17^ THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIV. 



also occurs in Ethiopia, devouring the prisoners 

 or attacking the enemy, in company with a King, 

 as in the Egyptian sculptures. 



According to Plutarch*, **the Lion was wor- 

 shipped by the Egyptians, who ornamented the 

 doors of their temples with the gaping mouth of 

 that animal, because the Nile began to rise when 

 the Sun was in the constellation of Leo." Hora- 

 pollot says. Lions M^ere placed before the gates of 

 the temples, as the symbols of watchfulness and pro- 

 tection. And *' being a type of the inundation, in 

 consequence of the Nile rising more abundantly 

 when the Sun is in Leo, those who anciently pre- 

 sided over the sacred works, made the water- 

 spouts and passages of fountains in the form of 

 lions. 1^ The latter remark is in perfect accord- 

 ance with fact, — many water-spouts terminating in 

 lions* heads still remaining on the temples, -^lian § 

 also says, that " the people of the great city of 

 Heliopolis keep lions in the vestibules or areas of 

 the temple of their God (the Sun), considering them 

 to partake of a certain divine influence, according, 

 to the statements of the Egyptians themselves;" 

 *' and temples are even dedicated to this animal." 

 But of this, and the statement of Horapollo 

 respecting the Deity at Heliopolis, under the 

 form of a lion, I have already spoken. || 



* Plut. dc Is. s. 38. Vide also Pliny, xviii. 18., and Pint. Synipos. 

 iv. 5., where he speaks of the Egyptian fonntains ornamented with lions' 

 heads for the same reason. 



f Horapollo, i. 19. % Horapollo, i. 2 h 



^ yniian, Nat. Hist. xii. 7. 



II Vide supra. Vol. I. (2d Scries) p. 296, 297. 



