g 
 
 7COU 7r0T0tjU,Q}_, XOLl 7T0VT0g OLTZipiTOg, OLTO^OL T£ TTOLVrOL, 
 
 7rou/Tsg K aOamroi [xaxapeg Oso), 7$e Qeaivai, 
 occtol o° %r\v ysyawra, xat vrrrspov hirirhfr JjU,sXAsv 
 eyyevsro' Zyvog S' h\ yacrrspi cruppa 7re<p6x£i. 
 
 €e The splendid lights of that etherial vault, 
 The empyrean and the nether sky, 
 The barren sea, and wide-spread continents 
 Supporting stately realms, the ocean vast, 
 The depths of Tartarus, and boundless lakes j 
 The mighty rivers ; all that earth contains, 
 With all the immortal host, the goddesses 
 And gods, and all that was or e'er shall be — 
 All these have grown and are contained within 
 The all-teeming womb of universal Jove." 
 
 * Procl. in Timaeum, 2, p. 95, 34. Gesner's Orphica, 
 p. 365. 
 
ANALYSIS OF THE ORPHIC FABLES. 39 
 
 The idea of emanations from the universal soul 
 animating bodies of various kinds, occurs in the 
 works of several poets, in which fragments of the 
 old Orphic doctrine are scattered. It is beautifully 
 expressed by Virgil, who was deeply versed in the 
 philosophy of the ancients. 
 
 Principio coelum ac terras, camposque liquentes, 
 Lucentemque globum luna5, Titaniaque astra, 
 Spiritus intus alit, totamque infusa per artus 
 Mens agitat molem, et magno se eorpore miscet. 
 Inde hominum pecudumque genus, viteeque volantum 
 Et quae marmoreo fert monstra sub sequore pontus.* 
 
 " Know first, that heaven and earth's compacted frame, 
 And flowing waters, and the starry flame, 
 And both the radiant lights, one common soul, 
 Inspires, and feeds, and animates the whole. 
 This active mind, infused through all the space, 
 Unites and mingles in the common mass. 
 Hence men and beasts the breath of life obtain, 
 And birds of air and monsters of the main."f 
 
 All individual beings were represented as pro- 
 ceeding from the essence of the universal deity by a 
 mystical generation, which is described under various 
 types. Sometimes Jupiter is feigned to be both male 
 and female, and is said to produce all things from 
 himself. 
 
 Zsug 7rpu>Tog ysvsro, Zsug ucrarog ap%ixspuuvog 
 Zsug «£(paXrj, Zsug psarara, Aiog- $ ex 7ravra rsruxrar 
 Zsug aptr^j yiusro, Zsug dpSporog sttXsto VL^upTj.* 
 
 * Virgil. ^Eneid, lib. vi. ver. 721. f Dryden's Virgil. 
 
40 NATURE OF THE GODS. 
 
 u Jupiter is the first, Jupiter the last, the ruler 
 of thunder ; Jupiter is the head and the middle ; 
 all things are produced of Jove. Jupiter is a male, 
 Jupiter is an immortal nymph/' 
 
 Hence the epithet, so often given to Jupiter, of 
 ap(revo6ri'hbg y or masculo-feminine. The doctrine 
 distinguished by this epithet is represented,, by 
 Damascius, as the fundamental principle of the 
 Orphic philosophy. 
 
 But the most prevalent representation was that 
 which divided the physical agencies of the universe 
 into male and female.* The more powerful move- 
 ments of the elements., storms and winds,, thunder 
 and lightning, meteors., the genial showers which 
 descend from the etherial regions on the bosom of 
 the Earth, the rays of the sun, and the supposed in- 
 fluences of the stars, were the energetic or masculine 
 powers of nature, and were regarded as the agencies 
 of the male deity; while the prolific Earth herself, the 
 region of sublunary and passive elements, was the 
 universal goddess, the consort of the celestial Jove. 
 This is the celebrated fiction of the mystic marriage 
 of heaven and earth, which forms the foundation of 
 all the pagan cosmogonies and poetical rhapsodies on 
 the origin of gods and men. It is given by Virgil in 
 its most obvious physical sense, and it is observed by 
 
 * Vossius has observed that this idea holds a principal place 
 in the mythology of the ancients. He says, " In natura at- 
 tendentes vim activam et passivam, earn et marem et foeminam 
 dixere; marem illud, quod vim in alia exserit; foeminam, 
 quae vim alienam recipit, et quasi foecundatur."— • Vossius de 
 Origine et Progressu Idololatriae, lib, u 
 
ANALYSIS OF THE ORPHIC FABLES. 41 
 
 St. Augustin, that this representation is not borrowed 
 from the fictions of poetry, but from the philosophy 
 of the antients. 
 
 Vere tument terrse, et genitalia semina poscunt ; 
 Turn pater omnipotens foecundis imbribus iEther ; 
 Conjugis in gremium lsetse descendit, et omnes 
 Magnus alit, magno commistus corpore, foetus.* 
 
 In writing these verses, we may conjecture that 
 Virgil had in his memory the following lines of 
 Euripides, which express the same idea in very 
 similar terms : 
 
 spa K b crs^vog Oupavog, ir^fipoi^svog 
 o[A,£pou Trsarsiv slg YolIolv, Atypohlrrig v7ro.\ 
 
 Or the following verses of Lucretius : 
 
 Postremo pereunt imbres ubi eos Pater ^Ether, 
 In gremium Matris Terrai prsecipitavit.J 
 
 This physical allegory is expressed by some of 
 the philosophical writers in a more formal manner. 
 ?' Ut a sum mis causis exordiamur/' says Proclus^ 
 ff Ccelum et Terram quasi marem et fceminam res- 
 picere licet. Est enim Cceli motus qui ex diurna 
 revolution e vires seminales edit, unde Terra qua? 
 emanant recipit. Haec feracem reddunt et efficit ut 
 fructus et animalia omnigena ex se producat." The 
 same author observes, that this supposed relation was 
 
 * Georgic. lib. ii. ver. 324. f Fragment. CEdip. 
 
 I De Rerum Natura, lib. i. ver. 251. See also Dr. Musgrave's 
 Dissertation on the Grecian Mythology, p. 20. 
 
42 NATURE OF THE GODS. 
 
 termed, in the mystical language, cc yapog" and that 
 the Athenian laws ordained accordingly, that newly 
 married persons should sacrifice first to the Heaven 
 and Earth, and that in the mysteries of Eleusis these 
 elements were invoked and addressed by names, 
 which characterised them as father and mother of all 
 generated beings: these mystic names were uisg for 
 the Heaven, and roxma for the Earth.* 
 
 Varro has given a similar account of the ancient 
 mythology in general. " Principes Dei, Coelum et 
 Terra. Hi dei iidem qui in iEgypto Serapis et Isis; 
 qui sunt Taautes et Astarte apud Phcenicas ; et iidem 
 principes in Latio, Saturnus et Ops/'f 
 
 Apollodorus* and Plutarch§ deliver the same testi- 
 mony. The latter of these writers remarks, that men, 
 from observing the harmonious phaenomena of the 
 heavens, as well as the generation of plants and 
 animals upon the earth, came to regard the Heaven 
 as the Father of all, and the Earth as the Mother — 
 <c tovtcov Ss 6 jasv Oupavbg, war7\p 3 hik to rag r&v u^arwu 
 Ixyyasig (nrspixarayu £"XJ=w ra^iv, 73 $e Tij ^Trip, hioL to 
 §s%s<r$a,i rarira xoCi tixtsiv." 
 
 Macrobius attributes this representation to the 
 philosophers of the Platonic school. " Some wri- 
 ters/' he observes, " have divided the world into 
 two regions, of which one is active, the other passive 
 nature. The first they term active, because, being 
 immutable itself, it brings into operation those 
 causes which necessarily excite changes in the other; 
 
 * Procl. in Timaeum. lib. v. p. 291. 
 
 f Varro de Ling. Lat. lib. iv. 
 
 % Apollodorus in initio. 
 
 § Plutarch, de Placitis Philosoph. lib. i. cap. 6. 
 
ANALYSIS OF THE ORPHIC FABLES. 43 
 
 the latter is called passive, because it undergoes 
 variations in its state. The immutable region of 
 the world extends from the sphere termed Aplanes 
 to the orbit of the Moon ; the mutable department, 
 from the lunar orbit to the earth/'* This fiction 
 was derived by the Platonists from their predeces- 
 sors, the Pythagoreans. It is found indeed in a still 
 more explicit form, in the works of Ocellus Lucanus, 
 the Pythagorean, f 
 
 In the Samothracian mysteries, which seem to have 
 been the most anciently established ceremonies of 
 this kind in Europe, we are informed by Varro, that 
 the Heaven and Earth were worshipped as a male 
 and female divinity, and as the parents of all things. 
 A well-known part of the ceremonies, performed in 
 these and other mystic solemnities, were the rites of 
 the phallus and kteis ;% and Diodorus assures us that 
 the physical theory above described was the subject 
 typified by these emblems. 
 
 The same idea occurs frequently in the Greek 
 poets. Euripides, who has embodied in his poems 
 many curious pieces of the mystical allegory of the 
 ancients, has set it forth emphatically in the following 
 lines.§ 
 
 TcCia fjLsyl(TT7} f xou Siog 'AiSS^p, 
 O joisv avQpd)7ra)V xou fiscov ysverwp, 
 
 * Macrobii Somnium Scipionis, lib. i. cap. 11. 
 
 f Ocellus Lucanus. See also the Commentary on Chapter I. 5 
 Note B., below. 
 
 X The same symbol was used in the festivals of Ceres and 
 Proserpine in Sicily, as we learn from Athenseus, lib. xxv. 
 
 § Fragment. Chrysippi. apud Macrob. Sat. lib. i. 
 
44 NATURE OF THE GOD». 
 
 tJ(T vypoQohovg (rrayovag vorioug 
 wa,pa$s{;a[Aiv7i, rixrsi Guarou? 
 rlxTsi os Gopav, <puAa re SrjpaJV 
 ofisv ovx o&ixcog 
 [M\Tr\p TraVTOM uevo^ifrrat. 
 
 O spacious Earth ! and thou, celestial Air, 
 Who art the sire of gods and mortal men ! 
 While she, the ambrosial mother, doth receive 
 The genial showers on her expanded breast, 
 Teeming with human offspring, and brings forth 
 The aliment of life, and all the tribes 
 That roam the forest 3 justly thence proclaimed 
 Mother of all. 
 
 The Sun being the most striking of the celestial 
 elements, the male power was adored as residing and 
 manifesting its most energetic influence in the splar 
 orb. In those representations connected with the ido- 
 latry of the Syrians, which, as we shall see hereafter, 
 was nearly allied to the fables of Egypt, we find the 
 worship of the Sun involved in the figurative theology 
 which we have already traced. Macrobius gives us 
 the following account of the notions entertained by 
 the Syrians, or Assyrians, concerning the power of 
 the solar deity, t( They give/' he observes, " the 
 name of Adad, which signifies One, to the god on 
 whom they bestow the highest adoration. They 
 worship him as the most powerful divinity, but join 
 with him a goddess named Adargatis; and to these 
 two deities, which are in fact the Sun and Moon, they 
 ascribe supreme dominion over all nature. The at- 
 tributes of this double divinity are not described in 
 so many words ; but, in symbols which are used to 
 
ANALYSIS OF THE ORPHIC FABLES. 45 
 
 denote that power that distributes itself through all 
 the species of beings that exist. These symbols are 
 emblematic of the Sun ; for the image of Adad is 
 distinguished by rays inclining downwards,, which 
 indicate that the influence of the heaven descends by 
 the solar rays upon the earth ; the image of Adar- 
 gatis has the rays turned upward s, to show that all 
 the progeny of the earth is called into being by the 
 influence of emanations from above." 
 
 Thus in the Orphic verses the title of Zeus, or 
 Jupiter, which we have seen appropriated to the 
 universal deity in these poems, is applied, in other 
 fragments, to the god of the solar orb,* who is ad- 
 dressed with the pantheistic epithets ; as in the fol- 
 lowing verses cited by Macrobius. 
 
 oupoLvicug (rTf>o<poLhiy{~i 7rspt$po[JLOV aWv e.'hi<r(raiV 
 ayAas Zsu, Aiovuars, irarep 7rovrou } Trarsp anj£, 
 H?U£ Trayysvirop, iravaioKs, %pv<r£Q<f>syys£. 
 
 " O thou who whirlest thy radiant globe, rolling 
 on celestial wheels, through the spacious vortex of 
 heaven ! glorious Jupiter ! Dionusus, father of the sea 
 and of the land ! thou Sun ! who art the genial parent 
 
 * The Sun is often described as the God who fertilises the 
 sublunary world. O y\io$ (ntEppaiveiv Xsyarou tyy <£wfv says 
 Eusebius.* " The Sun is said to render nature prolific/' 
 Macrobius asserts the same thing. " Deus hie inseminat, 
 progenerat, fovit, nutrit, maturatque."f 
 
 * Euseb. P. Evang. lib. iii. c. xiii. f Macrob. Saturnal. lib. i. 
 cap. xxvii. 
 
46 NATURE OF THE GODS. 
 
 of Nature^ splendent with various hues, shedding 
 streams of golden light !" 
 
 The active power, as residing in the Sun, is in- 
 voked under the name of Dionusus, or Liber. Thus 
 Virgil. 
 
 Vos O clarissima mundi 
 Lumina, labentem coelo qui ducrtis annum, 
 Liber et alma Ceres. 
 
 But it was in the rites of the same Liber that the 
 mystical generation was celebrated ; and he is conti- 
 nually identified with the Pantheistic Jove, in the 
 mythological poems of the Greeks, as in the follow- 
 ing verse, which expresses the sense of an oracle 
 uttered from the shrine of Apollo Clarius. 
 
 dig Zebg, eig 'A&7j£, eig HXiog, eig AtovuG'og* 
 
 In referring to the first origin of all things, the 
 same fiction was resorted to by the old mythologists 
 of Greece ; and Proclus has remarked that it lies at 
 the foundation of all the ancient theogonies. Uranus 
 and Ge, the Heaven and the Earth, were, according 
 to Hesiod, the parents of all creatures. The Gods 
 were the eldest of their progeny. 
 
 The celebrated Phoenician theogony of Sancho- 
 niatho is founded on the same principles. Heaven 
 and Earth, Uranus and Ge, whom some writers 
 have ridiculously transformed into Noah and his 
 Wife, are at the head of a genealogy of iEons, whose 
 
 * Procl. in Timaeum. Gesner's Orphica. 
 
ANALYSIS OF THE ORPHIC FABLES. 47 
 
 adventures are conceived in the mystical style of 
 these physical allegorists. 
 
 Several fragments remain of the old Orphic cos- 
 mogony,, which abound with ideas of the same de- 
 scription. But we shall hereafter proceed to notice 
 the theories of the Orphic as well as of the Egyptian 
 philosophers,, with reference to the first origin of the 
 world. At present we are only considering those 
 poetical fictions relating to the actual phaenomena 
 of nature, as connected with the annual returns of 
 the seasons, which were celebrated by the rhapsodies 
 of Greeks and Barbarians ; and which, as we shall 
 presently observe, were the chief objects of those 
 fantastic superstitions that were carried on with 
 so much pomp and revelry on the banks of the 
 Nile. 
 
COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER I. 
 
 NOTE A. to Sect. I. 
 
 The opinion, that the gods of the ancient Egyptians, and 
 the deities of the Pagan world in general, were originally 
 T\ deified mortals, has been very prevalent among Christian 
 writers. This hypothesis has been maintained, chiefly with 
 relation to the Egyptians, by Bishop Warburton, in his De- 
 monstration of the Divine Legation of Moses. 
 
 The principal reliance of Warburton, in the prosecution of 
 this argument, is placed on two passages from the ancient 
 writers, which seem indeed to afford a very specious support to 
 his conclusion. One of them is a citation from Cicero's 
 Tusculan Questions, in which the author clearly affirms 
 that many mortals had been reckoned among the celestial 
 powers ; and that, according to some ancient Greek writers, 
 even the great gods, the " Dii majorum gentium," were of 
 this number. It is also intimated that something to this effect 
 was taught, or might be inferred from the mysteries.* 
 
 In order to elude the application of this testimony to the 
 gods of Egypt, Jablonski has maintained that there was little 
 or no connection between the superstitions that prevailed in 
 that country, and those of the Greeks ;f that the mysteries 
 of the two nations were altogether distinct; but in this 
 instance, he has directly against him the authority of all anti- 
 quity, and particularly that of Herodotus, who plainly asserts 
 that the names and offices of nearly all the Grecian gods were 
 of Egyptian origin. J 
 
 * Tusc. Disp. lib. i. cap. 13. 
 
 f Jablonski Pantheon ^Egypt. Prolegom. $ Herod- lib. ii. 
 
NATURE OF THE GODS. 49 
 
 This testimony, from such a writer as Herodotus, is not to 
 be disputed : but we may observe that it does not appear to be 
 necessarily connected with the inference which Warburton has 
 founded upon it. It may well be imagined that the rites and 
 attributes, and even many of the names, of the Grecian gods, 
 may have been originally derived from a mythology, founded 
 on very different principles from the deification of men ; yet 
 that they may have become subsequently associated with the 
 memory of celebrated warriours, or the worship of heroes. 
 We find nearly a parallel instance in the history of the northern 
 nations. The first Odin was an ancient god of the Gothic 
 tribes before the era of their emigration from the wilds of 
 Scythia. There are many circumstances which render it 
 probable that he was the Indian Buddha, who is still adored by 
 the roving nations of northern Asia, from China to the Caspian 
 sea. But the Scandinavian hero, whose adventures are cele- 
 brated in the Edda, was a chieftain who lived at a compara- 
 tively late period, and who seems to have assumed the name 
 of the god, in order to facilitate his conquests, and secure the 
 veneration of his people.* 
 
 In like manner it would appear that the Egyptian priests, 
 who introduced into Greece the worship of each particular 
 divinity, found it expedient, in order to facilitate the recep- 
 tion of foreign rites, to connect the object of their worship 
 with some local traditions, and to engraft their allegorical 
 mythologue on the legend of some chieftain, whose barbarian 
 achievements were already the theme of popular song. It was 
 probably in this way that the rites of Ammon, who was wor- 
 shipped at Diospolis under the form of a ram, or of a statue 
 with a ram's head, became identified with Zeus, a king of 
 Crete, whose tomb was long afterwards to be seen on mount 
 Ida. It was perhaps thus that the attributes of Bacchus or 
 Osiris, which were older by many centuries than the founda- 
 tion of the Cadmeian Thebes, came to be ascribed to a Boeotian 
 prince, who was celebrated as the leader of festive mirth. 
 
 * See Mallet's Northern Antiquities. 
 H 
 
50 COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER I. 
 
 And it was in the same manner that a brave hunter, the son 
 of Alcmena, might be identified with the imaginary hero of 
 twelve mystieal adventures, which perhaps typify the progress 
 of the Sun through the twelve signs of the Zodiac. 
 
 But although the mythology of Egypt might thus become 
 incorporated in the traditional fables of the Pelasgi, by means 
 of which the members of an imaginary theocracy acquired for 
 themselves in Greece a local habitation and a name, it would 
 appear that the abstract, or allegorical parts of the ancient 
 system were still preserved without any material alteration. 
 The festivals also continued to be solemnized nearly in the 
 same manner, and with similar allusions to the seasons, and to 
 their old physical explanation ; and Greeks who visited Egypt, 
 in subsequent ages, were struck by the general conformity of 
 its superstitions with their own. 
 
 Another passage, adduced by Warburton in support of his 
 opinion, has an immediate and conclusive reference to the 
 Egyptian theology. St. Augustin and St. Cyprian mention 
 a letter supposed to have been written by Alexander the Great, 
 from Egypt, to his mother Olympias. In this epistle the 
 king of Macedon communicates a most important discovery, 
 made to him by an Egyptian hierophant, who is absurdly 
 enough called by a Greek name, Leon. The secret was, that 
 not only the demigods, such as Picus, Faunus, ^Eneas, Ro- 
 mulus, Hercules, iEsculapius, Bacchus, Castor, Pollux, but 
 also the gods of the greater families, to whom Cicero is sup- 
 posed to allude in his Tusculan Questions, though without 
 naming them, viz. Jupiter, Juno, Saturn, Vulcan, Vesta, and 
 many others, whom Varro would refer to the elements and 
 departments of the universe, were in reality only mortal men. 
 St. Augustin adds that the priest, fearing lest the secret 
 which he had communicated should be divulged, begged 
 Alexander to request his mother Olympias to burn his letter 
 as soon as she had read it.* 
 
 * Augustin. Civit. Dei. lib. viii. cap. 5. 
 
NATURE OF THE GODS. 
 
 51 
 
 It is only necessary to read this fragment, as St. Augustin 
 has given it, to be convinced that it is spurious ; and the only 
 remarkable circumstance is, that so learned and judicious a 
 writer could be imposed upon by such a palpable forgery. 
 That Warburton has chosen to avail himself of it, because 
 it suited his purpose, is not so much a matter of surprize. 
 Jablonski has taken more trouble than seemed to be necessary, 
 in order to prove that this document is quite unworthy of 
 credit.* 
 
 NOTE B. to Sect. IV. 
 
 Ocellus divides all nature into generative causes, and passive 
 or prolific principles. The theatre of the former is the region 
 above the lunar sphere; the sublunary world contains the 
 latter. The first of these regions is rilled with imperishable 
 and immutable essences; the second, with beings subject to 
 perpetual vicissitude. All the changes in the sublunary world 
 are produced by the Sun, as he approaches or recedes from it. 
 
 The sphere of the Moon forms the boundary line between 
 these two regions of the world. Hence, as it would appear 
 from the authors cited above, was derived the fiction which 
 makes the Moon the chief seat of passive production, the 
 abode of the $vcris UoXvpoptys, or Naiura Multiformis, and 
 identifies her with Ceres, Isis, Diana, Latona, the powers pre- 
 siding over child-birth, and all the prolific operations of nature. 
 — See Ocellus Lucanus, ifsp) row iravros, cap. ii. apud Opuscula 
 Mythologica. — T. Gale. Vossius, de Orig. et Prog. Idolola- 
 triae, lib. ii. Dupuis, Origine de tous les Cultes, torn. ii. chap. 7* 
 and compare Plutarch, de Iside et Osiride, cap. xliii. 
 
 * Jablonski in Panth. Egypt. Prolegom. 
 
'I 
 
 r\ 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 OF THE WORSHIP OF ISIS AND OSIRIS, HORUS 
 AND TYPHON. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 Recapitulation of the Orphic Doctrine. Orphic Dionusos and 
 Damater, compared with Osiris and Isis. Legend of Osiris 
 and Isis. 
 
 We have briefly surveyed the most important tenets 
 of the Orphic philosophy, or of that system of allego- 
 ries into which the hierophants, who transplanted 
 into Greece the superstitions of the Nile, resolved the 
 fables of their mythology. We have seen that this 
 doctrine was, in its foundation, a system of pantheism. 
 It contemplated the whole of nature as animated 
 by an all -pervading soul, portions of which, sometimes 
 represented as existing individually, at other times 
 regarded as essential parts of the common vital spirit 
 of the world, were distributed to the elements, and 
 to all the departments of the visible universe. We 
 have observed that the mythological poets, in 
 attempting to account for the generation of sublu- 
 nary beings, had recourse to analogies drawn from 
 the annual processes of nature ; that they sometimes 
 represented the pantheus, or soul of the world, as 
 masculo-feminine, or of two sexes; but more com- 
 monly distinguished the active and passive powers, 
 which nature seemed to display, describing the former 
 
54 POPULAR THEOGONY OF EGYPT. 
 
 in a figurative manner, as the agencies of the pa- 
 rent god, and the latter as the productive attributes 
 of the universal mother; that these divisions nearly 
 corresponded with those of the celestial and sub- 
 lunary worlds, whence the phrases and epithets, 
 which are so frequent among the Greek and Roman 
 poets, and which recur almost as often as any allu- 
 sion is made to the chief objects of their worship. We 
 have seen also that the god, or rather the masculine 
 soul of nature, is represented as holding his seat 
 in the orb of day, and guiding its movements. In 
 this character he is invoked in the Orphic hymns, by 
 the names of Zeus and Dionusos, which correspond 
 with the Diespiter or Jupiter, and the Liber Pater of 
 the Romans. Lastly, the female divinity, Damater, or 
 Ceres, is, by some ideal process which it is not so easy 
 to analyse, transferred from the Earth, or from the 
 sphere of sublunary nature, to the Moon ; and the Sun 
 and Moon are regarded as the god and goddess of the 
 world, manifesting themselves in a visible shape. We 
 must now return to the more scanty mythological 
 fragments of the Egyptians, from whom we are 
 assured, by the testimony of all antiquity, that the 
 Greeks derived their arts and civilization, and more 
 especially their mysteries and theological fictions. 
 We shall proceed to a more particular examination, 
 and endeavour to trace in what manner the Egyp- 
 tians developed those principles that were common 
 to them and to the mystical poets of the early ages 
 of Greece. 
 
 We have shown by quotations from Diodorus, 
 Macrobius, Chaeremon, and others, to which a long 
 list of authorities might easily be added, that the 
 
LEGEND OF ISIS AND OSIRIS. 55 
 
 objects of worship among the Egyptians were the 
 elements and departments of nature. As the Greeks 
 and Romans, though they identified their Bacchus, 
 or Liber Pater, with the Sun, and their Ceres with the 
 Moon, or with sublunary Nature, personified them 
 in poetry, and recited their fabulous adventures ; so 
 we find that the career of Isis and Osiris was cele- 
 brated by the Egyptians in a train of allegorical 
 fictions, conceived in that singular style which cha- 
 racterizes all the works of this people. 
 
 The legend of Isis and Osiris, connected with the 
 adventures of three other fabulous beings which are 
 interwoven with their story, forms a considerable 
 part of the Egyptian mythology. Osiris, Typhon, 
 and Aroueris, or the elder Horus, constitute a 
 Triad of gods, who received supreme honours in all 
 the districts of Egypt. Isis and Nephthys were the 
 consorts or passive representatives of the two former. 
 Concerning Aroueris, we have scarcely any infor- 
 mation ; but the contests of Osiris and Typhon, hold 
 almost as conspicuous a place in this system of fic- 
 tions, as the wars of Jupiter and the Titans, and 
 those of Ormuzd and Ahriman in the mythologies of 
 Greece and Persia. 
 
 It might perplex us to find the name of Serapis 
 associated with that of Isis, in many of the Egyptian 
 superstitions, in the place of Osiris, if we were not 
 expressly assured by many authors, that Serapis and 
 Osiris were in reality the same person. Plutarch 
 informs us, that Serapis was the name by which 
 Osiris was called after he had changed his nature, 
 or had descended to the infernal regions. 
 
 We possess several abstracts of the story of Isis 
 
56 POPULAR THEOGONY OF EGYPT. 
 
 and Osiris. The narrative given by Plutarch seems 
 to be the most faithful and genuine. His epitome 
 of this legend has the air of a piece of mystical 
 poetry, and displays the true style of Egyptian fiction. 
 Diodorus has adorned it with many decorations, 
 evidently borrowed from the fabulous poetry of the 
 Greeks. He has endeavoured to give it the appearance 
 of an historical narrative, and has comprised in it 
 many circumstances which do not appear to have 
 belonged to the legend in its original form. Thus 
 he attributes to Osiris a variety of actions, such as 
 the founding of cities, which other writers,, and even 
 this historian himself in his Egyptian Annals, have 
 ascribed to the earliest kings of Thebais. Syne- 
 sius has given us another version of this story, 
 extending to a considerable length, and he has intro- 
 duced many variations in the recital, in order to ac- 
 commodate it to an allegorical sense, which probably 
 was never contemplated by the old Egyptians.* 
 
 Both Diodorus and Plutarch commence this story 
 with a singular fable, relating to the birth of the three 
 gods and two goddesses whose ad ventures it celebrates. 
 They were brought forth by Rhea, on the five inter- 
 calary days, which were added to the twelve Egyp- 
 tian months in order to complete the year. Osiris, 
 Aroueris, and Typhon, were born on the three first 
 days, and Isis and Nephthys on the two last. The 
 two former were the offspring of the Sun, Isis of 
 Mercury, and Typhon and Nephthys of Saturn. At 
 the birth of Osiris a voice was heard, proclaiming 
 that {{ the ruler of all the Earth was born/' 
 
 * Synesii Opera. iEgyptius sive de Providentia. Vide 
 Fabric. Bibl. Greec. torn x. 
 
LEGEND OF ISIS AND OSIRIS 57 
 
 This fable appears, as Jablonski has remarked, 
 to be an enigmatical statement, devised for some 
 astronomical purpose. It rather belongs to the 
 Egyptian calendar than to the theology of the 
 country, and was probably invented when the 
 five intercalary days were superadded to the three 
 hundred and sixty contained in the old year of 
 twelve months. It is entirely detached from the re- 
 mainder of the mythologue, of which the following 
 brief summary comprises the most remarkable 
 circumstances. 
 
 Osiris, the " Lord of the Earth/ 5 or the " Many 
 eyed/' or the cc Power energetic and productive of 
 good/' as some interpreted his name, called also 
 Omphis, which, according to Hermaeus, signified 
 the " Benefactor/' is represented as a great and 
 powerful king, who, setting out from Egypt, tra- 
 versed the world, leading a host of fauns and satyrs, 
 and other fabulous beings, in his train, whose images 
 are seen among the constellations. He civilized the 
 whole earth, and taught mankind every where to 
 fertilize the soil, and perform the works of agricul- 
 ture. He is chiefly known among the poets, as the 
 author of this art. 
 
 Primus aratra manu solerti fecit Osiris 
 
 Et teneram ferro solicitavit humum; 
 Primus inexpertis commisit semina terrse 
 
 Pomaque non notis legit ab arboribus. 
 
 Tibull. lib. i. Eleg. vii. 
 
 Hence the Van, the cc mystica vannus Iacchi/' 
 which is always seen in the hand of Osiris, in the 
 
 i 
 
58 POPULAR RELIGION OF THE EGYPTIANS. 
 
 Egyptian sculptures, and which was carried in the 
 Grecian festivals of Bacchus. He was invoked by 
 the Thyades with the epithet " Aixvlryg/' or bearer 
 of the Van,* and we find him so described by 
 Orpheus.f 
 
 A/kv/ttjv A/ovucov lir zhycCxg ratals xixXricxa). 
 "With these vows I invoke Bacchus, bearer of the Van." 
 
 The Grecian Bacchus was thus far a perfect copy 
 of the Egyptian, and the pomps, or Bacchanalian 
 processions, celebrated in memory of his expedition, 
 were an exact counterpart of the march of Osiris. 
 Bacchus, like Osiris, assumed the form or the visage 
 of a Bull. We find him thus invoked in the Orphic 
 hymns.J 
 
 Baccaps kol) Ba^so, 7ro?\.ua>vyjU,£, 7ravroSuva<rTa. 
 
 *f Haste, blest Dionusus, of the thunderbolt 
 Engendered, Bassarus or Bacchus called, 
 Bull-visaged, king of many names and powers."§ 
 
 On the return of Osiris to Egypt, Typhon laid a 
 stratagem for him, and contrived, in the midst of a 
 banquet, to shut him up in a chest which exactly 
 
 * Plut. Isid. 85. 
 
 t Gesner's Orphica, p. 240. J Ibid. 
 
 § Plutarch informs us that his images were often made by 
 the Greeks in the shape of a Bull, and that the Elean women 
 called upon the god " who comes upon the feet of an ox." 
 
V 
 
 1 
 
 | 
 
 Sx 
 
 ,v 
 
 \ ■ 
 

LEGEND OF ISIS AND OSIRIS. 59 
 
 fitted his body. He was nailed down in this prison, 
 and conveyed to the shore of the river, where the 
 chest, being thrown into the Nile, floated down to the 
 sea by the Tanitic mouth, cc which, for this reason/' 
 says Plutarch, i( is still held in the utmost horror by 
 the Egyptians, and never named but with marks of 
 detestation." These events took place on the seven- 
 teenth day of the month Athyri, when the Sun was in 
 Scorpio, in the twenty-eighth year of the reign of 
 Osiris, or, as others say, of his life. 
 
 The first persons who discovered this catastrophe, 
 were the Fauns and Satyrs who inhabited the 
 country about Chemmis. As soon as Isis was made 
 acquainted with it, she immediately cut off one of 
 the locks of her hair, and put on mourning-robes. 
 She then wandered to and fro, over the whole 
 country, full of anxiety, in search of the chest, and 
 inquired of every person she met, what had become 
 of it, until some children, who accidentally fell in 
 her way, having chanced to witness its fate, told her 
 by which mouth of the Nile the vessel had been 
 transmitted to the sea. 
 
 At length Isis was informed that the chest had 
 been carried by the waves of the sea to the coast of 
 Byblos, and there lodged in the branches of a tama- 
 risk-bush, which quickly shot up and became a large 
 and beautiful tree, growing round the chest, and 
 enclosing it on every side, so that it could not be 
 seen. The king of the country, amazed at the vast 
 size the tree had so speedily acquired, ordered it to be 
 cut down, and made of it a pillar to support the roof 
 of his palace; the chest being still concealed in the 
 
60 POPULAR RELIGION OP THE EGYPTIANS. 
 
 trunk. These things being made known to Isis by 
 a supernatural voice, she went to Byblos, and sitting 
 down silently to weep by the side of a fountain, was 
 at length accosted by the damsels of the queen, who 
 happened to arrive at the same place. On this 
 occasion, it is related that the goddess suddenly 
 diffused from her person a miraculous odour, of won- 
 derful fragrance, upon all around her. The queen, 
 having heard of this supernatural phenomenon, 
 sent for her, and appointed her to be a nurse to one 
 of the king's children. Isis fed the infant by giving 
 it her finger to suck, instead of her breast; she 
 likewise put him every night into the fire, to consume 
 his mortal part, while, transforming herself into a 
 swallow, she hovered round the pillar, and bemoaned 
 her sad fate. It happened at length that some cir- 
 cumstance excited a suspicion in the queen respec- 
 ting the conduct of the nurse. She secretly observed 
 Isis, and, seeing the infant surrounded by flame, 
 was seized with terror, cried out, and thus deprived 
 the child of immortality. The goddess then, dis- 
 covering herself, requested that the pillar which sup^ 
 ported the roof might be given to her. She took it 
 down, and, cutting it open with care, took out the 
 enclosed sarcophagus of Osiris, and throwing her- 
 self upon it, uttered so loud a lamentation, that the 
 youngest of the king's children was frightened to 
 death. The eldest she took with her, and placing 
 the coffin in a vessel, set sail for Egypt. As she 
 passed the river Phaedrus, early in the morning, it 
 sent forth a sharp and rough air, whereupon Isis, in 
 her anger, dried up its stream. 
 
LEGEND OF ISIS AND OSIRIS. 61 
 
 Being arrived at a desert place,, she opened the 
 coffin, and embracing the corse of her husband, wept 
 bitterly, when, the child creeping behind her and 
 discovering the cause of her grief, she turned herself 
 round, and threw upon him so fierce a look, that he 
 died with terror. She returned to Egypt, and 
 brought the body of her husband with her. At some 
 time after her arrival, going to visit her son Horus, 
 who was bred up at Boutos, she deposited the chest 
 in a remote place ; but Typhon, hunting by moon- 
 light, happened to meet with it, and recognizing the 
 corse, divided it into fourteen pieces, which he 
 scattered about the country. Isis, learning this, 
 went in search of the dispersed remains of her 
 husband's body, sailing over the fenny parts of 
 the country in a boat made of papyrus. She re- 
 covered all the fragments except one, which, having 
 been thrown into the Nile, had been devoured by the 
 Lepidotus, Phagrus, and Oxyrhynchus. Thesefishes 
 the Egyptians consequently held in abomination. 
 ' c Instead of it, she consecrated the Phallus, which is 
 still used in the solemnities of the Egyptians/' Osiris 
 afterwards returned from the shades, and appeared to 
 his son Horus, who vanquished Typhon in battle and 
 took him prisoner ; but Isis set him at liberty. Where- 
 upon Horus was so much enraged, that he tore off 
 his mother's diadem ■ but Hermes placed upon her 
 head a helm, in the shape of the head of an ox. Osiris 
 having returned from the subterranean realms, Isis 
 became pregnant, and bore the infant Harpocrates, 
 premature and weak in his lower limbs. It seems that 
 the story originally contained an account of the dis- 
 memberment of Horus and beheading of Isis, which 
 
62 INTERPRETATION OF THE 
 
 Plutarch has chosen to omit, as too degrading to the 
 character of such august personages. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 Interpretation of the Legend of Isis and Osiris. 
 
 In the foregoing section, we have mentioned the 
 principal circumstances comprised in the celebrated 
 legend of Isis and Osiris. It now remains to collect 
 the observations which the ancient writers have left 
 us, with a view to the interpretation of this enigma- 
 tical story, and to determine in what light it must be 
 considered. 
 
 Nothing is more obvious than that it is a fiction, in 
 the composition of which, the narrative of real occur- 
 rences can have had little or no share. It is likewise 
 evident that many of the incidents related in it are 
 matters of pure fabrication, invented for the purpose 
 of sanctioning or accounting for certain rites and 
 observances, which had been in use from time imme- 
 morial among the Egyptians. Such is the story 
 respecting the origin of phallic worship, a superstition 
 which certainly took its rise from a very different 
 source. The whole of the legend might well pass for 
 a mere popular tale, without any meaning or assign- 
 able object, if it did not contain some circumstances, 
 particularly the connection of several of the incidents 
 with certain times of the year and with astronomical 
 phenomena, which tend to confirm the assertion of 
 
LEGEND OF ISIS AND OSIRIS. 63 
 
 the ancient writers, who regard it as a physical 
 allegory. 
 
 We have before observed that the Greek mytholo- 
 gists, under the name of Bacchus, personified the Sun, 
 or the fertilizing principle of the elements, which was 
 supposed to reside in the solar orb, and, by means of 
 its light and heat to fecundate the region of passive 
 or sublunary nature. Osiris is identified with 
 Bacchus by all the Greek writers, particularly by 
 Herodotus; and that Osiris bore the same relation to 
 the Sun as Bacchus, we are assured by several authors 
 already cited. Plutarch, indeed, mentions that the 
 Egyptians were accustomed to clothe the statues of 
 Osiris with a veil of the colour of flame, from an idea 
 that the Sun was the visible body of this god, or of 
 the good principle or beneficent power of nature; 
 and he says that in their sacred hymns they invoked 
 him as the divinity cc who is concealed in the arms of 
 the Sun."* 
 
 As we do not possess any complete and explicit 
 interpretation of this mythologue, sanctioned by 
 such testimony as might enable us to depend with 
 confidence upon its authority, we must direct our 
 attention to the series of festivals, and the nature 
 of the religious ceremonies which were performed in 
 a certain order through every year, in celebration of 
 the whole train of mystical adventures. These we 
 shall find to be connected with the changes of the 
 seasons, and the most remarkable topics of the Sun's 
 annual progress. The principal festivals, not only in 
 Egypt, but in Syria, Phrygia, and Greece, and 
 
 * Plut. de Iside et Osir. cap. 52. 
 
64 INTERPRETATION OF THE 
 
 wherever similar rites of mythology prevailed, were 
 solemnized at the latter end of the autumn, at the 
 season when the leaves fall and the vital force of 
 Nature seems to languish and become extinct, and 
 again at the beginning of spring, when her productive 
 energies appear to awaken to new activity. The 
 superstitious rites that were practised at the former 
 period were, in general, of a melancholy character, 
 and consisted of mournful exhibitions and lamenta- 
 tions. At the latter, they were of a opposite descrip- 
 tion, and abounded in scenes of mirth and revelry. 
 The fictitious incidents in the histories of the gods, 
 which were respectively connected with these periods, 
 were in harmony with the nature of the ceremonies 
 exhibited, and the feelings excited by the aspects of 
 nature. The adventures solemnized at the approach 
 of winter were gloomy and sorrowful ; in the spring 
 they were joyous and triumphant. The following 
 verses of Manilius describe the ideas and sentiments 
 which may be supposed to have given origin, among 
 barbarous people, to these customs. 
 
 " Nam rudis ante illos nullo discrimine vita 
 In speciem conversa, operum ratione carebat^ 
 Et stupefacta novo pendebat lumine mundi; 
 Turn velut amissis moerens, turn lseta remotis 
 Sideribus, variosque dies, incertaque noctis 
 Tempora^ nee similes umbras, jam sole regresso, 
 Jam properante, suis poterat discernere caussis."* 
 
 A passage of Macrobius, relating to the ceremonies 
 performed in honour of Adonis in Syria, illustrates 
 
 * Manil, lib. i. 
 
LEGEND OF ISIS AND OSIRIS. 65 
 
 the character of these rites. " The worshippers of 
 nature deified the upper hemisphere of the world 
 under which we dwell, giving it the name of Venus, 
 and termed the inferior hemisphere, Proserpine. Ac- 
 cordingly, the goddess of the Syrians, or Phoenicians, 
 is feigned to lament when the Sun, in his annual pro- 
 gress through the twelve sijnis of the Zodiac, enters 
 a part of the lower hemisphere, or that division which 
 is considered as the inferior half. When the Sun 
 arrives in the lower signs, and the days begin to 
 shorten, Venus is represented as lamenting him, as if 
 he were snatched away from her by death, and de- 
 tained by Proserpine ; that is to say, by the power 
 which presides over the lower circle of the world and 
 the Antipodes. x\gain, they pretend that Adonis is 
 restored to Venus when the Sun, having made his 
 way through the six inferior signs, begins to traverse 
 the regions of our upper hemisphere, bestowing upon 
 us an increase of light and longer days." cc As soon 
 as he has passed the vernal equinox, the goddess was 
 said again to rejoice, the fields and pastures becoming 
 now verdant with corn and fresh herbage, and the 
 trees with new foliage/' ec It was on this account/' 
 says Macrobius, iC that the ancients dedicated to 
 Venus the month of April." He observes, that 
 cc Adonis was said to have been killed by a wild boar, 
 which was an emblem of winter," and describes a 
 statue representing the goddess iC in the period of grief 
 and lamentation, which was adorned with the symbols 
 of Nature mourning in the wintry season." The same 
 author subjoins, that the Phrygians worshipped 
 Attis, and the Mother of the gods, with similar rites. 
 He infers^ that all these ceremonies certainly related 
 
66 INTERPRETATION OP THE 
 
 to the Sun, because, after the descent of the god 
 into the nether world had been solemnized with 
 mourning and lamentation, a period of mirth and 
 joyful festivities ensued ; the commencement of 
 which happened exactly at the time, when the Sun 
 overcomes the power of darkness, and renders the 
 day longer than the night. The festival of rejoicing 
 was celebrated on the day termed Hilaria,* that is 
 on the twenty-fifth of March. f 
 
 We shall add the concluding remark of Macro- 
 bius, which is more important with respect to our 
 present inquiry. ff The same religious customs 
 prevail in Egypt under different names; for it is well 
 known that Osiris is no other than the Sun, and Isis 
 than the Earth, or Terrene Nature; and the same 
 circumstances which led to the worship of Adonis and 
 Attis, give rise to the alternate repetitions of mournful 
 and joyful festivals in the superstitions of Egypt." J 
 
 Clemens Alexandrinus has remarked the affinity of 
 all these mournful ceremonies of the Asiatics, and 
 other fictions on which they are dependent, with the 
 Thesmophoria, Scirrhophoria, and other solemnities, 
 which were reported, as he says, to have been intro- 
 duced from Egypt. § Many authors remark the simi- 
 litude which the ceremonies in honour of the Egyptian 
 Osiris bore to those of the Syrian Adonis. In both, 
 the disappearance of the god was commemorated with 
 
 * Macrobii. Saturnal. lib. i. cap. 21. 
 
 t This was the day on which the Romans celebrated the 
 termination of the winter and the vernal equinox. 
 J Macrob. ibid. 
 § Clemens Alexaad. Cohort, ad gentes, p. 13, p. xx. 
 
LEGEND OF ISIS AND OSIRIS. 67 
 
 lamentations, and his restoration with joy and festivity,* 
 and Salambo, the Syrian Venus, wandered about like 
 Isis, lamenting her lost Adonis. f 
 
 It is to be regretted that we have not exact accounts 
 of the periods at which all the festivals of the Egyptians 
 returned. We have, however, sufficient assurance in 
 general, that the mournful ceremonies of that people 
 were solemnized at the decline of the year, and the 
 joyful rites towards the return of spring, and that the 
 former were connected with the misfortunes of Osiris 
 and the grief of Isis, the latter with the re-appearance 
 of the god, or with the renewal of his career. 
 
 One of the most explicit passages occurs in the 
 commentary of Achilles Tatius on Aratus, which, 
 according to Scaliger's opinion, was preserved from 
 the works of Eudoxus, a writer whose testimony is 
 of the highest authority. § cc The Egyptians," he says, 
 " when they observed the Sun descending from the 
 Crab towards Capricorn, and the days gradually dimi- 
 nish, were accustomed to lament, from the apprehen- 
 sion that the Sun was about to desert them entirely. 
 This period coincided with the festival of Isis. But 
 when the luminary began to return, and the days grew 
 longer, they dressed themselves in white robes and 
 crowned their heads with garlands." || 
 
 Julius Firmicus, though unwilling to admit an 
 explanation that seemed to afford an apology for any 
 pagan superstition, has given his testimony to the same 
 facts. He says that those funereal rites and lamenta- 
 
 * Marsham. Chronicon iEgyptiacum, &c. 
 
 f Selden de Diis Syriis, syntagm. ii. cap. 4. 
 
 § See Commentary on Chap. ii. Note A. 
 
 || Petavius de Doctrina Temporum, torn Hi. p. 85, 
 
68 INTERPRETATION OF THE 
 
 tions which the Egyptians practised are explained by 
 the defenders of Paganism in a physical sense. cc Hanc 
 volunt esse mortem Osiridis, cum fruges reddunt terras ; 
 inventionem vero cum fruges genitali terrae fomento 
 conceptae, nova rursus cceperint procreatione ge- 
 nerari." 
 
 The poet Rutilius alludes to the joyful ceremonies 
 practised in the spring, in his Itinerary, written at a 
 time when the superstitions of Egypt were not yet 
 extinct. 
 
 Ci Et turn forte hilares per compita rustica pagi 
 Mulcebant sociis pectora fessa jocis; 
 Illo quippe die tandem renovatus Osiris 
 Excitat in fruges germina laeta novas." 
 
 Plutarch enters into a more minute detail concerning 
 several of these festivals. The following is the account 
 he has given of the ceremony relating to the disappear- 
 ance or death of Osiris. It was on the seventeenth 
 day of the Egyptian month Athyr, which answers to 
 the thirteenth of November, when the Sun was in 
 Scorpio, that Osiris was shut up in the fatal chest. 
 Accordingly, on that day, the Aphanism, or disappear- 
 ance of the god, was solemnized. " At this season," 
 says our author, cc when the Etesian winds abandon 
 Egypt, and the Nile returns to its banks, and the land is 
 desolated by the approach of winter — when, the length 
 of night also encreasing, darkness prevails and the 
 power of light is diminished, the Egyptian priests, 
 among other mournful rites, covered a gilded cow with 
 a pall of fine black linen, and exhibited it as an emblem 
 of the lamentation of Isis. This ceremony was per- 
 formed during four days successively, beginning at the 
 
LEGEND OF ISIS AND OSIRIS. 69 
 
 seventeenth of Athyr, to represent the four objects of 
 lamentation at this season of the year, viz. first, the 
 decrease of the Nile and the return of its waters to 
 their channel; secondly, the cessation of the salutary 
 northern winds, which were now extinguished by the 
 prevalence of southern blasts ; thirdly, the shortness of 
 the day and the protracted length of night ; and lastly, 
 the desolate condition of the earth, now naked and 
 destitute of herbage, while the trees are at the same 
 time stripped of their leaves/'* c( Of a similar nature/' 
 says Plutarch, " were those various ceremonies which 
 were celebrated among other nations at the same 
 season, such as the Thesmophoria of the Athenians, 
 (which were copied from the Egyptianf festival of 
 Isis,) and the Epachthse of the Boeotians/' so termed 
 from the grief of Ceres for the loss of her daughter 
 Proserpine, who had been carried away to the infernal 
 regions. \ In this solemnity, the shrines of the goddess 
 
 * Plutarch. Isid. et Osir. cap. 39. f Ibid. cap. 69. 
 
 X We have seen that the Grecian Ceres corresponds with 
 the Egyptian Isis. The grief of Ceres at the loss of her 
 daughter, who was carried away to the infernal regions, was 
 substituted by the Greeks for the sorrow of Isis at the dis- 
 appearance of Osiris; and these events were solemnized at the 
 same season. Bacchus also, the Grecian Osiris, descended to 
 Hades; and Bacchus and Ceres, after their descent, seem to 
 have been metamorphosed into Pluto and Hecate. So Osiris, 
 after his descent, became Serapis; and Isis, as we shall see 
 hereafter, underwent a similar change of name and character. 
 The double character of Bacchus, or Osiris, is alluded to in the 
 following lines of Ausonius : 
 
 Aiyvrfrov [lev v O<ripis hyuu, Mucrwv 8e <&ava>oj^ 
 
 Banjos sv) ^cuo7a-iv, sv) (f>QipLsvoi$ 'A'i8ujv£v$ 
 
 Tfvpoyevri$, SUspws, riravokstys, Aiovvo-os. Auson. Eclog: 
 
70 INTERPRETATION OF THE 
 
 were carried up and down in procession. {i Now 
 the common time." says Plutarch, " for the solemni- 
 zation of all these festivals, was within that month in 
 which the Pleiades appear, and the husbandmen sow 
 their corn, which the Egyptians call Athyr, the Athe- 
 nians, Pyanepsion, and the Boeotians, Dama^kis." 
 fe The Phrygians," he continues, " also suppose their 
 god to sleep during the winter, and to awaken in the 
 summer, and at one time they celebrate his retiring to 
 rest, and at another, with mirth and revelry, rouse him 
 from his slumbers. The Paphlagonians pretend that 
 he is bound and imprisoned in the winter- months, and 
 that in summer he is restored to liberty and motion."* 
 Immediately after mentioning this solemnity, Plutarch 
 subjoins an account of another, of an opposite descrip- 
 tion, which, if we judge from the text of this author 
 as it now stands, would be supposed to have followed 
 immediately the foregoing rites, or rather to have 
 occurred during the midst of them. He says, " on 
 the nineteenth of the month, they march by night in 
 procession towards the sea- shore, and the Stolistae and 
 Priests bear the sacred chest, containing a little ark of 
 gold, into which they pour fresh water, and at the same 
 time raise a shout that, ce Osiris is found '!" They after- 
 wards mix fertile earth with the water, and, adding 
 
 ec I am the Osiris of Egypt, called Phanaces by 
 the Mysians, Bacchus among the living, and A'ido- 
 neus or Pluto among the dead ; offspring of fire, two- 
 horned, the Titan-killer Dionusus." 
 
 * Herod, lib. ii. cap. 171. 
 
 f The ancient Persians held their festivals nearly at the 
 same periods. See the Commentary, Note B. 
 

 LEGEND OF ISIS AND OSIRIS. 71 
 
 spices and costly perfumes, form a little image of a 
 lunated figure, which they dress up and adorn."* 
 
 Many authors allude to this festival, which was 
 celebrated with much clamorous rejoicing. Juvenal 
 refers to it thus : 
 
 <f Exclamare libet populus quod clamat Osiri 
 Invento." 
 
 On which the Scholiast observes, that the crowd ex- 
 claimed, when the god was declared to be found, 
 s'jpr l x& t u.sv J trwyxoufQfjLs*. " We have found him, rejoice/' 
 
 Notwithstanding the expressions of Plutarch, it can 
 scarcely be supposed that this ceremony was performed 
 in the month Athyr. Its proper period cannot be 
 ascertained precisely; but there are many circumstances 
 which indicate that it was celebrated some time after 
 the winter-solstice ;f for about the time of the solstice 
 another ceremony was performed, which was termed 
 the Zetesis, or Search after Osiris, and it would seem 
 that the Discovery must have been subsequent to this. 
 Besides, if we advert to the legend with which these 
 festivals were connected, we find that the discovery 
 of the remains of Osiris must have happened subse- 
 quently to the return of Isis to Egypt ; and we are 
 assured that her arrival from Phoenicia was solemnized 
 on the seventh day of the month Tybi, which answers 
 to the second of January. J 
 
 The search, as we have remarked, was celebrated 
 at the solstice. " At this time," says Plutarch, " the 
 
 * Plutarch, ibid. cap. 29. 
 
 f See further remarks on this subject in the Commentary 
 on this Chapter, Note C. 
 % Plut. de Isid. cap. 50, 
 
72 INTERPRETATION OF THE 
 
 Egyptians lead the sacred Cow/' the living image of 
 Isis, round the temple seven times ; this season of the 
 year standing most in need of the sun's warmth. He 
 adds, that the rite was performed seven times, to indi- 
 cate that the god does not complete his return to the 
 summer- tropic until the seventh month afterwards.* 
 
 The response of an oracle of Apollo, quoted by 
 Eusebius, probably alludes to the last mentioned 
 ceremony, or to that which was solemnized in the 
 month Athyr.f 
 
 fJLOUTTeUSW (TSKTrOKTlU SOU 7T0(TW OL^pOV 0(TlplU. 
 
 " To Isis it is given, beside the flood 
 Of genial Nile, in garb of woe to roam, 
 And, by the deep-toned sistrum's mournful clang, 
 To seek her dear Osiris." 
 
 ff At the new moon of the month Phamenoth, (which 
 nearly corresponds to March,) the Egyptians hold/' 
 says Plutarch, " a festival which they term the entrance 
 of Osiris into the Moon, and which marks the begin- 
 ning of spring." cc Thus," he continues, " they place 
 the power of Osiris in the Moon, and represent Isis, 
 which means the prolific qualities of nature, as im- 
 pregnated by him. Accordingly, they term the Moon 
 the mother of the world, and represent her as both 
 male and female, as receiving emanations from the 
 Sun, becoming fertilized, and then diffusing her 
 genial influences through the air." 
 
 * Pint, de Isid. cap. 52. 
 f Euseb. Prsep. Ev. lib. 
 
 v. cap. 7. 
 
OP ISIS AND OSIRIS. 73 
 
 cc At the time of sowing the seed/' says Plutarch, 
 U the burial of Osiris was solemnized, and this cere- 
 mony was thought to denote the covering of the seed 
 in the earth ; and the resurrection or re-appearance of 
 Osiris, the shooting up of the green herb. In allusion 
 to this allegory, Isis, upon perceiving herself to be 
 pregnant, is said to have hung an amulet about her 
 neck in the month Phaophi, soon after the sowing 
 time, and to have brought forth the infant Harpocrates, 
 about the time of the solstice, when the herbage is just 
 springing and shooting forth. Hence also the first- 
 fruits of the Egyptian lentils were said to be dedicated 
 to this god, and the Ao^eTa, or purification of Isis, was 
 celebrated after the vernal equinox.* 
 
 We shall mention only one other Egyptian festival, 
 which is that of the Paamylia. It consisted in a 
 Bacchanalian pomp, resembling the Phallephoria, or 
 Priapei'a of the Greeks, in which the mystic emblems 
 of Osiris were borne in procession. f This ceremony 
 was instituted by Isis, according to the mythologue, 
 after she had discovered the remains of her husband, 
 which had been scattered about by Typhon. It is, 
 therefore, probable, that it was celebrated in the 
 spring, which, as we have seen, was the season of 
 joyful festivals among the Egyptians. The meaning 
 of these strange exhibitions, as explained by all the 
 ancient writers, was to represent in striking emblems 
 the fertilizing influences of the elements, by which 
 nature was supposed to be fecundated in the genial 
 season of the spring. 
 
 * Plut. de Isid. cap. 65. 
 t Plut. ibid, cap. 12. Herod, lib. ii. cap. 48. 
 L 
 
74 INTERPRETATION OF THE LEGEND. 
 
 On the whole, we may, I believe, be permitted to 
 conclude, that the festivals celebrated in honour of 
 Isis and Osiris were connected with the changes of 
 the year, and the most striking phsenomena of nature 
 in the different seasons. Moreover, as these solemni- 
 ties in their succession, and in the nature and meaning 
 of the rites in which they consisted, bore an evident 
 reference to the legend of which we have given an 
 abstract in some former pages, it appears that we are 
 to regard that fiction in the light of a physical allegory, 
 representing, in figurative and highly fanciful allusions, 
 the annual progress of the sun and the order of the 
 seasons. At the same time it must be supposed, that 
 this outline has been filled up by many chimerical 
 circumstances, in order to render it more popular. 
 
 We must here, for a reason that will afterwards 
 appear, distinguish the history and rites of Osiris from 
 a variety of emblems and figurative representations 
 which referred merely to the Sun. It was not simply 
 towards the orb of the sun that the Egyptians addres- 
 sed their superstitious devotions ; but to the genera- 
 tive or productive power of Nature, which at certain 
 seasons is displayed in a peculiar manner in the in- 
 fluence of the Sun. For at some periods, Osiris held his 
 abode in the Moon ; at others he had become effete, 
 and had passed into Hades, and his absence from the 
 upper world was deplored. The Sun was yet visible; 
 but the productive powers which he had displayed in 
 the vernal season had now abandoned him. 
 
 That Osiris was not merely a name for the Sun, and 
 that the superstitions addressed to him are different 
 from the common solar worship, is indeed evident from 
 the distinction made by Herodotus and all the other 
 
NATURE OF OSIRIS. 75 
 
 Greek writers who treat of Egyptian manners. It is 
 certain that the Egyptians had a system of rites in 
 adoration of the Sun, altogether distinct from the cere- 
 monies of Osiris. The former belonged particularly 
 to the Heliopolitan norae, while we are assured that 
 the latter were common to the whole Egyptian people. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 Continuation of the same subject. General Conclusion re- 
 specting the nature of Osiris. Typhon, Horus } Egyptian 
 Triad, Harpocrates, Serapis. 
 
 It was not the light and heat alone of the solar rays 
 that were considered by the Egyptians as the attri- 
 butes of Osiris. He was worshipped, if we may 
 believe Plutarch, in every department of prolific 
 nature ; and all those elements or visible objects in 
 which any productive energy was fancied to reside, 
 were believed to be only various modes or manifes- 
 tations of this god. 
 
 Next to the influence of the Sun, there is no 
 element which appears in so striking a manner to be 
 a physical cause of the production and growth of 
 organized beings, particularly of those which belong 
 to the vegetable kingdom, as moisture. In Egypt 
 especially, the waters of the Nile so rapidly fertilize 
 the arid and otherwise sterile soil, and give rise in 
 so remarkable a way to an exuberant increase in 
 animal and vegetable nature, that it would be sin- 
 gular if the ideas, suggested by these phaenomena, 
 had not left their impression on the mythology of the 
 
76 POPULAR RELIGION OF THE EGYPTIANS. 
 
 people. In fact, the Nile was regarded by the 
 Egyptians with peculiar veneration. Plutarch says,, 
 cc they held the Nile to be the parent and saviour of 
 Egypt, and an emanation from Osiris ;"* and there 
 are so many passages in the ancient writers which 
 identify Osiris and the Nile, that two of the most 
 learned writers of modern times, Joseph Scaliger,f 
 and Selden>$ were persuaded that they were the 
 same, or that Osiris was, in the original and proper 
 sense, a personification of the sacred river. Eusebius 
 indeed asserts expressly, that cc Osiris was the Nile, 
 which the Egyptians supposed to flow down from 
 heaven ;" and we find the same testimony in the 
 following invocation of Propertius :§ 
 
 ce Nile Pater, quanam possum te dicere causa, 
 
 Aut quibus in terris occuluisse caput : 
 Te propter nullos tellus tua postulat imbres, 
 
 Arida nee pluvio supplicat herba Jovi; 
 Te canit atque suum pubes miratur Osirim, 
 
 Barbara Memphitem plangere docta bovem." 
 
 Many other passages to the same purpose might 
 be quoted from the ancient writers. Several of these 
 have been adduced by the authors above mentioned, 
 as well as by Jablonski, who nevertheless maintains 
 a contrary opinion. || 
 
 * Plutarch de Iside et Osiride. 
 
 f Scalig. de Emendatione Temporum, p. 370. 
 
 % Selden de Diis Syriis, Syntagm. lib. i. cap, 4. 
 
 § Propert. lib. i. eleg. 8. 
 
 || Jablonski insists on interpreting Osiris as the solar orb 
 merely, and endeavours to explains away all the testimonies 
 which are in opposition to this more limited sense. 
 
NATURE OF OSIRIS. 77 
 
 Plutarch informs us, that many of the Egyptian 
 philosophers regarded Osiris as a river-god, in his 
 true and original meaning, and supposed that the 
 lamentation made on account of his feigned death, or 
 disappearance, referred to the decrease of the water 
 of the Nile. He adds, that when the Nile was 
 regarded as Osiris, or the active cause, Isis, or the 
 passive cause, was referred to the land of Egypt, 
 which is fertilized or rendered prolific by the inun- 
 dation ;* so strictly did the interpreters adhere to 
 the principles of the physical allegory of which we 
 have surveyed a part. But the more profound and 
 learned of the Egyptians generalized their ideas, and 
 represented Osiris as a type of the element of mois- 
 ture, or of water universally, which they regarded as 
 the great genial principle of all nature, calling forth 
 and cherishing the fruits of the earth. f On this 
 notion was founded the custom of bearing a vessel 
 full of water as a type or symbol, in all the proces- 
 sions that was celebrated in honour of this god. This 
 dogma was one of the principles of that physiology 
 or doctrine respecting nature, which Thales, the 
 founder of the Ionic school, is said to have learned in 
 Egypt; and it appears to have been borrowed from 
 thence by some Grecian mystics or philosophers before 
 the age of Thales. Such, at least, is the sense attri- 
 buted by Plutarch to a well-known verse of Homer: 
 
 Q/Xsavov T£, Qscuv yivsriv xoCi jaTjrepa TtjAov. £ 
 
 * Plutarch de Is. cap. 36. f Plutarch, ibid. 
 
 % • Aristotle says, " that was a very ancient doctrine among 
 the Greeks, that all things were produced from Oceanus and 
 Tethys, and that the well-known custom of swearing by the 
 Styx had its origin in this fable. — Aristot. Met. lib. i. cap. 3. 
 
78 POPULAR RELIGION OF THE EGYPTIANS. 
 
 Tethys is the Earth in general, which is here 
 mentioned in relation with water, the fertilizing 
 principle. 
 
 From the comparison of these explanations, and 
 others of a similar kind, all of which appear to have 
 had a solid foundation in the rites and doctrines of 
 the Egyptians, we learn that Osiris was not simply 
 the Sun or the Nile, but every part of nature in 
 which productive qualities are displayed. Osiris 
 clearly seems to have represented the active energy 
 of nature, the beneficent or generative influence of 
 the elements, wherever exhibited ; Isis, the passive 
 cause, or the prolific powers of nature, in the sublu- 
 nary world. Hence Osiris was sometimes worshipped 
 in the Sun, whose rays vivify and gladden the earth, 
 and at whose return, in the vernal season, all its 
 organized productions receive a new generation ; and 
 sometimes in the Nile, whose waters bestow riches 
 on the land of Egypt. Isis, as we have shown from 
 the repeated assertions of the ancient writers, was 
 the Earth or sublunary Nature in general; or, in a 
 more confined sense, the soil of Egypt which is over- 
 flowed by the Nile ; or the prolific or genial principle, 
 the goddess of generation and all production. Consi- 
 dered jointly, Osiris and Isis are the universal being, 
 the soul of nature, corresponding with the Pantheus 
 or Masculo-feminine Jupiter of the Orphic verses. 
 
 OF TYPHON. 
 
 It is not easy to perceive how the dogma of two 
 independent principles can be reconciled with the 
 genius of the Pantheistic system. Yet we discover 
 
NATURE OF TYPHON. 79 
 
 something very like it in the mythology of Egypt.* 
 Typhon stands opposed to Osiris, just as Ahriman 
 does to Ormuzd, in the religion of Zoroaster. The 
 chief difference between these two schemes seems to 
 consist in this circumstance, that the Egyptian fable 
 is more entirely founded on physical principles. In 
 the Persian doctrine, Ahriman was not simply a per- 
 sonification of natural evil ; his attributes comprehend 
 also moral evil ; but as we have seen that Osiris 
 was physical good, or the productive or generative 
 power, so Typhon seems to have represented all the 
 destructive causes in nature. <c Whatever, " says 
 Plutarch, " is turbulent, or noxious, or disorderly in 
 irregular seasons, or a distempered condition of the 
 air, or in eclipses of the Sun and Moon, are incursions 
 and representations of Typhon. "f 
 
 Typhon and Nephthys stand opposed, in every 
 instance, to Osiris and Isis. As all fertile regions 
 and prolific causes belong to the latter, so all sterile 
 and unproductive elements are the peculiar reign of 
 the former.^ When Osiris is the fertilizing Nile, 
 Typhon is the barren sea, the " kovtos arpuysrog/' 
 which swallows it up ; and hence the sea, and even 
 the salt which is produced from it, were held in abo- 
 mination by the Egyptians. When Osiris is water> 
 or humidity in general, Typhon is heat and drought. 
 As the land of Egypt, which is fertilized by the waters 
 „ of the Nile, was the reign of Isis, so the desert, which 
 lies beyond the genial influence of the river-god, was 
 the unfruitful Nephthys.§ When these barren tracts 
 were overflowed and rendered fertile by an unusual 
 
 * See Plut. de Isid. sect. 45, 49. f Ibid. 
 
 % Ibid. sect. 40. § Ibid. sect. S8. 
 
80 POPULAR RELIGION OF THE EGYPTIANS. 
 
 extent of the inundation, then Osiris was said to leave 
 his garland of melilotus in the bed of Nephthys; and 
 this phenomenon was recorded in the physical allegory 
 of the Egyptians. When Osiris was recognized in the 
 Northern or Etesian winds, so salubrious in Upper 
 Egypt, Typhon was the Tyfoon, or southern blast, 
 which blows from the desert, and burns up and 
 destroys every thing that has life.* Lastly, when 
 Osiris was the light and fire of the Sun, Typhon was 
 the darkness of winter, which is predominant from the 
 month of Athyr, when Osiris was overcome by his 
 adversary, until the following spring, when he again 
 returned to Isis, and diffused, in the month of Phame- 
 noth, his genial influences over the sublunary world. 
 " In short," says Plutarch, IC every thing that is of 
 an evil or malignant nature, either in the animal, the 
 vegetable, or the intellectual world, is looked upon in 
 general as the operation of Typhon, as part of him/ 
 or as the effect of his influence. "f 
 
 Hence all those animals which are of hideous aspect, 
 or of fierce and untamable disposition, were sacred to 
 Typhon, and were regarded as living representations 
 of him. J Among these, the Crocodile and the Hippo- 
 potamus are mentioned by several writers § as the most 
 remarkable. The Typhonian animals were symbols of 
 darkness and destruction. The Hippopotamus was an 
 emblem of the western pole, the Zocpog, or dark region, 
 
 * Plut. de Isid. sect. 40, 41, 43. f Ibid. sect. 50. 
 
 I The peculiar relation which the sacred animals were 
 imagined to bear to the gods, will be a subjeet of investiga- 
 tion in a later part of this work. 
 
 § Plut. ibid.— Aelian. — Strabo, cited below. 
 

 OF HORUS. 81 
 
 which swallows up the Sun and the other celestial 
 bodies. He was seen figured in this view in the temple 
 of Apollinopolis, standing- with open jaws, and gaping 
 upwards to ingulph the descending lights of heaven.* 
 
 The Crocodile was also associated with the same 
 ideas. iC A crocodile crouching/' says Horapollo., 
 (C was a symbol of the West; and the tail of a Crocodile 
 was the hieroglyphic character which expressed dark- 
 ness in the sacred sculpture of the Egyptians. "f 
 
 The Crocodile was the favourite object of worship 
 among the inhabitants of the Ombite nome ; and in the 
 remaining sculptures of the temple of Ombos, the 
 highest honours are appropriated to a figure with the 
 head of a Crocodile. | We might hence suppose that 
 the Ombites worshipped Typhon as their peculiar 
 divinity ; but it is difficult to account for the insignia 
 with which the Typhonian figure in their temple is 
 adorned ; and which are elsewhere associated with and 
 appear to be the distinguishing badges of Osiris. 
 
 OF HORUS, OR AROUER1S. 
 
 The elder Horus, or Aroueris, was the brother of 
 Osiris ;§ but Horus is generally considered as the son 
 of Isis and Osiris,, and the relation of the former to the 
 latter Horus is unknown to us. Horus, however, was 
 
 * Euseb. Prsep. Evang. lib. iii. cap. 12. 
 f Horapoll. Hieroglyph, lib. i. cap. 69, 70. 
 % See the splendid work of the French Institute, Description 
 de l'Egypte, torn. i. pi. 43. 
 § Plutarch, cap. 12. 
 
 M 
 
82 POPULAR RELIGION OF THE EGYPTIANS. 
 
 the third, or the younger of the three divinities which 
 compose the pantheistic triad of the Egyptians. 
 
 The Greeks generally regarded Horus as identical 
 with their Apollo.* Sometimes they consider him as 
 Priapus.f His attributes are not clearly distinguished 
 from those of Osiris. It would, however, appear, 
 from the incidents mentioned in the legend of which 
 we have given an abstract, as well as from the physical 
 interpretation derived from the ancient writers, that 
 as Osiris and Typhon were the generating and the 
 destroying powers, so Horus was the renovator and 
 preserver of nature, who overcomes for a time, 
 though he cannot exterminate, Typhon, and restores 
 the dominion of Osiris. 
 
 From the circumstance that the Greeks regarded 
 Horus as Apollo, it appears that the Egyptian god 
 bore some near relation to the Sun. According to 
 Plutarch, the books of Hermes ascribed to him the 
 office of presiding over that luminary, and guiding its 
 movements. J Light was one of his attributes; and 
 obelisks, being emblems, as we are informed, of the 
 solar rays, were dedicated to him. In the inscription 
 on the Heliopolitan obelisk, of which an interpretation 
 was furnished by Hermapion,§ Horus is termed the su- 
 preme lord and author of time, with an evident reference 
 to his office as god of the solar orb and revolution ; 
 and in a statue described by Montfaucon, which 
 appears, from other characteristics, to represent this 
 deity, the Sun is seen sculptured over the head of the 
 god. || 
 
 * Herod, lib. ii. passim. f Suidas. voce Upiaitos. 
 
 X Plutarch, cap. 61. § Ammianus Marcellinus. 
 
 || Montfaucon, Antiquite Explique*e, torn. ii. part 2, pi. 119, 
 fig. 3. 
 
OF HORUS. 83 
 
 Plutarch supposes that Horus included the whole 
 visible world;* and this idea had probably some 
 foundation, as it is consistent with the genius of 
 the pantheistic mythology, f to refer all parts of 
 the universe to Horus as well as to Osiris. In con- 
 formity with this notion, the festival held on the thir- 
 tieth day of the month Epiphi, at which time the Sun 
 and the Moon were supposed to be in the same right 
 line with the earth, was termed the " Genethlia/' or 
 the festal day of Horus's eyes; and these two lumina- 
 ries were enigmatically termed the Eyes of Horus. J 
 
 The emblems of generation, or production in ge- 
 neral, belong to Horus not less remarkably than to 
 Osiris. This is shown distinctly by his statues, the 
 form and insignia of which are described by Suidas, 
 in a passage to which I would rather refer the 
 reader than translate it.§ The same circumstance is 
 evident in the remains of Egyptian sculpture. The 
 form of Horus may be recognized in most of the 
 temples of the Thebaid, with the characteristics of 
 Priapus. || 
 
 Aelian likewise terms Horus the chief cause of the 
 production of fruits and the luxuriance of the seasons ;H 
 
 * Plutarch, cap. 52. 
 
 f We shall make some observations illustrative of this 
 remark in a following Book. 
 
 X Plutarch, cap, 52. § Suidas, loc. citat. 
 
 || Horus may be distinguished from Osiris by his coeffure. 
 The mystic Van also is figured above and behind him ; not in 
 his hand, as it is in that of Osiris : in other respects his form 
 resembles Priapus. Certain plants are sometimes growing by 
 his side on an altar. See Description de i'Egypt, torn. iii. 
 pi. 52, et alibi. 
 
 1T Aelian de Animal, lib. ii. cap. 10. 
 
84 POPULAR RELIGION OF THE EGYPTIANS. 
 
 and Plutarch says, he was supposed to represent that 
 quality in the air which nourishes and preserves all 
 living being's.* 
 
 The mystic Van of Tacchus belonged to Horus as 
 well as to Osiris; and hence the Greeks considered 
 Horus as Bacchus, though this name more properly 
 belonged to the elder god. Hence it is that we find 
 Bacchus termed the offspring of Jove and Proserpine, 
 that, is of Serapis and Isis. He is so invoked by 
 Orpheus. f 
 
 Aiog xou Hsporstyovelag 
 appyroig "XsxrpoKTi rexvcoQsig, afiGpors Aa7[xov. 
 
 " Immortal daemon^ born in the mystic bed of 
 Jove and Proserpine/' 
 
 From all these circumstances, I think it appears 
 that Horus is only distinguished from Osiris as the 
 successor and renovator of his career, the restorer of 
 his reign. Osiris is the generator, Horus the reno- 
 vator or preserver. 
 
 OF THE EGYPTIAN TRIAD. 
 
 We thus find that the Egyptian triad contains a 
 triple personification of the generative, the destruc- 
 tive, and the restoring powers of nature. 
 
 To each of the three gods a female divinity cor- 
 responded. The latter were Isis, Nepthys, and 
 Boubastis. They appear to have been counterparts 
 or passive representatives of the nature and attributes 
 of the three gods. But we shall have occasion, in a 
 
 7] vcofyucra. Plutarch, c. 61. f Orphica Gesneri, p. 222. 
 
OF HARPOCRATES. 85 
 
 subsequent chapter to consider more fully the history 
 and characters of the Egyptian goddesses. 
 
 OF HARPOCRATES. 
 
 Herodotus has repeatedly mentioned Isis, Osiris, 
 and Typhon, as well as Horus, the son of the two 
 former deities. Yet we no where find in his works 
 the slightest notice of Harpocrates, who is also called 
 the offspring of Isis and Osiris. Among later authors, 
 Harpocrates is perhaps still more celebrated than 
 Horus. 
 
 The silence of Herodotus, in this particular, creates 
 a suspicion that he regarded Harpocrates as the same 
 divinity as Horus. 
 
 Egyptian sculptures often represent the infant 
 child of Isis in the arms of his mother, or suckled at 
 her breast. In many instances, the god holds his 
 finger on his mouth. Those forms which are thus 
 characterized have been supposed to belong to 
 Harpocrates ; the others have been termed figures of 
 Horus. 
 
 This distinction was known to the ancients. The 
 finger held upon the lips was supposed to intimate 
 secrecy ; and hence Harpocrates was considered as 
 the god of silence and mystery. This idea occurs in 
 a verse of Ovid, alluding to Harpocrates: 
 
 " Quique premit vocem digitoque silentia suadet."* 
 
 The same god is termed, by Ausonius, Sigalion, or 
 the imposer of silence. 
 
 * Ovid. Metam. lib. ix. v. 691. 
 
86 POPULAR RELIGION OF THE EGYPTIANS. 
 
 " Tu velut Oebaliis habites taciturnus Amyclis, 
 Aut tua Sigalion iEgyptius oscula signet 
 Obnixum Pauline taces."* 
 
 " You, Paulinus, remain obstinately silent, 
 like a mute inhabitant of the Spartan Amyclae, or 
 as if the Egyptian Sigalion sealed your lips." 
 
 The linger held upon the mouth may, however, 
 have been intended to convey merely the idea of 
 infancy, or tender age, as typified by the form of a 
 child too young to articulate ; at least all that we 
 can learn concerning Harpocrates seems to refer 
 simply to this indication. Plutarch, to whom we 
 owe chiefly the information we possess concerning 
 this god, says, he was represented as a weak and 
 imperfect infant, deficient in his members.f 
 
 Jablonski has been more fortunate in analyzing 
 the name of this god than in most of his etymologi- 
 cal conjectures ; and the sense he derives from the 
 Coptic etymon agrees exactly with the character 
 assigned by Plutarch. It appears from Eratosthenes, 
 the first writer who has mentioned Harpocrates, that 
 he was called, in the Egyptian language, Phoucrates, 
 which only differs in the Greek termination from the 
 compound word Phoch-rat, expressing in the Coptic 
 " Claudicans pede." Jablonski supposes that Har- 
 pocrates is compounded of the same words with the 
 prefix ar, denoting the energe tc cause. % It seems 
 
 * Auson. Epist. 25. v. 26. 
 
 t Plutarch calls him dreXrj koc) vytfiov, and again, dv&ifyjpov. 
 
 X Eratosthenes interprets Semphoucrates, by Hercules 
 Harpocrates. Sem is the name of Hercules, and Phoucrates 
 evidently expresses Harpocrates. In a Greek epigram, cited by 
 
OF HARPOCRATES. 8f 
 
 to me much more probable that Harpocrates is in 
 reality Or-phouc rates, the infant or as yet imperfect 
 Horus. 
 
 Cuper, whose learned work contains all that 
 can be collected from the ancient writers with refe- 
 rence to this god, as well as some interesting details 
 on several other parts of the Egyptian mythology, 
 conjectures that Harpocrates was a type of the rising 
 Sun.* Jablonski contends that he denoted not the 
 Sun rising in the East in his diurnal career, but the 
 annual rise of that luminary, immediately after he 
 has passed the winter-solstice, when his beams are 
 as yet weak, and the day has but a short duration. 
 This conjecture displays more ingenuity, and rests on 
 a better foundation, than that of Cuper. From the 
 time of his birth, which was at the winter-solstice, it 
 is evident that Harpocrates denoted some circum- 
 stance in the state of the seasons at that period; and 
 that he had some relation to the Sun, or the solar 
 influence, would appear from his near connection or 
 from his probable identity with Horus. 
 
 Yet it by no means agrees with the remarks left 
 by the old writers concerning Harpocrates, to confine 
 his attributes and ideal existence within such narrow 
 limits. We have shown that neither Osiris nor 
 Horus denoted merely the solar orb, and that Isis 
 was not simply the Moon. In like manner we shall 
 find that Harpocrates was not merely the globe of 
 
 Jablonski, he is called Amphicrates. Amphicrates, or Am- 
 phoucrates, would be the most natural way of writing, in Greek 
 letters, Mphoch-rat ; which, in the Coptic orthographv, is 
 equivalent to Phoch-rat. 
 
 * Cuper's Harpocrates, Traject. ad Rhen. 1637. 
 
88 POPULAR RELIGION OF THE EGYPTIANS. 
 
 the Sun : he seems to have been a type of those 
 genial influences which were supposed to reside in 
 various departments of nature, but more especially 
 in the solar beams, soon after the solstice of winter, 
 and to give rise to the first appearances of returning 
 spring. 
 
 Thus we are assured by Plutarch, that by this 
 infant god the Egyptians represented the first shoot- 
 ing up or budding forth of esculent plants.* 
 
 The objects dedicated to Harpocrates tend to 
 confirm this notion. He had no sacred animals, as 
 the other gods ; but the Egyptians consecrated to him, 
 in the month Mesori, the first-fruits of their lugumi- 
 nous plants. f The bud, or opening blossom of the 
 peach-tree, was also in a peculiar manner sacred to 
 Harpocrates. J But there is nothing more common 
 in the Egyptian sculpture than the figure of Harpo- 
 crates sitting on the flower of the Lotus, or rather of 
 the Nymphaea Nelumbo, which expands itself on 
 the surface of the water. 
 
 By all these figures, if we may venture to generalise 
 them, it would appear that Harpocrates represented 
 that power in nature, which fosters the opening of 
 buds and the springing up of tender plants. As this 
 was an influence supposed to be derived from the 
 Sun, fertilizing the Earth, we may account for the 
 genealogy of Harpocrates, who was called the off- 
 spring of Osiris and Isis, or rather of Serapis and 
 Isis. 
 
 * Plutarch de Isid. cap. 68. f Ibid. cap. 65, 68. 
 
 J Ibid. cap. 68. 
 

 * 
 
 C 
 
OF SARAPIS. 89 
 
 To conclude, it would appear that Harpocrates 
 was but faintly distinguished from Horus, of whom 
 he seems to have been a particular form. 
 
 OF SARAPIS, OR SERAPIS. 
 
 We now come to a subject which presents greater 
 difficulties than most other parts of the Egyptian 
 theogony, viz. to the nature and relations of Serapis. 
 Sarapis is declared by several authors to be the same 
 as Osiris; yet there is evidently some distinction be- 
 tween them. What this distinction is we are not able 
 
 satisfactorily' to determine. 
 
 «» 
 
 In the first place, we are assured by Plutarch, who 
 indeed repeats the assertion, that Sarapis was Osiris 
 himself.* Diodorus makes expressly the same decla- 
 ration ; f and in a hymn of Martianus Capella, we 
 find both these names assigned to one god. \ 
 
 Te Serapim Nilus, Memphis veneratur Osirim. 
 
 " The Nile invokes thee as Serapis ; Memphis 
 worships thee as Osiris." 
 
 The same inference may be drawn from the connec- 
 tion of the name of Sarapis with that of I sis. He is 
 frequently mentioned by ancient authors as the con- 
 sort of this goddess, which shows that they regarded 
 Sarapis as another title of Osiris. Diogenes Laertius, 
 Clement of Alexandria, § and Macrobius, || to whom we 
 
 * Plutarch, de sid. cap. 28. f Diodor. lib. i. cap. 2. 
 
 % Martian. Capella. Hymn, ad Solem. 
 
 § Clemens. Strom, v. p. 45. || Macrob. Saturn, lib. i. 
 
 N 
 
$0 
 
 POPULAR RELIGION OF THE EGYPTIANS. 
 
 might add many other authors, speak of Isis and Sarapis 
 as the great divinities of the Alexandrians, or of the 
 Egyptians in general. 
 
 Yet the same authors make some distinction between 
 Osiris and Sarapis. Thus Plutarch asserts that Sarapis 
 was Osiris, after he had changed his nature, or after 
 he had passed into the subterranean world ; and it is 
 apparently in conformity with this idea, that Diodorus 
 calls him the Egyptian Pluto.* Certain it is that Sa- 
 rapis was regarded by the Greeks as holding the office 
 of Pluto. They were informed, as it seems, by the 
 Egyptians, that he was the god who presided over the 
 region of the dead ; and Porphyry assigns conjointly 
 to him and to Hecate, a particular form of Isis, the su- 
 preme rule over maleficent daemons of all descriptions.-)* 
 
 Jablonski, as we have seen, imagined Osiris to denote 
 simply the orb of the sun, and this supposition afforded 
 him an easy explanation of the nature and distinction 
 of Sarapis. The latter, according to this author, re- 
 presented the sun in the wintry months, after he had 
 passed the autumnal equinox, and had reached the 
 latter days of his career, or the solar Osiris, after he 
 had entered upon the period of his decrepitude in the 
 month of Athyr. Osiris then descended to the shades ; 
 it was at this era that he became Sarapis ; the lower 
 half of the zodiac was sometimes regarded as the infer- 
 nal region by Egyptians, as well as by other nations. 
 All these circumstances concur in throwing an air of 
 probability over the conjecture of Jablonski. It will 
 perhaps appear to most of his readers that this author 
 
 * Cuper. Harp.ocrates p. 85. 
 
 i Porphyr. apud Euseb. Praep. Ev. lib. iv. cap. ult. 
 
OF SARAPIS. 91 
 
 is not entirely mistaken in his idea respecting the nature 
 of Sarapis. It is indeed supported by a passage of 
 Porphyry, which has been cited by Eusebius.* Yet as 
 Osiris was not simply the sun, during the season when 
 that luminary fertilizes the sublunary world, and diffuses 
 his rays over the bosom of I sis, but included in his 
 attributes other productive powers ; so it must be 
 allowed that the same god, after his descent and meta- 
 morphosis, was referred, not merely to the Sun in his 
 era of decrepitude, but represented also the decline or 
 period of suspended vigour in all the genial elements 
 of nature. 
 
 The solar Osiris, after he was overcome by Typhon, 
 the power of darkness, and shorn of his beams, became 
 Sarapis ; and the Nilotic Osiris is probably related in 
 a similar manner to the Nilotic Sarapis ; that Sarapis 
 was represented by the wintry Nile, now diminished, 
 and reduced to his narrow bed, we cannot positively 
 affirm, though we are assured that the sacred stream was 
 worshipped under the title of Sarapis. f The evidence 
 of Suidas, a diligent investigator of antiquit}?, is suffi- 
 cient to establish this point. This author informs us 
 that Sarapis was supposed to be Jupiter, or the Nile, 
 because his statue bore upon its head a vessel of 
 measure, and a cubit or instrument for fathoming the 
 water. J 
 
 * Vid. Euseb. Prsep.Evang. lib. iii. cap. 11. necnon Cuperi 
 Harpocrates, p. 105. 
 
 f Jablonski has very candidly stated the authorities in proof 
 of this position, though they are very hostile to his hypothesis. 
 He is driven to the awkward expedient of conjecturing that the 
 Egyptians had two divinities of the same title. 
 
 { Suidas in voce Sarapis. 
 
92 POPULAR RELIGION OP THE EGYPTIANS. 
 
 Jablonski has proved, by the authorities of Socrates 
 and Sozomen, that the Nilometer was supposed to be 
 under the particular care of Sarapis, and that the in- 
 strument, by which the water was fathomed, was always 
 conveyed with solemnity to the temple of Sarapis, until 
 the Emperor Constantine, on the establishment of 
 Christianity, forbade this custom.* 
 
 When we compare all these circumstances, and 
 consider that Sarapis was not only the solar god, after 
 he had ceased to be the genial principle of nature, 
 but that the Nile likewise, belonged to him ; that he 
 also presided over Amenthes, or the region of departed 
 souls, during the period of their absence when lan- 
 guishing without bodies, the instruments of activity ; 
 that the dead were deposited in his palace, — we are 
 disposed to draw a general inference respecting the 
 character of this god, as we have before done with re- 
 gard to Osiris. Sarapis seems to represent the pro- 
 ductive and indestructible life of nature during that 
 period of decline which, in the perpetual vicissitudes 
 inherent in all things, disarms it for a while of its 
 energy, and holds it in an effete and concealed state, 
 until the fated lapse of time shall again call it forth 
 into activity. We may thus understand how Sarapis 
 rules the Sun, when no longer possessed of genial heat 
 and vivid summer-light; and the Nile, during the 
 season of its eclipse, and the souls of men, themselves 
 originally sparks or emanations from Osiris, as long 
 as they remain in the region of inactivity; whence, 
 however, as we shall show in the sequel, they were 
 
 * Jablonski Panth. iEgypt. lib iv. cap. 3. — Socrates, Hist. 
 Eccles. lib. i. cap. 18. — Sozomen. lib. v. cap. 3. 
 
OF SARAPIS. 93 
 
 supposed at a certain period to emerge, in order again 
 to enter on a scene of active life. 
 
 Osiris and Horns were gods or genii of the whole 
 universe. The same pantheistic description is given 
 of Sarapis, in a celebrated response made by the 
 oracle of this god, to Nicocreon, a Cyprian king, who 
 sent messengers to inquire what divinity he ought to 
 adore under that name. We shall cite this passage 
 chiefly to prove that the sense and attributes assigned 
 by Jablonski to Sarapis, are by far too limited. 
 The god spoke to the following effect.* 
 
 zi\ki osog roiog 6s [jlolusiv oiov x syco si7ra) 
 ovpaviog xao-pog xs^ctTirj, ya.<TTv\Q SI Q<xha(r<roL 3 
 yaia Ss (aqi Tro^sg el<ri, tol K oSolt su ouQipi xsirai' 
 oju,jU,ct ts rrfhauyeg Xa/^7rpov (pdog tjsX/o/o. 
 
 " My divinity shall be described in the words I 
 will now utter. The canopy of heaven is my head ; 
 the sea is my belly ; the earth is my feet ; my 
 ears are in the etherial region ; and mine eye is the 
 resplendent and far-shining lamp of the sun." 
 
 / 
 
 Sarapis was not only the Pluto of the Egyptians : he 
 corresponds also to the Grecian iEsculapius. Indeed 
 there seems to be little reason to doubt that the rites 
 of iEsculapius were borrowed by the Greeks from the 
 worship of the Egyptian Sarapis. The Egyptians 
 carried sick persons into his temple, and similar jug- 
 gling tricks seem to have been performed by his 
 priests, to those of which Aristophanes has given 
 
 * Macrob. Saturn, lib. i. 
 
U* POPULAR RELIGION OF THE EGYPTIANS. 
 
 us a humorous description, in his account of the blind 
 man, who passed a night in the fane of iEsculapius.* 
 The same animals, viz. the serpent and the cock, 
 were appropriated to Sarapis, which are so well known 
 in the Grecian fables as symbolical emblems, or con- 
 secrated victims of the god of health. We shall find 
 occasion to add some further remarks on this subject, 
 when we proceed to assemble the principal facts that 
 Relate to the worship of animals. 
 
 It is not difficult to understand why Sarapis came 
 to be the god of the healing art. We have seen from 
 the testimony of Porphyry and Eusebius, that he was 
 supposed to preside over the invisible world, and to 
 be the ruler of daemons, or maleficent spirits. We 
 know that the Egyptians attributed all diseases to the 
 agency of daemons, and that their attempts to obtain 
 cures were founded, in great part, on magical incan- 
 tations, and the various means by which it was sup- 
 posed that the invisible beings might be coerced, or 
 propitiated. It was natural that they should apply 
 chiefly to the god who held, under his controul, the 
 agents of evil, or the promoters of all those plagues 
 which infest the human body. This, indeed, is pre- 
 cisely the point of view in which Porphyry regards 
 the relations and offices of the Egyptian Pluto, in his 
 double capacity of healer of the infirm, and ruler of 
 the dead. 
 
 * iElian. Animal, lib. ii. Tacitus. Histor. lib. iv. cap. 81. 
 Aristophanes in Pluto. See below, Bookiv. chap, i, sect. 4. 
 
COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER II. 
 
 
 
 NOTE A. to Sect. I. 
 
 It has been remarked by Jablonski, that the birth of the 
 five deities, on the five intercalary days, was a story invented 
 for some astronomical purpose, and belonged rather to the 
 calendar than to the theology of the Egyptians.* Shuckford f 
 and others, who regarded this fable in a different light, have 
 argued from it, that the worship of Isis and Osiris was esta- 
 blished in Egypt, at the period when the calendar, originally 
 consisting of three hundred and sixty days, was corrected by the 
 intercalation of five, a change which was effected, according to 
 Syncellus, during the reign of Asseth, one of the dynasty of 
 shepherd-kings. I can here find no connection between the 
 premises and the conclusion. At the time when the astrono- 
 mers of Egypt made the addition of five days to the duration 
 of their old year, it was certainly more natural for them to 
 dedicate those days to deities already admitted into the popu- 
 lar worship, than to introduce new divinities into the Egyptian 
 theocracy, on purpose to adorn the calendar. It would be 
 more reasonable to infer the high antiquity than the recent 
 origin of the worship of Osiris from this story; on which, 
 however, no reliance can be placed, because we have sufficient 
 ground for doubting the assertion of Syncellus, who has given 
 us no hint on what authority he has founded it. 
 
 * Jablonski Pantheon iEgypt. lib. ii. eap. 1, p. 143. 
 t Shuckford's Connections of Sacred and Profane History, 
 vol. 1. 
 
96 COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER II. 
 
 NOTE B. to Sect. I. 
 
 The ancient writers assign various interpretations to the 
 name of Osiris, a circumstance which proves that the names 
 of the Egyptian gods were derived from a dialect already ob- 
 solete at the time when those authors wrote. Jablonski has, 
 however, thought it incumbent upon him to trace all these 
 interpretations in the modern Coptic. The following are the 
 etymologies he assigns to this name. 
 
 1. Osh-iri — Much- operating. This answers to a sense 
 assigned by Plutarch. " nparog svspyovv xoc) dyocQoTroibv.'" — 
 " Power energetic and beneficent." 
 
 2. Osh-i-re — u The far-journeying king, or, The far- 
 journeying sun." This is given by Jablonski as a conjecture 
 purely his own. 
 
 3. Hoou-sher — ie Rain-scattering." This etymology is 
 supported by a conjectural emendation of Plutarch, who, on 
 the authority of Hermeeus, has given opfyipos, as the meaning 
 of Osiris. Jablonski thinks we ought to read op£pio$, plurialis, 
 rainy, and this sense he represents by the compound Coptic 
 word Hoou-sher. Considering the peculiarity of the Egyp- 
 tian climate, we must allow that a more improbable conjecture 
 could scarcely have been formed. 
 
 4. O-ouje-re — u Author of safety." This is offered as 
 corresponding with the interpretation of Iamblichus, who 
 construes Osiris, << dyoi^ojv TtoirjriKos :" " Productive of good." 
 
 5. O-ouoEisH-iRr, or, Oeish-iri — " The Cause or Author 
 of Time." This is the interpretation which Jablonski delibe- 
 rately prefers, and on which he chiefly founds his hypothesis 
 respecting the original character of Osiris. Yet it is a sense 
 which is not expressly assigned by any ancient writer to the 
 name of this god. It is indeed mentioned by Hermapion, as 
 cited by Ammianus, to be the attribute of Horus; but this 
 circumstance is by no means favourable to the scheme of 
 Jablonski. 
 
COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER II. 9? 
 
 After all, it seems that this author has failed to discover 
 any Coptic etymon corresponding with the only sense which 
 Plutarch and Diodorus agree in assigning to the name of 
 Osiris, viz. " The many -eyed god." This deficiency has been 
 supplied by the learned French antiquarian, who has bestowed 
 so much labour on the Rosetta inscription. But M. Silvestre 
 de Sacy finds it necessary, in the first place, to change Osiris 
 into Osinis. This last word he derives from Osh, much, and 
 Nau, to see. So much for the theories founded on etymology. 
 -^See Jablonski Pantheon iEgypt. lib. i. p. 150. et seq. item 
 Opuscul. torn, i, p. 188. M. Silvestre de Sacy, Lett, sur 
 ^Inscription de Rosette. 
 
 NOTE B. to Sect. II. 
 
 It must, however, be observed, that Eudoxus is censured by 
 the astronomer Geminus of Rhodes, for having supposed that 
 the festival of Isis corresponded constantly with one period of 
 the year; whereas, according to Geminus, being connected 
 with the vague year of the Egyptians, it must have traversed 
 successively the whole circle of the seasons. But the autho- 
 rity of Geminus does not deserve to be set in opposition to 
 that of Eudoxus, who is said (Strabo, lib. xvii. p. 554,) to have 
 resided thirteen years in Egypt in the society of the philoso- 
 phers of that country, and is well known to have applied 
 himself diligently to the investigation of their astronomy. He 
 could not, therefore, be ignorant of the principles on which 
 their calendar was constructed. Various attempts have been 
 made by the learned to reconcile the statements of these two 
 astronomers. Jablonski (Nova Interp.Tab.Isiac.) supposes that 
 there were two festivals of Isis, one of which only was fixed at 
 the solstice, and that Geminus was unacquainted with this 
 circumstance, and referred exclusively to one of them. It is, 
 however, very probable, that the customs of the Egyptians 
 with respect to their calendar had undergone innovations 
 Vfore the time of Geminus, and, on account of his higher 
 
 o 
 
98 COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER II. 
 
 antiquity and general reputation, the authority of Eudoxus is 
 certainly to be preferred. 
 
 The conjectures of M. de Humboldt (Rdcherches Americ.) 
 that the Egyptians, like the Romans, had conceptive as well 
 as stative festivals, appears very probable. If this be allowed, 
 it must be supposed that the festivals to which Eudoxus, 
 Plutarch, and others, connect physical interpretations, were 
 conceptive; that is, that they were not fixed in the vague 
 calendar, but announced by the priests at the return of par- 
 ticular seasons, and that Geminus was only acquainted with 
 the stative festivals, which being associated with certain dates 
 in the vague Egyptian calendar, must have traversed succes- 
 sively all the seasons. These, of course, could receive no 
 physical explanation. 
 
 NOTE C. to Sect. II. 
 
 The following account of the great Persian festivals reminds 
 us of these general reflections of Plutarch. " Their chief 
 festivals," says Mr. Richardson, " were those about the equi- 
 noxes ; the next were those of water at midsummer, and of 
 fire at the winter-solstice. The first was the Norooz, which 
 commenced with their year in March, and lasted six days, 
 during which, all ranks seem to have participated in one 
 general joy. The rich sent presents to the poor; all were 
 dressed in their holiday-clothes, and all kept open houses ; 
 and religious processions, music, dancing, a species of thea- 
 trical exhibition, rustic sports, and other pastimes, presented a 
 continued round of varied amusement. Even the dead and 
 the ideal things were not forgotten ; rich viands being placed 
 on the tops of houses and high towers, on the flavour of 
 which the Peris and spirits of their departed heroes and friends 
 were supposed to feast."* 
 
 The Norooz or vernal festival is celebrated by the Persians, 
 though unconnected with the religion now prevalent. It 
 
 * Richardson's Dissertation, p. 184. 
 
COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER II. 99 
 
 commences when the Sun just enters Aries, and lasts three 
 days.* 
 
 NOTE D. to Sect. II. 
 
 The period of the year in which the festival in celebration 
 of the discovery of Osiris was solemnized by the Egyptians, is 
 a point involved in great perplexity. We are not possessed of 
 sufficient data to determine it beyond the reach of controversy ; 
 different opinions, indeed, have been maintained among the 
 learned in modern times on this subject. On one side we find 
 Scaliger and Selden, and on the other, Jablonski.f 
 
 It appears to me, that although the precise date of this 
 festival cannot be determined with absolute certainty, yet there 
 are several considerations which render it extremely probable 
 that it took place soon after the winter-solstice. 
 
 1. It seems evident, from the context of the passage in 
 which Plutarch mentions this ceremony, that he cannot have 
 intended to represent it as happening on the nineteenth day of 
 the month Athyr, and that some error must have crept into 
 the text as it now stands. For this author had just remarked 
 that the mourning for the Aphanism or loss of Osiris, began 
 on the seventeenth of that month, and occupied the three 
 succeeding days. The rejoicing for the re-appearance of the 
 god must certainly have been subsequent to the last of these 
 four days, which were spent by the Egyptians in grief and 
 lamentation. It cannot be supposed that it occurred on the 
 nineteenth, which was one of the days devoted to the sorrow- 
 ful exhibitions just described. As we therefore cannot learn 
 from this passage of Plutarch what was the time for celebrat- 
 ing the discovery of Osiris, we must endeavour to determine 
 it from other considerations. 
 
 * Morier's Journey through Persia, p. 206. 
 
 f Selden de Diis Syriis. syntagm. i. cap. 4. Scaliger de Emen- 
 datione Temporum, lib. ii. p. 70. Jablonski Nova Interpretatio 
 Tabulae Isiacee. Opuscula, torn. ii. 
 
100 COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER II. 
 
 2. The festivals connected with the adventures of Isis and 
 Osiris appear to have followed, in other respects, the order of 
 the occurrences mentioned in the legend. By observing this 
 order we are therefore likely to obtain some hints respecting 
 the succession of the festivals and ceremonies. It is probable 
 that the three festivals connected respectively with the loss of 
 Osiris, the search after him, and the discovery, followed each 
 other in the order in which we have mentioned them. But 
 we are assured that the festival commemorating the Search 
 took place about the winter-solstice; therefore the Discovery 
 was probably subsequent to that period. 
 
 3. On the seventh of the month called Tybi, which day 
 answers to the second of January, the Egyptians held a festi- 
 val celebrating the arrival of Isis in Egypt after her voyage to 
 Phcenice. This must have taken place either immediately 
 before or soon after the Search. The second of January is 
 indeed later than the solstice; but we are not sure that the 
 Search was celebrated exactly on the solstitial term. It is 
 indeed observed by Jablonski, that Ptolemy has marked the 
 eleventh of Tybi, or the sixth of January, as the period of 
 mid-winter, and that on that day the Grecian festivals in 
 honour of Bacchus, which we know to have been derived from 
 the rites of the Egyptians, were generally held. Hence he 
 coje ctures, not without some reason, that the Search was 
 commemorated in Egypt on that day. However this may 
 have been, it is not improbable that this festival was held a 
 few days after the solstice, though connected with it in the 
 chronology of the year. In this case it may have happened 
 subsequently to the arrival of Isis on the seventh Tybi. 
 
