Such upper; the fecond Serapis, or lower. are the most probable opinions refpecting this emblematical deity, to be gathered from the ancients and Jablonski; perhaps the ancient philofophers of Greece meant by Pluto the fun in winter, but the inventive poets made him the monarch of the infernal regions, I have the honour to be, &c. LETTER Harpocrates was a fymbol of the fun at the winter folftice, in Egypt, and the god of filence in Greece. The priests figured him with his feet joined, fo as fcarcely to be able to walk, as an emblem of the flow, and almoft infenfible, motion of the fun at the tropic of Capricorn. They feated him on the flower of the lotus, because it blooms at the end of autumn. To M. L. M. Grand Cairo. MACROBIUS tells us the Egyptians took the femblance of the fun from the fanctuary, under the form of a child,' to announce to the people the shortest day; which emblematic deity was called Harpocrates (a). The Greeks made him the god of filence; (4) Saturnal. lib. 1. because because he was born with one of his fingers on his mouth. Ifis was delivered of the tender Harpocrates at the winter folftice (6). This Egyptian name fignifies lame (c), and he was depicted with this defect to indicate the flow, and almost infenfible, motion of the fun at the tropic. The two feet of Harpocrates were joined fo as to form but one, which the Egyptians meant as emblematic of the course of the fun, at the winter folftice (d). Plutarch adds, they depicted him seated on the flower of the lotus (e): nor could they find a symbol more expreflive; for this ftately lily of the north, as Herodotus calls it, blowed only at the end of autumn. The priests who veiled the most striking phænomena of nature in fable, and thurs formed an enigmatic theology, faid Jupiter (Ammon), having his feet at first joined together, could not walk freely, and was fo ashamed of the infirmity that he lived in folitude. Ifis, forry at his difafter, by feparating, restored him the ufe of his legs. In (b) Plut. de Ifide et Ofiride. (c) Jablonski Pantheon Egyptiacum, tom. I. (d) Horapoll. Hieroglyphica, lib. 2. (e) Plut. de Ifide & Ohride. this allegory we perceive Harpocrates, or the fun, stationary at the winter folftice; and, after the operation of Ifis, Ammon (the fun), advancing more rapidly, when arrived at the Equator. The Egyptians were not the only people who expreffed themselves by fymbols; all ancient nations, especially in the infancy of language, were obliged to adopt the ufe of parables and allegories: before the invention' of letters, objects were neceflary to speak to the mind; and the metaphors fo often employed in Hebrew and Arabic prove their antiquity. "The Paphlagonians faid the "fun flept in winter, and waked in fum 46 mer; and the Phrygians that he was en"chained in winter, and walked free from "fetters in the fpring (ƒ).": I have the honour to be, &c. (f) Plut. de Ifide et Ofiride. 4 LETTER LETTER XXIV, MENDES A SYMBOL OF THE SUN. Mendes probably the first emblem of the fun, fignifying its productive virtue. The goat confecrated to him as the most prolific of animals. The priests initiated. The phallus, an emblem of generation, worn on their habits, and adorned the ftatues of their other deities: improperly named Pan by the Greeks. To M. L. M. Grand Cairo. THE E God I am going to fpeak of, Sir, was, apparently, the first fymbol of the fun. The Egyptians, finding they were indebted to him for the richness of their country and inundation, that his beneficent beams, which gave health and life to all nature, made the plants fprout, and ripened the harveft, held the fun to be the first fource of fertility, and adored him by the name of Mendes, which fignifics. |