206 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIV. 



tlie sculptures clearly indicate the God to whom it 

 was particularly sacred to be Re, or tlic Sun. 



Other Deities also claimed it as their emblem ; 

 and it is shown by the monuments to have be- 

 longed to Pthah-Sokari-Osiris ; to Aroeris ; to the 

 younger Horus ; to Mandoo ; to Khonso ; to Hor- 

 Hat ; and to Kebhnsnof, one of the four Genii of 

 Amenti ; all of whom are represented with a hawk's 

 head. There is also a Goddess who bears on her' 

 head a hawk seated upon a perch, supposed to be 

 the Deity of the west bank of the Nile.* The 

 same emblem is given to Athor ; and the name of 

 the Egyptian Venus is formed of a hawk in a cage 

 or shrine. t The boat or ark of Pthah-Sokari-Osiris 

 is covered by the hawk ; and several of those birds 

 are represented rowing it, while others stand upon 

 the pillars which support its canopy : and the hawk 

 is frequently introduced overshadowing the King 

 while offering to the Gods or engaged in battle, in 

 lieu of the vulture of Eilethyia, as an emblem of Hor- 

 Hat or Agathodaemon. Pliant says "the hawk 

 was sacred to Apollo, whom they call Horus.'* 

 The Tentyrites§, he also states, have them in great 

 honour, though hated by the Coptites ; and it is 

 ])robable that in some ceremonies performed in 

 towns where the crocodile was particularly revered, 

 the presence of the hawk was not permitted, being 



* Villa supra, Plate 5.'}. part ii. 



f Fic/r Plate .'J(i., and Vol. I. (2(1 Series) p. 387. 



} TElian, vii. f). ami An. x. 14. He makes them live 700 years. 

 Tl^^lian's account of the two hawks being deputed by the others to po to 

 certain desert islands near ].ii)ya, recalls the modern Arab story of the 

 Gebel e'Tayror " mountain of the bird," near Minich. Vide Ml. ii. 43. 



^ .^lian", X. 24. 



