CHAP. XIV. HAWK OF PHIL^E. 207 



the type of Horus, whose worship was hostile to 

 tliat aninuiL But this did not prevent the liawk- 

 headed Aroeris and the crocodile-headed Savak 

 from sharing the same temple, at Ombos. 



The hawk was particularly known as the type 

 of the Sun, and worshipped at Heliopolis as the 

 sacred bird, and representative of the Deity of the 

 place. It was also peculiarly revered at the island 

 of Philae*, where this sacred bird was kept in 

 a cage, and fed with a care worthy the represent- 

 ative of the Deity of whom it was the emblem. 



It was said to be consecrated to Osiris, who was 

 buried at Philae ; and in the sculptures of the tem- 

 ples there the hawk frequently occurs, sometimes 

 seated amidst lotus plants. But this refers to 

 Horus, the son of Osiris, not to that God himself, 

 as tiie hieroglyphics show, whenever the name 

 occurs over it. 



The hawk of Philae is the same kind as that 

 sacred to Re, and not, as some have imagined, a 

 different species. It is therefore difficult to account 

 for Strabo's assertion t that the bird worshipped at 

 Phila% though called a hawk, appeared to him un- 

 like those he had been accustomed to see in his 

 own country, or in Egypt, being much larger and 

 of a different character. The only mode of ac- 

 counting for his remark is to suppose he alludes 

 to the hawk I have named Falco Aroeris t, which 

 is larger than the ordiuary kinds of Europe and 



* For some reason, which I have in vain endeavoured to discover, 

 some persons write this name Philoe, though ancient writers, as well as 

 the Greek inscriptions there, have it *(\fn {'PiXag). 



f Strabo, xvii. p. 562. X Vide supra, p. 121., and infra, p. 209. 