 If the Search really preceded the seventh Tybi, it must be 
 supposed to have referred to the voyage of Isis in pursuit of 
 the ark in which Osiris was enclosed. But if it was subse- 
 quent to that date, it referred to the expedition of Isis, when 
 she sailed in a boat of papyrus over the fenny parts of the 
 country, seeking and collecting the scattered remains of her 
 husband's body. And this seems to be the meaning of the 
 terms in which Plutarch mentions the incidents of the legend, 
 and the rites that commemorated them. 
 
COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER II. 101 
 
 If the former hypothesis be adopted, viz. that the solstitial 
 festival entitled the Search referred to the voyage of Isis to 
 Phcenice, still the Discovery must have been connected with 
 the later events of the legend. For it could scarcely intervene 
 between the solstice and the seventh Tybi, as it necessarily 
 would, if referred to the former train of incidents. Besides, 
 the Phallic institution, which, as we have seen, was connected 
 with the finding of the scattered members of the god, seems 
 to prove that the festival of the Discovery referred to this latter 
 event. Therefore if we suppose, as we have reason to do 
 from all the data that remain, that these Egyptian festivals 
 followed the order of adventures recorded in the legend, it 
 appears that the E uresis, or rejoicing for the discovery of the 
 god, took place at some period subsequently to the seventh 
 Tybi, and probably by a considerable space later in the year. 
 
 4. In all the accounts we have of this solemnity in celebra- 
 tion of the Discovery of Osiris, we find it connected with a 
 procession relating to the appearance of Harpocrates; and we 
 are told expressly by Plutarch, that the festivals connected 
 with the birth and infancy of this god were celebrated in the 
 interval between the winter-solstice and the vernal equinox. 
 On one of these occasions, a little image was carried forth, 
 representing Harpocrates, dressed up in a peculiar manner. 
 Lactantius speaks of this ceremony as follows : i( Isidi iEgyp- 
 tia sacra sunt quatenus filium parvulum vel perdiderit vel 
 invenerit. Nam primo sacerdotes ejus deglabrato corpore 
 sua pectora tundunt, lamentantur, sicut ipsa, cum perdidit 
 fecerat. Deinde puer introducitur, quasi inventus, et in 
 lsetitiam luctus ille mutatur."* And Claudian seems to allude 
 to the same ceremony in the following verses : 
 
 " Sic numina Memphis 
 In vulgus proferre solet. Penetralibus exit 
 Effigies, brevis ilia quidem; sed plurimus infra 
 Liniger imposito suspirat veste sacerdosj 
 Testatur sudore deum/'f 
 
 * Lactant. lib. i. cap. 2. 
 f Claudian. de Quarto Consulat. Honorii, v. 569. 
 
102 COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER II. 
 
 The description of these rites so nearly resembles the ac- 
 count which Plutarch has given us of the Discovery of Osiris, 
 that there seems to be sufficient reason for concluding that 
 they relate to the same festival ; and if this be allowed, the 
 period for celebrating the Discovery must have been at some 
 time between the winter-solstice and the vernal equinox. 
 
 5. Macrobius and several other authors, above cited, ex- 
 pressly affirm, that all the ceremonies of a joyful description 
 were held in the spring. This is besides implied in what is 
 said respecting the resemblance of the Egyptian and Syrian 
 rites. What relation, in a physical sense, could the Discovery 
 of Osiris bear to the rejoicings for the revival of Adonis, if 
 they were not both celebrated in the same season ? We know 
 that the latter toot place at the vernal equinox; and the 
 author who informs us of this fact, and founds upon it an 
 explanation before cited, immediately subjoins that the 
 Egyptian rites respecting Osiris were a counterpart in their 
 physical allusions to the Syrian honours of Adonis. 
 
 In order to render what has been said respecting the seasons 
 of the Egyptian festivals more intelligible, we shall add a Table 
 of the Calendar, with the dates of the principal solemnities. 
 
COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER II. 
 
 103 
 
 TABULAR VIEW OF THE CALENDAR. 
 
 1st of Thoth corresponded with August 29. 
 
 1st of Phaophi . . . .Sept. 28 Time of sowing. Burial of 
 
 Osiris. Isis is now pregnant 
 of Harpocrates, who is born 
 when the green herbage first 
 springs. 
 
 1st of Athyr Oct. 28 
 
 17th Aphanism or Disappear- 
 ance of Osiris. 
 Voyage of Isis. 
 
 1st of Choiak Nov. 28 
 
 IstofTybi Dec. 27 
 
 7th Return of Isis to Egypt. 
 
 Search for the remains of 
 Osiris about the Solstice. 
 
 (Uncertain date.) Discovery of the remains 
 
 of Osiris. 
 
 1st of Mechir Jan. 26 
 
 1st of Phamenoth . .Feb. 25 
 
 At the New Moon Osiris 
 enters into that planet, 
 and fecundates the sublu- 
 nary world. Beginning 
 of Sprirag. 
 
 1st of Pharmuthi . .March 27 About the beginning of this 
 
 month the purification of Isis 
 was celebrated. 
 
 1st of Pachon April 26 
 
 1st of Payni ..... .May 26 
 
 IstofEpiphi June 25 
 
 1st of Mechir July 25 
 
 5 Intercalary days. 
 
104 COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Egyptians avoided intercalation, and the calendar, 
 therefore, went back through the signs at the rate of one day 
 in every fourth year. Of course at the end of a Sothiacal 
 period, which comprehended 4 + 365 — 1460 years, the 
 commencement of the first month, Thoth, was found to have 
 returned to the same place, or it had gone back through the 
 whole circle of the signs. After the battle of Actium, the 
 Egyptian astronomers adopted the method of intercalating, 
 and their year became from this time fixed.* The com- 
 mencement of the year and of the month Thoth was then 
 coincident with the twenty-ninth of August, or St. John 
 Baptist's day, and this is the plan we have exhibited. 
 
 As Plutarch wrote subsequently to this alteration, when the 
 festivals, which were probably in early times shifted from month 
 to month according to the variation of the calendar and the 
 discrepancies between the vague year and the seasons, had 
 now become fixed, we may easily understand why he connects 
 them with particular days in the calendar. 
 
 * Petavii. Ration. Temp, part ii. lib. i. c. 13. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 OF THE OTHER EGYPTIAN GODS 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 Of some Emblematical Representations of the Sun. 
 
 Owing to the frequent recurrence of the figures of 
 animals, and similar objects, in the Egyptian sculp- 
 tures and symbolical representations,, we incur a 
 danger of confounding forms that were merely 
 intended as types or emblems of the elements,, or 
 the departments of nature, with the figures of the 
 gods, or of the divine animals. What adds to 
 this difficulty is, that we have reason to suspect that 
 several of the ancient writers have fallen into errors, 
 not being aware of this distinction. 
 
 The Egyptians had several methods of represent- 
 ing by symbols the progress of the sun, and the 
 changes of the seasons. They figured the Sun, or 
 rather the Day, under the emblem of a new-born 
 infant, at the winter-solstice, and as passing during 
 the year through all the stages of life, until towards 
 the return of winter he became old and effete. We 
 obtain this information from Macrobius, who says, 
 cc that the figures of Bacchus or Liber Pater, repre- 
 sented various ages, some having the form of boy- 
 hood, others of youth, while some were bearded like 
 adult men, and others bore the aspect of decrepid 
 age. These diversities, of age," he adds, " are re- 
 ferred to the Sun, who is painted in the figure of a 
 
 p 
 
106 OF THE OTHER EGYPTIAN GODS. 
 
 little infant at the winter-solstice, when the days are 
 shortest; but the length of the days increasing, he 
 acquires at the vernal equinox the vigour of a youth, 
 and is typified accordingly by that emblem. After- 
 wards we find the age of perfect manhood marked by 
 a long beard, and this form relates to the summer- 
 solstice, at which season the Sun has acquired his 
 greatest power. At length, when the days diminish, 
 he is represented in a fourth form, in that of an old 
 and decrepid man."* 
 
 It is true that Macrobius here mentions the various 
 figures of Bacchus ; but these representations bear no 
 reference to the Egyptian history of Osiris, or to any 
 forms of worship. The images he describes seem, 
 on the contrary, to belong to the symbolical delineation 
 or picture-writing of the Egyptians ; and Macrobius 
 was probably mistaken in confounding them with the 
 figures associated with religious rites and fables. 
 
 Plutarch mentions a festival bearing some allusion 
 to these representations. He says, ec upon the twenty- 
 second of Phaophi, after the autumual equinox, the 
 Egyptians celebrate the staves, or crutches of the Sun, 
 intimating, that as the sun is at that time receding 
 from us, and in an oblique position, his heat and light 
 begin to grow weaker, and that he therefore stands in 
 need of support and subsidiary strength. "f 
 
 Other modes of transforming the type of the sun, 
 according to the changes of the year, were occasionally 
 adopted. A figure with painted wings denoted the 
 sun, and the wings were of different colours, ac- 
 cording as the emblem represented that luminary, in 
 
 * Macrob. Sat. lib. i. 
 f Plut. Isid et Osir. cap. 52. 
 
HYPOTHESIS OF JABLONSKI. 107 
 
 the upper or lower half of the zodiac. In the upper 
 hemisphere, the sun had wings of a brilliant hue ; but 
 in the wintry months., or during his infernal course, 
 he was painted with pinions of a dark blue colour.* 
 
 We are also informed by Porphyry, that " the sun 
 was represented as undergoing a change of form in 
 each of the twelve signs ; or as transmuting* himself 
 into the figure of the zodion or animal, which corres- 
 ponded with each of the twelve departments of the 
 zodiac/'f 
 
 It does not appear that these transfigurations bore 
 any reference to the worship of the Egyptian gods. 
 They certainly have no apparent connection with 
 the history of Isis and Osiris, as detailed in the 
 mythologue;J and, if I mistake not, a want of attention 
 to this circumstance has given rise to erroneous 
 theories respecting a considerable part of the Egyptian 
 superstition. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 Of the hypothesis of Jablonski, and some other writers, 
 respecting Sarapis, Harpocrates, Horus, Jupiter Ammon 9 
 Hercules, and Pan. 
 
 These symbolical figures, particularly the meta- 
 morphoses which the type of the sun is said to have 
 
 * Macrob. Sat. lib. i. 
 
 f Porphyr. Epist. ad Annebon. praefix. Iamblicli. de Myst. 
 iEgypt. 
 
 X The only exception to this remark is the story that Har- 
 pocrates was born at the solstice ; but this may be a casual 
 coincidence : at any rate it affords no foundation for the system 
 about to be considered. 
 
108 OF THE OTHER EGYPTIAN GODS. 
 
 undergone in the Egyptian calendar, as it assumed the 
 forms of the zodiacal emblems, have given occasion 
 to a celebrated hypothesis respecting several of the 
 Egyptian divinities. It happens that several of the 
 zodiacal figures represent animals which were sacred 
 to particular gods. The ram was the sacred animal 
 of Amnion, or the Egyptian Jupiter. The ram is also 
 one of the twelve signs, or zodia. Hence it is easy to 
 conjecture that Amnion is only the Sun metamor- 
 phosed into the form of the sign Aries. On similar 
 principles, many parts of the Egyptian mythology 
 have been converted into a system of astronomical 
 allusions. 
 
 Among the moderns, Kircher* and Basnagef 
 seem to have had glimpses of this method of interpre- 
 tation. According to Basnage, the Persian Mithra, 
 whom he supposes to be copied from the Egyptian 
 Osiris, riding upon a bull, denoted the Sun in the 
 sign Taurus. But Jablonski had systematized these 
 notions, and built an ingenious theory, which extends 
 to a great part of the Egyptian mythology, on the 
 foundation of a few obscure hints, connected together 
 by the aid of plausible conjectures and Coptic etymo- 
 logies. Among the various forms which the signs of 
 the zodiac, and the different ages of the sun present, 
 he has found places for most of the Egyptian gods. 
 
 I have already mentioned the general conclusions 
 which I am inclined to draw respecting some of these 
 divinities ; others remain to be treated of in the 
 sequel. I shall now briefly notice the ideas which 
 
 * See Kircher's Tempi. Isiac. 
 
 f Basnage, Hist, des Juifs. liv. iii. chap. 18. 
 
HYPOTHESIS OF JABLONSKI. 109 
 
 Jablonski has entertained,, with respect to the offices 
 and relations of those which he refers to the Sun and 
 the zodiacal signs. 
 
 1. The infant Harpocrates was born about the sol- 
 stice of winter. Harpocrates is therefore, according to 
 Jablonski, the Sun represented as an infant in the first 
 stage of his progress, when the days are yet short, and 
 the heat and light defective. This is the best sup- 
 ported of Jablonski's conjectures, and rests upon some 
 striking coincidences. Harpocrates, indeed, as being 
 connected with the story of Isis and Osiris, certainly 
 bears some relation to the Sun and the progress of 
 the seasons, though there is nothing to prove our 
 authors particular explanation. 
 
 2. Jupiter was worshipped at Thebes in the form 
 of a ram, or of a human figure with a ram's head. 
 Amnion therefore represents the Sun in the sign 
 Aries. 
 
 3. Hercules is supposed to be the sun after the 
 equinox, when he has acquired strength. This conjec- 
 ture is only supported by an etymology of the Egyptian 
 name of Hercules, which Jablonski derives, with great 
 probability, from Jom } meaning strength or power. 
 
 4. Horus. A place is secured for Horus among the 
 zodiacal animals, on the authority of a passage of 
 Horapollo, who says, ie that lions were placed under 
 the throne of Horus, to express a certain symbolical 
 relation between that animal and the god." Horus is 
 accordingly conjectured to be the Sun in the sign 
 Leo, when, about the solstice of summer, he has 
 acquired his full vigour. 
 
 5. Mendes, or Pan, was worshipped in the form of a 
 goat. In this instance, Jablonski seems to desert his 
 
110 OF THE OTHER EGYPTIAN GODS. 
 
 principle of interpretation, and, instead of seeking a 
 place for Pan in the zodiac,* he refers this god to the 
 generative influences of the solar beams. 
 
 6. The Sun, in the latter part of his career, was 
 represented, as we have seen, by the form of a de- 
 crepid old man. This reminds our author of Serapis. 
 Serapis, with him, is the wintry sun, or the sun in the 
 three last months of the year. On this subject we 
 have treated in the foregoing pages. 
 
 The chief authority on which Jablonski relies for 
 the support of these conjectures is a fragment pre- 
 served by Macrobius, and considered by that writer 
 as a response of the oracle of Apollo, at Claros. 
 This passage seems to connect the several parts of 
 our author's hypothesis. It is as follows : 
 
 <Ppa£sO TOU TTOLUloiU U7TOLT0V 6 SOU SfJL[JLSU 'IdtCO, 
 
 yei^ari \ksu r AtdTjy, Ala. r siapog ap-^o^suoio, 
 'HsXiov Zs dspsus, (AST07rwpou K aSpov 'Iaai. 
 
 " Declare Iao to be supreme over all the gods, 
 who in the winter is Pluto; Jupiter in the be- 
 ginning of the spring ; the Sun in the summer, and 
 in autumn the tender or infant Iao." 
 
 With respect to this fragment it must be observed 
 that Macrobius has given no hint, and that there is 
 no internal proof of its bearing any reference to the 
 
 * He might have found authority in support of this notion ; 
 for Hyginus affirms that Pan, in order to escape the persecu- 
 tion of Typhon, assumed the fore-parts of a goat, and the 
 tail of a fish ; that is, that he became the sign of Capricorn. — 
 Hygin. Poet. Astron. lib. ii. cap. 28. This is a more per- 
 fect coincidence than any of those adduced by Jablonski. 
 
HYPOTHESIS OF JABLONSKI. Ill 
 
 Egyptian mythology. Indeed the name lao, which 
 is the Greek way of writing the Hebrew Tetragram- 
 maton, affords a clear proof that the passage was a 
 forgery of some sect of Christian heretics ; and 
 Jablonski himself admits it to be a fragment of 
 Gnostic mysticism.* On this account it is unworthy 
 of credit. But even if it were allowed to be of the 
 highest authority , it would only support two of the 
 explanations above mentioned, which it directly con- 
 tradicts one of them : the circumstance of the infant 
 god ruling the autumnal season is irreconcilable 
 with Jabionski's system. 
 
 But an objection to this hypothesis which has, in 
 my opinion, much greater weight than any of the 
 arguments which are forced into its support, arises 
 from the testimony of the Greeks, who uniformly 
 assure us that the Egyptian Jupiter, Pan, Hercules, 
 Apollo, and other gods, coincide with the Grecian 
 divinities of the same names. Now, though we allow 
 that the resemblance was probably not perfect or 
 uniform, still there must have been a general con- 
 gruity, at least in the most striking attributes. But 
 Jablonski's theory leaves not even the most remote 
 analogy between the gods of the Greeks, and those 
 of Egypt, whom the former people looked upon as 
 the prototypes of their own theocracy. 
 
 * The name law occured often in the mystical emblems of 
 the Gnostics. Fabretti has published an Abraxas, with this 
 inscription " law A£ova» EAwai AS^aga^," surrounding the figure 
 of a serpent, with Anubis on the reverse. See Basnage, Hist. 
 des Juifs. liv. iii. chap. 26. on the Cabbala of the Christian 
 heretics. The AZpbs law, or " Infant Jehovah/' is evidently 
 neither Harpocrates nor Serapis. 
 
112 OF THE OTHER EGYPTIAN GODS. 
 
 I shall conclude my remarks on this subject, by 
 collecting a few scattered hints relating to the 
 Egyptian Jupiter, Hercules, and Pan ; which, how- 
 ever, are too scanty to afford a satisfactory elucidation 
 of the precise character and attributes assigned to 
 them in this system of mythology. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 Ammon, or the Egyptian Jupiter. 
 
 ec The Egyptians," says Herodotus, Ci call Jupiter, 
 Ammoun." This was the god worshipped in the 
 Theban Nome, the capital of which was accordingly 
 called by the Greeks, Diospolis. All the Greek 
 writers are so unanimous in declaring this god to be 
 the Zeus, or Jove, of their own mythology,* that we 
 cannot but believe that a striking analogy subsisted 
 between the African and the European Jupiter. We 
 are expressly assured that the worship of Jupiter was 
 introduced into Greece from Egypt, and the Olym- 
 pian Jove still maintained his connection with the 
 banks of the Nile ; for Homer sends him occasionally 
 to a festival in Ethiopia. 
 
 Zsvg yap stt ajxeavov [jlst a^^ovag AlSi07rrjoLg 
 X0*£o£ sftj [xsra Neurol,' Qsol ft oi^a iravrsg eVoVTO.*)* 
 
 (e Jupiter went yesterday on the ocean to the 
 feast of the blameless ^Ethiopians, and the com- 
 pany of gods followed his procession/' 
 
 * Herodotus, lib. ii. cap. 42. Plut. de Isid. et Osir. Diodor. 
 lib. i. cap. 1. Iamblich. de Myst. iEgyptiorum, sect. viii. c. S. 
 f Iliad. A. v. 423. 
 
AMMON, OR THE EGYPTIAN JUPITER. 113 
 
 Homer seems here to refer to a ceremony that was 
 practised by the inhabitants of the Thebaid, of 
 which Diodorus and Eustathius give us a particular 
 account.* The statue of the Theban Jupiter was 
 carried up the Nile every year, with a splendid pro- 
 cession, into Ethiopia, or, as it is probably meant, to 
 a temple of the same god at Meroe. There he was 
 received with great pomp, and at length returned to 
 Egypt, after honouring with his presence the annual 
 festival of the Ethiopians or Meroites. It is therefore 
 plain, that Homer considered Jupiter as the same 
 with Ammon, or the god of Diospolis. 
 
 The Greek interpretations of the name Ammon 
 throw no light upon his nature. According to 
 Manethon, Ammon, or Amoun, meant "concealed, or 
 concealment ;" but Hecataeus said, that the Egyptians 
 used this word when they called each other;" and 
 Plutarch adds, cc that this invocation was uttered to the 
 chief god, whom they identify with the universe itself, 
 calling on him, and entreating him, as if invisible and 
 concealed, to make himself manifest/' f Ammon, 
 therefore, according to these writers, seems to have 
 meant the Spirit of the universe, which was supposed 
 to be invisible in its nature, but was perhaps imagined, 
 like other objects of Egyptian superstition, to be 
 subject to the power of incantation, £ and to present 
 itself sometimes in a defined shape to the eyes of 
 the magician. § 
 
 * Diod. lib. ii. p. 88. Eustath. in Iliad. A. p. 128. 
 
 t Plut. Isid. cap. 9. J See Iamblichus de Myst. ^Egypt. 
 
 § It was believed that, by certain religious acts it was in 
 the power of mortals to obtain a visible perception of the 
 celestial beings. See the extracts from the works of Manethon, 
 in the latter part of this volume. 
 
114 OP THE OTHER EGYPTIAN GODS. 
 
 This idea of the nature of Amnion coincides with 
 the testimony of Diodorus, who professes to borrow 
 kis accounts from Egyptian writers; that is, from 
 Egyptians of the Ptolemaic age, who wrote in 
 Greek. Me informs us, that the Egyptian philoso- 
 phers reckoned five elements, adding to the four com- 
 monly enumerated, one which they termed tC 7rvsrj[xa/' 
 or spirit. This is the same as the celestial aether of 
 the Greeks, which was supposed to fill the highest 
 regions of the heavens. Hence a quickening or en- 
 livening influence was supposed by the Egyptians to 
 be derived into all animated creatures. This vital 
 aether, or principle of life, was called, according to 
 Diodorus, Jupiter or Ammon. 
 
 Iamblichus gives a similar interpretation of the 
 name of this god, though he involves it in the phrase- 
 ology of the later Platonic school, from which it is 
 necessary to divest all his statements, before we can 
 derive instruction from them. He tells us, " that the 
 demiurgus or creator, as he proceeds to the work of 
 generation, and developes the occult powers of his 
 reasons or designs, is called Ammon/'* 
 
 Such are the scanty notices we can collect concern- 
 ing Ammon. If we suppose these authors to be cor- 
 rect, (and their agreement seems to establish their cre- 
 dibility) we can understand how this god was identified 
 by the Greeks with Jupiter, the invisible god of the 
 firmament, who sometimes manifests himself by light- 
 ning and other meteoric phaenomena. But Jablonski's 
 idea, that Ammon was the Sun in Aries, is not only 
 at variance with all the authorities cited above, but 
 
 * Iamblich. sect. viii. cap. S. 
 
THE EGYPTIAN HERCULES. 115 
 
 affords no sort of relation between the Egyptian god 
 and the Greek'deity, to whom oracles and shrines were 
 said to have been erected by votaries of the Theban 
 Jove. It may be worth while also to remark, that 
 the season when Jablonski supposes the Sun to have 
 been worshipped under the name of Amnion,, viz. 
 about the vernal equinox, was the period when the 
 most joyful festivities were celebrated in honour of 
 Osiris, who was then invoked as the being who resi- 
 ded in the solar orb, and thence diffused his fertilizing 
 rays through the sublunary world.* At this very 
 season, when Osiris was chiefly worshipped in the 
 Sun, it is improbable that Ammon was adored as the 
 daemon of the same luminary. 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 The Egyptian Hercules. 
 
 Hercules was one of the twelve native deities of 
 Egypt, and bore no relation, except perhaps a casual 
 resemblance, to the Grecian demi-god, the son of 
 Alcmena. Cicero calls him the offspring of the Nile. 
 
 Jablon ski's etymology of the Egyptian name of 
 Hercules is one of the most satisfactory that occur in 
 
 * There is, indeed, a coincidence in the bodily form of 
 Ammon and the figure of the sign; but it is fully as probable 
 that the asterism was named after and copied from the Theban 
 ram, as that the Theban ram was worshipped as a type of the 
 constellation. 
 
116 
 
 OF THE OTHER EGYPTIAN GODS. 
 
 the whole of his work. It appears from Eratosthenes 
 that this god was in Egypt called SEM; and Pytha- 
 goras interpreted Hercules, cc tt}v ouvapw rijg q>6o-£ws," 
 the power or energy of nature. Power or strength 
 is, in the Coptic, Jom or Dsom ; and this word appears 
 to be the etymon of the Egyptian name of Hercules. 
 But in this instance, though the attempt to interpret 
 the name is successful, it has led the author but a 
 short way towards his conclusion respecting the 
 attribute of the god. 
 
 Jablonski conjectures that Hercules was the Sun 
 after he has passed the vernal equinox, and that the 
 same luminary, when he arrives at the summer-sol- 
 stice, became Horus or Apollo. Dupuis, who adopts 
 the same hypothesis in general respecting the 
 Egyptian gods, reverses, in this case, the conjecture 
 of Jablonski, and supposes the vernal Sun to have 
 been Apollo, and the solstitial Hercules. This may 
 serve to show on how slippery a foundation the whole 
 scheme of these authors has been erected. 
 
 There are, however, some passages of the mytho- 
 logic writers, which indicate an obscure relation 
 between the rites of Hercules and the solar worship. 
 Plutarch says, " the Egyptians supposed that Hercules 
 was seated in the Sun and moved round the world in 
 company with that celestial body." And Macrobius 
 informs us, " that the religious ceremonial of the 
 Egyptians expressed, by multiplied rites, the multiplied 
 powers of the divinity, and signified that Hercules was 
 the Sun that exists in all and through all." From these 
 observations it might be conjectured, that the power 
 pf solar attraction or gravitation was figured under the 
 type of Hercules, if such an idea did not appear too 
 
THE EGYPTIAN HERCULES. 117 
 
 refined and philosophical.* The theorists, however, of 
 the Orphic school, who derived all their dogmas from 
 Egypt, designated by Hercules the efficient cause in 
 nature, which they imagined to distribute the universe 
 into its different parts, and to perform those opera- 
 tions which depend upon gravitation. This appears 
 from a passage of Athenagoras : se Water was," ac- 
 cording to Orpheus, Ci the principle of all things ; from 
 the subsiding of water, mud was produced; and from 
 both these elements, an animal in the figure of a 
 Dragon with a Lion's head, the middle of whose body 
 expressed that form of the deity which is called Hercules 
 and Time. From Hercules an egg of immense mag- 
 nitude was produced, which having become full, and 
 undergoing incubation, was broken by the same being 
 who had brought it forth, and distributed into two 
 parts ; the upper portion formed the Heaven, and the 
 lower one the Earth." The distribution of the elements 
 is ascribed to the power of Hercules. 
 
 The emblems which enter into the compound form 
 of Hercules, according to this description of Athena- 
 goras, are those which denote physical power or 
 strength. Such is the probable etymology of his name ; 
 and his office was to uphold the distribution of the 
 universe. 
 
 * This sense might be affixed to the invocation of Nonnus, 
 an Egyptian poet : 
 
 Atrrpo^ircuv Hpocx\s$ t ava£ itvpog, op^a^s xocf^s 
 HeA<£ ZpO'T'soio Glov SoXi^oamls rfoipyjv, 
 tlukXov aysis peta xvkXcv. 
 
 u Starry-robed Hercules, king of fire, who 
 settest in array the universe : thou Sun, &c. who 
 revolvest circle after circle." 
 
118 OF THE OTHER EGYPTIAN GODS. 
 
 All that we know of the Egyptian Hercules is, that 
 his attribute was strength or power. We may hence 
 conjecture, that those phsenomena in nature which 
 present the most striking appearances of power and 
 energy were ascribed to him, and first suggested the 
 existence of this imaginary agent. 
 
 It is easy to understand why the Egyptians, who 
 established their rites among the Pelasgi, chose to 
 identify their Hercules, or god of strength, with 
 the story of a Grecian hero, famous for the exploits 
 which distinguish a barbarous chieftain. The labours 
 of the Boeotian Hercules were adventures of this class; 
 and yet it is possible that their number, and some of 
 their connections, might be subsequently arranged,, 
 with reference to the twelve signs of the Zodiac. 
 Porphyry gives this explanation of the labours of 
 Hercules, and the same idea occurs in a verse attri- 
 buted to Orpheus : 
 
 Awfisx car o.vtq'Kiwv &XP 1 ^v&ftwv a#Aa ^isprrayu. 
 
 (i Advancing through his twelve labours from 
 the east to the west."* 
 
 It appears that Jupiter, or Ammon, denoted the vital 
 force that moves and enlivens animated bodies. So 
 it would seem that by Hercules was expressed the 
 power which arranges and distributes the parts of 
 
 * Dupuis has written an elaborate commentary on this 
 passage, which displays much ingenuity, though, perhaps, it 
 is not likely to convince many persons of the truth of the 
 author's hypothesis. The reader may see an abstract of it in 
 the British Review, vol. 8, p. 370. Dupuis has taken it, 
 without acknowledgement, from Court de Gebelin's Monde 
 Primitif. 
 
THE EGYPTIAN PAN. 119 
 
 inanimate nature, which actuates and directs the 
 movements of those great masses, whose locomotion 
 excites the idea of prodigious strength. The Egyp- 
 tian Hercules was, perhaps, originally the same as 
 Atlas, who was himself an African deity, the god of 
 strength, or of that energy in nature that upholds the 
 world, or, as others say, that supports the pillars orr 
 which the universal fabric rests. 
 
 xiov oupavou rs xcCi %$ovog 
 o)[j.oig Ipzi&ov, ap/#o£ ovx euayxaXou.* 
 
 " Supporting on his shoulders the vast pillars 
 
 Of heaven and earthy a weight of cumbrous grasp."f 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 Pan. 
 
 Pan was one of the eight gods who constituted the 
 first or most ancient rank of the Egyptian deities. He 
 was worshipped in the Mendesian nome, under the 
 form of a he-goat, and gave his name to the city of 
 Mendes.J Of the abominations that were practised 
 in honour of this god, we shall have another occasion 
 to speak. At present we are only interested in his 
 office or attributes. 
 
 * iEschyli. Prometh. Vinct. 
 
 f Potter's Translation of iEschylus. 
 
 \ Herod, lib. ii. cap. 46. Suidas in voce Msvtys. A great 
 number of passages, referring to the worship of Mendes, are 
 collected by Bochart, in his Hierozoicon, part i. lib. ii. c. 43. 
 
120 OF THE OTHER EGYPTIAN GODS. 
 
 Ou this subject there is no obscurity. Suidas says, 
 that the goat was worshipped ec mg avaxL^svov rij 
 yovlfxcp Suvdt<u,sr oj/eutixov yap to %(Sov." The same idea 
 is assigned as the origin of these rites, by Diodorus 
 Siculus,* Horapollo,f and Nonnus, cited by Gregory 
 Nazianzen.J It is therefore undoubted, that Pan, 
 among the Egyptians, typified the power of animal 
 reproduction, or was the daemon who was supposed to 
 preside over that process by which all the species of 
 living creatures are perpetuated. The idea which 
 occasioned the form of the goat to be selected as a 
 symbol of this quality, is sufficiently obvious. The 
 Greeks give a similar explanation of the figure 
 attributed to the Grecian Pan. § 
 
 The worship of Mendes was confined to the Men- 
 desian nome; but there was a city in Upper Egypt, 
 which the Greeks also called Panopolis. This was 
 the city which the Egyptians termed Chemmis, or 
 Chemmo, and Diodorus interpreted its name, "the city 
 of Pan/' This was not, however, the same Pan that 
 was worshipped at Mendes. The latter had a form 
 resembling that of Priapus, and held in his hand the 
 whip of Osiris or Horns. In the account which 
 Stephanus gives of the god of Panopolis, || we 
 
 * Diod. Bibl. lib. i. p. 78. f Hieroglyph, lib. ii. c. 28. 
 
 X Collect. Hist, ad Greg. Invectivas. See the authorities 
 cited by Bochart. loc. cit. and by Jablonski, 
 
 § See Phurnut. de Nat. Deor. de Pane. Hymn. Orphic ad 
 Panem. 
 
 || Stephan. Byzant. voce Uavog iroXig. This author describes 
 the statue of Pan in almost the same terms which Plutarch 
 adopts in describing the figure of Osiris. He says, 'E<rti xa\ 
 
PAPREMIS, THE EGYPTIAN MARS. 121 
 
 recognise Osiris in one of his principal characters. As 
 Boubastis and Eilithyia occupy one of the offices of 
 Isis, so we find Mendes possessed of an attribute 
 which is elsewhere consigned to Osiris ; and it seems 
 to be evident, that the idol of Chemmis was only Osiris 
 or Horus, in the function which is proper to both of 
 them, viz. as presiding over animal generation. It is 
 not difficult to understand why the Greeks confounded 
 him with the god to whom this attribute particularly 
 belonged.* 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 PapremiSy the Egyptian Mars, 
 
 Another member of the Egyptian theocracy, of 
 whom we have but scanty accounts, was Papremis, 
 whom Herodotus calls Ares, or Mars. He was wor- 
 shipped in the province of the same name, under the 
 form of the Hippopotamus, f At least that animal 
 was the sacred beast and tutelar god of this district. 
 
 Ssfya, (T£?w)VY lt rjs s'SujXov faariv slvcu rav Tloiva. This was evi- 
 dently a statue of Osiris, or of Horus. See Plutarch, de Isid. 
 p. 371 3 and the Count de Cay] us, Recueil d'Antiq. torn vi. 
 where several figures of Osiris occur,exactly of this description. 
 
 * There is no ground, in any of the accounts which the 
 ancients have left us, for Jablonski's hypothesis, that the 
 worship of Mendes bore a reference to the Sun ; and the Coptic 
 interpretation of the name, on which that author founds his 
 conjecture, is forced and unsatisfactory. 
 
 f Herod, ii, cap. 71. Item, cap, 59 — 61, 
 
 R 
 
122 OF THE OTHER EGYPTIAN GODS. 
 
 Herodotus gives no hint that the worship of Pa- 
 premis was connected with that of Typhon; but we 
 learn from Plutarch, that the Hippopotamus was a 
 Typhonian animal. '•* At Hermopolis," says Plu- 
 tarch, " they show a statue of Typhon, which repre- 
 sents a river-horse, on the back of which stands a 
 hawk, fighting with a serpent/' He adds, cc that on 
 the seventh of Tybi, when the Egyptians celebrated 
 the arrival of Isis from Phoenicia, they made cakes 
 stamped with the form of a river-horse bound/' 
 
 Eusebius informs us that there was, in the city of 
 Apollinopolis, a statue of Horus, or Apollo, in the 
 act of transfixing Typhon. Apollo was represented 
 with a human figure and the head of a hawk, and 
 Typhon in the form of a Hippopotamus. He adds, 
 that the Hippopotamus was supposed to denote the 
 western pole or quarter of the heavens, and that he 
 was represented as gaping upwards and receiving 
 into his open jaws the descending Sun.* 
 
 The Hippopotamus was, in ancient times, well known in 
 Egypt, but had disappeared in the age of Julian. Nonnus 
 describes it in terms which prove that its habits were little 
 known in his time. 
 
 i* There swims upon the flood the wandering horse, 
 Whose huge black hoof shatters the silver wave." 
 
 Dionys. lib. xxvi. 
 
 From the time of Job, the Hippopotamus has been a type 
 pf strength and impetuosity. Bochart asserts it to be the 
 Behemoth. Hierozoic. part 2, lib. v. 
 
 * Euseb. Prosp. Ev. lib. iii. cap. 12. 
 
ANUBIS. 123 
 
 Prom these remarks, it would appear that Papre- 
 mis was a form or avatar of Typhon, the genius of 
 destruction. The Hippopotamus, the huge Behemoth, 
 was no unapt image of the god of war. 
 
 SECTION VII. 
 
 Anoubis, or Anubis. 
 
 Few of the Egyptian gods were more celebrated 
 than Anubis. He was greatly venerated by the 
 Egyptians in general, but chiefly in the city and 
 nome of Cynopolis. The statue of Anubis had the 
 head of a dog, and dogs were sacred in his dominion, 
 and fed in the temples, at the public charge.* 
 
 Anubis is mentioned by a great number of classical 
 authors.f Propertius alludes to him, in speaking of 
 Cleopatra. J 
 
 C( Ausa lovi nostro latrantem opponere Anubim, 
 Et Tiberim Nili cogere ferre minas," 
 
 * Strabo. lib. xv. p. 558. Stephan de urb. voc. nvvwv TtoXi;. 
 
 f A large collection of these authorities may be seen in 
 Bochart's Hierozoicon, part 1, lib. ii. cap. 56, page 69 1, to 
 which Jablonski has added some others. As there may be some 
 of my readers who have not access to either of these authors, I 
 shall give the citations. Herod, lib. ii. cap. 66. Diodor. 
 lib. i. p. 52, 54. Clemens Alex, in protreptico, p. 25. Lucian. 
 in Deorum concilio. Ovid, lib. ii. Amor. Eleg. 13. Athe- 
 nseus, lib. vii. p. 300. Virgil. iEneid. vii. v. 698. et Serviusad 
 locum. Plutarch de Iside et Osir. p, 368. item p. 380. iElian 
 de Animal, lib. xi. cap. 26. 
 
 % Propertius, lib. iii, eleg. 11. 
 
124 OF THE OTHER EGYPTIAN GODS. 
 
 The attribute of Anubis is enveloped in great 
 obscurity. Plutarch says that some of the Egyptian 
 writers understood, by Anubis, the horizontal circle 
 which divides the invisible from the visible part of 
 the world.* Jablonski has adopted this idea, and has 
 attempted to afford countenance to it by his etymo- 
 logy of the name of the god, which he derives from the 
 Coptic word "Nub, orAnnub/' signifying " Golden." 
 But this epithet would more aptly be applied to 
 twilight, the harbinger of day, than to the horizontal 
 circle ; and there are some considerations which 
 render it probable that this phenomenon, among 
 others, was refered to Anubis, and may have given 
 origin to the name. 
 
 Anubis was the constant companion and precursor 
 of Isis and Osiris, but chiefly of the former. Hence 
 the Greeks call him Hermes or Mercury. He is so 
 named by Martianus Capella, who mentions him in 
 the following lines ; 
 
 ■Qui solus ante currum 
 Et candidos jugales 
 Altipotens parentis 
 Memorem ciere virgam. 
 
 Satyrico, lib. ii. 
 
 Apuleius thus describes him, as appearing at the head 
 of the procession in honour of the goddess. ce Nee 
 mora, cum Dei dignati pedibus humanis incedere, 
 prodeunt ; hie horrendum attollens canis cervices 
 arduas, ille superum commeator et inferum, nunc 
 aurea, nunc atra facie sublimis, laeva caduceum^ 
 
 * Plut. ibid. 
 
ANUBIS. 125 
 
 gerens, dextra palmam virentem quatiens."* Dio- 
 dorus assigns him the same place, in front of the 
 pomp of Isis.f Plutarch says that Mercury, by 
 which name he here evidently means Anubis, is 
 seated in the Moon, in her circuit round the world, £ 
 and is represented as the faithful guardian of Isis. 
 
 Anubis may have had originally a meaning simply 
 physical; but his attributes were in later times at 
 least more extended, and he was regarded as the 
 harbinger of the gods, as the opener or beginner of 
 all their operations. He resembles in some respects 
 the Mercury, iu others the Janus of the Romans. 
 Thus he is called, by Statius, " the door-keeper."§ 
 
 u Te prseside noseat 
 Cur servet Pharias lethseus Janitor aras." 
 
 This relation, perhaps, suggested the idea that 
 Anubis was the Egyptian Kronus. We learn from 
 Plutarch, that this was the opinion of some writers in 
 his time. || 
 
 The physical explanation preferred by Jablonski 
 is incompatible with the testimony of Plutarch, men- 
 tioned above, viz. that Anubis was imagined to hold 
 his station in the Moon, and revolve with that planet 
 round the world. It is not less opposed to the state- 
 ment of the old writers^ that Mercury was a daemon, 
 who assisted the magician, and was every where 
 ready when roused by incantations. Dion Cassius 
 relates, that when the army of Marcus Aurelius was 
 distressed for want of rain,, the Egyptians, by means 
 
 * Apuleii Metamorph. lib. xi. f Diodor. lib. i. p. 78. 
 
 % Isid. cap. 43. § Statii Sylvarum, lib. iii. num. 2. v. 108. 
 [| Plut. Isid, p. 368. 
 
126 OF THE OTHER EGYPTIAN GODS. 
 
 of magical arts, obtained the aid of that Mercury who 
 dwells in the air, and of other daemons, and that 
 through their intervention relief was given to the 
 troops in salutary showers.* 
 
 After all, it must be confessed that the proper and 
 original character of Anubis lies under no small 
 degree of obscurity. It appears indeed, that in 
 heaven he held the office which the Greeks gave to 
 Aurora, the forerunner of day ; that in the festivals 
 of the gods he was the leader of the pompous pro- 
 cessions, and that he was regarded every where as 
 the companion or harbinger of Isis and Osiris. In 
 many particulars hi corresponds with Janus ; in 
 others with Mercury ; yet the resemblance to either 
 is far from complete. That Anubis had in the 
 Egyptian mythology the office of <c Pompaios/' or of 
 conducting the souls of the dead to their place of 
 destination, seems to be proved by some remains of 
 ancient painting and sculpture. f 
 
 SECTION VIII. 
 
 Thoth, or Mercury. 
 
 There was another Egyptian god, whom the 
 Greek and Latin writers uniformly name Hermes,, or 
 
 * In Epitome Xiphilin. 
 
 f See the Plate adjoined, where Anoubis is represented as 
 performing the office of the " Commeator Inferum." The 
 former of these figures is copied from Montfaucon's Antiquities, 
 and the latter from the Count de Caylus's Collection, See 
 also the figure of Anubis in the Frontispiece. 
 
THOTH, OR MERCURY. 137 
 
 Mercury. They say that in the Egyptian language 
 he was called Theuth, or Thoth. 
 
 To this Hermes all the science and learning of 
 the Egyptians were attributed. He taught them the 
 art of writing, gave them laws, and instructed them 
 in astronomy, geometry, medicine, and other sci- 
 ences.* Hence the books composed by the priests on 
 these subjects, which were preserved in the Egyptian 
 temples, were called Hermetic books, as being con- 
 secrated to Hermes, and supposed to be written by 
 persons inspired by this god.f 
 
 From this character of Hermes, many writers have 
 supposed that he was a learned man, who made many 
 useful inventions, and was deified through gratitude. J 
 But this notion is evidently of Grecian origin, and 
 foreign to the habits and ideas of the Egyptians. 
 Thoth appears to have been a god of the same class 
 with the other objects of Egyptian worship, and to 
 have had either a physical, or an ideal origin. 
 
 Like other Egyptian deities, Thoth had a sacred 
 animal appropriated to him, whose form was con- 
 nected with his particular rites. The animal conse- 
 crated to Thoth was the Ibis,§ that bird of which 
 such prodigious numbers have been found embalmed 
 in mummy-pits. It is reported by many authors, 
 
 * Plat, in Philebo. p. 156. Cicero de Nat. Deor. lib. iii. 
 cap. 22. 
 
 f Iamblich. de Mysteriis iEgypt. 
 
 X Authorities cited by Harles, in the first vol. of Fabricius's 
 Biblioth. Graec. De Hermeticis libris, 
 
 § The consecrated animal of Thoth was the Ibis, according 
 to Plato in Phaedro, p. 212. Horapoll. Hieroglyph, lib i, cap. 
 10, et 36. iElian. de Animal, lib. x. cap. 29, 
 
128 OF THE OTHER EGYPTIAN GODS. 
 
 that Mercury, when the gods were assailed by Typhon, 
 changed himself into an Ibis, in order to elude the 
 pursuit of that monster.* 
 
 Pisce Venus latuit, Cyllenius Ibidis alis. 
 
 Ovid. Met. lib. v. 330. 
 
 The Ibis, then, was the favourite form of Mercury, 
 or that representation under which he chose to be wor- 
 shipped by his votaries in Egypt, particularly in the 
 Hermopoiite nome. Let us now inquire further into 
 the nature of this god. 
 
 We have seen that his attribute was science, or that 
 he was supposed to preside over and inspire all the 
 sacred or mystical learning of the Egyptian hierarchy. 
 We have found however, that the gods of this peo- 
 ple had in general their origin in some physical idea, 
 rather than in any metaphysical or abstract conception. 
 Hence there is reason to suspect that the same obser- 
 vation may be true respecting Thoth, or Hermes. 
 The allusion which the form of the Ibis, as an emblem 
 or hieroglyphic, is said to contain, will perhaps direct 
 us to the original sense of this ideal being. 
 
 Horapollo informs us that the Egyptians cc designate 
 the heart by the emblematical figure of the Ibis ; for 
 this animal/' he adds, ff is intimately connected with 
 Hermes, the president of the heart, and of the reason- 
 ing faculty ; the form of the Ibis itself bears a singular 
 resemblance to the heart, and this congruity is a 
 
 * Ci Quo timore permotos (deos) in alias figuras se conver- 
 tjsse, Mercurium factum esse Ibidem, &c. ,> Hyginus. Poet. 
 Astron. lib. ii. cap. 28. See also Antoninus Liberalis ; Fab. 
 28, aud Apollodorus, lib, i. p. 21. 
 
THOTH, OR THE EGYPTIAN MERCURY. 129 
 
 circumstance much noticed by the Egyptians/'* iElian 
 also says that " the Egyptian fabulists observed that 
 the Ibis,, when it was seen sitting with its neck bent 
 forwards, and its head concealed under its wings, re- 
 sembled the form of the heart/' 
 
 The Ibis was therefore the emblem by which the 
 Egyptians represented the heart ; and we are informed 
 that they, in common with many other ancient nations, 
 regarded the heart as the seat of the intellect. f We 
 may consider this as the physical idea which gave 
 origin to the Egyptian Hermes, who, as Horapollo 
 says, was the president of the heart, or a personifica- 
 tion of that wisdom that was supposed to dwell in the 
 inward parts/' 
 
 * Horapoll. Hierog. lib. i. cap. 10. 
 
 f Some passages in the writings of Solomon show that this 
 was the notion of the Hebrews, at the time when their con- 
 nection with the Egyptians was most intimate. " He hath 
 put understanding in the heart, and wisdom in the inward 
 parts." — Ecclesiastes. 
 
 Not only the passions, but the rational powers, were by most 
 of the ancients referred to the heart ; and Galen thought it ne- 
 cessary to enter into a formal argument, in order to show that 
 the understanding or the reason, which he calls ee ro fjyspovtKov," 
 the governing principle, had its chief seat in the brain. Galen 
 de Dogm. Hippocrat. et Plat, 
 
 The passions are still, in vulgar language, referred to the 
 heart ; and the origin of this prejudice is very obvious. It is 
 alluded to in the following quaint verses of Anaxandrides, the 
 comic poet of Rhodes. 
 
ISO POPULAR RELIGION OF THE EGYPTIANS. 
 
 The last-mentioned writer observes, " that besides 
 the Ibis, one species of Scarabaeus was consecrated to 
 Hermes."* 
 
 " O malicious heart ! 
 Thou alone rejoicest in the evils of the body, 
 For thou leapest whenever it is seized with terror." 
 
 See Athenseus. Deipnosophistse, lib. xv. p. 688, and Casaubon. 
 Animadvers. p. 973. 
 
 * Though the existence of Thoth among the Egyptian gods 
 seems as well supported by ancient authority as that of most 
 other members of the theocracy, yet Jablonski has whimsically 
 chosen to erase him from the list, merely because the word 
 Thu-othi, in the Coptic, signifies a pillar. Hence he con- 
 jectures, with much ingenuity, that the name of the pillars or 
 obelisks on which the sciences of the Egyptians were set forth 
 in inscriptions^ gave rise to a mistake, and occasioned the in- 
 vention of the god Thoth. Yet the worship of the Ibis was so 
 celebrated, and has left us so many vestiges, and the testimony 
 is so uniform, that Thoth was the god adored under this form, 
 that the existence of Osiris himself, (such existence as can 
 be predicated of beings engendered in the brains of pagan 
 mythologists) is scarcely better authenticated than that of the 
 first Hermes. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 OF THE EGYPTIAN GODDESSES. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 Of Isis. 
 
 The ancient writers mention several Egyptian 
 goddesses. Most of these, however, if not all of 
 them, appear to have been nothing else than varied 
 forms or characters of Isis. Before we consider the 
 descriptions of these goddesses, it will be necessary 
 to recapitulate and generalize the observations made 
 in a former chapter, on the attributes of Isis. 
 
 Jablonski considers Isis as simply denoting the 
 Moon. It is certain that the worship of this goddess 
 had a close relation to the Moon; and there are some 
 passages in which the ancient writers intimate, or 
 expressly declare, that Isis was only another name 
 for that planet. We have cited a passage from 
 Diodorus, in which he informs us, cc that the Sun and 
 Moon were adored by the Egyptians under the titles 
 of Osiris and Isis." The same assertion is made by 
 Diogenes Laertius.* We are also told by Plutarch, 
 that some authors expressly affirmed " that Osiris 
 was the Sun, and that Isis was nothing else than the 
 Moon ; that some of the images of this goddess were 
 accordingly made with horns, in imitation of the 
 
 * Diogenes Laertius de Vit. Philos. in Prooem. 
 
132 POPULAR RELIGION OF THE EGYPTIANS. 
 
 lunar crescent,, and were attired in sable robes, to 
 denote those occultations and shadowings which the 
 Moon undergoes in the pursuit of the Sun ; that for 
 this reason the Moon was invoked in all affairs of 
 love, over which Eudoxus affirms that Isis presides/'* 
 The well-known story of the Argive Io was doubtless 
 founded on the Egyptian fables relating to Isis. Jab- 
 lonski has remarked that Io was the common term for 
 the Moon in the Coptic language; and he has cited 
 some passages which declare that the ancient people 
 of Argos invoked the Moon by this appellation. f 
 
 But the name of Isis seems only to have been ap- 
 plied to the Moon in the same manner in which Virgil 
 gives the appellation of Ceres to that celestial body. 
 The general acceptation of both these names is 
 much more extensive. 
 
 Herodotus repeatedly observes, cc that Isis corres- 
 ponded with the Demeter of the Greeks/' % and 
 Diodorus confirms this assertion. Demeter, or Ge- 
 rneter, as the name sufficiently proves, meant origi- 
 nally the Earth, and the epithet is thus explained by 
 Lucretius : § 
 
 Linquitur at merito maternum nomen adepta 
 Terra sit, e terr& quoniam sint cuneta creata. 
 
 « The Earth is rightly called the Mother, 
 
 Since from the teeming Earth all things arise." 
 
 * Plutarch de Isid. et Osir. cap. 52. 
 f Jablonski Panth. iEgypt. 
 
 % Icrtg 8s la-ri %OL r ta. fyp EAA^vwv y\w<r<rav AypyTyp. Herod, 
 lib. ii. cap. 59. 
 
 § Lucret. de Rer. Nat. lib. v. 796. 
 
EGYPTIAN GODDESSES. ISIS. ]&3 
 
 Macrobius, whom we have before cited,, agrees 
 with these authors. He says, ec Nee in occulto est, 
 neque aliud esse Osirim quam Solem, nee aliud Isin 
 esse quam Terrain ;"* and again, cc Isis est vel 
 Terra, vel Natura rerum subjacens Soli."f Plutarch 
 generalizes all the attributes or characters of Isis, and 
 considers her as representing " the female qualities 
 or powers of Nature, which are the passive principles 
 of generation in all productions; whence," he says, 
 " she is called, by Plato, the Nurse/' and the " All- 
 receiving, and is commonly termed Myrionymus, 
 or ce Possessing ten thousand names." \ The same 
 idea is more diffusely expressed by Apuleius, in a 
 passage in which Isis calls herself, cc Natura, rerum 
 parens, elementorum omnium domina" — ec quae cceli 
 luminosa culmina, maris salubria flumina, Inferorum 
 deplorata silentia, nutibus meis dispenso; cujus 
 numen unicum, multiformi specie, ritu vario, nomine 
 multijugo, totus veneratur orbis/'§ 
 
 The sphere of the Moon, as we have already 
 observed from the testimony of Macrobius and 
 Ocellus, was regarded as the boundary of the celestial 
 and the sublunary world. The Moon was the great 
 moving body of the lower heavens, in which Isis 
 was supposed to receive the fertilizing influences of 
 Osiris, and to disseminate them through the nether 
 regions. Hence it seems to have happened that the 
 Moon was considered as the chief seat of the genial 
 goddess of Nature. 
 
 * Macrob. Saturn, lib. i. c. 21. f Macrob. lib. citat. c. 20. 
 X Plut. de Isid. cap. 53. § Apuleius, lib. xi. 
 
134 POPULAR RELIGION OF THE EGYPTIANS. 
 
 Other passages of a similar import have been adduced 
 in a foregoing section, in which we have considered 
 the Orphic theology and the division of Nature into 
 masculine and feminine attributes. 
 
 On the whole, we may conclude that Isis repre- 
 sented the cc tf>u(rig 7ramio'Aog," the " Naiura Multi- 
 formis" of the Greek and Roman mythologists. 
 
 We now proceed to the remaining goddesses of 
 Egypt, who owe their origin to a subdivision of the 
 attributes of Isis. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 Of Boubastis, called, by the Greeks, Artemis, or Diana. 
 
 In the city of Bubastis, or Bubastos, there was a 
 celebrated temple dedicated to the goddess Bubastis.* 
 ec This name, " says Herodotus, " is synonymous with 
 the Greek Artemis, or Diana. Bubastis was the 
 daughter of Osiris and Isis/'f We have very scanty 
 accounts of this divinity: it would appear that her 
 worship had been discontinued, or had sunk into ob- 
 scurity, before Egypt fell under the Roman yoke. 
 Otherwise Juvenal would scarcely have said,J 
 
 " Oppida tota canem venerantur, nemo Dianam." 
 
 We may, however, rest satisfied, that her rites and 
 character corresponded nearly with those of the 
 
 * Herod, lib. ii. cap. 136. Stephan. de Urbibus. 
 f Herod, lib. citat. cap. 156. % Juvenal, Sat. xv. v. $. 
 

 EGYPTIAN GODDESSES. BUBASTIS. 135 
 
 Grecian Diana, from the constant testimony of Hero- 
 dotus, who frequently alludes to the Egyptian goddess, 
 under the Greek name. Like Diana, Boubastis was 
 a chaste goddess; at least she is called by Ovid, 
 cc Sancta Bubastis;" and, like Dian or Lucina, she 
 presided over child-birth. Hence the following 
 epigram of Nicarchus, cited by Jablonski from the 
 Anthology.* 
 
 obra) Bou£ao"T/£ xoLTOLhuerai' hi yao exafrrr) 
 ts^stoli wg olutt}, rig Seov ectti "Koyog. 
 
 te Thus shall Boubastis lose her dignity : 
 If every dame should be delivered thus, 
 The goddess may go starving." 
 
 Bubastis was worshipped or represented under the 
 form of a Cat, and all the cats that died in Egypt were 
 salted and buried at Bubastos.f From the peculiar 
 veneration in which these animals were held by the 
 Egyptians, we may conjecture that this goddess was a 
 great favourite. Ovid alludes to her assuming the 
 shape of the cat. J 
 
 " Fele soror Phcebi; nivea Saturnia vacca; 
 Pisce Venus latuit." 
 
 The cat, according to Plutarch, was honoured by 
 the Egyptians, and its image was carved on the 
 sistrum of Isis, with a peculiar reference to the Moon, 
 with the changes of whose aspect that animal was 
 supposed to have a certain mysterious sympathy. § 
 
 * Jablonski Panth. f Herod, lib. ii. cap. 67. 
 t Ovid.Metam. lib. 5, v. 330. § Plut, Isid. cap. 6d. 
 
136 POPULAR RELIGION OP THE EGYPTIANS. 
 
 The sistrum is indeed generally found connected with 
 the images of the cat in Egyptian sculpture. Lucina, 
 or Diana, the goddess of child-birth among the 
 Greeks and Romans, bore also some near relation to 
 the Moon, and, as such, she is termed Diva Triformis. 
 
 (( Montium custos nemorumque virgo, 
 Quae laborantes utero puellas, 
 Ter vocata audis adimisque letho 
 
 Diva Triformis."* 
 
 The triple form probably refers to the three phases 
 of the Moon. 
 
 The same goddess is invoked in the Carmen 
 Saeculare, as follows : 
 
 " Rite maturos aperire partus 
 Lenis llithyia, tuere matres, 
 Sive tu Lucina probas vocari, 
 
 Seu Genitalis." 
 
 She is termed Genitalis, as being favourable to the 
 production of living creatures. 
 
 But the lunar goddess was not equally propitious 
 to child-birth in all her three phases or aspects. The 
 superstitious notion, that certain ages of the Moon 
 were most favourable to infants and to all new 
 productions, and that other aspects were unlucky, 
 prevailed very extensively; but we do not find an 
 universal agreement in the particular ideas with 
 which it was connected. Among the Jews, the full 
 moon was believed to be lucky, and the two other 
 aspects disastrous. " The full moon," says the Rabbi 
 
 * Horat. Od. lib. iii. 22. 
 
BUBASTIS. PHASES OF THE MOON. 137 
 
 Abravanel, "is propitious to new-born children; but 
 if the child be born in the increase or in the wane, 
 the horns of that planet cause death; or if it survive, 
 it is generally guilty of some enormous crime."* 
 
 The Jewish Rabbins probably derived many parts 
 of their dsernonology from the Egyptians, but we 
 cannot venture to ascribe this superstition to the 
 latter people without some further proof. 
 
 The Greeks and Romans entertained a similar idea 
 respecting the lunar phases. The general opinion 
 among them seems to have been, that the Moon 
 presented a lucky aspect, or was propitious to child- 
 birth, as long as its luminous face was on the increase, 
 especially when near the full, and that the waning 
 period was unfavourable. 
 
 Plutarch affirms that the Moon was supposed, when 
 full, to assist at child-birth and relieve the pains 
 of women. Hence, he says, (C Diana is called 
 Lochia, and Eilethyia, or Lucina, a name which refers 
 to the Moon ; and that planet was expressly termed 
 by the poet Timotheus, eoxuroxog^-f cc the helper and 
 quickener of child-birth." In another work, Plu- 
 tarch adds " that women go through their labour 
 most easily at the full moon. "J Proclus observes 
 sc that various productions prosper when the moon 
 is getting full, and fail when it is waning. "§ Horace 
 invokes 
 
 Rite crescentem face Noetilucam 
 Prosperam frugum.|| 
 
 * Basnage's Hist, des Juifs. liv. iv. chap. 11. 
 t Plutarch Sympos. lib. iii. p. 658. 
 % Idem in Quaestionibus Romanis. 
 § Proclus in Hesiod. Op. et dies. 
 II Horat. Carm. lib. iv. od.6. 
 
138 EGYPTIAN GODDESSES. 
 
 As this fable was common to several nations whose 
 superstitions were derived in great part from Egypt, it 
 is probable that the Egyptians had some notion of a 
 similar kind; and this seems to be proved by our 
 finding that the cat, which was thought to be sym- 
 bolical of the Moon, represented the Egyptian Diana 
 or Boubastis. What the particular notion of the 
 Egyptians on this subject may have been, we have no 
 opportunity of determining. Jablonski has made an 
 attempt at deciding on this point, but I think he is 
 unsuccessful. I shall add some observations on his 
 theory respecting the superstitions connected with 
 the phases of the Moon, in a subsequent page. 
 
 On the whole we may conclude that Boubastis, or 
 that goddess whose emblem was a cat, represented 
 the beneficial influence which the Moon, or a female 
 daemon residing in the moon, was imagined to exert 
 over childbirth and pregnant women. It was pro- 
 bably to the rites of this goddess that Chseremon 
 chiefly alluded, in a passage quoted above, where he 
 says that a part of the Egyptian mythology referred to 
 the phases of the Moon. 
 
 The office of Boubastis is only one of the various 
 functions of Isis; and the names and attributes of 
 these goddesses coalesce. Both are nearly related to 
 the Moon ; and Isis, as well as Boubastis, was invoked 
 by parturient women, as Eilethyia, or Lucina. 
 
 Isi, Parsetonium, genialiaque arva Canopi 
 
 Quae colis, et Memphin, palmiferamque Pharon, 
 
 ***** 
 
 Per tua sistra precor, per Anubidis ora verenda : 
 Lenis ades, precibusque meis fave ; Ilithyia. 
 

 BUBASTIS. — HER RELATION TO ISIS. 139 
 
 * O Isis, who delight'st to haunt the fields 
 Where fruitful Nile his golden harvest yields, 
 Who dwell'st in Memphis and the Pharian towers i 
 Assist Corinna with thy friendly powers. 
 Thee, by thy silver sistrum, I conjure, 
 A life so precious by thy aid secure ; 
 So may'st thou with Osiris still find grace. 
 Oh ! by Anubis' venerable face 
 I pray thee ; so may still thy rites divine, 
 Flourish, and serpents round thy offering twine. 
 May horned Apis at thy pomp attend, 
 So thou the fair Corinna dost befriend."* 
 
 Diodorus has asserted that the city of Boubastis 
 was erected in honour of Isis. Here the two god- 
 desses are evidently confounded, or we must suppose 
 that they were regarded as two personifications of 
 the same power or attribute of nature. The Grecian 
 Ceres and Proserpine seem to have been related to 
 each other in the same manner. 
 
 Ovid. Amor. lib. ii. Eleg. 13, Dryden's Translation. 
 
 
140 EGYPTIAN GODDESSES. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 Eilethyia. 
 
 Diodorus mentions an Egyptian goddess to whom 
 a city in the Thebaid was dedicated, and whose name 
 he interprets, according to his custom, by the title of 
 the corresponding goddess in the Grecian mythology.* 
 The denomination he assigns to this goddess is Eile- 
 thyia, the Grecian Lucina. The historian says " that 
 she was reckoned among the ancient or elder divini- 
 ties, of the same class with Jupiter, the Sun, Hermes, 
 Apollo, and Pan." The distinction of ancient gods 
 might be thought to exclude Isis,f if the name of 
 Apollo were not expressly mentioned. Since, how- 
 ever, we find Apollo, or Horus, included in this class, 
 we are allowed to suppose that the Eilethyia of Upper 
 Egypt may have been Isis, or Boubastis, under some 
 particular form. We have seen that the office of 
 Lucina was attributed to both these goddesses in the 
 Egyptian mythology. 
 
 Eusebius also mentions Eilethyia, and the city 
 where she was worshipped. He adds, cc that every 
 
 * Diodor. Sid. lib. i. 
 
 f In the Grecian theogony, Diana was a younger goddess 
 than Ceres, who corresponds with the Egyptian Isis. Yet the 
 Greeks sometimes made Lucina one of their ancient or elder 
 goddesses. Olen, the Delian mythological poet, who lived 
 before Homer, represented Lucina as the same with Tieitpia^,Bvr lt 
 or Fate, as made her more ancient than Saturn. See Pausa- 
 nias. Arcadica. 21. 
 
VINDICTIVE ISIS. THE EGYPTIAN HECATE. 141 
 
 third day/' meaning, probably, the third in each 
 lunation, {C was consecrated to her, and that her 
 images had the form of a female vulture, with its 
 wings spread, and composed of precious stones." This 
 bird was in a particular manner sacred to the Moon.* 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 Of Isis, in her maleficent or vindictive character. Tithrambo, 
 Hecate, or Brimo. 
 
 It is well known that, among the Greeks, Diana, or 
 the daughter of Ceres, f or Ceres herself, for these 
 personages are but faintly distinguished from each 
 other and often coalesce, was supposed to have 
 changed her form on her descent to Hades, and to 
 have become a goddess of stern and vindictive cha- 
 racter. Hecate, or Proserpine, (who was the same 
 goddess, under a different name,) J was the punisher 
 of guilt, and the mistress of the Furies. Hence she 
 is described, by Nonnus, as supplying those direful 
 avengers with arms. || 
 
 * Euseb. Prsep. Evangel, lib. iii. cap. 12. 
 
 f See Schol. ad Lycophron. Cassand. v. 1176, and parti- 
 cularly Meursius's Commentary on the passage. 
 
 X Diana was the daughter of Ceres, according to the most 
 correct mythologists. See Herod, lib. ii. Horus and Bou- 
 bastis were nursed by Bouto or Latona; hence arose the 
 mistake of the Greeks, who fancied that Apollo and Diana 
 were the son and daughter of Latona. 
 
 || Nonni Dionysiac. 
 
142 EGYPTIAN GODDESSES. 
 
 cc Tlsptre^ivrj Scopri^su 'Epivuvag." 
 
 And Virgil speaks of her as leading them in her train. 
 
 " Nocturnisque Hecate triviis ululata per urbes 
 Et dirae Ultrices." 
 
 Even Ceres herself assumed the form of an Erinnys or 
 Fury; and this metamorphosis is described by Apol- 
 lodorus and Pausanias. It is alluded to in the follow- 
 ing verse of Antimachus : 
 
 AyfjLriTpog roKe Qourh HLpivvmg ehai sMQ\ov* 
 ec This they report to be the shrine of the Fury Ceres." 
 
 Lycophron calls this goddess 
 
 Ewa/« 
 Eptfov' JLpMug Qovpla ^KpYj^opog.-f 
 
 <c Erinnys raging, with the brandished sword, 
 Queen of Sicilian Enna's flowery meads. "% 
 
 Callimachus thus describes Ceres, assuming her 
 vindictive form.§ 
 
 £i7rsu o ircCig, ~Ns{xs(rig §s xolx?\v lypa-i^aro (pcovrjV 
 H6[xara [zzv -/kpa-m, xeCpoCha. Ss ol a\|/ar OXu/jwra>* 
 
 * Pausan. Arcad. cap. 25. 
 t Lycophron. Cassand. v. 11 77« 
 
 J Lord Royston's translation of Lycophron, published in 
 the Classical Journal. 
 
 § Callimach, Hymn, ad Cererem. 
 
VINDICTIVE ISIS. THE EGYPTIAN HECATE. 143 
 
 oi [lev ap rjfJuOvrjrsg lire) tolv 7t6tviolv eiftov 
 e^a7riUYjg a7ropov(rof.v. 
 
 <e He said, and on her fatal tablet Nemesis 
 Inscribed the words. Damater, burnt with rage, 
 Straightway assumed her godlike form, and trod 
 The ground, while with her awful head she touched 
 Heaven's canopy. The demi-gods beheld 
 The fearful aspect, and in hasty flight 
 Sought safety.'' 
 
 It is further remarkable that this vengeful Hecate, 
 the leader of the Furies, who so much resembles a 
 phantom engendered b}^ the terrors of a guilty con- 
 science^ is still strangely connected with the Moon. 
 Like the chaste Dian, she has a triple form., corres- 
 ponding with the three lunar aspects. Lycophron 
 calls Hecate, 
 
 x7<ayyoucn Tap£rjG-ou<ra hv()y_ioi$ QpoTGug* 
 
 " The spouse 
 Of gloomy Dis, queen of the triple form, 
 Persean Brimo, who with fearful yells 
 Disturbs our slumbers in the gloom of night." 
 
 The triple form referred originally, as Phurnutus 
 declares, to the three phases of the Moon : her 
 statue had three heads. 
 
 Ora vides Hecates in tres vergentia partes. f 
 
 * Lycophron, v. 1177* 
 
 f Ovid, Fast. lib. i. Meursius has collected a number of 
 passages referring to the triple form of this goddess, in his 
 Commentary on Lycophron's Cassaudra, v. 117G. 
 
144 EGYPTIAN GODDESSES. 
 
 In the Egyptian mythology also we learn that Isis 
 assumed the vindictive character, though we have but 
 scanty information on this subject. The goddess was 
 supposed to inflict various diseases, such as madness, 
 but particularly blindness, on those who incurred her 
 wrath. This idea is expressed in an epigram of 
 Lucilius, contained in the Anthology.* 
 
 r}V riif £)(yis Sy£0£ov Aiov6(rie juwj xoLTOLpa<rr\ 
 
 rr\v \<rw tovtio, [xyj^s tov AfA<pixpoLT7) 
 ju,7$* sing Tu<pAot>£ 7roiei dsog. 
 
 And in a passage of Ovid. 
 
 Vidi ego linigerae numen violasse fatentem 
 
 Isidis,, Isiacos ante sedere focos. 
 Alter ob huic similem privatus lumine culpam, 
 
 Claraabat media, se meruisse, via.f 
 
 Whether the vindictive Isis was distinguished by 
 peculiar rites is not certainly known; but, from the 
 circumstance that the Greeks describe an Egyptian 
 Hecate, it seems probable. That certain rites were 
 performed in honour of a goddess whom the Greeks 
 considered as the same with the Egyptian Hecate, 
 appears from a passage in Epiphanius, which has not 
 escaped the industrious research of Jablonski. 
 
 AxXo/ Ss rij TiQpa[A,£ia 3 TLxoltji IpjU/qvsuoj&si/Tj, srspot 
 Trj Ns$6i/f, aXhoi 8s rij QsppovQi tsXig-xovtou. 
 
 <c Some are initiated in the rites of Tithrambo, which 
 is interpreted Hecate; others in those of Nephthys, 
 
 * Cited by Jablonski. 
 
 f Ovid. Epist. de Ponto. lib. i. cap. 1. 
 
NEPHTHYS, THE EGYPTIAN VENUS. 145 
 
 and some in those of Thermuthis. Diodorus Siculus 
 also speaks of a temple of Hecate the Dark. 
 
 Hecate had therefore distinct rites in Egypt, and 
 We must refer to her all that has been said respecting 
 the vindictive Isis. 
 
 In the following* invocation of Apuleius to Isis, her 
 various characters are assembled. " Regina cceli sive 
 tu Ceres alma, frugum parens originalis — seu tu cceles- 
 tis Venus, — seu Phoebi soror quae partu fcetarum me- 
 delis lenientibus recreato, populos tantos educasti — 
 sen nocturnis ululatibus horrenda Proserpina, triformi 
 specie larvales impetus comprimens, terraeque claustra 
 cohibens, vario cultu propitiaris." 
 
 Thus it appears that Isis, or the triform goddess, 
 that is, Isis residing in the moon, was worshipped with 
 various rites, as a malignant or benignant power. In 
 the former, we scarcely distinguished her from Bou- 
 bastis, or Diana ; in the latter she may be regarded as 
 corresponding with the Grecian Hecate. We now 
 proceed to the celestial Venus, whom Apuleius also 
 identifies with Isis, but who appears to bear no par- 
 ticular relation to the Moon. 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 NephthySy or Venus Urania. 
 
 Nephthys, the sister of Isis and the wife of Typhon, 
 was called by the Greeks, Aphrodite ; she differs, how- 
 ever, in a great many particulars, from the Grecian 
 Venus. 
 
 u 
 
146 EGYPTIAN GODDESSES. 
 
 Plutarch gives us a physical explanation of Neph- 
 thys. He says, cc the horizontal circle divides the 
 lower and invisible parts of the world from the upper 
 and visible. The former is by the Egyptians called 
 Nephthys; the latter, Isis."* 
 
 We learn from Hesychius, that the Egyptians wor- 
 shipped a goddess whom the Greeks called (C A<ppo^lr^ 
 S*or/a/' f* the dark or nocturnal Venus. "f This was 
 evidently Nephthys 
 
 Chaeremon, the Egyptian priest whom we have 
 before quoted, enumerates among the physical objects 
 which his people worshipped, " the nocturnal and 
 diurnal hemisphere/ 'J He thus confirms the testimony 
 of Plutarch. Nephthys is the divinity of the dark or 
 infernal hemisphere. 
 
 This interpretation is further confirmed by Hora- 
 pollo, who says, cc that the upper hemisphere of the 
 heavens was called, by the Egyptians, Minerva, and 
 the lower one, Juno."§ We shall have occasion to 
 show, that Minerva and Isis are frequently identified 
 in the Egyptian mythology. It is here evident, that 
 Horapollo gives the name of Juno to the same goddess, 
 whom the writers we have before appealed to call 
 Venus. This will presently be still more manifest. 
 
 Herodotus assures us, that the Egyptians had no 
 goddess corresponding with the Juno of the classical 
 mythology. When the Greek writers mention Juno 
 
 * Plut, de Isid. cap, 44. t Hesych. voce 2xor/a. 
 
 % Chaeremon apud Porphyrium loc. supra cit. 
 
 § Aox.£7 itap Aiyviftlois 'Afyva juiy, to avw *ov 'Qvpccvov 'H/ucr- 
 fyfyiov direix-ri^hou' to $g xarw 'Hpa. Horapollo de Hierogh 
 lib. i. cap. IK 
 
NEPHTHYS, THE EGYPTIAN VENUS. 147 
 
 among the divinities of that people, we are to under- 
 stand the celestial Venus, whose attributes coincide in 
 many particulars with those of Juno, and whose wor- 
 ship was very celebrated among the Eastern nations, 
 /Elian, in speaking of a town in the Hermopolitan 
 nome, adds, — C( in that town they worship Venus, 
 calling her Urania, or Celestial, and paying honours 
 to a sacred cow."* This circumstance, that the 
 celestial Venus was worshipped in the form of a cow, 
 is important. 
 
 We are told by Strabo also, that the sacred animal 
 of Venus was a white cow; and that her worship was 
 celebrated in more than one place in Egypt. He says, 
 " the Momemphite people adore Venus, and have a 
 sacred cow, which they keep in the same manner as 
 the Apis is kept at Memphis, and the Mnevis at Helio- 
 polis." This geographer, in describing the nome 
 of Aphroditopolis, remarks, that it contains a city 
 of the same name as the city of Venus, where a white 
 cow is kept, which the people regard as sacred, f 
 
 Now it is worthy of notice that the white cow is 
 mentioned expressly as the animal form of Juno. 
 
 ' latuit nive& Saturnia vacca.J Ovid. 
 
 The conclusion to be drawn is, that Juno and the 
 celestial Venus are the same. 
 
 From all these testimonies we are authorized in 
 determining, as a matter fully established, that the 
 
 * iEHan. de Animal, lib. x. cap. 2*J. 
 
 f Strabo. lib. xVii. p, 552. Item. p. 556. 
 
 J That Venus, who assumed the form of a fish, was probably 
 a goddess more allied to the Grecian Venus, the offspring 
 of the sea; or she might represent Nephthys, in another 
 character, as the sea-goddess. 
 
148 EGYPTIAN GODDESSES. 
 
 goddess Nephthys, sometimes called Urania the 
 celestial, or the dark or nightly Venus, at other 
 times Juno or Saturnia, was worshipped in various 
 parts of Egypt ; that a white cow was the sacred animal 
 or living symbol of this goddess, and that she repre- 
 sented the divinity of the dark or nightly heavens. 
 
 In other respects, the information that we can collect 
 concerning this goddess is very scanty. She had 
 mysteries of her own, as we learn from Epiphanius,* 
 into which certain persons chose to be initiated. It is 
 difficult to say in what respects she resembled the 
 Grecian Venus, except in the looseness of her cha- 
 racter, f which was too common a failing among 
 heathen goddesses, to furnish occasion for any parti- 
 cular remark. 
 
 We learn further, by comparing a passage of Orion 
 the grammarian, preserved in the Etymologicum Mag- 
 num, with one of Hesychius, that the Egyptian Venus 
 had also the name of Athyr or Athyri. ee Athyri/' says 
 the former, cc is the name of a month, and the Egyp- 
 tians call Venus Athor, giving to the third month of 
 their calendar the denomination of that goddess/'J 
 Hesychius interprets Athyr to be the name of a month, 
 and likewise the denomination of an ox or cow, in the 
 
 Epiphan. loc. supra citato, 
 
 f During the absenceof Isis, Nephthys contrived to inveigle 
 Osiris, who mistook her for his wife, and begot a spurious on> 
 spring, which was afterwards called Anubis. Isis discovered 
 the cheat by means of a garland of Melilotus, which Osiris left 
 with her sister. — Plut. de Isid. cap. 14. Plutarch gives an 
 ingenious explanation of this fable, which, however, has no ; 
 reference to our present purpose. 
 
 \ Etym. Magn. voce 'AQvo. 
 
NEPHTHYS, THE EGYPTIAN VENUS. 149 
 
 Egyptian language.* By this he probably meant that 
 it was the appellation of the sacred cow of Aphrodito- 
 polis. This city is besides called by Herodotus, 
 Atarbechis, f which is only Atar-baki, J or the city of 
 Atar or Athyr ; and the historian has informed us, that 
 it contained a temple of Venus. 
 
 From all these evidences we learn that Venus had 
 the same appellation as the Egyptian month Athyr, or 
 Athyri.§ 
 
 This name, however, was not peculiar to Nephthys, 
 but common to her and her sister Isis ; for Plutarch 
 affirms that Isis was called Athyri.§ cc Athyri," says 
 Plutarch, ec is interpreted the mundane habitation of 
 Horus," that is, perhaps, the region in which Horus as 
 the Sun is enclosed, and in which he may be said to 
 dwell; for this seems to be rather a periphrastic epi- 
 thet than a close translation of the name. The Sun 
 
 * Hesych. f Herod, lib. ii. cap. 41. 
 
 % See Jablonski, Pantheon. iEgypt. lib. i. cap. 1. 
 
 § It is plain that the name of this goddess was Athyr, or 
 Athyri, and not Athdr, as Jablonski would have it, in order that 
 it may sound more like Ejor, which, in the modern Coptic, 
 means Night. The resemblance, however, is very faint. 
 
 Jablonski has very diligently collected authorities in favour 
 of his own idea respecting the Egyptian Venus, but has passed 
 over those which are adverse to it, particularly Plutarch's 
 account, which directly contradicts him. By Athor, he sup- 
 poses that the Egyptians personified primeval night, or Chaos; 
 but this explanation is purely conjectural, aud the testimonies 
 above adduced seem to me fully sufficient to establish a very 
 different idea. There is not one fact that renders it probable 
 that the Egyptians, in the worship of Athyri, had any allusion 
 to Chaos, or the origin of the world. 
 
 § Plut. de Isid. cap. 56, 
 
150 EGYPTIAN GODDESSES. 
 
 dwells alternately in each hemisphere ; each of them 
 therefore becomes Athyri, or the habitation of Horns, 
 in its turn. 
 
 We here find an analogy between the superstition 
 of Egypt and that of the Syrian fabulists appealed to by 
 Macrobius, who divided the two hemispheres between 
 Venus and Proserpine, and represented the Sun as 
 passing alternately from one to the other, and Venus 
 as lamenting when her Adonis had descended to the 
 realm of Proserpine. Proserpine here corresponds 
 with the Venus Tenebricosa of the Egyptians, and it 
 is very probable that the name which Macrobius 
 interprets Venus, had a sense resembling that of 
 Athyri, and connected alternately with each hemis- 
 phere, or with the enlightened and dark face of the 
 sky. 
 
 It is not improbable that Athyri referred to some 
 relations of Isis and Nephthys, in which these two 
 goddesses were supposed to coalesce, or merely to 
 characterise two forms of the same imaginary per- 
 sonage. In this latter way they are represented in 
 the invocation of Apuleius, who addresses his god- 
 dess as " the Queen of Heaven, whether she prefers 
 to be called Ceres or Isis, the original parent of the 
 fruits of the earth ; or the celestial Venus who first 
 infused love into the two sexes of animated nature/' 
 
 Indeed we may learn that some very close relation 
 subsisted between Venus and Isis, from the fact that 
 th6 former was worshipped under the form of a cow ; 
 for we know that the cow was the favourite avatar of 
 Isis.* 
 
 * iElian. loc. citat. 
 
BOUTO, OR LATONA. 151 
 
 It is possible that the metamorphosis of the super- 
 nal Isis into Venus the Dark, whose only form was 
 that of a cow, is alluded to in the mythologue of Isis 
 and Osiris, where it is said that Horus, having torn 
 off from the head of Isis her diadem, (her celestial 
 glories) it was replaced by a helm representing the 
 head of a cow or ox. 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 JSouto, or Latona. 
 
 The Egyptians worshipped another goddess, whom 
 the Greeks call Latona. At Boutos, near the Seben- 
 nytic mouth of the Nile, there was a very celebrated 
 oracle, dedicated to this goddess, the earliest account 
 of which we have from Hecataeus, who travelled in 
 Egypt before Herodotus, and from whom the latter his- 
 torian has been accused, probably without reason, of 
 having borrowed a great part of his description of 
 Egypt. "In Boutos," says Herodotus, "stands a temple 
 of Apollo and Diana (Horus and Boubastis) ; that of 
 Latona, whence the oracles are delivered, is very 
 magnificent, having porticos forty cubits high. The 
 most wonderful thing is the shrine of the goddess, 
 which is of one solid stone, having equal sides, each 
 forty cubits in length, &c." He adds, cc that near 
 the temple is the island of Chemmis, which the 
 Egyptians affirm to float in a deep and spacious lake. 
 He did not see it move, and was astonished at the rela- 
 tion." In this island is a large temple of Apollo, with 
 
152 EGYPTIAN GODDESSES. 
 
 three altars. It brings forth many palm-trees and 
 other plants, some of which are barren, others produ- 
 cing fruit. The Egyptians give the following account 
 of the floating condition of the island : it was once 
 fixed and immovable ; when Latona, who has always 
 been reckoned among the eight primary gods, dwelt 
 at Boutos. Having received Apollo in trust from 
 Isis, she consecrated and preserved him in this island,, 
 which, as they declare, now floats. This happened 
 when Typhon, eagerly endeavouring to discover the 
 son of Osiris, came hither. Their tradition says, that 
 Apollo and Dian were the offspring of Bacchus 
 (Osiris) and Isis, and that Latona was their nurse 
 and preserver.* 
 
 Stephanus Byzantinus seems to be the only author 
 who has preserved the Egyptian name of this goddess ; 
 for all the other Greek writers term her Leto, or 
 Latona. He says, she was called by the Egyptians, 
 Buto. 
 
 The Greek mythologists agree in asserting the 
 physical meaning of Latona to be cc Night, or Dark- 
 ness." Jablonski has cited a passage of Porphyry, 
 and one from Phurnutus, to this effect; and Eusebius 
 has preserved a fragment of Plutarch, in which the 
 
 * Herodotus adds, that iEschylus hence derived his story, 
 according to which, Diana was the daughter of Ceres ; whereas 
 others made her the daughter of Latona. This account was 
 more consistent with the theogony than the vulgar one. For 
 Dian in the heaven, became Hecate, or Proserpine, in the 
 infernal regions. They were then the same, and both the off- 
 spring of Ceres or Isis. Pausanius confirms the observation 
 of Herodotus. See Larcher's Note on Herodotus, in this 
 place. 
 
BOUTO OR LATONA. 153 
 
 same conclusion is drawn. Apollo and Dian are 
 more than once called the offspring or nurselings of 
 Night; and it would appear that Sophocles had this 
 idea in view, in the following invocation to the Sun. 
 
 "ATmov, ohm atrd). 
 
 Trachin. v. 93. 
 
 The sacred animal of Bouto, or Latona, was the 
 Mygale, or Shrew-mouse ; for this was the form which 
 she assumed to escape the pursuit of Typhon.* This 
 animal, according to Plutarch, was held sacred by the 
 Egyptians, and was accounted, from its supposed 
 blindness, an emblem of primeval night, or dark- 
 ness. f The receptacles for the dead were termed, 
 as Hesychius informs us, gouroi ; (e bouti." It is possible 
 that this term may have some reference to the god- 
 dess who presided over night and the darkness of the 
 tomb. 
 
 On the whole, it must be confessed that we are very 
 imperfectly acquainted with the Egyptian Latona; 
 but, from all the obscure hints that can be assem- 
 bled from ancient authors on this subject, it appears 
 very probable that she was the guardian of night, or 
 of the dark or infernal regions ; and if this conclusion 
 
 * Antoninus Liberalis. See also Herodotus, ii. cap. 67. 
 
 f It is singular that, after citing the foregoing authorities, 
 Jablonski evades the inference which follows, and almost 
 without a shadow of proof, or even ground for conjecture, 
 asserts Bouto, or Latona, to be the Full Moon. 
 
 x 
 
154 EGYPTIAN GODDESSES. 
 
 be correct, her attributes and character nearly 
 coincide with those of Athyri, or Venus Tenebricosa. 
 At least, it must be allowed that we are not suffi- 
 ciently acquainted with the nature of the Egyptian 
 mythology, to point out the true distinction between 
 these goddesses. 
 
COMMENTARY on Chap. IV. Sect. VI. 
 
 Remarks on JablonskVs Opinion respecting Boubastis or 
 Diana, and Bouto or Latona. 
 
 Jablonski, as we have before observed, refers several of the 
 Egyptian gods to the different stations of the Sun, and sup- 
 poses that this luminary was worshipped in different seasons 
 of the year, under the names of Harpocrates, Amnion, Horus, 
 and Hercules. This author has framed a similar hypothesis 
 respecting several Egyptian goddesses, which he refers in like 
 manner to the different phases of the Moon. According to 
 him, Isis represents the Moon in general, as Osiris is the 
 Sun in all the seasons ; but the New Moon is Boubastis, the 
 daughter of Isis, as Harpocrates, the offspring of Osiris, was 
 the New or Solstitial Sun. The Full Moon is Bouto, or 
 Latona. To complete this scheme, he should have found 
 some anologies to prove that Tithrambo, or the maleficent 
 Hecate, was the Waning Moon. 
 
 It is not without some degree of regret that I remark, that 
 this system, so simple and ingenious, is wholly without support 
 in ancient authorities. Indeed, with respect to the Egyptian 
 goddesses, which is the point we are now concerned with, 
 Jablonski has all authorities completely against him. Boubastis 
 should be the New Moon, and Bouto the Moon at the full, or 
 the Plenilunium. Now we need only refer to the foregoing 
 section on the Egyptian Diana, in order to be clearly convinced 
 that this conjecture is erroneous. Several authors are there 
 quoted, who refer Boubastis to the Full Moon, or mention 
 that phasis of the planet as the aspect peculiarly favourable to 
 child-birth. What is singular is, that Jablonski has himself 
 
156 COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER IV. 
 
 adduced most of these passages as if in support of his notion 
 that Diana was simply the New Moon. But all his industry 
 has not enabled him to find one testimony which tends to 
 prove any reference to the Full Moon in Bouto or Latona. 
 
 The fact seems to have been, that neither Lucina the god- 
 dess of child-birth, nor Hecate the maleficent;, referred singly 
 to any one aspect of the planet. We have shown already that 
 they were both called Triple-formed. They were both sup- 
 posed to exist during all the ages of the Moon. It is impossible 
 in the present day to explain, and probably there was never 
 any good reason why the Moon should be the seat, or the visible 
 form, of so many goddesses, whose functions have little or no 
 relation to each other. We must beware, in our researches 
 into the fictions of mythology, lest we discover more wisdom 
 or more contrivance than ever really existed. 
 
 The idea that the Moon exerts an influence favourable to 
 propagation is so strange and absurd, that we are at a loss to 
 imagine how it can have arisen, in any one instance ; and it is 
 truly astonishing to find that similar fictions were extended 
 through a great part of the pagan world. Even the barbarous 
 Greenlanders, sprung from the remote Esquimaux of the 
 Labrador coast, believe, as Egede informs us, that the Moon 
 now and then comes down to pay their wives a visit. The 
 latter, in order to prevent the lunar deity from taking any im- 
 proper familiarities, are careful to spit upon their fingers and 
 rub their bodies before they go to sleep. For a similar reason, 
 the young maids are afraid to stare long at the Moon, imagin- 
 ing that they incur a danger of becoming pregnant. At an 
 eclipse of the Moon, no woman ventures to go abroad. — Egede's 
 Description of Greenland. 
 
SUPPLEMENT TO BOOK I. 
 
 OF THE EGYPTIAN GODS, COLLECTIVELY. 
 
 We now proceed to make some observations on the 
 Egyptian gods, collectively. 
 
 Herodotus mentions three series of gods, which, 
 as he was informed, ruled over Egypt as successive 
 dynasties. The first rank, or the oldest dynasty, 
 contained eight gods ; these are termed the most 
 ancient of the Egyptian deities. He mentions the 
 names of only two of them : they are Pan and Latona. 
 
 From these eight gods were produced another 
 dynasty, consisting of twelve. Among these, he 
 says, the Egyptians reckoned Hercules. 
 
 Of the third rank, who were produced from the 
 twelve, was Bacchus or Osiris. 
 
 Thus we find that there were no less than twenty 
 gods, who, according to the statement of Herodotus, 
 were more ancient than Osiris and Isis. 
 
 We have already enumerated most of the Egyptian 
 deities of whom any thing remarkable has been re- 
 corded by the ancients. Most of those we have 
 mentioned are various forms, as we have seen, of 
 Osiris, Typhon, Isis or Horns, and all these belong- 
 to the third rank, or were subsequent to the ogdoad 
 and the dodecade. We find, therefore, no less than 
 twenty places in the Egyptian pantheon, of which we 
 can scarcely fill up two or three. 
 
158 EGYPTIAN THEOCRACY. 
 
 It is easy to perceive that there must be some error 
 in this enumeration. When we consider how many 
 Greek authors have treated professedly on the Egyp- 
 tian mythology , and take into the account the frequent 
 notices that are scattered incidentally in the works of 
 other writers,, we cannot be induced to believe that 
 the two highest ranks in the theocracy have perished, 
 without leaving even their names behind. Two 
 observations will afford sufficient ground for inferring 
 that this has not been the case. 
 
 1. We learn from Herodotus, Strabo, Diodorus, 
 Stephanus, and some others, to what divinities all the 
 most celebrated and magnificent temples in Egypt 
 were dedicated. They are all distributed among the 
 gods whom we have traced in the works of these 
 authors,* and none remain for the unknown tribe 
 whom Herodotus has placed in reserve. 
 
 2. It is agreed among all writers, that all the Egyp- 
 tian gods were adored in the forms of sacred animals, 
 and not of statues in the human shape : each of them, 
 we are told, had his respective avatar in the brute 
 kingdom. Now we have enumerated the principal 
 sacred animals, and have seen that they are appropri- 
 ated to the gods, with whom we are acquainted. 
 The twenty older gods of Herodotus have no re- 
 presentatives. 
 
 It fortunately happens that Manethon and Diodorus 
 Siculus furnish us with some hints that tend to 
 elucidate this subject. 
 
 * There are, indeed, three gods in the Egyptian theocracy, 
 who have not yet been mentioned : these are, Phthas, Cnuphis, 
 and Neitha, or Vulcan, Agathodsemon, and Minerva. They 
 will be described in the following Book. 
 
EGYPTIAN THEOCRACY. 159 
 
 Manethon began his Egyptian chronology, as pre- 
 served by Syncellus, by two dynasties of gods prefixed 
 to the first race of mortal kings who reigned in the 
 Thebaid. These two dynasties occupy the same 
 place as the first and second races of gods mentioned 
 by Herodotus. Manethon calls the elder dynasty gods, 
 and the second demigods. Their names are as 
 follows : 
 
 THE GODS WERE, 
 
 1. Vulcan 5. Osiris 
 
 2. The Sun 6. Isis 
 
 3. Agathodaemon 7. Typhon. 
 
 4. Saturn 
 
 THE DEMIGODS. 
 
 8. Horus 13. Ammon 
 
 9. Mars 14. Tithoes 
 
 10. Anubis 15. Sosus 
 
 11. Hercules 16. Zeus. 
 
 12. Apollo 
 
 If we follow Manethon, and make up the first 
 dynasty, or the ogdoad, of the names of Osiris, Isis, 
 and their correlatives, we shall have no difficulty in 
 filling up the second rank, or the dodecade, with the 
 subordinate gods, including various forms of the 
 primitive or elder series. 
 
 Diodorus Siculus has given us a more ample dis- 
 cussion on the Egyptian theogony, and his account 
 seems to place this subject in Js true light. Osiris 
 and Isis, Minerva and Ceres, and Vulcan and 
 Oceanus, together with Ammon, constitute, according 
 to Diodorus, the most ancient order of the Egyptian 
 gods. These, says our author, were immortal and 
 
160 EGYPTIAN THEOCRACY. 
 
 celestial beings. We have seen that they were ideal 
 personages,, representing the most striking attributes 
 of nature. In another place Diodorus says the an- 
 cient gods of the Egyptians, meaning this same class, 
 included Jupiter, the Sun, Mercury, Apollo, Pan, 
 Eilithyia, and many others. 
 
 But besides these, the Egyptians professed, as 
 Diodorus informs us, to have other earthly gods, who 
 were originally mortal men, but, by reason of their 
 wisdom, or the benefits conferred by them on mankind, 
 had obtained deification. These were the first king:s 
 of Egypt ; and, according to this historian, many of 
 them bore the same names as the celestial gods. He 
 enumerates among them, Sol, Saturn, Rhea, Ammon, 
 Juno, Vulcan, Vesta, and Mercury. 
 
 We learn, from this relation, that the gods who are 
 said to have reigned in Egypt, and who are placed by 
 Herodotus and Manethon, as well as by Diodorus, at the 
 head of the dynasties, were not the proper divinities of 
 the Egyptian temples, but were allowed expressly to 
 have been men who bore the same names with the ce- 
 lestialgods. It seems that the Egyptians had a vague 
 tradition, like many other nations,, that their most an- 
 cient kings were the offspring of the gods. They formed 
 at a later period the chronicles of their monarchy on 
 an artificial system, founded on assumed astronomi- 
 cal epochas, and having determined to fill up a certain 
 space of time with the succession of their dynasties, 
 they found it convenient to assign the earlier ages 
 to the imaginary reign of these hero-gods. They 
 arranged them in dynasties ; but as the enumeration 
 was altogether arbitrary, it was formed in various 
 ways, and there are not two writers who give it in the 
 same order. 
 
EGYPTIAN GODS COLLECTIVELY. 161 
 
 Of all these writers however, Manethon, as being an 
 Egyptian priest, must be supposed to have possessed 
 the most accurate information ; and, as he wrote 
 expressly on this subject, we may give him credit 
 for having been more diligent than either of his 
 rivals, in his compilation of the Egyptian chrono- 
 logy. If, therefore, there was any one method of 
 stating this succession of gods that was more au- 
 thentic than others, we may conclude it to be that 
 which Manetho has adopted. 
 
 We shal^ therefore, on the authority of Manethon, 
 reckon Vulcan and Agathodeemon, called in the 
 Egyptian language Phthas, and Cnuphis, as the 
 most ancient of the gods ; and next to them we must 
 place Osiris, Isis, and their corelatives. To these we 
 must add, on the testimony of Herodotus and Diodo- 
 rus, Pan, Eilithyia, and Latona. These fill up the 
 ogdoad. The dodecade, or the second order, may be 
 completed by enumerating the gods of an inferior 
 description, such as Amnion, Hercules, Mars, Anubis, 
 Hermes, or Thoth, and the particular forms assumed 
 by the greater gods, as Chemmo, the god of Panopo- 
 lis, a form of Osiris, iEsculapius, a form of Serapis, 
 and the goddesses who were forms of Isis and Neph- 
 thys. We shall thus fill up the catalogue with names, 
 which had in reality temples consecrated to them in 
 Egypt, and had representatives among the sacred 
 animals. 
 
BOOK THE SECOND. 
 
 PHILOSOPHICAL DOCTRINE, COSMOGONY, &c. 
 OF THE EGYPTIANS. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 INQUIRY INTO THE ESOTERIC PHILOSOPHY OF THE 
 EGYPTIANS, RESPECTING THE SUPREME DEITY, AND 
 THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD. 
 
 In the foregoing outline of the more popular fables 
 and more striking superstitions of the Egyptians, we 
 have found little or no reference to the origin of the 
 visible universe. The gods we are as yet acquainted 
 with, are little more than deifications of the elements,, 
 or personifications of the powers of nature most 
 striking to the senses, or most obvious to reflection. 
 It still remains for us to inquire whether the Egyptian 
 philosophy regarded the system of the world as 
 eternal, and its departments and energies as the only 
 divine beings, or recognised, under any emblems, or 
 in any more recondite doctrines, the existence of an 
 invisible creator. 
 
 In this instance we shall find it as useful to begin 
 as before by adducing some fragments of Grecian 
 antiquity: for it will be seen that all the representations 
 which the Orphic and Pythagorean philosophy con- 
 tains with reference to the origin of the world, were 
 derived from the successors of Hermes ; and they have 
 been handed down to us in a more perfect form from 
 the Greeks than from the Egyptians. 
 
 One of the oldest specimens of the Orphic philosophy 
 now extant is contained in a passage of Hesiod's 
 
166 ESOTERIC PHILOSOPHY OP THE EGYPTIANS. 
 
 theogony, which describes the origin of all things from 
 Chaos. The following is a literal translation of it : 
 
 " Chaos existed before all ; next the wide-bosomed 
 Earth j the ever-secure abode of the immortal host 
 who dwell upon the tops of snow-clad Olympus, and 
 within the dark Tartarus, in the recesses of the 
 spacious ground ; and Eros, or Love, who is the most 
 beauteous of the immortal gods. 
 
 " From Chaos sprang Erebus and sable Night ; 
 from Night came iEther and Day, whom she brought 
 forth in the embraces of Erebus." 
 
 With Chaos the Orphic poems connect the fiction 
 of an egg, from which they represent the whole 
 organized world to have been developed. 
 
 There is a well-known passage in the Birds of 
 Aristophanes,* which contains this conceit. In this 
 comedy the author has turned into ridicule all the 
 most prominent features of the established supersti- 
 tion of his country. We may therefore conjecture 
 that the fables that refer to the cosmogony are not 
 presented to our view in the most favourable shape. 
 The following is a literal translation of it. 
 
 " Chaos existed first, and Night and black Erebus, 
 and spacious Tartarus. And there was neither Earth, 
 nor Air, nor Heaven. Then Night, clothed in sable 
 plumage, in the boundless bosom of Erebus, first 
 brought forth an Egg, spontaneously conceived, from 
 which, in the revolution of ages, sprang the beautiful 
 Eros, or Love, resplendent with golden pinions, swift 
 as the whirlwinds. He fecundated the dark-winged 
 
 * Aristophanes: Birds, 694. 
 
ORPHIC COSMOGONY. 167 
 
 Chaos in the vast Tartar us, and gave origin to our 
 kind (viz. to birds,) and first brought us forth to light. 
 The race of immortal beings had no existence, until 
 Eros confounded all the elements. But when dis- 
 cordant elements were mixed, the Heaven, and the 
 Ocean, and the Earth, arose, and the imperishable 
 race of blessed gods." 
 
 In these passages the physical doctrine of the 
 Grecian mystics assumes the character of materialism : 
 matter is represented as the original cause, and mind 
 as subsequently produced. But the fragments of 
 the Orphic philosophy appear to contradict each 
 other, with reference to this subject. The fabulous 
 being, Eros, who was engendered in Chaos, is called, 
 in a passage of the Argonautics, the cc oldest of 
 beings/'* who reduced into order the parts of the 
 universe ; and in an epitome of the Orphic doctrine, 
 contained in the Clementine Recognitions he is 
 described as a masculo-feminine divinity, generated 
 by the turbid elements, which he afterwards sepa" 
 rated and arranged. But another representation, 
 directly the reverse of this, is given in the most explicit 
 manner, in more than one place : the whole work of 
 production is attributed to a primitive intelligent 
 being, who is described as giving existence to the 
 masculo-feminine demiurgus. This divinity, who 
 was anterior to the creation, is called Saturn, the 
 oldest of the gods. I shall cite a passage from the 
 Argonautics of Orpheus, in which the cosmogony 
 
 * Argonaut, v. 423. 
 
 irp£<r£vTx,r6v re xa< ccvrorsXrj iroXu^Yjriv "Epcvra,' 
 %<j-<ra. t fyuosv ditayra, hkrtfivs ¥ cfAAov qltc aXKov. 
 
168 ESOTERIC PHILOSOPHY OF THE EGYPTIANS. 
 
 displays this form ; and this I apprehend to have been 
 its genuine character. The poet proposes to himself 
 to sing.* 
 
 ap%atov [x,ev 7rp(ora Xaot>£ a^iyaprov avayxrp 
 
 xa) ~Kp6vov 3 hg sT^o^siktsu a7rsips(rioi<rw &$' oXKo7g 
 alSspa, xou $i<pv7] 7repia)7rsoi, xu§pov i 'JLpa)TOL 
 Noxrog aziyvrjTr}g irarkpa kXutov, bu pa ^avf\ra 
 QTrXoTspof xcLheouGri SpoTO*_, 7rpd)Tog yap s$a.vdri' 
 HpifAOitg t subuvaroio yovag, 736 spy aibrjAa 
 Triysvecov, oi Auypov air ovpavov £(rrd^avro 
 (T7rip[xa youijg to 7rpoo~Ssy 3 odev yiuog i^syivovr* 
 6uy]T(Su 3 01 Tcara yalav anrslpiTov a\eu sarri. 
 
