284. THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. 



taken with them the worship of Minerva, and the 

 ohve tree her emblem ; but there is no appearance 

 of this tree, or the owl, having been sacred to the 

 Egyptian Neith ; and Diodorus expressly states, 

 that ** the Egyptians considered themselves in- 

 debted for the olive to Mercury, and not to 

 Minerva, as is the opinion of the Greeks."* 



It has been conjectured, tliat the Greek name 

 Athena or Thena was derived from the Egyptian 

 w^ord Neith or Neth, by an inversion of the order 

 of the letters, — the Egyptians writing it from right 

 to left, and the Greeks from left to right ; but this 

 is of little moment ; nor is it important to inquire 

 whether Athens gave its name to Athena, or the 

 Goddess to the town. Some have supposed the 

 Minerva of Athens to be a daughter of Cecrops ; 

 but this notion probably originated in his intro- 

 duction of lier worship, when he led a colony from 

 Sais to the Athenian shore. 



In hieroglyphics, the name of Neith is usually 



composed of the following character, r^^y or 



^ , accompanied by the half circle and eggy the 



female signs, or by two half circles ; and an instance 

 occurs at Esneh of the w ord written with the bowl, 



or basket ^^^ t; though this last is uncommon, 



and of Roman time. Her figure is frequently 

 represented at Esneh, where, Strabo says, Minerva 

 and the Latus fish were particularly worshipped. 



* Diodor. i. 16. 



f In either case they read Nt, Neit, or Nith. 



