SEYFFARTH — ORIGINAL EGYPTIAN NAMES OF PLANETS. 417 



The seven emblems of the seven planets, opposed to their com- 

 mon names (Plate I. 1. ii), are taken from the great Turin Hym- 

 nologium (Lepsius's Todtenbuch, PI. LX. & LXI.) Each of them 

 holds two knives, called 2cot, in order to express the w^ord rot, 

 planet. 



Saturn (No. 7) is symbolized by a crocodile, because Saturn 

 was presumed to be a destructive deity, like the crocodile. 



Jupiter was the god of the priests, judges, kings (Astronomia 

 ^^gyp. p. 19S), and hence his emblem was the figure of a priest 

 (No. 6). 



Mars, the god of war, violence, murder, and the like, was mor- 

 tiferous like the viper, and hence the figure of a viper-headed 

 man was his symbol (No. 5). 



Venus, the star of love, is characterized by a cat, this animal 

 resembling the nature of Venus (No. 4), called Hathor. Comp. 

 ^lan (katul), Kater, cat. 



Mercury, always accompanying the sun and imitating its mo- 

 tions, is very conveniently represented by the figure of an ape, 

 because the latter likes to imitate the actions of his master (No. 3). 

 Besides, the ape f]lD (kop), z^-toc, signifies syllabically nsn (kap), 

 obscurus^ because Mercury is seldom visible. 



The moon's house in the Zodiac was originally expressed by 

 a lioness, and hence it is evident that this animal must have be- 

 longed to the ducatus of the moon. The affinity of the queen of 

 the animals to "the qupen of heaven" needs no demonstration. 



The figure of a turtle-headed man must, finally, refer to the sun, 

 but it is not clear why the ancients symbolized the sun by a tur- 

 tle. Greek mythology gives Apollo Musagetes, i.e. the Sun-god, 

 the turtle, because he formed out of the latter the first lyre. Is it 

 the globular form of the turtle and the sun which gave rise to this 

 symbolization ? 



The next principal question is. How did the Egyptians call 

 and symbolize the 12 signs of the Zodiac? — to which we now 

 proceed. 



II. The Names atid Emblems of the 12 Signs of the Zodiac. 



It is to be remembered that all ancient nations called the signs 

 of the Zodiac the houses of the planets, and it is well known what 

 planets the single signs presided over. The whole Zodiac was 



