=

ments of the Basilidians, it would sound like Chnumis. According to Plutarch 261 and Diodorus 262, the name of the Egyptian Zeus signified spirit (veμa), which of course can only apply to Kneph. At Esneh (Champ. Grammar, p. 302.) he is said to be "the breath of those who are in the firmament." His derivation from the Egyptian root nf (Copt. nef, nibe) to blow, to breathe, is therefore very tempting. Birch 265, on the contrary, maintains that the hieroglyphic literally signifies "water" (Copt. nun), with which etymology may be connected one of the titles of Kneph, under which he was worshipped in Elephantina, that of the Lord of the "Libations," or the "inundations." He conceives the animal figure which very often precedes or follows the name, and sometimes indicates it by itself 264, not to be the ram, but the (bearded) he-goat = bai, the phonetic of bai = soul, spirit. It is in this image that he recognises the expression of the idea "spirit," which the ancients found in the name of this god. How then could those writers say that it is the name of Kneph which signifies "spirit"? We must therefore hold that the ram or buck is the figurative meaning, as it occurs likewise in the name of a king of the 4th Dynasty, and assume that the roots nef and num were originally connected. The Arabic nef = breath, compared with the Hebrew nuf, to flow, in Greek véw, véш, makes such a connexion in our opinion still more probable. At all events, to consider "water" the cos

261 De Is. et Os. c. 26. As he had previously explained Ammon to be the hidden god, he clearly cannot have meant the same here by the Egyptian Zeus.

262 I. 12.

263 Gallery, i. p. 9. seqq. [Khnum is called "the Soul of Tattu." The verbal root Num or Khnum has the sense of "to join." Devèria, De la Déesse Nub. p. 7.; "to fill," De Rougé, E'tude d'une Stêle, Paris, 1858, p. 127. Champollion, Notice Descr. 97.; and also "tank," or "well," Prisse, Mon. xxi.-S. B.]

264 Ros. M. del Culto, li.

mogonic principle here, is in no way authentically demonstrable.

As the human form and the badge of the feather are the distinguishing marks in Ammon, so the ram's head with the double horns, both those extended like a goat's, and those curved downwards, as well as the snake, probably the Uræus or Basilisk, the sign of power, are the characteristics of Kneph. In the pictures his colour is green, as that of Ammon is blue. In Esneh he is represented with the feathers of Ammon; but distinguished from him by the snake on each side, and the absence of the lower crown.265

Herodotus mentions (ii. 74.) that the horned snake is sacred to Zeus, and that its mummy is buried in his temples. There is doubtless a connexion between the consecration of it to Kneph as one of his emblems, and its more general signification as the emblem of the deity in the hieroglyphics. The patron deity of the Egyptians, whom the Greeks called the "good god," Agathodæmon, and whom we find over the doors and windows of the temples, as well as on their furniture, does not, however, seem to be a direct representation of Kneph.

According to Wilkinson the worship of this deity is universal in Ethiopia, particularly beyond the second Cataract, and in the vicinity of Meroe and Napata. In Esneh his name occurs as Num-ra, similar to that of Amn-ra. This representation is of a later Roman period. The one given by Wilkinson (Mat. Hier. viii. B.) in a disk, with the scarabæus (type, signifying afterwards world) by its side, has an affinity with it.

Our representation is a copy of his Plate 21., with the two modes of writing it on different monuments. Birch remarks, that the gifts offered to him, as well as the presents promised by him, are less valuable than those which belong to Ammon, from whom Kneph is

265 Ros. M. del Culto, li.

also distinguished by being at the same time a God of the Lower World.

His most important remark, however, is, that Kneph, as creator, appears under the figure of a potter with the wheel.266 In Philæ, a work of the Ptolemaic epoch, he certainly is so represented, making a figure of Osiris, with the inscription, "Num, who forms on his wheel the divine limbs of Osiris, who is enthroned in the great hall of life." He is likewise called there Num-ra, "who forms the mothers, the genitrices of the Gods." In a representation of the time of the Roman emperors he is also called "the Sculptor of all men." In the monument at Esneh, of the same date, he is said to have made mankind on his wheel, and fashioned the gods, and is called the God "who has made the sun and moon to revolve under the heaven and above the world, and who has made the world and all things in it." 267 These representations confirm the correctness of the view as to the cosmogonic import of this primitive God of Thebes in the Egyptian mythology, down to the Ptolemaic epoch. Porphyry and Rufinus state that Phtah sprang from an egg which issued from the mouth of Kneph. We shall see, under Ra, that this most important cosmogonic symbol is supported by high authority, a representation in the Ramesseum, where it is said of Ra that "he creates his egg in heaven." The mundane egg is so universal a form of the creation of the visible world, that it is unnecessary to say more upon it here. The hieroglyphics prove that the Neo-Platonists were not the first who laid this egg,

