330 
health. * Following out the same symbolic teaching, to imply 
the swiftness and extent of the divine attnoutes, the serpent 
Fig. 18. The serpent and dish of the goddess Maut, the great mother. 
of good is often invested with wings ; not that such creatures 
ever existed, but to identify the active and passive.properties 
of the divine essence in one impersonation^ Instances also 
occur, as on the sarcophagus in the Soane Museum, t where four 
Fig. 19. Four-winged serpent, Chnuphis or Bait. 
wings are" attached to the divine reptile (fig. 19 ), that “the four 
lorners of the earth,” a completely Egyptian mode of ex- 
pression mio-ht be represented as being embraced by and 
sheltered by the Supreme Providence, while in L “ ot J er 
the solar disk is crested with four serpents (fig. 20), the Ur® 
of goodness, embodying the same metaphorical allusion. 
* m Maffei, Alessandro, Gemme Anti ichefigurati ^ 
The serpent and bowl are doubtless derived from the hierogiypnma 
characters for Maut, the mother goddess, these being a serpent upon a s'fi 
“which the Greeks, not retding as the hieroglyphical signs tor Lady 
Mother,” modified into mere ornamental attributes. in t he 
f Such serpents occur on the sarcophagi °f P P > -rr , • xXl Dyn., 
British Museum, and papyri of Petuk Hans, Hesi Hem-Kebi, XXI. uyn., 
and Amen-^hau, XXVi. Dyn. 
+ That of Oimeneptheh I. 
