ERRATA, ADDENDA, ETC. VOL. II. Page 18. add note on "feather," last line but 3., "The God Mouè frequently supports the solar disc with his hands, and appears to be the same as fig. 3. Plate 43. Vide also the name of the God at Tel el Amarna, Plate 30., where Ao or Mouè seems to be said 'to reside in the solar disc."" 18. note §, add, "I since find Melcarth is written napo, Melkarth, or Mlkrth, in a Punic inscription at Malta." 36. note, for" p. 232. 235., read " p. 233. 237." 65. line 3., for "Efface," read "Efface." 127. line 1., for "vegetables of Egypt," read "vegetable productions of Egypt." 251. line 5., for "other kinds; and it is still an opinion," read" other kinds; for it is still an opinion; " and, line 8., for "with scales. It is, likewise, possible that the prejudice," read “with scales; and the Oxyrhinchus, from the smallness of its scales, may have been reckoned among the former. It is, however, probable that the prejudice." 298. note for "278.," read "274." 301. line 17., for "Pachon," read "Pachons." 458. last line but 2., for" and these last employed," read " and the relations employed." MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAPTER XIII. (continued). SUITE OF THE PANTHEON. GODS OF THE SECOND AND THIRD ORDERS. I HAVE already stated that it is not my intention to treat of the remaining Deities according to the rank they hold in the Pantheon, or to distinguish between those of the second and third order. The monuments, indeed, afford no proof of this arrangement; and the number of Genii or inferior Deities suggests that those excluded from the second rank were not all comprehended in the same class of tertiary Gods. It might even be difficult to fix upon the twelve of the second order. The most important are doubtless Re (the Sun), Atmoo*, Thoth (the Moon), Eilethyia, Ao, Thmei, Athor, Thriphis, Amunta (or Tamun), Mandoo, Seb, Netpe, Tafne, Ranno, and Sofh; but of these fifteen, Ao, Thmei, and Tafne are born of Re, and should therefore * Nofre-Atmoo being perhaps a character of Atmoo. be of the third order; and Seb and Netpe only seem to claim a rank in the same class with Re, Atmoo, and the others, from being the parents of Isis and Osiris. I should perhaps have placed Atmoo before Thoth, from the rank he holds on the monuments of Thebes as well as of Lower Egypt; but the duties of Thoth bringing him into frequent communication with Osiris, and his character of the Moon connecting him with Re the Sun, may serve to claim for him prior notice. THOTH*, TAUt, Hermes, MERCURY, THE MOON. Thoth, the God of Letters, had various characters, according to the functions he was supposed to fulfil. In his office of scribe in the lower regions, he was engaged in noting down the actions of the dead, and in presenting or reading them to Osiris, the Judge of Amenti: "the dead being judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works." He also overlooked and registered the actions and life of man while on earth; holding then, instead of his tablet, a palm branch, emblematic of a year, to which were attached the symbol of life, and man in embryo under the form of a frog. † Thoth was the "first Hermes" mentioned by Manetho; the same who was reputed to have been the preceptor of Isis, and the Hermes of Plutarch ‡, *It is remarkable that the Gauls called their Mercury Theutates. + These emblems are mentioned by Horapollo. Plut. de Is. s. 19. whom an idle fable represented with one arm shorter than the other. * Plato, in his Phædrust, makes Socrates relate the following fable of this Deity:-"I have heard that about Naucratis, in Egypt, there was one of their ancient Gods, to whom a bird was sacred, which they call Ibis; but the name of the Dæmont himself was Theuth. According to tradition, this God first discovered numbers and the art of reckoning, geometry and astronomy, the games of chess and hazard, and likewise letters. Thamus was at the time King of all the country, and resided in that great city of Upper Egypt which the Greeks call Egyptian Thebes: the God himself being denominated Ammon. Thoth, therefore, going to Thamus, showed him his arts, and told him that he ought to distribute them amongst the other Egyptians. Thamus asked him concerning the utility of each; and when they had been explained to him, he approved what appeared reasonable, and blamed that which had a contrary aspect. After Theuth had fully unfolded to Thamus many particulars respecting each art, he proceeded to discourse upon letters. These, O King,' said he,' will render the Egyptians wiser, and increase their powers of memory. For this invention may be regarded as the medicine of memory and wisdom.' 666 "O most learned Theuth,' replied Thamus, 'one person is more adapted to artificial operations, and another to judge of the detriment or advantage † Phædr., Tayl. transl., p. 364. Plut. de Is. s. 22. arising from their use. Thus it happens that you, who are the father of letters, through the benevolence of your disposition, have affirmed just the contrary of what letters are able to effect. For these, causing the memory to be neglected, will produce oblivion to the mind of the learner; because men, trusting to the external marks of writing, will not exercise the internal powers of recollection. So that you have not discovered the medicine of memory, but of admonition. You will likewise deliver to your disciples an opinion of wisdom, and not truth.'" Psellus confounds Thoth with Hermes Trismegistus, whom he makes posterior to Moses, and imagines to be the Argeiphontes of the Greeks. But he applies to Trismegistus the characteristics of Mercury, instead of to Thoth. This Argeiphontes Macrobius supposes to be the Sun, at whose rising the hundred eyes of Argus, or the light of the fixed stars, were put out. The first month of the Egyptian year, says the former writer, was called after Thoth, as also the city of Hermopolis; where, as we learn from the sculptures of the Portico, the Cynocephalus shared with this Deity, of whom he was the type, the honours of the temple. The few columns which remained of the Portico at Oshmoonein, or Hermopolis Magna, were thrown down in 1822 by the Turks, and burnt for lime; suffering the same fate as the ruins at Antinopolis, and other limestone relics: and though strictly forbidden by Mohammed Ali, many sandstone monuments have been since used as con |
