250 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. 



feather, being Justice or Truth ; which I shall have 

 occasion more fully to notice, in speaking of that 

 Divinity. In the sculptures of Thebes, we find 

 Pthah not only accompanied by her, but bearing 

 the title " Lord of Truth^^' in his hieroglyphic 

 legend; and lamblichus who calls "the artisan In- 

 tellect* the Lord of Truth,*' observes, *' that whereas 

 he makes all things in a perfect manner, not de- 

 ceptively, but artificially, together ivith Truths he 

 is called Pthah," though the Greeks denominate 

 him Hephaestus, considering him merely as a phy- 

 sical or artificial agent. 



** Pthah is then the Lord of Truth, which was 

 itself deified under the form of the above-men- 

 tioned Goddess ; and the connection between the 

 creative power and truth is a singular coincidence 

 in the Egyptian and Christian systems. He was 

 said to be sprung from an ^^^^^ produced from the 

 mouth of Neph, who was therefore considered his 

 father." At least, this is the account given by 

 Porphyry t, though the monuments of Egypt do 

 not tend to confirm it, nor does his description of 

 the form of that God agree with the ram-headed 

 Neph of the Egyptians. " The Scarabaeus, or 

 beetle, was particularly sacred to him, and signified 

 the world, or all creation % ; and in consequence of 

 there being, as Plutarch § says, ' no females of this 

 species, but all males, they were considered fit 

 types of the creative power, self-acting and self- 



* V'lde supra, p. 189. and 217. 

 -f- Vide supra, p. 214. and 240. 

 X Conf. HorapoUo, i. 12, ^ Plut. de Is. s. 10. 



