42 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. 



Ranno, Athor, and other Deities, shared with her 

 the duties of Lucina. 



Here, as in many instances, we observe the 

 characters of some of the Egyptian Deities to be 

 as closely allied as those of the Greek Pantheon ; 

 and the occasional transfer of the attributes of one 

 God to another, and the gradual blending of mi- 

 nute shades of distinction, tend to make their my- 

 thology obscure and uncertain. Thus we have 

 the Goddess — 



Soven, or Eilethyia : 



Netpe, who was Rhea, the protectress of mothers 

 in childbirth : 



Typho, the emblem of childbearing or gestation : 



Ranno, the nurse of infant princes : and 



Isis, Athor, and other Goddesses, who assisted 

 with Lucina, or acted as the nurses of chil- 

 dren . * 



The Romans, in like manner, had several God- 

 desses who presided over parturition and young 

 children, as Partunda and others ; and so nume- 

 rous did their Deities become by this subdivision 

 of their nature or attributes, that Petronius ob- 

 serves, " Italy is now so holy, that it is easier to 

 find a God than a man." 



The hieroglyphic legend of the Egyptian Lucina 

 reads Scneb, Scbn t, or Soven ; and she is styled 

 *' Lady of the Land of Seneb, or Sebn*' (Eilethyas), 

 which is represented by, and appears to be derived 



* Vide infra, p. 4(5. ; and on Ranno. 



f Some might sec in this origin of the name of Scbcnnytus. Vide 

 swprd, p. 18. 



