The Hieroglyphics of Horapollo Nilous

[Josie Linde]

XXXII. HOW DELIGHT.

[Josie Linde]

When they would represent delight they depict the NUMBER 16; 1 for from this age men

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begin to hold commerce with women, and to procreate children.

[Josie Linde]

Footnotes

52:1 Leemans very happily suggests, from the following passage in Pliny. Nat. Hist. V. 9., that the symbol had some reference to the rising of the Nile: "Justum incrementum est cubitorum sedecim . . . . . . . in duodecim cubitis famem sentit; in tredecim etiamnum esurit; quatuordecim cubits hilaritatem adferunt; quindecim securitatem; sedecim delicias."

[Josie Linde]

XXXIII. HOW SEXUAL INTERCOURSE.

[Josie Linde]

To denote sexual intercourse they depict TWO NUMBERS 16. Cum enim sedecim voluptatem esse diximus; congressus autem, duplici constet, maris ac fœminæ, voluptate, propterea alia sedecim adscribunt.

[Josie Linde]

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XXXIV. HOW A SOUL CONTINUING A LONG TIME HERE.

[Josie Linde]

When they would denote a soul continuing a long time here, 2 or an inundation, they depict the PHŒNIX the bird: 3 and they denote the soul by it, because this is the longest lived of all creatures in the world; and an inundation, because the Phœnix is a symbol of the sun, than which nothing is greater in the universe. For the sun passes over all and

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scrutinises all, hence he is called . . . . . Polys 1 (much).

[Josie Linde]

Footnotes

54:1

The Phœnix.

54:2 Qy. 'When they would denote the soul, or an expiring cycle of time, or an inundation?' Of the two first the Phœnix was certainly a symbol, and possibly of the last, on account of its periodical return.

54:3 The Phœnix the Bird, to distinguish it from the Phœnix the Palm branch.—See Ch. 7.

55:1 Phanes? Apollo.

[Josie Linde]

XXXV. HOW A MAN RETURNING HOME AFTER A LONG TIME FROM A FOREIGN LAND.

[Josie Linde]

To denote a man returning home after a long time from a foreign land they again delineate the PHŒNIX the bird: for this creature, after an interval of 580 years, 2 when the time of death is about to overtake him, returns to Egypt, and as soon as he pays the debt of nature in Egypt, he is mystically served with funeral rites; and whatever rites the Egyptians pay to the rest of the sacred animals, the same

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[Josie Linde]

are due to the Phœnix: 1 for it is said by the Egyptians to rejoice in the sun more than other birds, and because among them the Nile overflows through the heat of this god; of which matter we discoursed with you a short time since.

[Josie Linde]

Footnotes

55:2 See a similar relation in Tacitus Ann. vi. 28.

56:1 I have translated this according to Treb.

[Josie Linde]

XXXVI. HOW THEY DENOTE THE HEART.

[Josie Linde]

When they would denote the heart they delineate the Isis; for this animal is consecrated to Hermes [Thoth],

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the lord of every heart and of reasoning. The Ibis also is itself in its own shape like the heart, respecting which great discussions are maintained by the Egyptians.

[Josie Linde]

Footnotes

56:2

Ibis, the emblem of Thoth or Hermes.