CHAP. XV. PROCESSION OF SHRINES. 273 



Deity presenting to him the shield of victory. 

 Moreover, that the priests shall minister three 

 times every day to the statues, and prepare for them 

 the sacred dress, and perform the accustomed ce- 

 remonies, as in honour of other Gods at feasts and 

 festivals. That there shall be erected an image 

 and golden shrine of King Ptolemy in the most 

 honourable of the temples, to be set up in the 

 sanctuary among the other shrines ; and that on 

 the great festivals, when the procession of shrines 

 takes place, that of the God Epiphanes shall 

 accompany them ; ten royal golden crowns being 

 deposited upon the shrine, with an asp attached* to 

 each ; and the (double) crown Pshent, which he 

 wore at his coronation, placed in the midst." 



It was also usual to carry the statue of the prin- 

 cipal Deity, in whose honour the procession took 

 place, together with that of the king, and the 

 figures of his ancestors, borne in the same manner 

 on men's shoulders ; like the Gods of Babylon 

 mentioned by Jeremiah. t 



Diodorus X speaks of an Ethiopian festival of 

 Jupiter, when his statue was carried in procession, 

 probably to commemorate the supposed refuge of 

 the Gods in that country ; which may have been 

 a memorial of the flight of the Egyptians with 

 their Gods, at the time of the shepherd inva- 

 sion, mentioned by Josephus§ on the authority of 

 Manetho. This does not, however, appear to be 

 the reason assigned by Diodorus, who says, " Ho- 



* Vide supra, p. 239. 



+ Epistle of Jeremiah in Bariich, vi. 4. 2G. Isaiah, xlvi. 7, 

 ■J: Diodor. i. 97. § Joseph. Contr. Ap. i. 27. 



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