 " First, the vast fatal reign of ancient Chaos, 
 and Kronus, who in the immense regions brought 
 forth sether, and produced the masculo-feminine 
 Eros, splendid and glorious, the great sire of 
 primeval Night, whom later mortals term Phanes, 
 because he first shone forth. Then I sing the 
 birth of powerful Brimo (or Hecate,) and the 
 evil deeds of the Earth-born progeny, (the giants) 
 from whose wounds distilled the showers that 
 gave origin to mortals inhabiting the spacious 
 Earth."f 
 
 * Argonaut, v. 12. 
 
 f I have thus translated the last lines, with reference to the 
 verses of Ovid, relating to the same fable. 
 
 Obruta mole sua cum corpora dira jacerent, 
 Perfusam multo natorum sanguine terram 
 Immaduisse ferunt, calidumque animasse cruorem; 
 Et ne nulla ferae stirpis monumenta manerent 
 In faciem vertisse hominum. 
 
ORPHIC COSMOGONY. 169 
 
 In another Orphic fragment, preserved by Proclus, 
 in his commentary on the Timaeus, Kronus is repre- 
 sented as existing' coevally with ancient Night, and 
 discoursing with her on the creation he meditated. 
 
 Maia, SsaSv u7ra.Tr), Nu§ oifxGpoTZ, Tojg rafts, <$pa%s 3 
 irwg Zei [A aha.vo.Taav apyjyj xpaTspotypova SifrSai. 
 
 ee O'erwhelmed in ruin their vast bodies lay -, 
 The Earth, imbued with the warm vital blood 
 Of her own sons, lest the fierce progeny 
 Should utterly be lost, changing the forms, 
 Gave origin to men." 
 
 It is surprising that this strange fiction is preserved in more 
 than one system of mythology, The idea of deducing the 
 origin of animals and men from eggs, or seeds, is an obvious 
 conceit, and so well suited to the infant state of philosophy, 
 that we can account for its origin and extension ; but this 
 fable, that the human race sprang from the blood of giants, is 
 so wild and uncouth a notion, that it seems wholly unac- 
 countable. Yet we recognise the same fable in the mythology 
 of very remote nations. 
 
 In the old Runic fragments, compiled in the Edda, the first 
 being produced, is said to have been a huge giant, called Ymer, 
 or Aurgelmer. The gods, or the sons of Bor, slew Ymer, and 
 from his blood and body sprang mankind, and the world which 
 they inhabit. 
 
 In the Vedas we find a fable of exactly the same description. 
 Viraj, the first created being, is a microcosm of the world. 
 He is immolated by the gods on sacred grass ; and all the de- 
 partments of the universe are represented as springing from 
 his various members. The Purusha medha, or allegorical 
 immolation of a human victim, was instituted in remembrance 
 of this scene. See Colebrooke on the Religious Ceremonies of 
 the Hindoos: Asiat. Res. vol. vii. p. 252. 
 
 z 
 
170 ESORETIC PHILOSOPHY OP THE EGYPTIANS. 
 
 " Immortal Night, supreme nurse of the gods! 
 say how I may wisely ordain the origin of the 
 deathless gods." 
 
 Night replies, 
 
 aids pi 7ravrcL 7rept{; atyarcn Tsxt&e, toTS* hi p,s<r<r*p 
 cvpavav, h $£ re youav aTrsipiroUy kv $s 0ocAa<r<rav. 
 
 M Surround all things with boundless aether, 
 and place in the midst, heaven, and the vast earth 
 and the sea."* 
 
 Thus far concerning* the Orphic Chaos, and the 
 great mundane Egg, which was hatched by the equi- 
 vocal Eros, the generated demiurgus; who, as we 
 perceive, was sometimes feigned to spring from the 
 elements spontaneously, and at others is represented 
 as the offspring of an intelligent power. We shall 
 now endeavour to trace this cosmogony in the un- 
 doubted remains of Egyptian antiquity. 
 
 Eusebiusf informs us, on the authority of Porphyry, 
 fC that the Egyptians acknowledged one intellectual 
 Author or Creator of the World, under the name of 
 Cneph ; and that they worshipped him in a statue of 
 human form and dark blue complexion, holding in his 
 hand a girdle and a sceptre, wearing upon his head a 
 royal plume, and thrusting forth an egg out of his 
 mouth/* " By the egg thrust out of the mouth of 
 this god was meant the World, and from tills Cneph 
 
 * See Procl. in Tim. ii. p. 63. 49. Eschenbach. Epigenes 
 Orphicus. v. $9. Gesner. Orphic, p. 377. 
 t Euseb. Preep. Evangel, lib. iii. cap. II. 
 
EGYPTIAN COSMOGONY. 171 
 
 was said to be generated, or produced, another god, 
 whom the Egyptians call Phtha, and the Greeks, 
 Vulcan." Here we have the chaotic eg^ of the Orphic 
 verses, created or produced by Cneph. This Cneph 
 is mentioned by several other authors. Plutarch* 
 informs us, " that he was worshipped by the inhabi- 
 tants of the Thebaid, who refused to contribute any 
 part towards the maintenance of the sacred animals, 
 because they acknowledged no mortal god, and 
 adored none but him whom they called Cneph, an un- 
 created and immortal being." According to Strabo,f 
 the temple of Cnuphis, (doubtless the same as Cneph) 
 was in the island of Elephantine, at the confines of 
 Egypt and Ethiopia. EusebiusJ also declares, that 
 Cneph was the Phoenician Agathodaemon, or the Good 
 Genius, and under this name we recognise him in 
 the writings of Manethon and other authors. 
 
 A more metaphysical account of Cneph is given by 
 Iamblichus, from certain books ascribed to Hermes, 
 which were extant in his time, and are regarded by 
 that writer, who was deeply versed in the Egyptian 
 philosophy, as genuine. He says, cc According to 
 another order, Hermes places the god Cneph§ as the 
 ruler of the celestial gods, whom he declares to be 
 a self-intelligent mind, absorbed in his own con- 
 templations. Before this Cneph he places one being 
 without parts, which he terms the first occult power, 
 and denominates Eikton ; " in this the first intelli- 
 gible principle is contained ; it is worshipped only in 
 
 * Plutarch de Isid. et Osir. f Strabo, lib. xvii. p. 562. 
 % Euseb. Praep. Ev. lib. i. cap. 10, p. 41. 
 § The name is written Emeph in Iamblichus, probably by 
 an error in the copies. 
 
172 COSMOGONY,, ETC.— CNEPH, PHTHAS. 
 
 silence." — c< After these are other powers which preside 
 over the formation of the visible world. The creative 
 mind which proceeds to the developement of the 
 universe, is called Ammon, Phtha, and Osiris, as it 
 assumes different characters/'* 
 
 We shall not attempt to ascertain whether Eikton 
 and Cneph are modifications of the same name, as 
 Jablonski asserts; but shall only remark, thatthis 
 learned author is certainly wrong in confounding 
 Cneph with Phtha, or the Demiurgus. These two 
 beings are clearly distinguished in all the fragments 
 we have of the Egyptian theology. Cneph, Cnuphis, 
 or Ichnuphi, as Jablonski contends that his name 
 should be written, is an eternal, unchangeable being, 
 subsisting by himself, until a certain period, when he 
 is represented as bringing forth the eg^, the symbol 
 of the chaotic state of the world, and at the same 
 time giving existence to a secondary being, whom 
 the Egyptians termed Phthas, and the Greeks, 
 Vulcan. 
 
 Phthas is evidently the masculo-feminine being 
 of the Orphic philosophy, produced in the chaotic 
 eg^, and acting upon its elements. For we have 
 seen that he corresponds in generation and office with 
 the Orphic demiurge • and we are told expressly by 
 Horapollo, that the Egyptians represented Phthas, 
 like the Orphic Jupiter, as " apasvo^'kvg/' or mas- 
 culo-feminine. f It was in his masculine character 
 that this equivocal being was termed Vulcan; and, 
 in bestowing this name upon him, we are told that 
 
 * Iamblich. de Mysteriis, sect. viii. cap. 3. 
 t Horapollo de Hieroglyph, lib. cap. 12- 
 
MASCULO-FEMININE DEMIURGUS — PHTHAS, NEITH. 173 
 
 the Greeks made no reference to any other attribute 
 of Vulcan than his character of artificer or demi- 
 urgus.* 
 
 But had the Egyptians any appropriate name or 
 representation of this double being in its female 
 form? Jablonski seems to have proved beyond 
 all reasonable doubt that they had, and that the 
 goddess Neith, whom the Greeks call Minerva, and 
 who was worshipped at Sais, was the counterpart of 
 Phthas, or the same being in his feminine character.f 
 This is, indeed, distinctly implied in the following 
 passage of Horapollo : — 
 
 Aoxe7 yap auroig b xofr^og c-vverrTuvoLi ex rs toij ap(rsvix§ 
 xou ftrfhuxou' Ett* §s rijg A$r}v6ig rov xavSapov, Iwi 8e 
 H^omVtou tou yvira ypa<pov<rw. Outoi yap fxovoi Oswu Trap 
 auro7g ap(TEVoQr}Xeig u7rap%ou(riv: 
 
 " For the world seems to the Egyptians to con- 
 sist of a masculine and feminine nature, and they 
 designate Minerva by the form of a bull, and Vulcan 
 by that of 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. " 
 
 * Iamblich. de Mysteriis, sect. viii. cap. iii. In the reputed 
 works of Hermes Trismegistus, we find a cosmogony, which 
 seems to be nothing more than the Mosaic Genesis, blended 
 with the wild ideas and physical theory of the Heathen poets. 
 " There was a boundless darkness in the abyss, and water 
 and a subtle intelligent spirit, abiding by divine power in 
 Chaos ; then a holy light sprang forth, and the elements were 
 compacted of sand from the humid substance, and all the gods 
 distributed the seminal principles of nature/' Serm. Sac. 
 c. iii. Herm. Trismeg. Opera. See Jackson's Chronological 
 Antiquities,, vol. i. p. 17- 
 
 t Jablonsk. Panth. iEgypt. lib. i. cap. 3. 
 
174 SUM OF THE EGYPTIAN DOCTRINE. 
 
 Moreover, the very same attributes are ascribed to 
 the Egyptian Minerva which belong to Phthas, as 
 the author above cited has shown from a passage in 
 Proclus on the Tinigeus,* and from several other 
 authorities in which she is termed the formative and 
 all-pervading power. To the same purpose is the 
 celebrated inscription in the temple of Minerva at 
 Sais : c: I am all that has been, and is, and shall be, 
 and my veil no mortal hath ever penetrated. "f 
 
 The sum of the Egyptian doctrine on the origin of 
 things seems to be as follows. There existed from 
 all eternity a self-dependent being, whom they term 
 Cneph or Cnuphis, this name importing a good genius 
 or spirit. From him was produced a finite creation, 
 typified under the form of an egg, which represented 
 the chaotic or unformed state of the world. There 
 also proceeded at the same time from Cneph, a mas- 
 culo-feminine principle, which animated the chaotic 
 mass, and reduced its elements into organised forms. 
 This being, in the masculine character, is Phthas or 
 Vulcan ; in the female, Neith or Minerva. 
 
 We thus find that the Egyptians, though they 
 worshipped the elements of nature, were not alto- 
 gether without some idea of a first cause, by whose 
 agency the present universe was called into exist- 
 ence; that they regarded the primitive deity as an 
 eternal, intellectual, and spiritual being. 
 
 * Referunt ^Egyptii, in Adyto Minerva Saiticae, legi hanc 
 inscriptionem foribus insculptam. Quae sunt, quae erunt, 
 quaeque fuerunt, sum ego. Tunicam meam nemo revelavit. 
 Fruetus quern peperi fuit Sol." Procl. in Tim. lib. i. p. 30. 
 The Sun was also the offspring of Vulcan, according to 
 Manet hon. 
 
 t Plut. Isid. et Osir. Also Proclus in Tim. lib. i. p. 30. 
 
RESPECTING THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD. 175 
 
 At the same time it must be allowed, that even in 
 their account of the origin of the universe, and the 
 operation of the creator, the Egyptians were not free 
 from the weakness and imperfection which lies at the 
 foundation of paganism : we find even here a mixture 
 of sensual images, borrowed from the material world. 
 The masculo-feminine being produced by Cnuphis, 
 to whom the subsequent developement of the world 
 in the way of generation is attributed, is a striking- 
 instance of this description. 
 
 Cnuphis, the first or primitive deity of the Egyptian 
 mythology, is sometimes represented as the soul of 
 the world or the universe, which, as we have obser- 
 ved, was regarded as a living whole, and is by Plato 
 called " an animal and a god/* tc To? irpaSrav &slv 
 rep HolutI tw aurou vopt^ouG-tv/' says Plutarch, citing 
 the words of Hecataeus, ' ' They consider the primitive 
 deity and the universe as one identical being." We 
 shall have an opportunity hereafter of illustrating 
 this notion. 
 
 From this soul of the world all subordinate souls 
 originally emanated. Such, as Eusebius assures us, 
 was the ancient doctrine of the Hermaic books ; and 
 this testimony is abundantly confirmed, as we shall 
 find, by other writers. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 OF THE ALTERNATE DESTRUCTIONS AND RENOVATIONS 
 OF THE WORLD. 
 
 Although the Egyptian priests,, and the Greek philo- 
 sophers who derived their doctrines from Egyptian 
 schools, spoke so decidedly respecting the origin of the 
 world from the agency of an intelligent, spiritual, and 
 eternal Being, there were other parts of their philo- 
 sophy which seem to render it difficult to determine, 
 whether they believed that the system of nature 
 ever had a beginning, properly so called. The world 
 is represented in some of their philosophical reveries, 
 as subject to occasional destructions and renovations, 
 which succeed each other at distant intervals in a 
 perpetual vicissitude. At the end of each great 
 period the whole assemblage of celestial phaenomena, 
 which are regarded as the influential causes of all 
 changes in the sublunary world, being restored to 
 the same initial order, and proceeding in the same 
 catenation as before, the whole series of events that 
 depend upon them follow in their former connexion 
 of place and time. The same individual men are 
 doomed to be born again, and perform the same 
 actions as before ; the same arts are to be invented, 
 and the same cities built and destroyed. 
 
 Alter erit tunc Tiphys et altera quae vehat Argo 
 Dilectos heroas ; erunt etiam altera bella,, 
 Atque iterum adTrojam magnus mittetur Achilles.* 
 
 * Virg. Eclog. 4. 
 A A 
 
178 ALTERNATE DESTRUCTIONS 
 
 Whether this series of repeated creations and catas- 
 trophes ever had a beginning, or was regarded as 
 having existed for ever — whether there was any first 
 link to the chain, we shall inquire, after stating the 
 most important circumstances in this fable. 
 
 This dogma appears to have been common to 
 several of the early sects of philosophers in Greece.* 
 We find traces of it in the remains of Orpheus ; and 
 we shall show that there is sufficient reason to con- 
 clude that the Greeks derived it from the Egyptians. 
 It was a favourite doctrine of the Stoics, and held so 
 prominent a place in their discourses on the nature of 
 the world, and on fate, that it came to be regarded as 
 one of the peculiar tenets of that school. It is chiefly 
 unfolded in their writings, and we are indebted to 
 them for most of our information concerning this 
 curious part of ancient philosophy. 
 
 The catastrophes destined at certain times to 
 destroy the world are, according to the Stoics, of two 
 kinds : one is the lesser, or partial destruction ; the 
 other a more perfect dissolution. The cataclysm or 
 destruction by deluge sweeps away the whole human 
 race, and annihilates all the animal and vegetable 
 productions of nature; the ecpyrosis, or conflagration 
 of the world, dissolves the globe itself, and involves 
 the very elements and the frame of the universe. 
 
 1. Seneca has given us a magnificent account of 
 the destruction by deluge. (C Inundationibus, quidquid 
 
 * See particularly Lipsius de Physiologia Stoicorum^ Dissert. 
 2 ; from which most of what has been said by late writers on, 
 this subject seems to have been borrowed. 
 
AND RENOVATIONS OF THE WORLD. 179 
 
 habitatur (vetustas) obducet; necabitque omne ani- 
 mal, orbe submerso." * " Decay shall involve the 
 whole inhabited world, and shall destroy every ani- 
 mated being"; the globe itself being submerged in 
 the deep." He says in another place, " Ergo quan- 
 doque erit terminus rebus humanis, cum partes terras 
 interire debuerint, abolerive funditus totae, ut de 
 integro totas rudes innoxiaeque generentur, nee 
 supersit in deteriora magister." u . Tunc exsilient 
 sub montibus flumina ipsosque impetu quatient." 
 iC Omnes novum mare fabulas obruet." " Peribunt 
 tot nomina; Caspium, et Rubrum mare." cc Peribit 
 omne discrimen." cc Confimdetur quidquid in suas 
 partes natura digessit." 
 
 cc A term will some time be set to the career of human 
 affairs, when all the productions of the earth are fated 
 to perish and to become wholly extinct, in order that 
 all may be brought forth anew, simple, and innocent; 
 and without any of the old race surviving to show the 
 example of evil. At that era streams shall break forth 
 under the mountains, and shall shake them from their 
 foundations. New oceans shall obliterate all local 
 traditions. The Red and the Caspian Sea, and other 
 celebrated names, shall be heard of no more. All 
 distinctions shall be lost, and all the elements which 
 Nature has distributed into their several provinces 
 shall be confounded/' 
 
 But the frame of the world will not be destroyed 
 by the cataclysm. " Non semper ea licentia undis 
 erit: sed peracto exitio generis humani extinctisque 
 pariter feris, in quarum hominum ingenia transierant, 
 
 * Consolat. ad Marciam. capite ultimo. 
 
180 ALTERNATE DESTRUCTIONS 
 
 iterum aquas terra sorbebit; natura pelagus stare, 
 aut inter terminos suos furere coget: et rejectus e 
 nostris sedibus, in sua secreta pelletur Oceanus: 
 antiquus ordo revocabitur: omne ex integro animal 
 generabitur." * 
 
 2. But a far more complete destruction awaits the 
 universe., when the hour of the destined conflagration 
 arrives. At this period the gods themselves are 
 doomed to perish. Ci Mundo minantur interitum/' 
 says the philosopher above quoted, cc et hoc universum 
 quod omnia divina humanaque complectitur, si fas 
 putas credere, dies aliquis dissipabit, et in confusi- 
 onem veterem tenebrasque demerget/'f Ovid has 
 thus described the catastrophe. 
 
 Esse quoque in Fatis reminiscitur aifore teinpus 
 Quo mare, quo tellus, correptaque regia coeii 
 Ardeat et mundi moles operosa laboret.J 
 
 n He knows a time will come, in Fate's decree, 
 When ocean, earth, and heaven's high palaces 
 Are doom'd to blaze ; and the whole universe 
 Labour in vain with all-subduing fires," 
 
 And Seneca, the tragedian : 
 
 Coeli regia concidet 
 Certos atque obitus trahet, 
 Atque omnes pariter deos 
 Perdet Mors aliqua et Chaos, || 
 
 * Quaest. Naturalium. lib. iii. cap. 29. 
 
 f De Consolat. ad Polrb. cap. 20. 
 
 X Metamorph. lib. i. vers. 256. 
 
 f| Seneca Tragced. Here. Oct. v. 1112, 
 
AND RENOVATIONS OF THE WORLD. 181 
 
 " The palace of heaven shall fall, 
 And meet its destined destruction -, 
 And all the gods alike 
 Shall be the prey of Death and Chaos." 
 
 By this catastrophe all created beings are to be de- 
 stroyed, or resolved into the uncreated essence of the 
 divinity. Plutarch makes the Stoic Cleanthes declare 
 that the cc Moon, the Stars, and the Sun, will perish, 
 and that the celestial aether, which, according to the 
 Stoics, was the substance of the deity, will convert 
 all things into its own nature, or assimilate them to 
 itself* And Seneca compares the self-confidence of 
 the philosopher to the insulated happiness of Jupiter, 
 who, after the world has melted away, and the gods 
 are resolved into one essence, when the operations 
 of nature cease, withdraws himself for a while into 
 his own thoughts, and reposes in the contemplation 
 of his own perfections. f 
 
 The same thing was affirmed by Chrysippus, Zeno, 
 and Cleanthes; and we find passages similar to the 
 foregoing cited by Cicero, J Numenius, || Philo 
 Judaeus,§ and many other authors. 
 
 We have only to make two or three further obser- 
 vations on the circumstances connected with these 
 fables, as we find them in the writings of the Greek 
 philosophers and poets. 
 
 * Plut. de Comm. Notion. 
 
 f " Qualis est Iovis cum resoluto mundo, et diis in unum 
 confusis, paullisper, cessante naturra, acquiescit sibi, cogitati- 
 onibus suis traditus." — Seneca, Epistol. 9. 
 
 X Cicero de Nat. Deorum. lib. ii. 
 
 || Numen. apud Euseb. Praep. Evangel, lib. xv. p. 820. 
 
 § Phil. Jud. de Immortalitate Mundi. 
 
182 ALTERNATE DESTRUCTIONS 
 
 1. The returns of these catastrophes were con- 
 nected with certain astronomical periods. Aristocles, 
 quoted by Eusebius, says, iC xara rivag h^ap^hsg xa) 
 wpio-fxsvouc; xpovovg sx7rvpQucrSai rov (T\)[}jKavra xo(T[aov."* 
 cc That the whole world is consumed by fire after 
 certain fated and defined intervals." And Numenius, 
 in a passage cited by the same author, writes to the 
 same effect. cs Ou yap hri rrjg rod xo(F[jloi> } x:aTa 
 rag wspio^oug rag ^eyicrrag ysvo[j*ivr}g (pdopag, xuptcog 
 7rspi7^a[x€ai/otJcriv ttJv tyQopav, hi rr\V slg 7rup avahixriv 
 rdSv oAov ZoyiJ-ari^oVTeg, r\v Srj xa7\ou(7iv sxTruptoa-iv/'f 
 cc Those who teach the dogma, that all things are to be 
 resolved into fire, in what they call the Ecpyrosis, do 
 not properly apply the term destruction to the catas- 
 trophe which is doomed to happen to the world at 
 certain great intervals of time." 
 
 Censorinus connects the catastrophe with the pe- 
 riods of the annus magnus, or great year, a cycle 
 composed of the revolutions of the sun, moon, and 
 planets; and which terminates when these bodies 
 return together to the same sign, whence they were 
 supposed at some remote epoch to have set out.J 
 Julius Firmicus estimates the length of this period 
 at 300,000 years ; after which, he says, the apoca- 
 tastatis, or renovation of things, was supposed to 
 happen. Orpheus is said to have assigned it a some- 
 what shorter duration ; but Cassander lengthened it 
 
 * Aristocles apud Euseb. 
 
 f Numenius apud Euseb. 
 
 X Censorinus de Die Natali. 
 
 || Censorinus mentions the opinion of Orpheus and Cas- 
 sander. " Orpheij ad centum millia viginti " (aestimantis) 
 <c Cassandri ad tricies sexies centena millia." Ibid. 
 
AND RENOVATIONS OF THE WORLD. 183 
 
 to 360,000 years. | All writers, however, connected 
 the catastrophe with the revolution of the annus 
 magnus, or great cycle. 
 
 2. The Stoics were firmly persuaded that human 
 nature was doomed to become in every succeeding 1 
 age more corrupt ; and that the conclusion of this 
 career of guilt and misery was a catrastophe that 
 swept off from the face of the earth its polluted in- 
 habitants, and prepared a place for a new generation 
 of men, virtuous and innocent, whose posterity after 
 many ages were predestined to undergo the same 
 unhappy debasement, and to entail upon themselves 
 a similar destruction.* " After the world has been 
 cleared of its inhabitants, the ocean/' says Seneca,, 
 <c shall be driven back to its own retreats, the ancient 
 order of things shall be recalled, every tribe of animals 
 shall be generated anew, and the earth shall behold 
 men devoid of guilt, and born under better auspices. 
 But the innocence of this race shall only continue 
 while they are new from the hands of Nature. Vice 
 and folly will soon creep in ; for virtue is with difficulty 
 attained, and requires a guide and a controuling 
 hand ; but vices are learnt without the aid of 
 instruction. " Passages of a similar import are to 
 be found in Cicero and Plutarch. f 
 
 * " In sua secreta pelletur Oceanus : antiquus ordo revoca- 
 bitur. Omne ex integro animal generabitur, dabiturque 
 terris homo inscius scelerum, et melioribus auspiciis natus* 
 Sed illis quoque innocentia non durabit, nisi dum novi sunt. 
 Cito nequitia subrepet : virtus difficilis inventu est, rectorem 
 ducemque desiderat : etiam sine magistro vitia discuntur." — 
 Q. Nat. 3. c. 29. 
 
 f Plut. de Comm. Notion. 
 
184 ALTERNATE DESTRUCTIONS 
 
 Here we trace the fundamental idea of the fiction 
 of the golden,, silver, and iron ages, so celebrated 
 among the poets of antiquity. 
 
 3. The succession of these catastrophes, and the 
 relation of the cataclysm to the conflagration, seems 
 not to have been accurately defined. We find contra- 
 dictory opinions respecting it. According to some, the 
 inundation succeeds immediately to the conflagra- 
 tion :,* others reverse the order. Aristotle suggested 
 an idea which appears to have led to the notion that 
 they alternated with each other. Adverting to the 
 fable of the reiterated flood, he says, e< It is probable 
 that at a certain period of the great year a sort of 
 winter takes place, when water abounds, as in the 
 annual revolution of the seasons. "f This passage, as 
 Lipsius has observed, seems to have been amplified 
 by Censorinus, who quotes it as Aristotle's opinion, 
 iC that the inundation constitutes the winter of the 
 great year, or astronomical cycle, while the confla- 
 gration or destruction by fire is the summer, or 
 period of greatest heat." Accordingly he supposes 
 them to alternate; and this notion has been adopted 
 by several other writers. J But perhaps there was ori- 
 ginally no connection between these singular fables. 
 
 * Jul. Firmic. loc. citat. t Meteor, lib. i. cap. ult. 
 
 X " Est praeterea annus," says Censorinus, " quern Aris- 
 toteles maximum potius quam magnum appellat, quern Solis 
 et Lunse vagarumque Stellarum orbes conflciunt cum ad idem 
 signunr ubi quondam simul fuerant una revertuntur. Cujus 
 anni hiems summa est Cataclysmus, quam nostri diluvionem 
 vocant; aestas autem Ecpyrosis quod est mundi incendium. 
 Nam his alternis temporibus mundus turn exignescere, turn 
 exaquescere videtur. — Ceosorin. deDie Nat. Lipsius ubi supra. 
 
AND RENOVATIONS OF THE WORLD. 185 
 
 They appear to have been derived from distinct 
 traditions. 
 
 4. We might almost rest satisfied that these fables 
 were derived directly or indirectly from Egypt, even 
 if we had no positive assurance that such dogmas 
 were maintained by the priests of that country. 
 Several considerations would render that conclusion 
 extremely probable. 
 
 In the first place, we are well assured that the 
 doctrine of successive destructions and renovations 
 of the world was no new invention of the Stoics, but 
 was common to them and all the older sects of philo- 
 sophers among the Greeks, who are known to have 
 derived their tenets from the Egyptian schools.* 
 We are expressly assured by Plutarch, f that it 
 formed a part of the physical doctrines of Orpheus, 
 or pervaded those fragments of antiquity which were 
 handed down as the verses of that poet, though pro- 
 bably composed by various mystics or hierophants in 
 the early and fabulous ages of Greece. We even 
 find the period of time mentioned, which Orpheus 
 is said to have assigned for the duration of each of 
 his successive worlds. J 
 
 The same dogma prevailed in the Ionic school; 
 for Anaximander, the Milesian, taught that the source 
 or principle of all things was infinitude ; whence 
 infinite worlds arose, and into which they were 
 resolved. || 
 
 * Clemens Alexand. Strom, lib. v. 
 
 f Plut. cle Defectu Oraculorum, cap. 12. 
 
 J Censorin. ubi supra. 
 
 j| Plutarch, de Placitis Philos. lib. i. cap. 3. 
 
 B B 
 
186 ALTERNATE DESTRUCTIONS 
 
 In the Italian school of Pythagoras^ we find the 
 fable of conflagrations, which at stated intervals re- 
 solve all beings into the primeval fire. Plutarch, 
 who is quoted by Eusebius,* and Clemens, affirm that 
 Heraclitus and Hippasus of Metapontum held the 
 doctrine of the ecpyrosis or dissolution of the world 
 by fire, and founded on this tenet a system of physical 
 theology. And, according to Cicero, it was from 
 the former of these philosophers that Zeno adopted 
 this doctrine as a foundation for the system of the 
 Stoics. f 
 
 Now we are assured that the leading tenets of 
 all these three systems of philosophy, viz. the Orphic, 
 Pythagorean, and Ionic, were derived from Egypt ; 
 and although we are at liberty to suppose that they 
 received some innovations from those who introduced 
 them into Greece, still we must conclude that such 
 dogmas as were common to all the three emanated 
 from the common source, which was the schools of 
 Memphis and Heliopolis. J 
 
 But we are not left in doubt upon this subject ; for 
 Plato assures us that the Egyptian priests held that 
 
 * Euseb. Prsep. Ev. lib. xiv. cap. 14. Clemens Alex. 
 Cohortatio ad Centes, cap. 5. 
 
 f Cicero de Nat. Deor. lib. iii. cap. 14. 
 
 % There is a passage in the Asclepian Dialogue, ascribed to 
 Hermes, containing this doctrine. "Tunc ille dominus et 
 pater deus, primipotens et unus gubernator mundi, intuens 
 in mores factaque hominum, voluntate sua (quae est Dei 
 benignitas) vitiis resistens, et corruptelse errorem revocans, 
 malignitatem omnem vel alluvione diluens, vel igne consumens, 
 ad antiquam faciem mundum revocabit." — Dialog. Asclep. 
 apud Hermetis Trismegisti Op. p. 607. 
 
AND RENOVATIONS OF THE WORLD. 187 
 
 the world is subject to occasional deluges and con- 
 flagrations, by which the gods arrest the career of 
 human wickedness, and purify the earth from guilt.* 
 Hence the Egyptians pretended that the story of 
 Phaethon was founded on fact. It is true that the 
 Egyptian priest, who is introduced by Plato as dis- 
 coursing with Solon on this subject, is made to except 
 his own country from these calamities. But this 
 pretence, if it were really offered, may be imputed to 
 the desire of extolling the antiquity of his nation. 
 
 We learn from Syncellus and other writers, that 
 the Egyptian astronomers made frequent use of long 
 periods or cycles; and that the hypothesis of the 
 great year, or portion of time in which the planets 
 were supposed to return together to the same sign, 
 originated with them. This is a part of the same 
 scheme, and, together with the belief in the influence 
 of the celestial movements upon sublunary affairs, 
 lays the foundation on which the system of secular 
 repetitions has been raised, and from which indeed 
 it necessarily results. 
 
 On the whole, it seems that we may regard the 
 doctrine of successive periods of time terminated by 
 a catastrophe by water or fire, a partial or universal 
 destruction, as a dogma of Egyptian origin : at least, 
 that we may conclude it to have been derived by the 
 Greeks from Egypt. 
 
 J Plato in Timaeo, prope initium. 
 
SUPPLEMENT TO CHAPTER II. 
 
 ILLUSTRATION OF THE FOREGOING FABLE. 
 
 We are not able to illustrate in a satisfactory manner 
 the history of the doctrine which forms the argument 
 of the foregoing chapter, by the aid of the Greek 
 philosophers, who derived this tenet immediately 
 from Egypt. Fortunately, however, for the history of 
 mythology, the same dogma may be traced in the 
 antiquities of several nations, who, if they obtained 
 it not from Egypt, certainly derived it from some 
 common source; hence, by comparing the various 
 forms in which we find it, we are led to some conclu- 
 sions respecting its origin, and the ideas with which 
 it was connected in the cosmology of the Egyptians. 
 Of the two catastrophes which are fated to return 
 in alternation and destroy the world, or at least its 
 inhabitants, the cataclysm, or destruction by water, is 
 by far the most celebrated fiction. The ancient tra- 
 ditions of many nations record circumstantially the 
 history of one or more of these destructions. They 
 are well known to form a prominent feature in the 
 wild fictions of the Hindoos. The first Purana con- 
 tains an account of a destruction by deluge, from 
 which a few persons escaped in a vessel, being mira- 
 culously preserved by Vishnu, who appeared incarnate 
 in the shape of a fish.* This occasion presented the 
 first of the ten avatars of Vishnu. The second and 
 
 * This story forms the subject of the first Pura&a. Sir W« 
 
190 ALTERNATE CATASTROPHES, 
 
 third, the Courma and Varaha, or the Tortoise and 
 Boar incarnations, contain very similar narratives, 
 and appear to be nothing else than varied accounts 
 of the same event. 
 
 In the old mythological remains of the Chaldeans, 
 compiled by Berosus, Abydenus, and Polyhistor, we 
 find a narrative of the destruction of the world by 
 water, on which occasion a single family were pre- 
 served in an ark, having been forewarned of the 
 calamity by the gods. The same fragments contain 
 an account of various services rendered to mankind 
 by the fish-god Qannes.* It is manifest that this 
 story is the Hindoo fable of the Fish Avatar, unt|er a 
 somewhat varied guise. 
 
 It is not my design at present to enter at length 
 into an account of the avatars of the Hindoo gods. 
 The stories, however, just referred to, are important 
 to us, as they unfold the origin of the fable we have 
 under consideration. No person who reads the 
 legends of the Fish Avatar, and the appearance of 
 Oannes and the flood of Xisuthrus, will doubt for a 
 moment that they are both to be referred to the same 
 origin as the Mosaic history of the deluge. The 
 Chaldean story is nearest to this narrative, though 
 adorned with the garb of mythology : it has gained 
 much, as might be expected, in travelling further 
 eastward. 
 
 We cannot account for the origin of this fable, 
 
 Jones has translated the whole narrative from the Bhagavat. — 
 See Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 230. 
 
 * See Syncelli Chronographia, p. 30. Suidas voce Nannacos* 
 Euseb, Praep. Evang. lib. ix. c, 12. 
 
ILLUSTRATED FROM OTHER SOURCES. 191 
 
 without supposing that it was founded on an histo- 
 rical record of such a catastrophe.* There was, 
 indeed scarcely any ancient people, who were without 
 some tradition of this nature. 
 
 The course of mundane affairs being imagined to 
 depend on the influence of the celestial phenomena, 
 and these again supposed to go through a certain 
 round, subject to exact repetitions at the end of 
 cycles of greater or less extent, the deluge, which 
 once really happened, was reiterated in ancient stories, 
 and expected to return. 
 
 But these more partial destructions were not the 
 only or the greatest catastrophes the world was 
 expected to undergo. Brahma, the creator of the 
 world, sprang from the essence of the eternal Brahme, 
 the incomprehensible spirit. Brahma is not immortal, 
 though very long-lived. The term of his existence is 
 measured by five great Calpas, or five centuries of 
 Brahma's years ; each of which years comprehends 
 a prodigious lapse of ages. Every Calpa, except 
 the first, is preceded by a general flood ; after which 
 the renovation takes place. During the deluge 
 Brahma reposes in slumber on the folds of the great- 
 serpent Ananda. 
 
 * This, indeed, cannot be imagined with respect to the 
 conflagration. But the final and total destruction of the world 
 was not regarded as an event which had yet happened, but as 
 still future. It comes to us under the character of a prophecy 
 of what is to take place in ages yet unborn. Such, as we shall 
 see presently, is the Maha Pralaya, or great consummation. 
 The floods, or lesser Pralayas, of which several have already 
 happened, have very ditferent pretensions to an historical 
 origin, since they are ranked among past events. 
 
192 ALTERNATE CATASTROPHES, 
 
 The Calpa is the great anomalistic period of the 
 Hindoo astronomers ; at the termination of which all 
 the heavenly bodies are supposed to return to a line 
 of conjunction, and to occupy the same position 
 whence they are believed to have set out. 
 
 Each of the four first Calpas is closed by the flood 
 or lesser catastrophe. But a more awful doom yet 
 awaits the world, when not only the human and all the 
 animated inhabitants, but the solid globe itself is to be 
 consumed or devoured. At the Maha Pralaya, which 
 happens at the end of the last Calpa, the whole crea- 
 tion, nay, the host of gods themselves, are involved in 
 one common destruction.* This is evidently the fiery 
 destruction, or Ecpyrosis, of the Greek philosophers, 
 which the ethereal intelligence is alone destined to 
 survive. 
 
 The great antiquity of this fiction is placed in a still 
 stronger point of view, if we take into consideration 
 the fact, that it forms the foundation of the old Runic 
 mythology and the sagas of the Scandinavians, and 
 is even recognised in the plainest and most undoubted 
 manner in the fables of the Aztecs, or ancient 
 Mexicans. 
 
 We shall now return to the Egyptian mythology, 
 and apply the observations which result from this 
 remote digression. 
 
 * Maha Kala holding in his hands the roll of fate, and a 
 scimitar to execute his office, devours first men and cities, the 
 globe itself, and the whole universe. Brahma, Vishnu, and 
 Siva then fall into his jaws; and Kala will finally destroy 
 himself, and nothing will remain but Brahme, the self-exist- 
 ing eternal spirit, into whose incomprehensible essence all 
 beings are to be resolved. 
 
ILLUSTRATED FROM OTHER SOURCES. 193 
 
 Without assuming* that there is any further affinity 
 between the Indian and Egyptian fables, we may 
 consider it as certain, that this fiction of repeated 
 destructions and renovations, which we have found 
 so widely spread, has the same origin in both systems. 
 We shall find hereafter that the cosmogony of the 
 Indians differed in few essential points from the 
 Egyptian. But, without referring to any thing be- 
 yond the present subject, it is sufficient to compare 
 the stories which the Stoics disseminated in Greece 
 respecting the catastrophes of the world, and the 
 circumstances that accompany them, in order to 
 arrive with certainty at the foregoing inference. 
 The period of each world's duration was fixed in 
 both schemes by the revolution of sidereal cycles. 
 This destruction was preceded in both by pheno- 
 mena of decay in the elements and in the moral 
 world. Guilt and misery increased towards the ter- 
 mination of each aera ; till at length the gods no 
 longer bore with the wickedness of men, and a shock 
 of the elements, or a deluge, overwhelmed them; after 
 which calamity, Astrea again descended on the earth, 
 and renewed the golden age. With all these circum- 
 stances tending to connect them, we cannot think it 
 unfair to infer, that the Egyptian tradition, the basis 
 of the Stoical and Orphic fiction, was the same in its 
 origin with the Indian fable of the pralayas. 
 
 Hence we may conclude that the series of repeated 
 destructions and renovations was not eternal, but that 
 that the Egyptians, as well as the eastern cosmologists, 
 regarded the universe as having had a beginning, 
 and as destined, at some future period, to reach its 
 termination. 
 
 c e 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 OPINIONS OF THE EGYPTIANS RESPECTING THE FATE 
 
 OF THE DEAD MOTIVES FOR EMBALMING BODIES 
 
 ULTIMATE ALLOTMENT OF THE SOUL EMANA- 
 TION FROM, AND REFUSION INTO THE DEITY. 
 
 It has often been observed, that the practice of 
 embalming the dead, and preserving them with so 
 much care and in so costly a manner, seems to indicate 
 some peculiarity in the opinions of the Egyptian 
 philosophers, respecting the fate of the soul. On 
 this subject we have no precise and satisfactory 
 information. The ancient writers have left us only 
 a few obscure hints, which afford little more than a 
 foundation for conjectures. 
 
 A learned and ingenious author supposes that 
 the Egyptians embalmed their dead for the sake of 
 maintaining the connection between the soul and the 
 body, and preventing the former from transmigrating. 
 (C They were persuaded," he says, " that death did 
 not separate the soul from the body, but that it 
 remained attached to the mummy as long as the latter 
 should continue entire. It was from this idea that 
 these people took so many precautions to preserve 
 their carcases from corruption, and to secure them 
 from all accidents that might occasion their destruc- 
 tion. Hence the care they gave themselves, and the 
 expenses they underwent, to embalm the dead and 
 deposit them in places secured from all insult. The 
 
196 OPINIONS RESPECTING THE DEAD. 
 
 principal attention of the Egyptians was turned to 
 this object. Thus they regarded their palaces and 
 houses as inns, or receptacles calculated for a transient 
 abode, and gave to their tombs the name of eternal 
 habitations.* 
 
 The President de Goguet appears to have had no 
 other authority for this statement, than a remark of 
 Servius, the Commentator on Virgil, who observes, 
 " that the wise Egyptians took care to embalm their 
 bodies, and deposit them in catacombs, in order that 
 the soul might be preserved for a longtime in connec- 
 tion with the body, and might not soon be alienated ; 
 while the Romans, with an opposite design, committed 
 the remains of their dead to the funeral pile, intend- 
 ing that the vital spark might immediately be restored 
 to the general element, or return to its pristine 
 nature. "f 
 
 This idea is a very ingenious one; but, from the 
 manner in which Servius states it, it may well be 
 doubted whether he had any better ground for his 
 assertion than a specious conjecture; and if so, the 
 opinion of the French antiquarian deserves equal 
 credit with that of the Roman critic. 
 
 There is a well-known passage in the Book of 
 Ecclesiastes, which, if we understand it in the sense 
 assigned to it by a late author, affords indirectly some 
 
 * On the Origin of Laws, Arts, and Sciences, by the Presi- 
 dent de Goguet, translated from the French, vol. iii. p. 68. 
 
 f iEgyptii periti sapientiae condita diutius reservant corpora, 
 scilicet ut anima multo tempore perduret, et corpori sit ob- 
 noxia, nee cito ad alia transeat. Romani contra faciebant, 
 comburentes cadavera ut statim anima in generalitatem, id est 
 in suam rediret naturam. Servius ad iEneid. lib. iii. v. 6?. 
 
MOTIVES FOR EMBALMING BODIES. 197 
 
 support to the conjecture of Servius. I allude to 
 Solomon's celebrated picture of old age.* The passage 
 is as follows. Ci Remember now thy Creator in the 
 days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor 
 the years draw nigh ; when thou shalt say I have no 
 pleasure in them/' Then follows a description of the 
 successive signs of decay and sickness, ending with 
 death, " when man goeth to his long home, and the 
 mourners go about the streets." The succeeding 
 verses are supposed, by the ingenious Mr. Harmeir, to 
 refer to the subsequent mouldering away of the 
 mummy and destruction of the catacomb. <c When this 
 last decay shall be complete, when the silver cord, the 
 vestment of the corse, shall be loosed, and the golden 
 bowl broken, and the pitcher broken at the fountain, 
 and the wheel at the cistern ; then," it is added, 
 Ci shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the 
 spirit to God who gave it." 
 
 If the Hebrews, in the time of Solomon, really 
 entertained any such notion as this respecting the 
 fate of the soul, they probably derived it from the 
 Egyptians, and this circumstance would strongly 
 confirm the idea of Servius. It must, however, be 
 observed, that the foregoing passage in Ecclesiastes 
 admits of a clear and satisfactory explanation, without 
 referring to any such superstitious opinion, and that 
 several very doubtful points require to be proved, 
 before we can be authorised in adopting the conclu- 
 sion of Mr. Harmer.f 
 
 * Ecclesiastes, chap. xii. See Harmer's Observations on 
 various Passages of Scripture, chap. viii. sect. 14. 
 
 f The explanation given by Dr. Mead, in his Medica Sacra, 
 is far more simple, and will probably be preferred by most 
 
198 OPINIONS RESPECTING THE DEAD. 
 
 It has been further conjectured by a learned and 
 judicious traveller, that the Egyptians caused their 
 bodies to be embalmed, and placed in magnificent 
 tombs, whose massive structure seemed calculated to 
 defy the power of man and of the elements, in the 
 hope of slumbering out, undisturbed, the fated period 
 of three thousand years; after which they perhaps 
 believed that the soul would return to animate the 
 same body.* 
 
 Thus the doctrine of the resurrection of the body, in 
 its strictest sense, is imputed to this people. This 
 idea affords an explanation of the anxiety which they 
 have displayed for the protection of their mortal 
 remains against decay, and the expenses lavished by 
 their kings on the erection of the pyramids, and the 
 decorating of their catacombs. But if so remarkable 
 a doctrine was really prevalent among the Egyptians, 
 we must suppose that they took extraordinary care to 
 conceal it, since not the slightest hint respecting it 
 has reached our times. Herodotus indeed mentions 
 transmigration as the common lot of all souls what- 
 soever.f cc The Egyptians/' says that historian, 
 " affirm that Bacchus and Ceres (by which names he 
 means Serapis and Isis) preside over the regions 
 below ; and the same people are the first who advanced 
 the doctrine that the soul of man is immortal, and after 
 the death of the body passes into some other animal, 
 
 persons of judgment who take the trouble to compare it with 
 Mr. Harmer's. See Dr. Adam Clarke's Note on Harmer, 
 vol. iii. p. 206. 
 
 * iEgyptiaca, by W. Hamilton, Esq. 
 t Herod, lib. ii. c. 23. 
 

 MOTIVES FOR EMBALMING BODIES. 199 
 
 which is born opportunely to receive it. They say 
 that it transmigrates through all the creatures which 
 inhabit the sea and the land, and through all winged 
 animals; and having performed this circuit in the 
 space of three thousand years, enters again into a 
 human body." He adds, cc that some of the Greeks, 
 both in earlier and later times, propounded this 
 doctrine, as if it were their own, whose names he 
 knew, but refrained from mentioning/' 
 
 It is probable that Herodotus chiefly alluded in this 
 place to Pythagoras,* who is well known to have 
 been initiated in the secret doctrines of the Egyp- 
 tians, and to have copied their customs in most 
 respects very closely. But the accounts we have 
 respecting the doctrine of Pythagoras are by no 
 means favourable to the opinion that his instructors, 
 the Egyptian priests, believed in the resurrection of 
 the body; nor does it allow us to suppose they ex- 
 pected, by embalming and preserving the dead, to 
 secure the soul from the miseries of transmigration. 
 Pythagoras even pretended that his own soul had 
 transmigrated, and had animated successively different 
 bodies. 
 
 " Ev'n I, who these mysterious truths declare, 
 Was once Euphorbus at the Trojan war: 
 My name and lineage I remember well, 
 And how in fight by Sparta's king I fell. 
 
 * Pherecydes and Pythagoras are allowed to have studied 
 the Egyptian philosophy in the sacerdotal colleges, before the 
 invasion of that country by the Persians, while yet entire and 
 unadulterated by foreign intercourse. See Brucker's Historia 
 Critica Philosophise. 
 
200 OPINIONS RESPECTING THE DEAD. 
 
 In Argive Juno's fane I late beheld 
 
 My buckler hung on high, and own'd my shield. 
 
 This death, so call'd, is but old matter drest 
 In some new figure and a varied vest; 
 Thus all things are but alter'd-^nothing dies, 
 And here and there th' embodied spirit flies, 
 By time, or force, or sickness dispossest, 
 And lodges where it lights, in man or beast ! 
 Or hunts without, till ready limbs it find, 
 And actuates them according to their kind ; 
 From tenement to tenement is toss'd. 
 The soul is still the same; the figure lost; 
 And, as the softened wax new seals receives, 
 This face assumes and that impression leaves, 
 Now call'd by one, now by another name; 
 The form is only changed; the wax the same; 
 So death, so call'd, can but the form deface, 
 Th' immortal soul flies out in empty space, 
 To seek her fortune in some other place."* 
 
 On the whole, it appears to me much more probable 
 that the views with which the Egyptians embalmed 
 their bodies were more akin to those which rendered 
 the Greeks and Romans so anxious to perform the 
 usual rites of sepulture to their departed warriors, 
 namely, an idea that these solemnities expedited the 
 journey of the soul to the appointed region, where it 
 was to receive judgment for its former deeds, and to 
 have its future doom fixed accordingly. This seems 
 to be implied by the prayer that is said to have been 
 uttered by the embalmer in the name of the deceased, 
 " entreating the divine powers to receive his soul into 
 the region of the gods/'f This address has been 
 
 * Ovid Metamorph. lib. xv. v. 158, Dryden's translation, 
 t Porphyr. de Abstinentia, lib. iv. cap. 10, 
 
MOTIVES FOR EMBALMING BODIES. £01 
 
 preserved by Porphyry. As the passage containing it 
 is curious, and tends to throw light on the religious 
 ideas of the Egyptians, I shall insert a translation of 
 the whole of it. 
 
 " When those who have the care of the dead 
 proceed to embalm the body of any person of respec- 
 table rank, they first take out the contents of the 
 belly, and place them in a separate vessel. After the 
 other rites for the dead have been performed, one of 
 the embalmers, laying his hand on the vessel, address- 
 ing the Sun, utters on behalf of the deceased the 
 following prayer, which Euphantus has translated 
 from the original language into the Greek: c O thou 
 Sun, our lord, and all ye gods who are the givers of 
 life to men ! accept me, and receive me into the man- 
 sions of the eternal gods; for I have worshipped 
 piously, while I have lived in this world, those divini- 
 ties whom my parents taught me to adore. I have 
 ever honoured those parents who gave origin to my 
 body and of other men I have neither killed any, nor 
 robbed them of their treasure, nor inflicted upon them 
 any grievous evil; but if I have done any thing inju- 
 rious to my own life, either by eating or drinking any 
 thing unlawfully, this offence has not been committed 
 by me, but by what is contained in this chest;' 
 meaning the intestines in the vessel, which is then 
 thrown into the river. The body is afterwards 
 regarded as pure, this apology having been made for 
 its offences, and the embalmer prepares it according 
 to the appointed rites/' The authenticity of this 
 account is confirmed by Plutarch.* 
 
 * Plut. Op. torn. ii. p. 996, p. 159. 
 D D 
 
202 OPINIONS RESPECTING THE DEAD. 
 
 That the Egyptians believed in the existence of a 
 peculiar mansion appropriated to the dead, we learn 
 from the passage cited above from Herodotus, and 
 from Plutarch, who informs us " that they gave the 
 name of Amenthes to that subterranean region, 
 whither they imagined the souls of those who died 
 to go after their decease; a name which signifies 
 cc the receiver and giver."* From this designation 
 it would appear that the region of the dead was a 
 temporary receptacle whither the soul resorted imme- 
 diately after quitting the body, and where it remained 
 for a time, until it was sent back to enter again a 
 mortal body, whether of a man or of some lower 
 animal; and thus far the doctrine of the Egyptians 
 diners not essentially from the Italian or Pythagorean 
 dogma, which Virgil, the most learned poet of anti- 
 quity, has set forth in the following beautiful lines, 
 in connection with the ancient doctrine concerning 
 the emanation of souls from the essence of the deity, 
 or the spirit of the universe. 
 
 Principio coelum, ac terras, camposque liquentes, 
 Lucentemque globum Lunee, Titaniaque astra 
 Spiritus intus alit, totamque infusa per artus 
 Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet. 
 Inde hominum pecudumque genus, vitaeque volanturn, 
 Et quae marmoreo fert monstra sub aequore pontus. 
 Igneus est ollis vigor, et coelestis origo 
 Seminibus : quantum non noxia corpora tardant, 
 Terrenique hebetant artus, moribundaque membra. 
 Hinc metuunt cupiuntque; dolent gaudentque j neque auras 
 Respiciunt, clausse tenebris et carcere casco. 
 Quin et supremo cum lumine vita reliquit, 
 
 * Plut. de Isid. et Osir. cap. 29. 
 

 ITALIAN OR PYTHAGOREAN DOGMA. 203 
 
 Non tamen omne malum miseris, nee funditus omnes 
 Corporese excedunt pestes ; penitusque necesse est 
 Multa diu concreta modis inolescere miris. 
 Ergo exercentur pcenis, veterumque malorum 
 Supplicia expendunt. Alise panduntur inanes 
 Suspensae ad ventos : aliis sub gurgite vasto 
 Infectum eluitur scelus, aut exuritur igni. 
 Quisque suos patimur manes. Exinde per amplum 
 Mittimur Elysium, et pauci lseta arva tenemus : 
 Donee longa dies perfeeto temporis orbe 
 Concretam exemit labem, purumque reliquit 
 iEthereum sensum, atque aura'i simplicis ignem. 
 Has omnesj ubi mille rotam volvere per annos, 
 Lethaeum ad fluvium Deus evocat agmine magno : 
 Scilicet immemores supera ut convexa revisant, 
 Rursiis et incipiant in corpora velle reverti. 
 
 " Know, first, that heav'n, and earth's compacted frame, 
 And flowing waters, and the starry flame, 
 And both the radiant lights, one common soul 
 Inspires and feeds — *and animates the whole, 
 This active mind, infused through all the space, 
 Unites and mingles with the mighty mass. 
 Hence men and beasts the breath of life obtain, 
 And birds of air and monsters of the main. 
 TV ethereal vigour is in all the same; 
 And ev'ry soul is fill'd with equal flame — 
 As much as earthy limbs, and gross allay 
 Of mortal members subject to decay, 
 Blunt not the beams of heaven and edge of day. 
 From this coarse mixture of terrestrial parts, 
 Desire and fear by turns possess their hearts, 
 And grief, and joy : nor can the grov'ling mind, 
 In the dark dungeon of the limbs confined, 
 Assert the native skies, or own its heavenly kind : 
 Nor death itself can wholly wash their stains ; 
 But long-contracted filth even in the soul remains. 
 
204 EGYPTIAN DOCTRINE RESPECTING THE SOUL. 
 
 The reliques of inveterate vice they wear ; 
 
 And spots of sin obscene in every face appear. 
 
 For this are various penances enjoin'd ; 
 
 And some are hung to bleach upon the wind, 
 
 Some plunged in waters, others purged in fires, 
 
 Till all the dregs are drain'd, and all the rust expires. 
 
 All have their manes, and those manes bear : 
 
 The few, so cleansed, to these abodes repair, 
 
 And breathe, in ample fields, the soft Elysian air. 
 
 Then are they happy, when by length of time 
 
 The scurf is worn away, of each committed crime ; 
 
 No speck is left of their habitual stains; 
 
 But the pure ether of the soul remains. 
 
 But, when a thousand rolling years are past 
 
 (So long their punishments and penance last), 
 
 Whole droves of minds are, by the driving god, 
 
 Compell'd to drink the deep Letheean flood, 
 
 In large forgetful draughts to steep the cares 
 
 Of their past labours and their irksome years, 
 
 That, unremembering of its former pain, 
 
 The soul may suffer mortal flesh again." 
 
 This appears nearly to contain the sum of the doc- 
 trine of the Egyptians respecting the soul. Amenthes, 
 or the realm of the dead, over which Osiris presided in 
 his infernal character,* received the souls for a time, 
 and sent them forth again to repeat the round of 
 transmigration. 
 
 It remains to be inquired whether this rotation was 
 eternal. Did the soul continue for ever to transmi- 
 grate from man to the inferior animals, and from the 
 inferior animals again to man, or was there a limit to 
 
 * In Plate I. which is taken from the copy of an Egyptian 
 manuscript on Papyrus, the infernal judgment of Sarapis seems 
 
 
LIMIT OF THE TRANSMIGRATION. 20o 
 
 this predestined alternation? We are not directly 
 informed what the Egyptians believed on this sub- 
 ject, but we learn by inference that they set a limit 
 to the metempsychosis. 
 
 It appears that transmigration was regarded by 
 all the ancient philosophers, who acknowledged this 
 dogma, as a sort of purgatorial chastisement inflicted 
 on the soul, as the consequence of previous delinquen- 
 cies. The Pythagoreans taught that there were 
 various orders of beings superior to men, whose souls 
 had emanated from the deity.* The souls of the 
 superior orders were condemned to enter into human 
 bodies, and undergo on earth purgatorial afflictions. 
 Human life itself was regarded as a state of penal 
 degradation ;f but the humiliation of the soul did not 
 end here: from man it descended to the meanest 
 brutes, and, according to some, into plants,^ until, 
 having gone through a career of punishment propor- 
 tioned to its guilt, it again began to ascend and return 
 towards the higher orders of living nature. This 
 kind of chastisement is always spoken of as tem- 
 porary, or finite, and hence it would appear that 
 
 to be represented. The presiding god sits in the office of 
 judge ; and Thoth, distinguished by the head of the Ibis, holds 
 the tablet, which seems to contain a testimony respecting the 
 actions of the dead ; while Anoubis, or Mercury the conductor, 
 holds the scales, and seems prepared to execute the sentence. 
 
 * Plutarch de Placit. Philos. i. cap. 8. 
 
 f See a fragment of Cicero, preserved by St. Augustin, in 
 his fourth book against Pelagius. 
 
 X Diog. Laert. Vit. Empedoclis. ^Elian. de Animal, lib. 
 xii. cap. 7. 
 
- 
 206 LIMIT OF THE TRANSMIGRATION. 
 
 the transmigration of souls must have had it§ 
 limitation.* 
 
 It appears from Pindar, that the soul was doomed 
 to make this circuit at least thrice, before it escaped 
 from the lower world, and became worthy to obtain 
 entrance into the regions of blessed spirits. f 
 
 But they who, in true virtue strong, 
 
 The third purgation can endure, 
 
 And keep their minds from fraudful wrong 
 And guilt's contagion pure ; 
 
 They through the starry paths of Jove, 
 
 To Saturn's blissful seat remove ; 
 
 Where fragrant breezes, vernal airs, 
 
 Sweet children of the main, 
 
 Purge the blest island from corroding cares ; 
 
 And fan the bosom of each verdant plain, 
 
 Whose fertile soil immortal fruitage bears ; 
 
 Trees, from whose flaming branches flow, 
 
 Arrayed in golden bloom, refulgent beams; 
 
 And flowers of golden hue, that blow 
 
 On the fresh borders of their parent streams. 
 
 These by the blest, in solemn triumph worn, 
 
 Their unpolluted hands and clustering locks adorn. 
 Such is the righteous will, the high behest 
 Of Rhadamanthus, ruler of the Blest. 
 
 It would be an interesting inquiry, whether 
 the Egyptians or any of the ancient fabulists be- 
 lieved in the eternal existence of the soul. Cicero, 
 
 * In the Clavis of Hermes, a book which, according to 
 Eusebius, is an epitome of the lost books entitled Genica, 
 the transmigration of souls into animals, is mentioned as a 
 chastisement of sins. " cJ$- xaraSiKy *J/u%ijV hockt^." 
 
 f Pindar. Od. Olymp. ii. West's translation. 
 
EMANATION AND REFUSION OF THE SOUL. 207 
 
 and some other philosophers, deduced this dogma 
 from the supposed indecerptibility of a being with- 
 out parts, and from the incorruptibility of an etherial 
 spirit; but it does not appear that any of the earlier 
 sages, who drew their doctrines from mythology or 
 tradition, fancied the soul to be immortal or eternal 
 in its individual character. We learn from Cicero, 
 and Diogenes Laertius, that the Stoical school, who 
 derived their tenets from antiquity, maintained in 
 general that the soul survives the body, but has a 
 finite term of existence.* Cleanthes held that all 
 souls will continue in a separate state, until the great 
 catastrophe or conflagration of the universe, when all 
 finite beings will be resolved into the divine essence 
 from which they originally emanated, f Chrysippus 
 taught that the souls of the wise and good alone 
 enjoy so long a term of existence. At any rate, the 
 period of the great cycle, or apocatastasis, was the 
 utmost limit to which the individual existence of any 
 finite being could extend. 
 
 The doctrine of the emanation and refusion of the 
 soul is several times alluded to by Euripides, who 
 held the tenets of the Ionic sect, derived by the 
 founders of that school from Egypt. The following 
 passage from a fragment of the Chrysippus expresses 
 it most clearly. 
 
 Xcopsr S* 07rio-a) to. jutsv Ik yaiag 
 <pvvr ug youav, rot o* onr alQepiov 
 
 * Tusc. Quaest. lib. i. cap. 32. Diog. Laert. lib. vii. sect. 
 156. 
 
 t See Leland's Advantage and Necessity of the Christian 
 Revelation 5 part iii. chap. 3. 
 
208 REFUSION OF THE SOUL. 
 
 bAOL(TT0UTOL yOVV\$, Big OVf/UVlOV 
 
 7toXov 7\X§e iroChW Qvrj(r>csi 8' ouosv 
 rcou yiyvot^ivwv. 
 
 Those things which sprang from the Earth go 
 back again to the Earth ; those which spring from 
 an etherial stock, return to the heavenly vault. 
 Nothing perishes that has once had existence. 
 
 It is alluded to, also, in a drama which is still extant : 
 
 • •.... O voug 
 
 olQolvoltoVj eig ahavarov alQip* sfJL'TrsG'wv* 
 
 The intellect of the dead lives not, but has 
 an immortal sense, being poured out into the 
 immortal sether. 
 
 Thisf doctrine was contained in the old Hermaic 
 books, entitled " Genica " cited by Eusebius, but now 
 lost. 
 
 iC Oux yxouo-otg h ro7g yzvixoig" says Eusebius, cc or) 
 olto \xidg "tyuyfjs T % T °v ftciVTog ttcmtou oli "tyv%ou harh." 
 (C Have you not yet been informed by the Genica, that 
 all individual souls are emanations from the one soul 
 of the universe?" 
 
 On this doctrine of emanation and refusion, which, 
 as we have seen, was taught in Greece by the first 
 mystics from Egypt, was founded probably at a late 
 period the system of the Gnostics, which has been 
 termed the oriental philosophy ; that of the Jewish 
 Cabbalist, and those refined speculations, concerning 
 
 * Fragment, Chrysippi. t Eurip. Helene. 1. 1022. 
 
DESCENT AND RE-ASCENT OP THE SOUL. 209 
 
 the descent of the soul through the seven planetary 
 spheres, and its re-ascent, which we find detailed in the 
 writings of Celsus, Porphyry, and Macrobius.* What 
 share the Egyptians had in these fictions it is difficult 
 to say; but we find them in the Hermetic books, f and 
 there is nothing in their nature or style that forbids 
 the supposition that they had their origin in the myste- 
 ries of Egypt. That they existed in a very remote age 
 would seem probable, from the circumstance, remarked 
 by Beausobre J that the vision of Jacob, related in 
 Genesis, seems to contain an allusion to the phrase- 
 ology, or style of representation adopted in them. 
 
 The heavens were divided by these mystics into 
 eight regions or spheres. The eighth, or highest 
 sphere, was that of the fixed stars, the region of 
 the divine and incorruptible aether, from which all 
 souls had emanated. This was the native and origi- 
 nal abode of all intelligent and spiritual essences. As 
 long as they remained there, detached from all the im- 
 perfections of matter, their nature was pure and 
 unsullied. Certain souls, however, either impelled by 
 wandering appetites, or driven as the due chastise- 
 ment of offences, (for some maintained this opinion) 
 descended into the lower world, and passing down 
 
 * Celsus apud Origen. contra Cels. lib. vi. p. 290 ; edit. 
 Cantab. Porpbyr. de Antro Nympharum, passim. Macrob. 
 Somn. Scip. lib. i. 
 
 f Particularly in the Pcemander. 
 
 J Beausobre Hist, du Maniche'isme. torn. ii. 
 
 The reader will find ample details on this mystical transit of 
 souls through the heavenly spheres^ in Beausobre's Histoire 
 du Manicheisme, and in the work of Dupuis, entitled " Origine 
 de tous les Cultes," at the end of the fourth volume. 
 
 E E 
 
210 DESCENT AND RE-ASCENT OP THE SOUL. 
 
 through the seven spheres, named from the seven 
 planets, acquired in this transit those vices and evil pro- 
 pensities which were peculiar to each region. " This 
 descent was described in a symbolical manner," as 
 Origen informs us, ' ' by a ladder which was represented 
 as reaching; from heaven to earth, and divided into 
 seven stages, at each of which was figured a gate ; 
 the eighth gate was at the top of the ladder, which 
 belonged to the sphere of the celestial firmament."* 
 There was another path for the ascent of souls from 
 earth to heaven ; and at the summit was another 
 gate, which was termed the gate of the gods, the 
 former, by which the souls descended, was called 
 the gate of men. The situations of these two gates 
 are determined by Macrobius, who says they were at 
 the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, where the galaxy 
 intersects the zodiac. f There was also a gate belong- 
 ing to each of the seven planetary spheres. 
 
 When a soul had suffered the calamity of being- 
 degraded from heaven to earth, it was only by purifying 
 itself from the corrupt affections of the body that it 
 could become fitted for its return to the celestial 
 regions. For this purpose, according to some philo- 
 sophers, three periods of transmigration were allowed ; 
 and if it neglected to profit by these opportunities, 
 there were some who maintained that its final doom 
 was utter extinction. 
 
 It may indeed be questioned whether this theory, 
 in the form above detailed, was a genuine piece of 
 Egyptian mythology. We may, however, with greater 
 
 * Origen. loco supra citato. 
 
 f Macrob. Somn. Scip. c. xii. lib. i. 
 
EGYPTIAN DOCTRINE RESPECTING THE SOUL. 211 
 
 confidence; ascribe to the Egyptians the doctrine of 
 emanation, and refusion, and purgatorial transmigra- 
 tion, which we have illustrated by the foregoing 
 extracts from Virgil, Pindar, and Euripides, and the 
 dogmas of the Stoic and Pythagorean schools, 
 
SUPPLEMENT TO CHAPTER III. 
 
 FURTHER ILLUSTRATION OF THE EGYPTIAN 
 DOCTRINE. 
 
 The ideas of the ancients,, and particularly of the 
 Egyptians, respecting the fate of the soul, are still so 
 much involved in obscurity, even after the most diligent 
 research into antiquity, that it seems reasonable 
 to look to distant quarters for some additional illus- 
 tration. We know that the Egyptians, and the 
 natives of Hindostan, have from immemorial time 
 believed in the doctrine of Metempsychosis. This 
 proves some connection in the metaphysical dogmas 
 of the two nations, and suggests the advantage of 
 inquiring into the opinions of the Brahmans respecting 
 the state of the dead, and comparing the latter with 
 the ideas of the Egyptians. 
 
 There appears to be some degree of contradiction in 
 the doctrines of the Egyptian priesthood, or at least in 
 the tenets which the philosophical sects in Greece 
 professed to have borrowed from them, with respect 
 to the state of the soul in a future world, and to the 
 individuality of its existence. 
 
 As the Hindoos, as well as the Egyptians, held that 
 there are repeated revolutions, bringing with them 
 the destruction and restoration of worlds, in per- 
 petual vicissitudes, and that at the end of each great 
 cycle all beings that had emanated return into the 
 
214 ILLUSTRATION OF THE EGYPTIAN 
 
 divine essence, it is obvious that neither party believed 
 in the eternal existence of the soul in a state of 
 distinct consciousness. At the termination of the 
 great cycle, when the heavens themselves were to be 
 dissolved and melt away, and nothing was to remain 
 except the primeval spirit, both gods and men, and 
 souls of inferior rank, were all absorbed. This, then, 
 was the utmost limit of conscious existence. But the 
 final absorption, as the Hindoos believe, may be 
 anticipated; and besides this supreme happiness, this 
 only true immortal ity, which yoguees and fanatical 
 ascetics seek to attain, by voluntarily submitting to 
 the most severe abstinences and most frightful tor- 
 tures, there are, according to the Brahmans, various 
 scales of beatitude or misery, of reward or penal 
 chastisement, which may be enjoyed or suffered. 
 Such is the doctrine of the Indian Brahmans ; and, 
 from the observations in the foregoing chapter, it 
 seems probable that the opinions of the old Egyptians, 
 respecting the future condition of the soul, were 
 modified in a similar way. 
 
 According to the Sastras, there are four kinds of 
 happiness after death. 1. That which is enjoyed in 
 the heavens of the gods. 2. The honours and joys 
 of deification. 3. The privilege of dwelling in the 
 presence of the gods; and 4. Absorption. From the 
 three first the soul descends to a subsequent birth. 
 The last is a state of eternal reunion with the divine 
 nature. " The three first are obtained by works ; 
 the last by divine wisdom." 
 
 The various heavens and hells of the Hindoo 
 mythology resemble the classical fictions respecting 
 the joys of the Elysian fields, or of the Isles 
 
DOCTRINE RESPECTING THE SOUL. 215 
 
 of the Blessed, or the pains of Phlegethon. The 
 dogma of absorption assumes a more philosophi- 
 cal aspect. It is very similar, even in the manner 
 of illustration, to the tenet of the Ionic philoso- 
 phers, contained in the verses above cited from 
 Euripides. The soul is liberated from its prison, and 
 absorbed in the universal ocean of spirit or deity. 
 " The Hindoos illustrate their idea on this subject, 
 by comparing the soul to air confined in a vessel, 
 which, when the vessel breaks, is immediately lost in 
 the vast body of air which composes the atmosphere/'* 
 
 If we may give credit in the passage we have cited 
 from Servius, the Romans sought by their funereal rites 
 to hasten the reunion of the soul with the universal 
 spirit; while the Egyptians endeavoured to delay this 
 event and to prolong the time of separate existence. 
 We are informed that some of the Hindoos, as the wor- 
 shippers of Vishnu, pray not for absorption, which they 
 dread, as the loss of distinct and conscious being, but 
 for the privilege of dwelling for ever in the heaven 
 of their god, freed from the contingency of future 
 births. 
 
 It is impossible to decide what particular shades or 
 varieties of these ideas were adopted by the followers 
 of Hermes. It seems to be highly probable that they 
 were variously blended by different sects in Egypt, as 
 they are in the East. When men desert the region 
 which is subjected to the dominion of their senses, 
 and within the reach of their sober intellects, and give 
 a loose flight to the imagination into the world of 
 
 * See Rev. W. Ward's View of the Literature, History, 
 and Religion of the Hindoos, vol. i. 
 
216 ILLUSTRATION OF THE EGYPTIAN 
 
 invisible things, all the ideas they can form will be 
 vague and fluctuating-, and we shall seldom find any 
 dogma existing long without variation. 
 
 The Hindoos believe, as did the Egyptians, 
 Greeks, and Romans, that the funereal rites, which 
 they term Sraddha, have an important effect on the 
 destiny of the soul. The Sastras teach that the soul, 
 immediately after death, becomes a ghost or ei preta," 
 and remains inclosed in a diminutive body, in the 
 custody of Yama, the judge of the dead. If the 
 funereal rites, or Sraddha, be omitted, the soul cannot 
 escape from the state of " preta :" if they are duly cele- 
 brated, the soul at the end of a year is delivered 
 from its prison, and ascends to a state of temporary 
 happiness, whence it afterwards issues, to pass into 
 a body appropriate to its merits. 
 
 The judgment of its deserts is performed by 
 Yama, who summons, as witnesses at his tribunal, 
 Surya, the Sun ; Chandra, the Moon ; Pavana, Wind ; 
 Agni, Fire; Akasa, iEther; Prit'hivi, Earth, and 
 Varuna, Water; an invocation which forcibly reminds 
 us of the custom, so frequently traced in the older 
 Greekpoets, of calling upon the elements, as witnesses 
 who were to appear at the final doom. The follow- 
 ing lines of Homer recal this idea in the most 
 striking manner : — 
 
 Zsu irourzp, ?/ I8^flsv j&5&sa>v, x^ktts, [AsyiG-TS, 
 'HsTuog 6* og 7TOLVT s<popcfg 3 xou ttolvt £7raxoveig 3 
 xou TloTctpo), xou Youa 3 xou o) U7revsp()c xa^ovrag 
 avQpa)7rovg tivog-Qov orig x £7riopxou o/xoVcnr), 
 
 UjAslg (AOlpTVpOl S(FTS 3 <pl)AGL(T(reTE h' SpXlOL TTKrTOl* 
 
 * Iliad I\ p. 276. See parallel passages in /Eschylus, Pro- 
 metheus, v. 95 et seq. JEneid, jv. xii, &c. 
 
DOCTRINE RESPECTING THE SOUL. 217 
 
 " Jupiter, ruling on Ida, most glorious, greatest ! 
 and thou, Sun, who seest and hearest all things ! 
 you Rivers ! and thou, Earth ! and ye who punish, 
 in the realms below, those who violate the sanctity 
 of oaths ! I call you to witness and maintain our 
 faithful league." 
 
 We have offered these observations, because the 
 ideas of the Hindoos respecting the metempsychosis, 
 and the final state of the soul, which bear a manifest 
 resemblance to the Egyptian tenets, seem likely to 
 account for the contradictions we have observed in the 
 notions of the Greek philosophers and Egyptian priests, 
 and to afford an outline that may unite the different 
 fragments of their doctrine into an uniform and not 
 wholly unconnected system. At present we do not 
 pretend to say how far the analogy between the ideas 
 of these two nations extended, but venture simply 
 to hint^ by anticipation, that sufficient reason will 
 hereafter be found for concluding the coincidence to 
 be essential and fundamental. 
 
 F F 
 

BOOK THE THIRD. 
 
 ATTEMPT TO ILLUSTRATE THE EGYPTIAN 
 MYTHOLOGY, BY COMPARING IT WITH 
 THE SUPERSTITIONS OF THE EAST. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 Preliminary Remarks. 
 
 After the most careful analysis of the remains of 
 the Egyptian mythology, we find ourselves unable to 
 restore the whole system in that complete and con- 
 sistent state in which it may be supposed to have 
 originally existed. 
 
 In the pursuit of this attempt, we labour under a 
 peculiar disadvantage. The teachers of Egyptian 
 philosophy have long ago disappeared. None of 
 them yet survive to guide us through the mazes of 
 their labyrinths. The whole race have become extinct, 
 and their native literature has perished with them. 
 
 Our countrymen in the East, who have made us 
 acquainted with the sciences and religion of the 
 Hindoos, entered upon their investigation under far 
 more favourable auspices. They have been guided 
 in their researches by native pundits, the descendants 
 and successors of the old Brahmans ; who have been 
 found able to interpret the sacred volumes of their 
 ancient hierarchy. Accordingly, the success which 
 has attended the labours of the Asiatic Society has 
 surpassed the most sanguine expectations of the 
 learned in Europe. 
 
222 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
 
 There are many subjects connected with the anti- 
 quities of Egypt, and particularly with the history of 
 the my thology and its progressive developement, which 
 seem likely to remain for ever hidden in obscurity, 
 unless we should find it possible to throw an indi- 
 rect light upon them, derived from the ancient literature 
 of India. But, before we are allowed to anticipate any 
 important assistance from this resource, it may be 
 thought incumbent upon us to afford something more 
 than internal proof of the affinity we suppose to exist 
 between the mythology of Egypt and the East, 
 
 It has been frequently asserted, since the writings of 
 Sir William Jones and his learned associates have ren- 
 dered an acquaintance with the more striking features 
 of the Indian idolatry very general, that these two 
 systems were intimately connected. This conclusion, 
 however, has lately been controverted ; and it has 
 been asserted that the whole mythology of the 
 Egyptians was indigenous, and distinct in its origin 
 from any of the Asiatic superstitions. 
 
 It must be confessed that no essential affinity has 
 been traced between the languages of Egypt and of 
 India • nor can we afford satisfactory proof, from au- 
 thentic history or tradition, of any ancient intercourse 
 between the natives of these countries, or demonstrate 
 that they sprang from a common source. 
 
 We must therefore rest the whole weight of our 
 hypothesis upon internal evidence. It will be per- 
 haps allowed, that this kind of testimony may, if 
 sufficiently ample, supersede the necessity of any direct 
 proof. I am indeed persuaded that this observation 
 will apply to the present case, and that the mass of 
 evidence resulting, even from a superficial comparison 
 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS, ETC. 223 
 
 of the Egyptian and Indian fables, is sufficient to 
 evince their essential affinity. I have reason to believe 
 that such of my readers as possess any acquaintance 
 with the literature and mythology of the Hindoos, will 
 already have recognized satisfactory proofs of this 
 opinion; and that those who entertain any doubt will 
 hereafter arrive at the same conclusion. This I shall 
 for the present anticipate ; but, without resting any 
 thing important upon mere presumption. I shall now 
 proceed to an investigation, which will afford an 
 opportunity of supporting the hypothesis I have 
 assumed, and at the same time of availing myself 
 of all the advantages that may be derived from it. 
 As it was never my design to treat expressly on the 
 fabulous religion of India, I shall only consider it in 
 those points of view which are likely to display its 
 relations to the Egyptian mythology. This object 
 will be best attained by an historical survey of the 
 philosophical systems and superstitions which have 
 prevailed in the East from the most remote antiquity. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 General Observations on the History of the Indian Mythology, 
 
 There is no author in our own language who has 
 treated at length on the mythology of the Hindoos, in 
 that point of view which is the most important for our 
 present inquiry. I have no where found this subject 
 
224 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS, ETC. 
 
 elucidated in a satisfactory manner, except in a short 
 treatise, published in Germany by the learned Mr. F. 
 Schlegel, on the £C Languages and Philosophy of the 
 Eastern Nations." 
 
 Several motives have determined me to rest satisfied 
 for the present with a brief abstract of this author's 
 survey of the subject under consideration. It appears 
 impossible to state the facts which I wish to lay before 
 my readers in a more lucid and at the same time 
 compendious manner. If I attempted to condense 
 in a short compass the information derived from 
 different quarters, I should incur a suspicion of 
 distorting the picture in order to derive advantages 
 in the further prosecution of my argument. This will 
 be avoided by the plan which 1 propose to follow. 
 
 According to this author, the history of Oriental 
 learning and superstition may be divided into four 
 principal eras, which follow each other in chronolo- 
 gical order. To the first period belong the doctrines 
 of the emanation and transmigration of souls, which 
 seem to be the foundation of the oldest system of 
 philosophy prevalent in the East, as far as our know- 
 ledge of Oriental history extends. The second era 
 is that of astrolatry, including the barbarous wor- 
 ship of nature, of the visible elements, and heavenly 
 bodies. The third is distinguished by the dogma of 
 two principles, or of the warfare between light and 
 darkness, between the good and evil genius. The 
 fourth is the age in which the doctrines or representa- 
 tions of the Eastern schools acquire a more refined 
 and metaphysical description, approximating, in some 
 important traits, to the character of the European 
 philosophy. This later period is distinguished by 
 
GENERAL ORSERVATIONS^ ETC. 225 
 
 our author, with what degree of propriety we shall 
 endeavour in the sequel to estimate, as the age of 
 Pantheism. 
 
 The following chapter contains a translation of 
 the most important of Mr. Schlegel's remarks on the 
 characteristic tenets of these different schools. 
 
 G Q 
 

 CHAPTER II. 
 
 OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OP THE HINDOO 
 MYTHOLOGY. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 Doctrine of the Emanation and Transmigration of Souls, 
 
 Among the systems of religion or philosophy to which 
 Asia has given birth, none claims more indisputably 
 an Indian origin ; none, with the exception of the 
 Mosaic records, has higher pretensions to antiquity, 
 than the doctrine of the emanation and wandering 
 of souls. The foundations of this system are to be 
 found in the Code of Menu, a relic of ancient times, 
 which is at least of equal antiquity with the oldest 
 specimens of European literature. This work has 
 been, during some thousand years, as it is at the 
 present day, the basis of the laws and institutions, 
 and, we might almost say, of the daily habits of 
 the Hindoos ; as evidently is it the principal foun- 
 dation of the Indian sagas and mythology. Besides 
 the information derived from the laws of Menu, 
 we may yet expect to obtain some further insight 
 into the principles of this doctrine from the Vedas ; 
 and perhaps from the oldest school of Indian 
 philosophy, which has been named Mimanso, and 
 which acknowledges for its founder Yoimini, the 
 author of the Samoveda. 
 
228 HISTORY OF THE HINDOO MYTHOLOGY. 
 
 It will presently appear -how intimately the ema- 
 nation of souls, in the original sense of that dogma, 
 is connected with the metempsychosis. We must, 
 indeed, withdraw our thoughts from those doctrines 
 which were distinguished by this term among the 
 Chaldeans or the Greeks of later times. Among the 
 latter we no longer discover any system of doctrine in 
 its original purity ; but a confused mixture of tenets, 
 derived from various schools, obtrudes itself on our 
 observation under the name of Oriental philosophy. 
 We must be especially careful not to confound the 
 doctrine of Emanation with Pantheism. To those 
 who are only familiar with the more logical forms of 
 the recent philosophy of Europe, the bolder figures 
 and more lively expressions of the Oriental system 
 may be mistaken for Pantheistic doctrines. These 
 different schemes may, indeed, frequently be found 
 connected in later times : yet the original difference 
 is very essential, since in the old Indian system indi- 
 viduality of existence is by no means subverted or 
 denied : the reunion of particular beings with the 
 divinity is only possible, and not necessarily implied. 
 The perversely guilty are represented as remaining 
 for ever cut off, and cast away ; or, if we adopt a more 
 recent phraseology, which is however strictly congenial 
 with these ancient doctrines, the eternity of hell -tor- 
 ments is by no means irreconcilable with the system 
 of emanation, but rather constitutes an essential part 
 of it. With respect to the relations of Good and Evil, 
 no doctrines can be more directly opposed to each 
 other, than the system of emanation and that of 
 pantheism. Pantheism teaches that every thing is 
 good, because every being is a portion of the one 
 
DOCTRINE OF EMANATION AND TRANSMIGRATION. 229 
 
 great soul, and all actions are performed by his 
 immediate agency ; that every appearance of what 
 is called wrong or evil is a mere deception. Hence 
 the pernicious influence of this doctrine on life and 
 manners ; since, whatever impression we may aim at 
 producing by speciously sounding phrases, still, if the 
 heart be only fakhful to this debasing philosophy, it will 
 regard all human actions as indifferent; and the eter- 
 nal distinction between good and evil, between right 
 and wrong, will be confounded and obliterated. It 
 is far otherwise with the doctrine of emanation, which 
 describes cc every being as wretched by its own guilt, 
 and the world itself as debased and corrupted, as a 
 scene of ruin and lamentable decline from the beati- 
 tude and perfection of that being from whose essence 
 it emanated/' 
 
 To contend against the truth of this system by 
 logical arguments would be in vain, since it is not 
 founded on a basis of reasoning, but has rather the 
 form of poetical representation, or of a work of the 
 imagination, like other figurative cosmogonies. Yet 
 it well deserves to be termed a system, on account of the 
 profound connection that prevails between its parts ; 
 and it is partly to this circumstance, and partly to the 
 supposed authority of ancient revelation, or a divine 
 original, that we must attribute the powerful ascendancy 
 it has held over its votaries during thousands of years. 
 It also deserves our attention as displaying the most 
 ancient belief of mankind with which we gain any 
 acquaintance in the dim twilight of antiquity; as a 
 doctrine which in the sequel has exercised a remark- 
 able influence on the later developement and on 
 the entire history of the human mind. In order to 
 
230 HISTORY OF THE HINDOO MYTHOLOGY. 
 
 comprehend it, it is necessary to enter into the senti- 
 ment in which it originates, and which pervades the 
 whole of it. 
 
 Menu, after describing the derivation of all the 
 powers of nature, of all living creatures, whether 
 animals or plants, for the latter are regarded as con- 
 taining so many imprisoned souls, concludes with 
 this general reflection : 
 
 Ci These beings, involved in shades of multiform 
 darkness as the recompense of past transgressions, 
 are yet indued with inward conscience, and are sen- 
 sible of happiness or pain." Thus bound in chains 
 of darkness, and yet internally conscious of guilt and 
 of the death which awaits them, they hasten ever 
 on that career that is allotted to them towards the 
 inevitable goal. 
 
 ff In this tremendous scene, every soul, from Brahma 
 to the herb of the field, wanders ever towards its 
 doom ; in a world always tending to ruin and 
 decay." 
 
 In these words is expressed the genuine spirit, 
 the prevailing sentiment of the whole system. 
 If we collect whatever the poets of antiquity have 
 expressed in proverbs or ejaculations concerning the 
 misery of life, those rays of horror which, in the most 
 deeply impressive tragedies, arise from the fearful 
 idea of a blind fatality, and shed a gloom over the 
 history of gods and men; if we combine all these 
 reflections in one connected view, and change their 
 transitory and poetical character into a form of settled 
 and serious contemplation, we shall conceive the pe- 
 culiar sentiment which pervades the philosophy of the 
 ancient Hindoos." 
 
 " Hence the doctrine of the four ages, of which the 
 
DOCTRINE OF EMANATION AND TRANSMIGRATION. 231 
 
 succeeding is always in a certain proportion more 
 depraved and more wretched than the former, till 
 we arrive at the fourth period of consummate vice 
 and misery, which is now present. On the same 
 principle the gradation of the four classes or great 
 castes in the social constitution of the Hindoos is often 
 represented as a scale of progression towards earthly 
 imperfection and debasement. Hence also the doc- 
 trine of Troilokyon, or the three worlds, Troigunyon, 
 or the three chief powers, the first of which is named 
 (c Sotwo/' or truth ; the second <c Royo/' deceptive 
 and splendid in appearance ; and the third " Torno," 
 or darkness. In the emanations themselves also, 
 whether they are spirits or the powers of external 
 nature, the same law of progressive deterioration 
 constantly prevails. 
 
 " From the infinite essence of the eternal being, 
 the great soul/' says Menu, " first shone forth, the 
 first emanation; and from the Great Soul proceeded 
 Consciousness. After Brahma himself has called forth 
 the common powers of the rnind and of nature, Menu 
 creates individual beings.* Bhrigu, in the succeeding 
 explanation, describes the elements as proceeding 
 from the soul, and as emanating one from the other 
 in a certain order, according to the ideas that were 
 entertained of their comparative dignity and perfec- 
 tion. This law of progressive debasement and 
 regular deterioration, and the sentiment of inward 
 sorrow and remorse connected with the consciousness 
 of guilt and the expectation of death, are the foun- 
 dations of the oldest sagas. The particular steps 
 in the scale of emanations are variously described 
 
 * Menu; cap. i. v. 33. 
 
232 HISTORY OF THE HINDOO MYTHOLOGY. 
 
 according to the arbitrary choice of the poetical 
 cosmogonist." 
 
 "Among the divinities of the Indian mythology,, 
 Brahma is the god who more especially belongs to 
 this system. Brahma, in that representation of hini 
 which we find in the institutes of Menu, is the eternal 
 soul, the infinite being, king and ruler of all nature, 
 or, as he is called in scriptures of a later date, Father 
 and Lord of the Universe. He is the inconceivable 
 being, the alone self-existent, the divinity himself. The 
 same description, in writings of a more recent period, 
 is applied to Siva and Vishnu, by the respective 
 worshippers of these gods: in the code of Menu 
 Brahma holds the first place. The more limited 
 interpretation of this divinity, as representing the 
 earthly element, must be considered as the idea of a 
 subsequent affe. 
 
 ec Greatly as this doctrine has been corrupted by 
 the wild fictions of a poetical imagination, and much 
 as it has been contaminated by the most frightful 
 and hideous superstitions, which have penetrated 
 the whole philosophy of the Hindoos, and display 
 themselves in the customs of their daily life, — yet we 
 cannot refuse to admit that the ancient sages of India 
 possessed some idea of the true God. All their 
 scriptures are indeed full of phrases and expressions 
 which declare this doctrine in as dignified, as clear, 
 and exalted a manner, and in terms as profoundly 
 scrutinized and as definite, as human language can 
 adopt in reference to the nature of an infinite being. 
 How has it come to pass that wisdom so exalted has 
 mingled itself with such a mass of error and corruption ? 
 It will be readily allowed that the imagination 
 
DOCTRINE OF EMANATION AND TRANSMIGRATION. 233 
 
 could scarcely fill up the chasm which intervenes 
 between the idea of divine beatitude and the imper- 
 fections of the created world, in a more probable and 
 natural way than by the hypothesis of emanations. 
 This doctrine has not only been the basis of the 
 oldest and most universal superstitions, but also a rich 
 fund of poetry and fable. Every creature is represented 
 by it as an efflux from the Deity; each being is only 
 a more limited, confined, and obscured divinity: thus 
 all nature is animated, and endowed with a soul; 
 the world is a scene of hylozoism rather than of 
 polytheism, or if we may use such an expression, an 
 universe of gods. The multitude of the Indian deities 
 is indeed innumerable. This infinite luxuriance of 
 poetical fiction, not superadded from without, but 
 native and original, distinguishes a mythology which 
 springs from these fruitful sources, from the scanty 
 and meagre superstitions which, among less cultivated 
 nations, or, to speak more definitely, among nations 
 further removed from the streams of ancient tradi- 
 tion, are founded on the stories of ghosts or the souls 
 of departed ancestors. Yet the deification of heroes 
 can easily be combined with the idea of original 
 emanations, and the Rishis of Menu's Cosmogony 
 seem to afford a vestige of this mode of superstition 
 in so remote a period. 5 '* 
 
 The system of emanation is seen in the most 
 favourable point of view, when we contemplate it as 
 the doctrine of restitution. From the divine origin 
 of man, it takes occasion to remind him of his resto- 
 ration, and to set before him a re-union with the divinity 
 
 * Here follow some remarks on the deification of heroes, which 
 we omit ; as not particularly connected with our present subject. 
 
 H H 
 
234 HISTORY OF THE HINDOO MYTHOLOGY. 
 
 as the single object of his thoughts, and of all his 
 exertions. Hence the religious interpretation of so 
 many laws and customs among the Hindoos, and the 
 sublime and serious import of all the regulations of 
 their social life. Yet the genuine spirit may easily 
 have vanished, so that nothing but the dead rites and 
 mere pantomine remained, and superstition and error 
 may at an early period have mingled themselves with 
 institutions of a purer and better origin. 
 
 From the ideas which pervade this system, respect- 
 ing the gradation, and the various kinds of living and 
 conscious beings, concealed under such multifarious 
 forms, and their perpetual approximation towards or 
 departnre from the common source, arose the fiction 
 of Metempsychosis, or the transmigration of souls. 
 Closely associated with the same principle, and in 
 some manner an essential part of it, is the belief in a 
 former life, or in the pre-existence of souls, and the 
 doctrine of abstract or more perfect ideas, derived 
 from an obscure remembrance of divine perfections 
 contemplated by the mind in its former state, which, 
 in this world, are occasionally recalled by the sight of 
 beautiful objects, in some measure partaking of the 
 same qualities. This is a doctrine with which Calidas 
 sports in the drama entitled Sacontala, and to it he makes 
 a common reference, as to a well known and popular 
 mode of thinking. Wherever we find the doctrine 
 of transmigration not merely connected with a 
 physical theory but with the idea of the moral de- 
 gradation and misery of all beings, and the necessity 
 of their purification and restoration to God, there we 
 may be sure that it has been derived from the same 
 source, and is of Indian origin. 
 
WORSHIP OF NATURE. 235 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 Of the Belief in Astrology, and the barbarous Worship of 
 Nature, 
 
 If the system of emanation, by the moral sen- 
 timent it inspires, and the doctrine of creation 
 which it exhibits, claims a preference over simple 
 pantheism, which, by presenting a merely negative 
 and abstract idea of the infinite being, leads its votaries 
 into a state of indifference with respect to morality, it 
 cannot at the same time escape the reproach of 
 fatalism, in the oldest form in which it presents itself 
 to our view. The doctrine of predestination has 
 been already mentioned, as contained in the poetical 
 cosmogony of Menu, where the reader will find it 
 fully developed. To the same system of ideas 
 belongs the dogma of perpetual revolution, and 
 of eternal alternations in the vigils and repose of the 
 Infinite Being. 
 
 cc The Being/' says Menu, ec whose powers are 
 incomprehensible, having created me and this 
 universe, again became absorbed in the supreme 
 spirit, changing the time of energy for the hour of 
 repose. " 
 
 (C When that power awakes, then has this world 
 its full expansion : when he slumbers with a tranquil 
 spirit, then the whole system fades away." 
 
 The author then further describes the absorption 
 of all earthly beings into the essence of the Infinite. 
 
%36 SECOND ERA OF MYTHOLOGY. 
 
 " While he reposes in a calm sleep, embodied 
 spirits depart from their several acts." 
 
 Arid again : 
 
 " Thus, that power, alternately waking and re- 
 posing, calls into life, and again destroys, in an 
 eternal vicissitude, the whole universe of beings, 
 whether moving or immovable : himself subject to 
 no change." 
 
 " Such revolutions* are without number : there 
 are numberless creations and destructions. " 
 
 " The supreme being performs all this again and 
 again, as if in sport." 
 
 The idea of an universe called into existence, 
 without any design, by a merely sportive energy of 
 the creative power, is nearly related to the cele- 
 brated fiction of a perpetual revolution. 
 
 In later systems, this is termed the alternate con- 
 traction and expansion of the great power of nature, 
 the pulsation of the soul of the world. 
 
 The doctrine of Fatalism was expanded into an 
 artificial system, which extended itself far among the 
 oriental nations. Astrology, with all its circum- 
 stances, its forebodings, auguries, lucky and unlucky 
 days, incantations, and black or magical arts, con- 
 stitute one of the most remarkable phenomena of 
 antiquity, and one which has exercised an influence 
 of incalculable extent on all ages, even to our recent 
 times. 
 
 Precisely with the same combinations, and not 
 merely as a poetical or allegorical representation of 
 the phaenomena of nature, we discover the worship 
 of the heavenly bodies connected with that of brute 
 animals among the old Egyptians. 
 
 * Manwantaras. Menu, cap. i. 
 
WORSHIP OF NATURE. 237 
 
 There are so many peculiarities in the nature of 
 man, which are likely to seduce him from the adora- 
 tion of his God to the worship of the visible elements 
 of the universe, from the contemplation of the Creator 
 to a blind admiration of his works, that it would be 
 superfluous to trace the progress of this change. 
 We find, in the ancient history of Asia, not obscure 
 vestiges, but clear proofs of the wide extension of 
 materialism ; but the materialism of the East bears a 
 peculiar stamp, which distinguishes it from those doc- 
 trines that have passed in Europe under the same name. 
 We assign to it, in the historical series of oriental 
 doctrines, that place which immediately succeeds the 
 system of emanation and restitution. We might 
 indeed discern some other intermediate grades, in 
 the transition from a doctrine so sublime and spiritual 
 to ideas so gross and sensual ; but this inquiry would 
 be superfluous, since, in the oldest relics yet known 
 of Indian antiquity, as in the cosmogony of Menu, 
 there are clear vestiges of a true materialism. We 
 may indeed regard the symbol of the mundane egg, 
 which is also found in the Egyptian mythology, as the 
 offspring of a sportive and childish fancy ; but the 
 Matra, or seminal particles of the material fabric, 
 require to be understood in a more philosophical sense. 
 Whether in this instance, or in later expositions, they 
 were atoms, in the sense of the Greek philosophers, 
 and whether those Greeks were in the right, who 
 maintained that the atomic doctrine had an eastern 
 origin, we shall be better informed when the ideas of 
 the Pashandists, Shoitists, aud the Charval, which are 
 represented to us as a system of atheism, shall be 
 further known. 
 
238 SECOND ERA OF MYTHOLOGY. 
 
 Among the superstitions, indeed, of the ancient 
 Indians, composed as they were of various parts, and 
 developed by successive steps, the worship of the 
 material elements of nature occupies but too ample a 
 space. The rites of Siva, sometimes represented as 
 the source or element of destruction, sometimes as the 
 generative principle of the physical world, and regarded 
 as a mere bestial or animal nature, together with 
 those of the frightful Durga, or Kali, present us on 
 every side the emblems of death and of lust, bloody 
 human sacrifices, and bacchanalian revelry in the 
 most disgusting mixture. What renders this system 
 of materialism, and of the worship of nature, so 
 appalling, and so widely distinguishes it from the 
 sensual superstitions of mere savages, is the senti- 
 ment of the vast and infinite, which pervades all the 
 fictions of this era, and points backwards to their true 
 original: the noblest and most sublime conceptions 
 are easily deformed and distorted into horrible and 
 gigantic prodigies. 
 
 This worship of Nature extended itself so widely, 
 that we must confine our survey of it to a few of the 
 most striking facts. All those false gods, before whose 
 shrines human blood has flowed in so many regions 
 of the earth, betray marks of affinity to the Indian 
 Siva and Kali : such are the Baal and Moloch of the 
 Syrian and Phoenician tribes, among whom this de- 
 praved superstition seems to have prevailed in an 
 especial manner. To the same stock belongs the 
 direful Hesus, at whose altars the ancient Gauls 
 poured streams of human blood, which have had no 
 parallel except in the history of the Mexicans. In 
 the rites, also, of the old Egyptians, among the 
 
WORSHIP OF NATURE. 239 
 
 worship of the stars and of living animals, the 
 adoration of the Lingum and the all-productive Yoni 
 held a far more conspicuous place than is commonly 
 supposed. Herodotus deduces from Egypt the use of 
 the Phallus, in the festivals and emblematic represen- 
 tations of the Greeks. The sexual emblems which 
 the conqueror Sesostris is said to have set up in 
 various countries, may be more naturally and pro- 
 bably derived from this source, and explained as 
 the common symbols of superstition, than in the 
 manner which the historian hints at, as testimonies of 
 the masculine valour of some, and the effeminate 
 weakness of other nations. The Phoenician Astarte, 
 the Phrygian Cybele, the Ephesian Artemis, and 
 even the German Hertha, are perhaps distinguished 
 only in unessential points from the Indian Bhavani. 
 The fundamental idea of an infinite power in Nature, 
 endowed with the merely animal faculties of genera- 
 tion, is the same in all these instances. In Babylon, 
 and in all the countries dependant on the Babylonish 
 empire, Mylitta is well known as a goddess of the 
 same character, who, among the Armenians was 
 termed Anaitis, and Alilath by the old Arabians ; and 
 it is probable that the name of Yavani, in the 
 books of the old Hindoos, was the designation, not so 
 much of a particular people as of a religious sect, 
 including all those nations to whom this mode of 
 worship especially belonged. 
 
 That the worship of the powers of Nature, mitigated 
 indeed, and embellished, and exhibited in a less 
 systematic form, constituted the foundation of the 
 Greek and Roman religion, will not be disputed 
 by any person who surveys the fables of the Olympian 
 
240 SECOND ERA OF MYTHOLOGY. 
 
 gods with a more penetrating eye than that of a mere 
 antiquarian. Among the Romans, indeed, this bar- 
 barous superstition was corrected by a more severe 
 morality, either derived from the relics of better 
 times, or originating in the extraordinary wisdom of 
 some ancient legislators. Among the Greeks, owing 
 to the influence of climate and political circum- 
 stances, the old superstition of the East gradually 
 expanded itself into a more sprightly and graceful 
 mythology, into the composition of which some 
 ideas seem to have been introduced from a different 
 and a better system, which we shall presently con- 
 template. 
 
 The doctrine of this period has, in common with the 
 system of emanation, that infinite luxuriance of fancy 
 which characterises the fictions of the East. The 
 wild and bold spirit which succeeded to the gloom and 
 sorrow of the older philosophy, is the peculiar source 
 of all the gigantic prodigies of poetry or fable. In 
 the same train followed the deification of extraordinary 
 men, for the productive or destroying power of 
 nature is conspicuously displayed, and seems as it were 
 personified in heroes or public benefactors. The 
 six-armed Kartikeya, or Skondoh, the god of war, is, 
 in the Indian fables, the son and companion of Siva. 
 Perhaps not only warriors, but also inventors of arts, 
 were reckoned among the gods. That the first steps 
 in exploring the secrets of nature and of science 
 greatly flattered the pride of man, we may learn from 
 the prodigies with which the historian finds the men- 
 tion of them accompanied. Together with the visible 
 powers of Nature, the wisdom and science which 
 explored their qualities were also deified; such 
 
SYSTEM OF TWO PR1CCIPLES. 241 
 
 perhaps was the origin of the Egyptian Hermes, and 
 of the older Indian Buddha. Ganesa, another 
 god of invention, was also the companion of Siva. 
 Finally, I may remark that the monuments at Ellora, 
 Elephanta, and other places, testify indisputably the 
 high antiquity of this form of Indian superstition ; 
 and that it is only on the principles of this doctrine 
 that we can interpret the earliest efforts of sculpture 
 among the Indians, the Egyptians, and the Greeks 
 Even in the Vedas, it is said that human sacrifices 
 are ordained to be performed before the bloody Kali. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 Of the Doctrine of Two Principles. 
 
