pollion for further contributions to the history of that nation, before whose works Belzoni and Denon, and so many other travellers, have been lost in amazement.-Lastly, we must mention the system of Spohn and Seyffarth, two German professors. The former is recently dead, and the latter has developed farther the system of the former; which is chiefly that the Egyptians originally borrowed their alphabet from the Phoenicians (Spohn having discovered some real or apparent resemblance between some demotic letters and Phoenician characters), but that, the Egyptians being fond of variety, they first increased the number of their ordinary characters very amply; then, from the same love for caligraphy, gave them the forms now found in the hieratic texts; and, lastly, by way of attaining the acme of caligraphic excellence, arranged all sorts of figures of all sorts of things in something like forms, or assumed them as symbols of their letters, in order to serve as substitutes for them. These are the hieroglyphics; so that, in this case, against all probability, the human mind would have proceeded from the simple to the complicated, the reverse of what generally and very naturally takes place. This system, too, assumes the Rosetta stone as its basis. (See Rudimenta Hieroglyphices, Leipsic, 1826, a work published from the papers of Spohn by Seyffarth, who is a professor at Leipsic.)-For further information on the subject of hieroglyphics, see Champollion's Précis, his letters to the duke of Blacas d'Aulps, his letters written from Egypt, and the great work which he is preparing from the stores collected during his long stay in Egypt; doctor Young's article Egypt, in the Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica, his Account of Egyptian Antiquities (London, 1823, &c.); Jablonski's Pantheon Egyptiacum, and the marquis Spineto's Lectures, which, though it contains a few theories perhaps too boldly advanced, yet is a lucid and excellent work. The translation of M. Greppo's work, by Mr. Stuart, which we have mentioned already, besides the information on hieroglyphics which it contains, strives to show how important this knowledge may become for biblical criticism.

1

Chronological Periods of Egyptian History-which are of great importance for the subject of this article. From the histories of Egypt by Manetho, Herodotus, Diodorus, Strabo, Plutarch and others, and from the discoveries of Champollion, chronologists have been led to divide the

history of the Egyptian empire into five periods. They are described as follows by the marquis Spineto (p. 15, seq.): "The first begins with the establishment of their government, and comprehends the time during which all religious and political authority was in the hands of the priesthood, who laid the first foundation of the future power of Egypt, founding and embellishing the great city of Thebes, building magnificent temples, and instituting the mysteries of Isis;-from Misraim to Menes.-The second period begins at the abolition of this primitive gov ernment, and the first establishment of the monarchical government by Menes. From this time commences what is generally called the Pharaonic age, which ends with the invasion by Cambyses. This is doubtless the most brilliant period of the Egyptian monarchy, during which Egypt was covered with those magnificent works, which still command our admiration and excite our astonishment; and, by the wisdom of its institutions and laws, and by the learning of its priests, was rendered the most rich, the most populous, and the most enlightened country in the world.— The third epoch embraces nearly 200 years, and begins with the overthrowing of the empire of the Pharaohs by Cambyses, 529 B. C., and ends at Alexander.— The fourth epoch embraces the reign of the Ptolemies. It begins at the death of Alexander, or rather at the elevation of Ptolemy Lagus to the throne of Egypt, 323 B. C., and ends at the death of the famous queen Cleopatra, when that kingdom became a Roman province.—At this period, which precedes the birth of our Savior, by two years only, the fifth epoch begins, and continues to the time when, about the middle of the fourth century, the Christian religion having become the religion of the country, the use of hieroglyphics was for ever discontinued, and the Coptic characters were generally adopted."

