432 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XVI. 



was to convey the body of Apis to an appointed 

 place, where it was received by a man wearing 

 the mask of Cerberus ; and this being communi- 

 cated by Orpheus to the Greeks, gave rise to tlie 

 idea adopted by Homer * in his poetry: — 



*' ' Cyllenius now to Pluto's dreary reign 

 Conveys the dead, a lamentable train! 

 The golden wand that causes sleep to fly. 

 Or in soft slumber seals the wakeful eye, 

 That drives the ghosts to realms of night or day. 

 Points out the long uncomfortable way : 

 Trembling the spectres glide, and plaintive vent 

 Thin, hollow screams, along the deep descent.' 



" And again, — 



" ' And now they reached the earth's remotest ends, 

 And now the gates where evening Sol descends. 

 And Leucas' rock, and Ocean's utmost streams, 

 And now pervade the dusky land of dreams ; 

 And rest at last where souls embodied dwell, 

 In ever-flowery meads of asphodel : 

 The empty forms of men inhabit there, — 

 Impassive semblance, images of air!' 



" To the river he gives the name of Ocean, be- 

 cause, as they say, the Egyptians call the Nile 

 Oceanus in their language ; the gates of the Sun 

 are derived from Heliopolis ; and the meadow and 

 the fabled dwelling of the dead are taken from the 

 place about the lake called Acherusia, near Mem- 

 phis, which is surrounded by beautiful meadows 

 and marshes, abounding with lotus and flowering 

 rushes. The reason of the dead being thought to 

 inhabit those places, is that the greater part and 

 the most considerable of the Egyptian catacombs 

 are there, and the bodies are ferried over the river 

 and Acherusian lake, previous to being deposited in 



* Homer, Odyss. O. \. rt scq. 



