1851.1 417 [Lesley. 



And there was not only a god Bast, in tlie Egyptian pantheon, but 

 a curious deity named bes, said in one of tlie texts to have come from 

 Arabia. Tliis god presided over women's toilets, dress and ornaments, 

 and was the especial favorite of the Egyptian ladies. The final n in Heph- 

 zibah's name is well known as the equivalent of the sibilant ('«Ac, sel, «fec.) 

 and HephzibaJi, without any violence can be read Rephzibes. Her egyptian 

 idolatry would then be not only pronounced, but natural and national. 



There is no reason, then, for excluding solar and lunar proclivities fi'om 

 the characteristics of Manasseh's mother. Her son's practise would natur- 

 ally revert to solar and lunar worship when he ascended the throne, which 

 he did at the early age of six years (699 B. C). For six years, at least, 

 afterwards, he would be governed by the queen dowager and her friends ; 

 and by that time the religious reaction would have acquired stability. It 

 is not surprising, then, that his diplomatic policy went wholly on Egyptian 

 principles. The alliance which his father made with Egypt became still 

 closer, and the story of the French restoration in 1815 was anticipated by 

 the return of thousands of emigres. These men, all of them devoted to 

 Phoenician sun rites, and hating Jahvism, returned from exile at Memphis 

 and San, Tyre and Sidon, hot with revengeful feelings against the orthodox 

 cultus of Judaea,, and charged with the religious sentiments prevalent 

 among the vast Phoenician population of the Delta. It is not impossible 

 that the name Manasseh was now first assumed by the young king as his 

 banner name. 



The supposition that the name was given him at circumcision, and that 

 it was chosen because it had been borne by the eldest soa of Joseph, and 

 was one of the tribal names of Palestine, is improbable, 1. Because the 

 tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim were hereditary enemies of the royal 

 house of Judah, and 2. Because those two tribes had been deported to 

 Assyria before this Manassah was born. It is possible, indeed, that Manas- 

 seh was a private name still in common use in the kingdom of Israel ; but 



the Egyptians Typhon, the devil ; and by the Greeks Galliis, on account of his 

 debaucheries, which brought his life to an end in its 37th year. But he paid 

 great public honors to the memory oi his father, and may have assumed the 

 name Philopator, Meri-n-tef, as part of the hypocrisy. 



Ptolemy V, coming to the throne at 4 years of age, and to the government at 

 14, assumed the title Epiphnnes, the illustrious, equivalent to the name of the 

 builder of the second pyramid, Shafra (Chafra), sunlight, the shining one. He 

 then murdered the wise and faithful regent Aristomenes (who by the way 

 carries Menes in his name like so many other Greeks), and had to suppress 

 two insurrections against his tyranny. He hated his Syrian wife Cleopatra (the 

 lirst), and courted the Romans, and was finally poisoned by his ministers. 



Ptolemy IV, Philometor, again revives in his name the J\Ieri of the monu- 

 ments; but this time the source (or object?) of affection is not the father, but 

 his mother Cleopatra, who ruled as regent from his 6th to his 14tli year, and 

 therefore whom he hated cordially. During his captivity in Syria, the Egyp- 

 tians placed on the throne his brother — 



Ptolemy VI, Euergetes II, called Kakergetes. evil doer, by the Alexandrians, 

 and Physcon, from an umbilical hernia; who after various adventures ruled in 

 common, with his brother, under the protection of the Romans. Ebers has laid 

 tlie scene oi his story of the Two Sisters in this double reign. 