We shall now exhibit an outline of Egyptian mythology, taken from an Appendix, by professor Stuart, to the above translation of Greppo. Mr. Stuart principally follows Spineto. We give more room to it than to corresponding articles relating to other nations, on account of the high and increasing interest of the subject, and the little knowledge generally possess ed respecting it.-"The origin of the world from a dark primitive chaos, is a dogma belonging not only to almost all the Oriental nations, and to many of the Greek schools, but fully believed by the ancient

Egyptians. Mind and matter were supposed by them to have coexisted from all eternity, and it was the influence of mind upon matter, which reduced the latter to form, and brought it forth from darkness to light. The ancient Egyptian philosophers all represent this mind as infinite and eternal; as presiding over all other gods, both spiritual and material; as having given origin to the world, and as governing and penetrating through all nature. This supreme mind was the Demiurgos of the Egyptians, their god Ammon. It would be interesting here to trace out the analogy between the philosophy of the Greeks and Egyptians, about the origin of the world and of the souls of men. But we can only advert, at present, to a few traits. The theory of Orpheus about an immense egg of matter, from which, by the fiery nature of spirit, the world was hatched, was borrowed from the Egyptians, and was carried by him from Egypt into Greece, where it became the basis of the Stoical system of active and passive principles. Again, that belief in the spiritual origin of the soul, which may be traced in much of the philosophy of Greece, sometimes in a pure form, and sometimes more or less adulterated, was also an important dogma of the Egyptians, though by them it was blended with the doctrine of metempsychosis. Jablonski, after collecting strong evidence of this fact from ancient writers, thus describes the views which the Egyptians had of the soul: Nempe Anima, secundum Ægyptios, erat ro Ociov, Divinitas, vel Essentia Divina, quæ a sede suâ veluti delapsa, aliquamdiu per homines et animalia transibat, donec ad pristinum locum rediret.' (Pantheon Egyptiacum, p. 32.) All the animated part of creation being distinguished by sexes, and the Egyptians regarding nature as productive and animated, they were thus led gradually to transfer their notions of gender to Ammon, who generated all things. In one point of view, however, they acknowledge both a male and female principle in this supreme god of their theogony. One of the symbols made use of to represent Ammon was the head of a ram, or a ram holding between his horns a circle.* Wherever either of these symbols occurred, this deity was called Nef, Nouv or Chnouphis, Noub or Chnoubis; all which

*"The names of all the divinities whom we shall mention, are represented phonetically, figuratively and symbolically. We shall select only now and then from these representations." "Chnouphis, in the old Egyptian language, signifies good.'

appellations are proved, by Champollion and by M. Letronne, to signify one and the same attribute of Ammon, viz., his male nature. In this form, Spineto remarks, that he was considered as one of the modifications, or rather an emanation, of the great Demiurgos, the primitive cause of all moral and physical blessings. He was then called the Good Genius; the male origin of all things; the spirit which, by mixing itself in all its parts, animated and perpetuated the world.' Virgil describes him very well in his Æneid, lib. vi. 726:

Spiritus intus alit, totamque infusa per artus Mens agitat molem, et tolo se corporé miscet. He is sometimes symbolically represented by a large serpent, which designates him as the spirit who flows through the whole earth. It is this spirit to which Horapollo refers in the following passage-007 ap' avrois Tÿ παντὸς τὸ διηκον ἐστὶ πνεῦμα (Hieroglyph., lib. i. cap. 64.). In this form he is called Agathodamon by the Greeks. The female principle in nature was represented by the goddess Neith, another emanation from the Demiurgos. "This goddess,' says Spineto, occupied the superior part of the heavens, inseparable from the first principle, and was considered also as presiding over the moral attributes of the mind. Hence wisdom, philosophy, and military tactics, were departments that had been attributed to her, and this consideration persuaded the Greeks to look upon her as their Minerva, who was regarded as equally the protectress of wise men and warriors.' The similarity between the Egyptian Neith and the Minerva of the Greeks, is indeed very striking, and goes far to prove that the Greeks derived their goddess from Egypt. Besides the identity of their offices, both presiding over philosophy and war, the origin of both is similar. The Neith of the Egyptians was an emanation from Ammon, their supreme god; the Minerva of the Greeks sprung from the brain of Jupiter, the supreme god of the Grecian mythology. According to St. Croix, Egyptian colonies from Sais carried over the ceremonies of Neith to Athens, where she became the 'A of the Greeks (the Minerva of the Latins). At the period when she was introduced into Athens, the partisans of Neptune suffered severe persecution, and Neptune was entirely supplanted by Neith. This fact gave rise to the fable about the contest between this goddess and Neptune. The goddess Neith was symbolically represented by a vulture, which is the usual image

