The Hieroglyphics of Horapollo Nilous

[Josie Linde]

VII. HOW THEY INDICATE THE SOUL.

[Josie Linde]

Moreover, the HAWK is put for the soul, from the signification of its name; for among ' the Egyptians the hawk is called BAIETH: and this name in decomposition signifies soul and heart; for the word BAI is the soul, and


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[Josie Linde]

 ETH the heart; and the heart, according to the Egyptians, is the shrine of the soul; so that in its composition the name signifies 'soul enshrined in heart.' Whence also the hawk, from its correspondence with the soul, never drinks water, but blood, by which, also, the soul is sustained.


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[Josie Linde]

Footnotes
15:1


I. The departing soul.

II. The hawk found sitting upon the mummy cases.

III. The external mummy case.





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http://sacred-texts.com/egy/hh/hh009.htm

[Josie Linde]

VIII. HOW ARES AND APHRODITE (HOR AND HATHOR.) 1

[Josie Linde]

'To denote Ares and Aphrodite (Hor and Athor), they delineate TWO HAWKS; 1 of

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which they assimilate the male to Ares (Hor), and the female to Aphrodite (Hathor), for this reason, quod ex cæteris animantibus fœmina mari non ad omnem congressum obtemperat, ut in accipitrum genere, in quo etsi tricies in die fœmina a mare comprimatur, ab eo digressa, si inclamata fuerit paret iterum. Wherefore the Egyptians call every female that is obedient to her husband Aphrodite (Hathor), but one that is not obedient they do not so denominate. For this reason they have consecrated the hawk to the sun: for, like the sun, it completes the number thirty in its conjunctions with the female.

When they would denote Ares and Aphrodite (Hor and Athor) otherwise, they

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[Josie Linde]

depict TWO CROWS [ravens?] as a man and woman; because this bird lays two eggs, from which a male and female ought to be produced, and, ([except?] when it produces two males or two females, which, however, rarely happens,) the males mate with the females, and hold no intercourse with any other crow, neither does the female with any other crow, till death; but those that are widowed pass their lives in solitude. And hence, when men meet with a single crow, they look upon it as an omen, as having met with a widowed creature; and 1 on account of the remarkable concord of these birds, the Greeks to this day in their marriages exclaim, EKKOKI KORI KORONE, though unacquainted with its import.

[Josie Linde]

Footnotes

16:2

I. Hor or Horus.

II. Athor, Hathor, or Thyhor, the Egyptian Venus.

16:1 To denote Hor, they delineate a HAWK; and to denote Hathor, a HAWK WITHIN AN ENCLOSURE, as in the figure, which is read as an abode of Horus. Plutarch states that ATHURI signifies Horus's mundane house.

18:1 Treb. omits the concluding sentence from ζώῳ

[Josie Linde]

p. 19
IX. HOW MARRIAGE.



To denote marriage, they again depict TWO CROWS, on account of what has been mentioned.

[Josie Linde]

X. HOW AN ONLY BEGOTTEN.

[Josie Linde]

To denote an only begotten, or generation, or a father, or the world, or a man, they delineate a SCARABÆUS. 2

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And they symbolise by this an only begotten, because the scarabæus is a creature self-produced, being unconceived by a female; for the propagation of it is unique after this manner:—when the male is desirous of procreating, he takes dung of an ox, and shapes it into a spherical form like the world; he then rolls it from the hinder parts from east to west, looking himself towards the east, that he may impart to it the figure of the world, (for that is borne from east to west, while the course of the stars is from west to east): then, having dug a hole, the scarabæus deposits this ball in the earth for the space of twenty-eight days, (for in so many days the moon passes through the twelve signs of the zodiac). By thus remaining under the moon, the race of scarabæi is endued with

p. 21

[Josie Linde]

life; and upon the nine and twentieth day after having opened the ball, it casts it into water, for it is aware that upon that day the conjunction of the moon and sun takes place, as well as the generation of the world. From the ball thus opened in the water, the animals, that is the scarabæi, issue forth. The scarabæus also symbolizes generation, for the reason before mentioned —and a father, because the scarabæus is engendered by a father only—and the world, because in its generation it is fashioned in the form of the world—and a man, because there is no female race among them. Moreover there are three species of scarabæi, the first like a cat, and irradiated, which species they have consecrated to the sun from this similarity: for they say that the male cat changes the shape of the pupils of his eyes according to the course of the sun: for in the morning

p. 22

[Josie Linde]

at the rising of the god, they are dilated, and in the middle of the day become round, and about sunset appear less brilliant: whence, also, the statue of the god in the city of the sun is of the form of a cat. Every scarabæus also has thirty toes, corresponding with the thirty days duration of the month, during which the rising sun [moon?] performs his course. The second species is the two horned and bull formed, which is consecrated to the moon; whence the children of the Egyptians say, that the bull in the heavens is the exaltation of this goddess. The third species is the one horned and Ibis formed, 1 which they regard as consecrated to Hermes [Thoth], in like manner as the bird Ibis.

[Josie Linde]

Footnotes

19:1

I. The Scarabæus signifies the world: it is very commonly found with the circle, emblematic of the sun, in front of it.

19:2 Produced by a single parent?

22:1 Cuper. and De Pauw propose ἰβιόμορφος, ibis-formed; which is adopted in the translation above, but not inserted in the text.

[Josie Linde]

XI. WHAT THEY IMPLY BY DEPICTING A VULTURE.