CHAP. XIII. OTHER INFANT DEITIES. 40? 



is given to the young members of other Egyptian 

 triads, as Ehoou, Hor-sened-to, Pneb-to, Hor-pirc, 

 Harka, and Hake, who in form and general attri- 

 butes are simihu' to the child of Isis. It is also 

 worn by Khonso, the offspring of Amun and Maut, 

 in the great Theban triad ; and the priest who of- 

 ficiates in tlie leopard-skin dress, even though he 

 be the King himself, assumes this badge of youth, 

 probably emblematic of that spotless innocence 

 with which it became the supreme Pontiff to ap- 

 proach the presence of the Gods. 



I have occasionally met with Harpocrates wearing 

 round his neck a vase, the emblem of Thmei, the 

 Goddess of Truth; which probably refers to "the 

 amulet," said by Plutarch* to have been *' worn by 

 Isis at the time she brought him into the world, 

 which was reported to mean ' speaking the truth.'" 



As the child of Isis, he may represent youth in 

 general : and when seated in Hades before Osiris, 

 or in the sepulchral chambers containing the sarco- 

 phagi of the dead, he is the symbol of resuscita- 

 tion, or new birth. This alludes to the change of 

 state which every one undergoes at his death, pur- 

 porting that dissolution is only the cause of repro- 

 duction t; that nothing perishes which has once 

 existed t ; and that things which appear to be de- 

 stroyed, only change their natures and pass into 

 another form. The same idea is probably repeated 



* Plut. dc Is. s.(J8. 



\ Vide supra, p. 218. .315. ; and infm, p. 437. 4.39. 



j " ()j'>j(Tioa vovhv Toiv ytyj'o/jff'i.j)'," of the Chrysippus of Euripides. 

 Conf. Plato, PhiEdo. " The living are generated from the dead, no less 

 than the dead from the living." p. -^SO. Trans. Taylor. 



D U I 



