CHAP. XIV. LION-HEADED GOD. l?! 



Egyptian Minerva* ; and ^lian says the Egyptians 

 consecrated it to Vulcan f, ''attributing the fore 

 part of this animal to fire, and the hinder parts to 

 water." 



Sometimes the Lion, the emblem of strength, 

 was adopted as a type of the King, and substituted 

 for the more usual representative of royal power, 

 the sphinx ; which, when formed by the human 

 head and lion's body, signified the union of intel- 

 lectual and physical strength. 



In Southern Ethiopia t, in the vicinity of tlie 

 modern town of Shendy, the lion-headed Deity 

 seems to have been the chief object of worship. 

 He holds a conspicuous place in the great temple of 

 Wady Owateb, and on the sculptured remains at 

 WadyBenat; at the former of which he is the first 

 in a procession of Deities, consisting of Re, Neph, 

 and Pthah, to w^hom a Monarch is making offerings. 

 On the side of the propylseum tower is a snake 

 with a lion's head and human arms, rising from a 

 lotus ; and in the small temple at the same place, 

 a God with three lions' heads and two pair of arms 

 holds the principal place in the sculptures. This 

 last appears to be peculiarly marked as a type 

 of physical strength ; which is still farther ex- 

 pressed by the choice of the number three §, indi- 

 cative of a material or physical sense. The Lion 



* Vide supra, Vol I. (2d Series) p. 286. 



f jElian, Nat. An. xii. 7. "(iEgyptii) animantes etiam, earumque 

 partes ad naturam referunt .... attribiiunt igni hujus animalis (leonis) 

 anteriora, aquae vero posteriora." Tr. 



J Vide supra. Vol. I. (2d Series) p. 2-H. 



§ Vide supra. Vol. I. (2d Series) p. 195., on the Niunbers. 