 We now enter upon a scene of more pleasing 
 aspect. The system of Dualism, the oriental doctrine 
 of two principles, and the eternal warfare between 
 good and evil, claims this place in the order of time ; 
 since it appears, wherever we meet with the traces of it 
 have been set up in opposition to the theories hithertc 
 described, as a restoration of the ancient doctrine, 
 the original light of truth. The spirit of this system 
 is altogether idealistic : the notion of self-existent 
 conscious being is indeed common to all the Indian 
 schools, as the derivation of all material natures from 
 spiritual essences has the firmer and more extensive 
 hold, the higher we ascend in the history of oriental 
 philosophy; so that, in this sense, nearly all the doc- 
 trines of the eastern sages may be termed idealistic. 
 
 i i 
 
242 THIRD ERA OF MYTHOLOGY. 
 
 But the peculiar agreement and coincidence of the 
 doctrine we are now to consider, with what, in the 
 West, has been termed Idealistic philosophy, consists 
 in this circumstance, that energy and life are regarded 
 by the sages of this school as the only principles essen- 
 tially vital and operative ; while absolute repose and 
 inertia are represented as negative elements, or the 
 principles of death and annihilation. 
 
 It is easy to suggest insurmountable objections 
 to the doctrine of Dualism, considered as a philoso- 
 phical theory. If, for example, it is supposed that the 
 strife between the evil principle and the divine nature 
 is to be eternal, a second power is introduced into the 
 world, independent of the Deity, and, ifnotequalto him, 
 yet in discordance with his government, and monotheism 
 and subordination cease. If, on the other hand, as it 
 is generally maintained, the evil principle is at length 
 to be conquered and reclaimed, or Ahriman reconciled 
 with Ormuzd, the idea of a perpetual warfare is 
 in reality undermined, the whole scheme resolves 
 itself, in the spirit of pantheism, into one nature, and 
 the eternal enmity between good and evil vanishes. 
 Notwithstanding these defects, it will be allowed that 
 the intellectual religion of the Persians, with the 
 exception of the Christian doctrine, as set forth in the 
 Old Testament and perfected in the New, has greatly 
 the advantage over all other oriental systems in sub- 
 limity, in its comparative approximation to truth, and 
 in moral tendency. 
 
 Pantheism inevitably destroys the distinction be- 
 tween good and evil, however strenuously its 
 advocates may contend in words against this re- 
 proach : the doctrine of emanation depresses the 
 
SYSTEM OF TWO PRINCIPLES. 243 
 
 moral freedom of the will by the idea of an infinite 
 degree of innate guilty and the belief that every 
 being is predestined to crime and misery : the system 
 of two principles, and the warfare between good and 
 evil holds the middle place between these extremes : 
 it becomes, itself, a powerful incentive to a similar 
 contest, and a source of the purest morality. 
 
 Among material objects this religion consecrates 
 not the appalling symbols of destruction, of death, 
 and of lust, but the most beautiful and beneficent of 
 elements, fire and the solar light; and, above all, the 
 energy of life and of the soul. The seven Amshas- 
 pands, or Genii of the elements and chief powers of 
 nature, stand like so many lords of the universe round 
 the throne of their ruler, the noblest and first among 
 his subjects. The heaven is filled by the sacred 
 Feruers, or the divine prototypes and ideas of all 
 created things. The star of day, Mithras, or the 
 friend of mankind, is the mediator between them and 
 the divinity. Bloody offerings disappear, and the 
 ceremony of consecrating and distributing the pure 
 Horn and Miezd on the altar, by the hands of the 
 officiating priest, indicates a secret intercourse with 
 God, through the means of the fairest productions of 
 the earth. 
 
 But the elements are not the only immediate objects 
 of worship to the votaries of this religion. Heroes 
 also receive veneration, not as fierce conquerors and 
 destroyers, and as such claiming a place among the 
 destructive agents of nature, but as sent from heaven 
 to overcome ferocious giants, the powers of darkness, 
 and infernal spirits. The contest between Iran and 
 Turan represents on earth what the warfare of 
 
244 THIRD ERA OF MYTHOLOGY. 
 
 Ormuzd and Ahriman, the good and evil genius,, 
 is supposed to be in heaven. Feridun and Rustan, 
 the celebrated champions of oriental song-, overcome 
 the fierce pride of Zohak and Afrasiab ; but, more than 
 all, Jemshid, the pattern of perfect kings, shines with 
 unrivalled lustre amid the dark night of antiquity. 
 A reign of infinite bliss, the seat of ever-beaming 
 light, is essential to the doctrine of this school, as well 
 as a scene of primitive blessedness and perfection, 
 where Meshia and Meshianes wandered together in 
 the garden of innocence; a state which it was the 
 design of Zerdusht's religion to restore. 
 
 A considerable portion, and certainly the best and 
 most attractive part, of the Indian mythology belongs 
 to this style of philosophy. For it is according to 
 this manner that we must interpret the preserving, 
 beneficent, all-pervading Vishnu, with all his accom- 
 paniments. His consort is in every respect contrasted 
 with the dreadful Kali, the ferocious companion of 
 Siva. She is Padma, the lily of heaven, the blessed 
 and all-blessing goddess ; Lakshmi or Sri, the daughter 
 of the sea-god Varuna. Cama, the god of love, is 
 generally found in their suite ; as well as Indra, the 
 ruler of the firmament, the friend of man; with a host 
 of happy and benevolent spirits, fairies, and celestial 
 nymphs. Vishnu often appears on earth as a king or 
 a sage, or a hero of wonderful exploits, and traverses 
 all worlds with the design of banishing crimes, of 
 conquering giants and the powers of evil, and of 
 protecting all good men and genii, together with 
 their chief, the benevolent Indra. 
 
 Greatly as this idea has been deformed by the 
 arbitrary efforts of the fancy, which represent the 
 
SYSTEM OF TWO PRINCIPLES. 245 
 
 god, like another Proteus, assuming not only the hu- 
 man form of a hero or sage, but even the shapes of a 
 tortoise, a boar, a man-lion, and a fish ; yet the fun- 
 damental idea of a god undergoing incarnation, and 
 wandering on earth to inform the human race, to aid 
 the virtuous and take vengeance on the wicked, is 
 one which evinces, in the ancient Hindoos, no com- 
 mon refinement of sentiment and depth of thought. 
 We find, indeed, in other mythologies, fictions of 
 heroes, who in glory and virtue approximate to the 
 rank of the celestial gods ; warriors who, obeying a 
 divine commission, fight ever against the wicked and 
 in behalf of the virtuous ; but in no hero or Hercules 
 of poetic fable do we recognise the idea of divine 
 incarnation so expressly set forth as in the story of 
 the Indian Rama, the gentle conqueror, whose volun- 
 tary banishment into a scene of seclusion, together 
 with his tragical or fortunate loves upon the Sita, 
 have been the themes of so many beautiful pathetic 
 strains. 
 
 This hypothesis claims a higher place in our 
 esteem, when we consider the exalted morality that 
 displays itself in the lives and doctrines of the Indian 
 hermits and munis, particularly as they are repre- 
 sented in the Puranas. The rigour of those ancient 
 penitents and rishis, who sought by the most severe 
 self-torment to attain a higher degree of beatitude, 
 and pretended to powers greater than nature had 
 allotted them, withdraws now into the back ground ; 
 and we observe examples of the meekest resignation 
 to the will of the Supreme, and a temper full of gentle- 
 ness and humility. 
 
 As the worship of Vishnu occupies a considerable 
 
246 THIRD ERA OP MYTHOLOGY. 
 
 place in the Vedas, a question here naturally offers 
 itself, whether the ideal character of this divinity, as 
 presented by these volumes, is the same with that por- 
 trayed in the Puranas ? It is certain, at least, that the 
 Vishnu of these poems has a very different description 
 from the same god, as we find him in the institutes of 
 Menu. But enough on this subject. What we already 
 possess amply suffices to distinguish, in general out- 
 lines, the various parts of the Indian system of doctrine, 
 the different stages of developement and epochs of the 
 Indian mythology, and to arrange them according 
 to their natural tenour and relations. We cannot 
 pretend to define, accurately, the particular era of 
 each, or attempt to furnish a complete history of 
 their progress. 
 
 The doctrine of two principles, combined with the 
 worship of the pure spirit of Nature, has not only been 
 the source of a great part and by far the better portion 
 of the Indian and Persian fables, but, even in the my- 
 thologies of the Romans, the Greeks, and the Northern 
 nations, there are many things which have first received 
 their full and true explanation from the style and con- 
 nexion of these ideas ; yet is this dogma not to be 
 considered as a merely poetical fiction, but as also 
 capable, in its origin, of a philosophical sense and 
 interpretation. Even in the typical exhibitions 
 of the Persians we may remark a certain relation of 
 number among the emblematical figures, a plan of 
 construction, the meaning and origin of which is 
 to be sought in the duality of the primitive powers. 
 That a philosophical system of this import and 
 spirit was known in India is in the highest degree 
 probable. Whether the Nyaya philosophy, the most 
 
SYSTEM OF TWO PRINCIPLES. 24T 
 
 ancient, except the Mimansa, was founded, as the 
 name seems to import, in such a principle of Dualism ; 
 whether the two systems of the Madwa, and Rama- 
 nuya, into which the followers of Vishnu are divided, 
 and both of which are opposed to the Vedanti, belong 
 to this school, future investigations will inform us; 
 at the same time they will decide whether Zerdush 
 adopted doctrines and representations derived from 
 India, or the communication took place, as it is pro- 
 bable, in a contrary direction. Since India has given 
 so much to the rest of the world, may we not allow 
 that she has received something in return ? At least* 
 we should hold the possibility of such a case in our 
 view, that we may not lay down a general observation 
 for an invariable law, and thus expose ourselves to 
 mistakes with respect to particular phaenomena. 
 
 If any thing foreign has entered into the composi- 
 tion of the Indian scriptures, it will doubtless be 
 found chiefly in the Puranas, in which the religion and 
 fable of Vishnu occupy the principal place. When, 
 indeed, we recognise in the Puranas the events and 
 personages of our sacred Scriptures, — not only such 
 as are supposed to have become well known among 
 various nations, as the history of Noah and the 
 Deluge; but others also, which belong in a more 
 peculiar manner to the Bible, such as the history of 
 Job, — we are yet not allowed to adopt the conclusion 
 that the sages and poets of India derived these rela- 
 tions immediately from the books of the Old Testa- 
 ment; since it is possible that greater portions of 
 sacred tradition may have been common to the 
 Hebrews and the Persians, and again to the Persians 
 and Indians, than we are generally accustomed to 
 believe. 
 
248 THIRD ERA OF MYTHOLOGY. 
 
 However the doctrine of Dualism may have the 
 advantage when compared with others, yet here,, as in 
 other instances, where the light of the human facul- 
 ties has not been maintained in its purity by a higher 
 influence, error and superstition seem at an early 
 period to have crept in ; and one false step, in those 
 ancient times of energy and enthusiasm, was enough 
 to pervert the most sublime doctrines into sources 
 of abominable and atrocious practices. From a 
 reverential regard to the purity and sanctity of the 
 great elements of nature, a sentiment which carries 
 with it not only an air of poetical elegance, but a 
 moral association, arose an anxious care to avoid 
 contaminating these sources of life by the contact 
 of dead bodies. Hence it became, in the religion 
 of the Persians, almost the greatest of crimes to 
 lay a corpse in the earth, or to consume it with the 
 still more sacred flame. Hence also arose the horrible 
 custom of the ancient Magi, who exposed the remains 
 of the deceased, to be torn to pieces by wild beasts, — 
 a practice which is still maintained in Tibet, though 
 the religion of that country has since changed, and 
 has extended itself even to the distant regions of 
 Kamtschatka: customs often retain their influence 
 after the ordinances or opinions which first gave rise 
 to them have long disappeared. 
 
SYSTEM OF PANTHEISM. 249 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 System of Pantheism. 
 
 Among the philosophical systems of the East which 
 are most important in an historical point of view on 
 account of their widely-extended influence, one only 
 remains to be considered, namely, the doctrine of 
 Pantheism. The principles of this system are dis- 
 cernible in the doctrines of the Indian Buddhists, which, 
 about the commencement of the Christian era, that is, 
 nearly a thousand years after their first rise, were 
 introduced into Tibet and China ; which still prevail 
 in Siam and the rest of the eastern peninsula, as well 
 as in the island of Ceylon, and have extended them- 
 selves far to the northward among the Tartar tribes. 
 At least, the dogma that the universe is substantially 
 nothing, to which the idea that the whole consists of 
 but one being so naturally leads, is assigned to the 
 Chinese Fo, as the fundamental tenet of his esoteric 
 philosophy. When all individual essences are 
 swallowed up in the abstract and negative conception 
 of the Infinite Being, and their separate existence 
 annihilated, this idea itself soon eludes our grasp, and 
 resolves itself into nothing. 
 
 It ought not to surprise the reader that we regard 
 this philosophy as the latest of the Oriental systems. 
 The proofs of this opinion must be given elsewhere. 
 We shall only remark at present, that the lively and 
 deep-rooted conviction of the existence of an Infinite 
 
 K K 
 
250 FOURTH ERA OF 12YTH0L0GY. 
 
 Being, and of his omnipotence,, must have become 
 very much weakened and obscured, before it could 
 resolve itself into such an airy and unreal phantom as 
 the pantheistic idea of the one sole Being, which can 
 scarcely be distinguished from absolute non-existence. 
 All the other doctrines of the Oriental schools are 
 founded on miracles and an appeal to revelation, 
 however distorted by errors, and intermingled with 
 fable; the system of Pantheism owes its origin to 
 metaphysical refinement, and thus marks the transition 
 from the Oriental to the European style of philoso- 
 phising. It flatters the vanity as well as the indolence 
 of the human mind: for when once the generalising 
 conclusion, which comprehends all being, and anni- 
 hilates all, is made, there is an end of inquiry ; all 
 alterations of form and nature are regarded as mere 
 deception. 
 
 Among people of strong feelings, who imbibed the 
 spirit of this doctrine with enthusiasm, it assumed a 
 character of the most fearful fanaticism. Hence those 
 prodigious spectacles, which astonish beholders, of 
 Yoguees and Sannyasis, who macerate their bodies, 
 and seek self-annihilation as the great object of their 
 wishes. On the other hand, among more frigid or 
 weaker temperaments, the maxim that all evil is merely 
 apparent, because all existence, being essentially one, 
 must be perfect in its nature, leads its votaries 
 into a fallacious cheerfulness and acquiescence in 
 themselves. 
 
 That the doctrine of the Sane'hya* school is com- 
 pletely Pantheistic, we may judge from the Bhagvat 
 
 * The Sane'hya philosophy is the source whence the sect of 
 Buddha seems to have borrowed its doctrines. It is vulgarly 
 
SYSTEM OF PANTHEISM. 251 
 
 Gita; but we must allow that the author of this work 
 seems not to have thoroughly understood it, or at least 
 to have distorted its sense according to his own habits 
 of thought. In the Bhagvat Gita,f and, as we may 
 conjecture with probability, in all the other works 
 ascribed to Vyasa, the doctrine of the Vedanti is 
 prevalent, of which he was the author. Hence we 
 are better acquainted with this than any other system 
 of Indian philosophy. 
 
 That this doctrine is nothing else than a pure ant! 
 perfect Pantheism, we may perceive by the transla- 
 tion; and it is still more clearly traced in the original. 
 The Vedanti, as the name indicates, professes to be 
 only an exposition of the ancient Indian doctrine set 
 forth in the Vedas. The old text, like the ancient 
 basis of the civil constitution, has been suffered to 
 remain, but the new tenets have been, wherever this 
 was possible, impressed upon it. All beings are re- 
 solved into the great One, the Supreme, Brahme, or 
 Ghuinyon, or the object of intellectual apprehension, 
 which is here expressly defined to be a condition of 
 indifference between existence and non-existence; 
 between Sot and Osot. There are indeed passages in 
 which the author seems to contend directly against 
 the doctrine of the Veda. From the unmixed applause 
 
 ascribed to Capila, but appears to have been the work of Iswara 
 Crishna, who is stated to have received the doctrine from 
 Capila through successive teachers. — Colebrooke on the 
 Vedas, Asiatic Researches, vol. viii. p. 485. 
 
 f The Bhagvat Gita is not really the work of Vyasa, though 
 vulgarly ascribed to him. There is reason to believe it to be a 
 production of a much later period. 
 
252 SUCCESSION OF MYTHOLOGICAL 
 
 which he bestows every where on the Sanc'hya 
 philosophy, it appears that there is an essential 
 agreement between this and the doctrine of his own 
 school. 
 
 We must wait for more satisfactory information con- 
 cerning the real character of the Nyaya, Mimansa,* 
 and Sanc'hya schools. The moral genius of the 
 Mimansa, and the speculative character of the Sanc'- 
 hya, agree well with the respective ages which we 
 have allotted to them. At present we must be satisfied 
 with having obtained from the Institutes of Menu 
 a sufficient insight into the oldest doctrines of the 
 Hindoos, and from the Bhagvat Gita a tolerably 
 complete idea of the Vedanti, which must be regarded 
 as the latest system in the whole succession of Indian 
 literature and philosophy. 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 Continuation of the same subject. Succession of Philosophical 
 Doctrines and Mythologies in the East. 
 
 The foregoing remarks on the successive deve- 
 lopement of speculative doctrines and mythological 
 representations in the East, have been confirmed in 
 the most important points by subsequent inquiries, 
 
 * The object of the Mimansa, says Colebrooke, is to establish 
 the cogency of precepts contained in the Indian scriptures, and 
 to furnish maxims for its interpretation ; and, for the same 
 purpose, rules of reasoning, from which a system of logic is 
 deducible. 
 
DOCTRINES IN THE EAST. 2-53 
 
 and particularly by the researches of the Society of 
 English Antiquarians at Calcutta. They agree in 
 general with the conclusions which seem to result 
 from all the data we possess relating to the history of 
 Indian literature. A sufficient analysis of the Vedas, 
 which we owe to the learned and judicious Mr. 
 Colebrooke, and some further information concerning 
 the Indian schools of philosophy, have elucidated 
 several topics, respecting which Mr. Schlegel was 
 obliged to content himself with conjectures. We are 
 thus enabled to correct the foregoing outline of the 
 history of Oriental philosophy in some particulars, 
 and to arrive at satisfactory conclusions. 
 
 The most important exception that occurs to the 
 scheme of this author relates to the place he has 
 assigned to Pantheism, and the strong line of dis- 
 tinction he has drawn between that doctrine and the 
 system of emanation. We learn from an examina- 
 tion of the Vedas, that a style of representation to 
 which the term Pantheism may with propriety be 
 applied, is as ancient as the oldest relics of Indian 
 learning. The Pantheism of the Vedas is not indeed 
 of that refined and metaphysical character, which Mr. 
 Schlegel regards as essentially belonging to this name, 
 nor is it founded on those subtle abstractions which the 
 Vedanti school displays; yet it may be truly desig- 
 nated as Pantheism, since the conception of the 
 Divine nature, which it presents, includes in itself the 
 material universe. 
 
 Before I proceed further, I shall illustrate these 
 observations by some striking passages from the 
 Vedas, in which the departments and elements of 
 nature are identified with or rather included in the 
 
254 SUCCESSION OF MYTHOLOGICAL 
 
 description of the Deity. The following represen- 
 tation occurs in the Yajur-veda. 
 
 ec Fire is that (original cause) ; the Sun is that; so 
 is Air ; so is the Moon ; such too is that pure Brahme ; 
 and those waters and that lord of creatures. Moments 
 proceed from that effulgent person, whom none can 
 apprehend, above, around, or in the midst Of him 
 whose glory is so great there is no image/' " Even 
 he is the god who pervades all regions ; he is the first- 
 born ; it is he who is in the womb ; he who is born ; 
 and he who will be produced; he severally and uni- 
 versally remains with all persons." 
 
 ' c He prior to whom nothing was born ; and who 
 became all beings, &c." 
 
 ce The wise man views that mysterious being, in 
 whom the universe perpetually exists, resting in that 
 sole support. In him this world is absorbed, from him 
 it issues ; in creatures he is twined and woven, with 
 various forms of existence." " Recognising heaven, 
 earth, and sky to be him, knowing the worlds, disco- 
 vering space and the solar orb to be the same, he 
 views that being; he becomes that being; and is 
 identified with him, on completing the broad web of 
 the solemn sacrifice/'* 
 
 The following curious passage from the White 
 Yajur-veda, forming part of the hymn relating to the 
 allegorical immolation of Narayana. exemplifies the 
 extravagant figures contained in the Vedas, and other 
 Indian cosmogonies. It begins by identifying the 
 soul of man with the soul of the universe, which is the 
 most characteristic tenet of the Pantheistic doctrine. 
 
 * On the Vedas or Sacred Writings of the Hindoos. By 
 H. T. Colebrooke, Esq. Asiat. Research, vol. viii. p. 432. 
 
DOCTRINES IK THE EAST. 255 
 
 ci I. The embodied spirit, which hath a thousand 
 heads, a thousand eyes, a thousand feet, stands in the 
 human breast, while it totally pervades the earth. 
 
 fC 2. That being is this universe, and all that has 
 been, or will be ; he is that which grows by nourish- 
 ment, and he is the distributor of immortality. 
 
 iC 3. Such is his greatness, and therefore is he the 
 most excellent embodied spirit; the elements of the 
 universe are one portion of him, and three portions 
 of him are immortality in heaven. 
 
 " 4. That three-fold being rose above this world, 
 and the single portion of him remained in this uni- 
 verse, which consists of what does and what does not 
 taste the reward of good and bad actions ; again he 
 pervaded the universe. 
 
 " 5. From him sprang Viraj, from whom the first 
 man was produced, and he being successively re- 
 produced, peopled the earth. 
 
 Ci 6. Prom that single portion, surnamed the uni- 
 versal sacrifice, was the holy oblation of butter and 
 curds produced, and this did frame all cattle, wild and 
 domestic, which are governed by instinct. 
 
 <c 7. From that universal sacrifice were produced 
 the strains of the Rich and Saman (Yedas) ; from him 
 the sacred metres sprang; from him did the Yajush 
 proceed. 
 
 <c 8. From him were produced horses, &c. cows ? 
 goats, and sheep. 
 
 cf 9. Him the gods, the demigods named Sad'hya, 
 and the holy sages, immolated as a victim on sacred 
 grass; and thus performed a solemn act of religion. 
 
 e( 10. Into how many portions did they divide this 
 being, whom they immolated? What did his mouth 
 
256 SUCCESSION OF MYTHOLOGICAL 
 
 become? What are his arms, his thighs, his feet, 
 now called? 
 
 ec 1L His mouth became a priest ; his arm was made 
 a soldier ; his thigh was transformed into a husband- 
 man ; from his feet sprang the servile man. 
 
 (i 12. The moon was produced from his mind, the 
 sun sprang from his eye, air and breath proceeded 
 from his ear, and fire rose from his mouth. 
 
 <c 13. The subtle element was produced from his 
 navel,, the sky from his head, the earth from his 
 feet, and space from his ear. Thus did he frame 
 worlds."* &c. 
 
 Expressions of this character are not confined to a 
 few passages. Similar representations abound in the 
 oldest remains of Indian literature, and, indeed, per- 
 vade all the scriptures of the Hindoos. The following 
 is the general conclusion respecting the ancient 
 doctrine of this people, which Mr. Colebrooke has 
 deduced from an accurate examination of the Vedas 
 and other sacred writings of the Indian priesthood. 
 
 tc The real doctrine of the whole Indian Scripture 
 is the unity of the Deity, in whom the universe is 
 comprehended ; and the seeming polytheism which it 
 exhibits, offers the elements and the stars and planets 
 as gods/'f 
 
 But though the oldest Hindoo Scriptures contain 
 passages of this nature, which seem to identify the 
 Deity with the world ; yet they also deliver explicitly 
 the doctrine of creation in the true sense : that is, 
 
 * On the Religious Ceremonies of the Hindus, and of the 
 Brahmans especially; by H. T. Colebrooke, Esq. — Asiat. Res. 
 vol. vii. p. 251. 
 
 t Asiat. Res. vol. viii. p, 494. 
 
DOCTRINES IN THE EAST. 25T 
 
 they declare the prior existence of an eternal and 
 spiritual being ; who, by an act of his will, called forth 
 the material universe, and gave origin to all subor- 
 dinate souls, which they represent as emanating 
 successively from the essence of the Supreme. 
 
 This doctrine is delivered in the following pas- 
 sage, cited from the Aitareya Aranya, a part o f the 
 Rig-veda. 
 
 " Originally this universe was indeed Soul only : 
 nothing else whatsoever existed, either active or 
 inactive. He thought, ' I will create worlds/ Thus 
 he created these various worlds, water, light, mortal 
 beings, and the waters. That water is the region 
 above the heaven, which heaven upholds ; the atmos- 
 phere comprises light; the earth is mortal, and the 
 regions below are the waters/'* 
 
 It is a remarkable circumstance, that the pantheis- 
 tic representation of the divinity is found combined, or 
 rather confounded, with a dogma so distinct from it, 
 and which seems so opposite in its nature as the 
 system of emanation. Yet such is the fact. The 
 essential and original doctrine of the whole Indian 
 system of mythology, on the various developement of 
 which the tenets of all the different sects are founded, is 
 the emanation of subordinate natures from a primeval 
 and spiritual Being. The pantheistic representation of 
 this Being cannot have been coeval with that system. 
 It betrays a different style, or mode of philosophizing, 
 and can only have had its origin in a corruption of the 
 doctrine of emanation, or in the expansion of its prin- 
 ciples into a new and distorted form. We shall 
 
 * Asiat. Res. vol. viii. p. 421. 
 L L 
 
258 SUCCESSION OF MYTHOLOGICAL 
 
 venture to consider the developement of this last 
 system of ideas, as marking a second era in the history 
 of oriental philosophy. 
 
 We shall assign the third rank in the succession of 
 religious or philosophical conceptions to Materialism, 
 or the worship of the visible elements and depart- 
 ments of the universe. This place seems, indeed, to 
 belong to it, according to the natural and obvious 
 progress of superstition. The connection of pan- 
 theistic representations with the worship of Nature 
 scarcely requires to be elucidated; the whole frame of 
 the universe being included in the idea of the divine 
 essence, and the departments of the world contem- 
 plated as integral parts of it, the latter came, by a 
 very easy transition, to be regarded as separate or 
 subordinate gods. Hence the deification of the ele- 
 ments and celestial bodies. But the worship of 
 material objects, as derived from this source, bears a 
 very different impression from the rude superstitions of 
 barbarous people, who have no other conception of 
 the Deity than as the visible orb of the Sun or Moon, 
 to which they address their adorations, looking upon 
 them as living bodies, and the voluntary and benefi- 
 cent dispensers of light and heat. From the worship 
 of the stars, according to the more philosophical or 
 systematic ideas of those who regarded them as parti- 
 cular portions of the animated and deified universe, 
 there naturally originated certain notions respecting 
 the influence of these agents on the destinies of 
 mankind, and the revolutions of events. Thus 
 judicial astrology and magical incantations became 
 an appendage of this ancient superstition. 
 
 All these varieties in the religion of the Hindoos 
 
DOCTRINES IN THE EAST. 259 
 
 must be referred to a very remote era. The systems 
 of emanation and pantheism have been traced already 
 to the Vedas. The germs of a wild and sensual 
 materialism are very conspicuous in the Institutes of 
 Menu. 
 
 The grosser and more revolting parts of the super- 
 stitions of India appear to be of later date than the 
 religion of the Vedas, and the mythology embodied in 
 Menu's Cosmogony. I now refer to the worship of 
 Siva and Bhavani, with all the obscene and atrociods 
 circumstances which characterize it. The fabulous 
 incarnations of Vishnu, and the whole mythology 
 of the Puranas, also belong to this subsequent era. 
 As these are very important points in the system 
 I wish to found on this inquiry, I shall quote the 
 following conclusions of Mr Colebrooke, which, as 
 far as their application extends, confirm the observa- 
 tions of the author from whom I have borrowed the 
 foregoing sections. 
 
 <c The three principal manifestations of the divinity/' 
 says Mr. Colebrooke, ** with other personified attri- 
 butes and energies, and most of the other gods of 
 Hindoo mythology, are indeed mentioned, or at least 
 indicated, in the Vedas. But the worship of deified 
 heroes is no part of that system ; nor are the incar- 
 nations of deities suggested in any other portion* of 
 
 * This alludes to the Rama tapaniya, and Gopala tapaniya, 
 which contain the stones of Rama and Crishna. Mr. Cole- 
 brooke observes that " the former of these is inserted in all 
 the collections of the Upanishads which he has seen : yet," he 
 observes, " I am inclined to doubt their genuineness, and to 
 suspect that they have been written in times modern, when 
 
260 SUCCESSION OF MYTHOLOGICAL 
 
 the text which I have yet seen; though such are 
 sometimes hinted at by the commentators/' 
 
 cc According to the notions which I entertain of 
 the real history of the Hindoo religion, the worship 
 of Rama and of Crishna by the Vaishnavas, and 
 that of Mahadeva arid Bhavani by the Saivas 
 and Sactas, have been generally introduced since 
 the persecution of the Baudd 'has, and Jainas. The 
 institutions of the Veda are anterior to Buddha, 
 whose theology seems to have been borrowed 
 from the system of Capila, and whose most con- 
 spicuous practical doctrine is stated to have been 
 the unlawfulness of killing animals, which in his 
 opinion were too frequently slain for the purpose of 
 eating their flesh, under the pretence of performing a 
 sacrifice or Yajnya. The overthrow of the sect of 
 Buddha, in India, has not effected the full revival of 
 the religious system inculcated in the Vedas. Most 
 of what is there taught is now obsolete ; and, in its 
 stead, new orders of religious devotees have been 
 instituted, and new forms of religious ceremonies 
 have been established. Rituals, founded on the 
 Puranas, and observances borrowed from a worse 
 source, the Tantras, have in a great measure anti- 
 quated the institutions of the Vedas. In particular, 
 the sacrificing of animals before the idols of Cali has 
 superseded the less sanguinary practice of the Yajnya, 
 
 compared with the remainder of the Vedas. This suspicion is 
 chiefly grounded on the opinion that the sects which now 
 worship Rama and Crishna, as incarnations of Vishnu, are 
 comparatively new. I have not found, in any other part of 
 the Vedas, the least trace of such a worship." Asiat. Re- 
 searches, vol. viii. p, 494. 
 
DOCTRINES IN THE EAST. 261 
 
 and the adoration of Rama and Crishna has suc- 
 ceeded to that of the elements and planets/'* 
 
 But though the sects of Siva and Vishnu are sub- 
 sequent in their origin to the institutions of Vedas, 
 there is yet sufficient proof of their great antiquity. 
 I need only allude to the ancient sculptures found in 
 the Indian peninsula, and in the decorations of the 
 subterranean temples. In the wonderful excavations 
 at Elephanta and Ellora, the types of the worshippers 
 of Siva and Bhavani are exhibited in colossal forms, 
 as well as the figures of Crishna, and other incarna- 
 tions of Vishnu. The flat roofs of these caverns, and 
 every other circumstance connected with them, prove 
 that their origin must be referred to a remote epoch. 
 It is remarkable that the caves in Salsette, where 
 Buddha is exhibited as the sole object of worship, 
 have arched roofs, and are more modern in their 
 style of decoration — a fact which indicates that the 
 rites of the Saivas and Vaishnavas, in this part of 
 India at least, preceded the era of the Buddhists. 
 
 That the system of the Vedas, however, was long 
 anterior to the rise of the superstition now prevalent, 
 may well be allowed, without refusing to admit the 
 inferences to which these considerations lead. The 
 extravagant notions which have been maintained re- 
 specting the vast antiquity of the Indian scriptures have 
 been justly exploded and reprobated ; yet it appears that 
 many writers have gone, with just as little support 
 from the testimony of facts, to the contrary extreme. 
 The most moderate and judicious conclusion, on this 
 much disputed point, is that which Mr. Colebrooke 
 has obtained from a careful examination of internal 
 
 * Colebrooke ubi supra. 
 
26S SUCCESSION OF MYTHOLOGICAL 
 
 evidence, and in particular from the treatises, of which 
 one is annexed to each Veda, under the title of its 
 Jyotish, explaining the adjustment of the calendar, for 
 the purpose of fixing the proper periods for the per- 
 formance of religious duties. i( These formules are 
 adapted to the comparison of solar and lunar time 
 with the vulgar or civil year, and were evidently 
 formed in the infancy of astronomical knowledge/' 
 From these considerations Mr. Colebrooke infers 
 that the Vedas were arranged in their present form, 
 in the fourteenth century before the Christian era, 
 that is, about two hundred years later than the date of 
 the Pentateuch of Moses. Several parts are evidently 
 more modern ; but these may commonly be distin- 
 guished in a satisfactory manner, and the texts which 
 were compiled about the period above mentioned are 
 themselves in general more ancient than the era when 
 they were collected by Dwapayana, who was thence 
 surnamed Vyasa, or the Compiler. 
 
 On the reviewing the whole of the evidence as yet 
 obtained, concerning the origin and relative antiquity 
 of the different modes of Indian superstition and phi- 
 losophy, it appears that the outline of their history, as 
 attempted by Mr. Schlegel, has been confirmed and 
 completed, in the most important parts, by further 
 inquiry and consideration. The limitations it requires 
 have been noticed, as well as the inversions, which seem 
 necessary in order to reconcile it with historical truth. 
 The oldest doctrine of the eastern schools is the 
 system of Emanation and Metempsychosis. Blended 
 with this, but probably subsequent to it, is Pantheism, 
 which already makes its appearance in the Vedas. 
 The latter ushered in Hylozoism, and the deification 
 
DOCTRINES IN THE EAST. 263 
 
 of visible elements, or, in other words, the worship of 
 Nature. On this system, blended, at a subsequent era, 
 with the veneration of heroes as incarnations of the 
 gods, were founded the superstitions of the Saivas or 
 Vaishnavas. But these last forms of mythology are at 
 least as ancient as those celebrated excavations in the 
 Indian peninsula which have excited the astonishment 
 of all travellers. The superstition of the Saivas, or the 
 religion of Siva, Mahadeva, and Bhavani, consists, as 
 it is well known, of the worship of the elements, and 
 particularly of the destructive and reproductive 
 powers of Nature, connected with the display of con- 
 secrated symbols, the lingum and the yoni ; that of 
 the Vaishnavas, or followers of Vishnu, of the rites 
 and observances founded on the Puranas which relate 
 to the incarnations of their god. 
 
 Though the three manifestations of the deity are 
 mentioned in the Vedas and other remains of remote 
 antiquity, yet, as Brahma is the most conspicuous 
 divinity in the scriptures of this era, we shall distin- 
 guish the earliest forms of Indian mythology as the 
 religion of Brahma. The later class of superstitions 
 are already designated in the practice of the sects, 
 who devote themselves respectively to Siva and 
 Vishnu. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 COMPARISON BETWEEN THE SUCCESSION OF SUPERSTI- 
 TIONS IN THE EAST, AND THE HISTORY OF MYTHOLOGY 
 IN EGYPT. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 General Resemblance between the Indian and Egyptian 
 Mythologies in the Conception of the Divine Nature. 
 
 We shall now examine the relations between the 
 mythologies of India and Egypt, and inquire whether 
 there are traces of a succession of periods and a gra- 
 dual change of doctrines in the history of the latter, 
 which bear any analogy to the revolution we have 
 observed in the Eastern schools. This investigation 
 cannot fail to throw light on the connection and 
 mutual relations of the various parts of the Egyptian 
 mythology. At the same time it will afford a complete 
 solution of the problem, whether any essential affinity 
 existed originally between these systems. 
 
 The first question that offers itself is, To what 
 period in the history of the Indian mythology do the 
 superstitions of Egypt bear the nearest relation? 
 
 I think it will appear evident that the more striking 
 and popular of .these superstitions correspond in ge- 
 neral with those which belong to the third and fourth 
 periods in the history of Eastern doctrines, and that 
 the whole of the Egyptian mythology may be referred 
 
 M M 
 
266 SIMILAR IDEAS AND REPRESENTATIONS 
 
 to the transition from the more ancient into the later 
 system. At the same time I think we may trace, in 
 the doctrines and representations of the Theban and 
 Memphite hierarchy, a transition from an older to a 
 newer style of philosophy and superstition, bearing 
 a near analogy to the gradual revolution which took 
 place in the religion of the Brahmans. 
 
 But before we proceed further into this subject, let 
 us mark the general resemblance, with respect to the 
 conception and representation of the deity, which 
 displays itself in the religion of the Indians and Egyp- 
 tians. In both systems the idea of God was formed, 
 not by a philosophical abstraction, or by inferences 
 from effects to causes, but was, in fact, a sort of 
 prosopopoeia of Nature. The idea of the Divinity 
 included in itself the whole universe. We shall here 
 recall to our reader the description of Serapis, cited 
 in a former Book, in which the Egyptian pantheism is 
 strikingly characterized, and shall then cite a paral- 
 lel passage from the Vedas. Serapis is thus described 
 by the oracle which was interrogated respecting the 
 nature of the god. 
 
 " Learn thus the description of my nature and 
 divine attributes. The canopy of heaven is my head, 
 the sea is my belly, the earth constitutes my feet, 
 my ears are aloft in the etherial vault, and mine eye 
 is the splendid and far-shining solar lamp.'' 
 
 The following is a description of the creation of 
 Purusha, the first embodied being, from the Aitareya 
 Aranya, which is a portion of the Rig-veda. 
 
 <f He drew from the waters and framed Purusha. 
 He viewed him ; and of that being, so contemplated, 
 the mouth opened as an egg. From the mouth speech 
 
OF THE DIVINITY. 267 
 
 issued ; from speech fire proceeded. The nostrils 
 spread : from the nostrils breath passed ; from breath 
 air was propagated. The eyes opened : from the 
 eyes a glance sprung ; from that glance the sun was 
 produced. The ears dilated : from the ears came 
 hearkening ; and from that the regions of space. 
 The skin expanded : from the skin hair arose ; from 
 that grew herbs and trees. The breast opened: from 
 the breast mind issued ; and from mind the moon/' 
 &c. 
 
 " The deities, that is, the elements, fell into the 
 ocean. " They demanded a receptacle, and Brahma 
 shewed them thehuman form. ec He bade them occupy 
 their respective places. Fire, becoming speech, entered 
 the mouth. x\ir, becoming breath, proceeded to the 
 nostrils. The sun, bringing light, penetrated the 
 eyes. Space became hearing and occupied the ears. 
 Herbs and trees became hair, and filled the skin. The 
 moon, becoming mind, entered the breast." 
 
 The leading idea, in both these descriptions, is the 
 same. It is a comparison of man, as a microcosm, 
 with the universe, as a megacosm, or the converse. 
 The style of the figures is in both alike.* 
 
 * This strange and uncouth assemblage of ideas may be 
 recognised in the mythology of the ancient German nations. 
 Yme the great First-born, was a microcosm of the universe. 
 He was slain by the gods Odin, Vili, and Ve, the sacred triad 
 of the Scandinavian mythology, who, from the body and blood 
 of the giant, created all things. 
 
 " Of Yme's flesh was the earth created j 
 Of his sweat, the sea j the hills, of his bones ; 
 The meadows, of his hair j and of his head, the heavens ; 
 
268 SIMILAR IDEAS AND REPRESENTATIONS 
 
 We find in the Bhagvat Gita a still more charac- 
 teristic specimen of the pantheistic description of the 
 divinity. 
 
 " The son of Pandoo then beheld, within the body 
 
 OF THE GOD OF GODS, STANDING TOGETHER, THE WHOLE 
 
 universe, divided into its vast variety. He was over- 
 whelmed with wonder, and every hair was raised on 
 end. He bowed down before the god, and thus 
 addressed him with joined hands. ' I behold, O 
 god ! within thy breast, the devas assembled, and 
 every tribe of beings. I see Brahma, that deity 
 sitting on his lotus throne : all the rishis and hea- 
 venly uragas. I see thyself, on all sides, of infinite 
 shape, formed with abundant arms, and bellies, and 
 mouths, and eyes ; but I can neither discover thy 
 beginning, thy middle, nor thine end. O universal 
 lord ! form of the universe ! 1 see thee with a 
 crown, and armed with club and chakra, a mass of 
 glory darting refulgent beams around. I see thee, 
 difficult to be seen, shining on all sides with light 
 immeasurable, like the ardent fire or glorious sun. 
 I see thee of valour infinite; the sun and moon thy 
 eyes; thy mouth a flaming fire, and the whole world 
 shining with reflected glory. The space between 
 the heavens and earth is possessed by thee alone, and 
 every point around/ " * 
 
 We must not regard these descriptions as peculiar 
 
 And of his eye-brows, the blithe gods made 
 Midgard, for the sons of men j and of his brains 
 Were all the hard-tempered clouds created." 
 
 Herbert's Translations from the Icelandic, vol. i. p. 27. 
 
 * Ward on the History, Religion, &c. of the Hindoos, 
 vol. i. p. 85 of the Introduction. 
 
OF THE DIVINITY. 269 
 
 to any one god in the Indian or Egyptian theocracy. 
 They appear to be rather the mode in which the 
 mystics of both nations represented the divinity, and 
 are appropriated in turns to various imaginary names. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 Of the Forms of Eastern Mythology, to which the Superstition 
 of Egypt is particularly related. 
 
 The assemblage of splendid ceremonies and em- 
 blematical or figurative representations which formed 
 so remarkable a feature in the history of the ancient 
 Egyptians, bears in many respects a near resemblance 
 to those superstitious rites and doctrines which we 
 have supposed to belong to the third and fourth eras 
 of Eastern mythology. In India, at this period, we lose 
 sight of all abstract ideas of creation or emanation ; 
 we contemplate the material universe as an infinite 
 frame endued with a living nature, of which intellec- 
 tual or moral attributes form no part, while the 
 merely animal or sensual powers are every where 
 celebrated and exhibited in all the various forms which 
 the luxuriance of a corrupt imagination could deve- 
 lope. Destruction, death, and all its terrors, every 
 where stalk forth in the most appalling shapes. Lust 
 and wanton revelry exhibit, in all directions, the most 
 obscene and sensual emblems. Such is the religion of 
 the destroying and generating Siva, and of Durga or 
 Bhavani, his frightful or lascivious consort ; and such 
 was the religion of Osiris and Isis. 
 
27t) EGYPTIAN AND INDIAN 
 
 The most striking features in nature are the pro- 
 cesses of destruction and renovation. It might be 
 expected that the worshippers of nature would per- 
 sonify the powers that were imagined to give rise to 
 these phenomena. They have in fact done so, and 
 have exhibited the same scenes, with some accidental 
 differences in Egypt, and in India. 
 
 The gods which compose the Egyptian Triad are 
 personifications of the generative, the destructive, and 
 the renovating or preserving powers; and the Tri- 
 murti of the Hindoos represents nearly the same qua- 
 lities. The chief circumstance which distinguishes 
 the theogonies of the two countries is the following. 
 The Hindoos personified destruction as well as 
 generation ; but in the Indian prosopopoeia, by some 
 accident, these opposite characters are associated in 
 one being. The frightful murderous Rudra is the 
 same god as Iswara, the begetter of all. Also the 
 black Kali, or Chamunda, whose image wore a 
 necklace of human skulls, and is decorated with 
 wreaths composed of the bloody ears and noses of 
 captives,* is the same goddess as Bhavani, the all- 
 teeming mother of creatures. 
 
 In Egypt, these attributes were more correctly divi- 
 ded. Osiris was the generator ; he appeared in his 
 true and distinctive function, when preceded by the 
 Bacchanalian pomp, bearing aloft the Phalli, or that 
 curious wicker image, which so strikingly portrayed 
 the object of his existence or deification. f The 
 malignant destroyer, Typhon, the murderous enemy 
 
 * Wilks's History of the Mysore, vol. i. 
 t See Herodotus, lib.ii. 
 
POLYTHEISM COMPARED. 271 
 
 of gods and men, the personification of physical evil, of 
 death and destruction, is never identified with Osiris, 
 though they were twin-brothers, but is always his 
 adversary. But in the representation of the female 
 power, the Egyptians made the same oversight as the 
 Hindoos. Isis, in one character, expresses the uni- 
 versal mother, and corresponds exactly with Isani or 
 Bhavani ; in another, as the vindictive Tithrambo or 
 Erinnys, she differs little from Kali. 
 
 If these circumstances be kept in mind, we shall 
 observe a strict analogy between the characters of 
 Siva the generator, and Osiris, and between Siva the 
 destroyer, and Typhon ; as we find the consort of 
 Siva in her double character to correspond in both 
 with the double attributes of Isis. Iswara or cc lord," 
 is the epithet of Siva, regarded as the chief power or 
 lord of nature. Osiris or Ysiris as Hellanicus wrote 
 the Egyptian name, was the god at whose birth a voice 
 was heard to declare, that the " lord of all nature 
 sprang forth to light. " The analogy of names alone 
 is a trifling circumstance : it may arise from accident, 
 and cannot furnish a foundation for any important 
 inference; but, when connected with a strongly- 
 marked resemblance, and even with identity of cha- 
 racter, it deserves notice. 
 
 One of the names of Siva is Tritochana, which 
 means Three-eyed: Trioculus. Polyopthalmos, or 
 <c Many-eyed," is the interpretation assigned by 
 Diodorus and Plutarch to the name of Osiris. 
 
 Sir William Jones, and many ingenious writers 
 who have followed him, have been very successful in 
 tracing coincidences between particular stories com- 
 prised in the Indian mythology, and the fables of 
 
272 EGYPTIAN AND INDIAN 
 
 other systems. This is not my object at present, and 
 I shall merely point out some leading characters of 
 resemblance in general principles, illustrating them 
 with some particulars, but in as brief a manner as 
 possible. 
 
 1. Of Siva, as the god of Reproduction, compared with Osiris, 
 
 Siva is represented, by the Hindoos, with one head, 
 three eyes, and two arms, riding on a bull, covered 
 with ashes, naked, his eyes inflamed with intoxica- 
 ting herbs, having in one hand a horn, and in the 
 other a drum.* Sarapis was figured by the Egyptians, 
 as holding in one hand a crozier, in the other a flail. 
 One of his forms was a bull. 
 
 Osiris, as identified with Bacchus, is the god of all 
 sensual revelry ; among the Greeks, of wine and 
 intoxication. The tiger-skin was the appropriate 
 garb of Bacchus. 
 
 Siva is often portrayed wearing a tiger-skin. He 
 sits upon a lotus. 
 
 Osiris was clothed with the skin of a fawn, the spots 
 being emblematical of his numerous eyes.f The infant 
 Harpocrates, whose close relation to Osiris we have 
 above remarked, was painted sitting upon a lotus. J 
 
 Siva is very commonly worshipped under the form 
 of the lingum, which is found in the adyta of the 
 Eastern temples, and is suspended from the necks of 
 Siva's votaries. This emblem performs a conspi- 
 cuous part in the public honours and festivities of 
 Siva, which bear a strong resemblance in many 
 
 * Ward, vol. i. p. 17. f Plut. de Isid. 
 
 % Cuper's Harpocrates. 
 
OSIRIS AND ISWARA THE RESTORER. 273 
 
 particulars to the famous Phallic or Ithyphallic pomps 
 and representations. On this subject it is unneces- 
 sary to enlarge. The reader will find it sufficiently 
 discussed in the second volume of the Rev. Mr. 
 Maurice's Indian Antiquities. 
 
 Siva,, as the god of generation, rode upon a bull.* 
 He has the same attitude when regarded as the 
 supreme judge, the author of legislation and civil 
 order.f The bull of Iswara is celebrated throughout 
 India. This god is worshipped by the people on the 
 Caveri; and a number of bulls, which represent him, 
 roam about the country, and receive extravagant 
 
 * Sir W. Jones,, on the Gods of Greece, Italy, and India. 
 Asiat. Researches, vol. i. 
 
 f The following text is ordered to be repeated by a Hindoo, 
 who has unwarily eaten or drunk what is forbidden, as an 
 atonement; after performing the ceremony, the Gayatri is 
 to be repeated eight hundred times. " The bull roars; he has 
 four horns, three feet, two heads, seven hands, and is bound 
 by a three-fold ligature; he is the mighty resplendent being, 
 and pervades mortal men." u The bull" says the Com- 
 mentary, " is Justice personified. His four horns are the 
 Brahman, or superintending priest; the Udgatri, or chanter of 
 the Sama-Veda^ &c. His three feet are the three Vedas." Mr. 
 H. T. Cclebrooke, Asiat. Research, vol. v. p. 356. 
 
 A marked resemblance may be traced between Sarapis, the 
 Egyptian Pluto, the ruler of the infernal regions, who was a 
 form of Osiris^ and the Indian Yarna, King of Hell. Yama is 
 figured sitting on a buffalo, with a club in his right hand. 
 His dreadful teeth, grim aspect, and terrific shape, fill the 
 inhabitants of the three worlds with terror.* He is guarded 
 by two dogs, one called Syama, or black; and the other, 
 Cerbura, or variegated, who has three heads. f 
 
 * Ward. f Wilford. 
 
 N N 
 
&74 EGYPTIAN AND INDIAN POLYTHEISM. 
 
 honours. The Siva-bhactar caste professes to owe 
 its institution to the appearance of Baswa, the sacred 
 bull of Iswara, and they relate many instances of the 
 benefits conferred by this divine animal on the human 
 race. At certain periods, they say that the world 
 is overwhelmed by floods. The bull stands in the 
 midst of the deluge, which ascends only half way up 
 his thighs. Men and other animals are saved by 
 laying hold of his hair.* 
 
 The Egyptian bulls, Apis and Mnevis, held a similar 
 relation to Osiris. Mnevis was the first legislator of 
 Egypt; and hence all the ancient lawgivers of mytho- 
 logy appeared in a tauriform shape, or had some 
 fiction connected with their stories, that related to 
 bulls. Such was the Minotaur of Minos, the law- 
 giver of Crete. 
 
 We have before observed, that water, as the 
 element which in a peculiar manner fosters and seems 
 to sustain all the fruits of the earth, w r as regarded by 
 the Egyptians as the chief cause of all production, 
 as the great genial principle of nature. As such it 
 was the gift and the emblem of Osiris. Hence a vessel 
 of water was carried in the processions of this god. 
 In India, Siva is often worshipped in the form of a 
 pan of water. 
 
 The Nile itself was called (i an emanation from 
 Osiris," as flowing from the god.f So the Ganges is 
 represented as flowing down from the head of Siva, 
 
 * Journey through Mysore, Canara, and Malabar, by Dr. 
 Francis Buchanan, M. D. 
 
 f Plutarch, ubi supra. The Nile is called " Oa-iptSos 
 AtfQppQri." 
 
TYPHON, AND SIVA THE DESTROYER. 275 
 
 a fiction very celebrated among the poets and painters 
 of India.* 
 
 2. Siva, as the God of Destniction, compared ivith Typhon. 
 
 Iswara, the god of generation, in many respects 
 corresponds as we have seen, with Osiris. As a 
 personification of the destructive powers of nature, he 
 represents the same character as Typhon, and resem- 
 bles him perhaps still more closely than in his former 
 character with Osiris. 
 
 The images of Siva, in the form of Maha-Kaia, the 
 great destroyer, remind us of the figures of Typhon. 
 They represent a smoke-coloured boy with three eyes 
 clothed in red garments. His hair stands erect ; his 
 teeth are very large; he wears a necklace of human 
 skulls, and a large turban of his own hair; in one 
 hand he holds a stick, and in the other the foot of a 
 
 * Sir W. Jones introduces this fable in his hymn to Ganga. 
 
 ft Above the reach of mortal ken, 
 
 On blest Coilasa's top, where every stem 
 
 Glow'd with a vegetable gem, 
 
 Mahesa stood, the dread and joy of men; 
 
 While Parvati, to gain a boon, 
 
 Fix'd on his locks a beamy moon, 
 
 And hid his frontal eye in jocund play. 
 
 With reluctant sweet delay. 
 
 All Nature straight was lock'd in dun eclipse, 
 
 Till Brahmans pure, with hallow'd lips 
 
 And warbled prayers, restored the day; 
 When Ganga from his brows with heav'nly fingers prest, 
 Sprang radiant and descending graced the caverns of the 
 West." 
 
276 EGYPTIAN AND INDIAN POLYTHEISM. 
 
 bedstead ; he has a large belly, and makes a very 
 terrific appearance.* 
 
 The Egyptian Typhon was a maleficent daemon, 
 who was blamed for all the misfortunes that occurred. 
 Like the Lok of the Scandinavians, he was a sort of 
 Blight-crop, who was perpetually contriving feats of 
 mischief and deception. 
 
 Such, precisely, is the character of Rudra, the 
 destroying Siva, as described in the following prayer. 
 (c O Rudra! hurt not our offspring and descendants; 
 abridge not the period of our lives ; destroy not our 
 cows; kill not our horses; slay not our proud and 
 irritable folks; because, holding oblations, we always 
 pray to thee."f 
 
 Typhon, the enemy of the solar god Osiris, was 
 worshipped, as we have before said, under the form 
 of a Crocodile, and oblations of food were made to a 
 Irving animal of this species. In India, on each day of 
 the great and horrible festival of Siva, the sannyasis, 
 or devotees, worship the Sun, pouring water and 
 flowers on a clay image of the Alligator. \ 
 
 Typhon mutilated Osiris. In the Indian fable, Siva 
 cut off one of the heads of Brahma, the creative god, 
 who, as opposed to the destroyer, bears a certain 
 relation to Osiris. This coincidence has often been 
 remarked. § 
 
 Papremis the Egyptian Mars, and all other de 
 structive daemons of the male sex, were considered as 
 
 * Ward, ubi. supra. 
 
 f Mr. H. T. Colebrooke, on the Religious Ceremonies of 
 the Hindus. Asiat. Researches, vol. v. p. 363. 
 + Ward, vol. i. p. 26. 
 § Paterson. Asiat. R. vol. viii. Wilford, Asiat. R. vol. iii. 
 
TYPHON, AND SIVA THE DESTROYER. 277 
 
 forms or characters of Typhon. So Kartikeya, the 
 o-od of war amonff the Hindoos, and ail their maleficent 
 or destructive gods, are regarded as forms of the 
 destroyer Siva.* 
 
 The frightful atrocities and astonishing self-tortures 
 practised by yoguees and sannyasis, in the worship 
 of Siva, form one of the most striking spectacles in 
 the superstition of India. The great autumnal festival 
 of Siva,+ which happens nearly at the same season 
 with the lamentation for the death of Osiris, bears, in 
 many points, a striking resemblance to the mournful 
 rites and flagellations of the Egyptians, and perhaps 
 more particularly to the corresponding ceremonies of 
 the Syrian Baal, whose worshippers cut themselves 
 with knives. 
 
 Another ceremony, in honour of Siva, displays rites 
 similar to the wintry festival in honour of Osiris, 
 though celebrated at a different season. cc Every 
 year, in the month of Phalgoona, the Hindoos made 
 the image of Siva, and worship it for one day, throw- 
 ing the image the next day into the water. This 
 worship is performed in the night, and is accompanied 
 with singing, dancing, music, feasting, &c.";j; 
 
 3. Of the Worship of Bhavani, or Isi } compared with that of 
 the Egyptian Isis. 
 
 Most of the Egyptian goddesses resolve themselves 
 into two, as we have before remarked. These are 
 
 * Ward's Introduction. 
 
 f For a full and authentic description of this festival, I must 
 refer the reader to Mr. Ward's View of the History, &c. of the 
 Hindoos, vol. i. p. 21, et seqq. 
 
 X Ward, ubi supra. 
 
278 EGYPTIAN AND INDIAN POLYTHEISM. 
 
 Isis, the consort of Osiris ; and Nepthys, or Venn*,, 
 the wife of Typhon. 
 
 In like manner the Hindoo goddesses all resolve 
 themselves into various forms of Bhavani or Durga, 
 the wife of Siva ; and Lakshmi, the wife of Vishnu. 
 
 But,, in Egypt, Isis is by far the most conspicuous, 
 and appears in the most varied forms. So, in India, 
 Bhavani, in her various characters, comprises nearly 
 the whole catalogue of Hindoo goddesses. 
 
 Her original character in the shastras is that of 
 Pracriti or Bhagavati, the female power, or Nature 
 personified. Such., as we have shown, was the primi- 
 tive designation of Isis, or Natura multiformis; the 
 universal mother, ce cujus numen unicum, multi- 
 formi specie, ritu vario, nomine multijugo, tot us 
 veneratur orbis." 
 
 Pracriti is identified with Parvati, the mountain- 
 born goddess. So Isis, or Demeter, in her Grecian 
 name, is, as we have seen, but faintly distinguished 
 from the mountain-goddess Artemis, on earth, and 
 from Persephatta, or Hecate, in the infernal regions., 
 who are sometimes called her daughters, at others 
 are identified with herself. 
 
 Pracriti, or Bhavani, and Isis agree accurately in 
 their original sense, both being personifications of 
 prolific Nature. They coincide not less remarkably, 
 when the Hindoo goddess becomes the bloody Kali, 
 and the Egyptian, assumes the form of the horrible 
 Brimo, or Tithrambo, who is described as iC noctur- 
 nis ululatibus horrenda, triformi specie larvales impe- 
 tus comprimens." 
 
 The rites of Maha Kali, or Chandi, fhe maleficent 
 form of Durga, are detailed in the Kalica purana. Most 
 
TYPHON, AND SIVA THE DESTROYER. 279 
 
 of the animals considered as Typhonian, among the 
 Egyptians, are immolated before the shrine of Chandi. 
 " The Kalica purana directs that birds, tortoises, 
 alligators, fish, buffaloes, bulls, he-goats, ichneumons, 
 wild boars, rhinoceroses, antelopes, guanas, rein- 
 deer, lions, tygers, men, and blood drawn from the 
 offerer's own body, be offered to this goddess." The 
 following horrid incantation is addressed to her, when 
 an offering is made to effect the destruction of an 
 enemy. cc O goddess of horrid form ! O Chandika ! 
 eat, drown such a one, nry enemy, O consort of fire ! 
 Salutation to fire ! This is the enemy who has done 
 me mischief, now personated by an animal : destroy 
 him, O Maha mara ! Spheng ! Spheng ! eat, devour !"* 
 
 Like that of the Egyptian Tithrambo, the worship 
 of Kali is connected with the phases of the Moon. 
 The rites of the Hindoo goddess were formerly cele- 
 brated monthly, and the darkest nights in the month 
 were chosen for that purpose. At present her wor- 
 shippers hold a festival to her honour on the last night 
 of the decrease of the Moon, in the month Kartika, 
 which is called the Syama, or black festival. f We 
 have observed something analogous in the Egyptian 
 rites of Hecate. 
 
 Parvati, or Isi, as well as the Egyptian goddess, 
 is in some manner related to the Moon. A crescent is 
 painted on her forehead, and on that of her husband 
 Isa, or Siva. Isa, in one of his forms, is expressly 
 
 * Ward on the Hindoo Mythology, vol. i. Asiatic Re- 
 searches, vol. i. 
 f Ward, ubi supr£, vol. i. p. 154. 
 
280 EGYPTIAN AND INDIAN POLYTHEISM. 
 
 called the Moon, and his consort, Isi, is then Luna.* 
 The Moon, in the Hindoo mythology, is of two 
 sexes. Chandra, or Deus Lunus, is the Moon in 
 opposition to the Sun; Chandri, or Dea Luna, is 
 the Moon in conjunction with him. In Egypt we 
 have seen that in the month Phamenoth, Osiris 
 was fabled to make his entrance into the Moon, 
 though at other times the Moon was regarded as the 
 visible appearance of Isis. But we are not accurately 
 informed of the circmustances which distinguish 
 Lunus from Luna, or of the precise relations of Isis 
 and Osiris respecting the Moon. It is sufficient to 
 trace a similar conversion in India and in Egypt. 
 
 In Egypt the Moon was at certain times a male- 
 ficent goddess ; she wore the semblance of the angry 
 Hecate. The Moon among the Hindoos is also 
 regarded as a malignant planet. f 
 
 The beneficent form of Bhavani, termed Devi, or 
 Anna Puma, is doubtless, as Sir W. Jones remarked, 
 the Anna Perenna of the Romans, whose religion 
 bears, in some particulars, a still closer resemblance 
 to the eastern system, than the Greek, and perhaps 
 even than the Egyptian. Anna Purna is, however, also 
 the counterpart of the Egyptian Isis. She is figured 
 as bent by the weight of her full breasts, and reminds 
 us of the statues of Isis, J or Ceres Multimamma. 
 
 Bhavani is invoked by the name of Ma, as was 
 Derneter, amongst the Greeks, § by that of Maia, <( and 
 
 * Moor's Hindoo Pantheon, p. 289. 
 f Ward. % Paterson. 
 
 % Ceres, as well as Proserpine, was called Maia. Indeed 
 they are expressly affirmed to be the same by Porphyry. 
 
BHAVANI COMPARED WITH ISIS. 281 
 
 she is frequently represented " like the Grecian god- 
 dess, or rather like the Phrygian mother, in a car 
 drawn by lions, holding a drum, and wearing a 
 towered-coronet on her head."* Under the name of 
 Bhavani, this goddess designates the fecundity of 
 nature. She is invoked, as was Isis, by women in 
 childbirth. 
 
 The same Hindoo goddess is worshipped under the 
 form of Jagaddhatri, or Mother of the World. She 
 is represented in that character as sitting on a lion, 
 and holding in her four hands a conch, a disc, a 
 club, and a water-lily. 
 
 Her peculiar emblem, the Yoni, is as well known 
 as was the Cteis, in the Eleusinian mysteries. 
 
 The last circumstance I shall notice is the vene- 
 ration of the Cow, as connected with the worship of 
 Isis in Egypt, and of Bhagavati, or Bhavaui, in 
 India. 
 
 The Cow is regarded in India as a form of Bhag- 
 avati/)- as, in Egypt, of Isis the beneficent. It is also 
 remarkable that Nephthys, the Egyptian Venus 
 Urania, was also worshipped under the form of a Cow, 
 and that Lakshmi, the wife of Vishnu, who corres- 
 ponds with her in all the particulars that history has 
 preserved, bears a similar relation to this sacred 
 animal. 
 
 The Brahmans perform a ceremony, by which they 
 fancy that certain spiritual privileges are conferred. 
 
 Maia was her appellation, as the terrestrial goddess, mother of 
 Earth, the nurse of all living creatures. See Porphyrius, de 
 Abstinentia, lib. iv. cap. 16. 
 
 * Moor's Hindoo Pantheon. 
 
 f Ward, vol. i. p. 123. 
 
 o o 
 
282 EGYPTIAN AND INDIAN POLYTHEISM. 
 
 This process is considered as a kind of regeneration. 
 It consists in passing through the body of a golden 
 Cow. It has been remarked that the story of Myce- 
 rinus probably contains vestiges of the same practice 
 among the old Egyptians.* 
 
 It is not our design merely to furnish a parallel 
 between these two systems, the relations of which seem 
 tolerably obvious. The reader who wishes to pursue 
 this subject will find much curious information in the 
 works of Sir W. Jones, Mr. Paterson, Mr. Wilford, 
 the Rev. Mr. Maurice, and several other well-known 
 authors. 
 
 Enough, I trust, have been said to show that the 
 most celebrated and striking part of the Egyptian 
 ceremonies, those for example which attracted the 
 attention of the whole Pagan world, and spread 
 themselves over a great part of it, including the 
 pompous worship of Isis and Osiris, are nearly related, 
 in the most essential circumstances, to that system 
 of Indian superstitions which belongs to the depraved 
 religion of Siva and his consort Bhavani. This 
 system we have assigned, in our historical outline, to 
 the third era, when the idolatry of the East had attained 
 its utmost degree of corruption. 
 
 * See the story of Mycerinus, who enclosed his daughter in 
 the body of a golden Cow. Herodotus, lib. ii. This coinci- 
 dence has been remarked by Mr. Forbes. Oriental Memoirs. 
 
VISHNU COMPARED WITH HORUS. 283 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 Indian Fables relating to Vishnu, compared with the Egyptian 
 Mythology. 
 
 In the foregoing outline of the history of Hindoo 
 Mythology, it was considered that the worship of 
 Vishnu, or at least the religion of the present Vaish- 
 navas,* had perhaps a still later origin, than those forms 
 of superstition which we have been comparing with the 
 Egyptian rites of Isis and Osiris. The fables of the 
 Puranas, respecting the incarnations of Vishnu, do 
 not appear to have made their way into the Egyptian 
 mythology, nor do we find in Egypt any clear and 
 undoubted vestiges of the superstition assigned to 
 this era. 
 
 In the character however of Horus, or Aroueris, 
 the restorer of the universe, the god of light, there 
 are some traits which correspond with the description 
 of Vishnu, or Heri the preserver. 
 
 " Vishnu is a personification of the Sun, or con- 
 versely the Sun is a type of him : this character, as 
 
 * I say the religion of the present Vaishnavas, or followers 
 of Vishnu, who worship his incarnations, Rama, Crishna, &c. 
 or, in other words, are hero- worshippers. Vishnu^ as one of 
 the three manifestations of the divinity, holds his place in the 
 Vedas, though he is not so conspicuous there as Brahma, the 
 creative power; but the Vishnu of later times differs in many 
 respects from the Vishnu of the oldest tradition. 
 
284 EGYPTIAN AND INDIAN POLYTHEISM. 
 
 well as that of Time, he shares with Brahma and 
 Siva. In Hindoo mythology, every thing is indeed 
 the Sun. Vishnu is sometimes the earth: he is 
 water, or the humid principle generally : hence he 
 is air, which the Hindoos regard as a form of 
 humidity/'* 
 
 Horus likewise was the Sun under some particular 
 relation : Osiris, indeed, and other Egyptian gods, 
 bear a near relation to the Sun, but Horus in a more 
 peculiar manner: hence the Greeks called him 
 Apollo. Hermapion, in the interpretation of the 
 famous inscription on the Heliopolitan Obelisk, finds 
 Horus called the supreme lord and author of Time.f 
 Horus, in the form of the infant Harpocrates, is seen 
 sitting on a lotus flower, intimating, as we have seen, 
 the germinating principle, the influence of moisture 
 and solar heat. 
 
 Garuda, the sacred eagle, is the bird of Vishnu: 
 seated on him, the god soars aloft in the air. C( This 
 marks/' says Mr. Moor, C( the aerial levity of hiss 
 character." 
 
 More than one species of hawk, and several other 
 birds, were sacred in Egypt to Horus. The hawk, 
 which soars upwards towards the Sun without appear- 
 ing to be dazzled by its beams, was in a peculiar 
 manner the type or sacred messenger of Horus. 
 
 Horus, as before observed, was described in his 
 turn as the Pantheus, or soul of universal Nature. 
 The same conception of Vishnu is found in the 
 Sri Bhagavat and other Hindoo works written by 
 Vaishnavas. 
 
 * Moor's Hindoo Pantheon, art. Vishnu, 
 t Ammian. Marcellinus. 
 
VISHNU COMPARED WITH HORUS. 285 
 
 Notwithstanding these points of resemblance, it 
 may be doubted whether Horus can be clearly iden- 
 tified with Vishnu. Horus seems to have been a very 
 exact copy of Osiris. Like Osiris/ he was a Priapus : 
 the fundamental idea of Horus seems to have been 
 that of a restorer of the productions of Nature, of 
 which Osiris was the generator. Hence his history 
 forms almost a repetition of that of Osiris. The 
 religion of Vishnu, according to the conjecture of M. 
 Schlegel, was introduced into the Indian system from 
 Persia, and was connected with the worship of the 
 Persian Mithra. However this may have been, it 
 does not appear that this part of the mythology was 
 as yet fully developed at that remote period, when 
 the Egyptian and Indian systems were connected by 
 a close affinity. 
 
 There is indeed a curious though imperfect coin- 
 cidence between the Egyptian and Indian Triads. 
 Osiris, Typhon, and Horus, are in some way related 
 to Brahma, Siva, and Vishnu. The notion of a Triad 
 of supreme powers is indeed common to most ancient 
 religions ; but w hat proves that there is some particular 
 connection between the Indian and Egyptian Triads, 
 is the fable that the three gods of each system were 
 of three different colours. In the Hindoo mythology, 
 Brahma is red, Vishnu black, and Siva white.* In 
 the Egyptian, as Plutarch informs us, Osiris was 
 always black, Horus white, and Typhon red. The 
 essential difference between the Indian and Egyptian 
 Triad is the circumstance that, in the former, the 
 Creator has still a place ; while in the Egyptian, 
 
 * Paterson, Asiatic Researches. 
 
286 EGYPTIAN AND INDIAN POLYTHEISM. 
 
 although this mythology acknowledged a creator of 
 the world, yet he had fallen from his place in the 
 Triad, which was filled up entirely with merely 
 sensual and physical gods, or figures of the powers of 
 nature. We are obliged to search more deeply into 
 the Egyptian mythology, in order to find the doctrine 
 of creation, or a creator : the exterior is occupied with 
 the more striking superstitions that relate to the 
 objects of sense, as the popular worship was directed 
 towards visible and tangible objects. 
 
 There is one fable relating to Vishnu, which bears 
 a curious resemblance to one of the most remarkable 
 fictions in the Egyptian mythology. I mean the 
 story of his sleeping through the four wintry-months, 
 and rising in the spring ; an allegory founded on his re- 
 lation to the Sun. This fiction strongly reminds us of 
 the annual disappearance and resurrection of the solar 
 Osiris. Vishnu sleeps from the twelfth or fifteenth of 
 the moon in the month Asharha, corresponding with 
 December, until the twelfth or fifteenth in Kartika, 
 which corresponds with April.* The ceremonies, 
 which are performed in commemoration of his sleep, 
 bear some resemblance to the Egyptian customs. A 
 Hindoo vows that no razor shall come on his head; 
 that he will abstain from flesh, fish, salt, peas, oil, &c. 
 and from eating more than once a day during this 
 whole period ; and he engages to attend more minutely 
 than before to his daily duties, such as bathing, and 
 repeating the name of his god.f These observances 
 are similar to those practised by the Egyptians, during 
 
 * Ward, vol. ii. p. 27. 
 f Ibid. p. 26. 
 
VISHNU COMPARED WITH HORUS. 287 
 
 theirperiodsoffastingand purification.* TheHindoos 
 observe a strict fast on the eleventh of the increase of 
 the Moon, in Sravana, Bhadra, and Kartika.f On 
 the former of these days, Vishnu goes to sleep : on 
 the second he turns to the other side, and on the 
 third he awakes. These observances may be com- 
 pared with the winter-festivals, connected with the 
 concealment and re-appearance of the Egyptian god, 
 respecting which we have already selected ample 
 details. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 Esoteric Philosophy of the Egyptians, compared uith the 
 Doctrines of the Hindoos, in the earliest period. 
 
 The most celebrated fables of the Egyptians, and 
 nearly the whole of their popular worship, are nearly 
 related, as we have seen, to the rites of Siva and 
 Bhavani, and other superstitions which we suppose 
 to have had their origin about the same period. It is 
 only in the more recondite parts of the Egyptian 
 mythology, which are chiefly known to us by means of 
 a few fragments preserved in the works of philo- 
 sophers and metaphysical writers, that we trace any 
 resemblance to the older doctrines of the Hindoos, 
 respecting the creation of the world, and the emana- 
 tion of subordinate beings from the essence of an 
 eternal spirit. 
 
 * These observances will be noticed in the following Book, 
 f Ward, vol. ii. p. 76. 
 
^88 EGYPTIAN AND INDIAN COSMOGONIES. 
 
 But in those imperfect fragments of the Egyptian 
 cosmogony, and of their theology, properly so called, 
 which have escaped the wrecks of time, we are 
 enabled to discover all the leading principles so fully 
 developed in the ancient Hindoo Scriptures. 
 
 The sum of the Egyptian doctrine, as we have 
 shown above, is, that a spiritual being, without parts, 
 and incomprehensible, existed from all eternity. 
 From his essence, at a certain period, a finite being 
 originated, who became the demiurgus, or creator, 
 and from him all inferior souls emanated. Not only 
 is this doctrine to be traced in the East, but all 
 the circumstances connected with it, and the peculiar 
 style of representation. 
 
 1. The eternal spirit termed Cnuphis, or Cneph, 
 produced the universe in its chaotic state, which is 
 figured under the emblem of an egg. At the same 
 time he assumed a new form, or gave origin to Phtha, 
 the Egyptian Vulcan, or Artificer of the fabric : by 
 whom the chaotic egg was separated into its ele- 
 ments, and air and earth, and other creatures, were 
 called forth. Cnuphis corresponds with the Indian 
 Brahme, and Phtha with Brahma. The Hindoo 
 doctrine is contained in the following verses of 
 
 Menu's Cosmogony. 
 
 " He whom the mind alone can perceive, impercep- 
 tible to sense, invisible, who exists from eternity — 
 even He, the soul of all beings, whom no being can 
 comprehend, shone forth in person. 
 
 He, having willed to produce various beings 
 from his own divine substance, first with a thought 
 created the waters, and placed in them a productive 
 seed : 
 
INDIAN AND EGYPTIAN COSMOGONIES. 289 
 
 " That seed became an egg, bright as gold, 
 blazing like the luminary with a thousand beams;* 
 and in that egg he was born himself in the form of 
 Brahma, the great forefather of all spirits. 
 
 fc In that Egg the great power sat inactive a whole 
 year of the Creator, at the close of which, by his 
 thought alone, he caused the egg to divide itself. 
 And from its two divisions he framed the heaven above, 
 and the earth beneath" 
 
 The Egyptians, even in their cosmogony, could not 
 resist the propensity to material and sensual analogies. 
 Phtha, the framer of the world, the sole parent of all 
 things, was, forsooth, of a double sex. We have 
 before traced this figure in works of undoubted au- 
 thority, and may now quote the Asclepian dialogue 
 ascribed to Hermes, in which the god is twice called 
 Masculo-feminine : ec Hie ergo," he says cc qui solus 
 est omnia, utriusque sexus fcecunditate plenissirnus, 
 semper voluntatis suae praegnans, parit semper quid- 
 quid voluerit procreare." 
 
 Thus the demiurgus is represented as becoming the 
 parent of all kinds of beings, rather than as creating 
 them. 
 
 This fiction is found in Menu's cosmogony, and in 
 
 * Compare this description with the Orphic fable, as it 
 is displayed in the following expressions, translated above, 
 in page 166. 
 
 cn'ACwv vuJtov Ttrspvyoiv xpvcrcuv, Iikuj; dvBpiu)K£(ri Slvous. 
 
 P P 
 
290 ESOTERIC PHILOSOPHY COMPARED. 
 
 various other Indian writings.* The following is a 
 passage selected from the Rig-veda, in which the 
 same idea is curiously expanded. 
 
 cc The primeval being, looking round, saw nothing 
 but himself " — " He felt not delight. He wished 
 the existence of another, and instantly he became 
 such as man and woman joined. He caused 
 this, his own self to fall in twain, and thus became 
 husband and wife : thence were human beings 
 produced." 
 
 " She reflected, doubtingly, ■ I will now assume a 
 disguise/ She became a Cow, and the other became 
 a Bull — the issue were kine. She was changed into 
 a Mare, and he into a Horse : one was turned into a 
 female Ass, and the other into a male One, and the 
 one-hoofed kind were the offspring. " The author 
 continues to enumerate their metamorphoses into 
 goats and sheep, and concludes, " In this manner 
 did he create every existing pair whatsoever, even to 
 the ants and minutest insects. "f 
 
 We have already shown that the Hindoos, at least 
 as early as the age of the Vedas, though they 
 acknowledged a Creator, confounded him with his 
 works, and included the universe itself in their idea of 
 the divinity. That the Egyptians were Pantheists, 
 even in this sense, and identified the soul of the 
 world with the eternal deity, may be seen from the 
 remarks on their cosmogony, in the foregoing part 
 of this work. Such is the dogma which Plutarch 
 
 * The Tantras teach that after Brahma had entered the 
 world, he divided himself into male and female. Ward. 
 
 f Colebrooke on the Vedas, A. R. vol. viii. I have omitted 
 some words in this quotation, " euphemiae gratia." 
 
INDIAN AND EGYPTIAN COSMOGONIES. 291 
 
 cites from Hecataeus. <( They consider/' says this* 
 writer, " the primitive god as identified with the 
 universe itself." 
 
 Notwithstanding this vague and indistinct manner 
 of conception, the Hindoo scriptures contain the 
 doctrine of the creation of the world in its proper 
 sense; as it is probable that the Egyptian did also. 
 The following hymn, from the Rig-veda, declares this 
 tenet in terms which remind us of the beginning of 
 Genesis. 
 
 ce The Supreme Being alone existed ; afterwards 
 there was universal darkness ; next the watery ocean, 
 was produced by the diffusion of virtue : then did 
 the Creator, lord of the universe, rise out of the 
 ocean, and successively frame the Sun and Moon, 
 which govern day and night, whence proceeds the 
 revolution of years ; and after them he framed heaven 
 and earth, the space between, and tbe celestial 
 region /'f 
 
 We have seen that the Egyptians, by a strange 
 inconsistency, declare, in some of the parts of their 
 mythology, the Sun to be the demiurgus ; and that 
 they frequently identify the Sun with the Soul of 
 the world. In the Rig-veda we find that <c the 
 great Soul, Mahan Atma, is called the Sun, for 
 he is the soul of all beings, and that it is declared by 
 the sage that the Sun is the soul of what moves and of 
 that which is fixed/' Other deities are portions of 
 him.f 
 
 From this soul of the universe, or primitive spirit, 
 
 * Colebrooke, Asiatic Researches, vol. v. p 367. 
 
 t Colebrooke on the Vedas, Asiat. Resear. vol viii. p. 397« 
 
292 ESOTERIC PHILOSOPHY COMPARED. 
 
 all individual souls emanated. This dogma,, as we 
 see in passages already cited, is common to the 
 mythology of Egypt, and the oldest remains of the 
 oriental doctrine. 
 
 It is worthy of remark that the worship of the 
 Supreme God is scarcely mentioned in the history of 
 the Egyptians. We learn, indeed, from Plutarch, 
 that the people of Elephantine refused to contribute 
 to the support of the sacred animals, because they 
 paid their adorations to no other deity than Cneph, 
 the eternal spirit ; but this seems to have been a 
 vestige of antiquity, and of opinions which had long 
 been obsolete among the more celebrated divisions of 
 the Egyptian people. Phthas, or Vulcan, the secon- 
 dary god, or demiurgus, had some temples at a late 
 period in Lower Egypt, but his rites were eclipsed by 
 the more splendid worship of Isis and Osiris; and he 
 was reckoned, in the theogonies of Manethon, as the 
 oldest of the gods. In India also, Brahma, the demiur- 
 gus, is the god of antiquity, and has no temples or 
 appropriate worship among the modern Hindoos ; 
 and Brahme, the eternal spirit, who, as we have 
 seen, is Cneph under another name, is still further 
 removed from the adorations of the people. 
 
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF MYTHOLOGY. 293 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 General Inferences respecting the Origin and History of 
 Mythology. 
 
 From the survey and comparison of all the infor- 
 mation we can collect relating* to the history of 
 superstition in Egypt and in the East, we are led 
 to the following general reflections on the original 
 state and subsequent revolutions of mythology and 
 metaphysical doctrines in these departments of the 
 ancient world. 
 
 1. It appears that the priests and sages of the 
 Egyptians, as well as those of India, in the earliest 
 ages which fall within the reach of profane history, 
 acknowledged one eternal principle as the source 
 whence all other beings had originally emanated, and 
 with which all or a part were destined, after intervals of 
 greater or shorter duration, to become again in some 
 manner re-united ; that this first principle is described 
 in the oldest remains of the philosophy of both nations 
 as a spiritual and incomprehensible being, endowed 
 with intellect and power, to the voluntary exertion 
 of which the production of all finite beings is attri- 
 buted. It must therefore be allowed, that the 
 mythology of these nations contains the belief in 
 the existence of a Deity, in the sense in which that 
 word is understood among Christians and European 
 philosophers in general. 
 
 If we are permitted to regard those principles, 
 which are common to nearly all the ancient systems 
 
294 GENERAL INFERENCES RESPECTING 
 
 of mythology, as the original possession of mankind, 
 we must allow the doctrine above described, or a 
 species of theism nearly resembling it, to have been 
 among the elements of the primitive faith, or the 
 first system of religion that prevailed ; for we trace 
 the same, or very similar tenets, in the religious creed of 
 all those nations who have possessed sufficient art and 
 refinement to preserve any memorials of early times, 
 To the Hindoos and the Egyptians we may add the 
 Persians, the Chinese, and the Scandinavians, the 
 Celtic people, or those tribes subjected to the autho- 
 rity of the Druids, and several other nations. 
 
 2. This doctrine was not merely, as some writers 
 have pretended, a theory of speculative philosophy ; 
 but a system of religion in the proper sense. It con- 
 templated in the Deity, not merely the author of the 
 universe, but a moral governor of the world, whose 
 dispensations were so arranged as to reward the 
 virtuous and take vengeance on the guilty. It re- 
 presented the present embodied state of intelligent 
 beings as a scene of purgatorial chastisement, and 
 the destined means of their restoration to primitive 
 innocence and happiness, or of re-union to the source 
 whence they were derived. 
 
 Indeed, a very important feature in this ancient 
 system of philosophy is the conspicuous place it 
 assigns to the immortality of the soul, and the firm 
 and implicit faith with which this dogma was received. 
 " The belief in a future state, which prevailed among 
 the oriental people in the earliest times of history, 
 was not, as it has been remarked, a persuasion 
 founded on probable arguments, or an inference 
 discovered by Jong reflection ; nor did it consist in 
 
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF MYTHOLOGY. 295 
 
 the distant glances of a bold imagination into an 
 undefined world of shadows; but it was the clear 
 assurance of realities so certain and impressive, that 
 the contemplation of futurity formed the rule by 
 which all the affairs of this life were to be governed— 
 the scope towards which all the social customs and 
 ordinances of civil life were to be directed, even to the 
 most minute observances/'* cc The Egyptians/ 5 says 
 Diodorus, ff regarded this world as a transitory scene, 
 and the future state as an abode for ever; hence they 
 were content to dwell in hovels,, but anxious to adorn 
 their tombs with much labour and magnificence, 
 regarding them as eternal mansions." 
 
 3. While we are directing our attention to the 
 earliest doctrines respecting the Deity, we must not 
 omit to remark one singular circumstance which has 
 attracted the notice of many theologians and investi- 
 gators of antiquity. If those principles which are 
 common to the oldest systems of religion are to be 
 considered as elements of the primitive faith, we must 
 ascribe to the theism of the first ages a triple distribu- 
 tion of divine attributes, or the dogma of a triad of 
 persons or manifestations of divinity. We shall not 
 pretend to investigate the relation of this obscure 
 tradition with that doctrine, respecting the Divine 
 Nature and the modes of its subsistence, which 
 distinguishes Christian theology from the simple 
 theism of speculative writers. Such a disquisition 
 would be foreign to our present purpose. We have 
 only to mention the doctrine of a divine Triad as 
 one of the common characters of the most ancient 
 systems of gentile theology. 
 
 * Schlegel, Sprache und Weisheit der Indier. 
 
296 GENERAL INFERENCES RESPECTING 
 
 It cannot be expected that we should here enter 
 into a long discussion respecting the origin of this 
 primitive religion. If this subject were followed into 
 the speculations which it might open to our view, it 
 would lead us very far from the principal purpose of 
 this work. We shall, therefore, dismiss it with one 
 or two brief remarks. 
 
 If the earliest religion were the production of the 
 human faculties,— if it had been elaborated by the reason 
 and imagination of men, we should doubtless observe 
 it in the grossest and most sensual, in the rudest and 
 most imperfect state, in the first periods of society : 
 it would be found to assume a more refined character, 
 as the human mind became more cultivated. But the 
 very reverse of this is true in point of fact. The 
 earliest faith was pure and simple, exhibited com- 
 prehensive and exalted conceptions of the Deity, and 
 contained the most awful and impressive sanctions of 
 morality. In subsequent periods it appears to become 
 continually more depraved and sensual. Another 
 remarkable circumstance is the deep and powerful 
 impression which the religion of the first ages dis- 
 plays on the minds of its devotees, and its paramount 
 influence over the whole national and personal charac- 
 ter of the people who were submitted to its institutions. 
 Nor is it less important to observe that the voice of 
 all history, both sacred and profane, agrees in ascrib- 
 ing this influence, and the implicit faith with which 
 the dogmas of religion were received, to their super- 
 natural origin, and to the circumstances under which 
 they had been revealed by the Deity to the human 
 race. 
 
 The first step towards the corruption of this simple 
 form of theology seems to have been the attempt to 
 

 THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF MYTHOLOGY. 297 
 
 adorn it with the figments of philosophy, according 
 to that style of philosophizing that was suited to the 
 genius of the age. It is to this period that we must 
 refer most of the pagan cosmogonies. Many of them 
 contain the doctrine that the world was created by 
 the voluntary agency of the Supreme; but this idea 
 was not enough to satisfy curiosity, and we find it 
 often blended with some fanciful analogies derived 
 from natural processes that are daily observed. The 
 production of the organized world was compared by 
 some to the germination of seeds; an idea which 
 occurs in the Institutes of Menu, and in some of the 
 representations of the Grecian schools. Hence also 
 the celebrated fiction of the Mundane Egg, or the 
 e »» produced spontaneously in the womb of Erebus, 
 containing in itself the elements which were after- 
 wards distributed into the various departments of the 
 world. 
 
 To the same childish fondness for analogies and 
 illustrations we must attribute that description of the 
 demiurgus, or creative power, which represents him as 
 comprising in himself two sexes, and producing all 
 subordinate creatures by the way of generation. On 
 this subject enough has been said in the foregoing- 
 pages. 
 
 Another important step in the progress of supersti- 
 tion, and one which seems to have led the way to the 
 establishment of the first pagan worship, was the 
 habit of resolving the doctrine of emanation into those 
 descriptions of the deity which verge towards pan- 
 theism. These two theories are so nearly allied, that 
 the former naturally degenerates into the latter, while 
 the pantheistic representation of the divinity involves 
 
 Q Q 
 
298 GENERAL INFERENCES, ETC. 
 
 or leads inevitably to the deification of material 
 beings, and particularly of the more striking and 
 conspicuous objects in the visible universe. To the 
 same style of philosophy belong the personification 
 of the most remarkable powers of nature, the conse- 
 cration of emblems, some of them the most obscene, as 
 types or symbols of those powers ; the decorated 
 pomps and gorgeous superstitions of the pagan world, 
 and all the prodigious abominations in which a 
 corrupt religion emulated and exceeded the actual 
 depravity of men. All these innovations produced 
 a mist which darkened the eyes of the victims of 
 superstition, and concealed from them those principles 
 which were still recognized by the learned as the 
 basis of their religious system. 
 
BOOK THE FOURTH. 
 
 OF THE EXOTERIC OR POPULAR WORSHIP OF 
 THE EGYPTIANS, AND OF THE VARIOUS CIVIL 
 INSTITUTIONS EMANATING FROM THEIR 
 RELIGION. 
 
CHAPTER 1. 
 
 OF THE WORSHIP OF ANIMALS. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 Introductory Remarks. 
 
 There was no single feature in the character and 
 customs of the ancient Egyptians which appeared to 
 foreigners so strange and portentous as the religious 
 worship paid to animals. The pompous processions 
 and grotesque ceremonies of this celebrated people 
 excited the admiration of all spectators, and that 
 admiration was turned into ridicule on beholding the 
 object of their devotions. It was remarked by Clemens 
 and Origen,* that those who visited Egypt approached 
 with delight its sacred groves and splendid temples, 
 adorned with superb vestibules and lofty porticos, the 
 scenes of many solemn and mysterious rites. cc The 
 walls/' says Clemens, " shine with gold and silver, 
 and with amber, and sparkle with the various gems of 
 India and ^Ethiopia ; and the recesses are concealed 
 by splendid curtains. But if you enter the penetralia, 
 and inquire for the image of the god, for whose sake 
 the fane was built, one of the Pastophori, or some 
 other attendant on the temple, approaches with a so- 
 lemn and mysterious aspect, and, putting aside the 
 veil, suffers you to peep in and obtain a glimpse of the 
 
 * Clemens. Peedag. lib.iii. Origen. adv. Celsum. lib. iii. 
 p. 121. 
 
302 EXOTERIC OR POPULAR RELIGION. 
 
 divinity. There you behold a snake, a crocodile, or 
 a cat, or some other beast, a fitter inhabitant of a 
 cavern or a bog than of a temple." A similar remark 
 was made by Lucian ; and Juvenal, in his fifteenth 
 satire, derides the folly of the Egyptians, whose 
 priests in his time had degenerated into a tribe of 
 jugglers. 
 
 " Quis nescit, Volusi Bithynice, qualia demens 
 iEgyptus portenta colat ? Crocodilon adorat 
 Pars haec, ilia pavet saturam serpentibus Ibim. 
 
 ******** 
 
 Porrum et coepe nefas violare et frangere morsu. 
 O sanctas gentes, quibus hsec nascuntur in hortis 
 Numina !" 
 
 It is in the rites of animal worship that the exoteric or 
 popular character of the Egyptian superstition most 
 clearly developes itself. It is in these rites that we 
 are enabled to discern the practical tendency of this 
 ancient species of paganism, and to estimate the 
 moral effects it was calculated to produce upon the 
 people devoted to its influence. This is not less im- 
 portant, if we wish to understand the true character 
 of the mythology, than the analysis of philosophical 
 enigmas, in which the vulgar were in no way in- 
 terested, and to the true sense of which they were not 
 admitted. We shall therefore proceed, in the following 
 pages, to assemble the most remarkable facts which 
 the ancient writers have handed down to us, with 
 reference to this subject. 
 
WORSHIP OF ANIMALS. 305 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 Of the Veneration paid to Animah in general. 
 
 The devotion with which their sacred animals were 
 regarded by the Egyptians, displayed itself in the most 
 whimsical absurdities. It was a capital crime to kill 
 any of them voluntarily ;* but if an Ibis or a Hawk 
 were accidentally destroyed, the unfortunate author of 
 the deed was put to death by the multitude, without 
 form of law. In order to avoid suspicion of such an 
 impious act, and the speedy fate which often ensued, a 
 man, who chanced to meet with the carcase of such a 
 bird, began immediately to wail and lament with the 
 utmost vociferation, and to protest that he found it 
 already dead.f When a house happened to be set 
 on fire, the chief alarm of the Egyptians arose from 
 the propensity of the cats, which Herodotus calls " a 
 divine instinct/' to rush into the flames over the heads 
 or between the legs of the spectators : if this catas- 
 trophe took place, it excited a general lamentation. 
 At the death of a cat, every inmate of the house cut 
 off his eye-brows ; but at the funeral of a dog, he 
 shaved his head and whole body.J The carcases of 
 all the cats were salted, and carried to Bubastos to be 
 interred ;§ and it is said that many Egyptians arriving 
 from warlike expeditions to foreign countries, were 
 known to bring with them dead cats and hawks, which 
 they had met with accidentally, and had salted and 
 
 * Herodotus, ii. c. 65. Diod. lib. i. p. 74. 
 
 f Diod. lib. i. p. 75. J Herod, lib. ii. e. 66. 
 
 § Herodotus, c. 67. 
 
304 EXOTERIC OR POPULAR RELIGION. 
 
 prepared for sepulture, with much pious grief and 
 lamentation.* In the extremity of famine, when they 
 were driven by hunger to devour each other, the 
 Egyptians were never accused of touching the sacred 
 animals. 
 
 Every nome in Egypt paid a particular worship to 
 the animal that was consecrated to its tutelar god ; 
 but there were certain species which the whole nation 
 held in great reverence. These were, the ox, the 
 dog, and the cat; the hawk and the ibis; and the 
 fishes termed oxyrhynchus and lepidotus.f 
 
 In each nome the whole species of animals, to the 
 worship of which it was dedicated, was held in great 
 respect ; but one favoured individual was selected to 
 receive the adoration of the multitude, and supply the 
 place of an image of the god. Perhaps this is not far 
 from the sense in which Strabo distinguishes the 
 sacred from the divine animals. Thus, in the nome of 
 Arsinoe, where crocodiles were sacred, one individual 
 of this species was kept in the temple and worshipped 
 as a god. He was tamed, and watched with great 
 care by the priests, who called him (C Souchos," and 
 he ate meat and cakes which were offered to him by 
 strangers. \ In the same neighbourhood there was a 
 pond appropriated to the feeding of crocodiles, with 
 which it was filled, the Arsinoites carefully abstaining 
 from hurting any of them. Sacred bulls were kept 
 in several towns and villages, and nothing was spared 
 that seemed to contribute to the enjoyment of these 
 horned gods which were pampered in the utmost 
 luxury. 
 
 * Diod. lib.i. c. 6. 
 f Strabon. Geograpb. lib. xvii. J Ibid. 
 
WORSHIP OF QUADRUPEDS. 305 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 Of the IVorskip of Quadrupeds. 
 1. Of Oxen. 
 
 Of all animals, the ox kind received in Egypt the 
 highest honours. No individual of this species was 
 ever slaughtered merely for the sake of food. Bulls 
 were occasionally killed in sacrifice, but cows were 
 exempted even from that peril.* They were sacred 
 to Isis ; and so impious and polluted were all those who 
 ate the flesh of the cow, that no Egyptian man or 
 woman would use the knife or pot of a Greek, or 
 approach his person. When a cow died, they com- 
 mitted her carcase to the sacred river ; but they buried 
 bulls in the suburbs, with one or both horns above 
 ground for a mark ; and when a stated time had 
 elapsed, during which the flesh was thought to have 
 rotted away, a vessel was sent from the island of 
 Prosopitis in the Delta, with people whose office it 
 was to dig up the bones and carry them to an appointed 
 place, where they were all buried. f 
 
 Such was the respect paid throughout Egypt to the 
 whole kind ; but there were individuals of this species 
 that claimed a singular veneration. The bulls Apis 
 and Mnevis were the highest in this rank: the former 
 was kept in a temple at Memphis, and the latter at 
 Heliopolis ; and, according to Diodorus, they were 
 
 * Herodotus, lib. ii. c. 41. f Ibid. 
 
 R R 
 
306 WORSHIP OF QUADRUPEDS. 
 
 both sacred to Osiris. Strabo says,, they were not 
 sacred, but divine. 
 
 Apis was a black bull, but had a white star on his 
 forehead,, the figure of an eagle on his back, and, 
 according to Pliny, a crescent on his right side,* with 
 a knot under his tongue, resembling the Scarabaeus 
 or sacred beetle. f But iElian declares, that the body 
 of Apis was decorated with twenty-nine sacred marks, 
 to each of which, the Egyptians assigned some 
 mystical import, not easy, as this author says, to be 
 understood by profane persons. One of these was 
 a symbol of the increase of the Nile; another was a 
 microcosm or representation of the world; a third 
 contained a mystic allusion to that darkness which 
 existed before light was brought forth. J 
 
 Apis was the offspring of the celestial elements. 
 His mother was supposed io be impregnated by a 
 flash of lightning, or, according to Plutarch, by the 
 light of the Moon.§ He lived twenty-five years, which 
 is well known to have been the duration of a celebrated 
 cycle in the Egyptian method of chronology ; and at 
 the end of this period he was reported to destroy 
 himself by jumping into a well, or, as some said, into 
 the Nile. To this catastrophe Statius alludes. |j 
 
 " Say, in what meads the godlike Apis deigns 
 To browze before the crowd of suppliant swains, 
 Till, headlong mid the sacred waters hurl'd, 
 Sated with life, he quits the grieving world?" 
 
 * Plinii Hist. Nat. lib. viii. + Herod, lib. iii. c. 28. 
 
 J jElian de Animal, lib. ii. c. 10. § Plut. de Isid. 
 
 || Statii Sylvarum, lib. ii. carm. ii. v. 115. Jablonski, Panth. 
 ./Egypt, lib. iv. cap. 2, p. 199. ' 
 
OF OXEN : RITES OF APIS. 30? 
 
 The discovery of a new Apis gave rise to a joyfnl 
 festival, which was called Theophania, or the ma- 
 nifestation of the god ; it continued seven days. 
 iElian, a diligent collector of these stories of super- 
 stition, which he seems to be sometimes in doubt 
 whether to laugh at, or to regard with wonder and 
 veneration, has given us the following account of the 
 proceedings which took place on the discovery of a 
 new Apis.* 
 
 " As soon as a report has been spread abroad that 
 the Egyptian god has been brought to light, certain! 
 sacred scribes, who are well versed in the mystical 
 marks, which they have learnt by tradition, approach 
 the spot where the divine Cow has deposited her calf, 
 and there, following the ancient prescript of Hermes, 
 feed it during four months with milk, in a house which 
 fronts the rising sun. After this period of infancy, if 
 it may be so called, has passed, the sacred scribes and 
 prophets resort to the dwelling of Apis, at the time of 
 the new moon, and, placing him in a vessel prepared 
 for the purpose, convey him to Memphis, where he has 
 a convenient and delightful abode, with pleasure- 
 grounds and ample space for salubrious exercise. 
 Companions are provided for him, the females of his 
 own species. He drinks out of a well or fountain of 
 clear water ; for it is not judged expedient to admit 
 him to the water of the Nile, which is considered as 
 too fattening. It would be too long to relate," con- 
 tinues iElian, "what pompous processions and sacred 
 ceremonies the Egyptians perform when they cele- 
 brate the rising of the Nile, or the Theophania, in 
 
 * jElian, loc. citat. 
 
308 WORSHIP OF ANIMALS. 
 
 honour of this god'; or what dances, and festivities, 
 and joyful assemblies, are appointed on this occasion, 
 in the town and in the country. The man from 
 whose flock the divine beast has sprung is the 
 happiest of mortals, and is looked upon with admi- 
 ration by all the people. This Apis/' continues 
 iElian, ce is an excellent interpreter of futurity. He 
 does not employ a woman sitting upon a tripod, 
 like some other gods, or require that a priestess shall 
 be intoxicated with the sacred potion ; but inspires 
 boys, who play around his stable, with the divine 
 impulse, which enables them to pour out predictions 
 in good rhythm." 
 
 Apis, after his tragic fate before related, was 
 honoured with a pompous funeral in the temple of 
 Serapis, at Memphis ; and the priests followed him 
 to his tomb, in a procession, with ceremonies which, 
 according to Plutarch, resembled the rites of Bacchus 
 among the Greeks.* 
 
 cc Next to the Memphite Apis, the highest honours 
 were paid to the sacred Bull of Heliopolis, called 
 Mnevis."f This bull, which was dedicated to Osiris, 
 was of the same colour as that god, viz. black. "J 
 Respecting Apis, there is some difference of opinion 
 among the ancients ; some writers affirming that he 
 was dedicated to the Moon ; though the more accu- 
 rate writers, as Diodorus and Strabo, declare, on the 
 contrary, that Apis and Osiris were the same ; but 
 it is agreed, on all hands, that Mnevis belonged to 
 
 * Plut. de Isid. cap. 33. 
 f See Strabo, lib. xvii. ^Elian. lib. xi. cap. 11. 
 % Plut. de Isid. cap. 
 
OF OXEN I MNEVIS AND OTHER BULLS. 309 
 
 Osiris, or to the Sun. Strabo says that he was kept in 
 a stable, which seems to have been in the temple of 
 the Sun, and that he was worshipped as a god by the 
 Heliopolitans, as Apis was by the Memphites. 
 
 Among the sacred bulls of inferior note, Strabo 
 mentions one which was kept at Hermonthis.* And 
 Macrobius informs us that this animal was called 
 Pacis ; f that it was consecrated to the Sun in a 
 magnificent temple of Apollo, and distinguished by 
 its colour, which was said to change every hour, and 
 by the direction of its hair which was reversed. 
 
 iElian mentions a sacred bull, worshipped under the 
 name of Onuphis. J He says it was of huge bulk, and 
 had its hair reversed ; a characteristic assigned also 
 to Mnevis.§ 
 
 Respecting the sacred cows of the Egyptians, we 
 have nothing to add to the observations given already, 
 in reference to the rites of Isis and the worship of 
 Nephthys. We now proceed to 
 
 2. The Worship of Dogs. || 
 
 The dog, as we have seen, was sacred to Anubis, 
 and was chiefly worshipped atCynopolis, or the city of 
 dogs; but as the rites of Anubis were every where 
 connected with those in honour of Isis, the dog* 
 received veneration throughout Egypt: and dogs 
 
 * Strabo, lib. xvii. f Macrob. Saturn, lib. i. cap. 21. 
 
 X -Elian, lib. xii. cap. 11. 
 
 § Porphyr, apud Euseb. Praep. Evangel, lib. iii. cap. 13. 
 || Sacred Dogs were kept in the temple of Vulcan, in Sicily. 
 /Elian, lib. xii. cap. 3. 
 
310 WORSHIP OF QUADRUPEDS. 
 
 accompanied the celebrated Pompa Tsiaca, or the 
 procession in honour of the horned goddess. 
 
