150 THE AXCIEXT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII. 



reason to suppose that it was borrowed from the 

 figure of the Pan of Chemmis.* 



The ancient oracle of Dodona was allowed, even 

 by the priestesses themselves, to have been of 

 Egyptian origin t, as well as that of the Libyan 

 Amnion ; and the oracles of Diospolis, or Egyptian 

 Tliebest, bore a strong resemblance to the former 

 of those two. The principal oracles in Egypt 

 were of the Theban Jupiter, of Hercules, Apollo, 

 Minerva, Diana, Mars, and above all of Latona, 

 in the city of Buto, which the Egyptians held in 

 the highest veneration ; but the mode of divining 

 differed in all of them, and the power of giving 

 oracular answers was confined to certain Deities. § 



There was also an oracle of Besa, according to 

 Ammianus l! in Abydus, a city of the Thebaid %y 

 where that Deity was worshipped with long esta- 

 blished honours ; though others assign a different 

 position to his celebrated temple, in the vicinity of 

 Antinoe, v/hich place is supposed to have usurped 

 the site of the old town of Besa. The mode of 

 obtaining answers was here, as at Heliopolis **, 

 through the medium of persons deputed for the 



* Both from tlie office of Mercury, and from what he says of the 

 mysteries of the Cabiri. 



■f Herodot. ii. 55. 



j Herodot. ii. 58. 



§ Herodot. ii. 83. 15-2. 



II Ammian. Marcell. lib. xix. 12. " Besje Dei .... oraculum quon- 

 dam fiitura [jandebat, priscis circumjacentium regionum cserinioniis so 



litum coli chartulse seu raembranK continentes quae petebantur 



post data quoque responsa interdum remanebant in fano." 



% Ammianus says, " at the extremity of the Thebaid," which was not 

 the situation of Abydus. I am inclined to think he should have said 

 Antinoe. 



** Macrob. Saturn, lib. i. .30. " Consulunt hunc dcum (He'iopoli- 



