7. Ammow, the Egyptian Jupiter, is sufficiently identified by a combination of evidence of various kinds, although no single link of the chain extends very far. A figure with a ram's head is denoted, both on the green sarcophagus, and on the temple at Elephantine, by a water jar, sometimes, but not always, accompanied by a bird: now a water jar of this form is constantly converted, in the running hand of the manuscripts, into a character like a a; and this character, in the enchorial text of Rosetta, is made to express the name of Jupiter; a fact which confirms the testimony of the Greek authors, who consider the Egyptian Jupiter as having been re presented with a ram's head. A similar figure is found at Edfou, or Apollinopolis Magna, and at Esne or Latopolis: the temple at Edfou seems to have been dedicated by Amenophis or Memnon; and he appears to be called lover of Ammon, that is MIAMUN, which is not unlike the name MEItINON.
8. The common astronomical diagram for the sun, 0, seems to have been adopted by the Latin astrologers from their masters in Egypt; since it is not very probable that both should have employed a point in the centre of the circle, without some communication with each other; the circle alone having been mentioned by some of the Greek au thors, who say, that it was the symbol of the sun. The deity RE or PURE is indicated by this charac., ter followed by au upright bar; and the circle is often enveloped in the coil of the body of a serpent; an oval and an arm also often follow the circle. The enchorial name of the sun is extremely like that which corresponds in the manuscripts to this hiero glyphic: and a similar circle, with rays diverging from it, though seldom exactly in straight lines (N. 160), is used in the sense of " enlightening," or " rendering illustrious :" and it has also been ob served by some of the French, who have been in Egypt, to stand in several inscriptions with a manifest reference to light. The circle occurs also as a part of the terms month and day (N. 178, 179). In the great Hieratic Ritual, and in some other manu scripts, this name of Phre occurs very frequently under or near the tablet which contains a represen tation of the sun shining, as well as under the next to it, which exhibits a head rising out of a lotus, an emblem, mentioned by Plutarch as relating to the sun, which here is made to spring from the pedestal (N. 6), as the sun is said to have been the offspring of Phthah. Whatever plant this lotus may have been, it certainly does not much resemble the ne. Jumbo of the east, which some imagine to have been the original emblem of fertility. The name Phre is almost the only intelligible combination of letters that ever occurs on the Abraxas or amulets ; and the monster, to which it relates, has generally radiations from its head, and is surrounded by six stars. The tablets of the sun in the manuscripts exhibit also little genii worshipping him, each of which is always marked " star god." 9, The name of RHEA may, without impropriety, be assigned to a female personage very commonly accompanying the sun, and distinguished by many of his attributes; although the evidence would have been •somewhat more conclusive, if the name had been found attached to the figure of the mother in the tablet of the birth of Isis. On the coffins of the mummies, this personage is generally represented with outstretched wings: in other tablets, without wings: but she carries in both cases a circle on her head, emblematic of the sun. If we consi dered the analogy of the hieroglyphic name only, we should be disposed to interpret it as meaning the wife or sister of Ammon.
10. Ion, the Moon, is not a deity of very frequent occurrence; but the character is easily interpreted, both from its form, and from its being found, in a different position, as a part of the word month. (N. 179.) At Dendem, this character is accompanied by the epithet God, and without any female termi nation, as well as in several passages of an epistolo graphic manuscript sent home by Mr Bankes ; a cir cumstance which is favourable to the opinion that Ioh was considered as masculine in mythology as well as -in grammar,just as Men or Lunus was sometimes made masculine by the Greeks and Ro mans; the fact, however, is not absolutely decisive of this question, since the character is not accom panied by the delineation of any personification of the deity.
11. The historical description of the ?od THOTH, or Hermes, as the scribe, or secretary of Osiris, and the inventor of writing, sufficiently identifies him with the person who is perpetually represented standing before Osiris, and writing with a quill or a style on a square or oblong tablet. He has al ways the head of an ibis, and this bird, standing on a perch, constitutes his hieroglyphical name, the ibis is known to have been the emblem ofThoth ; the hieroglyphic for letters, N. 103, is also fre quently found among his titles ; and all these cir cumstances abundantly confirm the opinion of his true character, which Zoega and others have already advanced from conjecture only. The enchorial name is much disfigured, but the manuscripts exhibit a character which may serve to supply the connecting link, and another abridgment of the name which deviates still more widely from the original, being simply the common substitute for a feather, which here seems to stand for the whole bird, or per haps merely for a feather which is often found projecting from the end of the perch. Next to Osiris, we find that Thoth is of more frequent oc currence than any other deity in the great ritual ; and it is probable that the mummies of the ibis, which are so commonly found, were preserved in honour of him. The semicircle with two oblique dashes, under the perch, seems to correspond to the epithet 1 great and great" of the Rosetta inscrip tion; this character being generally significative of a dual. The scale, with eight dashes, and two other characters, is also very frequently employed as an epithet, and sometimes as a synonym of Thoth ; it seems to mean " dispenser of the eight treasures, or laws of the country; for Diodorus informs us that the principal laws of Egypt were contained in eight books.
12. The name of OSIRIS ie found, with the epi thet " divine" in a great majority of all the mytho logical inscriptions that have yet been discovered; so that this circumstance alone is sufficient to show that it must have been that of the principal deity of Egypt. The enchorial character of the inscription of Rosetta is readily identified, and it agrees per fectly well with that of the manuscripts, answering to the eye and the throne; so that the manuscripts here completely supply the want of that part of the stone which contained the name in the sacred cha racter. This name is also universally annexed to the great figure which is found at the end of al most all the manuscripts, and on the coffins of mum mies, holding a hook and a whip or fan, and of which the small detached images are also extreme ly common. In the sculptured inscriptions, the eye generally precedes the throne; in the running hand of the manuscripts, and on the coffins of some mummies, apparently of later date, the eye some times follows. Plutarch had perhaps been rightly informed respecting this character, but by a mis take, which was easily committed from a want of perfect recollection, he has called it " an eye and a sceptre;" and this combination has not been recog nised as the name of a deity, though a symbol some thing like it occurs in some of the tablet. The pic tured delineation of Osiris has indifferently a human head or that of a hawk; but never that of any other animal. The tear, N. 100, seems also sometimes to have been used as an emblem of Osiris, as well as of Apis and Mneuis, who were considered as repre sentations of him. The name is found perpetually on monuments of all kinds as an epithet of a de person; and this is one great reason of the parted of its occurrence.