382 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. 



from the mention of the city bearing her name, 

 ^lian*, after stating that the Cow was particularly 

 appropriated to Venus, says, *' the Egyptians also 

 represent Isis with Coiv's horns ; " and in the 

 sculptures, when these two Divinities occur with 

 each other's attributes, they are so closely allied, 

 that it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between 

 them. Athor seems even to take the place of 

 Isis; and Plutarch t expressly states, that "Isis is 

 called Athyri, signifying ' Orus's mundane habita- 

 tion,' or, as Plato expresses it, ' the place and 

 receptacle of generation.' She was also styled 

 *Muth,' or 'Mother;' and Methuer, a name im- 

 plying * fulness and cause,' denoting not only 

 the fulness of the matter of which the world con- 

 sists, but also its intimate conjunction with the 

 good, the pure, and the well-ordered principle.'' 

 The interpretation he gives to Athyr (or Athor) 

 is confirmed by the hieroglyphic legend of that 

 Goddess, as I shall have occasion to remark : 

 *' Muth " is the well-known word 3Iaut, " mo- 

 ther ;** and in Methuer we trace the Coptic julg^,, 

 Meh t, signifying "fo/l.'* The remainder of this 

 word is probably the same name of Athor, or 

 Thy-or ; or its termination in', *' to make,*' may 

 complete the interpretation given by Plutarch. 



Herodotus § supposes that Latona, who was 

 Buto, performed the office of nurse to Horus (or, 

 as he calls him, Apollo), the son of Isis ; but the 



* ^lian. Nat. An. x. 27. f Plut. de Is. s. 66. 



t AVIience. perhaps, fuOvc, "full," in Greek. 

 Q Herodot. ii. 156. 



