CHAP. XII. MEMBERS OF THE TRIADS. '233 



Tlie great triads were composed of the principal 

 Deities, the first two members being frequently 

 of equal rank, and the third, which proceeded from 

 the first by the second, being subordinate to the 

 others ; as in the case of Osiris, Isis, and liorus, 

 or Amun, Maut, and Khonso. Other triads were 

 formed of" Deities of an inferior class ; and it some- 

 times happened that, with the unworthy feeling of 

 paying a high compliment to the ruling Monarch, 

 a sort of triad was composed of two Deities and 

 the King, as at Thebes, where Remeses III. is 

 placed between Osiris and Pthah; at Aboukeshayd*, 

 where the Great Remeses occurs between Re and 

 Atmoo ; and others in other places. At Silsilis, 

 the King Pthahmen offers to a triad composed of 

 Osiris, Isis, and Remeses the Great, the latter taking 

 the place of Horus, to whom the Egyptian Kings 

 were frequently likened ; and to such a point was 

 this prostitution of religion carried in the time of 

 the Ptolemies, that at Hermonthis a triad com- 

 posed of Julius Ca[?sar, Cleopatra, and Neocesar, 

 their illegitimate son, took the place of the three 

 Deities, Mandoo, Reto, and Ilor-piret, worslii])ped 

 in that city. 



With regard to the former of these combinations, 

 in which a King is represented as proceeding from 

 two Deities, and forming the third person of a 

 triad, some excuse may be offered, upon the plea 

 of their selecting the most important result of the 



* Oh tlif Sue/ canal. A copy (»' the stone containing tlicse three 

 figures is given in my Materia Hieroglyi)Iiica, Appendix, No. IV". 

 f ChanipolHon, lettres 8. and 1:^., p. 106. and -406. 



