iSi THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII. 



system which we should prefer in treating of the 

 Deities of Greece and Rome, divides them into 

 Gods of heaven, of earth, and of the lower regions." 



These do not seem to accord with the divisions 

 of the Egyptian Pantlieon ; and we may find in the 

 Phoenician Cabiri, a stronger analogy to the great 

 Gods of Egypt, — being, like them, eight in number, 

 and their name implying that they were the great * 

 Gods of the country. The belief of their being the 

 offspring of one great father, called ' Sydik,' ' the 

 just,' may also accord witli the presumed notion 

 of the Egyptians respecting the indivisible one 

 mentioned in the books of Hermes. 



Herodotus describes the Cabiri in Egypt, as sons 

 of Pthah, or Vulcan, whose statues t resembled those 

 of the Egyptian creator, and speaks of their temple 

 atMemphis, which no one but the priest was allowed 

 to enter; but the mystery observed respecting them, 

 and the slight information obtained by the historian 

 on the subject, render his statement of little use in 

 forming an opinion of their character and office. 



Though the Egy})tians may have admitted two 

 general divisions of the Gods, which were adopted 

 by Pythagoras and Plato, under the head of vor,Toi^ 

 inteUigibles, and ato-drjroi, sensibles, or metaphysical 

 and physical deities, yet many other distinctions 

 subsisted in the members of their Pantheon ; and 

 the gradations, even among those of the first-men- 

 tioned class, were marked and numerous. The 



* Kabir, or Kebir, " great," the common Hebrew and Arabic won!, 

 in use to the present day ; as is Sadek, or Sedeek, the "just." 



\- Their statues were of wood, as were those of old times in Egypt, 

 and in Greece, according to Pausanias (Corinlh. ii. 19.). 