 Many ridiculous reasons are assigned for the 
 reverence paid to the dog kind. ^Elian has given us 
 a collection of them. Some said that it arose from 
 the idea that young dogs ere blind for thirteen days 
 after they are whelped, and the Moon is dark thirteen 
 days in the year. Others connected the worship of 
 the dog with the important station of the dog-star 
 in the Egyptian calendar.* 
 
 3. Of the Worship of Cats. 
 
 Cats were chiefly worshipped at Bubastos. We 
 have already mentioned the anxiety manifested by 
 the Egyptians to procure for dead cats, wherever they 
 found them, the rites of sepulture. 
 
 The Egyptians discovered something peculiarly 
 venerable in dogs and cats, as we learn from the 
 epithets applied to them. 
 
 Per tua sistra precor, per Anubidis ora verenda. 
 And 
 
 Sancta Bubastis — <e The holy Bubastis." 
 
 Such was the epithet of the cat-goddess. f 
 
 Plutarch says there is a wonderful sympathy 
 between the pupil of the cat's eye, and the increase 
 and waning of the Moon ; and a mysterious relation 
 
 * iElian de Animal, lib. x. cap. 45. 
 f Ovid, Amor. lib. ii. eleg. 13. Metam. lib. ix. v. 687- 
 
THE CAT, THE WOLF, AND THE RAM. 311 
 
 between the number of young a cat bears at one 
 litter, and the number of the lunar days ; and by these 
 analogies, we are told that the Egyptians accounted 
 for the strange veneration in which this animal was 
 held among them.* 
 
 Horapollo says, the statue of the Sun at Heliopo- 
 lis, was in the figure of a cat ; but he is the only 
 author who makes this assertion. The cat is by all 
 other writers assigned exclusively to Bubastis and 
 the Moon.f 
 
 4. Worship of the Wolf. 
 
 The wolf was worshipped at Lycopolis, as the 
 name of that city imports. 
 
 We learn from ^lian, that the wolf was sacred to 
 Apollo, that is, to Horns. The reason of this conse- 
 cration is, because Apollo was born of Latona, or, as 
 the Egyptians said, nursed by her in the form of a 
 wolf. For this reason also, a statue of a wolf stood 
 in the temple of Apollo, at Delphi. \ 
 
 5. Worship of the Ram, 
 
 The ram was held sacred at Thebes, in Upper 
 Egypt, and at Sais, in the Delta. § " Those who 
 worship in the temple of the Theban Jupiter/' says 
 Herodotus, " abstain from sheep, and sacrifice goats. || 
 
 * Plut. de Isid. f Horap. Hierog. lib. i. cap. 10. 
 
 X JElmn, lib. x. cap. 26. § Strabo, lib. xvii. p. 559. 
 
 II Herod, ii. 42. 
 
312 WORSHIP OF QUADRUPEDS. 
 
 They assigned, as a reason for this custom, a story, 
 the purport of which is unintelligible, that Jupiter, or 
 Amnion, disguised himself in a sheep-skin when he 
 appeared to Hercules. The Thebans never killed a 
 ram, except at the annual festival of Ammon, when 
 they clothed the statue of the god with the skin. 
 This statue had the human form, with the head of a 
 ram.* 
 
 cc In the Nitriotic nome," says Strabo, " Serapis is 
 worshipped, and here only sheep are sacrificed by 
 the Egyptians." 
 
 6. Of the JVorship of the Goat. 
 
 The worship of the Mendesian goat was one of the 
 most singular parts of the Egyptian superstition. 
 These rites were as abominable as the adoration of 
 cats and dogs was ridiculous. 
 
 The male-goat was worshipped, as we have seen, 
 as an image of the same power which the Greeks 
 personified with the title of Priapus. One he-goat 
 represented the god Pan, and was kept in the temple 
 of Mendes, but all the species was sacred through 
 the nome. 
 
 Strabo gives us, in a few words, an idea of the rites 
 of Mendes. iTg hi Yiivhapog (prjfriu, hi rpquyoi evroivQa. 
 yvvuit;) [xiyuDurar. The passage of Pindar, to which 
 the geographer refers, is the following: — 
 
 Miv%7}Ta, wapa xprjfjivov §oLha(T(Tr\g 
 
 Ns/Aou xepag, auyiSoLroi 
 
 'OSi rpayoi yuuoii^) pta'yovTou.'f 
 
 * Herod, loc. cit. f Apud Strabon. lib.xvii. p. 551. 
 
OF THE "WORSHIP OF THE GOAT. 313 
 
 This detestable custom was therefore as ancient as 
 Pindar, who lived five centuries before the Christian 
 era, and probably it was much more ancient. 
 
 Herodotus confirms this account, but he mentions 
 it as a rare and portentous occurrence. Plutarch 
 makes a curious remark upon this subject. c O 
 Mevh^cnog iv Kiy(i7mo rpayog, T^eysrai zsoKhoug xou xoikoug 
 G~vveipyv6[JL£Vog yitvai^i, ouh eluou [AiyvuG'da.i T&poQufAog, 
 aXXa zzpog rag ouyag ststotitoli jaaXAov. On which 
 Bochart properly remarks, " Nempe sola in brutis 
 Natura saepe plus potest quarn in homine ratio." 
 
 Tantum Relligio potuit suadere malorum ! 
 
 7. Of the Worship of the Deer. 
 
 At Coptos, where Isis was adored with a great 
 exhibition of attachment and devout grief, the 
 Egyptians consecrated to her wild deers, and wor- 
 shipped them. The same people held it no crime to 
 kill and eat the male of the same species. f 
 
 8. Of the Worship of Monkeys and Apes. 
 
 . It appears that two animals of the monkey-tribe 
 were worshipped in Egypt, for Strabo informs 
 us that the Babylonians adored a Cepus, and the 
 Hermopolitans a Cynocephalus. Cynocephalus has 
 
 * These authorities are cited by Bochart. Hierozoic. lib. 
 ii. p. 642 ; and from him by Jablonski. 
 t iEliarij Jib. x f cap. 23. 
 
 s s 
 
314 WORSHIP OF MONKEYS. 
 
 been supposed to be the name of an image of 
 Anubis,* with the head of a dog, joined to the 
 body of a man ; but this is evidently a mistake. 
 Both the Cynocephalus and the Cepus are described 
 by iElian,f and by Aristotle. Aristotle, after men- 
 tioning both these animals, remarks that the Cepus 
 has a tail. J Hence it would appear that the Cynoce- 
 phalus must have been an ape. 
 
 Horapollo says that the Cynocephalus was sacred 
 to Hermes, because one tribe of these animals was 
 supposed to understand the use of letters, and that 
 when a new monkey was introduced into the temple, 
 to supply the place of his predecessor, the priests 
 tried whether he was competent to the dignity con- 
 ferred upon him, by placing a writing-tablet, with a 
 pen and ink before him.§ 
 
 We know nothing further respecting the worship 
 of these animals. Perhaps the Hermopolitans conse- 
 crated an ape to Hermes on account of its sagacity. 
 
 9. Of the Ichneumon. 
 The ichneumon was worshipped at Heracleopolis, |j 
 
 * Minut. Felix. Octavio, cap. 21. Tertullian, Apolog. cap. 
 vi. These writers call Anubis, Cynocephalus. It would seem 
 that Plutarch also called Anubis, Cynocephalus \ Isis et Osiris^ 
 cap. 73. 
 
 f /Elian, de Animal, lib. x. cap. 30. lib. xvii. cap. 8. 
 
 % Aristot. Hist. Animal, lib. ii. cap. 8. 
 
 § Horap. i. cap. 14. 
 
 || Strabo, lib. xvii. iElian, lib. x. cap. 47. 
 
OF THE SHREW-MOUSE, LION, AND RIVER-HORSE. 315 
 
 where it probably represented Hercules. iElian says 
 it was sacred to Latona and Lucina, that is to Buto 
 and Bubastis. 
 
 10. Of the Shreiv-Mouse. 
 
 The shrew-mouse, or mygale,* was a goddess of no 
 small importance in Egypt, since, under this form 
 Latona or Buto was worshipped. The Greeks assign 
 the imagined blindness of this animal as the reason 
 for dedicating it to the goddess of night, or darkness. 
 The shrew-mouse was worshipped in the Athribitic 
 nome.f 
 
 11. Of the Lion. 
 
 The lion was worshipped at Leontopolis ■ but we 
 have no particular account of the rites paid to it.J 
 
 12. Of the Hippopotamos. 
 
 The hippopotamos was sacred to Papremis, or 
 Mars, and was worshipped in the Papremitic nome, 
 but in no other part of Egypt. Papremis appears to 
 have been a form of Typhon. Accordingly the hippo- 
 potamos was one of the animals called Typhonian.§ 
 
 The ass was another Typhonian animal, || but it 
 
 * Sorex Araneus, or shrew-mouse. Linn. Syst. Nat. 
 t Strabo. 
 
 X Strabo, lib. xvii. Porphyr. lib. iv. cap. 9. De Abstinentia. 
 § See the foregoing section on Papremis. || Plut. de Iside. 
 
316 TYPHONIAN ANIMALS. IMPURE ANIMALS. 
 
 does not appear to have received worship in any 
 part of Egypt. At Coptos it was the custom, on 
 certain occasions to throw an ass down a precipice, 
 in order to express detestation of Typhon.* 
 
 13. Of Impure Anim a Is. 
 
 The Oryx was considered by the Egyptians as 
 impure, for a reason as ridiculous as any part of 
 these mystical absurdities — cc or) arawT pot.<f>eig -crpog t^v 
 avaroATjv, ttjv tou Ha/ou, ra zsspirroL rijg iaurou rpo<pijg 
 bcS%i€si wg fyatriv 61 'Aiyu7rrioi — quia ad orientem 
 solem conversus alvum dejicit.f Other equally 
 strange notions were entertained respecting the oryx ; 
 as that he turned to the East and gave notice of the 
 rising of the dog-star by sneezing^ as if he scented it 
 in the air: that he uttered a sound at the time when 
 the moon rises like a voice of execration. § 
 
 The hog, according to iElian, was an impure 
 animal, because he does not abstain from eating his 
 own offspring. || Herodotus says that swine were 
 held so impure, that a person who had been acciden- 
 tally touched by an animal of that kind immediately 
 went to wash himself, with his clothes, in a river. H 
 Swineherds were refused admittance into the Egyp- 
 tian temples, and formed a distinct caste, with whom 
 other persons refused to intermarry. Yet at the full 
 
 * jElian, de Animal, lib. x. cap. 28. See also Horapollo, 
 lib. i. cap. 49. 
 
 f Plinii. Hist. Nat. lib. ii. cap. 40. 
 
 % Plut. in lib. utra anim. § ^Elian, lib x. cap. 16. 
 
 || Herod, lib. ii. cap. 47- % Plutarch de Isid. cap. 30. 
 
IMPURE ANIMALS. BIRDS. 317 
 
 moon, the Egyptians were accustomed to sacrifice 
 swine to that planet, and to eat the flesh. 
 
 The Greek mythologists preserve some traces of 
 the consecration of other animals, which we do not 
 discover in the Egyptian theocracy, though it is 
 probable that they once had places in it. The bitch 
 was the sacred animal of Hecate, as well as the 
 lioness, the bull, and the horse; the she-wolf, of 
 Diana ; and a lion and a dragon, of the Sun.* All 
 these are probably the traces of Egyptian stories 
 which are lost. 
 
 SECTION IV 
 
 Of the Worship of Birds. f 
 1. Of the Hawk. 
 
 iC The Egyptians," says iElian, Ci reverence the 
 hawk, as sacred to Apollo, whom they name, in their 
 language Horus." " These birds are termed Thausti." 
 " The priests of Horus are called Hieracobosci, or 
 Hawk-feeders, since it is their office to take care of 
 the sacred hawks. The whole species is consecrated 
 
 * Porphyry, de Abstinentia. lib. vi. 
 
 f Vestiges of the worship of birds are very numerous in the 
 Grecian mythology. See the birds of Aristophanes, where 
 all these traces are assembled, and placed in the most ridicu- 
 lous point of view. See also iElian de Animalibus, lib. xii. 
 cap. 40. 
 
 J iEHan, Hist. Anim. lib. x. cap. 14. 
 
318 SACRED BIRDS. THE HAWK. 
 
 to this god ; but there are some particular birds which 
 they feed with great care in the sacred groves, as 
 dedicated in a peculiar manner to Apollo. "* 
 
 Horus was one of the gods worshipped by the 
 whole Egyptian nation, and the hawk was every where 
 sacred, but received a particular worship at Apollino- 
 polis.f It was from this circumstance that Apollino- 
 polis is called, by Strabo, the city of Hawks. J The 
 temple of Horus contained a statue of that god, with 
 the head of a hawk. 
 
 The reason assigned for dedicating the hawk to 
 Horus is the bold flight which this bird is observed 
 to make towards the Sun, without appearing to be 
 dazzled by its rays.§ It appears from Horapollo, 
 that the figure of a hawk was a common emblem of 
 the Sun, in the hieroglyphic paintings and sculptures 
 of the Egyptians. The life of this bird, according 
 to a notion commonly prevailing among that peo- 
 ple, extended to seven hundred years. Various 
 fabulous attributes were ascribed to the hawk, as the 
 motives for paying him divine honours. 
 
 The species of hawk which was the object of 
 this idolatrous veneration appears to have been the 
 Falco Communis of Linnaeus. H In the island of 
 Philae, on the confines of ^Ethiopia, another species 
 of the same genus was consecrated, which, according 
 to Strabo, was brought from the interior of Africa, 
 and differed essentially from the Egyptian hawk.** 
 
 * iElian, Hist. Anim. lib. vii. cap. 9. 
 
 t Euseb. Praep. Evangel, lib. Hi. cap. 12. 
 
 J Strabo, Geogr. lib. xvii. § iElian, loc. citat. 
 
 II Horapoll. Hieroglyph, lib. i. cap. 8. 
 
 % M. Savigny, Description de l'Egypte. 
 
 ** Strabo, Geograph. lib. xvii. 
 
THE CROW,, VULTURE, EAGLE, IBIS. 319 
 
 The hawk was not only emblematical of Horus, 
 but of Osiris also. It is certain, at least, that the 
 statues, and sculptured figures of this god, are com- 
 monly distinguished by the head of a hawk. 
 
 2. Of the Crow. 
 
 The crow, also, was sacred to Apollo, or Horus. 
 In the neighbourhood of Coptos, only two individual 
 birds of this species were to be seen, which belonged 
 to the temple of Apollo.* 
 
 3. Of the Vulture. 
 
 In the city of Eilithyia, or Lucina, vultures were 
 sacred, and the image of the goddess was in the form 
 of a vulture. f 
 
 4. Of the Eagle. 
 
 The eagle was sacred in the Theban nome, and 
 in the temples of Jupiter Ammon.J 
 
 5. Of the Ibis. 
 
 The ibis is one of the most celebrated of the sacred 
 animals of Egypt, and it was second to none in the 
 
 * iElian. lib. vii. cap. 18. 
 
 f Euseb. Praep. Evang. lib. iii. cap. 12. 
 
 J Strabonj Geograph. lib. xvii. 
 
320 SACRED BIRDS. THE IBIS. 
 
 estimation of the people, if we may judge by the 
 innumerable mummies of this bird which have been 
 discovered. 
 
 The ibis, as we have mentioned before, was sacred 
 to Thoth, or Mercury : it was venerated throughout 
 all Egypt. 
 
 Many absurd reasons are assigned for its consecra- 
 tion, as its increasing and waning with the Moon ; and 
 the gratitude which the Egyptians felt towards it for 
 delivering their country from serpents, and for having 
 taught them the use of glysters, which this bird, 
 according to Plutarch and iElian, is in the habit of 
 administering to itself.* The most probable account 
 of this matter seems, as we have before observed, to 
 be derived from the hieroglyphic writing. 
 
 The ibis was one of those animals which received 
 honours in every part of Egypt, but the chief seat of 
 its worship was at Hermopolis.J It appears from an 
 observation of Apion, that a bird of this species was 
 kept in the temple of Hermes, in that city, as a 
 particular representative of the god, which the 
 priests exhibited to strangers, protesting that it was 
 immortal. § 
 
 The stork, and the owl, were also sacred birds, || but 
 we have no particular information respecting this 
 part of the Egyptian superstition. 
 
 * iElian, lib. ii. cap. 35, 38. Plutarch, de Iside et Osis. 
 f Artabanus, apud Euseb. Pr»p. Evang. lib. ix. cap. 37. 
 % JEUrb, de Animal, lib. x. cap. 29. 
 § Ibid. lib. x. cap. 16. 
 
WORSHIP OF BIRDS. 319 
 
 6. Of the Goose, 
 
 I have not met with any observation in the ancient 
 writers respecting the worship of the goose ; but it 
 appears from sculptures in the temples of Upper 
 Egypt, that this bird was a member of the theocracy. 
 It is represented, at least, as receiving food from 
 persons who approach in the posture of supplicants.* 
 Yet the goose was commonly killed as a victim to the 
 gods, for no animal is more frequently seen in the 
 sculptured representations of sacrifices. f 
 
 The goose was offered as a victim to Isis and 
 Osiris, if we may attach confidence to an obvious 
 inference from the words of Ovid and Juvenal. 
 
 Ovid says,J 
 
 u Nee defensa juvant Capitolia, quominus anser 
 Det jecur in lances, Inachi lauta, tuas." 
 
 And Juvenal, 
 
 " Ansere magno 
 
 Scilicet et tenui popano corruptus Osiris. "§ 
 
 Perhaps the custom of swearing by a goose, which 
 prevailed among the people of Crete, had its origin in 
 the veneration paid by the Egyptians to this bird. 
 It is said that Rhadamanthus forbade the Cretans to 
 swear by the Olympian gods, and ordained an oath 
 by a goose, a dog, or a ram. We find in the Greek 
 writers many vestiges of this practice. || 
 
 * See the fourteenth Plate, third tome of the (c Description 
 de l'Egypte," in which a kneeling figure is seen in the act of 
 presenting food to a goose. 
 
 f See Montfaucon, Antiquity Explique'e. 
 
 i Ovid. Fasti, lib. i. v. 453. § Juvenal, Sat. vi. v. 540. 
 
 || Platonis Dialog, item Aristophanes, pluribus locis. 
 
 T T 
 
320 WORSHIP OF ANIMALS. 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 Of fabulous Birds, which are traced in the Egyptian 
 Mythology. 
 
 Scarcely any imaginary being has been the theme 
 of more numerous fables and conjectures than the 
 Phcenix> It was much celebrated among the Egyp- 
 tians,, from whose mythology this fiction has descended 
 to the poetry of modern times. 
 
 The important place which the Phoenix held in the 
 religious fables of Egypt appears from the frequent 
 recurrence of its figure in the sculptures of the 
 temples in the Thebaid. In most of these wonderful 
 edifices it is seen many times repeated.* 
 
 The fathers of the Christian church have consi- 
 dered the Phcenix as an emblem of the resurrection 
 of the dead and the future life. As these ideas 
 are not foreign to the doctrines of the Egyptian 
 philosophers, it is possible that they may have been 
 associated in some manner with this symbol ; but the 
 chief and primary allusion of the Phcenix seems, as 
 far as we can learn, to have been of a different 
 description. This bird, according to Horapollof and 
 other writers, was a type of the Sun, and of the great 
 
 * " Description des Antiquites d* Edfou, par E. Jomard/' 
 ill the " Description de Y Egypte." 
 f Horapoll. Hieroglyph. 
 
OP FABULOUS BIRDS. 321 
 
 solar year of the old Egyptians .* The duration of 
 its life is variously denned; but it seems generally 
 agreed that the period of its age bore a reference to 
 some astronomical cycle. According to Herodotus, it 
 lived 500 years; but many authors double this period, 
 as Nonnus, 
 
 <Pohi{; repfjia. Gioto &ipcoy. 
 
 But Tacitus, probably with more accuracy, defines 
 the age of the Phoenix to be 1461 years, which is the 
 duration of the great year of the Egyptians ; at the 
 end of which the apocatastasis took place, when all 
 the planets were supposed to return to one point 
 in the heavens. f 
 
 The young Phoenix made its appeararce at Helio- 
 polis, and deposited the body of its father in the 
 temple of the Sun. Others say that the old bird 
 came to Egypt and there died upon a funeral-pile, 
 and that the new Phoenix sprang from its ashes. I 
 shall cite Claudian's description, because it contains 
 most of the circumstances related of this bird. 
 
 €i O felix hseresque tui. Que solvimur omnes, 
 Hoc tibi suppeditat vires. Prasbetur origo 
 Per cinerem. Moritur te non pereunte senectus. 
 Vidisti quodcunque fuit. Te ssecula teste 
 Cuncta revolvuntur. Nosti quo tempore pontus 
 Fuderit elatas scopulis stagnantibus undas-; 
 
 * Cum hujus vita anni magni fieri conversionem rata fides 
 est apud auctores. Solin. Polyhist. cap. 36. 
 
 f See Salmasius in Solinum. This writer lias cited the 
 authorities of Manethon, Dion, Firmicus, and Censoiinus. 
 
322 FABULOUS BIRDS. 
 
 Quis Phaethonteis erroribus arserit annus ; 
 Et clades te nulla rapit, solusque superstes 
 Edomita tellure manes. Non stamina Parcae 
 In te clara legunt, non jus habuere nocendi." 
 
 Hesiod is the oldest Greek writer who mentions the 
 Phoenix ; but the fable is very ancient, for it seems 
 unquestionable that it is alluded to in the book of 
 Job.* 
 
 * Job, chap. xxix. v. 18 ; which ought to be rendered, 
 ei Then I said, I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my 
 days as the Phoenix." The Septuagint rendered the Hebrew- 
 word by $o<yj£, which may mean either a palm-tree, or the fabu- 
 lous bird called Phoenix ; and the sense of the passage proves 
 that we ought to understand the latter. Bede was the first 
 author who rightly apprehended the sense of this passage. 
 He says, "Palma autem arbor secundum Graecos $otvi$Z dicitur. 
 Avis quoque ilia quam multi facile quidam vivere autumant 
 3>ow£, eodem nihilominus vocabulo nuncupatur. Potuit 
 fortassis de eadem hoc loco dixisse, ut sicut ilia nidum sibi 
 faciens, in ipso post multa tempora a semetipsa concremari, 
 et rursus de ejusdem nidi cineribus fertur intra breve tempus 
 resurgere, quae deinceps multis vivat temporibus ; fieri ergo 
 potest, at B. Job in similitudinem avis illius dicat, se post 
 mortem in carnis cinere, velut in nido pro tempore futurum 
 et inde resurrecturum in glpriam ; atque hos eeternos esse 
 dies quos multiplicandos sibi fidelis Dei cultor expectet. Ita 
 enim et superius locutus est, dicens, c Et rursum circumdabor 
 pella mea et in came mea videbo Deum.' " 
 
 It is remarkable that Sir W. Drummond should have pro- 
 posed this interpretation of the passage in Job, as a new 
 criticism of his own. Probably he had overlooked the passage 
 of Bede above quoted. Yet the whole paragraph is given by 
 Bochart at length in his Hierozoicon, p. 819. 
 
 The same ambiguity in the meaning of the word $ow£ has 
 also, led the poet Ezechiel into a ridiculous blunder, which has 
 
WORSHIP OF REPTILES. 323 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 Of the Worship of Reptiles, Insects, Fishes, and Plants, 
 
 1. The Crocodile. 
 
 There were three provinces in Egypt where the 
 crocodile was worshipped, viz. the nomes Coptos., of 
 Arsinoe, and Ornbos. The people of Ombos dug 
 tanks for them, fed thenv, and taught them to come 
 when called. The reason assigned by the Ombites 
 for this reverence of the crocodile was derived from 
 the Egyptian doctrine of mystical numbers; they 
 
 not escaped the notice of Bochart. It is mentioned in Exodus, 
 c. xv. v. 27) that the Hebrews, in their journey through the 
 desert, found Palm-trees at Elim. Ezechiel mistakes the 
 meaning of the Greek word, and accordingly introduces a 
 messenger informing Moses that he has seen the Phoenix in 
 that place. 
 
 s'fspov <5s tfpbs Toig hSofj.ev Zouov %£vov 
 6aufj.oc$ov, ohv sU itco ujpotxs n$. 
 ditfXouv yap yv ?b |U/>j>co£ ahtov <r^(e^QV t 
 
 Tt'tEpQlVl TtOlKlXOlClV 1J#£ %pu)[j,a,<riv. 
 
 See Euseb. Prsep. Evang. lib. ix. 
 
 All the passages in ancient authors referring to the Phoenix 
 may be seen collected in Bochart's Hierozoicon, p. 819, &c. 
 In Sir W. Drummond's Essay in Classical Journ. vol. xiv. In 
 Lareher's Memoire sur la Pe iode Caniculaire, &c. Mem. de 
 T Institut Royal. See also Dornedden's Phamenophes oder 
 Versuch einer neuen theorie tiber den ursprung der kunst und 
 mythologie. 
 
324 WORSHKP OF REPTILES. 
 
 fancied that this animal lives sixty years, goes sixty 
 days pregnant, lays sixty eggs, has sixty teeth, and as 
 many vertebrae. The worshippers of this creature 
 were so infatuated, that mothers rejoiced when their 
 children were devoured by crocodiles, believing that 
 great honour was conferred upon them by the god 
 who condescended to feed upon their offspring.* 
 
 The crocodile was sacred to Typhon, who was said 
 to have assumed this form.f It was destroyed by the 
 people of Tentyra, and the other districts of Egypt, 
 and violent feuds arose between the votaries and the 
 enemies of this animal. The Apollinopolites, who used 
 to hang crocodiles up in their trees, and eat them after 
 beating them to death, were regarded with peculiar 
 detestation by their neighbours of Ombos. 
 
 2. Serpents* 
 
 The Egyptians, according to Phylarchus, regarded 
 the asp with peculiar veneration, and rendered these 
 venomous animals so tame that they would feed from 
 the hands of children, and come from their hiding- 
 places when summoned by a noise made with the 
 fingers. J 
 
 ^Elian relates a story which exemplifies the influ- 
 ence of this strange superstition upon the deluded 
 wretches addicted to it. Ci A labourer, employed in 
 digging a trench in a vineyard, accidentally cut an 
 asp in pieces by a blow of his spade. The man was 
 
 * -^lian, lib. x. cap. 21, cap. 24. f Ibid. 
 
 % Apud iElian, de Hist. Animal, lib. xvii. cap. 5. 
 

 WORSHIP OF THE CROCODILE. 325 
 
 so terrified by the horrible impiety he supposed him- 
 self to have committed, that he became frantic, and 
 ran about imploring succour, fancying himself pursued 
 by the angry reptile-god. He at length obtained a 
 cure, on resorting to the temple of Sarapis, the Egyp- 
 tian iEsculapius."* 
 
 The Egyptians reckoned sixteen species of asps, 
 one of which was sacred to Thermuthis. Accord- 
 ingly, the statue of Isis was crowned with a coiled 
 serpent, instead of a diadem. f The asp was supposed 
 to be commissioned by the goddess, as a minister of 
 her vengeance, to destroy impious men. In each 
 corner of every Egyptian temple, there was a subter- 
 ranean chamber devoted to Thermuthis, where the 
 priests deposited the fat. of oxen for the entertain- 
 ment of the asps. 
 
 Another species of serpent, which was termed a 
 dragon, was fed as a sacred animal in the Egyptian 
 Melite. It was kept in a tower, and the priests placed 
 cakes every day in its chamber, which it speedily 
 devoured. iElian relates that a man, who had com- 
 mitted a trifling offence against the majesty of this 
 god, was so horror-struck that he became frantic, and 
 suddenly dropped down and expired. } 
 
 A species of serpent called Parias, or Paruas, which 
 is innoxious, was dedicated to ^£sculapius.§ Aristo- 
 phanes, in the Plutus, has given us a humorous 
 description of the office which this animal held in the 
 
 * jElian, lib. xi. cap. 32. f Ibid. lib. x. cap. 31. 
 
 X Ibid. lib. xi. cap. 17. Compare this account with that 
 ©f Bel and the Dragon, in the Apocrypha. 
 § Ibid. lib. viii. cap. 12. 
 
326 WORSHIP OF REPTILES. 
 
 ministry of the god. It performed the same office in 
 the temple of Sarapis, in Egypt. 
 
 In somnis venit 
 Jubet me cepam esse et sesaminum.* 
 
 I do not find the frog enumerated by any ancient 
 author, among the sacred animals of Egypt. Yet we 
 observe it represented in the Isiac table, and in several 
 other pieces of Egyptian sculpture. It is seen sitting 
 on the lotus, in another relic, in the collection of 
 Montfaucon. 
 
 3. Of the Worship of Insects. 
 
 The Cantharus, Scarabseus, or Beetle, was very 
 celebrated among the Egyptian sacred animals. 
 Plutarch says it was an emblem of the Sun ; but 
 Horapollo is more particular, and informs us that 
 there were three species of sacred beetles, one of 
 which was dedicated to the god of Heliopolis, or the 
 Sun ; another was sacred to the Moon, and a third to 
 Hermes, or Thoth. The reasons he assigns for the 
 consecration of this insect are derived from the 
 notions entertained respecting its mode of repro- 
 duction, and its habits, in which the Egyptians 
 traced analogies to the movements of the heavenly 
 bodies. It was believed that all these animals were 
 of the male sex. The beetle was said to fecundate 
 a round ball of earth, which it formed for the 
 purpose. In this they saw a type of the Sun, in the 
 
 * Varro apud Nonium in voce Cepe. Vide Jablonski, 
 lib. v. cap. 6. 
 
OF THE WORSHIP OF FISHES. S2T 
 
 office of demiurgus, or as forming and fecundating the 
 lower world.* 
 
 4. Of sacred Fishes. f 
 
 Several fishes were consecrated by the Egyptians. 
 We have mentioned before from Strabo, that the 
 oxyrhynchus and lepidotus were held in reverence 
 by all the Egyptians. When fishing in the Nile, they 
 were very careful never to destroy an oxyrhynchus. 
 It was supposed that this fish sprang originally from 
 the wounds of Osiris. 
 
 The nome of Oxyrhynchus was the chief seat of this 
 whimsical superstition. The Oxyrhynchites, in the 
 time of Plutarch, were so enraged with the Cyno- 
 polites, who had offended them by eating the sacred 
 fish, that in revenge they seized upon all the dogs 
 that came in their way, and offered them up as 
 victims : this occasioned a civil war between the two 
 nomes, in which both parties suffered great evils, and 
 were at length severely punished by the Romans.^; 
 
 The people of Syene held sacred the fish called 
 Phagri, and those of Elephantine another species, 
 
 * SeeHorapoll. Hieroglyph, lib. i. cap. 10. Plut. delside, 
 cap. 74. and Porphyr. de Abstinentia. lib. iv. Euseb. Praep. 
 Evang. lib. iii. cap. 4, These authors agree in the explanation 
 above mentioned. 
 
 f Several examples of this superstition are to be found 
 among the Greeks. Mullets were sacred to the Eleusinian 
 goddesses, and initiated persons abstained from them. See 
 ^Elian, lib. ix. cap. 51 5 65. See also book xii. cap. 1. 
 
 X Plut, de Iside, cap. 72. 
 
 u u 
 
328 WORSHIP OF PLANTS. 
 
 termed Maeotse. These fishes were considered as 
 prophetic messengers of the annual approach of the 
 inundation. 
 
 5. Of Sacred Plants. 
 
 Among the plants that were regarded as mystical 
 or sacred by the Egyptians, none was more celebrated 
 than the lotus, under which name are included the 
 nymphaea lotus* and the nymphaea nelumbo. Both 
 these plants are frequently seen sculptured in the 
 temples of the Thebaid. 
 
 In the nymphaea nelumbo, which throws its flowers 
 above the surface of the water, the Egyptians found 
 an allusion to the Sun rising from the bosom of the 
 ocean ; and it is on the blossom of this plant that the 
 infant Harpocrates is represented as reposing. The 
 fruit of the nymphaea nelumbo is the cyamus, or 
 Egyptian bean, so celebrated by Herodotus. It is 
 remarkable that this plant is no longer found in 
 Egypt. In India it is indigenous, and it is often 
 seen among the sacred sculptures of the Brahmans.f 
 
 The peach-tree was also sacred to Harpocrates : to 
 him the first fruits of lentils and other plants were 
 offered, in the month IVIesori.j; 
 
 * The Nymphaea lotus is the lotus of Herodotus and 
 Theophrastus. Illustrations of the Lotus of Antiquity, by R. 
 Duppa, L L. B. 
 
 f Observations sur le Lotus du Nil. par. M. A. Delile^ 
 Annales du Mus£e d'Histoire Naturelle, torn. i. 
 
 J Plutarch de Iside et Osiride, cap. 68. 
 
OF SACRED PLANTS. 329 
 
 It is well known that the Egyptians worshipped the 
 onion. Plutarch refers this superstition to a fancied 
 relation between this plant and the Moon. Leeks 
 also, and various legumina, were held in similar 
 veneration.* 
 
 The acacia and the heliotrope are said to have 
 been among the number of those plants that were 
 consecrated to the Sun.f 
 
 The laurel was regarded as the most noble of all 
 plants.J 
 
 There was a temple, according to Hellanicus, in 
 the town of Pisidium, near the Nile, where certain 
 ceremonies were performed indicating a superstitious 
 adoration of the acanthus. § 
 
 We learn from Clemens, that there were thirty-six 
 plants dedicated to the thirty-six decans, or genii, 
 who presided over their portions of the twelve signs 
 of the Zodiac.il 
 
 6, Of Sacred Stones. 
 
 It appears that in certain inanimate objects the 
 Egyptians fancied that they perceived relations to the 
 attributes of their gods. Damascius^[ mentions solar 
 
 * See Minutius Felix. Octav. p. 278. 
 
 t See Kircher's CEdipus, torn. iii. eap. 2, where that learned 
 but fanciful writer has given a disquisition on plants, adopted 
 in the hieroglyphic system. 
 
 X Porphyr. de Abstinentia. 
 
 § Hellanicus, apud Athenaeum, lib. xv. p. f>79, 680. 
 
 || Clemens Alexand. f Plinii Hist. Nat. lib. 37* 
 
330 OF SACRED STONES. 
 
 and lunar stones ; and Pliny* speaks of the selenites, 
 which imitates the phases of the Moon. 
 
 These fancied analogies, and the mystical powers 
 that were supposed to result from them, appear to 
 have given origin, at a later period, to the doctrine 
 of talismans, so celebrated among the Arabs, and 
 afterwards among the Europeans.f 
 
 SECTION VII. 
 
 On the Motives which led the Egyptians to the Worship of 
 Animals and Plants. 
 
 The origin of animal worship, and the reasons or 
 motives which induced the Egyptians to represent 
 their gods under such strange forms, or to pay divine 
 honours to irrational brutes, and even to the meanest 
 objects in nature, is an inquiry which has puzzled the 
 learned in various times. Herodotus pretended to be 
 in possession of more information on this subject than 
 he chose to make public. It has been conjectured 
 that he was desirous of concealing his ignorance under 
 a cloak of mystery. The later Greek writers seem to 
 have been more intent on offering excuses for the 
 follies of the Egyptians than on unfolding the real 
 principles of their mythology ; and we find various 
 and contradictory opinions maintained with equal 
 
 * Apud Phol. cod. 242. 
 
 f Vide Kircher. CEdip. loc.cit. item Dupuia, Origine de tous 
 les Cultes. torn. iii. 
 

 EXPLANATION OF ANIMAL WORSHIP. 331 
 
 confidence. It appears,, indeed, that the Egyptian 
 priests themselves, in the time of the Ptolemies, and 
 at the era of the Roman conquest, were by no means 
 agreed on this subject. 
 
 One of the most obvious and specious attempts to 
 explain this superstition is the conjecture of Plutarch 
 and Diodorus ; who suppose that the Egyptians were 
 induced to pay divine honours to animals out of 
 gratitude for the benefits which they derived from 
 them ; to the cow and the sheep, for the clothing and 
 sustenance they afford ; to the dog, for his care in 
 protecting their houses against thieves ; to the ibis, 
 for delivering their country from serpents; and to the 
 ichneumon, for destroying the eggs of the crocodile.* 
 
 This conjecture is refuted by the well-known fact, 
 that a variety of animals, which are of no apparent 
 utility, and even several species which are noxious 
 and destructive, and the natural enemies of mankind, 
 received their appropriate honours, and were regarded 
 with as much reverence as the moie obviously useful 
 members of the animal creation. The shrew-mouse, 
 the pike, the beetle, the crow, the hawk, the eagle, 
 the hippopotamos, can claim no particular regard for 
 the benefits they are known to confer on the human 
 race ; still less can the crocodile, the lion, the wolf, or 
 the venemous asp, urge any such pretension. Yet 
 we have seen that all these creatures, and others of a 
 similar description, were worshipped by the Egyp- 
 tians with the most profound devotion ; that mothers 
 rejoiced when their children were devoured by croco- 
 diles. We may further observe that some of those 
 
 * Diodor. lib. i. Plut. de Isid. et Osir. 
 
332 DIFFEREFT ATTEMPTS TO EXPLAIN 
 
 animals which afford us food and raiment, and are, 
 on that account, among the most serviceable, were 
 rendered of little or no utility to the Egyptians on 
 account of this very superstition. They accounted it 
 unlawful to kill oxen for the sake of food, and not only 
 abstained from slaughtering the sheep, but likewise, 
 under a variety of circumstances, from wearing any 
 garment made of its wool,* which was regarded as 
 impure, and defiling the body that was clothed with it. 
 
 These considerations seem to prove that the 
 adoration of animals among the Egyptians was not 
 founded on the advantages which mankind derive 
 from them. 
 
 Another attempt at explaining this mystery, which 
 receives greater countenance from the general cha- 
 racter of the Egyptian manners and superstition, 
 is the conjecture of Lucian. This writer pretends 
 that the sacred animals were only types or emblems of 
 the asterisms or of those imaginary figures or groups 
 into which the ancients had, in a very early age, distri- 
 buted the stars; distinguishing them by the names of 
 living creatures and other terrestrial objects. Accord- 
 ing to Lucian the worshippers of the bull Apis adored 
 a living image of the celestial Taurus ; and Anubis 
 represented the Dog-star or the constellation ofSirius.f 
 
 This hypothesis has received more attention than 
 any other among modern writers. Dupuis has made it 
 the basis of a very ingenious attempt to explain the 
 mythologue of Isis and Osiris, and several other 
 fables of antiquity, which this author resolves into 
 
 * Plut. de Isid. cap. iv. f Lucian de Astrolog. p. 386. 
 
THE WORSHIP OF ANIMALS. 333 
 
 astronomical figments, or figurative accounts of cer- 
 tain changes in the positions of the heavenly bodies.* 
 The hypothesis of Lucian will not endure the test 
 of a rigid scrutiny. For if we examine the constella- 
 tions of the most ancient spheres, we find but few 
 coincidences between the zodia or celestial images, 
 and that extensive catalogue of brute creatures which 
 were adored as divinities on the banks of the Nile. 
 Where, for example, shall we discover the ibis, the 
 cat, the hippopotamus, or the crocodile ? Besides,, 
 if we could trace the whole series of deified brutes in 
 the heavens, it would still remain doubtful whether 
 the Egyptian animals were consecrated subsequently 
 to the formation of the sphere, as types or images 
 of the constellations ; or the stars distributed into 
 groups, and these groups named with reference to 
 the quadrupeds, birds, and fishes, that were already 
 regarded as sacred. There are, indeed, many cir- 
 cumstances which might render the latter alternative 
 the most probable. But the relations between the 
 animals of the sphere and those of the Egyptian 
 temples are by far too limited to warrant any such 
 speculation ; and Lucian is an author who is by no 
 means deserving of much credit on a subject of this 
 nature. 
 
 It has been conjectured by others, that certain 
 attributes of the Deity were thought to be expressed 
 by the qualities of various animals, which were vene- 
 rated accordingly as emblems or representatives of 
 these attributes ; that the strength or physical power 
 
 * Dupuis, Origine de tous les Cultes^ torn. ii. lib. 3,, 
 chap. 2. 
 
334 DIFFERENT ATTEMPTS TO EXPLAIN 
 
 of the gods was adored in the lion, and their pene- 
 trating sight in the hawk. Thus the worship of 
 animals is regarded in connection with the hierogly- 
 phical or symbolical writing which is supposed to 
 represent the most mysterious ideas under visible and 
 tangible forms, by associations or allusions more or 
 less striking.* 
 
 This account of the matter is probably not without 
 some foundation in truth; but it is obviously inade- 
 quate to solve the whole mystery. The explanations 
 adduced on this principle are laboured and contradic- 
 tory to each other, and the allusions very remote. 
 The qualities ascribed to animals by iElian, Hora- 
 pollo, and other writers, who have handed down the 
 stories which the Egyptians assigned as the motives 
 for consecrating them, are almost wholly fictitious and 
 absurd. They are evidently fables invented for the 
 purpose of excusing and explaining superstitious 
 practices, which the priests were obliged to defend. 
 Besides, the sacred animals were regarded by the 
 Egyptians, as we have already shown, and shall see 
 more clearly proved in some passages which will 
 presently be cited, not merely as types or images of 
 some invisible power, but as partaking themselves of 
 divinity. 
 
 The true explanation of the singular notions and 
 absurd practices we have been surveying, seems 
 to be more deeply rooted in the principles of the 
 
 * See Plut. de Iside. cap. 72 et seq. Dupuis, Origine de 
 tous les Cultes, torn. 3, a la fin. Phamenophes oder Versuch 
 einer neuen theorie liber den ursprung der kunst und mytho- 
 logie. Von C. F. Dornedden. Gottingen. 1797. 
 

 THE WORSHIP OF ANIMALS. 335 
 
 Egyptian mythology. Perhaps it will receive some 
 elucidation in the following passage from the works 
 of Porphyry; who was more profoundly versed than 
 any other writer in the mysteries of the ancient 
 paganism.* 
 
 cc The Egyptian priests/' says Porphyry, " having 
 profited by their diligent study of philosophy, and 
 their intimate acquaintance with the nature of the 
 gods, have learnt that the divinity permeates not 
 human beings only : that man is not the only creature 
 on the earth possessed of soul, but that nearly the 
 same spiritual essence pervades ail the tribes of living 
 creatures. On this account, in fashioning images of 
 the gods,, they have adopted the forms of all animals, 
 and have sometimes joined the human figure with 
 those of beasts; at others, have combined the shapes 
 of men and of birds; for some of these images have 
 the form of a man up to the neck, with the face of a 
 bird, or a lion, or some other creature. Others, 
 again, have the head of a man, with the remainder 
 of the body, either the upper or lower parts, shaped 
 like some other animal." cc On this account, also, the 
 lion is adored by them as a god ; and there is a part of 
 Egypt which is called the Leontopolite nome; another 
 is called the Busirite, and a third the Cynopolitan ; 
 for they adore, under these semblances, the universal 
 power which the gods have severally displayed in 
 the various forms of living nature/' 
 
 From this passage, though somewhat obscurely 
 expressed, it appears to have been Porphyry's design 
 
 f Porphyr. de Abstinentia, lib. iv. cap. 9 ; item Euseb. 
 Praep. Evang. lib. iii. cap. 4. 
 
 x * 
 
SS6 WORSHIP OF ANIMALS DERIVED 
 
 to inform us that the worship of animals was inti- 
 mately connected with the doctrine of emanation, 
 which we have traced among the fundamental prin- 
 ciples of the Egyptian philosophy. We have seen 
 that all the operations of nature were ascribed by the 
 Egyptians to certain daemons or spiritual beings, who 
 were supposed to animate different portions of the 
 universe. All these were emanations from the uni- 
 versal deity or soul of the world. This doctrine was 
 extended still further ; and it was imagined, that the 
 soul, or vital principle, in every living being is an 
 emanation from the same source ; that it is a divided 
 portion of the divine nature, and derived, either 
 primarily or secondarily, from the fountain of divinity. 
 Accordingly, in men and animals, and even in plants, 
 they adored the indwelling portions of the same 
 essence. 
 
 In another passage of the same work Porphyry 
 connects the worship of animals with the doctrine of 
 the soul. cc One circumstance/' says he, "which 
 induced the Egyptians to regard these creatures with 
 veneration, was the belief that the soul of each ani- 
 mal, when separated, contains a rational principle, 
 and is endowed with prescience, or the knowledge of 
 futurity, and with all the powers which the human 
 soul possesses in its unfettered state."* 
 
 Precisely similar is the conclusion to which Plu- 
 tarch conducts us, after discussing various opinions 
 respecting the origin of animal worship. <c On the 
 whole/ 5 he says, " we must approve the sentiments of 
 those who do not worship these objects themselves, 
 
 * Porphyr. de Abstinentia, lib. iv. cap. 10. 
 
FROM THE DOCTRINE OF EMANATION. 33T 
 
 but adore the divinity through their intervention, 
 regarding them as the most lively and natural 
 mirrors wherein to behold the divine perfections, 
 and as the instruments or workmanship of the deity, 
 who arranges the whole universe ; for we must con- 
 ceive, that whatever enjoys life is more dignified 
 than what is inanimate,, and beings endowed with 
 perception than those which are insensible, and even 
 than all the gold and precious stones in the world ; 
 for the divinity does not reside in the colours, or 
 forms, or beauty of surface. " cc But all those beings 
 which are animated, and see, and have in themselves 
 the principle of self-motion, and the perception of 
 what is congruous to their nature, and what is foreign 
 to it — all these have imbibed an emanation and an 
 appropriate particle from that universal mind which, 
 as Heraclitus truly says, governs all things ; so that at 
 least the divinity is not less strikingly represented in 
 these than in images of brass or stone/' which are 
 alike susceptible of corruption and decay, and 
 by their nature, devoid of all perception and under- 
 standing.* 
 
 The same doctrine is alluded to in another piece of 
 mythology, which we owe to Plutarch ; who, not 
 perceiving the relation it bore to other parts of the 
 Egyptian philosophy, attempts to explain it away into 
 allegory. " There are many/' he says, " who affirm 
 that the animals before mentioned/' alluding to the 
 Typhonian animals, " contain portions of the soul of 
 Typhon, which has been separated and distributed 
 among them."f 
 
 * Plut. de Isid. cap. 77- t lb"*, cap. 73. 
 
338 ANIMAL WORSHIP FROM THE DOCTRINE OF 
 
 These testimonies seem to be sufficient to authorise 
 the inference, that the worship of animals among the 
 Egyptians had its origin in the doctrine of emanation. 
 Certain effluxes or eradiations from the essence of the 
 gods were believed to be embodied in all living crea- 
 tures, and it was to these indwelling portions of the 
 divinity that the people addressed their adorations. 
 Being possessed with this idea, they were led to look 
 out foi' symptoms of the mystical indwelling power 
 in the outward qualities of animals ; and hence the 
 absurd stories of which we have given some examples, 
 so current among the ancient priests. Every instinct 
 was regarded as a mysterious allusion to some fable 
 in the mythology. It was natural that noxious crea- 
 tures should be regarded as manifestations of the 
 destructive power, and those which are most friendly 
 and serviceable to man, of the productive or benefi- 
 cent. Still, the gratitude of men, for the services 
 rendered them by the latter, was not, as we have 
 shown, the first principle which led to the deification 
 of animals. 
 
 Nearly related to this doctrine was another piece 
 of mythology, of which we have many vestiges among 
 the ancient writers. The Egyptians, as we have 
 before observed, believed that the souls which had 
 emanated from the primitive source transmigrated 
 through various bodies; nor was this change of 
 forms confined to emanations of a lower or secondary 
 order. As the souls of men transmigrated through 
 different shapes, so the higher orders of spiritual agents 
 could, as occasion required, assume any form they 
 chose ; and sometimes the gods appeared in the world 
 under the disguise of bulls, lions, eagles, or other 
 creatures of the like description. 
 
EMANATION. EGYPTIAN AVATARS. 339 
 
 Thus Diodorus informs as that the five gods of the 
 elements, viz. Amnion, Minerva, (who, with this 
 author, is the goddess of the upper hemisphere,) 
 Vulcan, Demeter, and Oceanus, were wont to travel 
 through the world, and present themselves to men, 
 sometimes in the shapes of the sacred animals,, at 
 others in the human form. This fiction, he adds, 
 was related by a poet, who had travelled in Egypt, 
 and received it from the priests. 
 
 " The gods, like strangers from a distant shore, 
 Take various shapes, and every town explore \ 
 And all the wiles of secret mischief scan, 
 And mark the generous deeds of man to man."* 
 
 Perhaps this fable may have given rise to the 
 distinction of divine from the herd of sacred animals. 
 Those which were merely sacred contained only more 
 minute effluxes from the deity ; but the divine appear 
 to have been regarded as incarnations of the celestial 
 gods.f 
 
 * Diodor. lib. i. cap. 1. 
 
 f Jablonski maintains that all these stories of the incarna- 
 tions of gods in the shapes of animals were fables invented by 
 the Greeks at a later age. He considers them as foreign to 
 the character of the Egyptian philosophy. It would appear 
 that Jablonski was unwilling to impute to his favourite nation 
 so gross a superstition. Yet the doctrines of emanation and 
 metempsychosis, and these fabulous transformations, are so 
 evidently connected, that the Egyptians seem to have a better 
 claim to the origin of this fiction than the Greeks. It is very 
 probable that the early Greeks derived the story of Io, and 
 all their other metamorphoses, from the Egyptians. However 
 this may have been, we have so many positive and unobjec- 
 tionable testimonies that such fables were current among the 
 
340 APPEARANCES OF THE GODS 
 
 Various stories were related of particular avatars, 
 or incarnations of this description ; some of which 
 we shall collect, as they are important for the illustra- 
 tion of the Egyption superstition. 
 
 It was reported that Osiris, wishing to assist Horus 
 in his war against Typhon, assumed the form of a 
 wolf, and in that shape ascended from the shades. 
 On this story, according to Diodorus, was founded 
 the worship of the wolf at Lycopolis.* 
 
 The Ornbites and Arsinoites, as Plutarch and 
 iElian inform us, when questioned why they wor- 
 shipped crocodiles, replied that it was because 
 Typhon assumed that form when he attempted to 
 escape the pursuit of Horus. f 
 
 Diana or Bubastis was worshipped at the city of 
 the same name under the form of a cat; and the 
 reason assigned for this superstition was, according to 
 Stephanus, a prevalent story that the goddess had 
 assumed the shape of that animal in order to elude 
 the vigilance of Typhon. J 
 
 This malevolent being was indeed so powerful and 
 so crafty that all the gods of better tempers were very 
 much afraid of him. On one occasion he made so 
 violent an assault upon them, that they all took flight, 
 and suddenly changed their shapes into those of 
 
 vulgar in Egypt, as well as among the priests, that we cannot 
 refuse to admit them as properly belonging to the Egyptian 
 mythology. Nothing, indeed, has been adduced that tends 
 to invalidate this conclusion. See, however, Jablonski, Panth. 
 ^Egypt. lib. v. cap. 2. 
 
 * Diod. lib. i. cap. 6. 
 
 f Plut. de Isid. cap. JEAhn de Animal, lib. x. can. 
 
 28 et 21, I Steph. Byzant. voce BwZaurm.. 
 
 
IN THE SHAPES OP ANIMALS. 341 
 
 various animals. This story is related circumstantially 
 by Apollodorus and Hyginus.* The latter affirms 
 that he received it from the Egyptian priests. Lucian 
 says it was a prevalent fable among the crowd of 
 scribes and shorn prophets upon the banks of the 
 Nile.f Ovid thought it a fit story for his Metamor- 
 phoses. He has blended it with the Grecian fable 
 of Typhceus. 
 
 She sings from Earth's dark womb how Typhon rose, 
 
 And struck with deadly fear his heavenly foes , 
 
 How the gods fled to Egypt's slimy soil, 
 
 And hid their heads beneath the banks of Nile ; 
 
 How Typhon, from the conquered skies, pursued 
 
 Their routed godships to the seven-mouth'd flood. 
 
 Forced every god, his fury to escape, 
 
 Some form of beast to assume, or earthly shape. 
 
 Jove, so she sung, was changed into a ram ; 
 
 From whence the horns of Libyan Ammon came. 
 
 Bacchus a goat ; Apollo was a crow ; 
 
 Phoebe a cat ; the wife of Jove a cow 
 
 Of snowy hue ; Cyllenian Mercury 
 
 A winged Ibis J 
 
 Diodorus speaks of a similar transformation which 
 the gods underwent in order to escape the persecu- 
 tions of wicked men. But perhaps this is only 
 another copy of the same story. § 
 
 The god of the river Nile, who was Osiris himself 
 in a particular character or function, assumed on 
 another occasion the form of a bull. In this shape he 
 
 * Apollodorus in Biblioth. lib. i. cap. 6. Hyginus, fab. 152» 
 
 t Lucian de Sacrifices, circa fin. 
 
 X Ovid. Met. lib. v. Maynwaring's translation. 
 
 § Diod. lib. i. cap. 6. 
 
342 EGYPTIAN AVATARS. 
 
 paid his addresses to the daughter of the founder of 
 Memphis, and became the father of /Egyptus. The 
 city of Memphis was named after this princess, and 
 this incarnation was, perhaps, connected with the 
 worship of the Memphite Bull.* 
 
 In the Greek mythology we find many fables of 
 river gods assuming the form of a bull ; and this 
 renders it very probable, that the rites of Apis or the 
 bull of Memphis were derived from the fiction above- 
 mentioned. Jablonski has observed that the image 
 of Apis was connected with the Nilometer, and that 
 the festival of the Theophania, or appearance of the 
 divine Bull, perhaps related to the increase of the 
 Nile.f Strabo, as we mentioned before, asserts, that 
 Apis and Osiris were the same god; and the Nile 
 was identified with Osiris, or was considered as an 
 emanation from him. On the whole, it appears pro- 
 bable that Apis was an incarnation of the Nilotic 
 Osiris,, or tutelar genius of the Nile. 
 
 Apis, it is evident, was worshipped,, not as a symbol 
 merely, but as an incarnation of some daemon or 
 spiritual being ; for when one bull died, and another 
 was substituted, the people fancied that they still 
 adored the same being, who had undergone a new 
 transmigration. We are told by Plutarch, that the 
 Egyptian priests declared Apis to be an image of the 
 
 * Diod. lib. i. cap, 4. 
 
 f Jablonski makes no allusion to the story of the tauriform 
 incarnation of the Nile, which appears to be the foundation of 
 these rites ; but from the fact that the image of a bull was 
 connected with the Nilometer, and from the season at which 
 the Theophania was celebrated, he concludes that Apis was a 
 symbol of the Nile. — See Panth. ^Egypt. lib. iv, cap. 2. 
 

 EGYPTIAN AVATARS. 343 
 
 soul of Osiris,* and Diodorus says, that when the 
 people were questioned respecting their reason for 
 paying divine honours to this animal, they replied, 
 " that the soul of Osiris had migrated into a bull, 
 and that when a new Apis was born, the soul of his 
 predecessor was immediately infused into him."f 
 
 In like manner the worship of Isis in the form of a 
 cow was connected with a story of her assuming that 
 shape ; and this fable was the foundation of the Gre- 
 cian fiction of Io, the daughter of Inachus, who was 
 transmuted into a heifer. Isis, in the celebrated 
 procession which was annually made to her honour, 
 was represented with the horns of her favourite 
 animal : and she is thus magnificently described by 
 Ovid.J 
 
 (C Cum medio noctis spatio sub imagine somni 
 Inachis ante torum, pompd comitata suorum, 
 Aut stetit, aut visa est. Inerant lunariafronti 
 Cornua, cum spiels nitido flaventibus auro, 
 El regale decus ; cum qua latrator Anubis, 
 Sanctaque Bubastis, variisque coloribus Apis ; 
 Quique premit vocem, digitoque silentia suadet ; 
 Sistraque erant, nunquamque satis quaesitus Osiris, 
 Plenaque somniferi serpens peregrina veneni." 
 
 Of the Worship of Plants and Stones. 
 
 We find very little information concerning the 
 motives which induced the Egyptians to worship 
 plants; but it is easy to perceive that this practice 
 
 * De Isid. cap. 29. f Diodor. lib. i. cap. 6. 
 
 X Ovid. Metamorph. lib. ix. v. 685. 
 
 Y Y 
 
344 MOTIVES FOR CONSECRATING PLANTS. 
 
 arose from the same principles as the adoration of 
 animals. The life of plants, as well as that of 
 animals, was an emanation from the gods ; and plants 
 received transmigrating souls. 
 
 We find more distinct traces of this superstition 
 among the Pythagoreans and the Jewish Rabbins; 
 both of which sects are known to have derived it from 
 the Egyptians. Empedocles professed to have under- 
 gone transmigration through shrubs, and said, that of 
 all plants he preferred to transmigrate into the form 
 of a laurel.* The Rabbins taught that, for certain 
 sins, (C a soul goes into the leaf of a tree. Then," 
 they continue, " the wind rises, and shakes it about, 
 causing great torment. But this punishment ceases 
 when the leaf falls to the ground. At other times, 
 such a soul passes from leaf to leaf. 
 
 From the same source the Rabbins derived the 
 doctrine that souls pass into stones.f The vene- 
 
 * iElian, Hist. Animal, lib. xii. cap. 7« Diog. Laert. lib. 
 viii. Vit. Empedoclis. 
 
 f " Rabbi Isaac Lurja went on a time into the city of Tibe- 
 rias, and, passing by the great school of Rabbi Jochanan, who 
 was then living, he showed his disciples a stone in the wall, 
 and said to them, ' Into that stone has entered a soul, that 
 cries to me to pray for her.' " Emek Hammeleck. — Traditions 
 of the Jews } with the Expositions of the Rabbins. Translated 
 from the German. London. 1732. 
 
 The ideas of the Jewish Rabbins, respecting the transmigra- 
 tion, agree in other respects with those which the Egyptians 
 are said to have held. Transmigration was regarded in most 
 cases as the chastizement of sins ; and the soul was supposed 
 to pass into the body of some animal, whose propensities bore 
 some analogy, real or fancied, to its vicious habits. The souls 
 
OF THE WORSHIP OF MEN. 345 
 
 ration paid to inanimate objects among the Egyptians 
 may, on this principle, be accounted for, and con- 
 nected with the leading tenets of their superstition. 
 
 
 SECTION VIII. 
 
 Of the Worship of Men. 
 
 As the inferior animals were supposed to be en- 
 dowed with souls which were emanations from the 
 essence of the gods, and accordingly received divine 
 honours from the Egyptians, it would be strange if we 
 found the human species alone excluded from these 
 high privileges. The fact is otherwise ; we learn 
 that a share of divinity was ascribed to men, and that 
 they were adored on the same principle as the brute 
 animals. 
 
 We are assured by Porphyry and Eusebius, that 
 there was a district in Egypt where divine honours 
 were paid to a living man. Victims were immolated 
 before him, and burnt upon an altar. After this 
 ceremony was concluded, the divinity was allowed to 
 come down and eat a hearty meal of the sacred 
 viands. The name of the town or village where 
 these rites were performed, was Anabis, or Anamis.* 
 
 of proud and impudent men, according to Rabbi Isaac Lurja, 
 passed into wild beasts, or unclean fowls. Tax-gatherers and 
 rapacious men became ravenous birds. Souls of impure per- 
 sons transmigrated into camels or storks. — Traditions of the 
 Jews, vol. i. 
 
 * Porphyr. de Abstinentia. lib. iv. cap. 9. Theodoret. c. 
 
346 IDEAS WHICH GAVE ORIGIN 
 
 It is well known that the Egyptian priests, the pro- 
 phets and sacred scribes, pretended in very early times 
 to possess supernatural powers, and to have an insight 
 into futurity. These wonderful endowments were 
 attributed, not, as among the Greeks, to the temporary 
 impulse of the daemon who forced his convulsed or 
 intoxicated priestess to pour forth involuntary rhap- 
 sodies, but to some natural superiority. We learn 
 from Manethon* that those persons who displayed 
 extraordinary wisdom were believed literally to par- 
 take of the divine nature : the soul of the priest was 
 supposed to be an emanation from that particular 
 god to whose service he was especially devoted. Such 
 persons seem to have been regarded as incarnations 
 of the gods, not inferior in dignity, though of a 
 different class from the divine animals. 
 
 It is thus that among the ancient kings of Egypt we 
 find many who bore the names of the celestial gods. 
 There was a king Horus, who, according to Manethon, 
 was so highly favoured by the gods as to be admitted 
 to the honour of beholding them in person. A king 
 of Memphis was named Tosorthrus, which is inter- 
 preted iEsculapius. We know that the Egyptian 
 iEsculapius was Serapis, who, as we have shown in 
 the first book, was worshipped, before the practice 
 of deifying men was introduced. It appears that 
 
 Grsecos. iii. Euseb. Praep. Ev. lib. iii. cap. 4. Item cap. xii. 
 Minutius Felix gives a further account. See Minut. Felix. 
 Octavius, p. 281, who says he was consulted as an oracle. 
 
 * See Manethon's account of Amenophis the prophet, in 
 Josephus's Letter to Apion. 
 
TO THE WORSHIP OF MEN. 347 
 
 Tosorthrus was a sacerdotal king, who received a 
 title that properly belonged to Sarapis,* or iEscula- 
 pius, from his devotion to this deity, and his skill in 
 the art of healing-. Many of the names of the 
 Diospolitan kings, in the series of Eratosthenes, are 
 titles or epithets of gods. Sometimes the name of 
 the god is given to the priest or king unchanged ; at 
 others it is modified by some prefix, indicating a near 
 relation to the deity ; as in the examples of Athothes, 
 which is interpreted Hermogenes, or the son of 
 Thoth ; Pente-Athyris, which means the high- 
 priest of Athyri ; Pentephres, or, as the name is 
 corruptly written, Potiphar, the high priest of the 
 Sun. In some instances it would appear that a name 
 thus modified, and the precise appellation of the god, 
 were applied indifferently to the same individual. 
 
 This practice accounts for the magnificent titles 
 given by the later Egyptians, to their kings of the 
 Macedonian race. In the inscriptions found in Egypt, 
 belonging to the Ptolemaic period, these monarchs 
 are called " gods," and the most exalted titles are 
 lavished upon them.f The Roman Caesars seem 
 afterwards to have emulated the Ptolemies in the 
 degree of adulation they exacted. 
 
 It is on this principle that we must explain many 
 fictions and singular expressions relating to the 
 Egyptian gods, which have induced some modern 
 writers to suppose, that the original objects of 
 
 * Jablonski conjectures that Tosorthros is a corruption of 
 Tuse-tho, which means in the Coptic, " Healer of the world.'* 
 
 f The Rosetta inscription contains several titles of this 
 class. 
 
348 IDEAS WHICH GAVE ORIGIN 
 
 worship among this people were mortals deified. 
 Particular gods were said to have founded cities, 
 invented sciences, and enacted laws : these actions 
 can only have been done by men ; hence it has 
 been taken for certain that the Egyptian gods, like 
 some of the Grecian heroes, were men who gained the 
 honour of deification by their services to mankind. 
 But these were the secondary gods; that is to say, 
 persons who were regarded as divine for the reasons 
 we have just stated. Thus Athothes, the son of 
 Thoth, who is perhaps the same individual elsewhere 
 called Thoth, is said to have practised physic, and to 
 have written books on anatomy ; or the works that 
 were performed by the priest, into whom an emanation 
 from the god had been infused, were ascribed to the 
 fictitious divinity himself. 
 
 This solution of the problem before us is supported 
 by the express testimony of Diodorus. Having 
 recorded the fables related of the celestial gods, whom 
 he represents, as we have seen, as personifications of 
 the elements or daemons supposed to reside in the 
 elements, this historian concludes, " such are the 
 stories told by the Egyptians of the heavenly and 
 immortal gods. And besides these, they say there 
 are others that are terrestrial, who were begotten of 
 these former gods, and were originally mortal men, 
 but, by reason of their wisdom and beneficence to 
 all mankind, have obtained immortality ; of which 
 number some have been kings of Egypt ; several of 
 whom by interpretation have had the same names with 
 the celestial gods ; others have kept their own proper 
 names ; for they pretend that Sol, Saturn, Rhea, &c. 
 

 TO THE WORSHIP OF MEN. 349 
 
 reigned in Egypt/'* It is evident that Diodorus 
 alludes here to such kings as we find in the lists of 
 Eratosthenes, and Manethon.f 
 
 These double names created confusion in the 
 Egyptian traditions, of which the chronological com- 
 pilers, such as Manethon, availed themselves, in order 
 to magnify the antiquity of Egypt, and fill up the 
 chasms in their historical cycle. For the genuine series 
 of kings not extending to a sufficiently remote epoch, 
 and a tradition being current that the gods had 
 reigned in Egypt in early times, nothing was more 
 easy than to patch up two or three additional 
 dynasties, by putting down the names of the gods, and 
 to assign to them whatever vacuum might remain to 
 be filled up in that cycle or imaginary period of 
 celestial revolutions with which they had resolved to 
 connect the duration of the Egyptian monarchy. 
 
 We are thus enabled to account for the contradic- 
 tions that occur in the works of ancient authors, who 
 sometimes assert that the Egyptian gods were deified 
 mortals, at others that they were personifications of 
 the elements or heavenly bodies. 
 
 * Diodor. Bibl. lib. i. cap. 1. Booth's translation, 
 f See below, Orig. iEgypt. 
 
350 ANTIQUITY OF THE WORSHIP 
 
 SECTION IX. 
 
 Of the Antiquity of the Worship of Animals in Egypt, 
 
 It has been pretended by some writers, that the 
 worship of animals in Egypt was comparatively a 
 modern practice, introduced a short time before the 
 invasion of that country by Cambyses. It is difficult to 
 conjecture on what grounds such an assertion can have 
 been made, since all historical testimony refers this 
 superstition to the earliest ages of the Egyptian history. 
 The history of the golden calf, set up by Aaron in 
 the wilderness, proves that images were made in 
 the form of animals as early as the time of the depar- 
 ture of the Hebrews. Indeed, in the prohibitions of 
 the Mosaic law, the most remarkable classes of deified 
 animals are enumerated, as well as the most striking 
 of those celestial objects which, as we have shown, 
 the Egyptians adored with allegorical rites and fictions. 
 cc Take ye good heed," says the inspired lawgiver, 
 whose injunctions and whole system of theology 
 display so remarkable a contrast with those of the 
 wisest pagans, tc for ye saw no manner of similitude 
 on that day when Jehovah spake unto you in Horeb 
 out of the midst of fire— Take heed, lest ye corrupt 
 yourselves, and make you a graven image, the simi- 
 litude of any figure, the likeness of male or female, 
 the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the 
 likeness of any winged fozd that Jlieth in the air, 
 the likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground, 
 
OF ANIMALS IN EGYPT. 351 
 
 the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath 
 the earth ; and — lest thou lift up thine eyes unto 
 heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, 
 and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldst 
 be driven to worship them, which Jehovah thy God 
 hath divided unto all nations under the whole 
 heaven/'* 
 
 It may be conjectured that images made of wood 
 or stone, in the forms of animals, were worshipped at 
 this time in Egypt, but that the adoration of living 
 animals was not introduced until a later age. It appears 
 however, that it was unlawful for the Egyptians to 
 kill sheep in the time of Joseph. Living animals, 
 were therefore consecrated in this early age. Indeed, 
 if the account which we have given of the motives 
 that induced the Egyptians to worship animals is 
 correct, the adoration of the living creature must have 
 preceded that of the image or representative. 
 
 It is asserted by Manethon, in the fragments pre- 
 served by Eusebius and Africanus, that the worship 
 of Apis, Mnevis, and Mendes, was introduced in the 
 reign of Caiachos, or Chous, who was the tenth in 
 descent from Menes, the first king. 
 
 Many authors have remarked the traces of animal 
 worship among the Greeks.f These must have been 
 
 * Deuteron. chap. iv. 
 
 f This argument is used by Dr. Shuckford. See Shuckford's 
 Connections of Sacred and Profane History, vol. ii. p. 310. 
 See also, Clemens Alexand. Admonit. ad Gentes and the Birds 
 of Aristophanes. 
 
 Rhadamanthus, the famous Cretan lawgiver, ordered the 
 Cretans to swear by animals. This seems to be a very ancient 
 relick of animal worship. See Porphyr. de Abst. lib. iii.p. 285. 
 
 z z 
 
352 WORSHIP OF ANIMALS 
 
 derived from the earliest Egyptian colonies^ which 
 were founded by Cecrops, and Danaus, among the 
 barbarous Pelasgi. Consequently the worship of 
 animals must have been more ancient in Egypt than 
 the era of the first civilization of Greece. 
 
 On the whole it may be concluded,, that the adora- 
 tion of living animals and plants is a superstition 
 which refers itself to the first ages of the Egyptian 
 bistorv. 
 

 NOTE 
 
 ON 
 
 BOOK IV. CHAPTER I. 
 
 If any doubt remains with respect to the motives which 
 induced the Egyptians to pay divine honours to brute creatures 
 and to men, notwithstanding the testimonies of the ancients 
 which we have adduced in the foregoing section, it will be 
 entirely removed by comparing these superstitions with those 
 rites of a similar description which prevail among the Hindoos. 
 
 The customs of the Hindoos in this particular, the whole 
 ©f their superstition relating to sacred animals, and the strange 
 and wild fables of their avatars or incarnations of gods in 
 the shapes of men and other creatures, bear so remarkable 
 a resemblance to the ideas and customs of the Egyptians, 
 that the comparison cannot fail to afford some curious and 
 interesting observations. 
 
 The whole of the Indian idolatry, including under this name 
 the worship of visible objects of whatever kind, animate and 
 inanimate, the productions, of nature or the workmanship 
 of man, is founded on the same principle to which we have 
 referred on the authority of several ancient philosophers, 
 the veneration of men, animals, and plants among the old 
 Egyptians. 
 
 " The Deity," says Mr. Ward, " becomes, according to 
 their ideas, individuated, and takes possession of every form 
 of matter." It is the same god, as Krishna says, " which is 
 seen in the reverend Brahman, perfected in knowledge ; in the 
 dog, and in him who eateth the flesh of dogs." Among the 
 regular Hindoos the beings supposed to possess most of this 
 energy, or in whom the presiding deity eminently dwells, are 
 
354 ILLUSTRATION OF THE MOTIVES 
 
 the gods, the giants, the brahmans, and devout ascetics. 
 Among the heterodox sects, ascetics are almost exclusively 
 considered as the favoured depositories of the divine energy." 
 
 So fully are the Hindoos possessed with this notion that 
 God pervades every thing, and manifests a greater portion of 
 himself in one form than another, that many, as the same 
 author assures us, u wander away a whole life in search of a 
 man in whom God pre-eminently dwells/' Hence, the wor- 
 ship of the grand Lama of Tibet, and the various Moonis who 
 transmit the indwelling portion of divinity, the " divinse 
 particulam aurae," by hereditary descent. 
 
 But we shall confine ourselves to the notions of the regular 
 Hindoos, and only mention a few striking particulars. 
 
 To begin with the worship of Men. "All the Brahmans," 
 says the excellent author lately quoted, " but especially the 
 religious guides or Gooroos, are objects of worship among the 
 Hindoos, and have divine honours paid them. The spiritual 
 guide, in the estimation of the disciple, is literally a god. 
 Wherever he approaches, the disciple prostrates himself in the 
 dust before him." 
 
 In like manner the prophets of the Egyptians were supposed 
 not merely to receive communications of supernatural wis- 
 dom from the gods, but, as we learn from Manethon, actually 
 to partake of the divine essence ; to have indwelling portions 
 or irradiation of the divinity within them. 
 
 The Shastras declare, moreover, that the daughters of Brah- 
 mans, till they are eight years old, are objects of worship as 
 forms of Bhagavati. " Some persons worship these girls daily. 
 The devotee, taking the daughter of some neighbouring 
 brahman, and placing her on a seat, offers flowers, &c. and 
 pays adoration to her." At the festivals of some female divi- 
 nities, the daughters of brahmans have divine honours paid 
 to them. 
 
 Like the man worshipped by the Egyptians in the rites of 
 Anabis, as we have shown from Porphyry in the preceding 
 pages, the human being who receives the adoration of the 
 Hindoos, partakes of the offerings. " She even has a share of 
 
FOR WORSHIPPING ANIMALS. 355 
 
 the spirituous liquors, and of the flesh though it should be that 
 of the Cow." The refuse is eaten by the persons present, 
 however different their castes ; nor must any one refuse to 
 partake of these offerings.* 
 
 Cows also are worshipped as forms or emanations of 
 Bhagavati; and the excrement and urine of this animal are 
 supposed to have the virtue of purifying whatever they touch. 
 
 Even images are supposed literally to contain the god; 
 and no image is worshipped in India without a preparatory 
 ceremony, in which the Brahman, by repeating incantations, 
 persuades the divinity to come and dwell in the shrine of clay, 
 wood, or stone. After this performance, the image is a god : 
 beforehand, nobody thinks it an object of reverence.f 
 
 This may suffice for illustrating the principle of animal 
 worship among the Hindoos. We shall make a few further 
 remarks on the incarnations of the gods, which the Hindoos 
 have founded on this doctrine, and on the kinds of visible 
 objects they have made choice of. Under both heads we 
 confine ourselves strictly to such observations as seem likely 
 to illustrate the superstitions of Egypt. 
 
 The idea is in itself singular and absurd enough, that the 
 divinity should for any imaginable purpose be under the 
 necessity of assuming the disguise of brutes of various descrip- 
 tions, some of them the most noxious and disgusting. It is still 
 more remarkable that we should trace this whimsical doctrine 
 in the religious systems of the two most ancient nations of an- 
 tiquity ; this would be unaccountable, if we allowed no common 
 origin to both superstitions, but that this last supposition 
 contains the true explanation of the enigma, is proved by the 
 coincidences in particular fables and customs. 
 
 1. Of Sacred Quadrupeds. 
 
 Among quadrupeds, the Hindoos, as it is well-known, ascribe 
 the highest honours to the ox kind, and especially to cows. 
 In these points they coincide with the Egyptians. 
 
 * Ward, vol. i. p. 247. f Ibid. vol. ii. p. 13. 
 
356 ILLUSTRATION OF THE MOTIVES 
 
 We need not remind the reader of the close coincidence to 
 be traced in the feelings of these people with respect to the 
 horror they express at the idea of eating the flesh of the cow. 
 Even Europeans are regarded on this account by the Hindoos 
 as on a level with the degraded Parriars ;* and with similar 
 abhorrence the Greeks were regarded by the Egyptians. 
 
 Among the chosen vehicles for manifesting the gods to men, 
 the Cat holds an honourable rank in the Asiatic as well as in the 
 African mythology. The books of the Hindoos contain the 
 history of an incarnation of Indra in the form of a cat.f 
 
 The chaste Bubastis, goddess of child-birth, was, as we 
 have seen, a cat. The Hindoo Shashti, the protectress of 
 children, is figured riding upon a cat; and the Hindoos, and 
 especially mothers, avoid hurting this animal, lest the goddess 
 should revenge herself upon their children. J 
 
 The dog sacred to Kala Bhairava,|| a form of Siva, and the 
 jackall of Durga, remind us of the barking Anubis, the 
 companion of Osiris, and the she-wolf of Dian or Isis, and the 
 bitch of Hecate. The dogs of Yama, one of which was 
 termed Cerbura, or spotted, and was feigned to have three 
 heads, corresponds remarkably, as Mr. Wilford has observed, 
 with the three-headed Cerberus, the dog of Pluto. 
 
 The divine monkey Hanuman is, according to the Brahmans, 
 an incarnation of Siva. Whether the monkey-gods of Egypt 
 were so nearly related to the celestial daemons, we want in- 
 formation to decide. 
 
 The elephant, lion, buffalo, rat, deer, goat, &c. receive 
 worship at the festivals of the gods who are figured riding 
 upon them. 
 
 2. Of Birds worshipped by the Hindoos. 
 
 Of birds, the fabulous are the most celebrated. Garura, the 
 bird of Vishnu, has some features in his history which approxi- 
 
 * Dr. F. Buchanan's Journey through Mysore, Canara, and 
 Malabar. 
 
 t Ward, vol. i. p. 44. i Ibid. p. 182. || Ibid. p. 264. 
 
FOR WORSHIPPING ANIMALS. 357 
 
 mate to the marvels of the Phoenix, to whose name his 
 epithet Pannaga-sana bears perhaps an accidental resemblance. 
 A species of kite, called the Coromandel Eagle, a sacred 
 owl, peacock, and goose, recal the fictions which the classical 
 mythology derived from Egypt. 
 
 3. Of Fishes, Reptiles, and Inanimate Objects. 
 
 We do not find so important a worship paid to reptiles and 
 fishes in India as in Egypt. Yet the latter receive inferior 
 honours from the modern Hindoos, and the Fish, and the Tor- 
 toise avatars, are as famous in the legends of the Pauranics, as 
 the fish of Venus, or any of the Nilotic amphibia in the theo- 
 cracy of the West. 
 
 Sacred trees and shrubs in India were equally venerable 
 with the sacred plants in Egypt. They are considered as 
 forms of particular gods. 
 
 Each of the celestial bodies worshipped in India has an 
 appropriate sacred plant; the counterpart, it would seem, of 
 the Egyptian herbs dedicated to the horoscopes or genii of the 
 Signs. 
 
 It is forbidden to the Hindoos to eat onions, though they 
 do not consider them as gods. The deification of this plant 
 has been imputed to the Egyptians on account of their scruple 
 against eating them. 
 
 Lastly, the consecration of stones, as the Salgrama and 
 bther inanimate things, which are supposed to receive particles 
 of the divine essence, remind us of the mystical stones of the 
 Egyptians and the Arabian talismans. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 SACRIFICES, FESTIVALS, AND RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES 
 OF THE EGYPTIANS. 
 
 From the veneration with which animals were re- 
 garded in Egypt, we might conjecture that it was 
 accounted impious to slaughter them in sacrifice, and 
 Macrobius positively asserts this to have been the fact. 
 iC Nunquam fuit fasvEgypthspecudibus aut sanguine, 
 sed precibus et thure solo placare deos/'* This tenet 
 was perhaps maintained by a party of the Egyptian 
 priests, or it might be enjoined in some of the sacred 
 books, as it is by several of the modern sects in India; 
 but we are well assured, that animals were offered as 
 victims in the temples of most of the Egyptian gods. 
 In general, it was unlawful in each nome to slaughter 
 the animal which represented the tutelar god of the 
 district. 
 
 The motives with which the people of different 
 countries have offered animals as victims to the gods, 
 have not always been the same. It would seem, 
 indeed, that they were at first similar, because this 
 universal practice must have been derived from one 
 origin, but the ideas which were at first connected with 
 
 * Mac. Sat. lib. i. c. 7» 
 
 AAA 
 
360 IDEAS CONNECTED WITH THE 
 
 the performance of sacrifice, were by some nations 
 partially or totally forgotten. The prevailing idea of 
 the Greeks, in the Homeric age, seems to have been 
 that the gods were a sort of aerial beings, who were 
 fattened by the savoury odour that arose from roasting 
 a victim, and were to be rendered favourable to the 
 wishes of men by affording them a good meal.* The 
 same idea may be traced in the practices of many 
 half- civilized nations. 
 
 But the sentiments with which the Egyptians 
 performed sacrifice were very different. The idea of 
 feeding the gods seems never to have entered into 
 their contemplation. Their sacrifices were, simply, 
 offerings of expiation. The guilt of the people was 
 supposed to be transferred from the offenders to 
 
 * This idea is ridiculed by Porphyry, who shows that it was 
 the prevailing notion that the gods derived their sustenance 
 from the exhalations of sacrifices. He cites the following lines: 
 
 hrfKrrog dvopovv, Harris iMi$et Qeovs 
 Q<rrujv dv&pKuiv ko) %oA^£ irupovf^svrjs, 
 & kol) Ttvcrh rfeivobo-iv ovy^i tpuxr^a,, 
 ypd^eiv ditavras xa) yipocg X&y/iv rofo. 
 
 " Who is such a fool, and so stupid and credulous, 
 as to believe, that all the gods are delighted with the 
 bare bones and with the burnt gall of a victim, which 
 will scarcely afford a meal to a hungry dog?" 
 
 See Porphyry de Abstinentia, lib. ii. sec. 42, 58. That this 
 was the idea with which the Greeks performed sacrifice is evi- 
 dent from the story of Prometheus, who offended Jupiter by 
 giving him the bones instead of the best pieces of meat. 
 Hesiod. Theog. v. 536. See also Clemens Alexand. Strom.vii. 
 p. 846, edit. Oxon, and the passages collected in the Notes 
 by the editor. 
 
PERFORMANCE OF SACRIFICE. 361 
 
 the animal slaughtered ; the punishment of their sins, 
 was, in some solemnities, imprecated by the officiating 
 priest on the head of the victim, and its death was 
 supposed to be viewed by the gods as an atonement, 
 or as a vicarious satisfaction. This will appear clearly 
 in the sequel. 
 
 Of Human Sacrifices. 
 
 As there was scarcely any ancient people who 
 were not in the habit of immolating animals on the 
 altars of their gods, so there were few whose 
 history betrays no traces of human sacrifices. Even 
 the Hebrews cannot be entirely vindicated from the 
 guilt of having perpetrated human sacrifice,* notwith- 
 standing the positive prohibition of the Mosaic law. 
 
 Some writers have vainly endeavoured to rescue 
 the Egyptians from the charge of having been ad- 
 dicted to these horrible perpetrations. Herodotus is 
 very peremptory on this subject. Still he could not 
 remove the prejudice of his countrymen, and they 
 continued to repeat, as a proverbial expression, the 
 following line of Homer. 
 
 * I allude to the history of Jephthah, which some Commen- 
 tators have so strangely perverted from its obvious meaning. 
 Michaelis is the only author who seems to have placed this 
 subject in the point of view in which it ought to be consi- 
 dered. See this author's Commentaries on the Mosaic Law; 
 and Bruns iiber Randolph's Erkliirung in Eichhornn's Reper- 
 torium, Th. viii. 
 
 t Strabon. Geog. lib. 17. 
 
362 EGYPTIAN SACRIFICES 
 
 Virgil mentions the cruel sacrifices of Busiris, as a 
 matter universally known. 
 
 " Quis aut Eurysthea durum, 
 Aut illaudati nescit Busiridis aras?"* 
 
 And Ovid, still more explicitly. 
 
 <c Cum Thrasius Busirin adit monstratque piari 
 Hospitis efFuso sanguine posse Jovem."f 
 
 Diodorus also declares, that it had been the custom 
 in ancient times to immolate men with red hair at the 
 tomb of Osiris. \ That these sacrifices were really 
 performed, we are also assured by Manethon,§ Plu- 
 tarch, || Porphyry, 5 and Minutius Felix.** To these 
 authorities we may add those of Longus and Apuleius, 
 in the romances of Theagenes and the Golden Ass.ff 
 
 But all doubt on this subject has been cleared up 
 since the late researches in the Egyptian temples, by 
 European travellers. The sculptures and paintings 
 on the walls of the temples, and in the interior of the 
 catacombs or tombs of the kings in the Thebaid, have 
 
 * Georgic. iv. v. 5. f Ovid. Amor. i. 64. 
 
 % Diod. lib. i. c. 6. 
 
 § Manetho. apud Porphyr. de Abstin. lib. iv. p. 94. 
 
 || Plut.de Isid. c.73. 
 
 % Porphyry says that these practices were discontinued in the 
 time of Amosis. We learn from Athenasus, that a work was 
 composed by one Seleucus, treating expressly of the human 
 sacrifices practised by the Egyptians. — Athen. lib.iv. p. 172. 
 
 ** Minut. Felix Octuo. p. 29. 
 
 ft According to Manethon^ it was in ancient times the 
 custom to burn men alive in the city of Eilythia; after which, 
 the ashes of the victims were winnowed through a sieve, and 
 dispersed in the air. — Plut. ubi supra. 
 
©F HUMAN VICTIMS. 363 
 
 afforded many curious pieces of information respecting 
 the religious ceremonies, the sciences, and the private 
 manners of the Egyptian people. On the question 
 respecting human sacrifices, they leave us no room 
 for hesitation. M. Denon has found the ceremony of 
 immolating the human victim distinctly portrayed 
 in a temple at Medinet-Abou ; and Mr. Hamilton has 
 given us an excellent description of a similar proceed- 
 ing, exhibited on the cieling of an apartment in the 
 temple of Isis at Tentyra. The figure of a man, with 
 the head and ears of an ass, is seen kneeling on the 
 ground, and bound to a tree. Two knives have been 
 stuck into his forehead, two are in his shoulders, one 
 in his thigh, and another in his body. Five priests 
 stand in a row behind, having heads like hawks and 
 dogs, and holding knives in their hands. The god is 
 clothed in long white robes, and holds in his hand* 
 the crozier and the van of Osiris. 
 
 Of the Sacrifices of Animals. 
 
 Herodotus informs us, that the Egyptians refused to 
 offer in sacrifice any other animals than swine, bulls, 
 calves without spot or blemish, and geese. It appears, 
 liowever, that he alludes to the common practices of 
 the whole Egyptian nation ; for it is certain that some 
 other animals were immolated in particular districts. 
 
 Of the Sacrifice of Swine. 
 
 Swine were only sacrificed to Osiris and to the 
 Moon. On those occasions, the Egyptians ate th$ 
 
364 SACRIFICES OP SWINE. 
 
 flesh of swine,, which at all other times they accounted 
 it unlawful to touch. Their reason for this practice 
 Herodotus says he knew, but did not think it becoming 
 to disclose.* 
 
 The following is the account given by this histo- 
 rian, of the sacrifice of hogs to Osiris. " At the 
 supper which was celebrated on the day of the festival 
 of that god, every Egyptian slaughtered a hog before 
 the door of his house, and immediately afterwards 
 gave the carcase to the swineherd from whom he had 
 purchased it, who was allowed to carry it away/' In 
 other respects, this solemn feast of Osiris was an exact 
 counterpart of the celebrated festival of the Greeks in 
 honour of Bacchus. f 
 
 The sacrifice to the Moon is thus described. After 
 slaughtering the animal, they cut off the end of the 
 tail, and having enclosed these, together with the 
 spleen and the omentum, and the fat of the belly, 
 consumed them in the fire. The remainder of the 
 flesh was, on this occasion, eaten by the people. 
 Those persons who were indigent, made the figure of 
 a swine with meal, and having roasted it, offered it as 
 a sacrifice. 
 
 * This reminds us of the prohibition against eating hog*s 
 flesh among the Hebrews ; but the latter people seem to have 
 avoided it for a different reason. Many motives have been 
 assigned for the command given by Moses to abstain from the 
 flesh of swine. Spencer alone seems to have formed a correct 
 idea. " Judaeos antiquiores odio eo majore porcum habuisse, 
 quod animal esset in Gentilium februis, sacrifices, mysteriis 
 magicis, festis, et pactis sanciendis cum primis usurpatum.'' 
 •—Spencer de Legg. Hebr. p. 120, lib, i. 
 
 f Herodotus, lib. ii. c, 47. 
 
 
SACRIFICES OF BULLS. 365 
 
 Of the Sacrifice of Bulls. 
 
 Some of the Egyptian customs, in their sacrifices, 
 bear a curious resemblance to the rites of the Mosaic 
 law, which cannot be refer red to accidental coincidence. 
 
 All the females of this species were in a peculiar 
 manner sacred to Isis, and were never used as victims * 
 The Egyptians used only red bullocks in sacrifice,, 
 and in this respect were so attentive, that an animal 
 which had onlv one black or white hair was deemed 
 unfit or impure, f The tail was minutely examined, 
 and the direction of every hair in it observed. The 
 tongue was also drawn out, and the priest examined 
 it, to see if it were free from certain blemishes specified 
 in the sacred books. After the priest had carefully 
 inspected the animal, both standing and lying on its 
 back, if he found it without blemish, he bound its 
 horns with the C( Byblos, and put a seal upon it, 
 containing the impression of a man upon his knees, 
 with his hand tied behind him, and a sword pointed 
 at his throat. "J The meaning of this seems to have 
 been, that the animal was to be killed as a vicarious 
 
 * Herodotus, lib. ii. cap. 99. 
 
 f Herod, lib. 2, cap. 38. Confer Plut. de Isid. cap. 31. 
 It was also forbidden to the Hebrews to sacrifice an heifer that 
 was not red, without blemish. — See Numbers xix. 2. On 
 which Maimonides and the Talmudists remark, that if the 
 heifer had only two black or white hairs, it was reckoned 
 impure. — See Bochart, Hierozoicon, p. 290. Plutarch says 
 the Egyptians chose bulls with reference to the complexion of 
 Typhon. 
 
 J Castor apud Plut. loc. citat. 
 
366 SACRIFICES OF BULLS. 
 
 sacrifice instead of the person who offered it. The 
 bullock was then led to the altar, on which a fire was 
 kindled and a libation poured ; after an invocation to 
 the god, the victim was killed, and its head was im- 
 mediately cut off. A solemn curse was pronounced 
 upon the head of the animal ; the priest imprecating 
 upon it all the evils that threatened those who had 
 offered the victim, or, in public sacrifices, the land 
 of Egypt in general * Plutarch seems to have 
 supposed that the imprecation was pronounced 
 previously to the slaughtering of the victim. The 
 head which had been cursed was then cut off and 
 thrown into the Nile.f Such was the ancient custom 
 of the Egyptians; but in later times they sold the 
 heads of their victims to the Greeks, instead of 
 throwing them into the river. These ceremonies 
 were observed by all the Egyptians without excep- 
 tion ; and on account of the custom of cursing the 
 head of the victim, no person of that nation would eat 
 of the head either of a bullock or any other animal. 
 
 The sacrifice of an ox to Isis, whom Herodotus 
 calls the greatest of their goddesses, and in whose 
 honour the most considerable festival was solemnized, 
 is thus described. cc They keep a fast previously, 
 and after invoking the goddess, slaughter the victim, 
 and then skin it, and take out the entrails, leaving 
 
 * See Leviticus xvii. 4; xvi. 21. Sam. i. 16. Psalms 
 vii. 17. Ezech. xxxiii. 4. Acts xviii. 6. " And Aaron shall 
 lay his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over 
 him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their 
 transgressions, putting them upon the head of the goat."— 
 Levit. xvi. 21. See also Euseb. Preep. Evang. lib. i. 
 
 t Plutarch, ubi supra. 
 
SACRIFICE OF BULLS. 367 
 
 the fat and the remaining parts in the body. Then 
 cutting off the legs, the extremity of the chord, the 
 shoulders and the neck, they fill the rest of the body 
 with pure bread and honey, raisins, figs, frankincense, 
 myrrh, and other aromatics; they then burn it, 
 pouring upon it abundance of oil. While the victim 
 is burning, they whip themselves, and when the 
 whipping scene is concluded, they feast on the 
 residue of the carcase/'* 
 
 Sacrifices of Sheep. 
 
 Strabo asserts that sheep were no w r here offered to 
 the gods in Egypt, except in the Nitriotic nome, 
 where Sarapis was worshipped; but Herodotus says 
 they were sacrificed in the Mendesian district, of 
 which Pan, under the form of a male-goat, was the 
 tutelar god.f 
 
 Even the Thebans, who held the sheep to be 
 particularly sacred, their favourite god Ammon being 
 of this species, put a ram to death once in the year, 
 at the annual festival of Jupiter. They then placed 
 the skin of the animal upon the image of Ammon, and 
 introduced before it the figure of Hercules. After 
 this ceremony, the whole crowd around the temple 
 whipped the ram, and afterwards interred it, enclosed 
 in a sacred chest. vj These were the only occasions 
 on which the Thebans suffered any creature of this 
 species to be killed. 
 
 * Herod, ii. 40. f Strabo, lib. xvii. Herod, ii. 42. 
 
 J Herod, ii. 42. 
 
 B B B 
 
368 EGYPTIAN SACRIFICES AND OTHER CEREMONIES. 
 
 Sacrifice of Goats, 
 
 Goats were the victims immolated to the Thehan 
 Jupiter or Amnion, but with what particular rites this 
 sacrifice was performed we are not told.* 
 
 Of Ceremonies relating to Typhon. 
 
 There is nothing more curious in the Egyptian 
 ceremonies than those which had respect to Typhon. 
 Some of these rites were intended to soothe and 
 mollify his temper; but the most remarkable seem to 
 have been designed as expressions of resentment and 
 indignation for the evils which he was supposed 
 to have inflicted on the favourite divinities of the 
 Egyptians. On these occasions, the people assailed 
 with insults and reproaches all who happened to have 
 red hair, in which they were supposed to resemble 
 Typhon. The people of Coptos had also a custom 
 of throwing an ass down a precipice. The ass was 
 one of the Typhonian animals. f 
 
 At a festival which, from the account given of it by 
 Herodotus, seems to have been the same that Plutarch 
 describes as happening on the seventeenth of Athyri 
 in commemoration of the death of Osiris, it was a 
 custom among the Egyptians to bring forth the dead 
 body of a cow, which lay embalmed in one of their 
 
 * Herod. 
 
 f This was, according to Plutarch, on account of his colour. 
 Bochart remarks that asses in Palestine and Egypt are gene- 
 rally red. Bochart. Hierozoic. p. 181. 
 
CEREMONIES RELATING TO TYPHON. 369 
 
 temples. On that occasion, the persons present 
 whipped a certain god, whose name Herodotns does 
 not choose to reveal. Jablonski has shown, by a 
 reference to a passage of Diodorns Siculus, that this 
 god was Typhon.* 
 
 On a similar principle, the Egyptians attempted to 
 avert impending evils by torturing their gods. When 
 any great drought happened, occasioned by extreme 
 heat, or when they were afflicted by pestilence or any 
 other public calamity, the priests were accustomed to 
 select some of the sacred animals, and, conducting 
 them with great mystery and silence into some dark 
 place, first attempted by threats to terrify them, and 
 induce them to remove the evils their country suffered ; 
 but if this endeavour was unsuccessful, they at length 
 put them to death. f This proceeding took place at 
 no particular time, but whenever the occasion required. 
 It was always done secretly by the priests,, without the 
 knowledge of the people. 
 
 Annual Festivals of the Egyptians, 
 
 Of the annual festivals of the Egyptians, the 
 most distinguished was that celebrated in honour of 
 Bubastis, at the city of Bubastos. The second 
 was the festival of Isis, held at the city of Busiris, 
 which was situated in the middle of the Delta, and 
 contained the largest temple of that goddess. Next 
 to this was the festival of Minerva, at Sais, which was 
 
 * Jablonski Panth. iEgypt. lib. v. c. 2. Confer Diodor. 
 lib.i. p. 23. 
 
 t Plut. de Isid. c. 73. 
 
370 FESTIVALS AT BUBASTOS, BUSIRIS, SAIS, 
 
 more celebrated than that of the Sun at Heliopolis ; 
 the latter was reckoned the fourth in dignity and 
 importance; that of Latona or Bulos was the fifth, 
 and the festival of Mars at Pap rem is was the sixth. 
 
 At the festival of Bubastos a vast concourse of people 
 assembled ; not fewer as it was said, than seven hundred 
 thousand men and women, without including children. 
 The crowd resorted to the city in vessels, and during 
 their voyage made the air resound on every side with 
 the noise of pipes and tabors, with singing and clap- 
 ping of hands. When they approached any town on 
 their passage to Bubastos, they brought their vessels 
 to shore ; some of the women then continued their 
 music, while others called aloud on the females of the 
 place, provoking them with insults, dancing all the 
 time, and using the most wanton and indecent gestures. 
 This scene was repeated at every town on the course 
 of the river. When they arrived at Bubastos, they 
 slaughtered a great many victims, and on this occasion 
 more wine was consumed than during all the remain- 
 der of the year. 
 
 At the festival of Isis at Busiris, the sacrifice of oxen 
 took place which we have above described. On this 
 occasion the whole assembly to the number of many 
 thousands, whipped themselves. The Carians, who 
 happened to be resident in Egypt, also cut their faces 
 with knives. 
 
 The festival of Minerva at Sais was held by night: 
 it was called the feast of lamps. All the people 
 suspended lamps before their houses, which they kept 
 burning through the whole night. Not only Sais was 
 illuminated, but all Egypt likewise; for those who 
 did not attend the festival burnt lamps before their 
 houses on the evening dedicated to this goddess. 
 
PAPREMIS TIME OF CELEBRATING THEM. 371 
 
 The festivals of Heliopolis and Butos were distin- 
 guished by no remarkable ceremonies : they consisted 
 simply in the performance of certain sacrifices. The 
 rites in honour of Mars at Papremis were very 
 remarkable. At this festival, a great number of 
 priests, armed with clubs, placed themselves in the 
 evening at the entrance of the temple, while the 
 regular attendants on the god began to draw onu 
 four-wheeled carriage the image of Mars, placed in 
 a case of gold. This image had been purposely 
 removed from its place on the preceding day. The 
 armed priests at the entrance of the temple disputed 
 the passage ; when a crowd of men, armed likewise 
 with clubs, who stood without prepared for the 
 conflict, immediately came to the succour of the god. 
 A sharp engagement then ensued, and many heads 
 were broken in the fray, though the Egyptians posi- 
 tively asserted that no lives were lost. 
 
 Some other festivals of the Egyptians have been 
 mentioned above, as connected with the rites, and 
 bearing a reference to the history of Isis and Osiris. 
 It is unnecessary to say any thing further respecting 
 them in this place. 
 
 There is one common circumstance relating to the 
 times at which most of the Egyptian festivals were 
 solemnized; — they were held at the New Moon 
 or the Full Moon. This is particularly noticed, in 
 several instances, by the ancient writers who have 
 given us an account of these solemnities.* 
 
 * This circumstance has not escaped Jablonski, who notices 
 it in the Prolegomena to his ^Egyptian Pantheon. 
 
 This is expressly mentioned by Plutarch with respect to the 
 
372 TIMES OF HOLDING FESTIVALS. 
 
 festival in the month Phamenoth, which happened at the 
 full moon, at which period the entrance of Osiris into the 
 Moon, and the fertilizing of the sublunary world, was cele- 
 brated : cap. 43. Likewise the festival relating to the death 
 of Osiris was solemnized at the full moon in the month 
 Athyri : cap. 42. Other references to the periods of the Moon 
 occur in Plutarch's Treatise. See capp. 42, 43, 52. The 
 festival of Osiris, and that of Isis, are mentioned by Herodotus* 
 They happened both at the full of the Moon. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 OF THE CIVIL INSTITUTIONS OF THE EGYPTIANS. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 Distribution of the People into Castes. Enumeration of the 
 Castes, and Description of them. 
 
 Among the institutions of Egypt, none was more 
 important in its influence upon the character of the 
 nation, than the division of the people into tribes or 
 families, who were obliged by the laws and supersti- 
 tions of the country to follow without deviation the 
 professions and habits of their forefathers. Such an 
 institution could not fail of impressing the stamp 
 of abject servility on the lower classes; and, by re- 
 moving in a great measure the motive of emulation, 
 it must have created, in all, apathy and indifference to 
 improvement in their particular professions. Where- 
 ever the system of castes has existed, it has pro- 
 duced a remarkably permanent and uniform character 
 in the nation ; as in the example furnished by 
 the natives of Hindoostan. These people agree in 
 almost every point with the description given of 
 them by Megasthenes, who visited the court of an 
 Indian king soon after the conquest of the East by 
 the Macedonians. 
 
 We have no very accurate and circumstantial 
 accounts of the castes into which the Egyptian 
 
374 CIVIL INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 people were divided, and of the particular customs 
 of each. It appears, indeed, that innovations 
 on the old civil and religious constitution of Egypt 
 had begun to be introduced as early as the time of 
 Psammitichus, when the ancient aversion of the people 
 to foreigners was first overcome. The various conflicts 
 which the nation underwent between that era and the 
 time when Herodotus visited Egypt, could not fail to 
 break down many of the fences which ancient priest- 
 craft had established, for maintaining the influence of 
 superstition. Herodotus is the earliest writer who 
 mentions the castes or hereditary classes of the 
 Egyptians, and his account appears to be the result 
 of his personal observation only. Had this historian 
 understood the native language of the people ; had 
 he been able to read the books of Hermes, in which 
 the old sacerdotal institutions were contained, we 
 might have expected from him as correct and ample 
 a description of the distribution of the castes in 
 Egypt, as that which modern writers have gained in 
 India from the code of Menu, respecting the orders 
 and subdivision of the community in Hindoostan. 
 Diodorus, who had the advantage of consulting- 
 Egyptian authors in the Greek language, and who 
 seems to have made a diligent use of this opportunity, 
 may be supposed to be more accurate, in what refers 
 to the internal polity of this nation, than Herodotus, 
 who, though a diligent observer, was deficient in so 
 many important qualifications. 
 