266 [On a monument of the time of Apries, of the 26th Dynasty, Khnum is said to be the begetter of the gods, and the builder of gods and men, Clarac, Musée de Sculpture, pl. 246. No. 367.; and in a later monument, besides his local title dweller or inherent in elements or principles, the great potter, over the gods, father of fathers of gods and goddesses, self-existent maker of heaven and earth, the firmament, streams, and hills.-Rosellini, M.R. clxix.-S. B.]

267 Ros. M. del Culto, pl. xlix. Champ. Gr. p. 306.

but we have no proof of its original application to Kneph. We have, therefore, no monumental authority for the original development of the cosmogonic series which was represented in the Ptolemaic and Roman period by Amen, Khem, and Num, the three Theban divinities, as the concealed god, the generative, sowing god, and the creative spirit.

In order to have a complete idea of this (early or late) Theban system, we must consider the cosmogonic principle of the Thebaid as it is typified in the female form. a. AMNT, (Amente). b. MU. T (Mut). V. a. ANK (Anuke). b. STI, (Seti, Sate), the frog-headed.

IV.

We have five names but only three individual representations of the female principle in the demiurgic series of Upper Egypt. We will examine, in the first place, the forms connected with Ammon.

Here we meet first of all with a goddess who occurs very frequently on the old monuments of Thebes, and who is marked as the female Ammun AMN-T, Ament. She wears the lower crown, and is called "the enthroned in Thebes." Her name, according to the Coptic rendering in that version of the Bible, and according to Plutarch, is Amenti, Amente, Amenthes, as an expression for the Lower World. But, according to the monuments, she no more represents the idea of Persephone, than Ammon does that of Dispater. Nothing is proved but her Theban origin and connexion with Ammon.

The female principle is much more developed in connexion with Khem. We have no hesitation in combining him with the second name of the goddess, Mut, which otherwise we cannot connect with any separate personification. Almost all the great goddesses, especially Neith, Pekht, and Isis, have her name as a title. But we have also the representation of a goddess with a complete royal crown who is called "the mother," and the only one too, as far as we know, in the old monuments

who has the title of "Mistress of darkness." We give this representation after Wilkinson with two inscriptions. 268

It seems the most natural view to say that she is the wife of Khem, the god who has the title "husband of the mother." This, again, receives confirmation by the statement of Herodotus, which is now very easily explained (ii. 155., comp. 75. 83.). Not far from the Sebennytic mouth there was, according to him, a great city called Buto, which contained a very celebrated shrine the Temple of Buto or Latona, consisting of five blocks of stone, brought there from Elephantina. Each of its sides was 60 feet high and wide, and the block which served for the roof six feet thick.269 Here was the oracle which the Egyptians held in the very highest estimation. Close to it, in a broad lake, was the island of Chemmis, which was said to float. Herodotus saw in it a shrine of Apollo (Horus), i. e. the son of Buto. Here Latona was said to have concealed and brought up the son of Isis, according to others, Apollo and Diana (Bubastis, Pacht).

Now Chemmis is clearly nothing but the name of Khem. Buto, again, is assuredly the name of the city: it may be, however, that the identity between the two names, Sebennytis and Semmuth, may induce us to admit the absolute identity between Buto and Mut.

According to Herodotus (ii. 67.), the shrew-mouse (mygale, mus araneus) was sacred to Buto, and their mummies were buried in the city of Buto. The animal passed for being blind, and was, therefore, dedicated to the Mother of the Gods, because "Dark

268 Axerer as Birch has conclusively proved; the word occurs with the determinative sign of Night.

269 Wilk., Manners and Customs, vol. iii. p. 330. seqq., calculates the weight of the whole at 5000 tons; but there were 5 blocks, so that each must have weighed 1000 tons, almost the weight of the pedestal of Peter the Great's statue at Petersburgh, which is calculated at about 1200 tons.