the fact that one of the principal gods in Egypt, who was likened by the Greeks to their "Hparos, bore the name of Phtha in the language of Egypt.' Among other evidence of this fact, he cites the Rosetta inscription, and an old Theban Coptic homily, composed by S. Schenouti, which designate "Halotos and Phtha as the same god (Précis, p. 149-151). The divinities whom we have now described, were among the principal of those who inhabited the upper world, and who are ranked in the first class of Egyptian gods. But the Egyptians supposed the earth itself to be subject more directly to the power of gods who were visible. The most important among these was the sun, which luminary, on account of its being the source of so many blessings, has, among almost all heathen nations, been worshipped as a god. Its influence in promoting the alternation of day and night, and the change of seasons, in reänimating nature, and in maturing the products of the earth; its appearance in the heavens, being the most brilliant luminary upon which the eye of man is fastened;-all these circumstances led the Egyptians to consider the sun as the deity who presided over the physical universe, and as, 'the eye of the world.' One manner in which he was hieroglyphically represented was by a globe, which was usually of a reddish hue, and stood upon the head of a hawk. He was called, in the Egyptian language, Re or Ri, and derived his origin from Phtha, whose son he is often called, and whom he succeeded, according to the priests, in the government of Egypt. In consequence of this belief,' says Spineto, all the Egyptian kings, from the earliest Pharaohs to the last of the Roman emperors, adopted, in the legends consecrated to their honor, the pompous titles of offspring of the sun, son of the sun, king like the sun of all inferior and superior regions, and the like.' This last title is fully explained in a letter from Champollion, from which we learn that the double destiny of the soul was symbolized by means of the march of the sun in the upper and lower hemispheres. Splendid worship was performed in honor of the sun in Egypt, and Heliopolis (λiou nóis, i. e., city of the sun) was particularly consecrated to him. We might exhibit here some analogies between the Re of the Egyptians and the Phebus or Apollo of the Greeks and Latins. But we must leave these, and also the consideration of other planetary divinities, in order to describe a few more important personages in the Egyptian Pantheon. Inscriptions are

frequently found which contain the names of divinities, written both in Egyptian and in Greek. In this form occurs the name of a goddess called Sate, who was assimilated by the Greeks to their "Hoa (the Juno of the Latins). She is a goddess of the first rank, and she is represented as the daughter of the sun, and as partaking with her father in employments that have respect to the physical universe. 'She seems to have been,' says Spineto, 'the protectress of all the Egyptian monarchs, and especially of the Pharaohs of the eighteenth dynasty-a dynasty which reckons among its members the greatest kings that ever reigned over Egypt; a Maris, an Amenophis II, an Ousirei, a Ramses Meïamoun, the grandfather of Ramses Sethosis, so well known by the ancients under the name of Sesostris.' The image of this goddess occurs in many temples of Upper Egypt and of Nubia; in the temple of Elephantina, she is exhibited as receiving offerings from Amenophis II, and presenting this prince to Ammon Chnouplis, who sits upon a throne. The frequent occurrence of her image near to that of Ammon, to whom she is in this way addressing some service, proves that she was an important personage in his family.

Her emblems and titles are very splendid. The following is an example of the latter: 'Sate, the living goddess, the daughter of the sun, the queen of the heavens and of the earth, the ruler of the inferior region [which here designates Lower Egypt, according to Spineto], the protectress of her son, the lord of the world, the king of the three regions [Upper, Middle and Lower Egypt, according to the same], son of the sun, Phtamen Ousirei.' Chainpollion describes her characteristic emblem as the upper part of a head-dress,called Psheut, adorned with two long horns. This is placed upon the head of an image, which represents a woman with the sign of divine life in her hands. Sme is another goddess of the first rank among Egyptian divinities, whose employment seems chiefly to have been in the Egyptian Amenti. Spineto thus describes her: 'She was called by the Greeks 'A0a, and answers to Themis, the goddess of justice and truth. These attributes evidently show her to have been another representation of the infinite Power, who continued to influence and to act upon the destinies of men, even after death, in a future life; for we find this goddess almost invariably represented on the monuments exhibiting the ceremony of funerals, perpetually leading the soul

