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ther will any man or woman among them kiss a Grecian, nor use a knife, or spit, or any domestic utensil belonging to a Greek77, nor will they eat even the flesh of such beasts as by their law are pure, if it has been cut with a Grecian knife. If any of these cattle die, they thus dispose of their carcases, the females are thrown into the river, the males they bury in the vicinity of the city, and by way of nark, one and sometimes both of the horns are left projecting from the ground: they remain thus a stated time, and till they begin to putrefy, when a vessel appointed for this particular purpose is dispatched from Prosopitis, an island of the Delta, nine schæni in extent, and containing several cities. Atarbechis78, one of these

77 Belonging to a Greek.]-That the Ægyptians would not eat with strangers, appears from the following passage in Genesis, chap. xliii. ver. 32. "And they set on for him by himself, and for them by themselves, and for the Ægyptians which did eat with him by themselves, because the Ægyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews, for that is an abomination to the Ægyptians."

78 Atarbechis.]-Atarbec in Ægypt is the temple of Atar or Athar, called Atarbechis by Herodotus: the same is Athyr-bet, and styled Athribites by Strabo.-Bryant.

Atar signifies Venus, and Bec a city, as Balbec the city of the sun, called by the Greeks Heliopolis.

Whoever wishes to be minutely informed concerning the various names and attributes of Venus, the different places where she was worshipped, and indeed every thing which antiquity has handed down concerning this goddess, will do well to consult the Memoire sur Venus, by Larcher, to which the prize of the French Academy was assigned in 1775.-T.

these cities, in which is a temple of Venus, provides the vessels for this purpose, which are sent to the different parts of Ægypt: these collect and transport the bones of the animals, which are all buried in one appointed place. This law and custom extends to whatever cattle may happen to die, as the Egyptians themselves put none to death.

XLII. Those who worship in the temple of the Theban Jupiter, or belong to the district of Thebes, abstain from sheep, and sacrifice goats. The same deities receive in Ægypt different forms of worship; the ceremonies of Isis and of Osiris, who they say is no other than the Grecian Bacchus, are alone unvaried; in the temple of Mendes, and in the whole Mendesian district, goats are preserved, and sheep sacrificed. Why the Thebans, and all who are under their influence, abstain from sheep, is thus explained; Jupiter, they say, was long averse to the earnest solicitations of Hercules to see his person; but in consequence of his repeated importunity, the god, in compliance, used the following artifice; he cut off the head of a ram, and covering himself with its skin, shewed himself in that form to Hercules:

79 The Grecian Bacchus.]-The Egyptians maintain, that their god Osiris is no other than the Dionusus of Greece. In like manner the Indi assure us, that it is the same deity whą is conversant in their country.--Diodorus Sic. 1. iv. 210.

cules from this incident, the Egyptian statues of Jupiter, represent that divinity with the head of a ram. This custom was borrowed of the Egyptians by the Ammonians, who are composed partly of Ægyptians, and partly of Ethiopians, and whose dialect is formed promiscuously of both those languages. The Egyptians call Jupiter, Ammoun, and I should think this was the reason why the above people named themselves Ammonians. From this however it is, that the Thebans esteem the ram as sacred, and, except on the annual festival of Jupiter, never put one to death. Upon this solemnity they kill a ram, and placing its skin on the image of the god, they introduce before it a figure of Hercules; the assembly afterwards beat the ram, and conclude

the

Call Jupiter, Ammoun.]-Plutarch says, that of all the Ægyptian names which seemed to have any correspondence with the Zeus of Greece, Amoun or Ammon was the most peculiar and adequate: he speaks of many people who were of this opinion.-Bryant.

The following line occurs in the Scholiast to Pindar, Pyth. Ode 4th, v. 28.

Ζευς Λιβυης Αμμων κερατηφορε κεκλυτε μαντι.

Jupiter was almost as much in fashion amongst the old worshippers of images, as the Virgin amongst the modern: he had temples and different characters almost every where. At Carthage he was called Ammon; in Egypt, Seraphis; at Athens, the great Jupiter was the Olympian Jupiter; and at Rome, the greatest Jupiter was the Capitoline.-Spence, Polymetis.-T.

the ceremony, by enclosing the body in a sacred chest.

XLIII. This Hercules*, as I have been informed, is one of the twelve great gods, but of the Grecian Hercules, I could in no part of Ægypt procure any knowledge; that this name was never borrowed by Egypt from Greece, but certainly communicated by the Ægyptians to the Greeks, and to those in particular who assign it to the son of Amphitryon, is among other arguments sufficiently evident from this, that both the reputed parents of this Hercules, Amphitryon and Alcmena, were of Egyptian origin. The Ægyptians also disclaim all knowledge both of Neptune and the Dioscurit, neither of whom

are

*Herodotus speaks of two of this name, the Olympian and Grecian Hercules. Diodorus makes mention of the Cretan, Ægyptian, and Theban Hercules; Arrian and Eusebius talk of the Grecian, Egyptian, and Tyrian Hercules. It was the custom among the ancients to give the name of Hercules to every man distinguished by his strength and valour. We have this expression in Tacitus: Quicquid ubique magnificum est in claritatem Herculis referre consensimus. It may be remarked that the exploits of Theseus and Hercules were often confounded. They were near relations. See the Remarks of Tollius on Palæphatus de Incredibilibus.

+ Herodotus insists that the names of the Dioscuri were unknown to the Ægyptians; but since it is positively asserted in the Paranas that they were venerated on the banks of the

Nile

are admitted among the number of their gods: If they had ever borrowed the name of a deity from Greece, the remembrance of these, so far from being less, must have been stronger than of any other; for if they then made voyages, and if as I have great reason to believe, there were at that time Greek sailors, they would rather have been acquainted with the names of the other deities, than with that of Hercules. Hercules is certainly one of the most ancient deities of Ægypt31; and as they themselves affirm, is one of the twelve, who were produced from the eight gods, seventeen thousand years before the reign of Amasis.

XLIV. From my great desire to obtain information on this subject, I made a voyage to Tyre,

Nile, they must have been revered I presume in Ægypt under other names. Indeed Harpocrates and Halitomerion, the twin sons of Osiris and Isis, greatly resemble the Dioscuri of the Grecian mythologists.-Wilford.

8 Deities of Egypt.]-The remark, that the Ægyptian is a very distinct personage from the Grecian Hercules, is not peculiar to Herodotus; it is affirmed by all the authors who have had occasion to speak on the subject; Cicero gives him the Nile as his father: Nilo genitus.-Larcher.

According to Cicero, the Ægyptian Hercules was not the most ancient: he calls him the second Hercules. The Hercules, son of Amphitryon and Alcmena, was the sixth; this last, however, was the one most known, who is represented in almost all our ancient monuments, and who was worshipped by the Greeks and Romans.-T.

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