246 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII, 



attribute might be permitted to show respect to 

 another, without derogating from its own dignity, 

 and that Osiris in his character of Judge of 

 Amenti, and as the object of the most sacred and 

 undivulged mysteries, held a rank above all the 

 Gods of Egypt. 



Amun, or Amun-re, formed with Maut and 

 Khonso the great triad of Thebes. The figure of 

 Amun was that of a man, with a head-dress sur- 

 mounted by two long feathers*; the colour of his 

 body was light blue, like the Indian Vishnoo, as 

 if to indicate his pecuharly exalted and heavenly 

 nature ; but he was not figured with the head or 

 under the form of a ram, as the Greeks and Ro- 

 mans supposed, and the contortis cornibus Ammon 

 is as ina])plicable to the Egyptian Jupiter, as the 

 descri])tion of the dog-Jieaded Anubis to the Mer- 

 curius Psychopompos of the region of Amenti. 



He was considered by the Greeks the same as 

 Jupiter, in consequence of his having the title 

 *' King of the Gods ; " and under the name Amunre 

 he was the intellectual Sun, distinct from Re, the 

 physical orb. This union of Amun and Re cannot 

 fail to call to mind the Jupiter Belus of the Assy- 

 rians, Baal or Bclust being the Sun : and if it be 

 true that Amunti, or Amenti, signified the "giver 

 and receiver," the name Amun-re may be opposed 

 to Atin-re, and signify the Sun in the two capacities 



* Q. Curtius, speaking of tlic Deity of the Oasis of Amnion, says, 

 " Id quod pro Deo colitur, non eandeni efligicni liabet, qtiani vulgo 

 Diis artifices accommodavernnt, Unibriculo niaxiiiie similis est habitus, 

 sniaragdis et genunis coagnientatus." 



•j- " The Lord "par excellence. 



