290 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAF. XIII. 



that every particular being in the universe was per- 

 fected and completed by the Sun and Moon, whose 

 qualities were five : a spirit or quickening efficacy, 

 heat or fire, dryness or earth, moisture or water, 

 and air. . . . These five were denominated Gods : . . . 

 the Spirit being called Jupiter ; the fire, Vulcan ; 

 the Earth, Mother (as the Greek Demetra was at 

 first called Genmetera) ; water, Oceanus ; and the 

 air, Minerva, the reputed daughter of Jupiter." 

 That the historian is wrong, in supposing Osiris 

 and Isis to have corresponded to the Sun and 

 Moon, is evident ; and the names and character 

 he gives to the five Deities, as well as the idea of 

 their proceeding from the two former, are equally at 

 variance with the notions of the Egyptians. But 

 part of his statement may possibly be true, — that 

 tlie first Gods were the Sun and Moon ; and his 

 error in assigning the names of Osiris and Isis may 

 be accounted for by the Umited acquaintance of 

 the Greeks and Romans with the mythology of 

 Egypt. 



Macrobius* makes a similar mistake respecting 

 these Deities, — the former of whom he calls "the 

 Sun, and the latter Earth, or Nature ; " and when 

 he adds, *' The Egyptians show Osiris to have this 

 character, when in hieroglyphics they represent 

 him emblematically by an eye and sceptre," he 

 proves how little conversant he was with the reli- 

 gious notions of that people. If the allegories 

 mentioned by Plutarch were really Egyptian, they 



* Macrob. Saturn, i. 26. Conf. Plut. s. 10. and 51. 



