392 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. 



founded by ancient authors, is veiy evident ; and 

 the fact of the former being the sacred tree, on 

 whose fruit (which in the sculptures resemble the 

 human heart) the Gods inscribed tiie name of a 

 favourite King, sufficiently proves, that Plutarch* 

 had in view the Persea, or, at least, the sacred tree 

 of Athor, when he speaks of the fruit of the Peach 

 tree resembling the lieart, and the leaves being 

 emblematic of " the human tongue.'* The ana- 

 logy seems also to be increased by the circumstance 

 of the Goddess of Speech (Language, or Letters) 

 being present on the same occasion, and assisting 

 to write the name of the prince on the fruit. 



Athor sometimes, under the form of a Cow, 

 gives milk to an infant King, — the hieroglyphic 

 legend accompanying the picture stating that 

 she treats him " as a mother." The female heads 

 with Cow's ears, which form the capitals of co- 

 lumns at Aboosimbel, Dendera, and other tem- 

 ples, usually ascribed to Isis, are of the Egyptian 

 Aphrodite J and many shrines, arks, and sacred 

 emblems, are ornamented with the head of Athor. 

 These heads are certainly the most beautiful which 

 the Egyptian artists have invented. They argue 

 in favour of Athor being the Goddess of Beauty, 

 like the Venus of the Greeks; and some of the 

 sculptures of Dendera may show her to have been 

 the patron of laughter and amusements. From 

 some subjects represented in the sculptures, it ap- 

 pears that this Goddess was considered to be the 



* Plut. de Is. s. 66. 



