CHAP. XII. TIIEOGONY OF EGYPT. 205 



confirmed in some degree by the Egyptian monu- 

 ments. No stronger instance of this is required 

 than in the case of the God Anubis, who is repeat- 

 edly stated by Greek and Roman writers to have 

 borne the head of a dog, and who is invariably re- 

 presented by the Egyptians with that of a jackal, 

 or even under the form of the entire animal ; and 

 this, with several similar misconceptions, may serve 

 to give some idea of the confusion into which they 

 would lead us respecting the theogony of the Egyp- 

 tians. However, as is sometimes the case, amidst 

 this confusion, slight traces may be observed of the 

 original system from which the Greeks derived their 

 notions ; and as Amun, the principal member of 

 the Theban trinity, and King of the Gods *, was 

 distinct from the Monad, or sole Deity in Unity, 

 so Jupiter, though considered by the Greeks to be 

 King of the Gods, was merely a deified attribute 

 of the Deity. 



It is evident that the philosophers of Greece 

 were constantly guilty of misconceptions respecting 

 the very principles of the Egyptian religion, and 

 somet believed that *' the Egyptians ignorantly 

 employed material fables, considering and calling 

 corporeal natures Divinities, — such as Isis, earth ; 

 Osiris, humidity; or Typho, heat ;" without dis- 

 tinguishing between the different conditions of me- 

 taphysical, physical, and other objects of worship. 



In Greek mythology, some of the fables are al- 



* Vide infra, p. 208., where I have shown the error of making Saturn, 

 the father of Jupiter, the same us the Egyptian Seb, 



f SaHust on the Gods and the World, chap, iv., quoted by Taylor, 

 Introd. to Plato, p. 39. 



