must have fenfible objects, led them to adore the Moon, reigning in darknefs. They, no doubt, at first, held this planet to be but an emblem of Night, and divine power; but, as the fymbol often obfcures the Deity, the people prayed to the Moon, and to her erected their altars.

Philofophers ftill understood the doctrine; and, by Night, Athor, and Venus, meant that season when the fun, having paffed the equator, remains in the auftral hemisphere; the days then being shorter, and the nights longer. Philofophers (x) have honoured έσ the upper hemifphere with the name of

"Venus, and the lower with that of Profer

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pine. The Affyrians and Phoenicians repre

feat this goddess in tears, because the fun, paffing through the figns of the Zodiac, "enters the auftral hemifphere, where, fo long "as he remains, the days are fhorter, and "Venus is feigned to weep the absence of the god, dead for a time, and detained by Pro

σε

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ferpine. Her ftatue is on Mount Lebanon (the celebrated Venus Aphacitis) veiled, and "with a forrowful countenance. The ftatue,

(x) Macrob. lib. I. cap. 21.

X 2

" befide

"beside representing the grief of the goddess, "is also the symbol of Winter.'

The following palage demonftrates this opinion came from Egypt (y). "In the "month of Athyr (2) the Egyptians fay "Ofiris (the fun) is dead; nights then are "longer, darkness increases, and his power « is diminished. The priests perform gloomy "ceremonies, and fhew the people a gilded ox, covered with a black veil (or pall) fig

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nifying the grief of the goddefs Ifis, or the "Moon." In Egypt, the ox is a fymbol of Ofiris, and the earth.

Thus, the Egyptian Athor firft fignified that mysterious Night which was over chaos, before the creation; afterward the Moon; and, laftly, Winter; by this analogy, the Orientals, Greeks and Romans, have named Athor Venus the Queen of the World, and the Mother of Delights. The doctrine is the fame, though its form be changed; paffing from one nation to another, and from the lips of philofophers to poets.

(y) Plut. de Ifide et Ofiride.

(z) Athyr, the name of a month.

The Egyptians

call Venus, Athor, after whom they name the third month

of their year. Orion the grammarian.

Temples

Temples were dedicated to Athor, in Egypt. Herodotus, who gives the names

of many remarkable places there, mentions Athar-Beki, the city of Athor, which Strabo (a), and Diodorus Siculus (b), translate Aphroditopolis; the city of Venus. "Elian (c), (peaking of a town in the Hermopolitan Nomos, fays, " Here they worship "Venus, and pay peculiar adoration to the "cow." The fame author informs us Ifis, or the Moon, was reprefented with the horns of a cow. Thus this animal was the emblem of the Moon; and the black veil, with which it was covered during winter, could only fignify to the people the decrease of day, and the grief of Ifis; though, certainly, to the priests, it meant the darkness of chaos before creation. In the map of Egypt, you will find three towns, which the Greek geographers have named Aphroditopolis, but which the natives call Athar-Beki.

Such is the fmall information, Sir, we may collect, from the fragments the antients

(a) Strabo, lib. 17.

(b) Diod. Sic. lib. 1.

(c) Alian. De Nat. Animal. lib. 11.

X 3

have

have left us, relative to the religious opinions of the Egyptians concerning Athor.

Had

not their books perifhed with the Ptolemaan Library, did not their hieroglyphics conceal the knowledge they tranfmitted to posterity, we, no doubt, should find, among a people fo learned, and fo near the origin of human nature, ideas more clear and fatisfactory; but let us enjoy what remains, and endeavour, fomewhat, to pervade the myfteries of their religion.

I have the honour to be, &c.

LETTER

LETTER

XVIII.

OF PHTMA, NEITH, AND CNEPH.

The Egyptians adored the Supreme Being under the names Phtha, Neith, and Cneph; attributes, fignifying his power, wisdom, and goodness. The temple of Phtha, at Memphis, of Neith, at Sais, and of Cneph, in the island of Elephantina. The pure worship preferved only by the Priests, and initiated; the Vulgar forgot the Creator in his works.

To M. L. M.

Grand Cairo.

I HAVE spoken, Sir, of Athor, and the

dark Abyss. But the Chaos of the Greek and Latin poets could produce nothing of itself; the Egyptian philofophers acknowledge the Spirit which thence formed the Universe, and established that ftill unalterable order which Spirit they called Phtha, Ordainer(d).

;

(d) La Croix, Trefor Epiftolaire, liv. 3. Jablonski, tom. I. fays Phtha, in Coptic, fignifies Ordainer of Things.