18 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. 



the Gods ; " and some suppose the name of Se- 

 bennytus to be derived from the same word. * 



lamblichus calls Hercules " the force of na- 

 ture! ;" and these different authorities tend to 

 confirm the opinion already stated, that he was 

 the abstract idea of valour or strength, and when 

 represented with the Sun, he was the force of 

 that luminary. The Greeks acknowledged two 

 Deities of this name, *' one worshipped as an im- 

 mortal God, the other as a herot;" and it is 

 probable that the former derived his origin from 

 the Egyptian Gom, or from the Tyrian Melc- 

 arthus §, whose temple was founded in Phoenicia 

 2300 years before the age of Herodotus. The 

 Greek mythology also acknowledged a Goddess 

 of strength, unconnected with Hercules, who was 

 the sister of victory and valour, and the daughter 

 of Pallas, the son of Crius and Eurybia, by the 

 nymph Styx. 



Champollion at one time conjectured that the 

 name of the Deity in this Plate might read Moue, 

 and that he was the splendour of the solar rays ; 

 but there is no positive authority respecting the 

 force of the ostrich feather. 



Another Form of Hercules ?. 

 There is another Deity who appears to lay claim 

 to the name of Hercules, from the lion skin he 



* Xf/i)'o))Ti, whence the modern Semeiioiul. Vide infra, p, 42. note. 

 The analogy of Sein and Samson is striking. 



•- Iambi. Vita Pythag. c. 28. " 5yr«/ur Ti]r (Iiiktkoc." 



;: Herodot. ii. 44. 



$ The Tyrian Hercules. Tiiis name, Mclek Ardth, signifies, " Lord 

 of Earth," and, not as Jablonski supposes, Mclck Cartha, " Lord of 

 the City," lib. iv. p. 27G. 



