410 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. 



Athor occurs again at Edfoo as the mother of 

 Hor-sened-to, her son by Hor-Hat ; and Nebou, a 

 form of Neith, is at Esneh the mother of the young 

 Hake. 



Like Harpocrates, and other of these infant 

 Deities, he is represented with his finger to his 

 mouth, tlie sign of extreme youth ; and he is some- 

 times represented sitting on the flower of a Lotus. 

 He is then supposed to signify the Sun in the 

 winter solstice, or the rising Sun ; and tlie crook 

 and flagellum, the emblems of Osiris, which he 

 somethnes carries, may be intended to indicate the 

 influence he is about to exercise upon mankind. 

 The vase from which the plant grows is a lake of 

 water, and the usual initial of the word ma or moo^ 

 " water." 



**They do, indeed," says Plutarch*, "characterise 

 the rising Sun as though it sprang every day afresh 

 out of the lotus plant ; but this implies, that to 

 moisture we owe the first kindling of this lumi- 

 nary." I may, however, venture to offer another in- 

 terpretation, suggested both by the allegory itself, 

 as w^ell as by his hieroglyphical name Ehoou, — 

 that he corresponds to the day or morning ; and 

 in this character he may answer to Aurora. Some 

 might perhaps apply to him the name Phosphorus, 

 which seems to accord with an inscription mentioned 

 by Jablonski, — 



" Bono Deo 

 Puero Phosphoro \ : " 



* Pint, de Is. s. 1 1. t Jablonski, ii. 6. p. 256. 



