150 HELIOPOLIS. 
of Heliopolis perhaps afford less illustration 
of this kind than any other characters of the 
same nature ; because the style of sculpture 
is here so rude, that many of the archetypes, 
whence the types of the inscription were de- 
rived, cannot now be ascertained ; but, owing 
to their great antiquity, the few that can be dis- 
cerned are worth notice. In the very summit 
of the obelisk, beneath the figure of a vulture, 
<^'-"j" may be observed the Crux ansata\ The original 
ansatu. 
(l) " Sed iKin erat ulliim teinpluin, in quo iion figura crucis (msal(r, 
ut earn eruditi vocant, stepiiis viseiida occurreret, bodieqne in ruderi- 
bus ac ruiiiis etiamiium occurrat. Ejus h.-Ec est ppeeies -f- .... 
Crucem vero istaiii ansatam, quae in omnibus /Et;v|)tiorum teniplis 
Siepius ficta et picta extahat. quam si;;^na Deoruni /E^yptidnun nianu 
tenere solent, (|ua5 (larteni I'acit ornatu^ sac'crdi)talis, iiiljil aiiud esse 
quam plialluin," &e. {Fide Jablonski Panth. ^gypt. 1. 282.) 
Jamblichus thinks the Cru.r onsata was the name of the Divine Being. 
Sozomen, ami oiher Chrislinn writers, '■T'ide Sozomen. Eccl. Hist. 
lib.\u. c 15. Ruifiii. Eccl Hist. lib. \i. c. ■■^9.) conceive the whole 
figure, or at least the cross, to be expressive of the life to cnnie ;" 
deriving this opinion from the explanation given of it by those of tlie 
Heathens who understood the hierogly/ihics, and weie converted to 
Christianity. Sometimes it is represented by a cross fastened to a 
tircle, as al)ove ; in other instances, with the letter T" only, fixed in 
this manner -j- to a circle. By the circle, says Kircher (Prod. Copt. 
j>. ids), is to bf- understood the Creator and Preserver of the world ; 
as the wisdom derived from him, which directs and governs it, is 
signified by tlie 4- , 1 , the monogram, as he further conjectures, of 
Mercury, ThntI,, Taaut, or <|>T Ptha. " It i> certainh very extra- 
ordinary," (says Shaw, who has collected almost ever) information 
u!)on this subject,) " and worthy of our notice, that this crux ansata 
should be so often ia their symbolical writings; either alone, or held 