 It has often been conjectured that the subdivision 
 of people into castes may have taken its rise from 
 the intermixture of various nations, or may have been 
 the effect of repeated conquests, the vanquished races 
 
OP THE EGYPTIANS. 375 
 
 being continually degraded into a lower rank in the 
 community. It has been supposed, for example, that 
 the abject Parriars are the descendants of the abori- 
 ginal inhabitants of India ; that these people were 
 first conquered and reduced into subordination by 
 Sudras, who may have been for some time the domi- 
 neering caste, until they in turn were overcome by 
 the Brahmans and Cshatriyas, who forced them to 
 become labourers, and still further degraded the 
 Parriars into the lowest station of servility. It is 
 possible that this conjecture may be not wholly 
 without foundation, as far as it relates to the people 
 of Hindoostan; but we have no countenance from 
 history for attempting to apply such a solution to the 
 same problem in Egypt. The people of Egypt are 
 constantly described as one unmixed and undivided 
 nation. We have not the slightest hint that there 
 existed among them any diversity of race or of 
 language, and we have grounds for concluding that 
 the idioms of the several castes, as well as those 
 prevailing in the various districts of Egypt, were not 
 remarkably different from each other.* 
 
 Strabo has mentioned, in a very summary manner, 
 the division of the Egyptian nation into classes. He 
 distinguishes the two higher ranks, namely, the 
 sacerdotal and the military classes, and includes all the 
 remainder of the community under the designation 
 
 * The analysis of geographical names alone affords suffi- 
 cient data for drawing this inference, which is placed beyond 
 doubt by a comparison of the dialects of the Egyptian language, 
 viz. the Coptic, the Sahidic, and Bahiric or Memphitic. 
 
 c c c 
 
376 CIVIL INSTITUTIONS OF EGYPT. 
 
 of the agricultural class, to whom he assigns the 
 employments of agriculture and the arts.* 
 
 Diodorus subdivides this latter class. After dis- 
 tinguishing from it the sacerdotal and military orders, 
 he observes that the remainder of the community is 
 distributed into three divisions, which he terms, 
 
 3. Herdsmen. 
 
 4. Agriculturists; and 
 
 5. Artificers, or men who laboured at trades. 
 Herodotus very nearly agrees in his enumeration 
 
 with that of Diodorus. His names for the different 
 classes are as follow : 
 
 1 . Priests, or the sacerdotal class. 
 
 2. Warriors, or the military class. 
 
 3. Cowherds. 
 
 4. Swineherds. 
 
 5. Traders. 
 
 6. Interpreters. 
 
 7. Pilots, f 
 
 In this catalogue the third and fourth class are 
 plainly subdivisions of the third of Diodorus, whom 
 that writer includes under the general title of herdsmen. 
 The caste of interpreters, as well as that of pilots, must 
 have comprised a very small number of men, since 
 the Egyptians had little intercourse with foreigners, 
 and all their navigation was confined to sailing up 
 and down the Nile. The pilots were probably a 
 tribe of the same class with the artificers or labouring 
 artisans of Diodorus.§ The traders of Herodotus 
 
 * Strabo, lib. xvii. 
 
 f It is remarkable that Megasthencs, in his Account of the 
 Indian Castes, mentions the Navigators of rivers (Naurai ?w 
 irvrapwp) as a part of the class of artisans, or TepQ/lreu. 
 
 § Diod. Sic. lib. i. 
 
DIVISION OF CASTES. 377 
 
 must be the same class who are called agriculturists 
 by Diodorus. 
 
 Thus, by comparing the different accounts, we 
 are enabled to arrange the several branches of the 
 Egyptian community in the following classes : 
 
 J . The Sacerdotal order. 
 
 2. The Military. 
 
 3. The Herdsmen. 
 
 4. The Agricultural and Commercial class. 
 
 5. The Artificers, or labouring Artisans. 
 
 The employments of all these classes were heredi- 
 tary, and no man was allowed by the law to engage in 
 any occupation different from that in which he had 
 been educated by his parents.* This prohibition 
 must obviously have extended further than the 
 limitation of the above mentioned classes, each of 
 which comprehended a variety of distinct occupations. 
 Hence it would appear that every class was sub- 
 divided into a number of castes, the individuals com- 
 prised in each being bound to follow a particular 
 profession, inherited from their ancestry. 
 
 It was accounted an honourable distinction to 
 belong either to the sacerdotal or the military class. 
 The other orders were considered greatly inferior in 
 dignity, f and no Egyptian could mount the throne 
 who was not descended from the priesthood or the 
 soldiery. J The possession of the soil of Egypt 
 belonged exclusively to these two classes, and to the 
 king, by whom it was let out at easy rents to the 
 husbandmen. 
 
 * Diod. lib. i. cap. 6. Herod, lib. iii. 
 
 t Herod, lib. ii. 163. 
 J Herod, lib. ii. Plut. de Isid. &c. cap. 'J. 
 
378 CIVIL INSTITUTIONS OF EGYPT. 
 
 " The latter/' says Diodorus, ec being bred up 
 from infancy in the practice of rural business, are the 
 most skilful agriculturists in the world, and they are 
 acquainted with many things unknown elsewhere, 
 partly by means of the knowledge gained from their 
 ancestors, and partly from their own experience. " If 
 any tradesman meddled with public business, or 
 attempted to exercise more than one trade, he was 
 severely punished. 
 
 The privileged orders in Egypt domineered over 
 the productive classes of society. We have seen that 
 they shared with the king the entire possession of the 
 soil, to which those who cultivated it laid no claim. 
 To each individual of the military and sacerdotal 
 orders a portion of ground was allotted, equal to 
 twelve acres, exempt from all taxes. The warriors 
 also enjoyed other privileges. This class was divided 
 into two great tribes, called the Calasirians and 
 Hermotybians. One thousand men, selected annually 
 from each of these bodies, constituted the king's guard; 
 and while they were on this service they obtained, 
 besides the produce of their allotment in land, an 
 allowance of bread, beef, and wine, to each man. It 
 was unlawful for any individual of the warrior-caste 
 to engage in a mercantile or mechanical occupation.* 
 Several of the most fertile and populous districts of 
 Egypt belonged to these two tribes : those which 
 Were occupied by the Hermotybians furnished, at the 
 highest calculation, one hundred and sixty thousand 
 men, and the district of the Calasirians two hundred 
 fifty thousand. f The reason assigned for allotting 
 
 * Herod, ii. cap. \ 65, ICG. \ Ibid. 
 
 
DIVISION OF CASTES. 379 
 
 so large a portion of territory to the military pro- 
 fession is, that those who had arms in their hands 
 might have a considerable stake in the country, if we 
 may venture to use a modern phrase which appears 
 to coincide with Egyptian ideas.* It was likewise 
 believed by the Egyptians, as by the founders of 
 the feudal system in modern Europe, that virtues are 
 hereditary, and that fathers who distinguished them- 
 selves in defending their country were likely to be 
 succeeded by children equally valiant and patriotic. 
 Every encouragement was therefore given to the 
 increase of the military families, and to promoting 
 marriages in this caste.f 
 
 SECTION IL 
 
 Description of the Hierarchy or Hereditary Priesthood, 
 and its Subdivisions. 
 
 In no country in the world did the hierarchy ever 
 hold more paramount sway than in Egypt. We 
 learn, from the faithful pen of the great Hebrew law- 
 giver and historian, how soon this order had adopted 
 all the vices to which sacerdotal bodies appear to be 
 particularly exposed. At the same time they deserve 
 commendation for their care in the improvement of 
 sciences, and for many wise laws which were enacted 
 under their influence. Their greatest crimes were, 
 the propagation of a debasing superstition, and the 
 
 * Diodor. Sic. lib. i. cap. 6. t Ibid, 
 
380 CIVIL INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 concealment of knowledge from the mass of the 
 community. 
 
 We shall consider the priesthood of Egypt in their 
 three characters : 1. In their political office,, as the 
 legal advisers of the kings, and virtual rulers of the 
 state. 2. As the depositories of learning and science. 
 3. As the officers of religion. 
 
 1 . cc The priests/' says Diodorus, {C were free from 
 all public burdens and taxes, and were next to the 
 king in authority. " It appears, however, from the 
 evidence of the same writer, that all political power 
 was in reality in the hands of the priests, and that the 
 king was merely an instrument for effecting their 
 purposes. <c The first portion of the land of Egypt 
 w r as allotted to the priests; the second to the king." 
 fi The former were highly reverenced, and had great 
 authority over the people, through the influence of their 
 piety towards the gods, and their great wisdom and 
 learning." * e From their revenues they provided 
 sacrifices, and maintained their families." " They 
 were always at the king's elbow, as his privy counsellors, 
 to instruct and direct him upon all occasions." It 
 appears that the king was not allowed to perform any 
 action without the superintendance of these consti- 
 tutional directors. The sons of the priests were 
 his companions from the cradle. Every article of his 
 diet was prescribed for him, as well as the hours at 
 which he should dispatch public business, and admi- 
 nister justice; and the times were fixed when it was 
 proper for him to take the air, to bathe, and even to 
 perform every trivial action of his life. The means by 
 which the priesthood secured the possession of their 
 prerogatives was the opinion that they possessed the 
 
FUNCTIONS OF THE PRIESTHOOD. 381 
 
 knowledge of futurity, and that they were the inter- 
 preters of the will of the gods. " They foretold 
 events by the help of astrology, and by viewing the 
 entrails of victims. " 
 
 It appears, indeed, that in all times of the Egyptian 
 monarchy, nothing was more common than the 
 elevation of a priest to the throne itself. The laws 
 admitted it, and we find among the names of the 
 Egyptian kings many that are merely sacerdotal 
 titles.* 
 
 Not only political affairs were under the guidance 
 of the priests, but the whole system of Egyptian 
 jurisprudence or civil administration was in their 
 hands. All the laws of this people had been enacted 
 by the gods, that is, by the priests who pretended to 
 be the interpreters of the will of the gods. Mnevis 
 was the most famous legislator ;f Mnevis was also the 
 celebrated Bull of Heliopolis ; and these were probably 
 the same personage ; but a bull would have made a 
 sorry lawgiver,, without the assistance of a sage who 
 understood his language and knew how to act the part 
 of an interpreter. This bull, Mnevis, seems, as we 
 have hinted, to have been the prototype of the Cretan 
 Minotaur, and perhaps also of the celebrated Minos. 
 
 But the priests not only made laws, but had also the 
 office of watching over their execution, and of con- 
 ducting the whole judicial government. iElian informs 
 us that the judges had been from all antiquity chosen, 
 
 * Shortly before the reign of Psammitichus, Sethon, a 
 priest of Vulcan, was king of Egypt. In the catalogues of 
 Manethon and Eratosthenes, we have abundance of names 
 which are evidently the titles of priests. 
 
 f Diodor. lib. i. 
 
382 SUBDIVISIONS OF THE 
 
 in Egypt, from among the priests.* The judges 
 wore, as a badge of office, an image made of isapphire, 
 and suspended by a gold chain from their necks, 
 which represented Truth. f The intention of this 
 symbol was to remind them that a judge ought of all 
 men to be most upright, human e, and impartial. J 
 
 These important offices were too various and mul- 
 tiplied to be exercised by the same individuals ; and it 
 appears that the sacerdotal class in Egypt was sub- 
 divided into several distinct orders^ who had different 
 
 * JEYmn, Vas. Hist. lib. xiv. cap. 34. 
 
 f Diodor. lib. i. ./Elian, loc. cit. 
 
 % The 'AXyfclx, or image of Truth, has been conjectured by 
 some to have been the model of the Urim and Thummim of 
 the Mosaic ritual. There is no other foundation for this idea 
 than the circumstance that the LXX have interpreted the 
 Hebrew Urim, by the Greek word 'AXrfala. This, as Dr. 
 Woodward has observed, only proves that the Jews who 
 translated the Pentateuch could find nothing more analogous 
 in the ideas and phrases of the Egyptian Greeks than this 
 term. The only analogy however was, that both the Urim 
 and the Egyptian image of Truth were ornaments worn on 
 solemn occasions. See Dr. Woodward on the Wisdom of the 
 Ancient Egyptians, Archaeology, vol. iv. 
 
 The Urim and Thummim have been the subject of much 
 controversy. The most probable opinion respecting them, and 
 perhaps the best supported, is that of Michaelis, who supposes 
 them to have been a sacred lot, by the use of which doubts were 
 resolved, as by an appeal to the Deity. They were used injudicial 
 cases to discover the guilty, but not to convict them, for in 
 the only two instances which occur of their use in such cases^, 
 viz. in Josh. vii. 14, &c. and Sam. xiv. 37, &c. we find the 
 confession of the two delinquents annexed. See Michaelis on 
 the Mosaic Law, vol. iv. p. 358 of Dr. Smith's translation. 
 
EGYPTIAN HIERARCHY. 383 
 
 occupations assigned tothem, and held different degrees 
 in honour and authority. Several of the^e orders are 
 mentioned in a celebrated passage of Clemens of 
 Alexandria, which it will be worth while to cite in 
 this place.* 
 
 " The Egyptians have a peculiar philosophy of 
 their own, of which the order of their religious pro- 
 cessions will afford an idea. In these solemn pomps, 
 the Singer usually precedes, bearing some musical 
 symbol. It is his office to carry two of the books of 
 Hermes • one of which contains the hymns of the 
 gods, and the other, precepts referring to the duties of 
 the king. The singer is followed by the Horoscopus, 
 who bears in his hand the measure of time and 
 branches of palm, the symbols of astrology; this 
 person ought to be perfectly versed in the Hermaic 
 books treating of astrology. These books are four in 
 number: one of them treats of the disposition of the 
 fixed stars ; another of the conjunctions and illumina- 
 tions of the sun and moon ; and the remainder of the 
 risings of the stars. The Hierograrnmateus cornes 
 next, having feathers on his head, and in his hands a 
 book and a ruler, with ink and a reed, with which the 
 Egyptians write. + It is his province to understand 
 the hieroglyphical books, as they are termed, con- 
 taining the description of the world, geography, the 
 course of the sun and moon, and five planets; he 
 
 * Clem. Alex. Strom, lib. vi. cap. 4. 
 
 f Michaelis has compared the costume of the Hierogram- 
 mateus with a description in Ezechiel. See Michaelis, 
 on the Mosaic Law, vol. iii. p. 383, English translation 
 by Dr. Smith. 
 
 D D D 
 
384 SUBDIVISIONS OF THE 
 
 must also be acquainted with the description of 
 Egypt and the Nile, with the nature of the instru- 
 ments, and the places appointed for them, and with 
 the measures, and all other things used in the sacred 
 rites. After these goes the Stolistes, bearing the staff 
 of justice and the cup of libation, who presides over 
 all that relates to the education and to the choice of 
 victims ; these subjects are distributed in ten books, 
 w hich comprehend the honours paid to the gods, and 
 the Egyptian worship, the rites of sacrifices, first 
 fruits, hymns, prayers, processions, festivals, and 
 similar topics.* Last of all comes forth the Prophet, 
 bearing the urn of water in his bosom, and followed 
 by persons who carry the loaves of bread. The pro- 
 phet, who presides over all sacred things is obliged to 
 learn the contents of the ten sacerdotal books re- 
 lating to the laws, the gods, and the whole discipline 
 of the priests. The prophet, also, among the 
 Egyptians, overlooks the distribution of the public 
 revenues. Thus it appears that there are forty-two 
 books attributed to Hermes, which are accounted 
 most necessary : thirty-six of these, containing the 
 whole philosophy of the Egyptians, are studied by the 
 persons above mentioned ; the other six, treating of 
 medicine, belong to the Pastophori/'f 
 
 Several of these departments of the hierarchy are 
 enumerated by Porphyry, under names but little 
 different from those of Clemens. He mentions the 
 Prophets, the Hierostolistee, the Hierogram mates, and 
 
 * These books are termed by Clemens, Moschosphagistica, 
 or, as we probably should read, Moschosphragistica. 
 f Clem. Alex. Strom, lib. vi. p. 633. 
 
EGYPTIAN HIERARCHY. 385 
 
 even the Horologi, among the higher orders, and the 
 Pastophori together with the crowd of Neocori, or 
 jEditui, and ministering priests of a lower rank. He 
 speaks of the Moscho-sphragistae in another place. 
 
 In the foregoing passages we distinguish the 
 following orders : 
 
 1. The Prophets, who seem to have enjoyed the 
 first rank in the hierarchy. It appears that they held 
 the highest authority in all divine and human affairs : 
 they presided over the worship of the gods, the 
 administration of laws, and the public revenues. 
 
 2. The Stolistae. The selection of victims, as well 
 as the direction of all that related to sacrifices, seems 
 to have belonged to them. 
 
 In the order of Stolistae were probably included, as 
 a subordinate branch, the Sphragistae, or Moscho- 
 sphragistaa, mentioned by Plutarch * and Porphyry, f 
 whose duty it was to select victims and impress upon 
 them the seal which marked their dedication to the 
 purpose of sacrifice. 
 
 3. The Hierogram mates, or sacred scribes, who 
 were the depositories of all the learning and science of 
 ancient Egypt. The ten books which were appro- 
 priated to this order were termed, by distinction, 
 hieroglyphical. The sacred scribes are frequently 
 mentioned by Josephus in his extracts from Manethon, 
 as well as by other writers. J Lucian speaks of one 
 of them, who, though the discipline of Hermes had 
 long been on the decline, pretended to be well 
 
 * Plutarch de Iside, 31. 
 
 f Porphyr. de Abstinentia, lib. iv. cap. 7- 
 
 X Josepb 3 Epist. ad versus Apion. 
 
386 SUBDIVISIONS OF THE 
 
 acquainted with all the mystical learning of Egypt, 
 having spent twenty-three years in subterranean 
 dwellings, where he had been instructed by Isi's in the 
 occult sciences.* This appears to have been the 
 order of men, who are called Arpedonaptae, or 
 Arsepedonaptae, in a passage of Democritus, copied 
 by Clemens and by Eusebius.f The philosopher 
 boasts that he was a match for the most learned of the 
 Egyptian Arpedonaptae, in drawing lines and con- 
 structing diagrams. 
 
 4. The Horoscopi, or Horologi, who exercised 
 astrology, and probably magic of every description, 
 unless we suppose that sorcery belonged to a sepa- 
 rate body, not mentioned in this place. 
 
 5. Singers are mentioned as going first in the pro- 
 cession ; and it is probable (hat singing and music 
 constituted a particular branch of study. They 
 chanted hymns to the Sun thrice in each dayj. 
 
 6. The Pastophori were an order of priests fre- 
 quently mentioned by the ancient writers. Their title 
 seems to be derived, as Mr. Cuper§ has shown, from 
 the " ttolg-tqv" or ornamented chamber, tabernacle, 
 or shrine, in which the images of the gods were either 
 carried about at the processions on the shoulders of 
 these priests, or drawn on waggons with four wheels. 
 Diodorusll says that the order of iC KripuxEg," or heralds 
 at the Eleusinian mysteries, was derived from this 
 
 Egvptian college. From this circumstance, and from 
 
 i 
 
 * Lucian in Philopseude. 
 
 f Clem. Alex. Strom, lib. i. cap. 15, item Euseb. Praep. 
 Evangel, 
 t Ibid. 
 § Cupels Harpocrates, p. 129, et seqq. || Lib. i. 
 
EGYPTIAN HIERARCHY. 387 
 
 the nature of their office, it might be supposed that 
 they held a low rank in the hierarchy ; and we find 
 them mentioned, by Clemens of Alexandria,* among 
 the officiating priests of the temples. Porphyry also 
 joins with them the Neocori, or iEditui, and the 
 priests who performed the lowest offices in the service 
 of the gods.f Yet the order of Pastophori is termed 
 by Apuleius, " sacrosanctum collegium ;" and a mem- 
 ber of this body is described by him as " clothed 
 with consecrated linen robes, bearing the thyrsi and 
 ivy, and some other badges, which must not be 
 named/' 
 
 It appears from the passage before cited from 
 Clemens, that the practice of medicine was the lot of 
 the Pastophori. In Greece we recognize this order of 
 sacerdotal physicians of Egyptian origin, under the 
 title of 'loiTpofj.avTsls.'l 
 
 Cuper has treated at length on the office of the 
 Pastophori,§ in his learned work on Harpocrates. 
 
 7. Besides the Pastophori, it would appear that 
 there were some other inferior orders in the priest- 
 hood, corresponding to the Neocori of the Greeks, 
 and the iEditui of the Roman temples. They per- 
 formed the lowest duties in all the sacred rites and 
 ceremonies. 
 
 It appears that these distinctions of office in the 
 Egyptian hierarchy were as ancient as the times of 
 
 f Clem. Alex. Paidagog. lib. iii. 
 
 * Porphyr. de Abstinent, lib. iv. cap. 8. 
 
 X zEschyl. Supplic. Mulieres, v. 316. 
 
 § See Cuper's Harpocrates, p. 132, et seqq. 
 
388 SUBDIVISIONS OF THE 
 
 the patriarch Joseph, and of Moses. For in Genesis 
 and Exodus we meet with several denominations 
 which are descriptive of the different orders. The 
 priests are called Cohenim, D»jro.* The wise men, or 
 Chacamim, D^n, who are termed So^io-raj by the 
 LXX, are the persons so celebrated in the history of 
 Moses and Aaron. Jablonski supposes these to be the 
 sacred scribes ; but this is uncertain: they are men- 
 tioned together with the Sorcerers, Mecashphim, 
 TOtttoo, or ^oLpfMaxioi, and both seem to be included 
 under the term which our translators render Magicians. 
 This isCharetummim, tfpanrr. The LXX translate it in 
 this place, eirao&oi, Enchanters; in other passages they 
 render the same word e%j}yfJTou } or expounders of mys- 
 teries.f The performances of these persons seem 
 father to agree with the character of the Horoscopi 
 than with that of the sacred scribes. The physicians, 
 or pastophori, are also distinguished ; and it was 
 their duty, as in later times, not only to heal the 
 body when sick, but to embalm it after death. J 
 
 * Genesis, xlvi. 20. This word is rendered in the Coptic 
 version by the Coptic term P'hont, a high-priest, a word 
 which enters into the composition of many ancient Egyptian 
 names and titles. Thus Potiphar, or Pentephreh, as this 
 name is written by Africanus, means " Priest of the Sun." 
 
 f Herod, lib. ii. cap. 37. 
 
 % Bishop Warburton conjectures that the office of em- 
 balming bodies was confided to the physicians with the intent 
 of enabling them to make inquiries in morbid anatomy. I fear 
 that the claim of this crafty priesthood to such enlightened 
 views, rests on no very sure ground. See book iv. sect. 5. of 
 the Divine Legation. 
 
EGYPTIAN HIERARCHY. 389 
 
 It appears further that these various duties were 
 hereditary, and that each division of the hierarchy 
 formed a distinct caste; for Herodotus informs us 
 that the service of every god was confided to a college 
 of priests, who were under the superintendance of a 
 president, or pontiff, and that this dignity was handed 
 down from the father to the son. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 Religious Observances of the Sacerdotal Class in Egypt, 
 
 Many of the customs observed by the Sacerdotal 
 Class in Egypt are deserving of our attention, not 
 only as throwing light on the religious ideas preva- 
 lent in that country, but on account of the relation 
 they seem to bear either to the institutions of the 
 Hebrews or of the Eastern nations. For our know- 
 ledge of most of these circumstances we are indebted 
 to Plutarch and, more especially, to Porphyry ; who,, 
 in the fourth book of his Treatise on Abstinence, has 
 described, from the works of Chaeremon, the manner 
 of life followed by the Egyptian priests. 
 
 Most of these rites or prohibitions may be referred 
 to the idea of purity necessary to be observed by 
 the ministers of the gods; though it is sometimes 
 difficult to imagine why the articles forbidden were 
 supposed to communicate defilement, or how the 
 notion of any peculiar sanctity or fitness for religious 
 services could be connected with the ordinance. 
 
390 RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES. 
 
 There were certain times of solemn purification, 
 when all the rules of abstinence were more rigidly 
 observed than on other occasions. These occurred 
 when the priests were preparing for any of the great 
 festivals in honour of the gods. It was reckoned 
 needful to purify themselves beforehand for the per- 
 formance of ceremonies, by observing a peculiar 
 degree of solemnity in their manners, and by carefully 
 removing every source of defilement. The seasons of 
 purification continued sometimes forty-two days, but 
 never less than seven, before the religious festivals.* 
 
 1 . All kinds of animal food were forbidden during 
 these holy days; and this prohibition extended so far 
 that even eggs were included. 
 
 Many of the priests; perhaps some particular sects, 
 or those who sought to obtain the character of supe- 
 rior sanctity, or to exalt themselves either on earth or 
 in a future state, by their good works ; abstained at all 
 times from eating the flesh of any living creature. 
 Others ate animal food, but under many restrictions 
 respecting the particular kinds that might be eaten ; 
 and it appears that they only ate those animals which 
 were deemed pure or fit for sacrifice. 
 
 The sheep was never eaten by the priests. f The 
 hog was accounted particularly unclean, and never 
 eaten except at the annual festival of Osiris ; when it 
 was sacrificed to that god at the time of the full moon, 
 and on that occasion the priests partook of it. J At 
 other times it was forbidden to all, except to one 
 
 * See an account of these ayvsTa*, or purifications, in Por- 
 phyr. de Abstinentia, lib. iv. cap. 6 et J. 
 
 t Plutarch de Isid. et Osir. cap. 8. % Plutarch, 5. 
 
OF THE SACERDOTAL CLASS. 391 
 
 caste, who fed hogs, and were consequently reckoned 
 so impure that they were not permitted to enter the 
 temples of the gods.* 
 
 Of the ox-kind the females were never eaten, being 
 all sacred to Isis :f of males, such as were twin-born, 
 or spotted, or had any variety of form or colour, were 
 forbidden to be eaten or sacrificed ; as were also those 
 which had been submitted to the yoke, and which 
 wanted an eye, or were fancied to bear a resemblance 
 to the human countenance. These rules, and a great 
 many others, were contained in the books termed 
 " Moscho-sphragistica/'J; 
 
 All quadrupeds which had solid hoofs, or hoofs 
 many-cleft, were forbidden, as well as those that were 
 destitute of horns. || 
 
 All carnivorous birds were unclean, and all fishes, 
 because they were supposed to feed upon their own 
 kinds. § 
 
 Several vegetable productions were impure, and 
 were carefully abstained from, especially in the times 
 of purification. All kinds of pulse were at these times 
 forbidden ; and it was from the Egyptians that Pytha- 
 goras appears to have derived his objection to beans. 
 The same restriction extended to most other kinds of 
 garden-herbs.! 
 
 All exotics, or the productions of other countries, 
 and such as could not be raised in Egypt, were for- 
 bidden.** Michaelis supposes this prohibition to have 
 originated in a motive of policy, and that its object 
 
 * Herod. 2. Plut. ibid. f Herod. 2. 
 
 X Porphyrius ubi supra. || Porphyrius. 
 
 § Herod. 2. Plutarch, cap. J. IF Porphyr. ** Ibid. 
 
 E E E 
 
392 RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES 
 
 was to prevent the importation of articles of luxury 
 from foreign countries into Egypt.* This is not 
 improbable ; but the prohibition was made under a 
 fradulent pretence and confirmed by a religious sanc- 
 tion — an instance of priestcraft exerting itself for the 
 good of the community. 
 
 Under this head wine and oil were prohibited. 
 
 In the time of Hecatseus and Herodotus the priests 
 had a certain allowance of wine ;f but this, as Plutarch 
 assures us, was an instance of the laxity introduced 
 since intercourse with the Greeks and other foreign- 
 ers had become frequent, aud had given rise to various 
 innovations on the rigid manners of antiquity. J 
 Previously to the reign of Psammitichus, wine had 
 been wholly forbidden to the priests ; and the lower 
 castes probably had it not in their power to procure 
 it. Certainly it was never a common article of diet 
 in Egypt. || 
 
 Oil likewise was abstained from, or was taken 
 under restrictions, which indicate that its use was 
 deemed unlawful. § 
 
 * Michaelis, Mosaisches Recht. f Herod. 
 
 X Plut. de fsid. cap. 8. 
 
 5T In Genesis we read of Pharaoh's butler, and find that the 
 king drank the juice of the vine; but it was must, or the unfer- 
 mented juice, and not wine, as Michaelis has remarked. See 
 Genesis, chap. xl. v. 9 — 13. 
 
 The Egyptians, instead of wine, drank a kind of beer. 
 See Herod, lib. ii. iEschylus alludes to this as to a very 
 strange custom, and shows that his countrymen regarded 
 the Egyptians with contempt for drinking beer, just as the 
 English despise the French because they wear wooden shoes. 
 
 § Porphyry. 
 
OF THE SACERDOTAL CLASS. 393 
 
 Bread was forbidden during the holy days. At 
 other times, when the priests ate it, they beat it up 
 with hyssop, which was supposed to purify it from all 
 its pernicious or defiling* qualities.* 
 
 Salt was reckoned impure, and was forbidden 
 during the times of purification. f 
 
 Hair, wool, or the spontaneous growth of any 
 animal, was supposed to communicate defilement. 
 Accordingly the priests were forbidden to wear any 
 woollen garments. They clothed themselves in linen 
 vestments, and wore shoes made of the byblos.t 
 They lay on beds woven with the twigs of the palm- 
 tree, and used for pillows polished pieces of wood of a 
 semi-cylindrical form. || From a similar notion they 
 shaved every third day the whole of their bodies. § 
 The Egyptian priests are always represented in paint- 
 ings and sculptures with shaven heads. It appears, 
 however, that this custom was confined to the male 
 sex. Female figures are frequently seen in the pomps 
 or religious processions depicted in the Egyptian 
 temples, having their heads covered with hair.^f 
 
 On some solemn occasions the Egyptians thought 
 it necessary to appear with bare feet. In this parti- 
 cular they were imitated by the Pythagoreans. " The 
 philosopher," said Pythagoras, " who came naked 
 from his mother's womb, should appear naked, that 
 is, with bare feet, before his god. ,! 
 
 '## 
 
 * Porphyr. f Plutarch, cap. 5. 
 
 % Herod, lib. 2. Plutarch de Isid, cap. 4. 
 
 || Porphyr. ubi supra. § Herodotus, ubi supra. 
 
 *[ See Montfaucon, Antiquite Explique'e, tom.ii. pi. 286, &c. 
 
 ** Demophili Sentential Pythagoreae. Michaelis on the 
 
 Mosaic Law, translated by Dr. Smith, vol. i. p. 485. 
 
394 RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES 
 
 They affected a particularly solemn gesture, never 
 laughed, walked with a demure gait, and at certain 
 times refrained from winking their eye-lids.* 
 
 Some of the circumstances supposed to occcasion 
 defilement remind us of the legal pollutions of the 
 Mosaic law.f 
 
 A person became defiled by contact with a dead 
 body, or by merely entering a house where a dead 
 body lay. Diogenes Laertius informs us that when 
 Pythagoras returned from a funeral or from the house 
 of a woman in labour, he took care to undergo certain 
 rites of purification. We can scarcely find room to 
 doubt that Pythagoras derived this notion from his 
 Egyptian instructors. Euripides alludes to similar 
 ideas, as prevalent among the worshippers of Diana 
 in Greece ;£ and in some verses of the home poet, 
 preserved by Porphyry, we find several ideas and 
 customs of the Egyptian priesthood ascribed to the 
 Idaean Curetes, or priests of Jupiter in Crete. 
 
 ykvzaiv rs Gporcfiu, xou us>cpoSrixr}g 
 
 01) %pifA7TT6fJLSUOg, TY^U TS^O^COU 
 
 " I lead a chaste life, clothed in white garments; 
 avoid the approach of a dead body, and the pollu- 
 tion incurred by eating the flesh of animals." 
 ► 
 
 * Porphyr. de Abstin. ubi supra. 
 
 f See the 7th chapter of the fourth book of Porphyry, 
 where several of these causes of pollution are enumerated. 
 X Eurip. Iphig. inTaurid. v. 380. 
 || Porphyr. lib. iv. cap. 19. 
 
OP THE SACERDOTAL CLASS. 395 
 
 The Egyptian priests made frequent use of water, 
 by way of lustration or purification. Every priest 
 was obliged to wash himself with cold water twice in 
 the day and twice by night ; or, according to Por- 
 phyry, three times in the day — on rising* from bed, 
 before the principal meal, and on going to rest.* 
 
 The last custom which I think it worth while to 
 notice is the very celebrated rite of circumcision. This 
 rite, though some have asserted the contrary, was in 
 Egypt confined to the sacerdotal order: it was not 
 practised by the mass of the community. Herodotus, 
 indeed, in one passage, expresses himself equivocally 
 on this subject ;f but in another he restricts circum- 
 cision to the children of the priests. J It appears, from 
 Josephus's Letter to Apion, that it was not performed 
 indiscriminately on all Egyptians, but on comparatively 
 a few persons. || Horapollo mentions it as the 
 peculiar custom of the sacred order, § and Origen has 
 specified the individuals who were required to submit 
 to this rite. He says, " Every Egyptian priest, augur, 
 or other minister of religion or prophet, undergoes 
 circumcision ; neither is any person admitted to 
 learn the sacerdotal characters of the old Egyptians, 
 unless he shall previously have complied with this 
 ordinance."-^ Accordingly we learn that Pythagoras, 
 before he could be initiated in the mysterious 
 learning of Egypt, was obliged to conform to the 
 
 * Compare Herod, lib. 4. and Porphyr. lib. 4. 
 
 f Herod, lib. ii. cap. 37. X Ibid. lib. ii. cap. 36. 
 
 || Joseph. Epist. ad Apion. 
 
 § De Cynocephalo. Horapoll. Hieroglyph. 
 
 % Origen Comment, in Epist. ad Romanos, cap. ii. 13, 
 
396 OBSERVANCES OF THE PRIESTS. 
 
 established custom. Lastly, in the verses of Anaxart- 
 drides, cited from Athenaeus in the former part of this 
 work, it is observed that the priests undergo circum- 
 cision ; without any notice that it was performed on 
 persons of other castes.* 
 
 There was another custom nearly akin to this rite, 
 of the precise nature of which we are not imformed. 
 Strabo says it was a law among* the Egyptians, (C xaX 
 to. SrjXsa sxTspvewS* 
 
 As all the sacred observances of the priesthood 
 could be maintained in no other country but Egypt, 
 and as by travelling in foreign lands an Egyptian 
 would necessarily expose himself to numberless 
 pollutions, it was reckoned one of the most impious 
 of actions to embark and go by sea to any distant 
 country. This was only permitted to those who were 
 sent with a royal commission to transact some public 
 business.f 
 
 * Vide supra, p. 21. 
 
 t Porphyr. ubi supra. 
 
 This prejudice exists in the same degree among the Brah-' 
 mans of India. Indeed, the whole tenor of the system of 
 observances we have been surveying is in strict conformity 
 with the prejudices of the Hindoos. We cannot trace every 
 particular custom among them ; but it is evident that similar 
 habits of thought, and the same fundamental principles, 
 modified by various circumstances, have displayed their effect 
 on both of these nations. 
 
NOTE 
 
 ON 
 
 BOOK IV. CHAPTER HI. 
 
 It is curious to observe the very permanent effect produced 
 on the state of human society by the institution of hereditary 
 castes. We have already hinted at a fact which furnishes a 
 proof and illustration of this remark; that is, the agreement 
 between the present civil condition of the Hindoos, and the 
 description given of the same nation by Megasthenes, who 
 visited their country nearly three centuries before the Christian 
 era. But a still more striking circumstance is the coincidence 
 between the customs of the Egyptians as described by 
 ancient historians, and the habits of the Hindoos, as exhibited 
 in their present state and laid down in the code of their law- 
 giver Menu. It will not be departing too widely from our 
 subject to make this comparison. 
 
 Megasthenes accompanied the Macedonian conqueror into 
 India, in the course of which expedition he had an opportu- 
 nity of surveying the Punjab. He was afterwards sent by 
 ISeleucus on a mission to the king of the Prasii, and resided 
 some time at the court of Palibothra. He had therefore on the 
 whole a sufficient opportunity of becoming acquainted with 
 the customs of the Indians. His original account has not 
 descended to our days; but it is probable that the chief part 
 of the information it contained has been preserved by Arrian, 
 Strabo, and Diodorus. The accounts indeed which these 
 writers have transmitted of the Indian tribes on the authority 
 of Megasthenes, agree so closely among themselves, as to in- 
 dicate that they have been extracted with little alteration from 
 the original work. Arrian is the most minute and circumstan- 
 tial in his description ; but Strabo and Diodorus have recorded 
 some particulars which he has omitted. 
 
398 COMPARISON OF THE EGYPTIAN 
 
 The following is a translation of those passages in Arrian's 
 Indica which contain his account of the Indian classes or 
 tribes ; with the additions of some circumstances which he has 
 omitted, from the works of other compilers, who derived their 
 information from the same source. 
 
 " The whole Indian nation," says Arrian, " is divided into 
 seven principal tribes. One of these consists of the Wise Men, 
 who are inferior to the other tribes in number, but the most 
 elevated in rank and public esteem. For they are neither 
 obliged to perform any bodily labour, nor to contribute from 
 the produce of their exertions to the public revenue. In short, 
 the Wise Men have no other duty imposed upon them than 
 that of celebrating the sacrifices to the gods in behalf of the 
 Indian commonwealth; it is likewise ordained that, if any 
 individual makes an offering in private, he must be assisted by 
 one of the Wise Men, as superintendant of the sacred rites, 
 the sacrifice not being supposed, without such a precaution, to 
 be pleasing to the gods. These persons, out of the whole 
 Indian people, are alone skilled in the art of prophecy, nor is 
 the exercise of it permitted to any other individuals. They 
 prophecy concerning the seasons, and anticipate any public 
 calamities that are about to befal the nation, but cannot so 
 exert their skill respecting the private affairs of individuals, 
 whether because they imagine that the power of augury does 
 not extend to minute particulars, or deem such matters 
 unworthy of their time and labour." 
 
 Arrian further observes, that the Wise Men go naked and 
 live in the open air, taking shelter from the heat of the sun in 
 the summer, under a kind of large trees, one of which seen by 
 Nearchus, was so extensive that its shadow covered five acres 
 of ground, and was of sufficient space to protect ten thousand 
 persons from the solar rays.* He adds, that their sustenance 
 consists of fruits and vegetable matters. 
 
 Diodorus terms this tribe " Philosophers." He says iC they 
 preside over funerals, as being acquainted with the affairs of 
 
 * These are doubtless the Banyan trees. 
 
AND INDIAN CLASSES. 399 
 
 the nether regions, for which service they receive considerable 
 rewards and honours." In other particulars, this author agrees 
 in the substance of his description with Arriam 
 
 " The sixth tribe of Indians," whom we shall mention in the 
 second place, for reasons that will presently appear, " are those 
 called Episcopi or Overseers : they inspect whatever is going 
 on in the country and in the cities, and give information to 
 the king in places where a monarchical government is esta- 
 blished, or to the magistrates in independent cities. It is 
 reckoned criminal for them to make any false report, nor has 
 any accusation of this description been brought against them." 
 
 The seventh tribe are persons who consult with the king on 
 public affairs, or with the magistrates in independent states. 
 The number of this class is small; but for wisdom and inte- 
 grity they are the most distinguished. From this body are 
 selected the magistrates, including governors of districts, de- 
 puty governors, treasurers, commanders of troops and of ships, 
 store-keepers, and the superintendants of rustic affairs. 
 
 These three tribes are evidently subdivisions of the great 
 Brahman caste, certain families of which follow secular 
 employments. How accurately this description of Megasthenes 
 agrees with modern usages will be evident from the following 
 observations. 
 
 The proper office of a Brahman is meditation on divine 
 things, and his proper mode of subsistence is by begging. But 
 owing to the corruptions of these latter times, many of the 
 noble caste are obliged to betake themselves to what they 
 consider as unworthy occupations, " such as being governors 
 and judges of cities, collectors of revenue, and accountants; 
 nay, some even condescend to cultivate the earth by means of 
 slaves." Hence, as Dr. F. Buchanan observes, " arises the 
 distinction of Brahmans into Vaidika and Lokika. The diver- 
 sity of employment does not create an absolute distinction of 
 castes. The daughter of a Vaidika may marry a Lokika, or 
 the son of a Lokika betake himself to the occupation of a 
 Vaidika; but such instances are uncommon, especially of the 
 latter case, in which the new Vaidika is always looked upon as 
 
 FFF 
 
400 COMPARISON OP THE EGYPTIAN 
 
 of ignoble birth, and the family is not considered as pure till 
 after several generations, devoted to study and mortification." 
 
 The description of the sixth and seventh classes from Arrian 
 proves that these were divisions of the Lokika Brahmans. 
 The latter agrees remarkably with the following account of a 
 set of officers known in Southern India, under the name of 
 Tahsildars. 
 
 u The duty of the Tahsildar," says Dr. Buchanan, " is to 
 travel through the districts, inspecting the conduct of the 
 village officers, so as to prevent them from oppressing the 
 farmers, and from cultivating any ground except that which 
 pays rent. He superintends the repairs of tanks and canals, 
 receives the rents from village officers, and transmits them 
 with care to the general treasury. He acts as civil magistrate 
 in the first instance, deciding all causes ; but in every case 
 there is an appeal to the collector. As officer of the police he 
 takes up all criminals, and, having examined witnesses, sends 
 an account of the proceedings to the collector, who either 
 orders punishment, or, if not satisfied, personally investigates 
 the matter." 
 
 The account of the Brahmans of Malabar by Mr. Forbes 
 so strikingly agrees with the description of Arrian, that I 
 cannot forbear citing the following passages. 
 
 " The Malabar Brahmans, like those in other parts of India, 
 form two distinct classes, engaged in different pursuits. Both 
 are held sacred by the other castes. One has the absolute and 
 entire management of every thing relating to religion ; occu- 
 pied by no secular concerns, they spend their days under the 
 sacred groves of their temples, in superstitious ceremonies or 
 listless indolence, or study the sacred volumes, treatises on 
 astrology, medicine, or fabulous legends. They inculcate 
 benevolence to man, and kindness to the animal creation ; and 
 are reverenced by the inferior tribes, who swear by their heads, 
 and treat them with filial affection. " 
 
 The Brahmans who live in large towns, and hold situations 
 under their respective princes as officers of government, col- 
 lectors of the revenues, and in other political departments, do 
 
AND INDIAN CLASSES. 401 
 
 not merit this amiable character. They may, on the contrary, 
 be classed with the despots so often mentioned, who unfeel- 
 ingly exercised the rod of oppression over the lives and property 
 of their fellow-creatures ; although, by a strange inconsistency, 
 these very persons are taught to shudder at the death of an 
 insect, and tremble at the idea of inhaling an animalcule.* 
 
 There is still another division of the Brahmans who deserve 
 notice. These are the caste called Numbi, who officiate in 
 the temples of Vishnu and Siva ; and they are considered so 
 far below the Lokika and Vaidika in dignity, that even the 
 meanest of the Vaidika Brahmans will not intermarry with the 
 family of a Numbi. 
 
 The Gurus are hereditary presidents of temples. The 
 Purohitas are the family priests, whose business it is to perform 
 sacrifices in houses, and assist at the private devotions of the 
 Hindoos, as above noticed by Arrian. 
 
 Such is the description of the noble caste of Brahmans at 
 the present day, and such was its description two thousand 
 years ago, and, as we may presume, at a much earlier period ; 
 since it is otherwise impossible to account for the agreement 
 between the constitution of the Indian and Egyptian hierar- 
 chies. It is almost superfluous to observe, that there is scarcely 
 any trait in the outline we have now drawn which does not 
 apply almost as precisely to the one as to the other. The 
 same offices were allotted to the sacerdotal class in Egypt as in 
 India. The subdivisions of the class, and the distribution of 
 duties to the different orders, were the same; and, lastly, their 
 separate offices were transmitted, in both countries, in parti- 
 cular families. The Guru, in India, is succeeded by his son, 
 as was the president of each college in Egypt. The Purohita 
 has the same duties which, in the law of Moses, are allotted to 
 a particular class of Levites. It is probable, for reasons which 
 will presently appear, that the institution of Moses agreed in 
 this circumstance with the customs of Egypt. 
 
 We shall now extract from Arrian's works his account of 
 the other Indian classes. 
 
 * Forbes's Oriental Memoirs, vol. i. p. 370'. 
 
402 COMPARISON OF THE EGYPTIAN 
 
 The Military Class, which Megasthenes termed the fifth 
 tribe of Indians, were, according to that writer, next in number 
 to the agricultural class. u They enjoy the greatest share of 
 liberty, and are the most lively and energetic of the whole 
 nation. Arms are prepared for them, and a supply of horses 
 procured by others; and they are served in all the drudgery of 
 the camp by persons who take care of their horses, clean their 
 arms, load their elephants, and harness and drive their chariots. 
 But the men of this tribe carry on war as long as it is 
 necessary, and, when peace is concluded, spend their lives in 
 peace and affluence." 
 
 " The Agricultural Tribe, mentioned by Megasthenes in 
 the second place, is the most numerous of all the Indian castes. 
 They neither possess any military implements, nor have any 
 concern with the affairs of war; but cultivate the soil, and pay 
 tribute to the kings or to the magistrates of independent com- 
 munities. If any intestine wars break out among the Indians, 
 it is unlawful for any person to interfere with the operations 
 of the husbandman, or to lay waste the land ; but the others 
 fight and slay their enemies as they find opportunity, while 
 the rustics, undisturbed, plough the land in their presence, and 
 collect their vintage, and wood, and their harvests. ' Hence,' 
 says Diodorus, c the soil brings forth abundant crops, never 
 suffering from the ravages of war. The rustics dwell in the 
 country with their wives and children, and entirely abstain 
 from intercourse with cities ; and they pay a rent to the kings 
 for their estates, all India being royal property, and no private 
 individual having the right to possess land. The rent is a 
 fourth part of the produce, which is paid into the royal 
 treasury.' " 
 
 " Another tribe consists of artisans and petty traders, and of 
 persons who live by bodily labour. Of these some pay tribute 
 and perform stated works, make arms and build ships; for 
 which they receive stipends." " Of this tribe are the ship- 
 builders and the sailors who navigate the rivers. 
 
 " The two last-mentioned tribes include the various divisions 
 of the Vaisya and Sudra classes; though not accurately 
 distinguished. 
 
AND INDIAN CLASSES. 403 
 
 u A seventh tribe is mentioned, consisting of mountaineers ; 
 who were wandering herdsmen and hunters. 
 
 "Intermarriages between different tribes are forbidden, except 
 between the agriculturists and the artisans." These divisions, 
 we may remark, belong, in the political code of India, to one 
 great class. " Neither is it lawful to pass from one profession 
 to another, nor for the same individual to follow more than 
 one, unless for one of the sacerdotal class, who are permitted 
 to do so on account of their superior mental endowments." 
 
 I shall conclude these remarks on the Hindoo castes with 
 the following passage from Menu's Institutes, which discri- 
 minates the duties of the four great divisions of the people, 
 and bears as near a relation to the economy of the Egyptians 
 as to the customs of the Hindoos themselves. 
 
 " For the sake of preserving this universe, the Being 
 supremely glorious allotted separate duties to those who 
 sprang respectively from his mouth, his arm, his thigh, and 
 his foot. 
 
 " To the Brahmans he assigned the duties of reading the 
 Veda, of teaching it, of sacrificing, of assisting others to 
 sacrifice, of giving alms, if they be rich ; and, if indigent, of 
 receiving gifts. 
 
 " To defend the people, to give alms, to sacrifice, to read 
 the Veda, to shun the allurements of sensual gratification, 
 are, in a few words, the duties of a Cshatriya. 
 
 " To keep herds of cattle, to bestow largesses, to sacrifice, 
 to read the Scripture, to carry on trade, to lend at interest, 
 and to cultivate land, are prescribed or permitted to a Vaisya. 
 
 " One principal duty the Supreme Rahe assigned to a 
 Sudra, namely, to serve the before-mentioned classes, without 
 depreciating their worth." 
 
 I shall not enter into any further details respecting the cus- 
 toms of particular castes. Enough has been said to show the 
 relation they bear in the chief points to those of Egypt. 
 
 The same abstinences, the same attention to ablutions, and 
 similar ideas respecting the circumstances entailing pollution, 
 ©r legal defilement, are found in the histories of both nations. 
 
404 EGYPTIAN AND INDIAN CLASSES. 
 
 And the Brahmans, like the old Egyptian priests, are forbidden 
 from quitting their native country, and exposing themselves in 
 foreign lands to unavoidable irregularities. Even those indivi- 
 duals of this exalted caste, who have visited the courts of foreign 
 princes as ambassadors from their native sovereign, have been 
 compelled to go through a ceremony, typical of regeneration, 
 before they could be looked upon as absolved from the pollu- 
 tions contracted in passing through impure regions, and be 
 restored to the privileges of their caste.* 
 
 * See Forbes's Oriental Memoirs, vol. i. p. 379 j where there 
 are some curious remarks on this subject. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 COMPARISON OF THE MOSAIC ORDINANCES WITH THE 
 LAWS AND CUSTOMS OF THE EGYPTIANS. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 Introduction. 
 
 It has often been remarked, that various parts of the 
 Mosaic law bear a certain resemblance to some of 
 the ordinances observed by the Egyptian priesthood. 
 This analogy has been accounted for in very opposite 
 ways. Some writers have peremptorily asserted that 
 Moses was a mere imitator of pagan institutions : 
 others have determined, without sufficient support 
 from historical testimony, and with very little pro- 
 bability, that the Egyptians copied the ordinances of 
 the Hebrew lawgiver. 
 
 This subject has been amply discussed by well- 
 known authors, and most of the facts which bear 
 any relation to it have been cited and compared. ^ 
 should therefore willingly avoid entering into it. 
 Some observations, however, have occasionally sug- 
 gested themselves in the foregoing pages, the ten- 
 dency of which might be misapprehended, if they were 
 suffered to appear without any further comment. I 
 am induced by this, and partly by some other motives, 
 
406 COMPARISON OF THE MOSAIC RITES. 
 
 to offer the following general remarks on those 
 relations between the Hebrew and Egyptian ordi- 
 nances, which have so often excited the attention of 
 divines and antiquarians. I shall confine myself, 
 for obvious reasons, to a general survey, and refer 
 for particular illustrations to the authors who have 
 expressly treated on the several divisions of this 
 subject. 
 
 I purpose to compare the Mosaic institutions with 
 those of Egypt, under three different relations : first, 
 with respect to theology, or religious doctrine; 
 secondly, with reference to social and political regu- 
 lations ; and thirdly, with respect to rites and 
 ceremonies, and all the external performances of 
 religious and sacerdotal discipline. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 Theological Doctrine of Moses compared with that of the 
 Egyptians. 
 
 With respect to theology, no two systems can be 
 more directly opposed to each other than the Mosaic 
 doctrine was to that of the Egyptians. The latter, 
 as we have seen, personified the elements, and the 
 physical powers, whose agency is the most striking in 
 the operations of nature; and their theological fables, 
 when closely examined, amounted to little more than 
 figurative or fanciful descriptions of the phaenomena 
 of the material world, or the causes that were supposed 
 to give rise to them. Worship was paid by them in 
 
WITH THE EGYPTIAN. 407 
 
 its turn, to almost every object that revolves in 
 the heavens, and to every creature which is pos- 
 sessed of locomotive powers on the earth. The 
 Mosaic law, as we well know, directed the severest 
 denunciations against every species of idolatry, and 
 ordained the worship of the One Invisible God. It is 
 true that the Egyptians recognised, among their 
 esoteric or philosophical doctrines, the existence of a 
 spiritual and eternal being ; but this tenet was 
 carefully concealed from the people, instead of 
 becoming the foundation and most conspicuous part 
 of the popular religion ; it was also disfigured, in the 
 representations of the Egyptians, by fanciful conceits, 
 which destroyed its simplicity and sublime effect ; 
 and it was combined with superstitious notions which, 
 in a great measure, deprived it of its force as a sanc- 
 tion of morality. 
 
 It may, indeed, be objected that the Egyptian 
 religion perhaps acquired most of its corruptions at 
 an era subsequent to that of Moses. It may therefore 
 have presented a very different aspect, in the days 
 of the Hebrew lawgiver, from that which we have 
 collected from the testimony of much later times. 
 But if the Egyptians retained, in any great measure, 
 the simple faith of the patriarchs, at the epoch to 
 which we refer, we have still stronger reasons for be- 
 lieving that it was preserved in a state not less genuine 
 among those pastoral nations, the simple and un- 
 varied tenour of whose existence precludes all great 
 innovations in manners and sentiments. 
 
 We must therefore conclude that in promulgating 
 that great and conspicuous tenet which Moses con- 
 tinually displays as the end and principal aim of aU 
 
 G G G 
 
408 CIVIL ORDINANCES OF THE 
 
 his regulations, he was neither guided by the lessons 
 nor influenced by the examples of his Egyptian 
 instructors. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 Political and Civil Institutions of Moses, compared with those 
 of the Egyptians. 
 
 In the political and civil constitution founded by 
 Moses, we find some instances of agreement with 
 the Egyptian polity, and others of remarkable contra- 
 distinction. 
 
 In the most striking feature in the whole system of 
 civil regulations, the plan adopted by the Hebrew 
 lawgiver stands in direct opposition to the polity of the 
 Egyptians. The founders of the latter had made it their 
 chief endeavour to depress the mass of the community, 
 in order to pamper the luxury and pride of the dis- 
 tinguished orders. Hence the complicated system of 
 subordinate ranks, which consigned the lower castes, 
 with their posterity, to a state of perpetual servility 
 and abject degradation. 
 
 The system of society established by Moses was, 
 on the contrary, one of perfect equality,* not the 
 
 * In the appointment of the Gibeonites to be " hewers of 
 wood and drawers of water," there is something like the 
 formation of a low caste, degraded to perpetual servility. 
 But this was the result of an accidental combination of cir- 
 cumstances, which took place during the conquest of Palestine 
 by Joshua; and no provision for it, or anticipation of it, is to be 
 found in the law. Moses is in no way answerable for it. 
 
HEBREWS AND EGYPTIANS. 409 
 
 casual result of circumstances, but the object which 
 the founder purposely contrived a great part of his 
 civil institutions to uphold. Hence, the regulations 
 for maintaining equal possessions, as far as this was 
 possible,, by apportioning to each family a certain 
 extent of land, and precluding by express laws the 
 permanent alienation of estates. 
 
 In one remarkable circumstance the constitution 
 founded by Moses resembles the Egyptian : this 
 is the consecration of a particular race or family 
 to the offices of religion, and to some civil duties that 
 were more or less closely associated with them. 
 The Levitical priesthood corresponds in many parti- 
 culars with the hereditary hierarchy of the Egyptians ; 
 yet there is one characteristic trait which distin- 
 guishes the designs that severally directed the 
 founders of these orders. In Egypt the priests, 
 besides innumerable privileges and immunities, 
 claimed a real property in one third part of the whole 
 territory : the temporal splendour and opulence of 
 this body was the object chiefly aimed at. The 
 Mosaic priesthood,, though equally elevated in dignity 
 and office, was expressly excluded from territorial 
 possessions, and was rendered dependant for support 
 on certain revenues connected with its civil and 
 religious duties. 
 
 The various offices, both civil and religious, 
 allotted by Moses to the Levites, were similar to those 
 which belonged to the hierarchy in Egypt. 
 
 There is only one striking exception that can be 
 made to this remark. The prophets of the Egyptians 
 were an order in the hereditary priesthood ; the pro- 
 phets of the Hebrews were men raised up from any 
 
410 CIVIL ORDINANCES OF THE 
 
 tribe, without distinction, and the most illustrious 
 were not descended from Levi. 
 
 1. The high-priesthood itself was hereditary in a 
 particular house ; so was the pontificate of each par- 
 ticular god in Egypt. 
 
 2. The judicial office belonged to the Levites, as 
 it did in Egypt to the priests. The chief magistrates, 
 called Sophtim, or SufFetes, who succeeded Joshua, 
 were chiefly military commanders, and sprang from 
 various tribes; but the details of justice, and the 
 settling of controversies, are expressly set apart, by 
 Moses, as functions belonging to the Levites; and we 
 find that they continued to be vested in the same body.* 
 Thus, in the reign of David, six thousand Levites 
 were employed as judges and scribes. 
 
 S. The Shoterim or Scribes were generally of the 
 tribe of Levi.f Their office corresponds exactly 
 with that of the Hierogram mates in Egypt. They 
 were public accountants, managed records, kept 
 registers, and were the depositories of all the litera- 
 ture and science of the Hebrews. J 
 
 4. Medicine, like other parts of knowledge, seems 
 to have belonged to the priests in Palestine, as in 
 Egypt ; at least, the diagnosis of leprosy was assigned 
 to them, as well as the regulations of medical police. 
 
 The concession that this part of the Mosaic con- 
 stitution was formed on the model of an Egyptian 
 
 * Deuteron. xxi. 5. See Michaelis on the Mosaic Law, Dr. 
 Smith's translation, vol. i. p. 258, et seqq, 
 
 f Michaelis, ibid. 
 
 J When David distributed to each Levite his office, he 
 appointed some to superintend weights and measures. I 
 Chron. xxiii. 29. 
 
HEBREWS AND EGYPTIANS. 411 
 
 ordinance may be thought derogatory to the sacred 
 character of the Hebrew lawgiver. Yet, when we 
 consider how powerful an instrument the Egyptian 
 hierarchy has proved itself to be, in preserving and 
 maintaining the superstition confided to it ; how well 
 adapted such an hereditary priesthood evidently was 
 to the condition of society, in the times to which we 
 are referring; it seems to be a proof of the highest 
 wisdom, and of a truly enlightened policy, to employ 
 the power of such an agent for the defence of true 
 religion. 
 
 If there is any part of the public ordinances of 
 Egypt, of which we might expect to find Moses a mere 
 copyist or servile imitator, it is the system of criminal 
 and civil laws, and the regulations that refer to morals 
 and social life. It is in these relations that the laws of 
 the Egyptians have been most applauded. Their 
 theology, as we have seen, contained a variety of 
 extravagant conceits, and preserved in a very imper- 
 fect state even the first principles of natural religion ; 
 their political constitution degraded'the mass of the 
 people into a most servile condition, and sacrificed 
 them to the interests of the privileged orders ; their 
 rites and customs were, in many instances, detestable. 
 But the civil regulations, and the moral code of this 
 nation, have been the theme of loud applause among 
 the greatest writers of antiquity, and their fame has 
 often been re-echoed in modern times. It is on this 
 side, then, that we might expect, with the greatest 
 probability,, to find an agreement between the laws 
 of Moses and the Egyptians. A legislator who had 
 
 * See Michaelis on the Mosaic Law. 
 
412 CIVIL ORDINANCES OF THE 
 
 been taught by the priests of Heliopolis may be 
 supposed likely to display in his work the lessons of 
 his instructors, and especially to have copied those 
 parts of their system which the wise men of old times 
 were so prone to admire and celebrate. We look, 
 however, in vain for any mark of consent between 
 the morality of Moses and that of his predecessors. 
 
 In the first place, we may observe that-there was a 
 wide difference in the spirit of the Hebrew and Egyp- 
 tian laws, if we regard the sanctions by which their 
 authority was confirmed. The Egyptian priests 
 denounced the miseries of a future life and of penal 
 transmigrations, against those who violated their 
 ordinances. Moses had declared, in the outset, that 
 God had promised to govern Israel as its immediate 
 sovereign, with temporal rewards and punishments. 
 Accordingly, he has made no reference in his laws to 
 the dispensations of the invisible world. The exam- 
 ples which the present life affords are far more 
 impressive than future expectations, especially in a 
 semi-barbarous and unreflecting age, and the doctrine 
 of the soul has often been, in the East, a source of 
 endless superstitions. We know that the Rabbins in 
 later times adopted the psychology of the Egyptians, 
 and with it all the absurd tenets with which it was 
 connected. Moses, in thus appealing to the general 
 experience of the divine justice, has given a strong 
 proof of his sincerity and confidence ; at the same 
 time he has displayed true wisdom, in refusing such 
 methods of influencing the minds of men as were 
 most popular in his age, but have proved themselves 
 to be, under the existing circumstances, unavailable, 
 and the sources of gross and pernicious delusions. 
 
HEBREWS AND EGYPTIANS. 413 
 
 In the penal inflictions with which both parties 
 found it necessary to aid the impressions of religion, 
 we observe a wide difference between them. The 
 penal code of the Egyptians, according to Diodorus, 
 consisted for the most part in a variety of mutilations : 
 the member of the body supposed to be chiefly 
 in fault was cut off, as the punishment of most 
 offences.* " Severe tortures were had recourse to in 
 other cases, and some horrible and disgusting 
 sufferings were inflicted, as in the instances of child- 
 murder and parricide. f In the penal code of Moses, 
 we find no mention of bodily mutilations, or of 
 tortures, excepting a limited number of stripes : 
 and capital punishments, though numerous, were 
 summary and immediate. 
 
 3. In the criminal code of Moses a variety of 
 actions are enumerated as offences, and even ordered 
 
 * Persons convicted of treasonable communication with an 
 enemy had their tongues cut out ; persons guilty of forgery, 
 or similar offences, had both their hands cut off. " Qui foeminas 
 libera^ vim obtulerant membri cujusdam amputationem passi 
 sunt." Diodor. Hist. lib. i. cap. 6. 
 
 f Infanticide was punished by obliging the parents to hug 
 their dead children in their arms for three successive days and 
 nights. This if true, gives countenance to the idea sug- 
 gested by Warburton, that infanticide was commonly practised 
 in Egypt, in the time of Moses. The account of the Egyptian 
 midwives in Exodus indicates, as the Bishop observes, that 
 the office they were employed in was not altogether foreign 
 to the rational customs. So strange a punishment as that 
 above mentioned would scarcely have been appointed, if the 
 crime had not been frequently practised and tolerated in the? 
 preceding times. 
 
414 CIVIL ORDINANCES OF THE 
 
 to be punished with death, which in Egypt were 
 encouraged by religious rites and the example of the 
 gods, and adopted in common practice. Sensuality 
 of the most flagitious description, was tolerated and 
 encouraged in Egypt ; and it would appear as if no 
 species of debauchery entered into the catalogue of 
 crimes in (hat country. Offences of this class were, 
 as we well know, strictly forbidden by Moses, under 
 the severest penalties.* 
 
 In the regulations that refer to matrimonial con- 
 nections and the domestic relations of life, men are 
 wont more than in any other matters to follow 
 established customs and prejudices: if, therefore, 
 Moses had been inclined to form the manners of his 
 people on those of the nation among whom he had 
 been educated, he certainly would not have innovated 
 in that respect. It is well known that in all these 
 points his laws are directly opposed to the Egyptian 
 customs. f 
 
 The following is the preface to the laws respecting 
 marriages in the Mosaic code. " After the doings of 
 the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwell, shall ye not do." 
 — " Ye shall do my judgments, and observe mine 
 ordinances to walk therein: I am Jehovah, your 
 God."* 
 
 * Moses was obliged so far to condescend to the customs of 
 a barbarous age, as to tolerate polygamy. His regulations 
 tended, however, in a very important manner, as Michaelis 
 has shown, to discourage it in practice. 
 
 f Marriages between persons near of kin were in frequent 
 practice in Egypt, and were sanctioned by the example of the 
 gods. 
 
 J Leviticus, chap, xviii. 
 
HEBREWS AND EGYPTIANS. 415 
 
 There is another trait which has been remarked as 
 distinguishing the morality of the Mosaic institutions 
 from that of the Egyptians. In the code of these 
 learned pagans, there were many salutary regulations, 
 but the best of them were disgraced by impostures, 
 and those deceptions which are termed pious frauds : 
 priestcraft displays itself on every side. In the law of 
 Moses we discover a strict adherence to good faith : 
 no false pretences are made use of as motives to lead 
 to useful courses of action. 
 
 The fondness for secrecy, and for enveloping truths 
 or opinions in a cloak of mystery, is another trait of 
 Egyptian priestcraft. Hence the celebrated distinc- 
 tion of Esoteric and Exoteric philosophy, invented by 
 the Egyptians, and afterwards imitated by many of 
 the Greeks. It was, perhaps, with a view to secrecy 
 that the Egyptians retained the use of hieroglyphic 
 or symbolic characters, after the alphabetic mode of 
 writing had become well known. It answered their 
 purpose : it concealed from vulgar curiosity the 
 wonders of their learning and superstition, as it has 
 perhaps for ever veiled their ignorance from the 
 irreverent scrutiny of posterity. 
 
 Moses repudiated every thing that favoured 
 mystery and concealment; and he laid aside the 
 hieroglyphic writing, with which he must have been 
 acquainted, for the alphabetic characters, of which it 
 is easy for the common people to avail themselves. 
 
 H H H 
 
416 CEREMONIAL LAWS OF THE 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 Comparison of the Ceremonial Law of Moses with that 
 of the Egyptians. 
 
 It remains for us to compare the institutions of 
 Moses and those of the Egyptians, with reference to 
 the external ceremonies of religion and sacerdotal 
 discipline. It cannot be denied that there were 
 several features of resemblance between the Mosaic 
 and Egyptian rituals, which must have originated in 
 some other source than accidental coincidence. Yet 
 a very superficial survey of the subject will suffice to 
 prove, that the Hebrew legislator was not, in this part 
 of his code, a mere copyist of Egyptian ordinances: 
 But, before we enter on this consideration, it may be 
 proper to pause, and inquire whether it is not certain, 
 from the nature of circumstances, that a system of 
 rites and ceremonies, instituted at any period of the 
 world, must display traces of such modes of thinking 
 and acting as previously prevailed. As all ceremonies 
 derive their power and utility from the ideas and 
 sentiments which they excite in the beholders, and as 
 these ideas and sentiments depend upon the influence 
 of previous habits and prejudices, the promulgator 
 of a ritual law, whether he be guided by divine or 
 by human intelligence, must necessarily raise his 
 superstructure on the foundations that are prepared 
 for him. A wise lawgiver would be led to adopt and 
 
HEBREWS AND EGYPTIANS. 41? 
 
 establish^ by a new sanction, such practices as were 
 associated, either by a natural allusion or by habit, 
 with feelings of reverence, or which expressed, in a 
 striking and impressive manner, true ideas respecting 
 the relations of man to a higher power, and tended to 
 excite sentiments of piety, humanity, and moral purity, 
 in the minds of the beholders. To reject such unex- 
 ceptionable instruments, and to attempt to govern 
 the opinions and sentiments of men by a system of 
 machinery which had no hold on the habits and 
 characters of the people whom it was designed to 
 controul and edify, would betray a total ignorance of 
 the constitution of the human mind. The project 
 would be utterly absurd. 
 
 These reflections mav suffice to show that we must 
 not expect to find in the ceremonial laws of Moses, a 
 system of rites entirely new, and bearing no traces of 
 customs and ordinances previously existing. 
 
 In proceeding to this comparison, we may first 
 observe that all those rites and customs of the Egyp- 
 tians which were an offence against nature or good 
 morals were expressly proscribed by Moses. Among 
 these we may reckon human sacrifices, the abomi- 
 nations of the temple of Mendes, and many other 
 excesses connected with the idolatrous worship of this 
 people. 
 
 By some other prohibitions, Moses seems to have 
 aimed at distinguishing his priesthood and the people 
 subjected to their influence from the Egyptians. Such 
 would appear to have been the intent of the law which 
 forbade the cutting off the hair of a priest,* and of that 
 
 * Ezechielj xliv. 20. Spencer de Legg. Hebrteor. cap. xxv. 
 sect. 2. 
 
418 CEREMONIAL LAWS OF THE 
 
 which prohibited the planting of trees near the altar 
 of Jehovah ■ of the injunction to sacrifice heifers 
 instead of bulls and male calves.* In all these par- 
 ticular and in many others, the observances ordained 
 by Moses were in direct contradistinction to the 
 customs of Egypt. 
 
 I shall now proceed to enumerate the most remark- 
 able examples of resemblance and agreement between 
 the Hebrew rites and the customs of the Egyptians 
 and other Pagan nations. 
 
 I. In the rites of lustration, or purification by water, 
 there is an instance of such agreement. But this may 
 be thought an accidental coincidence. The ceremony 
 of cleansing the person by ablution affords so natural 
 and obvious a type of inward or mental purification ,,f 
 that nothing is more probable than that different 
 nations may have adopted it without interchange 
 of ideas, 
 
 But although the use of ablutions in the ceremonial 
 
 * Numbers xix. 5. Spencer de Legg. lib. ii. cap. 15. 
 sect. 2. 
 
 f It is obvions that a ceremony of tin's description, at first 
 merely typical, must have preceded and given origin to the 
 popular notion, that ablution in consecrated streams or foun- 
 tains had the power of actually removing guilt, or mental 
 defilement, together with external impurity. Such a notion 
 can only have been the result of a ceremony previously esta- 
 blished : it cannot be imagined to have furnished in the first 
 place the motive for instituting the rite, or the design with 
 which it was contrived. The heathen writers had a clear con- 
 ception of the inefficacy of ablution in the latter sense. 
 
 " Ah nimiilm faciles, qui tristia crimina ccedis 
 Tolli fluminea posse putatis aqua.'* 
 
HEBREWS AND EGYPTIANS. 419 
 
 of religion is not of itself sufficient to prove inter- 
 course between the nations who have practised it, 
 the manner of performing it may determine whether 
 it has been adopted casually, as a natural and obvious 
 emblem, or was derived by one nation from another, 
 by imitation. Spencer has pointed out so many 
 circumstances in the ablutions ordained in the Leviti- 
 cal law, which resemble the rites of several nations 
 who had their religious ceremonies in common with 
 the Egyptians, that we can scarcely refuse our assent 
 to the inference he deduces. His conclusion is, that 
 Moses adopted this rite from the usages of antiquity. 
 
 We shall briefly notice some circumstances in the 
 heathen lustrations which bear a strong analogy to 
 the Mosaic ordinances. 
 
 Before prayers were addressed to the gods, it was 
 necessary for the supplicant to purify himself by 
 washing his hands. 
 
 Mrjos 7tot !£ Tfiug Au XJfbeiy a!Qo7ra, otvov 
 
 -ysp<r\v avi7TT0i(ri'J, jU/yjS' aKhoig olSolvoltoiciv. 
 
 ******* 
 
 M.7}$s 7tot aevacou 7rora^uo«y xaTuppoov ufiwp 
 7roo-o"} 7rspaV, 7rph y tvfzj) 
 
 eu%£i 3 )%a)V slg KoCha. pisSpct 
 ■yiipa.$ vi-tyoLfxzvog 7ro7<vripoLTip v^olti "Ksuxcp* 
 
 Purification from legal defilements was performed 
 in many instances by aspersion. The instrument 
 used in the Levitical ceremony was a branch of 
 hyssop ; in the Pagan rites, a branch of laurel or palm. 
 
 " Spargit et ipse suos lauro rorante capillos 
 Incipit et solita fundere voce preces.f 
 
 * Hesiod. Op. et Dies. v. 355. f Ovid. Fastor. lib. v. 
 
420 CEREMONIAL LAWS OF THE 
 
 <e He sprinkles his hair with the branch of laurel, 
 dropping dew, and begins to utter his accustomed 
 orisons.' ' 
 
 In other circumstances, connected with the lustral 
 ceremonies, Spencer has pointed out coincidences 
 between the Mosaic and Egyptian laws.* 
 
 2. The custom of offering animals in sacrifice 
 has been considered as an example of coincidence in 
 the practices of these two nations. No inference 
 however can be drawn from finding a rite of this 
 description established in two particular countries. 
 The universal prevalence of sacrifices over the 
 ancient world proves that this rite had its origin at 
 an era antecedent to the division of mankind into 
 separate families. 
 
 The sacrifices of the Egyptians were expiatory or 
 vicarious offerings. Such were the offerings of the 
 Hebrews. But we cannot conclude from this circum- 
 stance that one people derived the practice from the 
 other, because all the eastern nations, among whom 
 we must look for the customs and ideas of remote 
 antiquity, performed this ceremony with similar 
 motives and ideas. f 
 
 * Spencer de Legg. Hebraeor. Dissert, iii. 
 
 f That the sacrifices of most ancient nations were rites of 
 expiation, and not merely contrivances for conciliating the 
 favour of the gods, by bribing them with the savoury smoke 
 of the roasted victim, we learn from the wide extension 
 of the practice of immolating human victims as vicarious 
 sufferers. The same idea is frequently expressed in the 
 Puranas and other ancient books of the Hindoos. From 
 slaying animals as offerings, on which the guilt of the offender 
 was supposed to be transferred, most nations proceeded to 
 
HEBREWS AND EGYPTIANS. 421 
 
 It must be confessed, however, that the manner in 
 which the governing idea was expressed in the Mosaic 
 ordinance resembles in a remarkable degree the 
 Egyptian rite, and it would seem as if Moses adopted 
 this as the most striking and impressive form. The 
 sins of the people were imprecated by the officiating 
 priest on the head of the devoted victim. The 
 circumstances of this ceremony, as it was performed 
 according to the Egyptian ritual, have been alluded 
 in a foregoing chapter. 
 
 There is also a coincidence in the kinds of animals 
 selected for sacrifice. Moses forbade, indeed, to offer 
 human victims ; and of the species of brute animals 
 used by the Egyptians for this purpose, he selected 
 only three, viz. oxen, sheep, and goats. Of the ox 
 kind, the Hebrews were ordered to slaughter the 
 females ; whereas the Egyptians chose only the males. 
 But the particular colour of the victim, as set down in 
 the Levitical ordinances, was exactly the same as 
 that which the Egyptian ritual specified. This has 
 been described in the section to which we have just 
 referred. 
 
 Spencer has remarked that Moses ordered such 
 animals only to be offered in sacrifice as had never 
 been subjected to the yoke, and that the same regu- 
 lation existed among the Greeks and other Heathen 
 
 nations.* 
 
 immolate human victims on certain great occasions, as more 
 noble sufferers. 
 
 It is impossible to ascertain when this custom originated. 
 The Vedas contain a strange fiction, which connects the 
 allegorical immolation of Narayan with the formation of the 
 world. 
 
 * Those writers who have maintained this opinion have 
 
422 CEREMONAL LAWS OF THE 
 
 It would appear then, that Moses consecrated such 
 animals for sacrifice as were generally held to be pure 
 and unblemished offerings. His motive in this pro- 
 ceeding is evident: an opposite mode of conduct 
 would have evinced a want of that attention to 
 prevailing notions which is necessary for every 
 legislator. 
 
 S. In the circumstances by which legal pollution 
 was contracted, there was a coincidence between the 
 ideas of the Egyptians and those which Moses adopted 
 as the foundation of many of his ceremonies and 
 prohibitions. Many of the Egyptian customs of this 
 description have been enumerated in the foregoing 
 chapter. - 
 
 In the oblations, ordained by Moses, of corn, wine, 
 and oil, in the consecration of tenths and of first-fruits, 
 in the celebration of festivals at the new moons, 
 in the vestments of the priests, and the peculiar 
 observances required of their order, there are many 
 
 been unjustly accused of denying the typical references of the 
 Mosaic rites to the great events of the Christian dispensation. 
 Yet both Spencer and Michaelis have positively disclaimed any 
 such intention. The latter says, a That I consider the sacri- 
 fices prescribed by Moses as typical of Christ, and that I 
 believe them not only justly applied to him by the Apostles in 
 the New Testament, but to have been actually appointed by 
 God with that express design, and previously explained in the 
 book of Psalms in that as their genuine meaning, cannot be 
 unknown to any reader of my Dogmatics, or of my Exposition 
 of the Epistle to the Hebrews, or of my Critical Lecture on the 
 40th Psalm." Michaelis on the Mosaic Law, translated by 
 Dr. Smith, vol. iii. p. 57 • Dr. Spencer makes a similar asser- 
 tion in several parts of his work, " De Legg. Hebrseorum." 
 
HEBREWS AND EGYPTIANS. 423 
 
 points which bear a relation either of near resem- 
 blance or of direct contradiction to the laws of the 
 Egyptians and other celebrated nations. 
 
 When indeed, we take all these circumstances into 
 consideration, it no longer remains doubtful that 
 Moses, in compiling the ceremonial ordinances of his 
 code, had in his view the rites and customs of antiquity. 
 His people were thoroughly imbued with the pre- 
 judices and devoted to the practices of the Egyp- 
 tians. He has retained those ceremonies which were 
 in themselves perfectly harmless, and which tended to 
 inspire pure and pious thoughts. He has copied some 
 Egyptian rites, such for example as were founded on 
 natural associations of ideas, and expressed in a more 
 striking manner than any other, certain religious 
 truths which, from their universal hold upon the 
 minds of men, are shown either to be the results of a 
 general conviction, or the lessons of the first fathers 
 of the human race handed down by immemorial 
 tradition. He has repudiated whatever was impious or 
 impure, or in itself absurd and ridiculous, of which we 
 have seen that there was a great abundance in the 
 practices of the wise Egyptians. He has ordained 
 many rites, evidently with no other purpose than to 
 prevent his people from reverting into these abomi- 
 nations. On the whole he has evinced, though born 
 in a semi-barbarous age, and educated among a 
 people who commended themselves to God by burn- 
 ing red-haired men, and joining women to he-goats, 
 and feeding crocodiles with their living children, so 
 unblemished a conception of moral excellence, so 
 profound a knowledge of the laws of the human mind, 
 so clear a discrimination of the essentials of religion, 
 
 iii 
 
424 CEREMONIAL LAWS. 
 
 that, in surveying the ordinances of the Hebrew law, 
 an attentive and candid inquirer cannot fail to recog- 
 nise unquestionable proofs of wisdom and intelligence, 
 which exceed the possible attainments of the human 
 faculties. 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 Origin of Circumcision, 
 
 There is no other point connected with this inquiry 
 which has occasioned so much dispute as the origin 
 of Circumcision. This, however, is a question quite 
 distinct from the consideration of those rites and ordi- 
 nances which the Hebrews first received from Moses, 
 or became acquainted with subsequently to their 
 descent into Egypt and establishment in Goshen. 
 We are certain that the descendants of Abraham 
 practised circumcision before that event. They even 
 considered it a disgrace to be connected with an un- 
 circumcised race, as we learn from the conduct of 
 Judah and his brethren, in the massacre of the Siche- 
 mites. We know also that this custom prevailed not 
 only among the Israelites, who came out of Egypt 
 with Moses, but among the Edomites* and Ishmael- 
 itish Arabs. f All these nations obtained it from their 
 common ancestor. 
 
 But other nations, besides the Abrahamidae, 
 practised circumcision, who cannot, with so much 
 probability, be supposed to have derived it from 
 
 * Genesis, xxv. 25 — 30. f Ibid. xvi. 25. 
 
ORIGIN OF CIRCUMCISION. 425 
 
 the patriarch of that stem. The Egyptians, as we 
 have seen, made it a necessary condition, in order to 
 admit any person to certain religious solemnities, or 
 at least to the office of the priesthood. Some other 
 ancient nations, connected by affinity with the Egyp- 
 tians, had the same custom ; as the Colchians, who are 
 supposed by Herodotus to be a colony from Egypt, 
 and in Africa, the Ethiopians,* particularly the 
 Troglodytes.f It extended further towards the south, 
 and seems to have been propagated from Egypt 
 among the Negro races in the interior ; for we learn 
 from recent voyagers that it still prevails in Congo 
 and Guinea.J 
 
 We are ignorant at what period circumcision was 
 adopted by the Egyptians. It appears to have been 
 an established rite among them in the time of Moses.§ 
 
 It has been maintained by some, that Abraham, or 
 his descendants, introduced this rite among the Egyp- 
 tians; but this is an extremely improbable conjecture. 
 It must be observed that the first mention of circum- 
 cision in Genesis occurs subsequently to the journey 
 of Abraham and his horde into Egypt. There seems 
 also at this period to have been a free and unre- 
 strained intercourse between the Egyptians and their 
 less civilized or less artificial neighbours, so that 
 the influence of Egyptian customs and modes of 
 thinking may be supposed to have extended over the 
 surrounding nations. 
 
 * Diod. lib. i. J Ibid. lib. iii. p. 165. 
 
 % Authorities in Woodward, p. 290. 
 
 § This appears from Josh. v. where the renewal of circum- 
 cision is ordained ; and it is observed, that the reproach of 
 Egypt is now removed from Israel. 
 
426 
 
 CEREMONIAL LAWS. 
 
 A remark of Michaelis throws some light upon this 
 obscure subject. This writer has observed that the 
 manner in which the ordinance of circumcision is 
 mentioned in Genesn, and the terms in which the 
 command is announced to Abraham, are such as to 
 afford ground for believing that the practice had 
 previously prevailed, and was familiar to the ideas of 
 that Patriarch.* 
 
 What forbids us, then, from adopting the conclu- 
 sion, obviously the most probable one, that circum- 
 cision originated, at a very remote era, in some 
 eastern country, possibly in Egypt ; and that it was 
 thence communicated to the neighbouring nations ; 
 that it was connected with some idea of purity and 
 fitness for religious service, as we have seen that 
 shaving the body and frequent ablutions were, and 
 had become the generally received ceremony for 
 dedicating men to the service of God ; and, lastly, that 
 it was enjoined by a divine command to Abraham, 
 to adopt this rite in His own house ? 
 
 But this was a divine, not a human ordinance. 
 Abraham received the command to circumcise his 
 house immediately from God. How is this to be 
 reconciled with the hypothesis above proposed ? 
 
 This difficulty will be removed by comparing the 
 origin of circumcision with that of baptism. Baptism 
 is to be considered as a divine institution, not less 
 assuredly than circumcision, since it is certainly 
 
 * See Michaelis on the Mosaic Law, Dr. Smith's translation, 
 vol. iii. book iv. chap. 3, an excellent disquisition on this sub- 
 ject. See also Spencer de Legg. Hebrseorum. These two 
 authors have collected all that is known on the subject of 
 circumcision. 
 
ORIGIN OF CIRCUMCISION. 
 
 427 
 
 
 known to have been ordained by the divine founder 
 of the Christian church. Yet it is as well known that 
 baptism or lustration by water had been practised 
 many ages before the Chrtstian era ; and that immer- 
 sions, and ablutions and aspersions had been used 
 from times immemorial in Pagan temples ; that these 
 rites were regarded as necessary preparations for 
 those who were to be admitted to certain religious 
 privileges. If such ideas had not pre-existed in the 
 opinions of men, the ordinance of baptism by John 
 the Baptist, and by our Lord, would have been de- 
 void of all meaning and effect on those who witnessed 
 or underwent the performance of it The fact is, as 
 we well know, that lustration by water was already 
 connected with the idea of inward purification. 
 Hence it was a fit instrument for producing a moral 
 effect. 
 
 The case is similar with respect to circumcision, 
 on the hypothesis that it was a prevailing custom pre- 
 viously to the time of Abraham. It was regarded 
 with feeliugs of solemnity, and as the type of a 
 religious engagement. No new rite could then be 
 so proper or so efficacious as the seal of a solemn 
 covenant. 
 
CRITICAL EXAMINATION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 REMAINS 
 
 EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY. 
 
PART I. 
 
 SURVEY OF THE SOURCES OF INFORMATION. 
 COMPILATION OF MATERIALS. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 Origin of History. Probable Antiquity of the Oldest Records, 
 
 The primitive history of the human race, the origin 
 of nations, their distribution over the globe, and 
 their adventures during many ages of the world, 
 occupy a wide field in the most remote region of anti- 
 quity, the greatest part of which is enveloped in an 
 impenetrable mist. The age of Moses is the first great 
 epoch of history, as recorded by contemporary 
 annalists, and handed down to us in a succession of 
 documents attested by creditable names. At this 
 point we take our stand, as on a high watch-tower, 
 the last of a long chain of posts, and direct our 
 view over the obscure region beyond, where we 
 discern in the distance many remarkable spots, some 
 brighter than others, to which we can scarcely hope 
 to gain a more immediate access. 
 
 Let us now inquire from what source flow those 
 gleams of light which are dispersed over this distant 
 field ; or, in other words, to what authority are we in 
 
 b 
 
*2 ORIGIN OF HISTORY. 
 
 the first instance to refer those notices of preceding- 
 events which have come down to us from ancient 
 times ? Is it probable that any written memoirs of 
 the previous history of the world existed in the time 
 of Moses, or are we to suppose that nothing survived, 
 from the ages -which had already elapsed, except 
 uncertain traditions too vague and obscure to form 
 the ground- work of authentic records? This is an 
 inquiry which cannot be brought to a satisfactory 
 issue without a careful investigation ; and we shall 
 find that it is one on the solution of which the credit 
 of a great part of ancient history depends. 
 
 Perhaps there is no other method of research so 
 capable of leading us to a solution of this important 
 problem as an examination of the historical parts of 
 the Pentateuch. If any records of the previous 
 history of the human race were extant at the period 
 when the book of Genesis was written, it seems 
 extremely probable that some proofs of their existence 
 might be traced, by means of an accurate examina- 
 tion of this work, and the composition of its different 
 parts. 
 
 The genealogical tables and family records of 
 various tribes, which are found embodied in the 
 books of Mpses, bear the appearance of documents 
 copied from written archives. They display no trait 
 that might lead us to ascribe their production to the 
 dictates of immediate revelation, nor are we any where 
 informed that such was in reality their origin. We 
 are aware that similar documents were constructed 
 by the inspired writers of the Gospels, from national 
 archives or family memorials. The obvious presump- 
 tion is, that the author of the Pentateuch obtained 
 
DATE OF THE EARLIEST RECORDS. *3 
 
 these records of a like description from a similar 
 source, unless it can be shown that no such means of 
 information were in existence in his time. This 
 cannot be proved : on the contrary, we have many 
 reasons to believe that the use of letters, and the 
 practice of preserving chronicles and genealogies, was 
 much more ancient than this epoch. 
 
 If this supposition is allowed, it becomes easy 
 to account for a phenomenon which can scarcely 
 be explained in any other way. I allude to the 
 remarkable connection discovered between many 
 fragments of profane history, scattered over various 
 parts of the world, and several relations contained in 
 Genesis. Many of these historical fragments are of 
 such a description, or have been found among nations 
 so remote from Judaea, that they cannot be imagined 
 to have derived their origin from the writings of the 
 inspired lawgiver. Their coincidence with the narra- 
 tive which he has transmitted seems to prove that 
 memorials of the same events, but composed in different 
 styles of representation, had been preserved by several 
 nations. I shall only mention, as an example, the 
 remains of Berosus, whose Chaldean history of the 
 ten antediluvian generations differs but little from 
 the Hebrew record, and who expressly affirms that 
 Xisuthrus, after the intimation given him of the flood 
 that was approaching, diligently compiled memoirs 
 of the previous history of the world, from which all 
 existing accounts are said to have been derived. 
 
 But a more satisfactory result appears to me to 
 have been obtained from internal evidence. For it 
 has been proved, if I am not greatly mistaken, by 
 a critical examination of the book of Genesis, that 
 
*4 ORIGIN OP HISTORY. 
 
 this work contains several original records, each 
 bearing on itself the strongest marks of authenticity 
 and of high antiquity, which have been brought 
 together by Moses, arranged and copied with the 
 most scrupulous fidelity, so as to present a series of 
 authentic archives, in which the chain of history is 
 traced up to the very cradle of the human race.* 
 It is scarcely necessary to point out the inference 
 which results from this conclusion, in favour of the 
 antiquity of other historical remains. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 Antiquity of the Egyptian Records. Historical Books, 
 Inscriptions, Syringes. 
 
 The most ancient compilers of profane history, 
 whose works have survived to our times, were later 
 than Moses by more than a thousand years. Hence it 
 is evident that no Pagan nation can enter into compe- 
 tition with the Hebrews respecting the authenticity of 
 their ancient records. 
 
 In this comparison the Egyptians stand next, 
 though at a very great distance from the Hebrews, 
 For the first compilers of Egyptian antiquities, who 
 had access to the sources of learning, and who are 
 known to us, lived subsequently to the foundation of 
 the Alexandrian library. Yet there is some reason 
 to presume that the documents from which they 
 
 * See Note A, 
 
ANTIQUITY OF EGYPTIAN RECORDS. *5 
 
 compiled their works had been preserved from very 
 remote periods. 
 
 As the history of the Egyptians was intimately 
 connected with that of the Hebrews in early times, it 
 becomes the more interesting to investigate their 
 ancient records. We have thus an opportunity of 
 comparing the memorials of two nations,, whose 
 historians conduct us further than those of almost 
 any other people into the regions of antiquity. 
 
 We shall now proceed to examine the remains of 
 Egyptian chronology, and to estimate, in the first 
 place, the external evidence of their authenticity. 
 We shall then compare these documents among 
 themselves, and deduce the conclusions that result. 
 
 It is impossible to ascertain from what time the 
 Egyptians began to preserve historical records, but it 
 is extremely probable that some memorials of the most 
 remarkable events, and some sorts of chronicles or 
 documents serving to mark the progress of time, 
 be^an to be formed as soon as the use of letters was 
 known. The early invention of astronomy, and the 
 custom of connecting the lapse of secular periods 
 with the dates of civil history, afford a better support 
 then mere conjectural probability to this opinion. 
 But we are unable to determine in what age the use 
 of letters was invented. 
 
 In the time of Moses it appears that two kinds of 
 letters were known to the Hebrews, one of which 
 was alphabetic ; the other seems to have been a sort 
 of symbolical character, and perhaps resembled the 
 Egyptian hieroglyphics.* But the Hebrews were not 
 
 * The inscription on the J£phod is scud to have been written 
 
*6 ANTIQUITY OF THE 
 
 the only people who appear to have been about the 
 same period in possession of this art. It was diffused 
 through the neighbouring countries. It was probably 
 known to the Phoenicians or Canaanites at the time 
 when that nation was conquered by the Israelites, 
 on their return from Egypt. This is at least a probable 
 conjecture, from the name of a town in Canaan 
 mentioned in the book of Joshua. The city we 
 allude to is called Kirjath Sepher, which means 
 <c the City of the Book '/' it is rendered, by the 
 Seventy Interpreters, the cc City of Letters/' 
 
 Egypt was in these ages the great centre of arts 
 and industry : it seems to have enjoyed, at an earlier 
 period than other countries, the blessings of regular 
 government. It possessed those vegetable productions 
 from which the oldest materials for writing were 
 formed ; and the art of preparing these materials, the 
 manufacture of cotton and papyrus, was known in 
 Egypt in very early times. The people of this 
 country were famous for the invention of the hierogly- 
 phics, which seems to have been the intermediate 
 step between the rude picture-writing of barbarous 
 ages and a more perfect method of representing 
 ideas in permanent forms. All these circumstances 
 considered, it can scarcely be doubted that the 
 Egyptians were one of the nations who first pos- 
 sessed written memorials. 
 
 We know, indeed, that their learning was pro- 
 verbial in the time of Moses. Several generations 
 
 in characters resembling the " letters of a signet." It would 
 appear that these were a sort of symbolical characters : they 
 are plainly distinguished from the alphabetic letters used by 
 Moses, in writing the Pentateuch. 
 
HISTORICAL RECORDS OF EGYPT. *7 
 
 before this legislator, in the age of Joseph, the 
 Egyptian hierarchy already existed, and it seems at 
 this time to have been divided into those departments, 
 or various colleges, which we have traced in the fore- 
 going pages. We find the priests, the magicians, the 
 wise-men, and the physicians, enumerated in the 
 history of this patriarch. It is probable that the 
 several branches of learning, of which these orders 
 were the depositories, had already an existence.* 
 
 Further than this period, we can only trace the 
 history of Egyptian learning in the more dubious 
 testimonies of native authors. The priests of this 
 nation were unanimous in referring the origin of 
 letters and of books to Thoth, or Thoyth, the god of 
 learning, or perhaps a priest who assumed the name 
 of his tutelar divinity. It would be very difficult 
 to determine the age of Thoth ; but, according to 
 the historians of Egypt, he must have flourished as 
 early as the reign of the second king of Thebes, the 
 son and successor of Menes. Athothes was the 
 patron of literature. Eratosthenes interprets his 
 name, Hermogenes, the son of Hermes. It is more 
 correctly rendered " Mercuriaiis," related or devoted 
 to the god of learning. f According to Manethon, 
 books were composed by his order. We learn from 
 other authorities, that the Memphite ^Esculapius was 
 the companion and secretary of Taautos, or the 
 thrice-great Thoth. 
 
 * Warburton's Divine Legation of Moses. 
 
 f The Egyptian name, which is represented in a Greek 
 form by Athothes, is evidently HathotJi. The meaning is 
 more accurately expressed above than by the gloss given by 
 Eratosthenes, which has a more limited sense. 
 
*8 ANTIQUITY OF THE 
 
 The records tliat were preserved in the inscriptions 
 on the pillars of the first Thoth, and on the walls of the 
 Syringes or subterranean recesses in the Egyptian 
 temples, were perhaps more ancient than the oldest 
 books. These, as we are informed by several 
 writers,* contained notices of the early history of 
 
 • Ammianus Marcellinus thus describes the Syringes, or 
 winding caverns in the recesses of the Egyptian temples. 
 " Sunt et Syringes subterranei quidam et flexuosi secessus, 
 quos, ut fertur, periti rituum vetustorum adventare diluvium 
 prescii, metuentesque ne caerimoniarum obliteraretur memoria, 
 penitus operosis digestos fodinis per loca diversa struxerunt ; 
 et excisis parietibus volucrum ferarumque genera multa sculp- 
 serunt et animalium species innumeras, quas hierographicas 
 literas appellarunt." Am. Marcell. lib. xxii. cap. 15. 
 
 Lucan refers to these inscriptions. 
 
 Saxis tantum volucresque feraeque 
 
 Sculptaque servabant magicas animalia linguas. 
 
 Marcianus Capella mentions them as containing genealogies 
 of the gods. " Erantque quidam libri sacra nigredine colorati, 
 quorum literse animantium credebantur effigies : quas librorum 
 notas Athanasia conspiciens, quibusdam eminentibus saxis 
 jussit adscribi : eademque saxa stelas appellans, Deorum 
 stemmata praecepit continere." Marc. Capell. lib. ii. 
 
 A similar description of these sculptured vaults is given by 
 the prophet Ezechiel, chap. viii. 
 
 These inscriptions are mentioned by Manethon, the Egyp- 
 tian historian, who professed to have partly derived the 
 materials of his works from them. Their contents seem to 
 have been similar to those of the Hermetic books ; at 
 least so it would appear from Manethon's statement, as we have 
 it extracted by Syncellus. They were inscribed on columns 
 in the Sexiadic land, which was doubtless some part of Egypt, 
 
HISTORICAL RECORDS OF EGYPT. *9 
 
 Egypt, the succession of the thirty dynasties ; and here, 
 as long as the sense of the hieroglyphics was known, 
 the students of Egyptian learning found documents 
 which were destined long to survive the nation whose 
 history they recorded. 
 
 The sculptured vaults of ancient Egypt have been 
 explored, but no disciple of Thoth survives to explain 
 the innumerable riddles they present. The Hermetic 
 books have long ago ceased to exist, and if we should 
 happen to discover the whole thirty-six thousand five 
 hundred and twenty-four, which Iamblichus enume- 
 rates, they would probably be as unintelligible to us 
 as the historical inscriptions in the syringes. We 
 have only now to mention the channels through 
 which we flatter ourselves that a few memorandums, 
 copied from these ancient archives, have been 
 transmitted to our times. 
 
 though we know not what particular district is distinguished 
 by that name. Manethon attributes them to the elder Thoth j 
 and he says that they were subsequently translated from the 
 sacred language and hierographie character by Agathodsemon, 
 the son of the second Hermes, and deposited in the recesses of 
 the Egyptian temples. 
 
*I0 EGYPTIAN HISTORIAN*. MANETHON. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 Authors from whom we have obtained Information respecting 
 the Egyptian History. — Manethon. Unknown Author of 
 the Old Chronicle. Eratosthenes. Syncellus. Ptolemy 
 of Mendes. Apion. Cheer emon. Herodotus. Diodorus, 
 and others. 
 
 One of the most important writers on the history 
 and chronology of the Egyptians is Manethon, a 
 man of distinguished learning, a native of the Seben- 
 nytic nome, who held the office of high-priest and 
 sacred scribe in the temple of Heliopolis during the 
 reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus. He was the author of 
 several works on history, physics, and astrology. The 
 most valuable of these was his Egyptian History, 
 contained in three books ; which gave an account of 
 the succession of Egyptian kings from the beginning 
 of the monarchy under Menes, the first ruler, down to 
 the establishment of the Macedonian empire. The 
 history of this period was comprised by Manethon in 
 thirty-one dynasties, the first thirty of which were 
 supposed to contain one hundred and thirteen gene- 
 rations ; and the total numbers of their reigns were, 
 as Syncellus informs us, three thousand five hundred 
 and fifty-five years. The thirty-one dynasties were 
 preceded by a dynasty of gods and demi-gods. 
 
 Manethon's Egyptian History has long ago been the, 
 
EGYPTIAN HISTORIANS. MANETHON. *11 
 
 spoil of time, and we have nothing more of it than 
 a fragment preserved by Josephus, in his Letter to 
 Apion, which seems to have been copied verbatim from 
 the original ; and an abstract containing the succes- 
 sion of the kings, and a few historical facts, in the 
 Chronography of Syncellus. The fragment given by 
 Josephus comprises but a small portion of the succes- 
 sion, but is very valuable. The abstract of Syncellus is 
 in a less perfect state. The original work of Manethon 
 seems to have been lost before the age of the last- 
 mentioned chronologer ; and all that he could obtain 
 of it were extracts which had been embodied by for- 
 mer collectors, viz. Julius Africanus and Eusebius, in 
 their compilations. These writers differed so much 
 in several parts of their extracts, that it was evident 
 either that great errors had crept into the copies of 
 Manethon's work, or that one of them must have 
 corrupted it by design. 
 
 This work of Manethon was undertaken, as it 
 appears, at the request of Ptolemy Philadelphus. The 
 sources whence the author professed to have derived 
 his information, were the sacred inscriptions on the 
 columns of Hermes, and in the Seriadic country, and 
 the books attributed to Hermes Trismegistus. 
 
 With the materials obtained from these sources it 
 appears that some statements were interwoven, which 
 the compiler admitted to be of equivocal and uncertain 
 authority.* 
 
 We have from Syncellus another Egyptian chro- 
 nicle which, as we are informed by that compiler, and 
 as it appears from internal evidence, is more ancient 
 
 * Josephus, Epist. ad Apiou. 
 
*I2 EGYPTIAN HISTORIANS. 
 
 than the age of Manethon. This old Egyptian 
 chronicle., as Syncellus terms it, terminates with the 
 reign of Nectanebo, that is, with the second year of 
 the one hundred and seventh Olympiad ; and that 
 period is the most probable date that can be assigned 
 for its composition. Syncellus conjectures that Mane- 
 thon was led into error by it ; but it differs, in many 
 important particulars, from the chronology of that 
 writer. We shall insert the whole of it in a following 
 page, and shall therefore say no more at present, than 
 that there is no reason for suspecting this document, 
 as some have done, to be the production of a later 
 period than the date to which it is referred by its 
 construction. It is composed on the plan of the com- 
 putations known to be contained in the ancient Her- 
 metic books. If it had been written subsequently to 
 Manethon's time, we should scarcely have found so 
 many contradictions between these two chronicles; 
 and the claims to antiquity in the more recent work 
 would scarcely have exceeded by so many myriads of 
 years those of the high priest of Heliopolis. If it had 
 been a forgery of a late age, that is, of Christian 
 times, it would not have contradicted the dates of the 
 Hebrew Scriptures, by assuming so vast a period for 
 the duration of the Egyptian monarchy. 
 
 There is no writer on the Egyptian history who has 
 higher pretensions to our regard than Eratosthenes. 
 No Greek author has surpassed him in learning, or 
 has enjoyed greater opportunities of information, and 
 very few have maintained an equal reputation for 
 integrity. Eratosthenes was a native of Cyrene. He 
 was born in the one hundred and twenty-sixth Olym- 
 piad, two hundred and seventy-six years before Christ, 
 
OLD CHRONICLE. ERATOSTHENES. *13 
 
 and, in the fiftieth year of his age, was appointed 
 superintendant of the Alexandrian library. He lived 
 to complete his eightieth year; and, at length, finding 
 his sight to fail> is said to have starved himself to death. 
 He was the author of that work on geography which 
 is frequently referred to by Strabo. He was likewise 
 a celebrated astronomer and mathematician.* 
 
 Eratosthenes was equally distinguished as a chro- 
 nologer. By order of Ptolemy he formed a catalogue 
 of the succession of Egyptian kings, for which he 
 collected materials from records in the Egyptian 
 language, and from information communicated by the 
 sacred scribes of Diospolis.f To this headded interpre- 
 tations in Greek of the Egyptian names. The work 
 itself has long ago perished, with the exception of a 
 fragment, extracted by the diligent compiler Syncellus, 
 from the chronology of Apollodorus. The original 
 works of Eratosthenes seem to have been no longer 
 extant in the time of Syncellus. 
 
