CHAP. Xlir. NAME OF ATHOR. 387 



between these Divinities is also strongly marked 

 by the name Athor, which, as Plutarcli justly ob- 

 serves, implies " Horus's habitation." Thy-hor, 

 Tei-hor, or Eit-hor, the house of Horus, is a literal 

 translation of lier hieroglyphic name ; which con- 

 sists of a hawk, the emblem of Horus, within the 

 character representing a house, hi or thi, the whole 

 group reading ux-^op or T-Hi-£,op, "the house of 

 Horus.'* 



In a papyrus published by M. Champollion, she 

 is said to be " Neith in the East country, and 

 Sme in the lotus and waters of the West;" which 

 calls to mind the Venus of Sparta and Cythera, 

 who wore the dress and arms of Minerva. 



She is frequently figured under the form of a 

 spotted Cow, thought to live behind the Western 

 mountain of Thebes, from which the paintings of 

 the Necropolis represent it issuing. She is pro- 

 bably then the Morning Star ; since there is every 

 reason to believe that the planet Venus belonged 

 to her*, and that from the Egyptian Athor was 

 borrowed the Greek Venus, the reputed daugh- 

 ter of Coelus and Diest, distinct as this last was 

 from the Goddess of Beauty the wife of Vulcan. 

 From her presiding over the West, we may con- 

 clude that the Western part of Thebes, or, indeed, 

 of the Thebai'd, derived the name of Pathyris, 

 ^^ belonging to yitlior ;*' for it was applied to the 

 whole district, on that bank, even to the city of 



* Pliny says to Isis, but these two Deities are easily mistaken for 

 each other. Vide xuprci, p. -293. 

 -}■ Cicero, de Nat. Deor. lib. iii. 



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