open. To these we may add the crocodile *, which, like the supreme being, had no need of a tongue, and lived the same number of years as there were days in the year. And again, as Osiris was the Nile, he was typified also in that respect by the crocodile, which otherwise was looked upon as a symbol of impudence †; of an evil demon; and of Typhon ; who was always supposed to act contrary to the benign influences of Isis and Osiris. However the bulls, the apis¶ or Mnevis, and the fruitful deity ** of the all-teeming earth, as Apuleius calls it, was the principal symbol of Osiris. It was accounted sacred, for the great benefit and service that it was of to mankind; and because, after Osiris was dead, they supposed his soul to have transmigrated into it.

The bull was likewise one of Isis' symbols, who was also represented by the ibis †† and the cat; the former whereof brings forth in all the same number of eggs, the latter of young ones, as there are days in one period of the moon. The

VOL. II.

Y

Achill. Tatius, 1. iv. De Crocod. Vid. supra, p. 166. n. *. Diod. Sic. Bib. 1.i. p. 21-2. Plut. de Isid. et Osiride, p. 381. Elian. Hist. Anim. 1. x. c. 24.

+ Clem. Alex. Strom. 1. v. p. 670.

Diod. Sic. 1. iii.

¶ Id. ibid. p. 13.

|| Plut. de Isid. et Osiride, p. 366-9 & 371.

Diod. Sic. 1. i. p. 54.

** Apul. Met. 1. xi. p. 262.

+Clem. Strom. 1. v. p. 671. Plut. de Isid. et Osiride, p. 381.

Pignor. Mens. Is. Exp. p. 76.

‡‡ Piut. de Isid. et Osirid. p. 376.

The mixture also of black and white feathers in the plumage of the one, and of spots in the skin of the other, were supposed to represent the diversity of light and shade in the full moon; as the contraction and dilatation in the pupil of the cat's eye were looked upon to imitate the different phases themselves of that luminary. The dog and the cynocephalus † were other symbols of this goddess; the dog, as it was a vigilant creature, kept watch in the night, and had been of great assistance to her, in searching out the body of Osiris; the cynocephalus, as the females of this species had their monthly purgations, and the males were remarkably affected with sorrow, and abstained from food, when the moon was in conjunction with the sun.

These were some of the principal animals, which the Egyptians accounted sacred, and substituted in the place of their deities; not that they directly worshipped them, as Plutarch+observes, but adored the divinity only that was represented in them as in a glass, or, as he expresseth it in another place, just as we see the resemblance of the sun in drops of water. But Lucian has recorded something more extraordina || ry, with regard to the introduction of these animals into their theology; for he informs us, that in the wars between the gods and the

giants, the former, for safety, fled into Egypt,

*Plut. de Isid. et Osiride, p. 356.

+ Horap. Hierogl. 1. i. c. 14, 15, 16.

Plut. ut supra, p. 380-2.

' where

Lucian de Sacrif. p.5.

'where they assumed the bodies of beasts and 'birds, which they ever afterwards retained, and 'were accordingly worshipped and reverenced in ' them.'

Besides these animals, there are others also which the Egyptians received among their sacred symbols. Such, among the birds, was the owl*, which generally stood for an evil demon, as the cornix † did for concord, and the quail for impiety; alleging these reasons, that Typhon had been transformed into the first; that the second kept constantly to its mate; whilst the latter was supposed to offend the deity with its voice. The upupa ||, from being dutiful to its aged parents, was an emblem of gratitude, or else (upon account of its party-coloured plume) of the variety of things in the universe. The same quality was supposed to be denoted by the meleagris §; though Abenephius ¶ makes it to represent the starry firmament. Both these birds are still well known in Egypt. By the goat, their Mendes **, or Pan, was understood the same generative faculty

* Hecat. apud Malchum. Abeneph. apud Kirch. Obel. Pamph. p. 317.

+ Ælian. Hist. Animal, 1. iii. c. 9. Horap. Hierogl. 1.i. c. 8. & 9.

Hecat. apud Kirch. Ob. Pamphyl. p. 322. Horap. 1. i. c. 49. ubi pro oguya legunt nonnulli όρτυγα.

Horap. 1. i. c. 55. Kirch. Obel. Pamph. p. 329.

§ Kirch. Oedip. Synt. i. p. 91.

¶ Aneph. apud Kirch. Oedip. Egypt. Theatr. Hierogl. p.64.

** Herod. Eut. § 46.

culty and principle that was expressed by the phallus*. By the hippopotamus †, they either typified impudence, from the cruelty and incest which this creature was supposed to be guilty of, or else Typhon, i. e. the west, which devours and drinks up the sun. An embryo, or the imperfect productions of nature, were expressed by the frog, an animal which appears in different shapes, before it arrives to perfection, and was supposed to be engendered of the mud of the Nile. A fish, says Plutarch, was typical of hatred, because of the sea, i. e. Typhon, wherein the Nile is lost and absorbed. The butterfly from undergoing a variety of transformations, was, according to Kircher, expressive of the manifold power and influence of the Deity. The same author calls it papilio dracontomorphus, and at the same time very justly observes, that the thyrsus papyraceus, or junceus, or bearded bullrush, is usually placed before it, typifying thereby the plenty and affluence which flows from the divine being.

Neither were these and such like animals, when whole and entire, made use of in their

symbolical

*Diod. Sic. 1. i. p. 13. & 55. Kirch. Oedip. Ægypt. Synt. i. p. 152.

+Plut. de Isid. et Osiride, 363. Hecat. lib. De sacra philosoph. Porphyr. apud Euseb. de Præp. Evang. p. 70.

Horap. 1. i. c. 26. Pign. Mens. Is. Expl. p. 48.

Plut. de Isid. &c. p. 363.

§ Kirch. Oed. Ægypt. Synt. ii. p. 183. & in Obel. Pamphyl, p. 500.

symbolical representations, but even the parts likewise and members of them. Thus the horns of the bull, which are usually gilded *, were typical both of the horns of the moon †, and of the beams of the sun t, according as they were pla ced upon the head of Isis or Osiris. The eye || denoted foresight and providence; and, being joined to a sceptre, signified also the power of Osiris. The right hand §, with the fingers open, typified plenty; but by the left were understood the contrary qualities. Wings ¶ were emblematical of the swiftness and promptitude which the deities, genii, and sacred persons, to whom they are given, may be supposed to make use of, for the service of the universe.

But besides the parts already mentioned, we often see the heads of divers animals, either alone, or else fixed to a rod, or to the body of some other creature. By the first of which symbols, they probably typified the principal character of the creature** itself; by the other, the united characters of them both. Thus the head of the hawk, ibis, lion, dog, &c. is frequently joined Carmina Orphica apud Euseb. Præp. Evang. p. 61.

+ Clem. Strom. 1. v. p. 657.

Macrob. l. i. c. 22. Horat. Carm. 1. ii. Od. 19. Aleand.

Explic. Tab. Heliac. p. 23.

|| Diod. Sic. 1. iii.

Plut. de Isid. et Osiride, p. 371.

Diod. ut supra.

Abeneph. apud Kirch. Obel. Pamphil.

P. 442.

Clem. 1. v. p. 668. de Cherubim.

** Diod. 1. i. p. 39. Kirch. Oed. Ægypt. p. 214. et Ob. Pamphyl. p. 497.