CIIAP. XIII. TEXTYRIS. KAIII. 63 



siding Deity ; tliough the respect paid to it did 

 not extend beyond tlie precincts of the town, or 

 the nome to which it belonged. 



The name of Tentyris, wliere Athor was parti- 

 cularly worshipped, was probably a modification of 

 Thy-h-athor, (shortened into Tynator and Ten- 

 tore,) signifying the abode of Athor. The Coptic 

 name is Tentore. The hieroglyphic legend of the 

 Goddess, the Genius of the place, presents the 

 name of the town ; and this group is generally 

 added to her head-dress, followed even by the 

 sign *' land." 



Kahi, " THE Land." 



The Genius of the "land" was represented as 

 a Goddess, bearing on her head the symbolic hie- 

 roglyphics signifying "land" and "cultivated 

 country." She was styled " Mother of all the Re- 

 gions," and may therefore be considered an ab- 

 stract notion applying to the earth generally, or 

 to Egypt as the mother and chief of all. 



It must be confessed that Earth, the great mother, 

 ought to hold a more important post in the mytho- 

 logy of Egypt than the Deity before us, however 

 low^ might be the rank of physical objects compared 

 to that of the great Gods of their Pantheon. The 

 Greeks considered the Earth as the mother, as the 

 Heaven was the father of all * ; and A''arro t sup- 

 poses them to have been the chief Deities. But 



* nde Plut. de Plac. Pliilosoph. i. G. 

 •f Varro, de Ling. Lat. lib. iv. &c. 



