114 Fragmmis on Egyptian Literature. 



signification of these four words was vulgarly supposed to be 

 very different ; and it is no wonder that they should appear to 

 differ widely in their origin, when the meaning of the elements, 

 or ou and 9r or ^, was unknown or unattended to. Plutarch, 

 however, in his Treatise on Isis and Osiris, expressly identifies 

 Sirius with Osiris ; and it is abundantly manifest that Osiris 

 and Serapis, each of them the consort of Isis, and the God of 

 the Infernal regions, were one and the same deity. It has 

 been said, indeed, by some moderns, that Serapis was a Gre- 

 cian deity, introduced into Egypt by Ptolomy Soter. This, 

 however, is a mistake. Ptolomy procured from the town of 

 Sinope, and transported into Egypt, a statue, which was wor- 

 shipped as that of '' the Infernal Jove." When it was brought 

 to Alexandria, it was called " Serapis," which was the name 

 of the Egyptian deity, who had similar attributes ; but we are 

 no where told that it was worshipped under the name Serapis 

 at Sinope, nor that Serapis was previously unknown to the 

 Egyptians. Authors have inferred the latter from his being 

 omitted by Herodotus in his enumeration of the Egyptian 

 deities ; but this omission may be explained in an equally 

 satisfactory manner, by supposing him to have been mentioned 

 by the Father of History under another name, namely, that of 

 Osiris. The identification of Busiris with this many-named 

 deity is less easy, as the latter name has been seldom men- 

 tioned ; I consider it, however, to be a highly probable con- 

 jecture. I do not speak of Busiris, the name of a place, for 

 which a different derivation must be sought. 



We have thus three, and possibly four, different ways of 

 reading this phonetic name ; a name which is compounded of 

 two parts, one signifying *• God," the other, **Sire," of uncertain 

 signification. I have formed an opinion as to the meaning of 

 this last word ; but as I see a very different derivation of it, in 

 support of which plausible arguments may be adduced, I shall 

 for the present suspend my judgment. I will only add, that, 

 when the name of this deity is prefixed to that of a deceased 

 person in funeral records, the character for " God" is some- 

 times omitted. It should then, in my opinion, be read simply— 

 Sire. 



I now pass to the hieroglyphic names of the wife and sister 

 of Osire. One of these consists of four feathers, the second 



