CHAP. XIII. WHERE CHIEFLY WORSHIPPED. 389 



after Athor, in which the death * of Osiris was fa- 

 bled to have happened ; and it was at this season 

 that the shrines of the Goddess (Ceres or Isis) 

 were carried in procession ; '* the common time," 

 says Plutarch t, "for the solemnisation of the feasts 

 in her honour, filling within the month, in which 

 the Pleiades appear, and the husbandmen begin to 

 sow their corn, called by the Egyptians Athyr."1: 



She was held in particular veneration at Aboc- 

 cis ( Aboosimbel), or, as it is called in the 

 hieroglyphic legends, Aboshek (Abshek), where 

 she appears as the second member of the great 

 triad of that place. In the temple dedicated to 

 her there, she is represented under the form of 

 a Cow, to which the King and Queen offer flowers 

 and libations, as it stands in a sacred boat sur- 

 rounded by water plants ; and in a niche at the 

 upper end of the Adytum is the fore part of a Cow, 

 bearing on its head the globe and feathers of 

 Athor. In the hieroglyphic legends at the side, 

 she is styled, " Athor, the lady of Aboskek, the fo- 

 reign land," — the town being out of Egypt, though 

 within the territories of the Pharaohs. 8trabo§ 

 tells us, that " at Momemphis, where the Egyptian 

 Venus was adored, a sacred Cow was kept with the 

 same religious feeling as the Apis at Memphis, or 

 the Mnevis at Pleliopolis ;" and tiie sacred animal 

 of Momemphis was the same which received di- 



* Plut. de Is. s. 39. f Pint, de Is. s. (39. 



\ Hesychius says, " One of the niontlis, and the Cow, are called 

 Athyr by the Egyptians." 

 ^ Strabo, xvii. p. 532. 



c c 3 



