56 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. 



pears to overshadow the earth and encompass it; in 

 imitation of the vault of heaven reaching from one 

 side of the horizon to the other. In this posture 

 she encloses the zodiacs, as at Esneh and Dendera. 



Her name Pe, or with the feminine article Tpe, 

 signifies in Coptic " the heaven ; " which agrees 

 with the statement of Horapollo, before cited *, 

 that the Egyptians considered the heaven feminine, 

 contrary to the custom of the Greeks. 



The uppermost part of the compartments sculp- 

 tured on Egyptian monuments is generally crowned 

 by her emblem, representing the heaven, instances 

 of which are given in the plates of this Pantheon. 



NiLus, Hapi Moou. 



The hieroglyphic name of this Deity appears to 

 be Hapi Moou. The Coptic word Moou signifies 

 " water," but the import of the prefix Hapi is 

 uncertain. To the God Nilus, and to one of the 

 Genii of Amenti, the name Hapi, or Apis, is com- 

 monly applied, as well as to the sacred Bull of Mem- 

 phis. Plutarch t thinks " the Mendesian goat was 

 also called Apis ; " but I cannot suppose that he 

 has confounded the River God with the Egyptian 

 Pant; nor can we readily account for a similar 

 misconception in regard to the Cynocephalus- 

 headed Genius of Amenti §: though the connec- 

 tion between Nilus and ^avapis, mentioned by 

 Martianus Capella, may have originated in the 



* Supra, Vol. I. (2d Series) p. 2G8. 



+ Pint, de Is. s. 73. t Vide snpni, p. 32. 



9 Vide infra, p. 70., on the Genii of Amenti. 



