Fragments on Egyptian Literature* 351 



king's daughter, the king's sister; " and Arsinoe is called '' the 

 king's daughter, the king's sister, the king's wife," and again, 

 '* the goddess brother-loving." The two princesses are only 

 incidentally mentioned in this inscription. We learn, however, 

 from it, that they had priests, and of course were both regarded 

 as deities. In the first horizontal line, mention is made of the 

 year 23 (of Philadelphusj, that is, the year 62 Phil, or 26f 

 B. C. This may have been the date of the tablet; at any rate, 

 it is a limit, which this date was not anterior to. oy j, imfi> 



The title •* Philadelphus," given to the second Ptolemy, is 

 commonly translated " brother-loving ; " and was given to him, 

 it is generally said, because he quarrelled with his brother I 

 Put surely it is more natural to supposed that it signified *' sister- 

 loving," and was given him, or assumed by him, on the occa- 

 sion of his marriage with Arsinoe, his sister. A union of this 

 kind, being similar to that of Osiris and Isis, was regarded by 

 the Egyptians as sacred ; and the young Epiphanes is declared, 

 in the decree preserved on the Rosetta stone, to be " a god, 

 son of a god, and goddess, as was Horus, the son of Isis and 

 Osiris:'' He was the first of the Ptolemies who sprung from 

 such an union ; for Philadelphus had no children by his sister 

 Arsinoe ; they were all by his first wife, the daughter of Lysi- 

 machus3 and Evergetes married a Cyrenian princess, his 

 cousin. He was, therefore, the first Har, or Horus, among 

 the Lagidae ; and it was for this reason he was styled Epi- 

 phanes, which does not signify *' illustrious," as some have 

 translated it, but '* manifested," or " incarnate," and which 

 was peculiarly applied to the Hori, 



VII. Double dates of some of the Lagid<s. It is well known 

 that, in some of the inscriptions and papyri that have of late 

 been partially deciphered, we meet with double dates. For 

 example, the Berlin papyrus, No. 40, is dated in " the 14th year, 

 which is the 11th year" of Cleopatra and Ptolemy Alexander. 

 The Enchorial tablet, Hierogl. PI. 51, is dated in the 19th year, 

 which is the 5th year (or, according to Dr. Young, the 4th year) 

 of Cleopatra and Ptolemy Caesar. It has been supposed that 

 these dates refer to different epochs from which the reign of a 

 sovereign might be counted ; but I am of opinion that they refer 



to the different commencements of the reigns of two sovereigns, 



2A2 



