312 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIll. 



netic name ; and, in the hieroglyphics, he has the 

 title " Father of the Gods." This alludes to his 

 being the father of Osiris, and the other Deities 

 born on tlie days of the Epact; and the frequent 

 occurrence of the formula, which the Gods are 

 made to utter, " I give you the years of Seb," 

 appears to connect this Deity with Xpovo^, or 

 Time*, the Saturn of the Greeks, distinct as he 

 was from the Saturn of Roman mythology. His 

 dress, and that of Netpe, his consort, are remarkably 

 simple. 



Netpe, Netphe, Rhea. 



'* Netpe has frequently been mistaken for Neit, 

 but the discovery of hieroglyphics calling Osiris 

 the son of Netpe and Seb, leaves no room for 

 further doubt upon the subject.! It is not al- 

 together impossible, that Horapollo may have 

 ascribed to Neith, what in reality belongs to the 

 wife of Seb ; since the firmament is her emblem, 

 or, at least, indicates the last syllabled of her name." 

 Another Goddess, with whom, from the similarity 

 of name, she might possibly be confounded, is 

 Nephthys ; but the sister of Isis differs entirely from 

 the Egyptian Rhea ; and Tpe, the Goddess of the 



* Vide Macrob. Sat. i. 5. 



f Materia Hierog. p. 18. ; and Plate 13. No. 7. 



j Dr. Young was not wrong in stating, that syllables (or, at least, 

 the initial letter for the whole syllable) were used occasionally in 

 hieroi^lvphics, as J/ for Jfo/, the hare for oituii, and others ; independent 

 of the omission of the intermediate vowels between consonants, as in 

 Arabic and Hebrew. 



