mode of representing these Divinities, that I do not scruple to reject it as perfectly erroneous, fully persuaded that the God Mendes never had that form, either in the Mendesian nome, or in any part of the country. That he bore no relation to Khem, or Pan, I have already shown, and Mendes, if he be the same as Mandoo, was totally distinct from the God of Generation. Vain indeed would be the task of endeavouring to reconcile the opinions of Greek writers with the real characters of the Egyptian Deities, and it is frequently preferable to reject them than to be influenced by their doubtful testimony. Mandoo was probably one of the deified attributes of the Sun, which may have led to the remark of Strabo, that Apollo was worshipped at Hermonthis*, since Mandoo formed the leading person of the triad of the place: he wore the globe of Re, with the feathers of Amun, and was usually represented with the head of a hawk, the emblem of the Sun. He sometimes had the name of Re added to his own, as in two of the hieroglyphic legends in the accompanying Plate, which might read Mandoo-Re, or "Mandoo the Sun." This may be adduced in confirmation of the opinion †, that many Egyptian Gods were originally borrowed from a Sabæan worship established in the country at a remote period; which, modified by speculative theory, afterwards assumed a metaphysical charac Vide my Egypt and Thebes, p. 423. Champollion supposes the name of that city to have been derived from the God Mandoo-Re, or Month-Re; whence Re-Month and Ermont. † Vide suprà, Vol. I. (2d Series) p. 209. 242. 288. ter. They appear to have retained in their form the connection they had with the Sun or other heavenly bodies, after having been converted into representatives of the Divine attributes. The Pharaohs frequently styled themselves "Mandoo towards the Gentiles;" from which it appears that he was the avenger, or protector against enemies, the Mars of Egyptian mythology, with the additional title of Ultor, "avenger,' like the Roman God of War. In this capacity he might justly be considered "the guardian of Egypt." The God of War, to whom the expressions * Αρες, Αρες, βροτολοιγε, μιαιφονε, τείχεσιπλητα, more properly apply, is the God Ranpo, the actual destroyer of men and cities; a Divinity of inferior rank, and one whose character was not connected with any abstract idea of the Deity. Mandoo held a higher post. He was the God of War in a metaphysical point of view, a Divine attribute, as the avenging power, and opposed to the mere type of war as distinctly as were several metaphysical and physical characters of other Egyptian Deities. He was probably the Apns of the obelisk of Remeses, whose inscription, translated by Hermapion, is given in Ammianus. - The name of Mandoo may be traced in those of several individuals, as Mandoftep, Osymandyas, and others. It also appears in that of Isment, which is given to several towns even at the present day, * Homer, Il. E. 31. MANDOOLI, MALOOLI. Mandooli, or, according to the, hieroglyphics, Malooli, is mentioned in numerous Greek inscriptions at Kalabshi in Nubia, the ancient Talmis, as the Deity of the place. From the similarity of the names, I had supposed him to be the same as the preceding God; but his figure in the adytum of the temple differs from that of Mandoo, and shows him to be a distinct Deity. In the inscriptions mention is made of his horse, an animal sacred among some nations to the Sun; but little is known of his attributes, or the office he held in the mythology of Egypt. * At Dabôd he occurs as the third member of a triad composed of Seb, Netpe, and this Deity; where his dress, and title, "Lord of Philæ," appear to connect him, on this occasion at least, with Osiris. M. Champollion, after stating that, at Kalabshi, he is the third person "of a triad formed of Horus, his mother Isis, and their son Malouli," comes to the conclusion that this triad was the link which connected the extremity of the Divine chain, as the last of the incarnations of Amun-Re. It was therefore the final triad, of which the three members resolved themselves into those of the first triad, Horus being called the husband of his mother, by whom he had Malooli. Thus these three correspond to Amun, Maut, and Khonso of the Theban sanctuary. This is on the supposition * Champoll. Lettre xi. p. 155, 156. VOL. II-(SECOND SERIES.) *D 2 that Maut was in like manner the mother of Amun, as Isis was the mother of Horus. SAVAK, SOVK. Savak, the crocodile-headed Deity of Ombos, was another deified form of the Sun, as may be seen from the hieroglyphic legend in the Plate *, where the crocodile is followed by its figurative hieroglyphic, the globe of Re. This animal was a type of the Sun, "its number sixty," according to Iamblichus t, being thought to accord with that luminary. But the respect paid to it at Ombos, and some other towns of the Thebaïd, was not universal throughout Egypt. The people of Apollinopolis and Tentyris, in particular, held it in the utmost abhorrence; and the enmity consequent upon this difference of opinion was carried so far by the Tentyrites and Ombites, that a serious conflict ensued between them, in which many persons lost their lives. And, if we may believe Juvenal ‡, to such a degree were the passions of the belligerents excited, that the victorious Tentyrites actually ate the flesh of one of their opponents who had fallen into their hands. Thebes acknowledged Savak as a Deity, and the figures represented in the Plate are taken from the sculptures of the capital of Upper Egypt. The hieroglyphics in the first line read, "Savak, the ruler of the Upper Country, the land of No;" *Plate 50. part 2. Hierog. 3. and 4. Vide infrà, p. 232. 235. which last appears to confirm what I before observed respecting the title given to Thoth.* M. Champollion considers that he corresponded to the Greek Chronos, or Saturn, in consequence of the coins of Crocodilopolis, or Arsinoe, presenting his figure, and a medal of Antoninus struck at Alexandria having the same Deity with a crocodile in his right hand. Clemens of Alexandria, indeedt, supposes the crocodile to be the emblem of time; and Horapollo says the two eyes indicate the rising of the Sun, its body placed in a curved posture the setting, and its tail the darkness of night; but the fact of "the years of Seb" occurring so frequently on the monuments seems rather to identify the father of Osiris with the Greek Chronos. + He sometimes, though rarely, appears with the head of a ram and the asp of Kneph; he then assumes the attributes of that Deity. The crocodile, his emblem, forms part of the name of Sabaco, one of the Ethiopian Princes of the 25th Dynasty; and at Ombos he shares with Aroeris the honours of the sanctuary, one of the adyta of that double temple being dedicated to him. I have once found an instance of the word Savak written Sahbak, or Shabak; and if we may follow the authority of Strabo, Souchos, or rather Sovk, is another mode of his name, which the geographer § tells us was that of the sacred crocodile of Arsinoe. + Clem. Alex. Strom. 5. Vide suprà, Vol. I. (2d Series) p. 312. 442. * Vide suprà, p. 7. § Strabo, xvii. p. 558. |
