siding Deity; though the respect paid to it did not extend beyond the precincts of the town, or the nome to which it belonged.

The name of Tentyris, where Athor was particularly worshipped, was probably a modification of Thy-n-athor, (shortened into Tynator and Tentore,) signifying the abode of Athor. The Coptic name is Tentore. The hieroglyphic legend of the Goddess, the Genius of the place, presents the name of the town; and this group is generally added to her head-dress, followed even by the sign "land."

KAHI, "THE LAND."

The Genius of the "land" was represented as a Goddess, bearing on her head the symbolic hieroglyphics signifying "land" and "cultivated country." She was styled "Mother of all the Regions," and may therefore be considered an abstract notion applying to the earth generally, or to Egypt as the mother and chief of all.

It must be confessed that Earth, the great mother, ought to hold a more important post in the mythology of Egypt than the Deity before us, however low might be the rank of physical objects compared to that of the great Gods of their Pantheon. The Greeks considered the Earth as the mother, as the Heaven was the father of all *; and Varro † supposes them to have been the chief Deities. But

* Vide Plut. de Plac. Philosoph. i. 6.

+ Varro, de Ling. Lat. lib. iv. &c.

t

when he tells us they were the same as Serapis and Isis in Egypt, he betrays great ignorance of the religion of that country. It is probable that the Greeks paid them much greater honours than they received in Egypt, where there is reason to believe the Earth was only revered as the abstract idea of a combination with the divine power for the exercise of the creative agency.

RANNO?.

This Goddess, represented with the head of an asp, is common in the oldest temples. She is frequently employed as the nurse of the young princes, whose early education was supposed to be entrusted to her care; and she presided over gardens as well as the God Khem. Athor and Maut are also represented suckling the young princes in temples of the oldest times; and instances occur of the former under the form of a cow, her emblem, performing the same office to the young Remeses. But this was more particularly the part of the asp-headed Ranno. This Goddess was also represented under the form of an asp, crowned with long feathers and a disk and horns; or as a female figure bearing an asp upon her head, which, as I have already observed, was sacred to her, as to the God Neph, and which was probably the Agathodæmon of Euse

bius.

* Vide suprà, Vol. II. p. 184.; and Vol. I. (2d Series) p. 239. and

413.

There is another asp-headed Goddess, whose name is written Hoph, or T-hoph, which calls to mind the snake Efface. She has some office in Amenti, but does not appear to be related to the Deity before us.

BAI.

The snake Bai also appears to have been figured as a Goddess, and sometimes under its own form, as guardian of the doorways of those chambers of the tombs which represent the mansions of heaven.

Нон, Нін.

Another snake-headed Goddess has the name Hoh, or Hih. She occurs at Dendera and Philæ. The Coptic word Hof signifies the viper, analogous to the hye of the Arabs. I am not aware of her office. Other Goddesses with the head of a snake occur in the chamber of Osiris at Philæ; but as their office relates to the dead, they may only be connected with the Genii of Amenti.

THE YEAR?

From the palm-branch which this Goddess bears on her head, I have supposed her to denote the Year, which in Egyptian is called Rompi; though, from the comparison of different legends, it appears that her name in the hieroglyphics does not read Rompi, but Rpe, which resembles the word erpe, "a temple." The palm-branch, however, favours

the conjecture that she represented the deified notion of the year.

In her hand she holds the usual sceptre of the Goddesses, and sometimes a palm-branch, with the emblems of man in his early career of life, as well as the figurative sign of the assemblies, which marked fixed periods of time.

The Deity of a month may very properly be considered Thoth, or the Moon; but the figures representing some other divisions of time, as well as the three seasons, are still unknown.

AMUNTA, AMUNT, OR TAMUN.

This Goddess, who frequently occurs at Thebes, has been considered a female Amun; the only difference between her name and that of the Egyptian Jupiter being the addition of the female sign, or article t.

She is also styled "the President of Thebes." She wears the crown of the Lower Country, like the Goddess Neith, and she sometimes bears in either hand the sign of "water." From her name she might be mistaken for the west, Ement, or the lower regions, Amenti. But the absence of the demonstrative signs indicating either of them sufficiently contradicts this opinion: and from her rank as second member of the second Theban triad, composed of Amun-Generator, Tamun, and Harka, it is evident that her character and office were very different from either of those two. She may be one of the forms of the Egyptian Minerva.

!

NEB? TNEB? DOMINION?

From the hieroglyphics of this Goddess we may suppose her to represent the abstract idea of dominion; and the presence of the vulture and asp together on her head-dress* may perhaps tend to confirm this opinion, though they were not exclusively appropriated to her. She also wears the globe and horns of Athor in common with many other Goddesses. Her name occurs in the temple of Remeses III. at Medeenet Haboo; she is therefore of an early Pharaonic age.

EHE, TEHE, "THE COW."

Besides the sacred cow of Athor, was another, supposed by the learned Kircher to be dedicated to the Moon, whom he considers the same as Isis; but from the hieroglyphic legend given by M. Champollion, in which she is styled "Generatrix of the Sun," she seems rather to be the darkness of Chaos, "which was upon the face of the deep," and from which sprang the light of the Sun. M.Champollion therefore supposes her to be one of the characters of Buto*, though, from a legend accompanying another figure he gives of the same cow, it appears that she was sometimes identified with Neith, whose name precedes that of Ehe.

She is sometimes represented as a female figure with a cow's head, and the globe and horns of

* Vide Plate 60. Part 1.

+ Vide suprà, Vol. I. (2d Series) p. 273.