SEYFFARTH THE HIEROGLYPHIC TABLET OF POMPEIUM. 2 37 



168, 169. The figure of a web, not diftering from that on PI. 

 li. I, and called ko6 (G.^. ii2, Nos. 590, 591), expresses sylla- 

 bically ss^ne, generatio, progenies. The context says that Vespa- 

 sian was taught to love the human race — literally, the nations 

 (of the whole earth). The very same sense of the same group 

 will be found on PI. xvi. No. 207 ; in the R. S. v. 22 & xi. 23 ; 

 T.S. xi. xii. xix. xxx. etc. ; T.B. 82, 5 ; 149, 41 ; 32, 9, etc. etc. 

 Deluded L. imagined the same group to denote Asia (T. S. v.), 

 but Asia was properly the kingdom of Antigonus, and, in later 

 times, Asia Minor, whilst in Vespasian's days a large part of 

 Europe, Africa and Asia was subject to Rome, and Palestine 

 •could by no means be called Asia. This absurd interpretation of 

 our group was adopted by G., and hence the strange interpreta- 

 tion that Vespasian was " the ruler of Asia." 



170, 171. This frequently recurring group contains the words 

 ue^n (terra) and ?|in (tup), or rather ;]nSD (taptap), circuitus ; for, 

 instead of the two hills we find sometimes the finger xefi, which 

 demonstrates that the hill (twot, in- tv) syllabically expressed tb 

 or tp. The fact that, instead of two hills, sometimes only one 

 precedes the figure of the mountains, explains itself by the use of 

 toth the Hebrews and Egyptians, to geminate a root, and then 

 to extrude one of the radical letters from which the so-called 

 words medice geminate originated. Comp. ns, 2323. 233. kab, 

 kabkab, kokab ; ni?i*, kala, crAi^, holocaustum. The image of the 

 mountains (2s^toco6e) signifies kb (G. yE. 35, 20), and hence ex- 

 presses con, ^3 (kap), vola manus. See further on No. 248. 



172. See 84, 210, 102. G. combines the presumed s with the 

 following figure in order to make out the word szms, his ; but, 

 alas ! he knew not yet that the adjective always follows the sub- 

 stantive. 



173 is not the letter «, as G. conceived, but the goblet ivnoT, 

 &.r:|>OT, a. oA.noT; accordingly, denoting f^o-rT, IISX (epot). See 

 PI. ii. b. The latter signified not only the notorious ephod of the 

 high priest, but also simulacrum, statua, because the statues of 

 the ancient gods were like as if they were the envelopes of their 

 faculties. Hence the signs of the Zodiac, i.e. the houses of the 

 seven planetary gods, were termed Tzrioawna^ adspectus of the 

 gods. The pronunciation of this goblet, already fixed in G. ^'E. 

 p. 100, No. 522, contains the name of Abydos, a. Habydos (T.B. 



