O THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. 



Thoth is usually represented as a human figure 

 with the head of an Ibis, holding a tablet, and a pen, 

 or a palm branch, in his hands ; and in his character 

 of Lunus he has sometimes a man's face with the 

 crescent of the Moon upon his head, supporting a 

 disk, occasionally with the addition of an ostrich 

 feather; which last appears to connect him with 

 Ao, or with Thmei. 



Plutarch says the Egyptians ''call the Moon 

 the * Mother of the World,' and hold it to be of 

 both sexes*; — female, as it receives the influence 

 of the Sun ; male, as it scatters and disperses 

 through the air the principles of fecundity." He 

 also supposes " Osiris to be the power and influ- 

 ence of the Moon, and Isis the generative faculty 

 which resides in it." t But this is evidently at 

 variance with the authority of the sculptures, which 

 fully establish the claims of Thoth, and disprove 

 any connection between Isis and the Moon. Nor 

 is there any authority for the opinion of Spartianust, 

 who says, although the (Greeks or) Egyptians call 

 the Moon a Goddess, they really consider it in a 

 mystical sense a God, both male and female. 



" The Sun and Moon," observes Plutarch, "were 

 described by the Egyptians as sailing round the 

 world in boats, intimating that these bodies owe 

 their power of moving, as well as their support 

 and nourishment, to the principle of humidity §;" 

 which statement is confirmed by the sculptures: and 



* Plut. de Is. s. 43. f Pint, de Is. s. 43.52. 



% Spartian. Vit. Antonini Caracall. cap. vii,, quoted by Jablonski, I. 

 cap. iii. 6. 



^ Pint, de Is. s. 34. 



