53, 54. We find at Karnak the name of a king somewhat like Psammis, that of his father resembling a compound of Ptolemy and Berenice. Perhaps they are not very correctly copied, but they may stand, under the temporary names of Disoozygus and Pio kberius, as specimens, somewhat singular, of a mix ture of different dynasties; and in this point of view they may be placed between the old Egyptian kings and their Grecian conquerors.
55. (Plate LXXV.) The name of ALEXANDER has not yet been identified in the sacred characters ; but it will appear hereafter, that a knowledge of the enchorial form may possibly contribute very mate rially, at some future time, to assist us in determin ing it.
56. There can be no doubt whatever respecting the signification of the name of PTOLEMY, as it oc. curs on the stone of Rosetta; but it is not quite so easy to determine its identity in some other cases, where it may possibly have been modified by con traction, mutilation, or combination. In this and a few other proper names, it is extremely interesting to trace some of the steps by which alphabetical writing seems to have arisen out of hieroglyphical ; a process which may indeed be in some measure il lustrated by the manner in which the modern Chi nese express a foreign combination of sounds, the characters being rendered simply " phonetic" by an appropriate mark, instead of retaining their natural signification; and this ntsrk, in some modem print ed books, approaching very near to the ring sur rounding the hieroglyphic names. The enchorial name of Ptolemy appears at first eight to be ex different from the hieroglyphical; and it would have been impossible to deduce the one from the other, without a knowledge of the epistologra phic forms of the separate characters, as ascertained by a comparison of the manuscripts. The beginning and end are obviously parts of the ring, which, in the sacred character, surrounds every proper name except those of the deities. The square block and the semicircle answer invariably in all the mane.
scripts to characters resembling the r and T of Aker bled, which are found at the beginning of the en chorial name. The next character, which seems to be a kind of knot, is not essentially necessary, being often omitted in the sacred characters- and always in the enchorial. The lion corresponds to the Lo of Akerblad; a lion being always expressed by a simi lar character in the manuscripts ; an oblique line crossed standing for the body, and an erect line fur the tail ; this was probably read not to but OLE ; al though, in more modern Coptic, OM is translated a ram ; we have also min, a stag; and the figure of the stag becomes, in the running hand, something like this of the lion. The next character is known to have
some reference to " place," in Coptic ma ; and it seems to have been read either 31A, or simply it; and this character is always expressed in the run ning hand by the at of Akerblad's all habet. The two feathers, whatever their natural meaning may have been, answer to the three parallel lines of the enchorial text, and they seem in more than one in stance to have been read I or a; the bent line pro bably signified great, and was read min or 09; for the Coptic snit seems to have been nearly equiva lent to the Greek stoma. Putting all these ele ments together, we have precisely rroLaisaios, the Greek name; or perhaps rrOLziazos, as it would more naturally be called in Coptic. The slight va riations of the word in different parts of the enchori al text may be considered as expressing something like aspirations or accentuation.
57. The appellation suTERICS, as a dual, is well marked in the inscription of Rosetta, and the charac ter, thus determined, explains a long name in the temple at Edfou, which must mean " the two savi our gods," with various titles of honour, such as " the agents of Phthah, the emblems of triumph, the approved of Phre, the favoured of the Nile, the ve nerable consorts in empire." 58. The with of Ptolemy Soter, and mother of Philadelphus, was BERENICE, whose name is found on a ceiling at Karnak, in the phrase, " Ptolemy and .. Berenice, the saviour gods." In this name we appear to have another specimen oi* syllabic and alphabetical writing combined, in a manner not ex tremely unlike the ludicrou mixtures of words and things with which children are sometimes amused ; for however Warburton's indignation might be ex cited by such a comparison, it is perfectly true that, occasionally, " the sublime differs from the ridicu lous by a single step only." The first character of the hieroglyphic name is precisely of the same form with a basket represented at Byban El Molouk, and called, in the description, " parer d anses ;" and a basket, in Coptic, is AIR. The oval, which re sembles an eye without the pupil, means elsewhere " to," which in Coptic is a; the waved line is " of," and must be rendered x ; the feathers r ; the little footstool seems to be superfluous; the goose is KE, or KEN; Kircher gives us KENES0ii for a goose; but the asoii means gregarious, probably in contradistinction to the Egyptian sheldrake, and the simple etymon approaches to the name of a goose in many other lanicuages. We have, therefore, literally EIRENIEE ; or, if the N must be inserted, the accusative BIRENI.