CHAP. XIII. DOUBLE CHARACTER OF ANT.^US. 421 



were the enemies of the good Deities Osiris and 

 Hercules. Antasus, however, was admitted into 

 the Egyptian Pantheon ; temples were erected to 

 him ; and the city of Antaiopolis, the capital of 

 a nome of the same name*, and the successor 

 of the village mentioned by Diodorus, acknow- 

 ledged the God whose name it bore. 



In this we perceive the origin of the fable re- 

 specting the Giant Antaeus, in Greek mythology t; 

 of which, however, I do not stop to inquire the 

 meaning. It is of little moment, if Anta?us, ac- 

 cording to one of the many allegories devised for 

 explaining the story of the wars of the Gods, re- 

 presented the sand of the desert, and was thence 

 reputed to be the offspring of the Earth. The 

 only point of importance for my present object is 

 the double character of Antaeus, like that of the 

 God Ombte, which I think clearly established, 

 and the error of the Greeks, who confounded the 

 latter Deity with Typho, may be readily accounted 

 for, by the connection between Typho and Antaeus, 

 in the account given by Diodorus. 



At Gau, the ancient Antaeopolis, a temple, till 

 lately, stood on the banks of the Nile ; but the 

 last standing column was swept away by the river 

 in 1821 ; and we have now lost the only monu- 

 ment which could decide this interesting question, 

 to confirm or disprove the identity of Ombte and 

 Antaeus. 



* Pliii. V. 9. 



f Juv. iii. 89. Piiular, Pytli. ix. 185. Luc. Phars. iv. 615. 

 Stral)o, x\-ii. p. -570. etl. Cas. Plin. v. \. 



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