 To Syncellus himself we are under the most 
 important obligations, for having preserved most of 
 the fragments above mentioned. 
 
 The learned compiler, who is known under this 
 appellation, was a Constantinopolitan monk, named 
 George, who, in the time of Constantine Porphy- 
 rogennetes, was Syncellus to the partriarch Tarasius, 
 that is, next to him in dignity, and destined to be his 
 successor. J He is said to have compiled his work 
 twenty-one years before the death of Charlemain, 
 emperor of the West. 
 
 * Fabric. Biblioth. Graec. torn. iv. p. 123 et seq. 
 
 f Syncelli Chronograph, p. 91 et p. 147- 
 1 Voss. de Histor. Grsec. Fabric. Bibloth. Graec. 
 
*14 EGYPTIAN HISTORIANS. SYNCELLUS. 
 
 It appears that Syncellus chiefly obtained the ma- 
 terials for chronology which he has left us from the 
 previous compilations of Africanus and Eusebius. 
 These works have long ago perished, with the excep- 
 tion of fragments of the former, extracted by other 
 writers, such as Syncellus, and a very imperfect and 
 scanty Latin translation of the latter, executed by 
 Jerome, which Joseph Scaliger has published with 
 the addition of all the remains of the original which 
 he could collect from later compilations. The collec- 
 tion thus formed issued from the press under the title 
 of Eusehius's Chronicle, and has been quoted as such 
 by many modern authors. 
 
 Besides the tables of the Old Chronicle, the dynas- 
 ties of Manethon, and the laterculus of Eratosthenes, 
 Syncellus has given us a continued series of Egyptian 
 kings, from Menes down to the Persian conquest, 
 which seems to have been deduced by himself from 
 various documents. We trace a great portion of it 
 in the lists of Manethon ; but the former part, con- 
 taining a succession of kings from Menes to Teth- 
 mosis, who expelled the Shepherd dynasty from 
 Egypt, has either been formed purely from conjecture, 
 and is therefore an absolute forgery, or was deduced 
 from materials which we can no longer trace. As we 
 have no reason for suspecting a writer so industrious 
 and learned as Syncellus of a fraud of this nature, it 
 seems most probable that he collected the earlier part 
 of his series from the works of some old historians, 
 which are now lost. We have reason to believe that 
 means of information existed in his age which have 
 since been destroyed by the ruinous hand of time ; 
 for we know that several authors of reputation had 
 
PTOLEMY MENDESIUS. APION. *15 
 
 written works on the Egyptian annals and antiquities. 
 Of these Syncellus may be supposed to have availed 
 himself, either directly, or indirectly through the 
 collections of previous compilers. 
 
 One of the old writers, of whose works we have 
 to regret the loss, is Ptolemy, a priest of Mendes, 
 whose age is uncertain. It appears that he lived 
 before the time of Tiberius, and the reign of the 
 Ptolemies seems to be the most probable period that 
 can be assigned to him.* 
 
 Ptolemy wrote, as it seems, a work in three books, 
 on the history of the kings of Egypt, which is quoted 
 by Apion.f It is uncertain whether this is the same 
 book that is cited by Tatian under the title of Xpovoi, 
 or Chronicles. The author is mentioned also by 
 Tertullian and Cyril, and it is unknown at what 
 period his works were lost. 
 
 Apion, the grammarian, lived in the time of Tibe- 
 rius, and acquired so much fame, that he was called 
 by that emperor " Cymbal urn mundi."J His learning 
 is commended by x\fricanus and by Tatian. His prin- 
 cipal work was an Egyptian History, which is men- 
 tioned with respect by Aulus Gellius : the fourth 
 book of it has been cited by Clement of Alexandria.^ 
 He was also the author of a work against the Jews, 
 
 * See Vossius de Hist. Grsec. 
 
 f Apud Clement. Strom, lib. i. Euseb. Evang. Prrep. lib. 
 x. cap. 12. 
 
 % Voss. ubi supra. 
 
 § Clemens, Strom, i. Euseb. Prsep. Evang. iii. cap. 3. 
 Aulus Gellius lib. v. cap. 14. et vii. cap. 8. He is also men- 
 tioned by Pliny, lib. xxxvii. c. 5 ; and by Justin. Orat. ad 
 Gentes. 
 
*16 EGYPTIAN HISTORIANS. 
 
 to which Josephus replied, in his well-known Epistle 
 to Apion. 
 
 Athough Apion boasted that he conferred immor- 
 tality on those who were mentioned in his books, 
 his works are now entirely lost, with the exception of 
 some passages cited by later authors. We do not 
 know at what period they ceased to exist ; and it is 
 possible that Syncellus may have had access to them, 
 or to other writers who had copied from them. 
 
 Chaeremon also wrote a work on Egyptian history, 
 of which we have a fragment cited by Josephus. 
 This is probably the same writer to whom Porphyry 
 appeals as an author of great credit on the philosophy 
 of the ancient Egyptians.* Porphyry calls him an 
 eminent philosopher among the Stoics, a man stu- 
 dious of truth and accuracy ; and St. Jerome refers to 
 his account of the Egyptian priests with an encomium 
 upon his eloquence. f We have already cited a pas- 
 sage of Chaeremon preserved by Porphyry in the 
 letter written by him under the name of Annebon, to 
 which Iamblichus replied in his work on the Mys- 
 teries.;!; Chaeremon was the instructor of Dionysius, 
 who presided over the Alexandrian library, from the 
 time of Nero to that of Trajan.§ 
 
 It is uncertain whether the author above men- 
 tioned is the same Chaeremon of whom Strabo speaks 
 in the seventeenth book of his Geography. The 
 latter professed to be a hierogammateus, or sacred 
 
 * Porphyr. de Abstinentia, lib. iv\ cap. 6 ct $. 
 
 t Hieron. adv. Jovin. ii. 13. 
 
 % Iamblich. de Myst. iEgypt. 
 
 § Vossius de Histor. Grsec. Fabric. Bibl. Graec. 
 
CHjEREMON. HERODOTUS. DIODORUS. *17 
 
 scribe; and pretended to be acquainted witb the 
 hieroglyphics and mystical philosophy of the Egyp- 
 tians. He sailed with iElius Gallus, in his voyage up 
 the Nile; and was much derided, as Strabo says, 
 on account of his conceit and vain pretensions to 
 learning. 
 
 Chaeremon's works are no longer extant; but 
 they existed in the time of Africanus, Eusebius, and 
 other chronologers, whose compilations were extant 
 in the time of Syncellus. Chaeremon is indeed cited 
 by Tzetzes, at a much later period than the age of 
 Syncellus. 
 
 The only authors who remain to be mentioned are 
 Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus. 
 
 The former has been suspected of plagiarism^ and 
 has been accused of having copied a great part of his 
 Egyptian history from the works of his predecessor, 
 Hecataeus. Herodotus himself informs us, that he 
 obtained his information from some Egyptian priests, 
 and we have no reason to doubt, his assertion. 
 
 During the latter period, from the reign of Psam- 
 mitichus, when the Greeks had become acquainted 
 with the manners and history of the Egyptians, Hero- 
 dotus has given us an exact account of the succession 
 of kings. In this part of his narrative we may fully rely 
 upon his correctness. The former part contains many 
 puerile absurdities. The guides, who had led him 
 through the temples,4howed rows of wooden statues, 
 placed one after another, and representing kings or 
 priests for three hundred and forty-one generations ; 
 and he informs us that a priest read to him out of a 
 book the names of three hundred and thirty kings who 
 had reigned successively. It is very possible that 
 
 d 
 
*18 HERODOTUS. DIODORUS. 
 
 Herodotus might misunderstand his guide, especially 
 as it cannot be supposed that the Grecian traveller 
 understood the Egyptian langauge. At any rate, a 
 nameless person, intent on magnifying the wonders 
 of his native temples, and making a display of their 
 antiquity to an admiring stranger, can scarcely 
 be regarded as an authority worthy of implicit 
 confidence. 
 
 Diodorus seems to have taken Herodotus as his 
 guide in his annals of the Egyptian monarchy. He 
 only deviates occasionally, to introduce particulars 
 derived from other sources. 
 
 Some incidental notices respecting the Egyptian 
 history are to be found in scattered fragments from 
 the works of Artapanus, Alexander Polyhistor, and 
 Polemo. The two former wrote on the antiquities 
 of the Jews, and the latter on the ancient chronology 
 of the Greeks.* 
 
 We shall now proceed to investigate the antiquity 
 of the Egyptian monarchy, availing ourselves in the 
 best manner we can of the resource above mentioned. 
 The following is the passages of Syncellus, to which 
 we find the Old Egyptian Chronicle. 
 
 * Fragments of these writers are scattered through the 
 Stromata of Clemens, the Evangelical Preparation of Eusebius, 
 and the Chronography of Syncellus. 
 
EGYPTIAN RECORDS. OLD CHRONICLE. 
 
 19 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 Copy of the Old Chronicle and the Chronicle of Manethon. 
 
 ee There is among the Egyptians a certain ancient 
 Chronicle, by which I apprehend that Manethon was 
 led into error. It embraces the prodigious period 
 of thirty-six thousand five hundred and twenty- 
 five years, which are comprised in the history of 
 thirty dynasties, and one hundred and thirteen gene- 
 rations. It begins with the Auritae, who are succeeded 
 by the Mestraei; these are followed by the native 
 Egyptians. It is as follows : — 
 
 Years. 
 Vulcan 
 
 No time is assigned to Vulcan, because he shines 
 both by day and by night. 
 
 The Sun, the offspring of Vulcan, reigned 30,000 
 
 Afterwards Saturn, and the rest of the twelve gods, 
 
 reigned 3,984 
 
 Afterwards the eight demi-gods 217 
 
 Fifteen generations of the Cynic circle reigned. 
 
 The 16th dynasty of Tanites, consisting of 
 generations, reigned 
 17th of Memphites 
 18th of Memphites 
 19th of Diospolites 
 20th of Diospolites 
 
 eight 
 
 4 
 
 14 
 
 5 
 
 8 
 
 generations 
 
 443 
 
 190 
 103 
 348 
 194 
 
 228 
 
*20 EGYPTIAN RECORDS. OLD CHRONICLE. 
 
 Years. 
 
 The 21st of Tanites .... 6 generations 121 
 
 22d of Tanites .... "3 48 
 
 23d of Diospolites 2 19 
 
 24th of Saites 3 .... 44 
 
 25th of ^Ethiopians .... 3 44 
 
 26th of Memphites 7 .... 177 
 
 27th of Persians .... 5 .... 124 
 
 29th 39 
 
 30th of Tanites .... 1 18 
 
 " The sum of the reigns of the SO dynasties is 36525 
 years, which, divided by 25, gives the period of the 
 fabulous apocatastasis or renovation of the zodiac, so 
 celebrated among the Egyptians and Greeks. At this 
 epoch the signs of the zodiac are supposed to return to 
 the exact places which they occupied in the heavens, 
 when the Sun was in the first degree of Aries, as it is 
 explained in the Genica of Hermes, and the Cyrannic 
 books/'* 
 
 * The two periods to which Syncellus alludes were cele- 
 brated cycles in the Egyptian system of computing time. 
 
 The cycle of twenty-five years was used for adjusting 
 the lunar and solar motions, and was accommodated to the 
 Egyptian civil year of three hundred and sixty-five days. 
 Twenty-five Egyptian years, contained nine thousand one 
 hundred and twenty-five days, which exceed the total number 
 contained in three hundred and nine lunations, by only one 
 hour nine minutes and ten seconds. 
 
 The other cycle was the celebrated Sothiacal period of one 
 thousand four hundred and sixty solar years, which are 
 equal to one thousand four hundred and sixty-one Egyptian 
 years. For as the Egyptian year of three hundred and sixty-five 
 days was deficient by a quarter of a day, a day was lost in every 
 four years. This deficiency would, in 4 x 365— 1460 years, 
 
OLD CHRONICLE. MANETHON. *21 
 
 The twenty-eighth dynasty, consisting of one Saite, 
 may be is inserted in the Old Chronicle from Mane- 
 thon, being evidently an accidental omission. Still 
 178 years are wanting in order to fill up the sum 
 total. We shall have occasion to consider from what 
 part of the series it is probable that this number has 
 been dropped. 
 
 We now proceed to Manethon, and begin with his 
 dynasty of gods and demi-gods. The following is the 
 passage of Syncellus in which it is contained. 
 
 <e Manethon, the Sebennyte, a high-priest* of the 
 profane religion in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus, 
 writing to the king concerning the first sixteen Egyp- 
 tian dynasties, beginning with the seven gods, reckons 
 1985 years for the period of their reign, the first of 
 whom, Vulcan, reigned 9000 years. These 9000 
 years/' continues Syncellus, " have been reckoned by 
 some of our historians as so many lunar months ; and 
 the whole number of days contained in 9000 lunar 
 revolutions, being reduced into solar years of 365 days, 
 a period of 724 years and a half with four days has 
 been brought out as the reign of Vulcan." This 
 hypothesis is treated by Syncellus with the contempt it 
 
 amount to an entire year, and therefore the beginning of the civil 
 year would, in that space of time, be restored to its original 
 place \ the first day of the month Thoth having shifted its place 
 backwards through all the seasons. See Mayer's Chronological 
 Tables, and Hales's Chronology, vol. i. p. 141. 
 
 By multiplying these two cycles into each other, the Egyp- 
 tians fancied, as it appears, that they produced the period 
 called the great year, at the end of which all the planets 
 returned to the same place in the zodiac. 
 
 * Syncellus^ Chron. p. 18. 
 
*22 EGYPTIAN RECORDS. 
 
 merits. However he has set down the following table 
 of gods and demi-gods, with their reigns, computed on 
 this system. It is as follows: — 
 
 First Dynasty. 
 
 1 . Vulcan reigned 724 J years and 4 days 
 
 2. The Sun, the son of Vulcan 86 years 
 
 3. Agathodaemon 52^ and 10 days 
 
 4«i Saturn 40j 
 
 5. Osiris and Iris 35 
 
 6 * * * mm , 
 
 7. Typhon 29 
 
 Total.. 247 
 
 8. Horus, the demi-god 25 
 
 9. Mars, the demi-god 23 
 
 10. Anubis the demi-god 17 
 
 11. Hercules, the demi-god 15 
 
 12. Apollo, the demi-god 25 
 
 13. Amnion, the demi-god 30 
 
 14. Tithoes, the demi-god 27 
 
 15. Sosus, the demi-god : 32 
 
 16. Jupiter, the demi-god 20 
 
 Total.. 214 
 
 There is evidently some mistake in the numbers 
 inserted in this table. The sum total bears no 
 relation to the total period before mentioned by 
 Syncellus,, viz. 1985. It would seem that the reigns 
 in the table are all reduced from some larger numbers, 
 by the same method which produces 724-§- and four 
 
CHRONICLE OF MANETHON. *23 
 
 days out of 9000. Now,, if we reverse this compu- 
 tation, which is founded on an idle conjecture, and 
 restore the original numbers, we shall have the sums 
 total as follows : 
 
 Vulcan 9000 
 
 The six succeeding gods .... 265&| 
 The nine demi-gods 3068^- 
 
 Total 147264 
 
 This sum approaches nearly to the large numbers 
 mentioned by Herodotus, and Diodorus, who, how- 
 ever, contradict each other and themselves, as often 
 as they allude to the fabulous chronology of the 
 gods. 
 
 We now insert the catalogue of the thirty-one 
 dynasties of mortal kings. 
 
 This being an important series in chronology, 
 Syncellus says that he has copied two of the most 
 celebrated editions of Manethon's succession of 
 dynasties, as he found them respectively in the works 
 of Africanus and Eusebius. These tables are as 
 follows. 
 
24 
 
 EGYPTIAN RECORDS. 
 
 THE THIRTY DYNASTIES 
 ACCORDING TO AFRICANUS. 
 
 Years. 
 After the Demigods began 
 the first series of Kings, 
 of whom the first, viz. 
 Menes Theeinites,reign- 
 ed 62 
 
 2. Athothis, son of Menes 57 
 
 3. Kenkenes, his son .... 31 
 
 4. Ouenephes, his son . . 21 
 
 5. Ousaphaidos 20 
 
 6. Miebidos 26 
 
 7» Semempsis 18 
 
 8. Bienaches 26 
 
 Sum, 253 
 
 THE THIRTY DYNASTIES 
 ACCORDING TO EUSEBIUS. 
 
 Years. 
 Menes Thenites, from 
 whom the series begins, 
 is the Menes of Herodo- 
 tus. He reigned .... 60 
 
 2. Athosthis, son of Menes 27 
 
 3. Kenkenes 39 
 
 4. Ouenephes 42 
 
 5. Ousaphaes 20 
 
 6. Niebes 26 
 
 7. Semempsis 18 
 
 8. Oubienthes 26 
 
 Sum, 252 
 
 Historical Notices contained in the Chronicle. 
 
 Menes is said to have been a great general : he made warlike 
 expeditions into foreign countries. He was killed by a hippo- 
 potamus. 
 
 Athothis founded the palace of the kings at Memphis. He 
 practised physic, and compiled books of anatomy. 
 
 In the reign of Ouenephes there was a great famine in Egypt. 
 The pyramids of Cochome were founded at this time. 
 
 In the reign of Semempsis many prodigies happened in Egypt* 
 and a great plague infested the country. 
 
CHRONICLE OF MANETHON. *25 
 
 II. Dynasty, of Nine Kings. II. Dynasty , of Nine Thinite 
 
 Kings. 
 Years. Years. 
 
 1. Bochus 1. Boethos 38 
 
 2. Choos 2. Kaiachos 39 
 
 3. Biophis 3. Binothris 47 
 
 4. * * * 4. Tlas 17 
 
 5. * * * 5. Sethenes 41 
 
 6. * * * 6. Choires 17 
 
 7. * * * 7. Nephercheres 25 
 
 8. Sesochris 48 8. Sesochris 
 
 9. Cheneres 30 9. * * * 
 
 These nine kings reigned, 
 
 Sum of this Dynasty, 302 together, 297 
 
 III. Dynasty, of Nine 
 Memphite Kings. 
 
 III. Dynasty, of Eight 
 Memphite Kings. 
 
 1 . Necherophes 28 
 
 2. Tosorthros 29 
 
 1. Nacherochis. 
 
 2. Sesorthos. 
 
 Historical Notices. 
 
 In the reign of Bochus a great earthquake at Bubastos 
 destroyed many people. 
 
 Apis, Mnevis, and the Mendesian goat, were deified in the 
 reign of Choos. 
 
 In the reign of Biophis, women were allowed a share in the 
 administration. 
 
 Nothing important is related of the three kings who succeeded 
 Biophis. 
 
 In the reign of the seventh king, the Nile flowed with honey 
 eleven days. — Africanus. 
 
 In the reign of Nacherochis, the Lybians revolted from 
 the Egyptians ; but, terrified by a portentous increase of the 
 Moon, surrendered. 
 
 Sesorthos excelled in the art of healing, and was called the 
 Egyptian iEsculapius. He taught men to build with hewn 
 stones, and to engrave characters skilfully. — Euseblus. 
 
 e 
 
*26 EGYPTIAN RECORDS. 
 
 Years. Years. 
 
 S. Tyris 7 The remaining six were in 
 
 4. Mesochris 17 no way distinguished. 
 
 5. Soiphis .. 16 
 
 6. Tosertasis 19 # % * 
 
 7. Achis 42 
 
 8. Siphouris 30 
 
 9. Kerpheres 26 
 
 Sum total, 214 Sum total of these reigns, 198 
 
 IV. Dynasty, Eight Memphite 
 Kings of another race. 
 
 1. Soris 29 
 
 2. Souphis 63 
 
 3. Souphis 66 
 
 4. Mencheres 63 
 
 5. Rhatoises 25 
 
 6. Bicheres 22 
 
 7. Sebercheres 7 
 
 8. Thamphthis 9 
 
 Sum total, 274 
 
 IV. Dynasty, Seventeen Mem- 
 phite Kings of another family . 
 
 These kings reigned .... 448 
 
 V. Dynasty of Elephantinites. 
 
 V. Dynasty of Thirty-one 
 Elephantinite Kings. 
 
 1. Ousercheris 28 
 
 2. Sephres 13 
 
 3. Nephercheres 20 
 
 1. Othoes 
 
 2. * 
 
 3. * 
 
 Historical Notices. 
 
 The third of these kings, named Souphis, built the great pyra- 
 mid, which Herodotus attributed to Cheops. He despised the 
 gods ; but, repenting, wrote a book on sacred rites, which was 
 very celebrated in Egypt. 
 
 Othoes was killed by his guards. — Eusebius. 
 
CHRONICLE OF MANETHON. *27 
 
 Years. Years. 
 
 -4. Sisiris 7 4. Phiops 100 
 
 5. Cheres 20 
 
 6. Rathouris « .... 44 * * * 
 
 7. Mercheres 9 
 
 8. Tarcheres 44 
 
 9. Obnus 33 
 
 Sum total.. 248 
 
 VI. Dynasty of Six Memphite VI. Dynasty. 
 
 Kings. 
 
 1. Othoes, killed by his 
 
 guards 
 
 ° * * # 
 
 2. Phios 53 
 
 3. Methonsouphis 7 
 
 #• # # 
 
 4. Phiops 100 
 
 5. Meutesouphis 1 
 
 6. Nitocris 12 Nitocrii 3 
 
 Sum total. . 203 
 
 VII. Dynasty of Seventy VII. Dynasty of Five 
 
 Memphite Kings, Memphite Kings, 
 
 Reigned 70 days Who reigned 75 days 
 
 * * * * * * 
 
 VIII. Dynasty of Twenty-seven VIII. Dynasty of Five Memphite 
 
 Memphite Kings, Kings, 
 
 Reigned 146 years Who reigned .... 100 years 
 
 * * * ♦ * * 
 
 Historical Notices. 
 
 Phiops began to reign when six years old, and reigned to the 
 hundredth year. — Eusebins. 
 
 Nitocris, was a noble and beautiful woman, of fair (£av5ij) 
 complexion, who built the third pyramid. 
 
*28 
 
 EGYPTIAN RECORDS 
 
 IX. Dynasty, Nineteen 
 Heracleotic Kings, 
 
 Years. 
 
 Who reigned , 409 
 
 1. Achthoes 
 
 IX. Dynasty, Four Heracleo- 
 polite Kings, 
 
 Years. 
 
 Reigned 100 
 
 1. Achthos 
 
 X. Dynasty of Nineteen 
 Heracleotic Kings, 
 
 Who reigned 185 
 
 * * # 
 
 X. Dynasty of Nineteen 
 Heracleopolite Kings. 
 
 Reigned 185 
 
 XI. Dynasty of Sixteen 
 Diospolite Kings, 
 
 IX. Dynasty of Sixteen 
 Diospolite Kings. 
 
 Who reigned 4S Reigned 43 
 
 After whom 
 Ammenemes reigned . . 
 
 16 
 
 Thus far Man ethon proceeds 
 in his first tome. The number 
 of kings hitherto is 192, whose 
 reigns amount to 2350 years 
 and 70 days. 
 
 After whom 
 Ammenemes reigned .... 16 
 
 Thus far the first tome of 
 Manethon, including 192 
 kings, 2300 years, and 79 days. 
 
 Historical Notices. 
 
 Achthoes was more cruel than any of his predecessors j and, 
 after perpetrating many atrocities through all Egypt, he was 
 afflicted with madness and killed by a crocodile. 
 
CHRONICLE OF MANETHON. 
 
 29 
 
 SECOND TOME OF MANETHON S CHRONICLE. 
 
 XII. Dynasty of Seven 
 Diospolite Kings. 
 
 Years. 
 
 1. Geson Goses, or Seson- 
 choris, son of Ammene- 
 mes 46 
 
 2. Ammenemes 38 
 
 3. Sesostris 48 
 
 4. Lachares 8 
 
 5. Ammeres 8 
 
 6. Ammenemes 8 
 
 7. Skemiophris, his sister 4 
 
 Sum total, 160 
 
 XII. Dynasty of Seven 
 Diospolite Kings. 
 
 Years. 
 
 1. Sesynchoris, son of 
 Ammenemes 46 
 
 2. Ammenemes 38 
 
 3. Sesostris 48 
 
 4. Labaris 8 
 
 His three successors 
 
 reigned 42 
 
 Sum total, 245 
 
 XIII. Dynasty of Diospolitans. 
 Sixty kings reigned 184 
 
 XIII. Dynasty of Diopoliians. 
 Sixty kings reigned. . . . 453 
 
 XIV. Dynasty. 
 
 XIV. Dynasty of Seventy-six 
 Xoite Kings, 
 
 Reigned 184 
 
 or 484 
 
 Historical Notices. 
 
 Ammenemes was killed by his eunuchs. — Africamis. 
 
 Sesostris was four cubits, three palms, and two inches in stature. 
 He conquered all Asia, and all the country as far as Thrace : he 
 erected monuments every where of his victories " insculpique 
 voluit inter fortes, virorum propria monumentis ; inter imbelles, 
 mulierum." He was reckoned the greatest king after Osiris. 
 
 Labaris built the labyrinth in the Arsenoitic nome, for a 
 sepulchre. — Eusebius. 
 
*30 
 
 EGYPTIAN RECORDS. 
 
 XV. Dynasty of Shepherds. 
 
 Years. 
 
 1. Saites, who gave name 
 
 to the Saite nome .... 19 
 
 2. Beon, or Byon 44 
 
 3. Pachnan, or Apachnas 61 
 
 4. Staan 50 
 
 5. Archies 49 
 
 6. Aphobis, or Aphophis 61 
 
 XV. Dynasty of Diopolite 
 Kings, 
 
 Years. 
 Who reigned 250 
 
 Sum total, 284 
 
 XVI. Dynasty of Greek* XVI. Dynasty of Five Theban 
 
 Shepherds. Kings, 
 
 Thirty-two Kings reigned 518 Who reigned 190 
 
 vfi ^P ^v* TflP ?F Tf" 
 
 # # # # * # 
 
 XVII. Dynasty of other XVII. Dynasty consisted of 
 
 Shepherds 3 and Thebans. foreign Shepherds from 
 
 Phoenice. 
 Forty-three Shepherds & 
 
 forty-three Thebans of 
 
 Diospolis 153 1. Saites, who reigned .. 19 
 
 2. Beon 43 
 
 * * * 3. Aphophis 14 
 
 4. Archies 30 
 
 # * # 
 
 Sum total, 106 
 
 Historical Notices. 
 
 The Fifteenth Dynasty were six foreign Kings from Phoenice, 
 who made themselves masters of Memphis. They also built a 
 city in the Sethroitic nome, whence they made an incursion, and 
 gained possession of Egypt. — Africanus. 
 
 In the reign of Aphophis, Joseph came to Egypt.— Eusebius. 
 
 * Probably " Other Shepherds." 
 
CHRONICLE OF MANETHON. 
 
 31 
 
 XVIII. Dynasty of Sixteen 
 Diospolite Kings. 
 
 Years. 
 1. Amos 
 
 S. Chebros 13 
 
 3. Amenophthis 21 
 
 4. Amersis 22 
 
 5. Misaphris 13 
 
 6. Misphragmouthosis . . 26 
 
 7. Touthmosis 9 
 
 8. Amenophis, or Mem- 
 non 31 
 
 9. Horus 37 
 
 10. Acherres 32 
 
 11. Rhos 6 
 
 12. Chebres 12 
 
 13. Acherres 12 
 
 14. Armeses 5 
 
 15. Rammeses 1 
 
 16. Amenoph 19 
 
 Sum total,, 293 
 
 XVIII. Dynasty of Sixteen 
 Diospolite Kings. 
 
 Years. 
 
 1. Amosis 25 
 
 2. Chebron 13 
 
 3. Ammenophis 21 
 
 4. Miphris 12 
 
 5. Misphragmouthosis . . 26 
 
 6. Touthmosis 9 
 
 7. Amenophis, or Mem- 
 non 31 
 
 8. Orus 36 or 38 
 
 9. Achencherses 12 
 
 10. Athoris 39 
 
 11. Chencheres 16 
 
 12. Cherres 15 
 
 13. Armes or Danaus .... 5 
 
 14. Ammeses, or ^Egyptus 68 
 
 15. Menophis 40 
 
 * * * 
 
 Sum total, 348 
 
 XIX. Dynasty of Seven 
 Diospolitan Kings. 
 
 1. Sethos 51 
 
 2. Rhapsaces 61 
 
 XIX. Dynasty of Five 
 Diospolitan Kings. 
 
 1. Sethos 55 
 
 2. Rhapses 66 
 
 Historical Notices. 
 
 In the reign of Amos, Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt. — 
 Africanus. Syncellus says, " In his time Moses was educated in 
 
 Egypt." 
 
 In the reign of Misphragmouthosis the deluge of Deucalion 
 happened. 
 
 Amenophis, was called Memnon, of whom was the vocal statue. 
 — Africanus. 
 
 In the reign of Chencheres, Eusebius conjectures that the Exode 
 happened. 
 
*32 
 
 EGYPTIAN RECORDS. 
 
 Years, 
 
 3. Ammenephthes 20 
 
 4. Rammeses 60 
 
 5. Ammenemnes 5 
 
 6. Thouoris — 
 
 Sum total, 209 
 
 Years. 
 
 3. Ammenephthes ...... 40 
 
 4. Ammenemmes 26 
 
 5. Thouoris 7 
 
 Sum total, 194 
 
 THIRD TOME OF MANETHON S CHRONICLE. 
 
 XX. Dynasty of Diospolite 
 Kings. 
 
 XX. Dynasty of Diospolite 
 Kings. 
 
 Twelve kings reigned . . 135 Twelve kings reigned . . 178 
 
 XXI. Dynasty of Seven Tanite 
 Kings. 
 
 XXI. Dynasty of Seven Tanite 
 Kings. 
 
 1. Smedes 26 
 
 2. Psousenes, orPsousenes 46 
 
 3. Nephelcheres 4 
 
 4. Amenenophthis 9 
 
 5. Osochor 6 
 
 6. Pinaches 9 
 
 7. Sousennes 30 
 
 1. Smendis 26 
 
 2. Psousennes 41 
 
 3. Nephercheres ■„ . . 4 
 
 4. Amenophthis 9 
 
 5. Osochor 6 
 
 6. Psinaches 9 
 
 7. Psousennes 35 
 
 Sum total, 130 
 
 Sum total, 130 
 
 Historical Notices. 
 
 Thouoris, called Polybus by Homer, was the husband of Alcandra 
 who entertained Menelaus. 
 
CHRONICLE OF MANETHON. 
 
 *33 
 
 XXII. Dynasty, Nine 
 Bubastite Kings. 
 
 Years. 
 
 1. Sesonchis 21 
 
 2. Os6r5th 15 
 
 3. * * * -| 
 
 4. *". * * > 25 
 
 5. * * * J 
 
 6. Takellothis 13 
 
 7. * * 
 
 8. * * 
 
 9. * * 
 
 * J 
 
 XXII. Dynasty, Three 
 Bubastite Kings, 
 
 Years. 
 
 1. Sesenchosis 21 
 
 2. Osorthon 15 
 
 3. Takellothis 13 
 
 Together, 49 
 
 Sum total, 120 
 
 XXIII. Dynasty, Four 
 Tanite Kings. 
 
 1 . Petoubates 40 
 
 2. Osorcho 8 
 
 3. Psammous 10 
 
 4. Zet 31 
 
 Sum total, 89 
 
 XXIII. Dynasty, Three 
 Tanite Kings. 
 
 1. Petoubastes 25 
 
 2. Osorthon 9 
 
 3. Psammous 10 
 
 Sum total, 44 
 
 XXIV. Dynasty. 
 Bocchoris the Saite .... 6 
 
 XXIV. Dynasty. 
 Bocchoris the Saite .... 44 
 
 Historical Notices. 
 
 In the reign of Petoubates was the first Olympiad. — Africanus. 
 
 Osorthon was by the Egyptians called Hercules. 
 
 In the reign of Bocchoris a lamb was heard to speak. 
 
 / 
 
*34 
 
 EGYPTIAN RECORDS. 
 
 XXV. Dynasty, Three 
 ^Ethiopian Kings. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Sabbacon 8 
 
 Seueclios 14 
 
 3. Tarcos 18 
 
 Sum total, 40 
 
 XXV. Dynasty, Three 
 ^Ethiopians. 
 
 Years. 
 
 1. Sabbacon 12 
 
 2. Seuechos 12 
 
 3. Taracos 24 
 
 Sum total, 44 
 
 XXVI. Dynasty, Nine Saite 
 Kings. 
 
 1. Stephinates 7 
 
 2. Nerepsos . . ; 6 
 
 3. Nechao 8 
 
 4. Psammiticus 54 
 
 5. Nechao 2, 6 
 
 6. Psammouthis 6 
 
 7. Ouaphris 19 
 
 8. Amosis 44 
 
 9. Psammacherites 6 months 
 
 Sum total, 150| 
 
 XXVI. Dynasty, Nine Saite 
 Kings. 
 
 1 . Ammeris the Ethiopian 12 
 
 2. Stephanathis 7 
 
 3. Nekepsos 6 
 
 4. Nechao 8 
 
 5. Psammitichus 45 
 
 6. Nechao 2, . , 6 
 
 7. Psammouthis, or Psam- 
 mitichus 2 17 
 
 8. Ouaphris 25 
 
 9. Amosis 42 
 
 Sum total.. 168 
 
 XXVII. Dynasty, Eight 
 Persians. 
 
 1. Cambyses 6 
 
 XXVII. Dynasty, Eight 
 Persians, 
 
 1 . Cambyses 3 
 
 Historical Notices. 
 
 Sabbacon carried Bocchoris into captivity and burnt him alive. 
 
 Nechao 2 besieged Jerusalem, and carried king Joachas into 
 captivity. — Africanus. 
 
 Under Ouaphris, the remainder of the Jews sought refuge, 
 when Jerusalem was taken by the Assyrians. — Africanus. 
 
 Cambyses, in the fifth year of his reign over Persia, conquered 
 Egypt. 
 
CHRONICLE OF MANETHON. 
 
 *35 
 
 Years. 
 
 2. Darius Hystaspis .... 36 
 
 3. Xerxes the Great .... 21 
 
 4. Artabanus ..7 months 
 
 5. Artaxerxes 41 
 
 6. Xerxes .... 2 months 
 7- Sogdianus ..7 months 
 
 S. Darius, son of Xerxes 19 
 
 Years. 
 
 2. The Magi . . 7 months 
 
 3. Darius 3 
 
 4. Xerxes, son of Darius 21 
 5. Artaxerxes Longimanus 40 
 
 6. Xerxes 2 7 months 
 
 7. Sogdianus ..7 months 
 
 8. Darius, son of Xerxes 19 
 
 Sum total, 124- 
 
 Sum total, 120 
 
 XXVIII. Dynasty. XXVIII. Dynasty. 
 
 Amyrteos of Sais 6 Amyrtaeus the Saite ...... 6 
 
 XXIX. Dynasty, Four Men- 
 desian Kings. 
 
 1. Nephereites „ « . 6 
 
 2. Achoris 13 
 
 3. Psammouthis 1 
 
 4. Nephorotes. . 4 months 
 
 XXIX. Dynasty, Five Men- 
 desian Kings. 
 
 1 Nepherites 6 
 
 2. Achoris 13 
 
 3. Psammouthis 1 
 
 4. Nepherites ..4 months 
 
 5. Mouthis 1 
 
 Sum total, 20^- 
 
 Sum total, 21 : 
 
 XXX. Dynasty, Three 
 Sebennyte Kings. 
 
 1. Nectanebes IS 
 
 2. Teos 2 
 
 3. Nectanebes IS 
 
 Sum total, 38 
 
 XXX. Dynasty, Three 
 Sebennyte Kings. 
 
 1. Nectanebes 10 
 
 2. Teos 2 
 
 3. Nectanebes 8 
 
 Sum total, 20 
 
*36 EGYPTIAN RECORDS. 
 
 XXXI Dynasty, Three XXXI. Dynasty, Three 
 
 Persian Kings. Persian Kings. 
 
 Years. Years. 
 
 1. Ochus, in the twentieth 1. Ochus, in the twentieth 
 
 year of his reign over year of his reign 2 
 
 Persia 2 2. Arses 4 
 
 2. Arses 3 3. Darius, who was con- 
 
 3. Darius 4 quered by Alexander . . 6 
 
 Sum total, 9 Sum total, 12 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 Comparison of the two foregoing Chronicles* 
 
 It will not be amiss, before we proceed further, to 
 pause and compare the Old Chronicle with that of 
 Manethon. By this comparison some light will be 
 thrown on the nature of both. 
 
 I. DYNASTY OF GODS. 
 
 Old Chronicle. 
 
 Years. 
 1. Vulcan reigned an in- 
 definite number of years 
 S. Helios, the Sun 30,000 
 
 3. The twelve gods, in- 
 cluding Saturn 3,684 
 
 4. The eight demigods. . 217 
 
 Chronicle of Manethon. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Vulcan 9,000 
 
 The Sun, and the rest 
 of the six gods, in- 
 cluding Saturn ...... 2,658-! 
 
 The nine demigods .... 3,068-! 
 
COMPARISON OF THE TWO CHRONICLES. 
 
 *37 
 
 II. DYNASTIES OF MORTAL RINGS, 
 
 Old Chronicle. 
 
 Years. 
 1st generation of the 
 
 Cynic Circle 
 
 2d generation 
 
 3d generation 
 
 4th generation 
 
 Sth generation 
 
 6th generation 
 
 7th generation 
 
 8th generation 
 
 9th generation 
 
 "10th generation 
 
 11th generation 
 
 12th generation 
 
 13th generation 
 
 14th generation 
 
 15th generation 
 
 Sum total of the 15 
 generations 445 
 
 16th Dynasty of Tanites 
 
 ... 190 
 
 1 7th of Memphites . . .105 
 
 18th of Memphites ...348 
 
 19 194 
 
 20 228 
 
 21 121 
 
 22 48 
 
 23 ! 19 
 
 24 44 
 
 25 44 
 
 26 177 
 
 27 224 
 
 28 ** 
 
 29 59 
 
 50 18 
 
 Manethon, ac 
 
 Africanus. 
 
 Years. 
 1st Dynasty of Thinites 
 
 253 
 
 2d of Thinites 502 
 
 3d of Memphites ...214 
 
 4th of Memphites 274 
 
 5th of Elephantines...248 
 
 6th of Memphites 503 
 
 7th of Memphites 70 days 
 8th of Memphites . . .146 
 
 9th cf Heracleots 409 
 
 10th of Heracleots 185 
 
 11th of Diospolites 45 
 
 12th of Diospolites 160 
 
 13th of Diospolites 184 
 
 14th * * * 
 15th of Shepherds 284 
 
 16th of Shepherds 558 
 
 17th of Shepherds and 
 
 Thebans 253 
 
 18th of Diospolites . . .265 
 19th of Diospolites ...2C8 
 20th of Diospolites ...135 
 
 21st cf Tanites 150 
 
 22d cf Bubastites 120 
 
 25d of Tanites 89 
 
 24th of Saite 6 
 
 25th of Ethiopians 40 
 
 26th of Sa'ites 150 
 
 27th of Persians 124 
 
 28th of Sa'ites 6 
 
 29th cf Mendesians ...20 
 50th of Sebennytes 58 
 
 ccording to 
 
 Eusebius. 
 
 Years. 
 1st Dynasty of Thinite 
 
 Kings 252 
 
 2d of Thinites 297 
 
 5d of Memphites ...198 
 
 4th of Memphites ...448 
 
 5th of Eiephanties ...248 
 
 6th of Memphites . . .205 
 
 7th of Memphites 75 days 
 
 8th of Memphites ...100 
 
 9th of Heracleots ...100 
 
 10th of Heracleots ...185 
 
 irth of Diospolites ... 43 
 
 12th cf Diospolites ...245 
 
 15th of Diospolites ...453 
 
 14thofXoites 184 
 
 15th of Diospolites ...250 
 
 16th cf Thebans 196 
 
 17th of Shepherds 508 
 
 18th of Diospolites 548 
 
 19th of Diospolites 194 
 
 20th cf Diospolites 178 
 
 21st of Tanites 150 
 
 22d of Bubastites 49 
 
 25d of Tanites 44 
 
 24th of Sa'ites 44 
 
 25th of Ethiopians 44 
 
 26th of Sa'ites 168 
 
 27th of Persians 120 
 
 28th of Sa'ites 6 
 
 29th of Mendesians ... 21 
 50th of Sebennytes 20 
 
 This comparison affords some very important hints, 
 and may enable us to unravel the perplexities which 
 
 * The kings of the eighteenth dynasty in the Old Chronicle 
 
*38 COMPARISON OF THE CHRONICLES. 
 
 forms an important epoch in history, of which we 
 these chronological fragments present to our first 
 view. 
 
 It shows, in the first place, that the first fifteen 
 dynasties of Manethon correspond to the fifteen gene- 
 rations of the Cynic Circle in the Old Chronicle. A 
 more minute examination of Manethon's Chronicle 
 will afford us reason to believe that the collective 
 reigns of these fifteen dynasties ought to be com- 
 prised in a: period nearly equal to the years of the 
 Cynic Circle. 
 
 Secondly, it appears, that although the whole 
 period of time comprised by the Old Chronicle is so 
 prodigious, yet that if we withdraw the reigns of 
 Vulcan, the Sun, and the other gods, which seem 
 rather to be the supplements of an astronomical cycle 
 than historical dates, the remaining number of years 
 is reduced to a moderate space. The commencement 
 of the first dynasty of mortal kings, that is, of the first 
 generation of the Cynic circle, will then fall within the 
 limit of authentic history, or at least will not go far 
 beyond it. 
 
 Thirdly, the accession of the eighteenth dynasty 
 
 are termed Memphitesj and in that of Manethon, Diospolites. 
 Theie is, however, no contradiction between the two Chronicles 
 in this instance; for Manethon himself informs us, in a passage 
 that will be cited hereafter, that the princes of this race were 
 kings of the Thebaid, who had driven out the Shepherds from 
 Lower Egypt, and established their dominion over the whole 
 country. They are called Diospolites, in reference to the first 
 princes of the dynasty; and Memphites, with respect to the 
 succeeding number. 
 
SERIES OF SYNCELLUS. *39 
 
 have an opportunity of fixing the date from other 
 sources. We are thus enabled to connect the whole 
 series with authentic chronology ; and a minute exa- 
 mination of the eighteenth and the twelve succeeding 
 dynasties, which fall within the period when the 
 Egyptian history becomes related to that of other 
 nations, enables us to estimate what degree of regard 
 the whole of these Chronicles deserves. These 
 remarks are, however, thrown out merely by antici- 
 pation ; and we require some further proof, before 
 we are at liberty to adopt them. This proof 
 will develope itself in the course of the following 
 investigation. 
 
 We shall now extract the series of Egyptian kings 
 .which Syncellus has given, without assigning his 
 authorities. 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 Series of Syncellus. 
 
 Years. Years. 
 
 1. Mestraim, or Mines, or 9. Amenemes 29 
 
 Menes 35 10. Amosis 2 
 
 2. Kouroudes 63 11. Akesepthres 13 
 
 3. Aristarchus 34 12. Achoreus 9 
 
 4. Spanius 36 13. Armi'yses 4 
 
 5. * * * 1 14. Chamois 12 
 
 6. * * * /' 15. Amesises 65 
 
 7. Serapis 23 16. * * * 14 
 
 8. Sesonchosis 49 17. Ouse 50 
 
*40 
 
 SERIES OF SYNCELLUS. 
 
 Years. 
 
 18. Rameses 29 
 
 19. Ramessomeoes .... 15 
 
 20. Thysimares 31 
 
 21. Ramsseseos 23 
 
 22. Ramessemeno .... 19 
 In his reign Abraham 
 
 visited Egypt, says 
 Syncellus. 
 
 23. Ramesse, son of 
 Baetes 39 
 
 24. Ramesse, son of 
 Ouaphres .. , 29 
 
 25 Koncharis 6 
 
 26. Silites .. 19 
 
 27. Baion 43 
 
 23. Apachnas 36 
 
 29. Aphophis 41 
 
 30. Sethos 50 
 
 31. Kertus 29 
 
 32. Aseth 24 
 
 33. Amosis or Tethmosis 22 
 
 34. Chebron* 13 
 
 35. Amephes 15 
 
 36. Amenses 11 
 
 37. Misphragmouthosis .. 16 
 
 38. Misphres 23 
 
 39. Touthmosis 39 
 
 40. Amenophthis 34 
 
 41. Horus 48 
 
 42. Achencheres 25 
 
 43. Athoris 29 
 
 44. Chencheres 26 
 
 45. Acheres 8 or 30 
 
 46. Armaios, or Danaus . . 9 
 47- Ramesses, or iEgyptus 68 
 
 48. Amenophis 8 
 
 49. Thouoris 17 
 
 50. Nechepsos 19 
 
 51. Psammouthis 13 
 
 Years. 
 
 52. * * . * 4 
 
 53. Kertus 20 
 
 54. Rhampsis 45 
 
 55. Amenses, called also 
 Amenemes 26 
 
 56. Ochyras 14 
 
 57. Amedes 27 
 
 58. Thouoris, or Polybus 50 
 
 59. Athothes, or Phousa- 
 nus 28 
 
 60. Kenkenes 39 
 
 61. Ouennephes 42 
 
 62. Soussakeim, who over- 
 came the Lybians, ^Ethi- 
 opians, and Troglydytes, 
 and all the country from 
 Egypt to Jerusalem, 
 which he plundered . . 34 
 
 63. Psouenos 25 
 
 64. Ammenophes ....... 9 
 
 65. Nephecheres 6 
 
 66. Saites 15 
 
 67. Psinaches 9 
 
 68. Petoubastes 44 
 
 69. Osorthon 9 
 
 70. Psammos 10 
 
 71 . Koncharis 21 
 
 72. Osorthon 15 
 
 73. Takelophes 13 
 
 74. Bocchoris 44 
 
 75. Sabakon 12 
 
 76. Sebechon 12 
 
 77. Tarakes 20 
 
 7S. Amaes 38 
 
 79. Stephinathes 27 
 
 SO. Nakepsos 13 
 
 81. Nechaab 1 1 
 
 82. Psammitichus 14 
 
 83. Nechaab 2 9 
 
SYNCELLUS, HERODOTUS, AND DIODORUS. *4l 
 
 Years. Years. 
 
 S4. Psammouthis,orPsam- 88. Nepherites 6 
 
 mitichus 2 17 89. Achoris 13 
 
 85. Ouaphres 34 90. Psammouthis 2 
 
 86. Amasis 50 91. Menas 4 
 
 1 92. Nectanebes 2 
 
 87* Amyrtaius 6 93. Teos 2, 
 
 This series of kings reigned, according to Syncellus, from A. M. 
 2900 to 5148, that is, in the computation of this chronologer, from 
 2600 B. C. to 302 B. C. 
 
 SECTION VII. 
 
 Egyptian Chronology, according to Herodotus and Diodoras 
 
 Sieidus. 
 
 The series of Egyptian kings given by Herodotus 
 agrees in the main with that of Diodorus, though 
 they differ from each other in some particulars. This 
 will be best illustrated by setting down the succes- 
 sion according to each historian, in opposite columns. 
 We shall first mention the great numbers, as we have 
 them from both. 
 
 Herodotus enumerates three generations or dynasties 
 of gods, who reigned before Menes. The first were 
 the Eight, or the elder gods. He has not mentioned 
 the period of their reigns. It appears that they 
 resigned the sceptre of Egypt about 17,000 years 
 before Amasis, that is, before the Persian conquest, 
 in B. C. 525. They were succeeded by the dynasty of 
 the twelve younger gods, one of whom was Hercules. 
 
*42 
 
 EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY 
 
 The twelve were followed by Osiris and the other 
 gods of the third generation ; from whose reign, 
 to Amasis, the Egyptians,, according to Herodotus, 
 reckoned 15,000 years. 
 
 Diodorus agrees with Herodotus pretty exactly 
 in this piece of chronology. He says the gods 
 and demigods reigned in Egypt almost 18,000 years. 
 Orus was the last of them ; and after 
 him mortal kings reigned 15,000 
 
 The total number is 33,000 
 This period terminates at the one hundred and 
 eightieth Olympiad, during which Diodorus visited 
 Egypt.* 
 
 We now proceed to the mortal kings. 
 
 According to Herodotus. 
 1. Menes. 
 
 * # * 
 
 After Menes reigned succes- 
 sively three hundred and 
 thirty monarchs, of whom 
 eighteen were Ethiopians, 
 and one an Egyptian wo- 
 man, and the only queen* 
 named 
 
 Nitocris 
 
 According to Diodorus. 
 1. Menis, or Mneves. 
 Many generations after whom, 
 Gnephachthus, father of Boc- 
 
 choris the Wise, who led an 
 
 army into Arabia. 
 
 Fifty-two kings, who reigned 
 1,400 years. After which 
 
 Bousiris 
 
 # # * 
 
 Seven reigns. 
 
 # # # 
 Bousiris 2d 
 
 A chasm in Diodorus's series. 
 
 Osymandyas 
 
 # # # 
 Seven reigns. 
 
 Diod. lib. i. cap. 4, 
 
ACCORDING TO HERODOTUS AND DIODORUS. 
 
 43 
 
 Years. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Ouchoreus 
 
 Moiris, the 332d king 
 
 Sesostris, the 333d 
 
 Pheron, his son, 
 
 who was succeeded by a 
 Memphite citizen whom the 
 Greeks call 
 
 # * # 
 Twelve reigns. 
 
 # # * 
 Myris 
 
 * * * 
 Six reigns 
 
 # * # 
 Sesoosis 
 
 Sesoosis 2d, his son 
 
 * * # 
 
 Many generations. 
 
 * # * 
 Amosis, a tyrant 
 Actisanes, an Ethiopian 
 Menes. or Marus 
 
 An interregnum of five gene- 
 rations. 
 
 Proteus 
 Rhampsinitus, 
 succeeded by 
 
 Cheops, reigned 50 
 
 Kephrenes 56 
 
 Mycerinus 
 
 Asychis 
 
 Anysis 
 
 Sabaco, an Ethiopian 
 
 Anysis again 
 
 Sethos, a priest of Vulcan 
 
 Twelve kings -» 
 
 Psammetichus alone / ** 
 
 Necus, his son 17 
 
 Psammis 6 
 
 Apries 25 
 
 Amasis 44 
 
 The end of the reign of 
 destruction of the indepe 
 
 Ketes, or Proteus 
 Remphis 
 
 Six reigns. 
 
 Nilus 
 
 Chemmis, or Chembes . . 50 
 
 Kephres 56 
 
 Mycherinus, or Cherinus 
 Bocchoris, a very wise prince 
 
 Sabach, or Sabaco 
 
 Anarchy for two years. 
 
 Twelve kings 
 
 Psammetichus alone 
 
 * * * 
 Five generations. 
 
 * * » 
 Apries 22 
 
 Amasis 55 
 
 Amasis is the epoch of the 
 ndence of Egypt by the 
 
*44 EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY 
 
 conquest of Cambyses, and is a well-ascertained date 
 in history. 
 
 We shall now extract the relic preserved by 
 Syncellus, of the Laterculus of Eratosthenes. 
 
 Many names in this series are the same as those 
 which occur in the succession detailed by Herodotus 
 and Diodorus ; and they will assist us, in a very im- 
 portant manner, in connecting the chronology of 
 these writers with that of Manethon and the Old 
 Chronicle. 
 
 SECTION VIII. 
 
 Remains of the Laterculus of Eratosthenes. 
 
 KINGS OF THE THEBANS. 
 
 
 Apollodorus, the chronologer," says Syncellus, 
 has recorded another dynasty of Egyptian or 
 Theban kings, as they are termed, consisting of 
 thirty-eight princes, who reigned 1076 years. This 
 catalogue was collected by Eratosthenes from Egyp- 
 tian authorities by order of the kings, and written out 
 by him in the Greek language/' 
 
 Syncellus says that this series commences in the 
 year of the world 2900, and terminates in 3976, that 
 is, according to his computation, from 2600 to 1524. 
 before Christ. 
 
 Years. 
 
 1. Mines Thebinites, interpreted Dionius 62 
 
 2. Athothes Hermogenes 59 
 
 3 . Athothes __ Hermogenes 32 
 
ACCORDING TO ERATOSTHENES. *45 
 
 Years. 
 
 4. Diabies, interpreted Philesteros, or Philetaerus 16 
 
 5. Pemphos, which should be written Semphos, son of 
 Athothes Heracleides 18 
 
 6. Toigar Amachos Momcheiri, a Memphite, interpreted 
 " A man with supernumerary limbs, or Tisandros Peris- 
 someles" 79 
 
 7. Stoichos, son of Toigar,— Mars Insensate 6 
 
 8. Gosormies Eryrnfxvro; (evidently a corrupt 
 
 reading : Scaliger reads AirYj<ri$ Ttavrw) 30 
 
 9. Mares son of Gosormies, — Heliodorus, gift of the Sun . . 26 
 
 10. Anoyphes Filius Communis 20 
 
 11. Sirios (Siroes, Scalig.) — Gense filius, or according to others 
 Abascantus, i. e. invidia carens 18 
 
 12. Chnoubos Gneuros, — Aurese vel Aurei filius 22 
 
 13. Rauosis Archicrater, or Robustorum princeps 13 
 
 14. Biyris 10 
 
 15. Saophis Comatus vel Negociator 29 
 
 16. Sensaophis, that is, Saophis, 2 27 
 
 17. Moscheris Heliodotus 31 
 
 18. Mousthis 33 
 
 19. Pammos Archondes 35 
 
 20. Apappous* Maximus, reigned one hour less than 100 
 
 21 . Achescos Ocaras 1 
 
 22. Nitocris, a queen . . Minerva Victrix 6 
 
 23. Myrtaios Ammonodotus 22 
 
 24. Thyosimares (xpccrctio$ 6 svnv r t \io$, or probably 
 
 6 sa-tiv rjXio$ xpccfq.ios, — idem sonat quod Sol. invictus . . 12 
 
 25. Thinillus Qui auxit patrium imperium 8 
 
 26. Semphroucratis. . . . Hercules Arpocrates 18 
 
 27- Chouther Taurus tyrannus 7 
 
 28. Meures Philoscorus, i. e. philosophus ? 12 
 
 29. Chomaephtha .... Mundus Philephsestus 11 
 
 * Apappous is interpreted Msyi<rto$ } referring, perhaps, to the 
 stature of this king. Apophis was an Egyptian giant, accord- 
 ing to Plutarch. This seems to be the name of which the 
 Greeks made Epaphus. 
 
*46 EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY 
 
 Years. 
 
 30. Ancounios Ochy, interpreted Tyrannus 60 
 
 31. Penteathyris* 16 
 
 32. Stamenemes 2 23 
 
 33. Sistosichermes Herculis robur 55 
 
 34. Maris 43 
 
 35. Siph6as,f Hermes Vulcani filius 5 
 
 36. * * * 14 
 
 37. Phrouron Nilus 5 
 
 38. Amouthantaios 63 
 
 The foregoing list was obtained by Eratosthenes, 
 from the sacred scribes of Thebes or Diospolis. 
 
 Syncellus supposes the last king to have ascended 
 the throne in A.M. 3913, that is 1587 years before 
 Christ. Fifty-three other names were inserted in 
 the catalogue of Apollodorus, who succeeded him. 
 These Syncellus has omitted. 
 
 It is probable that Eratosthenes had continued his 
 chronicle down to his own time, for this was the 
 common practice of chronologers in that age. It is 
 further to be supposed, unless we mean to impute a 
 fraud to Syncellus, a suspicion for which there is no 
 ground, that this compiler obtained the date he has 
 given for the termination of this series of kings, by 
 computing upwards from the time of the Ptolemies 
 
 * Penteathyris is evidently P'hont Athyri, the high-priest 
 of Athyri. Some of the kings were named simply after the 
 gods, as several in this catalogue. So Thouoris, seems to be 
 Thoucris, who was an Egyptian goddess. 
 
 f Siphoas, Hermes, Vulcani filius. Jablonski proves 
 that we ought to read Siphthas, or rather Saphtha, and that 
 Hermes was the Egyptian name, with a Greek termination, 
 and not a part of the Greek interpretation of the name 
 Siphtha. 
 
ACCORDING TO ERATOSTHENES. *47 
 
 the reigns of the last fifty-three princes, as originally 
 set down by Eratosthenes. This being the case, if, 
 to 1524, the period which intervened between the 
 demise of the last king in the series and the Christian 
 era, we add 1075, the sum total of all the reigns, from 
 Menes to Amouthantaios (according to Syncellus's way 
 of computing it, for the numbers in reality amount 
 only to 1055) we shall obtain 2662 years before 
 Christ, for the date of the accession of Menes, the 
 first king of Egypt, according to Eratosthenes. This 
 calculation, however, proceeds on the supposition that 
 Syncellus has given us a faithful transcript, and has 
 accuratelv reckoned the total numbers. 
 
PART II. 
 
 ANALYSIS OP THE FOREGOING DOCUMENTS* 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 Preliminary Observations. 
 
 We shall now enter upon the attempt to elicit order 
 from this assemblage of confused and contradictory 
 documents. Nothing can be more discouraging than 
 the first survey of the fragments we have extracted.* 
 A nearer scrutiny will, however, discover many marks 
 of agreement and mutual confirmation ; and as the 
 discrepancy is too great to allow us to regard these 
 coincidences as the effect of design, we shall thus 
 obtain a proof that the antiquity of Egypt rests on 
 foundation of authentic memorials. 
 
 * When I first examined these fragments, with a view of 
 computing from them the Egyptian chronology, they appeared 
 to me to be an inextricable tissue of error and contradiction. 
 I repeated my attempt several times, at intervals, before I 
 obtained the smallest hope of success, or a ray of light to 
 guide me through the labyrinth. At length I thought I 
 discovered a clue, which I have followed, and have persuaded 
 myself that it has enabled me to unravel the mystery. 
 
 h 
 
50* ANALYSIS OF THE FRAGMENTS 
 
 The method we shall follow in the investigation of 
 this subject is,, to begin with the later dynasties, 
 which fall within the era of general history. After 
 the erection of the Persian monarchy, and even for 
 some ages before that era, from the period when the 
 Greeks became a powerful maritime people, the 
 affairs of different nations are more within the sphere 
 of our acquaintance than during the earlier times. 
 The annals of Greece become now pretty well fixed, 
 by means of the Olympic register ; and those of the 
 East, by the succession of Assyrian kings, in Pto- 
 lemy's Canon. By comparing those fragments of 
 history, which refer to these later ages, we obtain 
 an insight into the methods of the Egyptian chrono- 
 logers, and learn how far they can be trusted in the 
 darker regions of antiquity. 
 
 Our chief dependance must be, throughout this 
 analysis, on historical synchronisms. It is not by 
 taking up either of the successions as above copied 
 from the old authors, and by adding up all the years 
 from the beginning to the end, that we shall make out 
 any agreement between them. Their accuracy will 
 not bear such a test as this. In each, however, 
 we shall find some particular names and dates which 
 coincide with some of the names and dates in other 
 tables. These we must take as fixed points, on which 
 the whole of our machinery must hinge ; from these we 
 compute upwards and downwards, and if we find too 
 long a succession of reigns in any list intervening 
 between two eras well ascertained, they must be 
 considered as interpolated, if it appears that the dates 
 originally corresponded. 
 
 It has been through the want of attention to this 
 
OF EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY. *51 
 
 rule of proceeding that so many authors have been 
 led into error, and have failed to elucidate these 
 fragments of chronology. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 Dates of the Egyptian Chronology computed upwards, from 
 the Persian conquest to the accession of Psammitichus. 
 
 The twenty-sixth dynasty, both in the Old Chro- 
 nicle and in that of Mauethon, terminates with the 
 conquest of Egypt by Cambyses. This epoch we shall 
 regard as the conclusion of the Egyptian chronology. 
 It is a fixed point in history, concerning which all 
 chronologers are agreed. Accordingly, we shall take 
 no concern about the succeeding part of any of these 
 records. We have only to dispose of the first 
 twenty-six dynasties. 
 
 The Persian conquest happened in the year before 
 Christ 525.* From this period we commence our 
 reckoning, and compute upwards towards the more 
 obscure ages. 
 
 * Amasis died, according to Diodorus, in the third year of 
 the sixty-third Olympiad, while Cambyses was making prepa- 
 rations for invading Egypt, and was succeeded by his son 
 Psammenitus, who reigned only six months. Diodor. lib. i. 
 All chronologers agree in this date. See Prideaux's Con- 
 nection of the Old and New Testament, vol. i. Usher's 
 Chronologia Veteris Testamenti. 
 
*52 EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY 
 
 The longest reign in the twenty-sixth dynasty is 
 that of Psammitichus, who was one of the earliest 
 princes. Herodotus says that he reigned in Egypt 
 fifty-four years, and with this number Africanus 
 agrees. From the time of Psammitichus, the 
 Greeks had constant intercourse with Egypt, and 
 from this era, to that of the Persian conquest, the 
 succession of reigns is set down with an exact 
 reckoning of years by Herodotus. 
 
 Several of the intermediate princes are also men- 
 tioned in our sacred Scriptures, and the dates of their 
 reigns are ascertained by events recorded in other 
 histories. On these accounts we may consider the 
 Egyptian chronology of the intervening period as 
 settled by authentic memorials. 
 
 The following is a tabular view of this succession : 
 
 According to 
 
 According to 
 
 According to 
 
 According to 
 
 Herodotus. 
 
 Jul. Africanus. 
 
 Eusebius. 
 
 Syncellus. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Psammitichus 
 
 Psammitichus 
 
 Psammitichus 
 
 Psammitichus 
 
 reigned 54 
 
 reigned 54 
 
 reigned 45 
 
 reigned 44 
 
 Nekus 1 Nechao II 6 Nechao IT 6 Nechaab 9 
 
 Psammis 6 Psammouthis... 6 Psammouthis... 17 Psamoutis 17 
 
 Apries 25 Quaphris 19 Ouaphris 25 Ouaphris 34 
 
 Amasis 44 Amosis 44 Amosis 42 Amasis 50 
 
 Add... 525 
 
 671* 
 
 Herodotus says, that Necus, whom Manethon calls 
 Nechao, defeated the Syrians at Magdolum, and 
 
 * There is some confusion in the numbers given by 
 Manethon's transcribers, which appears to have arisen from 
 carelessness in copying. In some instances the lengths of 
 succeeding reigns are reversed. It seems tolerably evident 
 that in this succession the copies of Manethon originally 
 agreed exactly with Herodotus. 
 
FROM CAMBYSES UPWARDS. *53 
 
 gained possession of the town of Cadytis, which he 
 describes as a city in the mountains of Palestine, 
 equal in extent to Sardis. This city is doubtless 
 Jerusalem, and the battle of Magdolum, is the battle 
 of Megiddo, at which Pharaoh Necho killed Josiah, 
 the king of Judah, after which he gained possession 
 of Jerusalem, and raised Jehoiakim to the vacant 
 throne. The death of kin^ Josiah is fixed in the 
 scriptural chronology, about the year 607 B. C. 
 which falls within the reign of Necus, as dated by 
 Herodotus and Manethon, and this agreement confirms 
 the credit of these historians. 
 
 Secondly, Apries, or Ouaphris, according to Hero- 
 dotus, made war against Tyre and Sidon. He was 
 engaged in the affairs of Syria. Accordingly we hear 
 of him in Scripture, under the name of Hophra. 
 Zedekiah, the last king of Judah, relying on the 
 assistance of Pharaoh Hophra, revolted from Nebu- 
 chadnezzar, king of Babylon. This was the same 
 Egyptian prince who was threatened by the prophet 
 Ezechiel. 
 
 The destruction of Jerusalem by the king of Baby- 
 lon, which, according to the sacred historians, 
 
 Herodotus says that Psammitichus reigned fifteen years 
 jointly with eleven other chieftains, and afterwards acquired 
 the sole command. Some writers have imagined that the 
 fifty-four years of his reign comprised only the period of bis 
 single administration, and add fifteen years to compute the 
 date of his accession jointly with the eleven other chiefs. But 
 the most obvious meaning of Herodotus is against this supposi- 
 tion, and it is contradicted by the circumstances of the history, 
 and by the tables of Manethon, as we shall observe on 
 examining the preceding part of the twenty-sixth dynasty. 
 
*54 EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY 
 
 happened during the reign of Hophra, is fixed by the 
 scriptural chronology in the year B. C. 586,, and this 
 date falls within the reign of Ouaphris, as computed 
 Herodotus and Manethon. 
 
 These coincidences prove that we may depend on 
 the accuracy of our chronicles in this part of their 
 record. We shall therefore regard the death of 
 Psamrnitichus in B. C. 617, and the commencement 
 of his reign in B. C. 671, as dates well ascertained. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 Dates of Egyptian Chronology computed upwards, from 
 Psamrnitichus, to the period when Egypt became subject to 
 Ethiopian kings. 
 
 It appears, from the agreement of several historians, 
 that at a period not very long preceding the reign 
 of Psamrnitichus, the throne of Egypt had fallen into 
 the possession of the Ethiopians. "Herodotus assigns 
 to Sabbaco, the Ethiopian monarch of Egypt, a reign 
 of fifty years ; but the account of this prince, in the 
 narrative of the Greek historian, is accompanied by 
 circumstances which prove that there is some mistake 
 in this number. Manethon 's chronicle, as preserved 
 by Eusebius, assigns to him only twelve years, and 
 gives forty-four to the whole Ethiopian dynasty, con- 
 sisting of three kings. 
 
 That the Ethiopians had at this time possession of 
 Egypt, we might learn from the record of the history 
 
FROM PSAMMITICHUS UPWARDS. *55 
 
 of Israel. For we read in it that Sennacherib, the 
 Assyrian,, carried on war with the Ethiopian king 
 called Tirhakah; and there is no probable way in 
 which the arms of the Ethiopians could come into 
 contest with those of the Assyrians, unless we 
 suppose that the Ethiopians had gained possession 
 of Egypt, and had thence attempted to add Palestine 
 to their possessions, a country which was always an 
 object of strife between the rulers of Egypt and 
 Syria. 
 
 Strabo mentions an Ethiopian prince, whom he calls 
 Tearchon, and reports to have been a great conqueror. 
 It has been conjectured by Usher, with great proba- 
 bility, that this Tearchon was the Tirhakah above 
 mentioned. 
 
 The last prince of the Ethiopian dynasty, according 
 to Manethon, was Tarakos, and his reign, if we com- 
 pute upwards from the accession of Psammitichus, 
 coincides with the age assigned to Tirhakah by the 
 Hebrew scriptures. There can scarcely be a doubt 
 that these are two names for the same prince : in fact, 
 they only differ in the method of expressing oriental 
 words in European orthography. 
 
 We shall bring this succession into a tabular form, 
 beginning with the twenty-fourth dynasty. 
 
 According to 
 
 According to 
 
 According to 
 
 According to 
 
 Euscbius. 
 
 Africa mis. 
 
 Synccllus. 
 
 Herodotus. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Years. 
 
 
 occhoris the 
 
 Bocchoris the 
 
 Bocchoris 
 
 Anysis, a blind man 
 
 Saite reigned 44 
 
 Saite reigned 6 
 
 reigned 44 
 
 
*56 
 
 EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY 
 
 XXV. Dynasty of XXV. Dynasty of 
 Ethiopians. Ethiopians. 
 
 Sabbakon 12 Sabbakon 8 Sabakon 12 Sabakon the 
 
 Ethiop 50 
 
 Anysis restored. 
 
 Tarakos 20 Tarkos 18 Tarakos 20 Sethon,* a priest 
 
 of Vulcan. 
 
 Seuechos . 
 
 12 Seuechos 14 Sebechon 
 
 44 
 
 49 
 
 14 
 
 49 
 
 XXVI. Dynasty XXVI. Dynasty 
 of Saites. of Saites. 
 
 Ammeres 12 Stephinates 7 Amaes 58 
 
 Stephanathis ... 7 Nechepsos 6 Stephinathis ... 27 
 
 Nechepsos 6 Nechao 8 Nachepsos 13 
 
 Nechao 9 Psammitichus... Nechaab 1 8 
 
 Psammitichus Psammitichus 
 
 33 
 
 * That the Sethon of Herodotus was contemporary with the 
 Tarakos of Manethon, may easily be proved. Sethon was 
 reigning at the time when Sennacherib experienced his cele- 
 brated defeat. The reign of Sennacherib was very short ; it 
 began in the twelfth, and ended in the fifteenth year of 
 Hezekiah. It was, therefore, within the period of Sethon's 
 reign. 
 
 Now Sennacherib was engaged in a war with an Ethiopian 
 king. But the last of the Ethiopian kings in Egypt was 
 Tarakos ; after him the dynasty was removed. The reign of 
 Tarakos is, therefore, the last epoch to which we can assign 
 the expedition of Sennacherib, and the number of years laid 
 down by Manethon, between the reign of Nechao, or Pharaoh 
 Necho, and the Ethiopian dynasty, will not allow us to 
 remove the date of this event further back. Tarakos the 
 Ethiopian was, therefore, ruler of Egypt in the time of 
 Sennacherib; though the Egyptian priests seem to have led 
 Herodotus to suppose that the crown was then on the head of 
 one of their own order. Perhaps the high priest of Vulcan 
 was nominally king, while the royal power and the command 
 of the armies were vested in the Ethiopian chief, who is, 
 therefore, reckoned among the kings, in the most accurate 
 table of this succession. 
 
from psammitichus upwards. *57 
 
 Now, since S3 4- 671 =701, the end of the reign of 
 Tarakos, and of the Ethiopian dynasty, happened in 
 the year B. C. 701, and their accession in 721. The 
 war of Sennacherib the Assyrian against Tirhakah 
 took place in the 1 4th or 15th year of the reign of 
 Hezekiah, viz. B. C. 710; and thus we find that 
 the scriptural date of Tirhakah's expedition falls 
 within the period set down by Manethon for the 
 reign of Tarakos. 
 
 This war of Tirhakah against Sennacherib is 
 remarkable for a celebrated event, which is recorded 
 by the sacred and profane writers in different ways, 
 but by both is mentioned as miraculous. Sennacherib, 
 in his march against the Ethiopian king, meditated 
 an attack upon Jerusalem, then governed by the pious 
 Hezekiah. It was on this occasion that the army of 
 the Assyrian king was destroyed in the night by an 
 angel of the Lord, and Jerusalem miraculously saved. 
 Herodotus also relates the expedition of Sennacherib 
 against Egypt, which was at that time governed by a 
 prince, called by the historian Sethon, who was a 
 priest of Vulcan, and was hated by the Egyptian 
 army. The priest, being deserted by his soldiery, 
 prayed to his god, and was answered by a dream, in 
 which he was commanded to march boldly and attack 
 the Assyrian army. He proceeded at the head of a 
 few labourers and mechanics, and obtained an easy 
 victory ; for, in the depth of the night, a swarm of rats 
 had been sent by Vulcan to gnaw the bow-strings of 
 the Assyrian soldiers. There is scarcely a doubt 
 that these relations belong to the same event. 
 
 Another king of Egypt is mentioned in the Scrip- 
 tures by the name of So, with whom Hoshea, king 
 
*58 EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY 
 
 of Israel, entered into a secret alliance against 
 Shalmaneser, the Assyrian, the predecessor of Senna- 
 cherib. In consequence of this treaty, the Assyrians 
 laid siege to Samaria, and carried the ten tribes of 
 Israel into captivity. This alliance between Hoshea 
 and So was made about 725 B. C. a date which falls 
 within the reign of Sevechus ; and it hence appears 
 that So was the second prince of the Ethiopian 
 dynasty. 
 
 The result is that the subjugation of Egypt by the 
 Ethiopians, or the union of the Egyptian and Ethi- 
 opian crowns, must be dated in the year 745 B. C. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 Of the Four Dynasties which preceded the Ethiopian Conquest, 
 viz. the 2\st, 22d, 23d, and 24th. 
 
 The following is a comparative table of the suc- 
 cession of these dynasties, according to Eusebius, 
 Africanus, and Syncellus. 
 
 ACCORDING TO ACCORDING TO ACCORDING TO 
 
 EUSEBIUS. AFRICANUS. SYNCELLUS. 
 
 Twenty-first Dynasty of Twenty-first Dynasty of 
 
 Tanites. Tanites. 
 
 Years. Years. Years. 
 
 Smendes 26 Smedes 26 Soussakeim 34 
 
 Psousennes 41 Phousenes 46 Psouenos 25 
 
 Nephercheres 4 Nephelcheres 4 
 
 Ammenephthis 9 Amenopthis 9 Ammenophes 9 
 
 Osochor 6 Osochor 6 Nephecheres 6 
 
 Psinaches 6 Psinaches 9 Saites 5 
 
 Psousennes 2 35 Psousennes 30 Psinaches 9 
 
 Total.. 7l30 Total... 130 Total... 98 
 
FROM SABBACON UPWARDS. *59 
 
 Twenty-second Dynasty of Twenty-second Dynasty of 
 JBoubastites. Boubastites. 
 
 Years. Years. Years. 
 
 Sesonchosis 21 Sesonchis 21 Potoubastes 9 
 
 Osorthon 15 Osoreth 15 Osorthon 44 
 
 Takellothis 15 Three anon yrnous kings 25 
 
 Takellothis 13 
 
 Three anonymous kings 42 
 
 Total... 49 Total... 116 Total... 53 
 
 Twenty -third Dynasty of Twenty -third Dynasty of 
 Tonites. Tanites. 
 
 Potoubastes 25 Potoubates 40 Koncharis 13 
 
 Osorthon 9 Osorthon 8 Osorthon 15 
 
 Psammos 10 Psammos 10 Takelophes 21 
 
 Zet 31 
 
 Twenty-fourth Dynasty of Tioenty-fourth Dynasty of 
 
 one Saite. one Saite. 
 Bocchoris 44 Bocchoris 6 Bocchoris 44 
 
 Total of 25d and 24th 
 
 Dynasties 88 95 
 
 In computing the reigns of these dynasties, we 
 shall follow Eusebius, whose copy of Manethon 
 agrees best with the table of Syncellus, and is 
 without those chasms which interrupt the continuity 
 of succession in that of Africanus. 
 
 The 21st dynasty 130 
 
 22d dynasty 49 
 
 23d dynasty 44 
 
 24th dynasty 44 
 
 Total.. 267 
 
 We shall thus place the commencement of the 
 twenty-first dynasty, 267 years before Sabbacon, who 
 
*60 EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY 
 
 began to reign in B. C. 745. Now, 745+267= 1012, 
 and the commencement of the twenty -first dynasty 
 will therefore be fixed in the year 1012 B.C.; and 
 the first king, Smedes, or Soussakeim, as he is called 
 by Syncellus, reigned until 986 B. C. 
 
 It thus becomes probable that Syncellus was cor- 
 rect in his conjecture that this Soussakeim was the 
 Shishak of the Hebrews. The invasion of Judaea by 
 Shishak may be dated, according to a computation 
 which follows the chronology of the Scriptures,* in 
 the year B. C. 985 ; which is one year after the death 
 of Smedes, according to Africanus ; and an error of 
 a single year may, in this case, be regarded as a 
 remarkable instance of accuracy.f 
 
 SECTION. V. 
 
 We now proceed to the nineteenth and twentieth 
 dynasties, considering the accession of the twenty- 
 first in B. C. 1012 as an established date. 
 
 * See Note B. 
 
 f The name of the next king, Psousennes, also bears some 
 resemblance to Soussakeim, or Sisak. 
 
FROM SOUSSAKEIM UPWARDS. *61 
 
 AFRICANUS. EUSEBIUS. SYNCELLUS. 
 
 Years. Years. Years. 
 
 Twentieth Dynasty, Twentieth Dynasty, 
 
 consisting of twelve consisting of twelve 
 
 Diospolite kings, Diospolite kings, . 
 
 reigned 178 reigned 135 
 
 Entirely lost. Entirely lost. Phousanos 28 
 
 Kenkenes, or Athothes 59 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 Ouennephes 42 
 
 * * * * * ■ ' 
 
 Total... 109 
 
 This dynasty being wholly lost in the copies of 
 Africanus and Eusebius, we cannot depend on the 
 sums total assigned to the collective reigns. I 
 follow the number given by Africanus, whose tables 
 are most accurate and complete in the early 
 dynasties., and date the accession of this dynasty 
 at 1012+135=1147 B.C. 
 
 NINETEENTH DYNASTY. 
 
 Thouoris 17 
 
 Nekepsos 19 
 
 Psammouthis 15 
 
 4 
 
 1 Sethos 55 Sethos , 51 Kertos 20 
 
 Rhapses 66 Rhapsakes 61 Rhampsis 45 
 
 Ammenephthes 40 Ammenephthes 20 Amenemes 26 
 
 Ammenemmes 26 Rammeses 60 Ochyras 14 
 
 Thouoris, the Polybus of Ammenemnes 5 Arnedes 27 
 
 Homer ,.... 7 Thouoris, or Polybus ... 7 Thouoris, or Polybus ..50 
 
 Total... 194 Total... 204 
 
 In this instance the table of Africanus is more com- 
 plete than that of Eusebius, who seems to have omitted 
 one reign, viz. that of Rammeses. This king is men- 
 tioned by Josephus as the son of Amenephthes, or 
 Amenophis, and therefore his name originally stood 
 
*62 EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY COMPUTED 
 
 in the series. 1147 + 204 give 1351 BC. as the 
 date of the accession of Sethos. If we follow Euse- 
 bius, this date must be reduced ten years. 
 
 The last king of this dynasty is Thouoris, who, 
 according to Manethon, was the king of Diospolis, 
 said by Homer to have entertained Menelaus; 
 he is, by that poet, named Polybus. Consequently, 
 we are here near to the era of the Trojan war, which, 
 according to the computation of Eratosthenes, and 
 other old chronologers, happened in the year 1183 
 B.C.* That date falls in the reign of Rammeses, 
 the fourth Diospolitan king in the above list of Afri- 
 canus. Now, it is remarkable that Pliny, who can 
 scarcely be supposed to have made reference in this 
 point to the tables of Manethon, has recorded that 
 Troy was taken in the reign of an Egyptian king, 
 named Ramises. We have thus obtained an unex- 
 pected confirmation of the authenticity of these 
 memorials. 
 
 The accession of the nineteenth dynasty, which 
 must be fixed in the year 1353 if we follow Africa- 
 nus, and ten years later if we follow the tables of 
 Eusebius, is one of the most important epochs in the 
 Egyptian history. The first king, named Sethos, 
 or Sethosis, is the Sesostris of Herodotus, and the 
 Sesoosis of Diodorus Siculus. This we learn from 
 the account given of his exploits by Josephus. 
 
 This date of the reign of Sesostris corresponds 
 very nearly with the period assigned to him by 
 Larcher, who has computed from the data afforded 
 by Herodotus, without making any reference to the 
 dynasties of Manethon. 
 
 * Refer to Note C. 
 

 
 UPWARDS TO THE EIGHTEENTH DYNASTY. *63 
 
 We may observe that this is the most probable 
 period in history for the existence of such a conqueror, 
 viz. about two centuries before the Trojan war. If 
 he had lived in later times, the historians of Greece 
 could scarcely have failed to receive some notice 
 of him among the nations he subdued. 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 The Eighteenth Dynasty, and the Period of the Exode. 
 
 The eighteenth dynasty is a very long and a very 
 important one. The termination of its reign imme- 
 diately precedes the conqueror Sesostris, the date of 
 whose accession we have fixed at 1350 years B.C. 
 Its commencement is connected with the departure 
 of the Shepherd kings from Egypt. The succession 
 of kings belonging to this dynasty is found in a 
 tolerably complete catalogue, in the extracts from 
 the works of Manethon given by Josephus, and in 
 the chronological compilations of Julius Africanus, 
 Eusebins, and Syncellus. It is as follows. 
 
*64 EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY 
 
 AFRICANUS. EUSEEIUS. JOSEPHUS. 
 
 Years. Years. Ys. M#. 
 
 Amosis ** Amosis .., 25 Tethmosis . 25 4 
 
 Chcbros 13 Chebron 13 Chebron 13 
 
 Amenophthis , 21 Ammenophis 21 Amenophis 2d 7 
 
 Amersis 22 Amesses 21 9 
 
 Misaphris 13 Miphris 12 Mephres t 12 9 
 
 Misphragmuthosis 26 Misphragmuthosis 26 Misphragmuthosis 21 10 
 
 Touthmosis 9 Touthmosis 9 Thmosis 9 8 
 
 Amenophis, or Mem- Amenophis 31 Amenophis 30 10 
 
 non 31 
 
 Horus 37 Horus 36 Orus 36 5 
 
 Acherres 32 Achencherses 12 Akenchres 12 1 
 
 Rathos 6 Athoris 39 Rathosis 9 
 
 Chebres 12 Chencheres 16 Achencheres 12 5 
 
 Acherres 8 
 
 Acherres 2 12 Cherres 15 Achencheres 12 3 
 
 Armeses 5 Armes, or Danaus 5 Armais, or Danaus 4 
 
 Rammesses..... J. Ammeses, or iEgyptus 68 Ramesses, oriEgyp- 
 
 tus 1 4 
 
 Harmesses Miamun 66 2 
 Amenoph 19 Menophis 40 Amenophis 19 6 
 
 Sum total, 265 348 328 11 
 
 Corrected sum, 259 376 
 
 The table of reigns in the extract by Josephus is 
 evidently the most exact, and we shall follow him in 
 his computation as far as it extends. The number of 
 years assigned to this dynasty by Josephus is 328, 
 and eleven months, which we shall call 329 years. 
 Now, if we add this period to the date above men- 
 tioned, of 1350, we obtain 1659 for the commence- 
 ment of the eighteenth dynasty. This is very near 
 the Scriptural date of the .exode of the Israelites from 
 Egypt ; and the synchronism of this event with the 
 departure of the Shepherd kings leads us to some 
 interesting inquiries and conclusions. 
 
THE EIGHTEENTH DYNASTY AND THE HYCSOS. *65 
 
 Josephus considered the Shepherds who possessed 
 Egypt as the Israelites, and he does not betray the 
 least suspicion that Manethon intended to describe 
 any other people by that name. Most of the moderns, 
 except Perizonius, have been of a different opinion. 
 As this is a question of great importance in the 
 Egyptian history, we shall take some pains to 
 determine it. 
 
 In the Letter of Josephus to Apion we find a con- 
 siderable fragment of the second book of Manethon, 
 containing a history of the Shepherd kings which seems 
 to have been extracted, nearly in its entire state, from 
 the Egyptian Chronicles of that historian. These 
 Chronicles appear to have been a compilation from 
 different sources.* The author professed to have 
 taken this part of it, as Josephus informs us, from 
 the sacred and authentic records of his country. The 
 following is a translation of those passages which are 
 most important to our present purpose. 
 
 History of the Invasion of Egypt by the Shepherds, from 
 Manethon. 
 
 cc There was a king of Egypt, whose name was 
 Timaus, in whose time it pleased God, I know not on 
 what account, to afflict us with calamities ; and a 
 tribe of people, of mean origin, entered our country 
 from the East with unexpected boldness, and easily 
 gained possession of it without fighting a battle. 
 
 * This appears even from the title of the Old Chronicle in 
 -Eusebius's Canon. 
 
 ft 
 
*66 HISTORY OP THE HYCSOS 
 
 Having brought the princes of the country into sub- 
 jection to their power, they barbarously burnt the 
 towns, and destroyed the temples of our gods. They 
 exercised the utmost atrocity towards the native inha- 
 bitants, patting the males to the sword, and reducing 
 their wives and children to slavery. At length they 
 chose a king from their own people, whose name was 
 Salatis ; and who, residing at Memphis, held all the 
 upper and lower Egypt tributary, and placed garri- 
 sons in all the important places. He provided chiefly 
 for the security of the eastern frontier, apprehending 
 that the Assyrians, who were then very powerful and 
 ambitious, might make an attempt to get possession of 
 the kingdom ; and, having found a city conveniently 
 situated for his purpose in the Sai'tic nome, on the 
 eastern side of the river of Bubastos, which, from some 
 theological fable, had the name of Auaris, he made a 
 settlement there; and having strongly fortified it, 
 placed in it a garrison of two hundred and forty 
 thousand men. There he held his residence in the 
 summer, partly that he might have an opportunity of 
 measuring out corn and paying his people their wages, 
 and partly that, by frequently exercising his troops, he 
 might keep strangers in awe of his power. This 
 chief reigned nineteen years, and was succeeded by 
 another, whose name was Baion, and who reigned 
 forty-four years. Afterwards Apachnas reigned 
 thirty-six years and seven months ; his successor, 
 Apophis, sixty-one years; Janias, fifty years and one 
 month ; and lastly, Assis, forty-nine years and two 
 months. These six princes, who were the first rulers 
 of the Shepherds, carried on continual war, and 
 endeavoured to destroy the name and nation of Egypt. 
 
OR SHEPHERD KINGS. *67 
 
 Their whole race was called Hycsos, which means 
 Shepherd Kings; for Hyc t in the sacred language, 
 signifies a king ; and Sos, in the vulgar idiom, means 
 a shepherd or shepherds ; and thus the name Hycsos 
 is composed. Some say that they were a tribe of 
 Arabs." (i But in another copy of Manethon," adds 
 Josephus, " I find that Hyc does not signify kings, 
 but that the Shepherds are distinguished by this ap- 
 pellation as captives ; for Hyc, or. Hac, with an aspirate, 
 is the term for captive, in the Egyptian language ; 
 and this interpretation/' he adds, " is the most pro- 
 bable, and the most consistent with ancient history." 
 " These kings above-mentioned/' continues Mane- 
 thon, " of the people called Shepherds, and their 
 posterity, held Egypt under their sway about five 
 hundred and eleven years. After this period the 
 Egyptian kings in the Thebaid and other parts of the 
 country revolted from the yoke of the Shepherds, and 
 a severe and obstinate contest was carried on between 
 them." It is added that, " under a king whose name 
 was Alisphragmuthosis, the Shepherds were reduced,, 
 defeated, and driven out of the rest of Egypt, and 
 shut up in a place containing ten thousand acres of 
 land ; the name of which was Avaris." " This 
 place," says Manethon, cc the Shepherds fortified 
 with a strong and lofty wall for the security of their 
 possessions and spoil; but Thouthmosis, the sou of 
 Alisphragmuthosis, laid siege to the fortress with an 
 army of four hundred and eighty thousand men, and 
 attempted to take it by force; but at length giving 
 up this hope, entered into a compact with the be- 
 sieged, that they should leave Egypt and depart 
 without molestation whithersoever they chose. These 
 
*68 HISTORY OF THE HYCSOS 
 
 people accordingly, in consequence of their engage- 
 ment, departed from Egypt with their whole families 
 and all their possessions, in number not less than two 
 hundred and forty thousand men, and travelled 
 through the wilderness towards Syria; but, fearing 
 the Assyrians, who were then powerful in Asia, built 
 a city in the country, which is now called Judaea, 
 sufficiently ample to contain this multitude of people, 
 and gave to their city the name of Jerusalem. " 
 Josephus mentions, in another place, that Manethon 
 had recorded the conquest of Judaea by these exiles, 
 and added that they settled in Jerusalem, and built 
 the temple : all which information he drew from the 
 sacred records of Egypt. 
 
 " In another work on the Egyptian affairs/' says 
 Josephus, iC Manethon informs us that these same 
 Shepherds are called Captives in their own sacred 
 books; in which assertion he is correct; for, as the 
 feeding of sheep was the employment of our fore- 
 fathers in remote times, and they are rightly called 
 Shepherds, as leading a nomadic life, so they were 
 also not unaptly termed ' Captives/ since our an- 
 cestor Joseph declared to the Egyptian king that he 
 was his captive, and afterwards sent for his brethren 
 to him into Egypt, by the permission of the 
 sovereign." 
 
 From this relation, which Josephus professes to cite 
 verbatijn from the works of Manethon, it is evident 
 that the Egyptian historian considered the Shepherds as 
 the Israelites; and though some of the circumstances 
 he relates respecting them are fictitious, yet it may 
 be supposed that others are founded on facts which 
 Moses has passed over in silence. If we consider 
 
EXPELLED BY TETHMOSIS. *69 
 
 the numbers of the Twelve Tribes when they quitted 
 Egypt, after suffering 1 so long from the cruel perse- 
 cution of Pharoah, who caused all their male children 
 to be drowned, and estimate their probable number 
 before these calamities, it can scarcely be supposed 
 that so great a multitude would submit to be enslaved 
 without resistance; and if they met with a temporary 
 success, they probably treated the Egyptians and their 
 superstitions with no great degree of lenity. We 
 have, indeed, no reason to suppose that the Israelites 
 ever raised one of their own nation to the throne of 
 Egypt; but while they lived apart in Goshen, which, 
 as it will presently appear, was the district that is called 
 Auaris, they probably had rulers of their own ; and these 
 rulers would naturally be considered by the Egyp- 
 tians, who were ignorant of their manners, as kings. 
 The kings of the Shepherds are not represented by 
 Manethon as regular sovereigns of Egypt, but as 
 exercising a tyrannical government over the country; 
 while the native princes continued to reign in the 
 Thebaid and other districts, and at length were able 
 to combine their forces with sufficient strength to 
 regain their authority, and to reduce the Shepherds to 
 slavery or exile. The employment of the Shepherd 
 kings in Auaris or Goshen, viz. the distribution of corn, 
 is a curious circumstance ; but the concluding part of 
 the narrative, the compact for the departure from 
 Egypt, their march through the wilderness, the vast 
 number of the emigrant horde, and the foundation of 
 the temple and city of Jerusalem, seem to prove 
 beyond doubt that the Israelites are here described. 
 
 Besides the history of the invasion of the Shepherds 
 in the reign of Timaus, and their expulsion in that cf 
 
*!0 HISTORY OF THE HYCSOS 
 
 Tethmosis, Manethon had interwoven in his work an 
 account of a second conquest of Egypt by the same 
 people, which he dates in the reign of Amenophis. 
 This latter story is in many respects a repetition of 
 the former. Josephus asserts, as if from Manethon's 
 own confession, that the first is a genuine piece of 
 history, derived from the ancient records, and that 
 the second was adopted by the historian from 
 some work of uncertain authority. We shall find 
 reason to believe that this assertion is not without 
 foundation. In the first place we shall find that this 
 last story, connected by Manethon with the time of 
 Amenophis, is referred by several other historians of 
 the Ptolemaic age to the reigns of different kings, 
 and that it is related with a great variety of circum- 
 stances. Secondly, the latter narative so nearly 
 corresponds with the former in all the remarkable 
 particulars, that it is easy to discover the two stories 
 to be only different representations of the same oc- 
 currence. Every principal fact in the first account 
 is repeated in the second, with the addition of some 
 incidents evidently fabulous. As it is of great impor- 
 tance to elucidate this portion of Egyptian history, I 
 shall translate from Josephus this second fragment of 
 Manethon. 
 
 " This king Amenophis," says Manethon, cc was 
 desirous of being admitted tobeholdthegods,asHorus, 
 one of his predecessors, had been; and he communi- 
 cated this desire to the son of Papis, named also 
 Amenophis; who was supposed, on account of his 
 wisdom and knowledge of futurity, to partake of 
 the divine nature. By the latter he was assured that 
 his desire would be granted if he would cause the 
 
EXPELLED BY AMENOPHIS. *7l 
 
 whole country to be purified from lepers and polluted 
 persons. The king, pleased with this information, 
 caused all those who had any bodily infirmity to be 
 collected from all parts of Egypt, to the number of 
 eighty thousand men, and sent them to labour in the 
 quarries, which are situated to the eastward of the 
 Nile, in order that they might be separated from the 
 remainder of the Egyptian people. It happened, 
 however, that among the exiles there were some of 
 the sacerdotal scribes, who were infected with the 
 leprosy; and the prophet Amenophis, fearing lest 
 the wrath of the gods might on this account fall upon 
 himself and the king, uttered a prediction, that certaiu 
 strangers should come to the aid of the polluted 
 people, and should conquer Egypt, and keep it in 
 subjection thirteen years. Not having courage to 
 announce these calamities to the king, Amenophis 
 slew himself, after committing his prophecy to writ- 
 ing.'' Manethon continues to relate that, " after the 
 infected people had submitted a long time to the 
 laborious works allotted to them in the quarries, they 
 entreated the king to relieve them. The latter granted 
 them permission to reside in the city of Auaris, which 
 was then vacant, having been abandoned by the 
 Shepherds. This town, according to the ancient 
 mythology of Egypt, was one of the Typhonian 
 cities. The lepers having entered the place, and find- 
 ing that it afforded them facilities for a revolt, chose a 
 priest of Heliopolis, named Osarsiph, to be their ruler, 
 and bound themselves by oath to obey all his com- 
 mands. He ordained, in the first place, that they 
 should neither worship the gods nor abstain from 
 any of the animals which were regarded as sacred by 
 
*72 
 
 HISTORY OF THE HYCSOS 
 
 the Egyptians, but kill and eat all of them indiffer- 
 ently ; and that they should form no connexions out 
 their own community. Having enacted these laws, and 
 many others, altogether contrary to the institutions of 
 Egypt, he ordered them to fortify their city, and pre- 
 pare for war against Amenophis, while he received 
 into his party some other priests and polluted persons, 
 and sent them as ambassadors to Jerusalem, to the 
 Shepherds, who had been expelled by Tethmosis. 
 He informed these people of the circumstances of 
 himself and his fellow-sufferers, and invited them to 
 join and make a common invasion of Egypt. He 
 undertook to conduct them into Auaris, the land of 
 their forefathers, and to provide sustenance for the 
 whole multitude of their people, and promised to 
 fight for them if it should be needful, and speedily to 
 give them possession of the country. The Shepherds 
 accepted his proposal, and the whole nation joyfully 
 set out on the expedition, being in number two hun- 
 dred thousand men, and in a short time arrived at 
 Auaris. Amenophis, the king of Egypt, when he 
 heard of this invasion, was not a little alarmed, 
 remembering the prediction of Amenophis, the son 
 Papis." The historian then goes on to relate in 
 detail, that the king fled with his army of Egyptians, 
 taking with him Apis and the other sacred animals, 
 into Ethiopia ; and that the Shepherds again gained 
 possession of all Egypt without fighting a battle. 
 They are said to have again behaved with the utmost 
 cruelty towards the native people, burning their vil- 
 lages, spoiling their temples, and roasting the sacred 
 animals; for which impious purpose they kindled fires 
 with the images of the gods, and even forced the priest* 
 
EXPELLED BY AMENOPHIS. *73 
 
 and prophets to assist them in these abominable deeds. 
 Manethon informs us that the priest who thus acted 
 the part of a lawgiver and general was a Heliopo- 
 litan, and was named Osarsiph, from Osiris, the god of 
 Heliopolis ; but that when he had gone over to the 
 Shepherds he changed his name, and was thencefor- 
 ward called Moses. The history relates further, that, 
 after the predicted period of suffering had elapsed, the 
 king of Egypt returned with an army from Ethiopia, 
 and having defeated the Shepherds, together with 
 the Lepers, expelled them from the country, and 
 pursued them to the confines of Syria. 
 
 This second conquest of Egypt by the Shepherds 
 is so completely, in all essential particulars, a copy of 
 the first, that we may safely conclude the two 
 relations to belong to the same event. The people 
 were the same ; in both cases they came from the 
 west ; in both relations they are said to have been 
 the people of Jerusalem, and the nation who wor- 
 shipped in the temple. In both instances their chief 
 residence in Egypt was Auaris, which clearly appears 
 to have been Goshen. On both occasions these 
 foreigners are said to have overrun Egypt without a 
 battle, and on both their success is imputed to the 
 anger of the gods against the rulers and people 
 of the country. On both occasions they were driven 
 out of Egypt by an army from the south, and made 
 their way through the wilderness to Palestine. In 
 both these narratives circumstances are mentioned 
 which cannot refer to any other event in history than 
 the Exode of the Israelites. 
 
 Besides these fragments of Manethon, we have 
 several accounts from other Egyptian authors, of the 
 
 I 
 
*%$ HISTORY OP THE JEWS 
 
 Exode of the Israelites, which differ in some circum- 
 stances from the above, though they agree in most of 
 the main points. Some of them coincide nearly' 
 with the first narrative of Manethon, others with the 
 second. We shall make a brief abstract of them, 
 before we proceed to the subject, on account of 
 which especially we have entered into this detail. 
 
 The most remarkable of these stories is from Cha> 
 remon, who, though long subsequent to Manethon, 
 was, like that annalist, a member of the hierarchy and 
 an Egyptian sacred scribe. We are indebted to 
 Joseph us for the preservation of it. 
 
 Chaeremon, like Manethon, refers this story to the 
 reign of a king of Egypt named Amenbphis. The 
 following is a translation of the passage of this 
 historian, preserved by Josephus. 
 
 iC The goddess Isis appeared to Amenophis in his 
 sleep, and reproached him that her temple lay in 
 ruins, having been destroyed during the war." We 
 are not informed to what war Cheeremon alludes, 
 but it is probably the same devastation of Egypt 
 which Manethon records in the incursion of the 
 Shepherds. " The king, however," he continues, 
 " was assured by Phritiphantes, the sacred scribe, that 
 if he would purge the land of Egypt of all polluted 
 persons, he should for the future be freed from such 
 nightly terrors. The king hereupon caused the 
 infected people, to the number of two hundred and 
 fifty thousand persons, to be collected and driven out 
 of the country. The leaders of this host were two 
 scribes, named Moses and Joseph, the latter of whom 
 was a sacred scribe : their Egyptian names were 
 Tisithen and Peteseph. They proceeded to Pelusium, 
 
ACCORDING TO CHjEREMON AND LYSIMACHUS. *75 
 
 and there found three hundred and eighty thousand 
 people, who had been left by Anienophis, because 
 that king was unwilling to introduce them into 
 Egypt." These are evidently the Shepherds of Mane- 
 thon, who dwelt in Auaris, or Goshen, apart from 
 the Egyptians, and who are said, by that historian, 
 to have given assistance to the expelled leprous 
 people, under the guidance of Moses. cc Having 
 entered into a league with these people, they invaded 
 Egypt ; and Amenophis, without sustaining their at- 
 tack, fled into Ethiopia, leaving his wife pregnant. 
 She concealed herself in certain caverns, and there 
 brought forth a son, whose name was Messenes ; and 
 who, when he became adult, drove the Jews into 
 Syria, in number about two hundred thousand men, 
 and received back his father Amenophis, who 
 returned from Ethiopia/' 
 
 In this story as related by Chseremon, as well as in 
 that of Manethon, we distinguish two classes of peo- 
 ple, who are said to have formed the host of Moses ; 
 first, the natives of Egypt, infected with leprosy ; and 
 secondly, the Shepherds, inhabitants of Auaris, or 
 Goshen, who are described by Manethon as a foreign 
 people, from Judaea or Arabia. These Shepherds 
 are evidently the genuine Israelites ; the native 
 Egyptians, who accompanied the host of Israel, must 
 have been a very inconsiderable number. 
 
 A third story, of a similar kind, has been extracted 
 by Joseph us from the works of Lysimachus, who 
 referred it to the age of Bocchoris. In his reign the 
 Jews, being infected with leprosy, itch, and other 
 filthy diseases, took refuge in the temples, and be- 
 came mendicants. Many people, at that time, beinjr 
 
*76 HISTORY OF THE JEWS 
 
 infected with disease, a famine arose in the land of 
 Egypt ; whereupon Bocchoris, the king, sent persons 
 to consult the oracle of Jupiter Amnion. The god 
 replied^ that the king must purge his temples of 
 unholy and impious men, and drive them into desert 
 places, and drown the lepers and diseased persons, 
 the Sun heing indignant that such wretches were 
 suffered to live ; that he must purify the temples, and 
 that the earth would then bring forth its fruits." It is 
 added, that the king obeyed, and caused the lepers to 
 be drowned, and the impious or irreligious to be 
 driven into the desert; who accordingly assembled, 
 and having propitiated the gods, and kindling fires in 
 the wilderness and keeping walch, put themselves 
 under the command of one Moses, who undertook to 
 conduct them into an inhabited country; and finally 
 brought them to Judaea, where they built a city, 
 which they called Jerusalem. 
 