to the balance, where the deeds and actions of its life were to be weighed, previous to its being introduced to Osiris. She is figuratively represented by the image of a woman, holding the sign of divine life, and having her head decorated with a feather, which is the peculiar distinction of all her images. Symbolically, she was exhibited by the great serpent, who was the emblem of immortality and of wisdom.' (Lect. iv.) Such are some of the principal gods and goddesses in the Egyptian Pantheon. The most important of the second rank are the goddess Isis, and her brother and husband Osiris, to whom, following the selection of Spineto, we shall devote a few details. Osiris was the chief god of the Egyptian Amenti, answering to the Pluto of the Greeks and Latins. By some, Osiris is said to have been the Sol inferus, that is, the sun when it passed into the lower hemisphere, and through the autumnal and wintry signs of the zodiac, in opposition to the Sol superus, or sun when it passed through the upper hemisphere, and through the summer signs of the zodiac. Jablonski attempts to establish this supposition, though he errs in confounding the name of Serapis with Osiris (Pantheon Egypt., lib. ii. cap. 5). But whether this was the case, or whether Osiris is to be regarded as an entirely distinct divinity, we have not now the means of determining; it is sufficient for our purpose to know where his dominion was exercised. This was over the souls of men after their deceasea fact which is revealed by almost every legend and painting relating to the dead. Spineto furnishes a description of a representation of this kind in his fifth lecture (pp. 150, 156). Osiris was phonetically exhibited, according to Spineto (Lect. iv. p. 141), by a sceptre, with the head of a species of wolf, which denotes the vowel O; the crooked line, S; the oval, an R; the arm, an E, or an I, which gives Osre, the abbreviation of Osire or Osiri. Isis, according to Jablonski (Pantheon Egypt., lib. iii, cap. 1 and 2), represented the moon; and, as the Egyptians adored a Sol superus and Sol inferus, so they worshipped a Luna supera and infera, or Isis cœlestis and terrestris. Besides officiating in the Egyptian Amenti, she was recognised in a variety of capacities; among others, as the inventress of agriculture, the divinity who contained within herself the seeds of productive nature (Plutarch de Iside, p. 372), and as the inventress of sails and of navigation. (The elevation of a ship formed one feature in her mysteries; Spineto,

p. 140.) She seems to have been the prototype of a large number of Grecian divinities; among the rest, of Proserpine and Ceres; particularly of the latter, whose adventures and mysteries her own strongly resemble. (See Recherches du Paganisme, by De Sacy, vol. i, p. 150, seq.) She was symbolically represented by a throne, a half circle, and an egg, which last sign denoted her gender as feminine; figuratively, by a disk and a pair of horns. The Amenti of the Egyptians, corresponding to the Hades of the Greeks, and to the Tartarus of the Latins, was the place of the dead. It was governed by Osiris as chief, and by many subordinate divinities. The following quotations from Spineto (Lect. iv.) will show where the souls of men were distributed after death. The Egyptians divided the whole world into three zones. The first was the earth, or the zone of trial; the second was the zone of the air, perpetually agitated by winds and storms, and it was considered as the zone of temporal punishment; and the third was the zone of rest and tranquillity, which was above the other two. Again, they subdivided the first zone, or the earth, into four regions or departments: the second, or the zone of the air, was divided into two only; the first of these was subdivided into four regions, and the second into eight, making twelve altogether; these, being added to the four regions of the first zone, made sixteen: and, lastly, the third zone of the tranquil atmosphere contained sixteen more regions; so that the sum total of the regions in which the souls of the dead were to be distributed, was in fact thirty-two.' There is an evident variation between the divisions made by Spineto, and those made by Champollion in his letter. It would seem more probable that there were twenty-four principal zones, corresponding to the twenty-four hours of the day-twelve for the upper hemisphere, through which the sun passed during the twelve hours of light, and twelve for the lower hemisphere, through which the sun passed during the twelve hours of darkness. But the subordinate zones may have been more or less numerous (Champollion makes seventy-five zones in the lower world); and hence arises the variation between Champollion and Spineto. This circumstance, however, would not affect the division of the world into the three general portions, which Spineto announces; and, as the minor divisions are comparatively unimportant, we shall continue to quote from this author.