Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 8, DIA-England

552
Egypt.
EGYPT.
emperor Nero is called the good genius of the world, and
the winged globe hovering over the inscription seems
to allude to this piece of flattery; but the Knuphis or
Knumis of the amulets of later times is a serpent or a
dragon raising itself on its tail, having rays about its head,
and surrounded with stars. The name of Agathodsemon
is inserted by Manetho amongst the fabulous kings, im¬
mediately before Kronos.
The same authority attributes a still higher antiquity
to Phtha, whom it places as the first of the fabulous
kings of Egypt; he is universally considered as the great
ancestor of the other deities, and is especially called the
father of the sun, as we learn from various chronologers,
as well as from Callisthenes and others. He seems to
have been a personification of the creative, and perhaps
of the generative power, designated under the character
of a workman or an architect. He is sometimes compar¬
ed to Prometheus, as the discoverer of fire ; but Hephaes¬
tus or Vulcan is his common representative in the Greek
and Homan mythology; although it must always be re¬
membered, that, between the imaginary personages of dif¬
ferent nations the identity must naturally be accidental and
imperfect. Cicero and Eusebius mention Phtha as the
same with Vulcan; and Eratosthenes, on the authority of
the Egyptian priests, interprets moephtha, Philephces-
tus or loving Vulcan, which in Coptic would be exactly
expressed by maiphthah, as maison is loving a brother.
Mr Akerblad quotes from a Coptic sermon of Sinnethi
the words, “ Hephaestus, who is Phtah ;” and this remark¬
able passage proves, as he justly observes, how much Ja-
blonsky was mistaken in his orthography of Phthash, on
which he founded one of his fanciful etymologies.
Neith, the Minerva of the Egyptians, had a cele¬
brated temple at Sa'is, in which was the well-known in¬
scription respecting the goddess of universal nature, whose
offspring, in the translation of the inscription, as preserv¬
ed by Proclus, is said to be the sun. It seems therefore
natural to call Neith the wife of Phtha: as Plato also ob¬
serves that arts were invented by Vulcan and his wife;
but we are told that Neith is to be considered as both
male and female. The name is mentioned by Plato as
synonymous with Minerva, and Eratosthenes explains
Nitocris, Minerva the victorious.
Re, or Phre, the Sun, otherwise called On, is men¬
tioned by Manetho as the son of Vulcan. He married
Rhea, and having discovered her infidelity, condemned
her to bear no offspring on any day or any night of the
whole three hundred and sixty that then composed the
year. Plutarch says that he was represented by a young
child rising out of a lotus; but this emblem is more attri¬
butable to Horns, who is another of the forms of the so¬
lar power, and is sometimes improperly confounded with
Apollo. The word Phre is often found in Greek letters
on the amulets, accompanied by emblems of the sun.
Rhea, the wife of the Sun, may perhaps have derived
her name from Re ; she appears to be identical with the
Urania, or female Heaven, of Horus Apollo, the Coptic
phe being feminine. Jablonsky makes Rhea the same
with Athor or Hathor, but he adduces no sufficient autho¬
rity for the opinion. She is said to have been familiar both
with Kronos and with Thoth; and Diodorus calls her the
wife and sister of Kronos.
Ion, the Moon. Plutarch tells us that Hermes play¬
ed at dice with the Moon, probably as presiding over the
calendar, in order to gain a time for the birth of Rhea’s
children, and to evade her husband’s curse; so that the
Moon must be considered as one of the oldest deities.
The Egyptian name being masculine, the Moon can scarce¬
ly have been worshipped as a goddess; and w hatever re¬
lation may have been imagined to exist between Isis and
the lunar influence, the two deities were certainly not Egyj
identical. V^Y'
Apopis, a brother of the Sun, is mentioned by Plutarch
as having made war against Jove. But the Jupiter of
Manetho stands much lower on the list, the order being
Vulcan, the Sun, Agathodaemon, Kronos, Osiris with Isis,
Typhon, Horus, Ares, Anubis, Hercules, Apollo, Ammon,
Tithoes, Sosus, and Jupiter; the last nine being denomi¬
nated semigods.
Kronos, or Saturn, is only known from his connection
with Rhea, the wife of the Sun. His character probably bore
some relation to a personification of Time and Antiquity.
Thoth, Theuth, or Taaut, one of the most celebrat¬
ed of the Egyptian deities, is sufficiently identified with
Hermes or Mercury, by the testimony of a variety of au¬
thors. Diodorus mentions him as the scribe or secretarjq
and privy counsellor of Osiris. He is generally consider¬
ed as the inventor of letters and of the fine arts. Plu¬
tarch and Horus Apollo observe that he was typified by the
ibis, which was sacred to him. Plutarch also says that he
had one arm shorter than the other.
Osiris, properly Oshiri or Ousirei, meaning in Coptic
energetic or active, which is precisely one of Plutarch’s in¬
terpretations of the name, was the deity most universally
adored throughout Egypt, and possessing the principal at¬
tributes of Bacchus, Adonis, and Pluto ; besides being often
compared to the Nile, and sometimes to the Sun. He was
genealogically considered as the son of the Sun and of
Rhea; and at his birth, on the first of the supplementary
days of the calendar, a voice was heard, proclaiming that he
wras Lord of all. He married his sister Isis, and, according
to Diodorus, left her to govern his kingdom during his mi¬
litary expeditions, resembling those of Bacchus, being ac¬
companied by Pan, Hercules, and Macedon, having a ship
which w'as the*prototype of the Argo of the Greeks, with
Canopus for his pilot. He was at last treacherously shut
up alive in a coffin by Typhon, aided by seventy-two con¬
spirators, together with an Ethiopian queen Aso. The
coffin, being thrown into the Nile, wras carried to one of
its mouths, and there left on shore : it became afterwards
inclosed in the trunk of an erica, which grew round it,
and which constituted one of the columns of King Mal-
cander’s palace; but the body escaped from its confine¬
ment, and was found by Typhon as he was hunting; he
divided it into fourteen parts, which were afterwards found
scattered in different places by Isis, and buried separately.
Osiris, however, returned from the dead to console his
wife, and to conduct the education of his son Horus.
There was a mystery in his identification with Pluto, of
which the old authors affect to speak with reverence.
His dress was generally white, but sometimes black. He
is represented as carrying a whip, which is supposed to be
intended for the punishment of Typhon. Plutarch says
that he is typified by a hawk, and denoted hieroglyphi-
cally by an eye and a sceptre.
Arueris, a twin-brother of Osiris, and, like him, the
son of the Sun and of Rhea, was born on the second sup¬
plementary day. He is also called the elder Horus, and
is considered by some of the Greeks as their Apollo.
Typhon, the spurious son of Rhea and Kronos, was
born on the third supplementary day, and married his
sister Nephthe. He is characterized by a red colour, and
is supposed to have been a personification of the effects
of scorching heat. He is also compared to the earths
shadow, as causing eclipses of the moon. The celestial
habitation of his soul was supposed to be in the Great
Bear. According to Plutarch, his Egyptian names were
Seth, Bebon, or Babyn, and Smy ; the word Typhon being
apparently of Greek origin.
Isis, Isi, or Esi, was supposed to be the offspring of