CHAP. XIII. GODDESSES OF THE TIIEBAJfD. Q()9 



as the Juno of Greece. Nor will I pretend to decide 

 if she presided over marriages : and little is known 

 of her from the accounts of ancient writers. Dio- 

 dorus *, Horapollo, and some other authors merely 

 make a cursory mention of the Egyptian Juno, and 

 little dependance can be placed on what Manetho 

 relates concerning her. According to Porphyry t, 

 the priest of Sebennytus states that three men 

 were daily sacrificed to the Juno of Egypt, after 

 having been examined like the clean calves chosen 

 for the altar ; which ceremony was abolished by 

 order of Amosis. And to this Plutarch alludes, 

 when he says, " We are informed by Manetho, 

 that they were formerly w^ont, in the city of Idi- 

 thya t, to burn men alive, giving them the name 

 of Typlios, and winnowing their ashes through a 

 sieve : which sacrifices were performed in public, 

 and at a stated season of the year, — in the dog- 

 days." If, indeed, this were ever the case, it 

 could only have been at a very remote period, long- 

 before the Egyptians were the civilised nation we 

 know them from their monuments ; as I shall have 

 occasion to show in treating of the Sacrifices. § 



According to Herodotus, the great Goddesses 

 of Egypt were Neith (Minerva), Buto (Latona), 

 Bubastis (Diana), and Isis ; the Greeks having 

 become acquainted with their names, from being 

 worshipped in Lower Egypt ; and to their igno- 



* Diodor, i. 13. 15. f Porpliyr. de Abst. ii. 55. 



X Probalily Ilcthya or Eilethyia, the city of Lueina, a title given to 

 the Greek Juno. Phit. de Is. s. 73. 

 ^ Vide infra, on Sacrifices, Chap. xiv. 



