CHAP. XITI. BUTO PRIMAEVAL DARKNESS. 273 



though formerly fixed and stationary. She pre- 

 served him there in safety, while Typhon was 

 searching every where for tlie son of Osiris : for 

 they say that Apollo and Diana are born of Bac- 

 chus and Isis, and thatLatona was their nurse and 

 preserver. Apollo is called Orus (Horns) in Egyp- 

 tian ; Ceres is Isis ; and Diana, Bubastis." 



Of the form and attributes of the Egyptian Latona 

 we are completely ignorant. It is far from certain 

 that Maut and Buto are two characters of the same 

 Deity; and unfortunately the sculptures of her tem- 

 ple, mentioned by Herodotus, are no longer in ex- 

 istence to clear up the difficulty. But if Strabo be 

 correct in stating that the mygale or shrew mouse 

 was worshipped at Athribis, it is very probable that 

 the lion-headed Goddess Thriphis *, who gave her 

 name to that city, was the same as the Egyptian 

 Latona. The mygale is universally allowed to have 

 been sacred to Butot: it was buried in the city 

 of that name: and if the Egyptians really assigned 

 the reason mentioned by Plutarch for the worship 

 of this animal, we may believe that the Goddess 

 Buto represented, as M. ChampoUion supposes, the 

 darkness which covered the deep. *' The mygale,'* 

 says that writer, "received divine honours by the 

 Egyptians, because it is blind, and darkness is more 

 ancient than light." t 



This idea of night being older than day was 



* Strabo, xvii. p. 559. Vide supra, ]).2iilj.; and ?/{//•«, Chap xiv., on 

 the Mygale. 



f lleroclot. ii. 67. 



j Plut. Sympos. iv. Quaest. 5. Vide Gen. i. 2. and 3. 



VOI^. I. — Second Series. T 