 Apollonius Molo was the author of another account 
 of the Exode, which he has connected with circum- 
 stances equally absurd and fabulous. He says that it 
 happened in the age of Dido, and in the very year in 
 which Carthage was built by the Phoenicians. The 
 statement of this writer coincides, as it seems, in some 
 particulars, with that of Lysimachus. 
 
 Tacitus has given a brief summary of the various 
 Stories prevalent in his time respecting the history of 
 the Jews. Together with several fables he men- 
 tions the true statement, that they were originally 
 emigrants from Assyria, who had obtained possession 
 of a part of Egypt, and afterwards removed to Pales- 
 tine and the Hebrew countries; but he gives pre- 
 ference to a relation in which he says most authors 
 
FROM MOLO AND TACITUS. *77 
 
 agree, and which is almost a repetition of the story of 
 Lysimachus. In the reign of Bocchoris a filthy disease 
 broke out in Egypt, and the oracle of Amnion, being 
 consulted on the occasion, commanded the king to 
 purify the land by driving cut the Jews, a race of men 
 who were hateful to the gods. The whole multitude 
 of these people were accordingly collected and driven 
 out into the wilderness, where they were reduced to 
 the greatest extremities for want of water, until one 
 of their number, named Moses, who had more cou- 
 rage than the rest, happened, by following a troop of 
 wild asses, to light on a plentiful spring of water. 
 The crowd of exiles, being thus refreshed, performed 
 their journey through the desert: and, arriving on the 
 seventh day in Palestine, gained possession of the 
 country, where they built the city and temple of Jeru- 
 salem He adds, that the Jews always held the 
 seventh day as sacred, because in seven days they 
 had completed their perilous journey ; that they ab- 
 stained from swine's flesh from the recollection of the 
 calamities they had suffered on account of the disease 
 to which that animal is subject; and that they con- 
 tinued to w r orship the figure of an ass out of gratitude 
 for their deliverance in the wilderness. This fable 
 was very prevalent among the Greeks. The image 
 of an ass, or of an ass's head, was supposed to be 
 the great object of adoration in the temple of 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 The first of these stories recorded by Tacitus is 
 evidently the same as Manethon's first invasion of the 
 Shepherds. The second, which the author prefers 
 because most writers agreed in it, coincides with the 
 second invasion of Maneihon, and with that of 
 
*78 HISTORY OF THE JEWS 
 
 Chaeremon. We may remark that Tacitus explicitly 
 refers both these traditions to the Jewish nation. 
 
 Photius,inhis Bibliotheca, has preserved a fragment 
 of the thirty-fifth book of Diodorus Siculus, referring 
 to the Exode of the Hebrews. He says that " in 
 ancient times Egypt was afflicted with a great plague, 
 which was attributed to the anger of God, on account 
 of the multitude of foreigners in Egypt, by whom the 
 rites of the native religion were neglected. The 
 Egyptians accordingly drove them out. The most 
 noble of them went under Cadmus and Danaus to 
 Greece ; but the greater number followed Moses, a 
 wise and valiant leader to Palestine. Moses con- 
 quered the country, built Jerusalem, and instituted 
 excellent laws and a pure religion." 
 
 It is evident, from the great variations in time and 
 circumstances, that none of these stories deserve any 
 credit in opposition to the account the Jewish writers 
 have given of the history of their nation. They all 
 appear to have been inventions of a comparatively late 
 period, founded on vague accounts, which remained 
 in Egypt, of the departure of the Israelites; but they 
 incidentally afford confirmation of most of the facts 
 mentioned in Exodus. Manethon's history of Osar- 
 siph is the least incongruous, although that relation 
 contains, as Josephus has shown, many absurdities. 
 This, however, appears certain, that very vague 
 ideas prevailed of the era to which these events 
 belonged ; for we see that some authors refer them 
 to the reign of Amenophis, and others to that of 
 Bocchoris. There were several kings named Ame- 
 nophis, but the prince whom Manethon fixes 
 upon lived, according to his own statement, about 
 
ACCORDING TO THE EGYPTIANS. *7$ 
 
 sixty years before the Trojan war. Bocchoris 
 immediately preceded Sabbaco, the Ethiopian, who 
 was contemporary with Hosea, the last king of the 
 ten tribes of Israel. 
 
 As the ideas of these writers are so vague and con- 
 tradictory, respecting the era of this last migration, 
 we may conclude that they adopted uncertain tradi- 
 tions, and referred them by conjecture to whatever 
 time in the Egyptian history appeared to them 
 most probable ; Manethon and Chaeremon, however, 
 agree in the name of the king who pursued Moses 
 towards the desert. It is therefore probable that 
 Amenophis was his real name ; but I shall venture to 
 suppose that Manethon committed an error in fixing 
 on the Amenophis who stands in the third place of 
 the nineteenth dynasty, instead of the third in the 
 eighteenth. I found this opinion chiefly on two con- 
 siderations. 
 
 1. It seems manifest that the two relations given 
 by Manethon of the conquest of Egypt by the 
 Shepherds, refer to one and the same event. Now 
 the retreat of the shepherds is indissolubly connected 
 with the commencement of the eighteenth dynasty. 
 We can therefore have nothing to do with a prince of 
 the nineteenth. It was Tethmosis, the first king of 
 the eighteenth dynasty, who besieged the shepherds 
 in Auaris. But the first Amenophis is separated 
 from Tethmosis, by an interval of only thirteen years. 
 Transactions begun in the one reign may therefore 
 have been completed in the other. On this ground I 
 conclude that Amenophis the first was the king who 
 pursued the Shepherds under Osarsiph. 
 
 Secondly, without assuming that the first and 
 
*80 DATE OF THE EXODE. 
 
 second relation belongs to the same event, from their 
 coincidence of circumstances, let us consider the 
 result of a comparison of dates. 
 
 The Exode, or the departure of the Israelites from 
 Egypt, has been differently dated by chronologers. 
 According to that computation, which appears to be 
 the best supported by the dates of scriptural history, 
 five hundred and ninety-two years intervened be- 
 tween this event and the era of the foundation of 
 Solomon's Temple. This is the computation of 
 Josephus. and it seems to have been adopted by St. 
 Paul : it is preferred by Michaelis, and other learned 
 writers among the moderns.* Let us now ascertain 
 the era of the Exode, on these premises. 
 
 We have dated the building of the 
 
 Temple in the year 1027 B. C. 
 
 Add for the interval above mentioned 592 
 
 WefindthedateoftheExodein 1619 B.C. 
 
 Reverting now to the chronicles of the Egyptians, 
 we find the accession of the eighteenth dynasty dated 
 as follows. 
 
 The nineteenth dynasty obtained 
 the sceptre of Egypt as before 
 
 computed in the year 1350 
 
 The collective reigns of the princes 
 of the eighteenth dynasty amount 
 to 328 1 1 mo. 
 
 Therefore the accession of the 
 eighteenth dynasty, falls in . . . c 1678 11 mo. 
 
 * Refer to Note B. 
 
ACCORDING TO THE EGYPTIANS. *81 
 
 and Tethmosis, the first king, began to reign about 
 fifty years before the Exode. 
 
 If we now proceed to a more minute examination, 
 we shall find that Tethmosis must have been the 
 king of Egypt who persecuted the Hebrews in the 
 early years of Moses, and during whose reign the 
 future lawgiver of Israel sought refuge in the deserts 
 of Midian. His predecessor was the Pharaoh, sprung 
 from a new dynasty, who knew not Joseph, and 
 sought to diminish the numbers of the Israelites. 
 This, at least, is the result of a comparison of dates. 
 If we further deduct from the above sum of 1678 years 
 and 1 1 months, 58 years and 1 1 months, which is the 
 amount of the three first reigns, we shall find that 
 the death of Amenophis the first falls in the year 
 1620, B. C. which is within one year of the time when, 
 according to the scriptural chronology, Pharaoh and 
 his host were drowned in the Red Sea. This is a 
 striking coincidence, and far more exact than we 
 could reasonably expect. 
 
 Such is the result of a careful analysis of the 
 chronology of Manethon in this part of his work. 
 We have some other historical testimonies which 
 lead to a similar conclusion. The only circumstance 
 that lessens the weight of their authority is, that we 
 know not whence the writers we refer to derived 
 their information : but, as many sources of knowledge 
 were open to them which have been long since for 
 ever closed, we are not entitled to reject the testi- 
 monies of these chronologers, especially as they 
 agree among themselves, and we have no ground on 
 which we can rest an objection against them. 
 
 1. Eusebius and Clemens Alexandria us have 
 
 m . 
 
*82 
 
 DATE OF THE EXODE. 
 
 preserved a long passage from Artabanus, containing 1 
 the history of the Jews in Egypt, and of their depar- 
 ture under Moses, and mentioning the names of 
 several persons, and many circumstances connected 
 with the transactions of those times, of which we 
 hear nothing from any other quarter.* According 
 to Artabanus, the Egyptian king who treated Israel 
 with cruelty was called Palmanothes. This seems 
 to be another way of expressing in Greek letters the 
 Egyptian name of Amenophes, or, as it may be 
 written with the Coptic article, Ph'Amenophes. 
 
 This Prince, according to Artabanus, built Kessan, 
 or Goshen, and the temple of Heliopolis. His 
 daughter was married to Chenephren,f king of a 
 district in Upper Egypt ; C( for at that time/' as 
 Artabanus says, Ci Egypt was divided into several 
 petty kingdoms, over which, however, the king of 
 Memphis seems to have held the chief sovereignty. 
 The name of this princess was Merrhis : being child- 
 less, she adopted a young Israelite, who was named 
 Moyses, or Musaeus. The historian then relates that 
 Moses was appointed to command an army against 
 the . Ethiopians, and performed many celebrated 
 exploits, which are of a very different description 
 from those recorded in the Pentateuch. 
 
 In Manethon's list of kings of the eighteenth dy- 
 nasty, we have all these names somewhat differently 
 
 * Euseb. Praep. Evang. lib. ix. cap. 2f. Clemens Alex. 
 Strom, lib. i. 
 
 X Chenephren is his name in Eusebius. Clemens calls 
 him Nechephres, and the Alexandrine chronicle, which likewise 
 copies Artabanus, gives his name Chenebron. 
 
ACCORDING TO THE EGYPTIANS. *83 
 
 written ; Palmanothes, is Ph'Amenophes. Merrhis 
 seems to be the queen Amersis, who reigned next to 
 Amenophis : next to Amersis, Josephus had set down 
 the name of Mephris; but Eusebius regarded this as 
 the same with Amersis. Now Mephris, Mersis, or 
 Merrhis, are very slight variations, in the attempt to 
 represent in greek letters an Egyptian female name ; 
 the aspirate consonants being continually inter- 
 changed. Chenebron, or Chenephren, is perhaps the 
 same king who occurs in Manethon's list, under the 
 name of Chebron, immediately before Amenophis. 
 
 These coincidences afford some additional reason 
 to believe that the Amenophes who pursued Moses 
 was the third king of the eighteenth dynasty. 
 
 2. All the old chronolo^ers refer the Exode of the 
 Israelites to the same epoch., viz. the commencement 
 of the reign of the eighteenth dynasty. They speak, 
 indeed, of these transactions as if the calamities of the 
 Hebrews had commenced and terminated under 
 Tethmosis, or Amosis; but the reign of this king is 
 too short for the whole series of events. If Tethmosis 
 was the monarch in whose time Moses was driven 
 from Egypt, or obliged to take refuge in Arabia, the 
 reign of Amenophis will fall in with the Exode. 
 Probably Tethmosis carried on war against the 
 Israelites, and subdued them, as Manethon relates. 
 For it cannot be supposed that a nation of such 
 power and multitude would submit, without some 
 attempt at resistance, to the most dreadful slavery. 
 Many of them probably took flight, and the remainder 
 were sent, as Manethon says, to labour in the quarries 
 on the Eastern frontier. Afterwards, on the return 
 of Moses from the land of Midian, these same 
 
*84 DATE OF THE EXODE. 
 
 Hebrew, or Arabian shepherds, now reduced to a 
 state of slavery, became the occasion of numerous 
 calamities to Egypt and the house of Pharaoh, as 
 related in the book of Exodus. Hence the double 
 narrative contained in the works of Manethon. Teth- 
 mosis was the king who conquered the shepherds. 
 He seems to have been the Pharaoh who reduced the 
 number and power of the Israelites, and from whom 
 Moses fled. If this was the case, and the table of 
 Manethon is correct, Amenophis the first must have 
 been the Pharaoh who was drowned in the Red Sea. 
 
 Eusebius has given us a long extract from the chro- 
 nography of Julius African us, in which that learned 
 writer has cited several authorities, tending to prove 
 that Moses was contemporary with Amosis, or Teth- 
 mosis.* The following are the authors whose testimony 
 he has adduced. 
 
 Apion the grammarian, surnamed Pleistonices, who 
 was a native Egyptian, asserted in the fourth 
 book of his history, and in his book against the 
 Jews, that the Egyptian king Amosis took and des- 
 troyed Avaris, or Athyria, in the time of Inachus, 
 king of Argos, and that in his reign Moses and the 
 Hebrews were driven out of Egypt. Theophilus 
 of Antioch, the chronologer, agreed in the same 
 computation. 
 
 Ptolemy, the priest of Mendes, was quoted by 
 Apion in proof of this statement. Ptolemy wrote a 
 history of the exploits of the Egyptian kings, in three 
 books. In the third of these he recited the events 
 that happened in the reign of Amosis, and mentioned 
 the Exode. 
 
 * Euseb. Praep. Ev, lib. x. cap. 11. 
 
ACCORDING TO THE EGYPTIANS. *85 
 
 Africanus, in the passage above alluded to, cites 
 also Polemo, who, in his first hook on the Grecian 
 history, related that in the time of Apis, king of 
 Argos, son of Phoroneus, a part of the military popula- 
 lation of Egypt emigrated from that country, and 
 settled in the Syrian Palestine, not far from Arabia. 
 (c He refers/' says Eusebius, to those who were led 
 by Moses." Herodotus also calls the Jews, Syrians 
 of Palestine, and says, that they were emigrants from 
 Egypt. The age of Inachus and Phoroneus was cal- 
 culated by Tatian and Eusebius to have been about 
 sixteen reigns, or rather more than 400 years before 
 the Trojan war.* Inachus was considered by all 
 these writers as contemporary with Tethmosis. 
 
 From all these authorities and concurring circum- 
 stances it seems to be ascertained, as far as we can 
 expect any question referring to so remote a period, 
 and in so obscure a history, to be decided, that the 
 Shepherds, who were expelled from Egypt by the first 
 princes of the eighteenth dynasty, were the Israelites, 
 who were led by Moses into Canaan. Manethon, 
 who related their history so circumstantially, certainly 
 considered the Shepherds as identical with the 
 
 * These reigns are termed generations, but many of them 
 were in fact collateral successions. They are thus enumerated 
 by Tatian. 
 
 1. Inachus 6. Critopus 13. Perseus 
 
 2. Phoroneus 7. Sthenelaus 14. Eurysthcufi 
 5. Apis 8. Danaus 15. Atreus 
 
 4. Argius 9. Lynceus 16. Thyestes 
 
 5. Criasus 10. Abas. 17. Agamemnon 
 
 6. Phorbas 11. Praotus 
 p. Triopus 12. Acrisius 
 
*86 DATE OF THE EXODE. 
 
 Hebrews; for he mentions that they retired from 
 Egypt by treaty, and built Jerusalem and the temple : 
 and although in the subsequent part of his history he 
 adopted the popular story, which represented the Jews 
 as decended in part from Egyptian outcasts ; yet he 
 considered the history of these as so interwoven with 
 that of the Shepherds, that he found himself driven to 
 the expedient of bringing that people again from 
 Jerusalem to Goshen, and relating over again their 
 invasion of Egypt, and their subsequent expulsion 
 from it, with almost the same circumstances which 
 occurred in the first narrative of their descent from 
 Arabia or Palestine. Chseremon also, and Apollo- 
 nius Molo, and Lysimachus, from some of whom 
 Diodorus and Tacitus drew their information, by 
 combining the circumstances of these two relations, 
 and referring them both to the history of the Jews, 
 seem to leave no room for further doubt, that the 
 Shepherds who built Jerusalem were, contrary to the 
 opinion of modern chronologers, the same people 
 who were led through the wilderness by Moses. 
 
OF THE EARLY DYNASTIES. *87 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 Of the first Seventeen Dynasties in the Chronicle of Manethon. 
 
 We now proceed to the chronology of the earlier 
 dynasties in the chronicle of Manethon. We shall 
 consider it as proved, by the foregoing observations, 
 that the commencement of the eighteenth dynasty, 
 with the reigns of Tethmosis and Amenophis, was 
 coeval with the history of Moses and the Exode of 
 the Israelites from Egypt. 
 
 Thus far the chronology of Manethon coincides 
 almost exactly with that of the Hebrew historians. 
 In the ages which precede we have no opportunity of 
 comparing them, as we here derive no information from 
 the scriptures respecting the affairs of Egypt. It must, 
 however, be allowed that so far as we have yet followed 
 him, Manethon has approved himself a tolerably faith- 
 ful guide. In tracing his history of Egypt up to the 
 fifteenth century before the Christian era, we have 
 discovered no symptom of a design to extend beyond 
 just limits the antiquity of his native country. He, 
 therefore, deserves more consideration than he has 
 commonly obtained, when we come to examine those 
 parts of his narrative which lie beyond the reach of 
 a comparison with the history of other nations. 
 
 If we allow that Amenophis was the Pharaoh 
 
*88 DATE OP THE OCCUPATION OP 
 
 who perished in the pursuit of Israel, and fix the 
 end of his reign in the year before Christ 1 61 9, and 
 cast up in one direct line the reigns of the first kings 
 of the eighteenth dynasty, and the whole sum of the 
 collective reigns of the preceding seventeen dynasties, 
 up to Menes the first king, we shall date the com- 
 mencement of the Egyptian monarchy at a very 
 remote period. 
 
 We shall observe how far this method of com- 
 puting will lead us. 
 
 The fragment of Manethon's chronicle, preserved 
 by Josephus, is so much more perfect, as far as it ex- 
 tends, than either of the abstracts copied by Syncellus, 
 that we shall regard it as containing the genuine 
 numbers of Manethon, and shall not take the trouble 
 to compare the dates of Eusebius and Africanus. 
 
 The three first kings of the eighteenth dynasty, 
 including Amenophis, reigned fifty- eight years and 
 eleven months, which we shall call 59 years. 
 
 The whole time that elapsed from the invasion of 
 the Shepherds, until they abandoned Egypt, is stated 
 by Manethon, according to the extract preserved by 
 Josephus, to have been 511 years. From this 
 number we must subtract the above sum of 59 years, 
 and add the remainder to 1619, the date of theExode, 
 and we shall obtain the sum of 2071 years before 
 Christ, for the date of the era when the Shepherds 
 made their first entry into Egypt. 
 
 Manethon observes that there were several dynasties 
 of Shepherds, and Africanus mentions three, viz. the 
 fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth dynasties, as 
 consisting of Shepherd kings. The beginning of the 
 fifteenth dynasty is, therefore, the commencement of 
 
EGYPT BY THE SHEPHERDS. *89 
 
 the reign of the shepherds, and is to be dated at 
 2071 years before Christ. 
 
 The whole sum obtained by adding the collective 
 reigns of the first fourteen dynasties, is, according to 
 Africanus, two thousand seven hundred and twenty- 
 one, and according* to Eusebius, two thousand nine 
 hundred and seventy-two.* If we add these sums to 
 the date before obtained, viz. two thousand and 
 seventy-one, we shall find the commencement of the 
 Egyptian monarchy to fall four thousand seven 
 Tiundredand ninety-two years before Christ, according 
 to the former, and five thousand and forty-three 
 according to the latter. This is on the supposition 
 that all these dynasties succeeded each other in a 
 direct line. 
 
 Various attempts have been made to reconcile the 
 chronology of Manethon with that of Moses. Peri- 
 zonius allows the Egyptian annalist to be correct, 
 through the later half of the chronicle ; but not 
 knowing what to do with the first fifteen dynasties, 
 he boldly erases them at once, and declares them to 
 be a forgery of the author. + This way of proceeding 
 is more like cutting the Gordian knot than untying it. 
 We have no right to act in so summary a manner. 
 If we cannot reconcile the antiquity assumed by the 
 annals of one nation with the dates assigned for the 
 
 * We must here remark that the fourteenth dynasty is 
 wanting in the series of Africanus, and the fifth in that of 
 Eusebius. In order to make up the sums total, we have 
 supplied the chasm in each, by taking the term of years 
 assigned to the defective dynasty in the other list. 
 
 f Perizonius has been followed by several later authors, 
 particularly by Dr. Hales. 
 
 n 
 
*90 DATE OF THE COMMENCEMENT 
 
 origin of empires and of the world in the records of 
 the other, we have no other course to pursue than to 
 acknowledge the contradiction between them. We 
 may have good reasons for placing confidence in one 
 record rather than the other, but we have no right to 
 cut off from the archives of Egypt all that extends too 
 far, as if we were shortening the limbs of Procrustes., 
 and then pretend that we have reconciled them with 
 the computation of the Hebrew scriptures. 
 
 But, though we ought to abstain from new model- 
 ling the Egyptian antiquities, after the pattern of the 
 Hebrew, no objection can be made to our com- 
 paring all the documents we possess that relate to 
 the chronology of Egypt, and endeavouring to find 
 some method of reconciling them with themselves. 
 We are only bound, while proceeding in this attempt, 
 to exclnde all prejudice in favour of those particular 
 methods that lead to conclusions which we are from 
 other considerations inclined to adopt. 
 
 The three principal documents on which we must 
 depend for information, respecting the antiquity of the 
 Egyptian monarchy, are the table of Manethon now 
 under consideration, the list of thirty dynasties 
 entitled by Syncellus the Old Chronicle, which 
 seems to have been extracted from ancient historical 
 works included in the number of the Hermaic books, 
 and the series of Theban kings by Eratosthenes. 
 These relics bear a near relation to each other ; they 
 are all professedly derived from the same or correla- 
 tive sources, viz. the sacred records kept in the 
 Egyptian temples. Manethon is believed by Syn- 
 cellus, to have formed his work on the model of the 
 Old Chronicle, as a kind of supplement to it, or 
 
©F THE EGYPTIAN MONARCHY. *91 
 
 exposition of it : his plan, at least, or outline, is the 
 same ; and that Eratosthenes obtained his materials 
 from documents not entirely unconnected with these 
 is evident, from the names and reigns of the two 
 first kings, Menes and Athothes, which are the same 
 in his list as in that of Manethon. As these docu- 
 ments are thus connected, it is to them that we must 
 look for their mutual illustration. The tables taken 
 from Herodotus and Diodorus, in the early part of the 
 Egyptian history, contain only a few names, with 
 chasms of prodigious extent between them, and are, 
 for reasons before assigned, less worthy of regard in 
 this instance than those which have been preserved by 
 professed chronologers. Let us now observe what are 
 the dates assigned for the commencement of the first 
 dynasty, that is, for the accession of Menes, by the 
 Old Chronicle. 
 
 The dates of the first seventeen dynasties, according 
 to the Old Chronicle, are as follows : 
 
 Years. 
 
 The 17th dynasty reigned 103 
 
 The 16th dynasty reigned 190 
 
 The fifteen generations of the Cynic circle, 
 which correspond with the first fifteen 
 dynasties of Manethon, reigned 443 
 
 Total, 736 
 
 Now the accession of the eighteenth dynasty took 
 place, as we have shown, fifty-nine years before the 
 Exode. 59 + 736 = 795, added to 1619, the date of 
 the Exode, will give us 2414 B. C. as the beginning 
 of the reign of Menes, and of the first dynasty. 
 
*92 DATE OF THE COMMENCEMENT 
 
 This date we are inclined to look upon as near the 
 true era of the commencement of the monarchy. 
 
 It must be allowed that the series of Theban kings, 
 according to Eratosthenes, as the years were computed 
 by Syncellus, assigns a period more remote, by about 
 two hundred and fifty years, for the reign of Menes. 
 This difference may be diminished on the supposition 
 made long ago by Goar, the learned editor of Syn- 
 cellus, that the one hundred and seventy-eight years, 
 which are wanting in the numbers of the Old Chro- 
 nicle, in order to fill up the sum total, and which have 
 been dropped through the carelessness of some 
 copyist, belonged to the reign of the Cynic circle. 
 If we add this number to the period above men- 
 tioned, the date of the reign of Menes in the Old 
 Chronicle and the Register of Eratosthenes, will 
 differ only sixty-nine years. But on this subject we 
 shall find hereafter more satisfactory evidence. Our 
 present business is to inquire how the chronology 
 of Manethon can be made to agree with either of 
 these documents. 
 
 The only method of reducing it, so as to bring out 
 any degree of correspondence with the shorter com- 
 putation, is on the supposition that the dynasties 
 were not all successive in one direct line, but that 
 some of them were contemporary. But we have no 
 right to assume this point without proof. 
 
 We may, however, observe that the native 
 dynasties of Egyptian kings seem to have continued 
 to reign while Egypt was under the yoke or sub- 
 jected to the influence and the inroads of the 
 Shepherds. 
 
OF THE EGYPTIAN MONARCHY. *93 
 
 This appears evident from the narrative of Mafie- 
 thon ; for that historian informs us that after Egypt 
 had suffered dreadfully from the cruelties of the 
 Shepherds, the kings of the Thebaid and of other 
 parts of Egypt revolted against them, and under the 
 command of Tethmosis subdued them. Here we 
 find that the native kings had continued to rule, if not 
 in Memphis, at least in the more distant provinces of 
 Egypt, during the reign of the Shepherds.* 
 
 Other circumstances in the history lead us to the 
 same inference. The be^innin^ of the rei<ni of the 
 Shepherds is dated by Manethon at 511 years before 
 their final expulsion and departure for Judaea, that 
 is, at 511 years before the Exode. Now if this 
 computation be only correct in a tolerable degree, 
 the history of Abraham's journey to Egypt, as 
 well as that of Joseph, will fall within the period of 
 the Shepherds' tyranny. f From the account which 
 we have in Genesis, of the journey of Abraham into 
 Egypt, it is evident that the country was then in a 
 state that subjected it to nomadic incursions, other- 
 wise the patriarch could not have passed through it 
 with his horde, like a tribe of Arabs, to the court of 
 
 * The Shepherds are represented as having oppressed the 
 country, and reduced the people to great extremites ; but it 
 appears that they did not destroy the native governments. 
 Their chief residence was not at Diospolis, then the capital, but 
 at iUiaris or Goshen, where they employed themselves, as we 
 are told, in collecting the revenues of the land, and distributing 
 corn; an allusion to the history of Joseph. 
 
 t This must be allowed from considering the dates merely, 
 though it should not be agreed that the departure of the 
 Shepherds was the same event as the Exode of the Israelites, 
 
*94 DATE OF THE COMMENCEMENT 
 
 Pharaoh. Many facts indicate that some great 
 movement was going on about that time among the 
 nations of the Syrian or Assyrian family ; that they 
 were now quitting their abode, perhaps further in 
 the East, and pouring into the West. The earliest 
 of these incursions must, if we believe the chronology 
 of Manethon, already have opened Egypt, before 
 Abraham's time, to the inroads of nomadic people, 
 It was probably at this period that the Semitic tribes 
 occupied all the countries to the eastward of Egypt. 
 
 Nor do these suppositions contradict the contents 
 of the last section, in which I have endeavoured to 
 prove that .the Shepherds, said to have been over- 
 thrown by Tethmosis and Amenophis, were in reality 
 the people that followed Moses towards Palestine. 
 Manethon assures us that several dynasties or fami- 
 lies of shepherds held Egypt under their sway or 
 influence. The Hebrews were one of them, and 
 their history was so remarkable, and the events that 
 brought about their deliverance so calamitous to 
 Egypt, that it is no wonder that we find their depar- 
 ture recorded as so signal an event. Probably the 
 descendants of the earlier nomades, were dispersed 
 over Abyssinia. We may thus account for the 
 wide diffusion of the Geez and Amharic languages, 
 which are of the Syrian, Arabic, or Hebraic stock. 
 Thus also we may explain the near resemblance of 
 the Abyssins to the Israelites, an affinity greater than 
 we can account for by the relationship of both to the 
 Arabs. That inroads were made at this epoch into 
 Ethiopia we learn from Josephus, who gives an 
 account of an army dispatched by the king of Egypt 
 against Merbe. 
 
Of THE EGYPTIAN MONARCHY. *95 
 
 These ideas, however, I throw out as matter of 
 conjecture. All that I insist upon is, that the inroads 
 or domination of the shepherds must have commenced 
 before the time of Joseph ; since, whatever method 
 we adopt of arranging the series of dynasties, the age 
 of this patriarch must fall between the beginning 
 and termination of the five hundred and eleven years. 
 Now it is evident, from the history of Joseph, that at 
 the time when he held an office, similar to that of a 
 Grand Vizier, in the court of Egypt, a native race of 
 Pharaohs sat upon the throne, and the ancient cus- 
 toms and indigenous polity were maintained in the 
 country. Shepherds, that is, killers of sheep, those 
 who slaughtered the representatives or the kindred 
 of their god Ammon, were an abomination to the 
 Egyptians. We may infer that at this time, which is 
 within the long period assigned to the sway of the 
 nomadic kings, the native line of princes continued 
 to reign, at least over that part of Egypt where 
 Joseph resided. 
 
 Since it appears, both from the history of this 
 period, as it is given by Manethon, and from the 
 facts recorded in Genesis, that the native princes of 
 Egypt continued to reign during the domination of 
 the shepherds, we are at liberty to suppose that the 
 dynasties of Memphite and Diospolite kings, which 
 are mentioned in the list of Manethon, before and 
 after the shepherd dynasties, were intended to form a 
 continued succession, reaching down through that 
 period of five hundred and eleven years, during which 
 the shepherds ruled. This enables us to deduct these 
 five hundred and eleven years from the long chrono- 
 logy of Manethon., or to leave it out of our reckoning ; 
 
*95 DATE OF THE COMMENCEMENT 
 
 and thus we make one step towards reducing the 
 dates of that historian to an agreement with those of 
 the Old Chronicle and Eratosthenes. 
 
 But, after this reduction, the period that yet remains 
 for the earliest dynasties is by far too great. It exceeds 
 the computation of the Old Chronicle and Eratos- 
 thenes, by many centuries. 
 
 The expedient of which modern chronologers have 
 generally availed themselves, in order to reconcile 
 the chronicle of Manethon with the shorter periods 
 allowed by other historians, is the scheme proposed 
 by Sir John Marsham, who conjectured that Egypt, 
 in the earliest ages, was divided into several distinct 
 kingdoms, and that the Chronicle contains several 
 different successions of kings ; that the dynasties of 
 Diospolites, for example, gives a series of princes who 
 ruled over the Thebaid, and were coeval with the 
 other dynasties of Memphites, Elephantinites, and 
 Thinites. In this way of understanding it, this 
 chronicle may be reduced so as to quadrate even 
 with a lower computation of antiquity than that of 
 Eratosthenes. 
 
 But the hypothesis that Egypt was ever divided 
 into several independent kingdoms is entirely a 
 gratuitous conjecture, and is contradicted by the 
 whole tenour of Egyptian history. The kings of 
 Egypt are frequently mentioned in the scriptural 
 history under the title of Pharaoh ; but we never find 
 that there was more than one Pharaoh at a time. If 
 such had been the condition of the countrv, some 
 trace of it could scarcely fail to be shown in the 
 Hebrew histories, considering how intimately con- 
 nected the affairs of the Israelites were on several 
 
OF THE EGYPTIAN MONARCHY. *97 
 
 occasions with those of the Egyptians. Neither can 
 any fact be produced from the writings of Greek 
 authors, who treat of Egypt, that favours such an 
 opinion. Homer mentions a king of Egypt who 
 reigned at Diospolis ; yet his dominion extended 
 down to the sea-coast. Herodotus and Diodorus 
 give testimony directly against the conjecture of 
 Marsh am. 
 
 It will however be found, unless I am much mis- 
 taken, on an attentive scrutiny of these tables, that 
 although there is no historical ground for Marsham's 
 conjecture respecting the division of Egypt into 
 independent monarchies, yet there are facts con- 
 nected with the construction of the Chronicle which 
 lead to nearly similar conclusions,^ as far as the 
 chronological system is concerned. 
 
 I shall now mention my own opinion on this 
 subject, and the internal evidence on which it is 
 founded. I was led to it, not by the conjecture of 
 any chronologer, but by some circumstances which 
 attracted my attention in the Chronicle itself. 
 
 Manethon and Eratosthenes derived their informa- 
 tion from the sacred registers deposited in the Egyptian 
 temples. It would seem that records were kepi in 
 the temples in several different nomes or provinces of 
 that kingdom : some at Memphis, some at Diospolis, 
 and others elsewhere. Of these it appears that the 
 historians availed themselves. Here is an obvious 
 source of discrepancy in documents compiled by writers 
 whose materials were drawn from different quarters. 
 Manv causes miorht snve rise to differences in the 
 registers, for example, kept at Memphis, and at Dios- 
 polis, or Elephantine. The former of these cities was 
 
 o 
 
*98 DATE OF THE COMMENCEMENT 
 
 taken possession of by the Shepherds, and remained 
 some time subject to their yoke; the latter was occa- 
 sionally under the sway of the Ethiopians. Hence 
 real and considerable variations might arise in the 
 succession of kings at such distant places. Occasion- 
 ally it might happen, as it occurs sometimes in all 
 eastern countries, that prefects and provincial gover- 
 nors would revolt and assume independent sway, 
 and maintain for a time their authority. Nothing is 
 more probable than that such petty rulers would 
 inscribe their own names on the records of the mo- 
 narchy, in the place of their superiors. The lists of 
 nomarchs might become confounded with those of the 
 kings. Even in the names of the kings themselves 
 variations would not fail occasionally to happen, owing 
 to the imperfection of alphabetic writing and ortho- 
 graphy in very remote periods, to the difference of 
 dialects in distant provinces, the multiplicity of names 
 given to the sovereigns, and still more to the substitu- 
 tion of magnificent titles and epithets in the place of 
 proper appellatives ; a practice to which the adula- 
 tion of the oriental people frequently gives occasion. 
 Circumstances of this nature, and others which need 
 not be enumerated, must be supposed to have produced 
 great diversity in the chronological registers kept 
 during the same period in different districts; so that 
 although Memphis and Diospolis were in general sub- 
 ject to the monarch of all Egypt, yet the series of 
 kings, as exhibited in the registers at Thebes, might 
 differ materially from that of the Memphite records. 
 
 Manethon seems, as Syncellus has remarked, to have 
 had before him the Old Chronicle when he undertook 
 the compilation of his table, and to have adjusted his 
 
OF THE EGYPTIAN MONARCHY. *99 
 
 plan according to that model. This chronicle pro- 
 fessedly contains thirty dynasties; but the first half of 
 this number consists of fifteen generations of the 
 Cynic Circle. Manethon seems to have considered 
 this, as modern chronologers have done, as a sort of 
 chasm or imperfection in the series; and, with a view 
 of supplying the deficiency, he filled up the first fif- 
 teen places with dynasties under similar titles to those 
 which are comprised in the remainder of the table, and 
 which nearly correspond as in the Old Chronicle and 
 in his own. In order to obtain materials to supply 
 these fifteen lists, he collected the old records from 
 different Egyptian nomes, and formed dynasties of 
 Memphite kings from the registers of Memphis, and 
 of Diospolitan from the sacred records of Thebes. In 
 general, it is to be presumed that he procured the 
 oldest documents, and that the earliest dynasties con- 
 sist, for the most part, of tables of kings who reigned 
 in Egypt before the invasion of the Shepherds ; but 
 there are, as we shall find, exceptions to this remark. 
 
 That the first fifteen dynasties were constructed in 
 this manner may be proved, as it appears to me, from 
 internal evidence. 
 
 The Thinite dynasties, for example, present some 
 singular coincidences with those of Elephantine. The 
 Thinite kings begin with Menes. They reigned in 
 Upper Egypt, for there was the seat of government 
 in the earliest times. The series of princes of Elephan- 
 tine is therefore likely to coincide nearly with the 
 Thinites, as the registers were kept at no great dis- 
 tance, and few diversities could arise in the order of 
 sovereign rulers. Now, of the nine Elephantinite kings, 
 the five first names correspond so nearly with the last 
 of the Thinites, that if some allowance is made for 
 
*100 
 
 DATE OF THE COMMENCEMENT 
 
 such mistakes in orthography as may have happened 
 in representing- Egyptian or Coptic names in Greek 
 letters, it will appear that both these tables refer to 
 the same succession. 
 
 Thinite Kings. 
 
 Elephantinite Kings, 
 
 Chaeres 
 
 *Ouser-Cheres 
 
 * * ' * 
 
 Sephres 
 
 Nephercheres 
 
 Nephercheres 
 
 Sesochris 
 
 Sisiris 
 
 Cheneres 
 
 Cheres. 
 
 But a more distinct example of this repetition is 
 afforded by the comparison of the twelfth dynasty 
 of Diospolites, which holds its place in the former 
 part of the Chronicle, with the nineteenth dynasty, 
 who are also termed Diospolites, in the latter part. 
 The coincidence in this case consists not merely in 
 names, but is borne out by a repetition of historical 
 facts, 
 
 XII. Dynasty. XVIII. and XIX. Dynasties. 
 
 2d king, Ammenemes Amenophis 
 
 3d Sesostris Sethosis 
 
 4th Laehares Rhapses 
 
 5th Ammeres Ammenephthes, or Amenophis 
 
 6th Ammenemes Ammenemmes 
 
 The comparison of names alone would be sufficient 
 to excite a suspicion, but we are not left in this state 
 of uncertainty. For, in the fragment of Manethon 
 preserved by Josephus, we have an account of the 
 exploits of Sethosis, which, compared with the history 
 of Sesostris given by Herodotus and Diodorus, and 
 
 * Ouser is an Egyptian title prefixed to various proper 
 names, as Osarsiph. 
 
OF THE EGYPTIAN MONARCHY. *1Q1 
 
 the brief notices of Africanus and Eusebius, leave no 
 doubt that they were the same person. Sethosis was 
 the conqueror who marched through the East, and 
 who, on his return to Egypt, suffered from the trea- 
 chery of his brother. In short, iu every circumstance 
 his story agrees with that of Sesostris;* and several 
 considerations unite in proving that the nineteenth 
 dynasty was the true place in chronology for this 
 celebrated warrior. Yet, on turning back to the 
 twelfth dynasty, we find the name of Sesostris, in 
 somewhat suspicious company, as we have above 
 remarked, and not only the name, but. the exploits of 
 Sesostris connected with it, as if they were set down 
 for the express purpose of convicting Manethon of 
 inaccuracy in his compilation. It is here evident that 
 the historian, in order to fill up his twelfth dynasty, 
 has extracted from some record containing another 
 copy of the same piece of chronology, which had 
 served for the foundation of the later series, where 
 the history of Sesostris occurs in its proper place. 
 
 We shall subject our hypothesis to one further 
 test, which may perhaps afford a proof that will be 
 satisfactory to most of our readers. In the earliest 
 part of Manethon's chronicle, the 3d, 4th, and 6th 
 dynasties consist of Memphite kings. Fortunately 
 these three dynasties have been preserved in a 
 more complete state than most other parts of the 
 Chronicle. They seem, from their place in the 
 series, to have been copied from the oldest records of 
 Memphis. They are the first Memphite dynasties 
 mentioned in the Chronicle, and may be supposed 
 to contain a table of the kings who reigned in that 
 
 * It is allowed by all that Sethos, or Sethosis, was Sesostris, 
 
*102 DATE OF THE COMMENCEMENT 
 
 city from its foundation. These dynasties afford us 
 an unbroken series of twenty-three kings. Let us 
 suppose that it commences from the foundation of 
 monarchy in Egypt. On that hypothesis we may 
 expect to trace some relation between it and the 
 table of Eratosthenes, which we imagine to contain a 
 coeval series, and perhaps a record of the same 
 succession ; one list having been copied from the 
 registers in the temples of Memphis, and the other 
 from those in Diospolis. 
 
 Now, it happens that the last of these twenty- 
 three monarchs of Memphis is a queen, and there 
 are only two other queens in the whole thirty dy- 
 nasties. Her name is Nitocris. It is remarkable 
 also that the twenty-second monarch in the Theban 
 list of Eratosthenes is a queen named Nitocris. He- 
 rodotus also mentions Nitocris as a celebrated queen ; 
 and, from the manner in which he speaks of her, it is 
 plain that he had heard of but one Egyptian sovereign 
 of that name. We may take it as nearly certain, that 
 the Nitocris who stands in the twenty-third place in 
 the series of Memphite princes, is the same person 
 who occurs in the twenty-second, among the sove- 
 reigns of Thebes. What still further supports our 
 conjecture is the coincidence in time ; for the twenty- 
 two Memphite princes preceding Nitocris reigned, 
 according to Manethon, in all, 691 years; and, by 
 adding up the Theban reigns that precede the same 
 name in the laterculus of Eratosthenes, we obtain 687, 
 which is within four years of the same period. 
 
 We shall now set down the twenty-three names of 
 Memphite sovereigns opposite to the twenty-two of 
 Thebans, and observe what relations the two lists 
 present 
 
OF THE EGYPTIAN MONARCHY. *103 
 
 Theban List of Eratosthenes. First Memphite Dynasties of 
 
 Manet hon. 
 
 Menes, or Mines Thebinitus Necherophis 
 
 Athothes Tosorthros or iEscu - 
 
 lapius 
 Yeais. r 
 
 Athothes 2 ^w^^-^ T y ris 
 
 IHabies 19 17 ... . Mesochris 
 
 Semphos, or Som-Phos ..18 16 Soiphis 
 
 Toigar 791 f.. . TASER-tasis 19 
 
 St-Oichos 63 \. . . Achis 42 
 
 Gosormies 30 SO Siphouris 
 
 Mares 26 26 Ker-pheres 
 
 Anoyphes 20 
 
 SIRIOS, or SIROES .... 18 29 ... . SORIS 
 
 Chnoubos Gneuros . .27^ ^ _, 
 
 ? . I „ f... Rhat-oises 
 
 Rau-osis 13 > 50 47-} „. , 
 
 ^. t*.. • , ~J /••• Bi-cheres 
 
 Bi-uris, or Biyns . . 10^ 
 
 SAOPHIS 29 63 . . . . SOUPHIS 
 
 SAOPHISthe2d 37 66 .... SOUPHIS the 2d 
 
 Mos-CHERIS 21 63 ... . Men-CHERES 
 
 * Rhatoises 25 
 
 Bicheres 22 
 
 * S ... . Seber-cheres 
 
 \ 9 Thamphthis 
 
 Mousthis 33 1 68 \ -....Othoes 
 
 Pamm0S •••• 35 -> ) 53....Phios 
 
 7 . . . . Methousouphis 
 
 Apappos 100 100 Phi-ops 
 
 Achescus Ocaras 1 1 Mentesouphis 
 
 Nitocris 6 12 ....Nitocris 
 
 687 691 
 
 * Rhatoises and Bicheres stand next to Menchercs, in the table 
 of Eratosthenes. 
 
*104 
 
 DATE OF THE COMMENCEMENT 
 
 It must be confessed that there are many names 
 standing opposite to each other, in these two tables, 
 which have no resemblance. In these instances we 
 suppose that the names of nomarchs or provincial 
 governors have been inserted in the list instead of the 
 sovereigns of Egypt, or that temporary dismember- 
 ments of the monarchy had taken place. Sometimes, 
 however, though the names differ, the periods of the 
 reigns exactly coincide. Here we may presume that 
 the multiplicity of titles or epithets assumed by eastern 
 sovereigns, and frequently adopted, as we well know, 
 by the kings of Egypts, have given rise to the diver- 
 sity. All this, it is true, is a mere hypothesis : but 
 we assume nothing more than what the circum- 
 stances of the case, on the supposition maintained, 
 must have given rise to. We rest the whole weight 
 of proof in the present instance on the coincidences 
 between the two successions above collated, which 
 we shall now more distinctly point out. 
 
 1. The reign of Nitocris is set down differently in 
 the two tables. She probably reigned longer at 
 Thebes than in Lower Egypt. She was an Ethio- 
 pian, and Thebes was nearer to her native country 
 than Memphis. She might be enabled to maintain 
 her government at Thebes after the cruelties which 
 are ascribed to her had caused her expulsion from 
 Lower Egypt. 
 
 If the Theban Nitocris were not the same person 
 as the Memphite, it would be unaccountable that the 
 two reigns preceding her name should have precisely 
 the same duration in both successions, especially as 
 the terms of each are very singular ones. The reign 
 immediately preceding Nitocris is only one year, and 
 
OF THE EGYPTIAN MONARCHY. *105 
 
 the reign before that is in both the tables 100 years. 
 There is only one king in the whole chronicle of 
 Manethon who reigned 100 years, and only one in the 
 laterculus of Eratosthenes, and in each it is assigned 
 to the last predecessor but one of Nitocris. The 
 chances against such a coincidence, as a matter 
 of accident, are more than a thousand to one ; 
 and we have a proof, strong in the same proportion, 
 that this name in both the records designates the 
 same person. 
 
 The names given to the king who reigned 100 
 years are not very unlike ; nor does it require much 
 etymological torturing to show that they may have 
 sprung from the same Egyptian original. Apappos 
 has a Greek termination, and has evidently under- 
 gone some modification. It seems, as Jablonski 
 observed without entertaining the least idea of 
 this comparison, to be the same word which the 
 Greek mycologists wrote Epaphus, the old Argive 
 title of the bull Apis, The Coptic or Egyptian 
 articles are sometimes placed, as every one knows, at 
 the beginnings, sometimes at the endings, of words ; 
 and this variation constitutes all the difference be- 
 tween Apa-phi or Epa-phi, which by a Greek writer 
 would be expressed Epaphos or Apappos, and 
 Phi-Apa, whence the Memphite name Phiops. 
 
 In the two preceding names in the Theban list I 
 see no resemblance to the three Memphite names 
 which stand opposite to them, unless Mousthis may 
 be a contraction of Methousouphis. If this be the 
 fact, two of the Memphite names must have been 
 accidentally transposed. 
 
 I am, however, strongly inclined to suspect that 
 
 P 
 
*!GS ANTIQUITY OF THESES AND MEMPHIS. , 
 
 the preceding names, Rhatoises and Bicheres, have 
 been copied by accident out of their proper place, 
 and that they originally stood before Souphis. Of this 
 hereafter. 
 
 2. The name preceding Mousthis, viz. Moscheres, 
 is interpreted by Eratosthenes Heliodotus, "the 
 gift of the Sun." This is the interpretation also of 
 Mencheres. Both these terms were apparently titles 
 or epithets ; and, as they have the same signification, 
 probably belonged to the same king. 
 
 3. Souphis the first and Souphis the second are 
 evidently the same as Saophis the first and Saophis 
 the second. 
 
 We have here three successive names in the list of 
 Manethon, which are nearly identical with the three 
 names opposite to them in the Theban series, viz. 
 Souphis I, Souphis 2, and Men-cheres, corresponding 
 with Souphis 1, Souphis 2, and Mos-cheris. How 
 many chances would there be against such a coinci- 
 dence as this, arising merely from accident? 
 
 It is true that the lengths assigned to these reigns 
 do not agree; but 192 years is so improbable a 
 duration for three following reigns in an hereditary 
 succession, that we have reason to suspect an error in 
 some of these dates. 
 
 4. The two Theban names preceding Saophis, 
 viz. Rau-osis, and Bi'yris or Bi-hyris, bear a strong 
 resemblance to Rhatoises and Bicheres in the 
 Memphite list; and I suspect that these names 
 originally stood as I have set them down in italics, 
 and that a careless copyist accidentally transposed 
 them. No error is more likely to occur than one 
 of this description. 
 
manethon's tables explained. *107 
 
 5. Sirios, or Siroes, corresponds with Soris. 
 
 6. Thus far we trace a resemblance or identity in 
 the names themselves. The two preceding kings in 
 the Memphite series, viz. Siphouris, and Kerpheres, 
 exhibit no resemblance whatever in this respect to 
 those placed opposite to them, but it is remarkable 
 that both the reigns in one table are exactly of the 
 same duration as the reigns which stand opposite 
 to Ihem in the other. It is probable, therefore, that 
 either Manethon or Eratosthenes has set down 
 epithets or titles instead of proper names. 
 
 7. St-Oichos seems to be the same name as Achis. 
 St, or Sta, is a common prefix. It occurs conjoined 
 to several names which we know to be complete 
 appellatives without it. Thus we have below 
 St-Amenemes : Amenemes being a very common 
 name in the catalogue of Egyptian kings. 
 
 6. Taigar statids opposite to Taser-tasis. Taigar 
 seems to be only a variation in the orthography of 
 Taser. The Egyptian letter corresponding with the 
 Coptic J, or soft G, has no exact correlative in the 
 Greek alphabet, and is represented indifferently by 
 Sigma, or by Gamma.. 
 
 7. Semphos stands before Taigar, and opposite to 
 the Memphite Soiphis. The son of Hercules is the 
 Greek interpretation of this name, and it was ori- 
 ginally Somphos. A slight error, occasioning the 
 omission of a consonant, may have given rise to the 
 difference between this name and Soiphis. 
 
 In the four first places in either list I find no 
 coincidence in names ; but we have an historical 
 synchronism which connects the commencements of 
 the two series. 
 
*108 ANTIQUITY OF THEBES AND MEMPHIS. 
 
 We are assured by Clement of Alexandria, that 
 Hermes of Thebes, and iEsculapius of Memphis 
 were two celebrated men, who obtained the honour of 
 deification in consequence of the benefits conferred 
 by them on mankind. We have in the foregoing 
 pages endeavoured to ascertain what the deification of 
 men meant in the fabulous history of the Egyptians. 
 It does not appear that they had any apotheosis after 
 the manner of the Greeks, but as hierarchs, or pro- 
 phets, they were believed to partake of the divine 
 nature of the gods to whom they dedicated themselves : 
 they even assumed the names of their tutelar divinities, 
 and were accordingly confounded in history with the 
 gods themselves. It was thus that we have a second 
 Hermes, and a second iEsculapius. The first 
 Hermes, or Thoth, was an abstraction, the personi- 
 fication of intellect or reason ; the first vEsculapius 
 was Serapis, or Osiris. The second Thoth, or 
 Hermes Trismegistus, was a real historical person ; 
 he lived in the time of Athoth, or was, perhaps, 
 Athoth himself. He was a Theban, according to 
 Clemens. The second iEscuIapius was, according to 
 Clemens, a Memphite; doubtless he was a priest. 
 We here have his name as the second of the Mem- 
 phite kings, who in the first ages seem generally to 
 have arisen from the hierarchy. 
 
 Now we learn from several authorities that the 
 Memphite iEsculapius was contemporary with the 
 Theban Hermes, though the former seems to have 
 been the younger of the two, and to have assisted the 
 Theban priest in the compilation of his works. 
 Thus, Manethon is made to assure Ptolemy that he had 
 copied certain records in the recesses of the Egyptian 
 
manethon's tables explained. *109 
 
 temples, which the wise Hermes had inscribed there 
 with the assistance of iEsculapius. 
 
 xcc) xpiKplcov (TrrfkaiV, <xg SUpOLTO 7TOLU(ro<pog EpjU.% 
 <ro^,£oi>Aov 7rivi>Tijg <ro<ptr}g y A(rxXr)7riov svpcuu. 
 
 Manethon. A'potelesm, lib. v. 
 
 In the Pcemander, the reputed work of Hermes 
 Trismegistus, Tat, or Thoth, and ^Esculapius, are 
 called the sons of Hermes. 
 
 Julius Firmicus, also, in his astrological work, 
 cites some ancient books attributed to Hermes, and 
 to iEsculapius, who received his lessons. 
 
 Other authorities might be accumulated to prove 
 this synchronism, if it were necessary; but the above 
 mentioned are sufficient to establish the fact, as far as 
 a fact of such remote antiquity can be determined. 
 The result is, that though the first names in these 
 two successions do not resemble each other, yet we 
 are in possession of the historical fact, that the second 
 king in one table, was contemporary with the second 
 in the other. 
 
 To conclude, it seems to be tolerably well esta- 
 blished, that the beginning and end of the two 
 tables we have compared are contemporary ; that 
 Athothes and Tosorthros lived in the same age, and 
 that the queen Nitocris, at the end of the table, is the 
 only sovereign of that name who reigned in Egypt. 
 Further, when we proceed to examine the names of 
 the intermediate kings, we find that the majority 
 of them are such as, though sometimes differing in 
 sound, appear to be merely modifications of the same 
 
*110 ANTIQUITY OF THEBES AND MEMPHIS. 
 
 Egyptian originals ; in other instances, an exact 
 correspondence in the lengths of reigns proves that 
 the same kings have been recorded in the two lists 
 with different titles or epithets. On the whole, 
 when we take into consideration the remote period 
 of antiquity from which these records have descended, 
 the number of chronological compilers through whose 
 hands they have passed, the great variety of names 
 and titles often given to the same individuals, and 
 the imperfection of alphabetical Writing, it must be 
 allowed that we have found far more numerous coinci- 
 dences than we had any right to expect in support 
 of the supposition before adopted. We infer that 
 these tables contain two coeval and almost identical 
 successions. 
 
 The coincidences which have led us to this con- 
 clusion cannot be attributed to any design on the part 
 of the authors to whom we owe the tables for it does 
 not appear that either of them ever so much as con- 
 jectured that the third, fourth, and sixth dynasties of 
 Manethon were coeval with the first twenty-two 
 reigns of Eratosthenes ; nor am I aware that the 
 comparison on which this point is established has 
 ever been made before. 
 
 It, therefore, appears that the early part of Mane- 
 thon's chronicle, instead of containing one continued 
 series of kings, consists in reality of several coeval 
 successions ; we find in the first place two dynasties 
 of Thinite kings, the same series being continued by 
 one dynasty of Elephant mites ; in the second we have 
 the series of Memphite kings just enumerated ; 
 thirdly, two dynasties ofHeracleots, and one of Xoites, 
 the names in which arc lost; fourthly, the dynasties 
 
MANETHOtf's TABLES EXPLAINED. *H| 
 
 of Shepherd kings, which appear to have been in part 
 coeval with the foregoing series,, and fifthly we find 
 the titles of several D!os t oIi(an dynasties, most of 
 which are entirely lost, and the only one which 
 remains is only another copy, as we have shown, of 
 the nineteeenth dynasty, inserted in a later part of 
 the Chronicle. To conclude, we have thus reconciled 
 the apparently discordant schemes of Manethon on 
 the one side, and the Old Chronicle and the laterculus 
 of Eratosthenes on the other, since the longest succes- 
 sion in these dynasties falls considerably within the 
 lowest period allowed by the latter documents for the 
 antiquity of the Egyptian monarchy. We have seen that 
 Syncellus, professing to follow Eratosthenes, gives us 
 data for fixing the beginning of the reign of Menes 
 at 2662 B. C. and that the commencement of the 
 Cynic circle, which answers to the same epoch in the 
 Old Chronicle, must either be dated nearly at the 
 same time, or 150 later. Now it is obvious that 
 neither of the successions, in the first part of Mane- 
 thon's Chronicle, exceeds the interval between these 
 remote dates and the period already fixed for the era 
 of the eighteenth dynasty, or of the Israelitish Exode. 
 Manethon, therefore, is reconciled with the other 
 authorities; but it must at the same time be allowed 
 that we have not yet found in his Chronicle any means 
 of computing the exact point of time at which we 
 must date the commencement of the Egyptian history. 
 
*112 RELATION OF THE DIFFERENT PARTS. 
 
 SECTION VII. 
 
 Connection of the Earlier and Later Parts of the Egyptian 
 Chronology, 
 
 We shall now make an attempt to connect the 
 commencement of the Chronicle with the later part, 
 and to deduce from it some more exact conclusion 
 respecting the antiquity of the Egyptian monarchy. 
 We pursue the same method which we have hitherto 
 followed, but place less confidence on the data to 
 which we are obliged to resort in the remaining 
 part of our calculation, than on those which have 
 conducted us thus far. 
 
 The agreement which we have already traced 
 between the Memphite record in Manethon's Chro- 
 nicle, and the series of Theban kings by Eratosthenes, 
 may be considered as ascertaining the succession of 
 Egyptian kings, from Menes downwards during 
 nearly 700 years, to the reign of Nitocris. We had 
 previously fixed the epoch of the departure of the 
 Shepherds, and the commencement of the eighteenth 
 dynasty, or the accession of Tethmosis, at 1679 years 
 B. C. All that we now want is to find the interval 
 that elapsed between the reigns of Nitocris and of 
 Tethmosis, and then the outline of the Chronicle will 
 be ascertained. 
 
OF manethon's chronicle. *113 
 
 It is probable that Manethon's work, if it could be 
 restored to its original state, would not differ mate- 
 rially in this part of the computation from the Old 
 Chronicle, which seems to have been the pattern on 
 which it was formed. The following are the dates 
 given by this document : — 
 
 Years. 
 
 The fifteen generations of the Cynic 
 
 circle reigned 443 
 
 The sixteenth dynasty 1 90 
 
 The seventeenth dynasty . • . . . 103 
 
 736 
 
 Now, if we add 736 years to 1679 we shall have 
 2415 B. C. for the era of the origin of the monarchy. 
 But here a source of uncertainty falls in our way. 
 For 178 years have been casually omitted in some 
 part of the Old Chronicle, and an apprehension 
 suggests itself that the lapse of the copyist may have 
 happened in this part of the series. It would then be 
 necessary to add this number to the foregoing, which 
 would carry up the age of Menes to 2593 B. C. It 
 is extremely difficult to determine which of these 
 dates is the true one. Syncellus, indeed, has given 
 us, for the commencement of the Laterculus of 
 Eratosthenes, a date of 2662 years before Christ, but 
 we are not informed whence he derived this calcula- 
 tion. If we were sure that it was taken from Eratos- 
 thenes, it would give support to the more remote 
 computation of the era of the Old Chronicle, which 
 differs from it only 69 years ; but it appears that the 
 
 2 
 
*1!4 RELATION OF THE DIFFERENT 
 
 original work of Eratosthenes was never seen by 
 Synceltus, who extracted the table of Theban kings 
 from the compilation of Apollodorus, and nothing 
 is more probable than that his estimate of the 
 antiquity of this series was taken from other and 
 perhaps fallacious sources. 
 
 There are some coincidences between the latter 
 part of the Theban series of Eratosthenes and the 
 eighteenth dynasty of Manethon, which falls within 
 the epoch already determined. If these should 
 appear considerable enough to be relied upon, they 
 will afford a clue to all perplexities. 
 
 We may in the first place remark, that those kings 
 whose names are mentioned by Herodotus and 
 Diodorus, as preceding the age of Sesostris, are, with 
 few exceptions, found in the table of Eratosthenes. 
 Herodotus has recorded only three reigns before that 
 era, those of Menes, Nitocris, and Moiris, the immediate 
 predecessor of Sesostris.* These seem to correspond 
 with the Menes, Nitocris, and Maris of Eratosthenes. 
 Diodorus mentions a king named Myris, or Muris, 
 whom he places six generations earlier than the 
 Moiris of Herodotus; and in the corresponding 
 place in the laterculus we find the name of Meures. 
 We shall exhibit these coincidences in one view. 
 
 * This Moiris is an important person in history. He is 
 mentioned by Strabo and JElian, the latter of whom termi 
 him Marres. 
 
 ■I —■ ■ 
 
PARTS OF MANETHON'S CHRONICLE. 
 
 *115 
 
 Eratosthenes. 
 
 
 Herodotus. 
 
 
 Diodorus 
 
 Mines 
 I 
 
 Me 
 
 nes 
 
 
 Menas 
 
 J- 
 Bums 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 Bousiris 
 
 J ■ 
 
 .Nitocns 
 
 | 
 
 Nit 
 
 ocris 
 
 
 
 
 Meures 
 
 
 
 
 Muris 
 
 1st generation 
 2d generation 
 3d generation 
 4th generation 
 5th generation 
 «th Maris. 
 
 Mo 
 
 t( 
 
 Ses 
 
 ires, or Marres, as he is 
 jrmed by Aelian. 
 
 ostris. 
 
 1st generation 
 2d generation 
 3d generation 
 4th generation 
 5th generation 
 6th generation 
 
 7 th Sesostris. 
 
 It would seem, from the analogies which display 
 themselves in this table, that Eratosthenes collected 
 the materials with which he has compiled the series of 
 Theban kings from the same quarter whence Hero- 
 dotus and Diodorus obtained information. We may, 
 therefore, attribute the discrepancies between these 
 authors to the imperfect manner in which the two 
 latter understood the accounts that were given them. 
 
 Now, the Moiris of Herodotus, the Marres of 
 iElian, was the immediate predecessor of Sesostris. 
 Sesostris, according to Manethon, was also called 
 iEgyptus; that is, he bore the appellation given to the 
 sacred river of Egypt. In the table of Eratosthenes, 
 we find just below Marres, and divided from it by 
 only one name, a king called Phrouron, which is 
 interpreted the Nile. This Phrouron appears, then, to 
 be another name or epithet of the celebrated Sesostris. 
 It ought immediately to follow Maris; and the name 
 of Siphthas Hermes, which intervenes, should pro- 
 bably have preceded Maris. If we are allowed to 
 
*116 RELATION OF THE DIFFERENT 
 
 make this trifling alteration, we shall find a consistent 
 analogy, in the order of names, between the three 
 authors. 
 
 Eratosthenes, Herodotus and Diodorus. 
 
 1. Meures Muris. D. 
 
 2. Chomaephtha 
 
 3. Ancomiios 
 
 4. Pente-Athyris 
 
 5. St-Amenemes 
 
 6. Sistosich-Hermes Sasyches. D. 
 
 y t * * 
 
 8. Siphthas-Hermes 
 
 9. Maris . Moeris, or Marres, (H. and 
 
 JElian) 
 lp. Phrouron, or the Nile, Sesostris,, named also iEgyptus, 
 
 or the Nile. 
 
 Let us now compare this succession with the 
 series of kings immediately preceding Sesostris, or 
 iEgyptus, in the table of Manethon. 
 
 The predecessor and father of Sesostris is called 
 Moiris by Herodotus. By Manethon he is termed 
 Amenophis. Whence this difference? The fact 
 seems to be, that these names are equivalent. 
 
 Maris, in the list of Eratosthenes, is interpreted 
 Heliodotus, " the Gift of the Sun ;" and the same 
 meaning may be ascribed to Amenophis; so that 
 these epithets or titles may be considered as con- 
 vertible. Memnon, or Mennon, as Pliny writes the 
 name, is another way of expressing Amenophis ; for 
 both these titles are given to another prince of the 
 eighteenth dynasty, by Africanus. Memnon was 
 the offspring of the Sun : it was his statue that was 
 vocal when struck with the solar beams. 
 
 Strabo confirms this supposition, by assuring us 
 
PARTS OF MANETHON'S CHRONICLE. 
 
 *117 
 
 that Mceris was the same king who was otherwise 
 called Memnon, and whose statue was so famous 
 among the Greeks. Memnon, or Mennon, or Ame- 
 nophis, is therefore certainly,, in this instance, the 
 same as Moiris ; and, as these names have the same 
 meaning; it is probable that we shall find them 
 coinciding in other instances. 
 
 We shall now set down the three tables of Eratos- 
 thenes, of Herodotus and Diodorus, and of Manethon, 
 opposite to each other, and observe their coincidences. 
 
 Eratosthenes, 
 
 Herodotus and Dioa 
 
 J orus, Manethon' s 18th Dynasty. 
 
 *Thuosi-MARES 
 
 
 *AMENOPHIS the 1st 
 
 Thyrillus 
 
 
 Miphris 
 
 Semphoucrates 
 
 
 Misphragmouthosis 
 
 Chouther 
 
 
 Touthmosis 
 
 *MARES 
 
 MURIS, D. 
 
 *AMENOPHIS, or 
 MEMNON 
 
 Chomaephtha . 
 
 
 Horus 
 
 Ancounios 
 
 
 Achen-cheres 
 
 Pente-ATHYRIS 
 
 
 ATHORIS 
 
 St-Amenenes (23 years) 
 
 
 (24 yrs.) Achencheres 1 & 2 
 
 Sistosich-HERMES* 
 
 Sasyches, P. 
 
 ARMES, or Hermeub* 
 Ramesses 
 
 Siphthas-HERMES 
 
 
 HARMESSES 
 
 *MARIS 
 
 MOIRIS or MARRES, *AMENOPHIS 
 
 
 or MEMNON 
 
 
 Phrouron, named after 
 
 Sesostris 
 
 Sethosis, named also 
 
 the river Nile. 
 
 
 iEgyptus, the name 
 of the Nile 
 
 
 Sesostris 2 
 
 Rhapsakes 
 
 
 Ammosis 
 
 Amenophthis 
 
 
 Actisanes 
 
 Rameses 
 
 
 *MARUS. 
 
 •AMMENEMES. 
 
 We observe that the name Muris, Meuris, IMoiris 
 or Marres, or Myris, occurs four times in the series of 
 
*-118 RELATION OF THE DIFFERENT 
 
 Eratosthenes, Diodorus, and Herodotus. In three 
 places it corresponds with the name of Amenophis, 
 which we have shown to be an equivalent epithet ; 
 in the fourth with Arnenemes ; and Manethon, as we 
 have shown in a foregoing section, sometimes has 
 written Arnenemes in the place of Amenophes. 
 
 Another coincidence is the occurrence of Hermes 
 twice in the Theban list, opposite to Armes or Har- 
 nesses in the list of Manethon. 
 
 Pente-Athyris is a compound name, meaning 
 P'hont-Athyri, or the high priest of Athyri or Athor. 
 Opposite to this name we have Athoris, which is 
 equivalent. 
 
 If these coincidences are allowed to be sufficient to 
 establish the connection of the two series, they will 
 enable us to fix the date of the commencement of the 
 Egyptian monarchy more exactly than we have 
 attempted by the data before adduced. 
 
 We have already shown that the beginning of the 
 reign of Sesostris or iEgyptus is to be dated at 1350 
 B. C. The whole series of Eratosthenes, from Menes 
 to the last king whose name is set down, occupied, 
 as Syncellus says, 1075 years. From this sum we 
 must deduct 68 years, for the length of the two last 
 reigns, and the interval between Menes and Phrouron 
 will be 1007 years. Now, if this Phrouron, whose 
 name is interpreted f( The Nile," be really the same 
 as the yEgyptus or Sethosis of Manethon, we have 
 only to add 1007 years to the date before obtained, 
 in order to ascertain the time when Menes began 
 to reign, and the record of the Egyptian monarchy 
 commences. 1350+ 1007 amount to 2357. This date 
 falls short of the lowest epoch deduced from the Old 
 
PARTS OF MANETHON'S CHRONICLE. *119 
 
 Chronicle, by upwards of 50 years; but the difference 
 is less than we might expect. 
 
 If this computation is correct, Nitocris must have 
 died just 40 years before the Exode, and Thyosi- 
 Mares was the Amenophis who was drowned in the 
 Red Sea. Perhaps some confirmation to our hypo- 
 thesis will be found in the coiucidence of the date of 
 this king's death. If we compute upwards from 
 Nilus, supposing him identical with Sesostris, we find 
 that the end of the reign of Thyosi- Mares falls just 6 
 years before the Scriptural date of the Exode ; an 
 error so small as this may be considered a remarkable 
 instance of agreement. 
 
 It must be remarked that if the coincidences noticed 
 in this section should be regarded as merely accidental, 
 the conclusions obtained in the preceding pages will 
 be in no way affected ; and it may still be allowed 
 that we have determined, with a tolerable degree of 
 precision, the antiquity of the Egyptian monarchy, 
 by comparing the Old Chronicle and that of Mane- 
 thon with the laterculus of Eratosthenes. The analo- 
 gies traced in the former sections appear to be so 
 strong as to lie beyond the reach of merely accidental 
 coincidence. This cannot be said of those which we 
 have last surveyed ; though I confess that 1 am in- 
 clined, on the whole, to regard even the latter as too 
 distinct and too numerous to be the effect of chance. 
 
 I shall now, in the following table, place under one 
 view the whole system of the Egyptian chronicles, 
 observing that the only point which to myself appears 
 left in doubt, is the connection 1 have attempted 
 to trace between the eighteenth dynasty of JManethon 
 and the latter part of the Theban laterculus. 
 
*120 
 
 TABLE OF MANETHON'S EGYPTIAN DYNASTIES, COM- 
 
 OF ERATOSTHENES, DISPLAYING 
 
 part 
 
 FIRST PART OF THE CHRONICLE, 
 
 Old Chronicle. 
 
 Theban Kings, accord- 
 ing to Eratosthenes. 
 
 Memphite Dynasties of 
 Manethon, being the 
 3d, 4th, and 6th 
 Dynasties. 
 
 15 generations of the Menes 
 Cynic Circle Athothes 
 
 Necherophes 
 
 | Hermes Thebanus Tosorthros, or iEscinV 
 pius Memphites 
 
 Athothes 2 Tyris 
 
 i i 
 
 Somphos Soi-phis 
 
 Toigar Taser-tasis 
 
 St-Oichos Achis 
 
 Gosormies reigned 30 Siphouris reigned .. 30 
 
 Mares 26 Kerpheres 2£ 
 
 j (4th dynasty) 
 
 Siroes Soris 
 
 Saophis 1 Souphis 1 
 
 Sum total of the 15 Sum of the first 
 
 generations 443 1 5 generations 454 
 
 16th dynasty of 8 Saophis 2 Souphis 2 
 
 Tanites reigned 190 Mos-Cheris Men-Cheres 
 
 (6th dynasty,) 
 
 Apappos 100 Phiops 100 
 
 Total, 633 Achescus 1 Mentesouphis 1 
 
 17th dynasty of 4 Nitocris 6 Nitocris 12 
 
 Memphites reign- — — 
 
 ed 104 Total, 687 691 
 
 737 
 
 It would appear that some great revolution in Egypt about the 
 
PARTS OF MANETHON'S CHRONICLE. 
 
 *121 
 
 PARED WITH THE OLD CHRONICLE AND THE LATERCULUS 
 THE CONTEMPORARY SUCCESSIONS. 
 
 jftSt 
 
 FROM MENES TO NITOCRIS. 
 
 Thinite Dynasties of Kings of Elephantine, 
 
 Manethon, being the being the 1st and 2d 
 
 1st and 9>d Dynas- Dynasties, 
 ties. 
 
 Menes 
 Athothes 
 
 Kenkenes 
 
 i 
 
 Ou-Saphaes 
 
 Xoites. 
 
 Heracleois. 
 
 The 14th dy- The 9th dy- 
 nasty reign- nasty reign- 
 ed 184 or 484 ed 100 or 409 
 The 10th dy- 
 nasty 185 
 
 Total, 594 
 
 (2d dynasty) 
 Bochus 
 
 [The date of the invasion of the 
 Shepherds is determined by the follow- 
 ing Table.] 
 
 Sethenes 
 Chaeres 
 
 Nephercheres 
 Sesochris 
 Cheneres 
 
 Sum total of these 
 two dynasties ... 555 
 
 [Perhaps these princes 
 were driven from This to 
 Elephantine. ] 
 
 Ouser-Cheres 
 
 Sephres 
 
 Nepherchere9 
 
 Sisiris 
 
 Cheres 
 
 Rathouris 
 
 Mercheres 
 
 Tarcheres 
 
 Obnus 
 
 Total, from Menes, 684 
 
 same period occasioned the termination of several dynasties. The 
 
 r 
 
122 
 
 RELATION OF THE DIFFERENT 
 
 following Table indicates that this was the increasing ascendancy 
 and expulsion of the Shepherds. 
 
 Part 
 
 CONNECTION OF THE PRECEDING DYNASTIES WITH THE SUB- 
 SUCCESSION OF KINGS FROM 
 
 N. B. The foregoing table, as well as the succeeding one, is 
 present is built on the supposition that Thyosi-Mares was the 
 
 
 Old Chronicle. 
 
 18 dynasty of 14Mem- 
 
 phite Kings, reigned 
 
 348 
 
 Laterculus of Theban 
 Kings. 
 
 Diospolitan Record 
 of Manethon. 
 
 18th Diospolitan dy- 
 nasty of Manethon — 
 called Memphites in 
 the Old Chronicle 
 
 Nitocris 687 
 
 Myrtaios 
 Thyosi-Mares 
 
 i 
 
 Meures 
 
 I 
 
 Pente-Athuris 
 Sistosich-Hermei 
 
 Siphthas Hermes 
 (Maris) 
 
 Phrouron, who bore the 
 name of the river 
 Nile. 
 
 Amenophis 1 
 
 I 
 
 Amenophis 2, the Muris 
 
 of Diodorus 
 Athoris 
 Armes, or Hermeus 
 
 Harmesses 
 
 Amenophis 5, the Mar- 
 res of iElian 
 
 Sethosis, who bore the 
 name of JEgyptus, or 
 the river Nile. 
 
PARTS OF MANETHON'S CHRONICLE. *12S 
 
 of the Diospolitan kings, who soon after effected the reduction 
 
 SEQUENT ONES. THIS PART OF THE TABLE COMPRISES THE 
 NITOCRIS TO SESOSTRIS. 
 
 founded on the conclusions obtained in the sixth Section. The 
 Amenophis 1 of Manethon, maintained in the seventh Section. 
 
 Memphite Kings. 
 
 Nitocris ,. 691 
 
 [The 7th and 8th dynas- 
 ties of Memphites are 
 lost.] 
 
 Exode of the Hebrew Shepherds, B.C. 1619, viz. 
 511 years after the first incursion of the Shep- 
 herds, who therefore entered Egypt B.C. 2071, 
 viz. in the reign of Toigar, according to this 
 Table. 
 
 A duplicate Diospolitan 
 record, being the 12th 
 dynasty of Manethon. 
 
 Ammenemes 
 
 Sesostris 
 
 [See page* 100. 
 
124 
 
 RELATION OF THE DIFFERENT 
 
 \ Part 
 
 EGYPTIAN MONARCHS, FROM SETHOSIS, 
 
 Old Chronicle. 
 
 Manethon's Chronicle. 
 
 19th dynasty of Diospolites com- 
 menced 1084 years from the 
 beginning of the Cynic Circle.* 
 
 Total 194 
 20th dynasty of Diospolites 
 reigned , 228 
 
 21 dynasty of Tanites 
 
 Total 121 
 
 Sethosis, the 1st king of the 19th dynasty, 
 began to reign 1075 — 68=1007 years 
 from Menes, according to the fore- 
 going Table, founded on Section the 
 seventh * 
 
 Rhapsakes 
 
 Amenophis 
 
 Rameses (Troy taken) 
 
 Ammenemmes 
 
 Thouoris, or Polybus 
 
 Total 209 
 
 (20th dynasty of Diospolites) 
 
 Total 135 
 
 (2lst dynasty of Tanites) 
 
 Smedes, or Soussakeim 
 
 i 
 
 Total 130 
 
 22d dynasty of Tanites 
 
 
 22d dynasty of Bubastites 
 
 
 
 Total 
 
 48 
 
 
 Total 
 
 49 
 
 23d dynasty of Diospolites 
 
 
 23d dynasty of Tanites 
 
 
 
 Total 
 
 19 
 
 
 Total 
 
 44 
 
 24th dynasty of 1 Saite 
 
 
 24th dynasty of 1 Saite 
 
 
 
 reigned 
 
 44 
 
 Bocchoris reigned 
 
 
 44 
 
 25th dynasty of Ethiopians 
 
 
 25th dynasty of Ethiopians 
 
 Sabbaco 
 
 Senechon 
 
 Tarcus, or Taracus 
 
 
 
 Total 
 
 44 
 
 
 Total 
 
 44 
 
 26th dynasty of Memphites 
 
 
 26th dynasty of Saites 
 
 
 
 Total 
 
 177 
 
 1 
 
 Psammitichus 
 
 Nechao 
 
 Psammouthis 
 
 Ouaphris 
 
 Amasis. 
 
 
 
 Note. It hence appears that the Old Chronicle carries up the 
 which exceeds the date founded on the second part of this Table 
 
PARTS OF MANETHON's CHRONICLE. 
 
 OR SESOSTRIS, TO AMASIS. 
 
 Herodotus and Diodorus. 
 
 Kings of Egypt mentioned 
 in the Scriptures. 
 
 *125 
 
 Dates. 
 
 1550 
 
 B.C. 
 
 Ammosis 
 
 Ramises of Pliny (Troy taken) 
 
 Marus 
 
 118» 
 
 Shishak 
 
 989 
 
 Bocchoris, D. 
 Sabbacon 
 Tearchon of Strabo 
 
 fcJo 
 
 Tirhakah the Ethiopian 
 
 7«S 
 
 710 
 
 Psammitichus 
 
 Nechus 
 
 Psammis 
 
 Apries 
 
 Amasis. 
 
 Pharaoh Necho 
 Pharaoh Hophra 
 
 Dates all 
 ascertained. 
 
 foundation of the Egyptian monarchy to 1084+ 1350 — 2434 B. C. 
 by somewhat more than half a century. 
 
NOTES 
 
 NOTE A. 
 
 It has often been supposed that some memorials of the history 
 of the worlds and of the most remarkable dispensations of 
 Providence to the human race, had been preserved from very 
 remote ages, particularly by the Patriarchs of the Hebrew 
 stem ; and that Moses, in composing the introduction to the 
 Pentateuch, availed himself of such authentic documents. 
 The first writer who attempted to investigate this subject, by 
 a critical analysis of the book of Genesis, was the celebrated 
 physician, Astruc** The same inquiry has been pursued fur- 
 ther by Jerusalemf and Ilgen,J and particularly by Eicbhorn;§ 
 and the results which these writers have deduced have been 
 generally adopted by learned men and biblical critics on the 
 Continental 
 
 These writers have attempted to show that the book of 
 Genesis contains several ancient historical documents, handed 
 down from the Patriarchs, and preserved in an uncorrupt state 
 
 * Conjectures sur les Memoires originaux, clout il paroit que 
 Moyse s'est servi pour composer le livre de la Genese, a Bruxelles, 
 1753. 
 
 f Jerusalem's Briefe iiber die Mosaische Geschichte und 
 Philosophic 
 
 X Ilgen's Urkunden des Jerusalemschen Tempel-Archivs. 
 
 § Eichhorn iiber MosisNachrichten von der Noachischen Fluth. 
 Repertorium, T. 5. Also, Eichhorn's Einleitung in das Altc 
 Testament, Th. 2. 
 
 || See D. J. G. Rosenmuller's Erklarung der Geschichte vom 
 Siindenfall, and Paulus's Neues Repertorium, Th. '2. 
 
128 
 
 NOTES ON THE CHRONOLOGICAL 
 
 to the time of Moses, by whom they were copied nearly in 
 their original form, except that they were interwoven by 
 him into one continuous narrative. This inference is chiefly 
 derived from the following considerations. 
 
 1. The book of Genesis contains several repetitions or 
 double narratives of the same events. 
 
 2. If these duplicate narratives are compared with each 
 other, they may be distinguished by characteristic differences 
 of style. 
 
 3. The repetitions are too extensive, and the characteristic 
 differences too distinctly marked, to admit of any other expla- 
 nation than that which this hypothesis assigns. 
 
 As a specimen of this analysis, I shall subjoin Eichhorn's 
 comparison of the two Histories of the Deluge, which this 
 writer endeavours to trace and discriminate. It will be ob- 
 served that the passages placed opposite to each other contain 
 two complete and continued narratives. In one of these the 
 Deity is distinguished by the term Eiohim, in the other by 
 Jehovah ; and there is only one exception to this remark. 
 The style differs in other respects. The record in which the 
 word Eiohim is used is more prosaic and circumstantial ; the 
 other is expressed more briefly, and in more striking and 
 poetical phraseology. 
 
 Record in which the name 
 Jehovah is used. 
 
 Genesis, chap. vi. 5. And Jehovah 
 saw that the wickedness of man was 
 great in the earth, and that every ima- 
 gination of the thoughts of his heart 
 was only evil continually. 
 
 7. And Jehovah said, " I will de- 
 stroy man, whom I have created, from 
 the face of the earth, both man and 
 beast, and the creeping tiling, and the 
 fowls of the air ; for it repenteth me 
 that I have made them." 
 
 Chap. vii. 1. And Jehovah said unto 
 Noah, " Because thee I have seen righ- 
 teous before me in this generation." 
 
 Record in which the word 
 El o him is used. 
 
 Genesis, chap. vi. 12. And the Eio- 
 him saw the earth, and behold it was 
 corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted 
 his way upon the earth. 
 
 13. And the Eiohim said unto Noah, 
 " The end of all flesh is come before 
 me ; for the earth is filled with vio- 
 lence through them: and behold, I 
 will destroy them from the earth." 
 
 9. Noah was a just man and perfect 
 in his generations ; and Noah walked 
 with the Eiohim. 
 
TREATISE. NOTE A. 
 
 *129 
 
 Record in which the name 
 Jehovah is used. 
 
 Genesis, chap. vii. 2. Of every clean 
 beast thou shalt take to thee, by sevens, 
 the male and his female ; and of beasts 
 unclean, by two, the male and his 
 female. 
 
 3. Of fowls also of the air by sevens, 
 the male and the female, 
 
 (B) to keep seed alive upon the face 
 of all the earth. 
 
 4. For yet seven days, and I will 
 cause it to rain upon the earth forty 
 days and forty nights : 
 
 (B) and every living substance that 
 I have made, will I destroy from off 
 the face of the earth. 
 
 5. And Noah did according to all 
 that Jehovah had commanded him. 
 
 1. And Jehovah said unto Noah, 
 *' Come thou, and all thy house, into 
 the ark." 
 
 6. And Noah was six hundred years 
 old when the flood of waters was upon 
 the earth. 
 
 (The time is specified in this record: see 
 above, verse 4. ) 
 
 7. And Noah entered, and his sons, 
 and his wife, and his sons' wives with 
 him, into the ark, because of the 
 waters of the flood. 
 
 8. Of clean beasts, and of beasts 
 that are not clean, and of fowls, and 
 of every thing that creepeth upon the 
 earth, 
 
 Record in which the word 
 Elohim is used. 
 
 Genesis, chap. vi. 19. And of every 
 living thing, of all flesh, two of every 
 sort shall thou bring into an ?-rk, to 
 keep them alive with thee: they shall 
 be male and female. 
 
 20. Of fowls after their kind, and of 
 cattle after their kind, of every creeping 
 thing upon the earth after his kind: 
 two of every sort shall come unto thee, 
 (B) to keep them alive. 
 
 17. And behold, I, even I, do bring 
 a flood of waters upon the earth, 
 
 (B) to destroy all flesh, wherein is the 
 breath of life, from under heaven : every 
 thing that is in the earth shall die. 
 
 22. Thus did Noah ; according to all 
 that the Elohim had commanded him, 
 so did he. 
 
 18. And thou shalt come into the 
 ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, 
 and thy sons' wives with thee. 
 
 Chap. vii. 11. In the six hundredth 
 year of Noah's life, in the second 
 month, the seventeenth day of the 
 month, the same day were all the foun- 
 tains of the great deep broken up, 
 and the windows of heaven were 
 opened. 
 
 12. And the rain was upon the 
 earth forty days and forty nights. 
 
 13. In the self same day entered 
 Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and 
 Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's 
 wife, and the three wives of his sons 
 with him, into the ark. 
 
 14. They, and every beast after hie 
 kind, and all the cattle after their 
 kind, and every creeping thing that 
 creepeth upon the earth after his kind, 
 and every fowl after hi* kind, every 
 bird of every sort. 
 
*130 
 
 NOTES ON THE CHRONOLOGICAL 
 
 Record in which the name 
 Jehovah is used. 
 
 Genesis chap. vi. 9. There went in, 
 two and two, unto Noah into the ark, 
 
 ( B) the male and female, as the Elohim 
 had commanded Noah. 
 
 17. And the flood was forty days 
 the earth ; and the waters increased 
 and bare up the ark, and it was lift up 
 above the earth. 
 
 23. And every living substance was 
 destroyed which was upon the face of 
 the ground, both man, and cattle, and 
 the creeping things, and the fowl of the 
 heaven ; and they were destroyed from 
 the earth : and Noah only remained, 
 and they that were with him in the ark. 
 
 Chap. viii. 21. And Jehovah said in 
 his heart, 
 
 I will not again curse the ground any 
 more for man's sake ; because the 
 imagination of man's heart is evil 
 from his youth. 
 
 (B) Neither will I again any more 
 smite every living thing, as I have 
 done. 
 
 22. As yet all the days of the earth, 
 seed-time and harvest, and cold and 
 heat, and summer and winter, and day 
 and night shall not cease. 
 
 Record in which the word 
 Elohim is used. 
 
 Genesis chap. vi. 15. And they went 
 in unto Noah into the ark, two and 
 two of all flesh wherein is the breath 
 of life. 
 
 ( B) 16. And they that went in, went in 
 male and female of all flesh, as the 
 Elohim had commanded him. 
 
 18. And the waters prevailed, and 
 were increased greatly upon the earth 
 and the ark went upon the face of the 
 waters. 
 
 21. And all flesh died that moved 
 upon the earth, both of fowl and of 
 cattle, and of beasts, and of every 
 creeping thing that creepeth upon the 
 earth, and every man. 
 
 22. All in whose nostrils was the 
 breath of life, and all that was in the 
 dry land died. 
 
 Chap. ix. 8. And the Elohim said to 
 Noah and to his sons with him, saying, 
 
 9. And I, behold, I establish my 
 covenant with you, and with your seed 
 after you ; (10.) and with every living 
 creature that is with you, of the fowl, 
 of the cattle, and of every beast of the 
 earth with you ; from all that go out 
 of the ark, to every beast of the earth. 
 (11.) And I will establish my cove- 
 nant with you. 
 
 (B) Neither shall all flesh be cutoff 
 any more by the waters of a flood; 
 neither shall there be any more flood 
 to destroy the earth. 
 
 The selection of the passages which are thus brought into 
 comparison is perhaps, in some instances, forced and assumed 
 without sufficient marks of discrimination. Yet, after making 
 all allowances for critical artifice, it seems impossible to 
 deny that there is some foundation for the author's hypothesis. 
 
TREATISE. NOTE B. *131 
 
 I leave the reader, however, to examine for himself, and draw 
 his own conclusions.* 
 
 NOTE B. 
 
 In assigning the dates to two or three events irf the history of 
 the Israelites, I have followed a computation which differs from 
 that of Archbishop Usher. The events I allude to are occur- 
 rences, in which the history of the Hebrews is involved with 
 the affairs of the Egyptians. The first of these is the Exode, 
 or the departure of Israel from Egypt, under the guidance of 
 Moses and Aaron. The second is the invasion of Judaea and 
 capture of Jerusalem by the king of Egypt, termed in our 
 sacred Scriptures Shishak. I shall mention the grounds on 
 which the dates assigned to these occurrences appear to me to 
 be established, beginning, as before, with the later, and then 
 proceeding to the earlier events. 
 
 First, of the date assigned to the invasion of Palestine by 
 Shishak. 
 
 Jerusalem was plundered by Shishak in the fifth year of 
 Rehoboam, who ascended the throne of David thirty-six years 
 after the foundation of the temple of Jerusalem. We have 
 here two remarkable epochas in the history of the Israelites 
 connected together, viz. the foundation of Solomon's temple, 
 which fixes the commencement of a celebrated era; and the 
 
 * For a full elucidation of this subject, I refer the reader to a 
 work which is now preparing for the press by the Rev. D. G. 
 Wait, LL.B. Rector of Blagdon, Somersetshire, under the title of 
 An Introduction to the Old Testament. It is designed to contain 
 a variety of curious illustrations derived from oriental sources, with 
 the principal remarks of the Rabbinical Commentators, and the 
 most learned German Critics. The profound erudition and inde- 
 fatigable diligence of the author leave no room to doubt that this 
 work will make a very valuable addition to the biblical literature 
 of our nation. 
 
*J32 NOTES ON THE CHRONOLOGICAL 
 
 revolt of the ten tribes, which happened in the first year of 
 Rehoboam. 
 
 The temple of Jerusalem was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar 
 in the year before Christ 588, according to. Usher and most of 
 our modern chronologers. This epoch is tolerably well fixed 
 by a variety of historical data. By computing upwards from 
 this era, and reckoning the reigns of the kings of Judah and 
 Israel, as set down in the books of Kings and Chronicles, the 
 earlier dates are obtained. By this method Usher has calcu- 
 lated the interval between the foundation and the destruction 
 of the temple to have been 424 years, and dates its foundation 
 in 1012 B.C. In the computation I have followed, which is 
 that adopted by Dr. Hales,* fifteen years are added to the 
 period above mentioned, and the foundation of the temple is 
 dated at 1027 B.C. 
 
 This difference consists in the two following particulars. 
 
 The reign of Jehoram, the fifth descendant of Solomon, as 
 set down in 2 Kings, xiii. 17, and 2 Chronicles, xxi. 5, is 
 eight years. Usher conjectures that half of his reign was a joint 
 sovereignty with his father Jehojshaphat, and on this hypo- 
 thesis has assigned only four years to Jehoram. Dr. Jackson 
 has discussed this subject in his Chronological Antiquities, and 
 I follow him in assigning eight years to this reign.f 
 
 The other deviation from Usher's computation consists in 
 the insertion of an interregnum of eleven years between the 
 reigns of Amaziah and Azariah, for which we are fully autho- 
 rized by a comparison of the contemporary successions of 
 Judah and Israel ; unless an hypothesis assumed by Usher, 
 similar to that of the former instance, be allowed. According 
 to 2 Kings, xv. 1, Jeroboam the 2d was in the 27th year of 
 his reign over Israel when Azariah ascended the throne of 
 Jerusalem. Usher reckons this to have been the sixteenth 
 year of his reign, and conjectures that the first eleven years 
 were in joint sovereignty with his father Jehoash, whose whole 
 
 * New Analysis of Chronology, vol. i. 
 f Jackson's Chronological Antiquities, vol. i. p. 177- 
 
TREATISE. NOTE B. * 133 
 
 reign was only sixteen years. There is no authority for this 
 conjecture, neither is there any proof that the interregnum of 
 eleven years preceded the reign of Azariah ; but one of the 
 two suppositions must be allowed. The hypothesis that an 
 interregnum took place is rendered probable by the circum- 
 stances of Amaziah's demise, and seems implied in the account 
 of Azariah's succession in 2 Chronicles, xxvi. 1. And we have 
 shortly afterwards an instance of a similar chasm in the suc- 
 cession of the kings of Israel, which is allowed by all chrono- 
 logers, and certainly happened, yet is not expressly noticed 
 in the series of reigns. 
 
 We thus deduce the following dates from the Scriptural 
 history. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Foundation of Solomon's temple, B.C. 1027 
 
 Accession of Rehoboam 990 
 
 Invasion of Judaea and sacking of Jerusalem by 
 Sbishak 985 
 
 Another important era in the Scripture Chronology is the 
 Exode, or the departure of the Israelites from Egypt. The 
 computation of this date depends on the duration we assign to 
 the period between the foundation of the temple of Jerusalem 
 and the Exode. 
 
 Archbishop Usher's calculation of this interval, which is 
 supported by the present Hebrew text, assigns to it 480 years. 
 Several considerations seem to render it manifest that this date 
 has been altered, either by fraud or accident. 
 
 1. It is inconsistent with the tenour of the ancient Jewish 
 history, as contained in the preceding scriptures. In the 
 book of Judges, a series of rulers is set down, with an exact 
 enumeration of their reigns or periods of government, which 
 implies that they held the office of suffetes, or chief magistrates, 
 in consecutive order. There is not time enough for the 
 reigns of the whole number in succession, including the 
 years of servitude, when Israel was subject to foreign 
 oppressors, if the short date above mentioned is retained ; and 
 
*I34 NOTES ON THE CHRONOLOGICAL 
 
 chronologers have been driven to the expedient of conjec- 
 turing, contrary to the tenour of the history, that the reigns 
 of several judges were contemporary. 
 
 2. The longer computation is the best supported by ancient 
 authorities. Josephus assigns five hundred and ninety-two 
 years as the duration of the interval between the Exode and 
 the foundation of the temple. This calculation seems to have 
 been generally adopted by the learned among the Jews, about 
 the time of the Christian era; and St. Paul appears to have 
 followed it in the brief outline of the history of Israel, which 
 occurs in Acts xiii. 17, 22. It is adopted by Michaelis as the 
 true date. 
 
 3. The only specious objection to this longer computation 
 is founded on the genealogy of the house of Jesse, in the 
 last chapter of Ruth, which gives only eleven generations, 
 inclusive, between Judith and David. These, according to the 
 usual allowance of three generations to a century, give us 
 only three hundred and sixty years between the patriarch of the 
 tribe and the founder of the royal house. But, if we refer to the 
 books of Chronicles, we shall find several genealogies consisting 
 of a much greater number of generations. In the house of 
 the high priests we have fifteeen generations inclusive, 
 betweed Aaron and Azariah, who was contemporary with 
 Solomon ; and in the house of Samuel, we find seventeen 
 generations between Korah and Samuel, which will give 
 twenty between Korah and Solomon. It is evident, there- 
 fore, that we must not take the singularly short genealogy 
 of the house of Judah as the basis of our computation, which 
 would be to found the rule on the exception. In the case of 
 this short series, we must suppose, either that some genera- 
 tions are omitted in the genealogy, a thing by no means 
 infrequent in the practice of the Hebrew genealogists,* or 
 
 * See Michaelis de Chronologia Mosis post Diluvium, and 
 Observations en titled " Erinnerungen iiber Michaelis meinung 
 van der Chronologic zwischen Sem und Abraham/' in EichhornV 
 Repert. fur Bibl. unci Morgen. Litt. 13 Th. 
 
TREATISE. NOTE C. *135 
 
 that the generations in this house were, from some circum- 
 stances unknown to us, unusually long. This supposition is 
 by no means improbable, or contrary to the tenour of events 
 in the present times. We might select many families in 
 which three generations will lead us back much more than a 
 century. 
 
 NOTE C. 
 
 In assigning the date of the Trojan war, I have followed the 
 old calculation of Eratosthenes, with which the ancients in 
 general agree within a short period. This calculation appears 
 to me to rest on better ground than any of the conjectural 
 computations, founded on the supposed average-length of 
 reigns. The assumption on which this method is founded 
 has been completely defeated by Dr. Musgrave, in his inge- 
 nious Dissertation on the Chronology of the Olympiad. 
 
 The royal genealogy of England, or line of kings, from 
 William the Conqueror to George III. gives us twenty-three 
 generations, and the period elapsed since the epoch of the 
 conquest is seven hundred and fifty-one years ; viz. from 
 1066 to 1817. If we divide this number by twenty-three, we 
 shall obtain thirty-two years and a half for each generation. 
 Hence it appears that the length of reigns in a regal succession, 
 when the crown is handed down regularly from father to son. 
 may be nearly as long as the usually assigned average of 
 generations., viz. three to a century. 
 
 The most specious argument against the old computation 
 of the date of the Trojan war is founded on the list of Kings 
 of Sparta* The following is the table as drawn out by 
 Falconer, from Pausanias and Herodotus,* 
 
 * See the accurate and excellent work entitled u Chronok- 
 Tables," by the late Mr. Falconer. 
 
136 
 
 NOTES ON THE CHRONOLOGICAL 
 
 TABLE OF THE KINGS OF SPARTA, FROM 
 PAUSANIAS AND HERODOTUS. 
 
 Eurysthenes . 
 
 ' : i 
 
 Agis 
 
 Echestratus 
 
 Leobotes 
 
 I 
 
 Doryssus 
 
 Agesilaus 
 
 Archelaus 
 
 Teleclus 
 
 Alcamenes 
 
 i 
 
 Polydorus 
 Eury crates 
 Anaxander 
 
 I 
 
 Eurycratides 
 
 Leon 
 
 An axand rides 
 
 42 
 
 Hercules 
 
 I 
 
 Hyllus 
 
 I 
 Cleodaeus 
 
 I 
 
 Aristomachus 
 
 I 
 
 Aristodemus 
 
 Patrocles, or Procles 
 
 Sous 
 
 Eurypon 
 
 Pry tan is 
 
 Eunomus 
 
 Polydectes 
 
 Charilaus 
 
 Nicander 
 
 l 
 
 Theopompus 
 
 r 
 
 Arcleidamas 
 Zeuxidamus 
 Anaxidamus 
 
 I 
 
 Archidamus 
 
 . .1 
 
 Agasicles 
 Aristo 
 
 l 
 
 Demaratus 
 
 Lycurgus 
 
 Cleomene8 Leonidas 
 
 Anaxandrides 
 
 I 
 
 Arcleidamas 
 
 i 
 
 Anaxilaus 
 
 Leotychides 
 
 Hippocratides 
 
 Agesilaus 
 
 Men ares 
 
 Leotychides 
 
TREATISE. NOTE C. *137 
 
 Hyllus was contemporary with the heroes who fought at 
 Troy, and the taking of Troy may be reckoned as coeval with 
 his death. The death of Leonidas happened 480 B. C. while 
 Leotychides reigned in the house of Procles. We have, 
 therefore, (reckoning the last generation as half spent at the 
 death of Leonidas,) 20 J generations between the Trojan war, 
 dated at 1183 B.C. and the year 4S0, giving 703 years to be 
 divided by 20|, which affords somewhat more than 34 years 
 for each generation. In the line of Eurysthenes there are 
 only 19 \ generations, and the average will be somewhat 
 longer than those of our English series ; but they are by no 
 means beyond the bounds of nature and of probability. The 
 difference in manners in the two nations, with respect to 
 marriages and other circumstances, will account for this 
 variation, and a minute inspection of the Spartan series 
 affords, as Dr. Musgrave has shown, several reasons why the 
 average is greater than usual. For example, Charilaus, who 
 reigned sixty-four years, was born after his father's death. 
 
 This computation is supported by some historical notices 
 which seem to be of good authority. Before the Olympic 
 era, the Grecian chronology is subject to doubt and uncer- 
 tainty; but, from the period when the calculation by Olympiads 
 began, it may in general be trusted, and it appears that the 
 best of the. old antiquaries relied with confidence on the 
 register of the Olympiads. The beginning of the Messenian 
 war was fixed by Pausanias at the second year of the ninth 
 Olympiad, in the reigns of Theopompos and Alcamenes. 
 These kings, therefore, reigned in 743 B.C. and this is the 
 place which the above computation assigns them in the 
 series. 743 taken from 1183, leave 440 years, which are to be 
 divided between twelve reigns. One of these reigns is of an 
 uncommon character, as before mentioned. Charilaus's reign 
 is reckoned from his father's death before his own birth ; the 
 period assigned to it is therefore longer than ought fairly to be 
 allowed to a generation ; deduct 64 from 4 10, and we have 376 
 to be divided between eleven reigns, which gives a little more 
 than 34 years to each. We are informed that these reigns were 
 
*138 NOTES ON THE CHRONOLOGICAL TREATISE. 
 
 actual generations in lineal succession; and therefore the 
 average is within the limit of probability. 
 
 On the whole, we may conclude that the old date of the 
 Trojan war may be considered as resting on the authenticity 
 of the Olympiad chronology, which Dr. Musgrave seems to 
 have rescued from all doubt. 
 
 The fallacy of the attempt to guess at Chronological facts 
 by means of the average length of reigns is placed in the 
 strongest point of view, by applying it to a few particular 
 instances. If we take an average of the kings of France, from 
 the time of Henry IV T . we shall find that they continued 
 upwards of forty years, one with another. Let us apply this 
 average to the Emperors of Rome. The number of reigns 
 from Caesar Augustus to Augustulus was sixty-two, and the 
 latter prince fell in the year 4J6. Calculate on the average 
 above deduced, and Augustus must be computed to have 
 begun his reign 2004 years B. C. Even if we adopt Sir Isaac 
 Newton's average of twenty years, we shall place him a thou- 
 sand years before his real time. On the other hand, we should 
 shorten the English and French history in a like degree, if we 
 calculate its duration by an average deduced from the Roman. 
 We may conclude that this method of calculating the duration 
 of reigns in one country, from a rule formed by the succession 
 in another, is likely to lead us into great errors, especially if we 
 apply to an hereditary unbroken series, an estimate drawn 
 from the mutable succession in more turbulent governments. 
 
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