CHAP. XIII. THE GODDESS THRIPHIS. Q65 



considered by the Egyptians the generating prin- 

 ciple of nature itself; and this will accord with the 

 idea they entertained of his extending his imme- 

 diate influence over all the animal and vegetable 

 world. On the Kossayr road I have met with a 

 tablet in which the God Khem is represented as a 

 hawk, with liuman legs, and an arm holding up the 

 usual flagellum, his head crowned with the long 

 feathers of Amun ; but this is an unusual form of 

 the Deity, and of uncertain date. 



Thriphis was the favourite and contemplar com- 

 panion of Khem, as w^ell at Panopolis, as in the 

 temple of Athribis or Crocodilopolis, whose ruins 

 are still seen to the westward of Soohag. She 

 appears to be one of the Goddesses represented 

 with a lion's head ; but I have been unable exactly 

 to ascertain her attributes and office. 



The Greek inscription at Athribis* designates 

 the town by the same name, Thriphis. It is still 

 called by the Arabs Atrib, and by the Copts Athrebi ; 

 and the honours with which the Goddess was there 

 worshipped may be inferred from the dimensions 

 of her temple, 200 feet in length and 175 in breadth. 

 Part of the inscription is lost, but may be easily 

 restored; and the name of the Emperor mentioned 

 in it occurs also in the hieroglyphics, which on the 

 other face of the same architrave present the ovals 

 of Tiberius Claudius Caesar (Germanicus ?). In 

 the Greek is the name of the Empress Julia, the 



* The Aral) triulition, meiuioiunl h}' the historian Macrizi, of tlie four 

 sons of iMizraim, — Oshinun, Ahih, Sa, and Koft, — is, like many others 

 which abound in Eg^pt, in order to account for the names of cities.. 



