CHAP. XIII. ISIS AND ATHOll. 383 



sculptures plainly prove that Isis nursed the child 

 herself * ; and when Athor is represented with the 

 infant, she is the member of another Triad. 



The Greeks and Romans seem to have at once 

 adopted the emblems of Athor in their repre- 

 sentations of Isis, and, unacquainted as they were 

 with the Egyptian Venus, to have assigned exclu- 

 sively to Isis the Sacred Cow, with whose horns 

 she was represented in the celebrated festival in 

 her honour, thus described by Ovidt: — 



" Cum medio noctis spatio, sub imagine somni, 

 Iiiacliis ante torum, pompa comitata suoriim. 

 Ant stetit, aut visa est. Inerant lunaria fronti 

 Cornua, cum spicis nitido flaventibus auro, 

 Et regale decus : cum qua latrator Anubis, 

 Sanctaque Bubastis, variusque coloribus Apis ; 

 Quique premit vocem, digitoque silentia suadet : 

 Sistraque erant, uunquamque satis qucesitus Osiris, 

 Plenaque somniferi serpens peregrina veneni." 



It must, indeed, be admitted, that Isis, even in 

 olden times, w^as sometimes figured in Egyptian 

 sculpture with a cow's head, as well as with a head- 

 dress surmounted by the horns of Athor ; but she 

 then assumed the attributes of that Goddess, — 

 a custom which I have shown to be common to 

 many Egyptian Deities, who frequently appeared 

 with the emblems and even under the form of 

 other members of the Pantheon. The general 

 form of Isis was that of a female with a throne 

 upon her head, particularly in her capacity of the 

 })residing Goddess of Amenti. Her office then 

 related princi])ally to the souls of men in a future 



* Fir/c Plate 35. ff. Part 3. 



f Ov. Met. ix. G85. The number of errors in these lines is remark- 

 able. 



