270 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. 



ranee of the Deities of the Thebaid may be at- 

 tributed their silence respecting Maut, the great 

 Goddess of Thebes, and Sate, the second member 

 of the triad of Elephantine. 



Sate was represented as a female figure, wearing 

 on her head tlie cap or crown of the Upper Coun- 

 try, from which projected the horns of a Cow: and 

 in her hand she holds the usual sceptre of the 

 Egyptian Goddesses. 



Another Goddess appears also to lay claim to 

 the name of Sate ; but her form and character 

 differ from those of the Egyptian Juno ; and she 

 seems rather to represent the Western bank of the 

 Nile. * From her occurring frequently in tombs, 

 it is probable that she had some office in Amenti. 

 Indeed, the evident connection, and the similarity 

 in the name, o^ Amenti, '* the lower regions," and 

 Ement, *' the West," are remarkable ; and the idea 

 of the end of the world being in the West, as its 

 commencement in the East, is thus noticed by 

 Plutarch: — The Egyptians make "a sacred dirge 

 or lamentation over Osiris, bewailing him who was 

 born on the right side of the world, and who 

 perished on the left. For it must be observed 

 that the Egyptians look upon the East as the front 

 or face of the world, upon the North as its right 

 side, and upon the South as its left."t 



* Vide Plate 53. Part 3. ; infra, Chap. xiii. 



f Plut. de Is. s. 32. The Arabs call the North the left, being on 

 their left as thev look towards the East, or towards Mekkeh. 



