placed on To Athor

frequently wears her usual emblems another signifying "cultivated land." are sometimes given the same hawk seated on a perch, in her character of President of the Western Mountain.*

Her office is evidently connected with the dead, as is that of Athor, when she assumes these attributes; probably in consequence of the Western District or Mountain, particularly at Thebes and Memphis, being looked upon as the abode of the dead. She may also be a type of Hades or Amenti, the resemblance between which name and the West, Ement, is consistent with its supposed connection with the lower regions, as I have already had occasion to observe.

The funereal rituals of the Papyri frequently represent four rudders, each of which is applied to one of the four cardinal points, designated as rudders of the S., N., W., and E. This division was of the earliest date in Egypt, being mentioned in the oldest monuments that exist. The expression "S. N. W. and E." signified the whole world; as in the coronation ceremonyt, where the carrier pigeons are ordered to fly to those four points, to proclaim that the king has assumed the crown. They in like manner divided the world into four quarters; one being Egypt; another the South, or region of the Blacks; a third the East, or the Asiatic country; and the fourth the North, comprising Syria, Asia Minor, and probably Europe.

* Vide supri, Vol. I. (2d Series) p. 391. and Plate 36. a. fig. 2, + Vide Plate 76.

It appears that the expression "conqueror of the 9 regions" signified "of the remaining three parts of the world," Egypt itself completing the whole number 12, and three being the sign of plurality for each set, in the sense of "the regions."

SOFH?, SOFKH?, SAKH ?.

The name of this Goddess is still uncertain. It appears to read Sofh* or Sofkh; and these letters are followed by demonstrative signs, which are either intended to represent horns †, or human tongues. If the latter, her name may possibly be related to Sagi, a tongue," and she may be the abstract idea of the human speech. From her employment, noting on the palm branch of Thoth the years of human life, and from her title, " Lady of Letters," she appears also to be the Goddess of writing. She may perhaps be a deification of "speech" or language. But her hieroglyphics read sofh or sofkh, and not sakh, c&," writing;" nor does the word sagi, caxi, "a tongue," answer to the characters they present. Like Thoth, she registers the events of man's life, and bears a palmbranch with the emblems signifying halls of assembly; marking on it, at the same time, the years of the King's life, or the number of panegyries at which he had been proclaimed.

This may call to mind the Hebrew words sophar (sefer), "to count" or "write ;" and Tzophim, "prophets," or "watchmen;" the Sofis of Persia; or the Greek ooqia, wisdom; though without being related to any one of them.

+ Perhaps connected with the cow's horns placed over her head. Vide suprà, Vol. I. (2d Series) p. 392.

It is not impossible that these assemblies were the origin of the title "lord of triacontaeterides," given to Ptolemy on the Rosetta Stone; but from the number which Thoth and this Goddess are sometimes marking upon the palm branches, it is evident they could not refer to games celebrated every thirtieth year. Nor could Ptolemy have been entitled to a jubilee of thirty years, since he only reigned twenty-one. Indeed, we are ignorant of the exact meaning of the title, though it probably refers to the years of the assemblies recorded by these Deities, whatever may have been the method by which they were computed. Pthah, the creative power, appears to have been the Deity to whom they were particularly consecrated; since, in the regal titles, the King is styled "lord of the assemblies, like his father Pthah."

This Goddess is represented at the Memnonium writing the name of Remeses the Great on the fruit of the Persea tree, under whose shade the king is seated, in the presence of Thoth and Atmoo.*

She is generally clad in a leopard-skin; and on her head she bears a radiating ornament, peculiarly appropriated to her, over which are cow's horns turned downwards.

SELK.

The Goddess Selk is distinguished by the scorpion, her emblem, which is usually bound upon

* Vide Plate 36. b. ; and suprà, Vol. I. (2d Series) p. 392.

her head. Her office seems to have been principally in the regions of Amenti, where she has sometimes, in lieu of a human head, a symbol very nearly resembling the hieroglyphic character signifying "wife;" and the scorpion, her emblem, even occurs with the legend " Isis Selk."*

In the hieroglyphics of a Theban mummy case (now at Bodrhyddan), I have found this Goddess called the "daughter of the Sun."

ASCLEPIUS, ESCULAPIUS.

The name and form of this Deity were first ascertained by Mr. Salt, at Philæ; where a small sanctuary, with a Greek inscription, is dedicated to him. His dress is always very simple, though not one of the great Gods of Egypt; agreeing with the description given of him by Synesius.† He is bald, or wears a small cap fitting closely to his head, without any feathers or other ornament; and in his hands he holds the sceptre and crux ansata, or sign of life, common to all the Deities. His name reads Emoph, or Emeph‡; but he cannot bear any relationship to the "leader of the heavenly deities" mentioned by Iamblichus, who was second only to Eicton §, the great ineffable God, and "primum exemplar."

* Vide Plate 43. a.

+"Unus porro Deus ab iis minime occultatur, sed in propatulo habetur, Æsculapius nempe, quem quidem pistillo calviorem videas.” Synes. in Encom. Calviti.

Or Aimothph.

Vide suprà, Vol. I. (2d Series) p. 216.

The Egyptian Asclepius was called the "son of Pthah;" he was therefore greatly revered at Memphis, and, indeed, throughout the whole country. The Egyptians acknowledged two of this name; the first, the grandfather of the other, according to the Greeks, and the reputed inventor of medicine; who received peculiar honours on "a certain mountain on the Lybian side of the Nile*, near the City of Crocodiles," where he was reported" to have been buried."

Ammianus Marcellinust says, that " Memphis boasted the presence of the God Esculapius; and the sculptures show that he held a post amongst the contemplar Gods of Upper and Lower Egypt, from Phila to the Delta. He occurs more frequently in temples of a Ptolemaic than of a Pharaonic epoch.

Damascius, in the Life of Isidorus, says, "the Asclepius of Berytus (of Syria) is neither Greek nor Egyptian, but of Phoenician origin; for sons were born to Sadyk, called Dioscuri and Cabiri, and the eighth of these was Esmun ‡, who is interpreted Asclepius." But it is highly improbable that the Egyptian Deity was borrowed from Phoenicia and the only point of resemblance (if we may believe the authority of Herodotus in so difficult a question) is the fact of Asclepius being the son of Pthah, and the Cabiri being, according to Herodotus, sons of Vulcan. §

* Vide infrà, on the Crocodile, chap. 14. + Amm. Marc. xxii. 14.

Vide suprà, Vol. I. (2d Series) p. 184.

Which signifies eight.