IDENTIFIED IN THE MYTH OF ADONIS. 55 



ia the reign of Thofchmosis III, and that of Sjncellus, also mentioned 

 above, to the effect that a Sothiac cycle was completed in the fifth year 

 of Concharis, we shall find the chain of evidence that binds Mencheres 

 or Menophres, or Mainphre Siphthah, Setei Menephthab, Thothmosis 

 and Acencheres in one not easily to be broken.^"*^ We shall yet, how- 

 ever, find other than astronomical links in the myth of Adonis, with 

 which to connect the music of Maneros. 



The names of Adonis next engage our attention. The first of these, 

 after Adonis itself, which, if applied to a man at all, must have desig- 

 nated a supreme lord or king, is Thammuz or Tammuz.^*^ Almost all 

 authorities are agreed that the Syrian Tammuz is Adonis. Milton, in 

 conformity with the belief of mythologists even in his time, spoke of 

 " smooth Adonis,'^ that 



"Ran purple to the sea, supposed with blood 

 Of Thammuz, yearly wounded. "1*3 



When the Jews relapsed into idolatry, they observed the annual 

 festival that kept up not only a remembrance of Pharaoh's fate, but 

 perpetuated his vile debaucheries.^*'' I have already hinted at a connec- 

 tion between Timaeus, who is the same as Concharis, and Thamus, the 

 old king of Egyptian Thebes. Bishop Cumberland, in his Essay on 

 Sanchoniatho's Phoenician History, takes up this connection in the 

 following language : " I think it most certain that this Timaeus, in 

 Josephus, is but a different way of writing that eldest king Thamus, to 

 whom Plato, in his Phaedrus, informs us that Thoth showed his inven- 

 tion of letters in Egypt. Tau and Theta are letters easily changed in 

 Greek; and in the East also those letters differ but by a point added to 

 Tau (Hebrew). Thammuz is also the Hebrew name of Adonis or 

 Osiris or Menes, the titles of Thoth's king and father. So Ghronicon 

 Alexandriimm, cited by Selden, makes Thammuz signify Adonis, who 

 from Stephanus and Lucian, is known to be Osiris or the first king of 

 Egypt." ^*^ Take away from the above passage the confusion which the 



1*1 1 find that the names Menophra Thothmosis are comhined by Mr. Sharpe, the author of 

 Chronology and Geography of Ancient Egypt, and by other writers. This agrees with the tablet 

 of Abydos, in which Menra or Menerra is Amosis, the father of a Thothmosis. 



1*2 The Hebrew form is Tammuz as it is rendered in our English Scriptures, but the Septu- 

 agint write Thammuz. 



143 Paradise Lost, i, 446, &c. 



i*i Ezekiel, viii, 14. One can hardly imagine an instance of blacker ingratitude than the 

 weeping of the women of Israel for the fate of their greatest enemy, which was the cause of 

 their greatest national deliverance, and should have been a subject of perpetual rejoicing. 



1*5 Sanchoniatho's Phcenician Historj', translated, &c., by the Rt. Rev. R. Cumberland, D.D., 

 late Bishop of Peterborough, p. 359. 



