serpent in the waters," as it were denouncing him as the serpent Apophis, the enemy and destroyer of his country by his fierce opposition to that god, by whose right hand he, like Apophis, should be overthrown. "Son of man," says the divine afflatus to Ezekiel, "set thy face against Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and prophesy against him, and against all Egypt. Speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself. . . I will have thee thrown into the wilderness . . . thou shalt fall upon the open fields, and all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the Lord."-Ezek. xxix. 3-6. Cf. also Isaiah li. 9, and xxvii. 1, where the same reference to the Apophic myth runs throughout. (Fig. 37.)

Fig. 37. Apophis in the mystic celestial ocean between the goddesses Isis and Nepthys. (Sar. Oimen.)

8. The uræus is also the ideograph of the word "immortal"; whence the phrase, "the living years of the uræus," as applied to the immortality of the king. (Fig. 38.)

Fig. 38. A Greek coin, representing Ptolemy with the attributes of the Grecian Herakles, and the sacred snakes of the Egyptian Amun Ra. collection.)

(Sharpe, Lee

"The asp is worshipped on account of a certain resemblance between it and the operations of the Divine Power, and being in no fear of old age, and moving with great facility, though it does not seem to enjoy the proper organs for motion, it is looked upon as a proper symbol of the stars." *

*Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride, § 74.

"In the vicinity of Thebes there are also sacred serpents not at all troublesome to men; they are very small, but have two horns on the top of the head. When they die, they are buried in the temple of Jupiter, to whom they are said to belong."

This corresponds in some degree to a statement by the famous Principal of the Medical College at Cairo, M. Clot Bey, who asserts that the uræus, or cobra, is not poisonous. Unfortunately the passage from Herodotus implies not the Naja, or Nasha, but the Cerastes, or two-horned viper. The temple of Jupiter is of course that of the god Chefer-Ra, who held a position in some respects analogous to that of Jupiter with the Romans or Zeus among the Greeks.

Cite we yet a further passage, and this time it shall be one from the Great Ritual of the Dead itself. It is the apostrophe to the serpent Bata in "Heaven, where the sun is." (Fig. 39.)

Fig. 39. The serpent Sati, or Bata, on the High Hill of Heaven. (Ritual, cap. cxlix.)

"Say, thou who hast gone, O serpent of millions of years, millions of years in length, in the quarter of the region of the great winds, the pool of millions of years; all the other gods return to all places, stretching to where is the road belonging to him? (i. e. who can measure the length of his infinity of years). Millions of years are following to him. The road is of fire, they whirl in fire behind him." (Celestial, not infernal, fire is here to be understood.)

This symbolic creature may be the serpent alluded to by Job, when, in special reference to the works of God in the heavens, he declares, By his spirit he garnished the heavens. His head wounded the crooked (cowardly§) serpent.-Job xxvi. 13. (Figs. 40, 41.)

Herodotus, Euterpe, 74.

↑ Bonomi, Catalogue of Antiquites, Hartwell House, p. 22, No. 171. Chap. cxxxi.

§ Sharpe's translation.

S. Drach.

Query, "gliding or barred serpent.”—

From a misconception or mistranslation of this chapter, it is probable that Horapollo derived his confused account of the

Fig. 40. The constellation Hydra. From the Zodiac of Denderah. RomanoEgyptian period. (Denon.)

serpent myths. Between the Egyptians and the Greeks there was little in common, and the priests purposely misled their Grecian querists, whom indeed they designated and treated as children.*

Fig. 41. The same constellation. From the Zodiac of Esné. A little earlier period. (Denon.)

9. As, in the order of Providence, good always precedes evil, we will so far digress from the main purport of this paper, the Myth of Apophis, "the Destroyer," as to dwell for a few paragraphs upon the uræus of immortal divinity, and the Egyptian goddesses symbolized by it. (Fig. 42.)

Fig. 42. The goddess Pasht, or Buto, holding in one hand the Cucufa staff and in the other a feminine uræus. (Sar. Oimen.)

10. The feminine deities were more numerous, and their character and offices were less distinctive than the male divinities. Each and all of them are written hieroglyphically by an uræus alone, sometimes with the ordinary proper name affixed;

The reply of the Egyptian priest to Solon the Athenian is almost proverbial:-"You Greeks are children."

sometimes with the epithets "living, sparkling, shining, or immortal" (fig. 43); and sometimes, and far more frequently

Fig. 43. One of a series of goddesses adoring Amun Ra, and holding stars as offerings. (Sar. Oimen.)

also, with a mystical compound name, the exact significance of which is not capable of literal interpretation. Often as the feminine spiritual principle, the goddess, as a serpent, twines

Fig. 44. The god Khonso in a shrine; at his feet is the serpent Ranno. (Sar. Oimen.)

round, reclines beneath, or over-canopies one of the greater male divinities (fig. 44),* or with rising crest and inflated

Fig. 45. The god Knuphis, or Chnum, the spirit, in a shrine on the boat of the sun, canopied by the goddess Ranno, who is also represented as facing him inside the shrine. (Sar. Oimen,)

*Belmore Collection, plate 18. See also triple mummy-case of Aero Ai, plate 1," Num in the sacred barge protected and canopied by Renno or Isis."

hood, protects her protégé with her terrible fangs (fig. 45). The generative power of the solar beams is always typified

O

Fig. 46. The winged sun of Thebes. From the great Pylons at El Luxor. (Bonomi.) In this instance the signet of authority is suspended by the serpents in lieu of the usual Tau cross.

by pendent uræi (fig. 46),* which latter have generally the

Fig. 47. The bowl and snake of the goddess Mersokar; beneath is the lily of the upper country. (Wilkinson.)

crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt, representing the goddesses Melsokar (fig. 47) and Eileithya (fig. 48) respectively.+

Fig. 48. The bowl and snake of the goddess Eileithya; beneath is the papyrus of the lower kingdom. (Wilkinson.)

Often a goddess, incarnated in a serpent, rests in a shrine or sits upon a throne to receive the worship of her votary.‡

*Wilkinson, Ancient Egyptians, vol. i. p. 239, second series. + Ancient Egyptians, vol. v. p. 45.

As in an unique example of the Ptolemaic period in the British Museum, which represents a quadrangular shrine, at the door of which a sitting uræus is sculptured. The cornice is terminated by a pyramidion, and the whole is executed in soft limestone. A nearly, but not quite, similar shrine, is figured in Musée de Leide, vol. i. plate 35.