386 ALEXANDRIA. 
CHAP, find the deceased sovereign mentioned, as being 
i '' LIKE THE GREAT Vulcan'." He is said to be 
" EVEN AS THE SuN, THE GREAT KING OF THE 
UPPER AND LOWER REGIONS";" aiid his successor 
is called " Son of the Sun^" If, therefore, the 
Sun m Hades, according to the most antient my- 
thology of Egypt, was called Serapis, Joseph 
having descended thither, and being *' even as th e 
Sun," according to a style of deification which 
was invariable in Egypt, where the customs of 
the country were almost as unalterable as its cli- 
mate, would receive the appellation of Serapis, 
after the same manner in which the name of 
Vulcan, father of the Sun*, was, so many ages 
*' Jam bene intelligitur, quam bene et recte auctor versuura allatorum 
affirmet, Solem ab jEgyptiis, tempore hyberno vocari aiS»v, eum, qui non 
videtur, quoniam nempe lux ejus, illo anni tempore, sub terram de- 
mersa est. Eundem Pseudo-Callisthenes di\\t Kipamv tou 'Sivur'iov, 
invisibilem in Sinopio. Eustathius vero, eodem loco allatus, testatur 
Serapim in Sinopio Metnphi coli-" Jablonsk. Panth. ^gypt. torn, J. 
pp. 236, 238. Franco/. 1750. 
(1) Kafid^ip "Uipaiffros o f/iya;. 
(2) Ka^tiTfifi "hXioi, fiiya; jicctriXiii} rav ri avu xat tuii ri y.oiru ^^fuu 
The word x'^f'^''> in this Inscription, has been usually translated disiricts, 
with reference to the division of Egypt into upper and lower; but this 
division is of modern date ; and the Sun would hardly be styled " Kin"^ 
of Upper and Lower Egypt." The expression seems to be metaphorical, 
and rather applicable to the antient notions concerning Sol Supenis 
and Sof In/erus; as mentioned by MacroUus. 
(3) t'loZ <rou 'HX'mu, 
(■4) See Note (1). 
