109. ETERNITY is represented simply bill serpent rising in an oblique arch, and without horns; the serpent devouring its tail, and making a ring, is never found as an Egyptian emblem. Horapollo says that eternity was denoted by a serpent having ser its tail hidden under its body; and that such . pents were called mum, meaning in Greek east ' Liscs, which agrees very well with the sense of the Coptic vito, " king;" but this description answers better to the asp of the inscription of Rosetta, which has also some relation to the representations of the deities, though it does not exactly mean im mortality.
110. The cross with the serpent is a very com mon epithet, in the sense of everliving, or istmon TAL, AEONOBIUS; the waved line is in general a pre position, or a termination, meaning of, to, or for; and it appears to be synonymous with the hat (n. 177). Almost all authors have very hastily taken for granted, that this character must relate immedi ately to water, wherever it occurs, although we find it repeatedly in every line of' the inscription of Ro getta, where wrier is not once mentioned. The fact, however, is, that its prototype seems to have been a stream of water or of any other liquid, flow ing from a vessel, and poured on some other object; and that the idea of the liquid was completely drop ped in the general employment of the character; while that of the connexion only was retained; and the hat or cap being also similarly forgotten, while its connexion with the head of the wearer only was suggested by its figure. In this compound charac
ter, we have two particles nearly alike, the semi circle and the line; for that they cannot be very dif ferent is shown by the occasional substitution of two semicircles for the combination. One of them seems to serve for the connexion between life and eternity, " life for ever ;" and the other to make the new an adjective, " living for ever." 111. The triangle or pyramid occurs very coin manly among other emblems of prosperity and hap pine.ss ; and it is found in the frise of 'Montagu and Ficoroni, in the decided sense of an offering or a present in general, while, in another place, it is made an offering in its own form; so that we can only in terpret it as signifying JOY, or pleasure, prosperi ty. (Hierogl. 7 NIqr, Uqr ; 9 Re, RI; 7 Uri, Urs.) 112. Powell appears to be indicated by a sceptre having the head of an animal, which is often placed in the hands of the deities, and often stands with the cross, the pyramid, and the altar, as an emblem of the blessings attendant on the favourites of the gods. It is seldom used in the text of inscriptions, but it occurs once in that of Rosetta.