296 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. 



analogy which the species peculiarly sacred to Re 

 bore to the Cat, and that the Deity of Heliopolis 

 was figured under the form of this animal. But the 

 Cat was the emblem of Bubastis, not of Re ; and 

 the presence of her statue at Heliopolis is explained 

 by the custom of each city assigning to the Divini- 

 ties of neighbouring places a conspicuous post in 

 its own temples ; and Bubastis was one of the 

 principal contemplar Deities of Heliopolis. The 

 Lions, said by ^lian* to have been kept in the 

 courts of the temple of the Sun, were perhaps de- 

 dicated to the same Goddess j though there is some 

 reason for believing his statement, as those animals 

 are shown by the sculptures to have been also em- 

 blems of the Sun. 



Re was generally of a red colour, as was the 

 globe of the Sun he bore upon his head. In this 

 form, and with the name Re written alpiiabetically 

 and followed by a figure of the Sun, or with the 

 hawk accompanied by two horizontal Hues, he was 

 in the character of the Sun going through his 

 daily course. When at his meridian height he was 

 sometimes accompanied by a Scaraba^us, another 

 emblem, as Porphyry observes, *' adapted to the 

 Sun;" and in his resting-place he was either in- 

 dicated by the hawk, or by the title of Atin-re. t 

 The same form is given to him when he set be- 

 hind the western mountain of Thebes, and was 

 received into the arms of Athor, who presided over 

 that part of the universe, and represented night, t 



* Vide infra, on the Lion. f Vide Plate 29. fig. 5. 



\ Vide supra, p. 275. ; and i>ifrd, on Athor ; and PI. 29. fig. 4. 



