32 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. 



they place Pan among the number of the eight 

 Gods, who were supposed to have preceded the 

 twelve ; and this Deity is represented by their 

 painters and sculptors in the same manner as in 

 Greece, with the head and legs of a goat. It is 

 not that they believe he really had that form ; they 

 think him like the other Gods ; but the reason 

 being connected with religion, I am not at liberty 

 to explain it. The Mendesians have a great re- 

 spect for goats, particularly the males ; the same 

 feeling is extended to those who have the care of 

 them ; and when a he-goat dies, the whole of the 

 Mendesian nome goes into mourning." *' This 

 animal," he adds, " and the God Pan are both 

 called in Egyptian Mendes;'* and Plutarch* asserts 

 that *' the Mendesian goat had the name of Apis," 

 like the Sacred Bull of Memphis. Diodorust 

 says it was chosen as an emblem of the God of 

 Generation ; who, as I have already shown, was 

 Khem, the Egyptian Pan ; but this is not con- 

 firmed by the monuments: and though numerous 

 representations occur of the God Khem, we find 

 no instance of the goat introduced as his emblem. 

 The fact of Herodotus admitting Pan to be one 

 of the eight great Gods leaves no doubt respecting 

 his identity with Khem, who too is shown by the 

 authority of a Greek dedication at Chemmis, or 

 Panopolis, to be tlie Pan of Egypt. But the de- 

 scription he gives of this Deity, with the head and 

 legs of a goat, is so inconsistent witii the Egyptian 



* Plut. dc Is. s. 73. t Diodor. i. 88. 



