study, as far as I am aware, has not yet been made, but if made by any other person it must necessarily lead to the same result. The old Egyptian word nutar had already in the popular pronunciation suffered from phonetic decay, and lost its final consonant as early as the nineteenth dynasty, as we see by the inscriptions in the royal tombs at Bibān-el-molūk,' and it appears in Coptic under the forms nuti, nute. It is remarkable that the translators of the Bible into Coptic, who generally abstained from the use of old Egyptian words connected with religion, and used Greek words instead, nevertheless adopted this one as expressive of their notion of God. There is another word, nutra, very frequently used either as verb or adjective, which is closely allied to nutar. The sense of "renovation" was first attached to it by M. E. de Rougé, on the strength of its final sign, which he considered as a determinative of signification. But this conjecture, which has been very generally accepted, is really without any solid foundation; the sign in question is here expressive of nothing more than the sound tra, and it will be found to all 1 Zeitschr. f. Aegypt. Spr. 1874, p. 105, and M. Maspero's article in the Mélanges d'Archéologie, 1874, p. 140. The orthography of these popular forms is philologically of the highest importance. The form nuntar I reserved for a future study; M. Maspero published it with the rest, but no one appears to have noticed it. words so ending, whatever be their meaning; as hetra, whether signifying "join," "horse," or "tribute;" petra, "behold;" tra, "season." Another more obvious sense, "sacred," "divine," may be justified by the Greek text of the tablet of Canopus, where nutra is translated iepòs, as applied to the sacred animals. But this meaning, though a certain one, occurs but seldom in the Egyptian texts, and when it so occurs is, after all, only a derived meaning, as is in fact the case with the Greek iepòs, the first sense of which is "strong,". "vigorous."1 The notion expressed by nutar as a noun, and nutra as an adjective and verb, must be sought in the Coptic nomti, which in the translation of the Bible corresponds to the Greek words dúvajus, ἰσχύς, ἰσχυρὸς, ἰσχυρόω, “ power,” “ force,” strong,” "fortify," "protect."2 The reason why the identification of the old form nutar with the more recent nomti as well as nuti has 66 1 'Iɛpós corresponds to the Sanskrit ish-ira-s, vigorous, from ish, juice, strength. See Curtius, Zeitschr. für vergleichende Sprachforschung, III. 154, and his "Griechische Etymologie," p. 372. Plutarch (Mor. 981 D) mentions this original physical sense of the word as maintained by certain persons, and the dσrouv iɛpor, OS sacrum," is given as an example. 'Iɛpà vóoos, also called μɛyáλn, is another striking instance. In the Homerie poems, this physical sense gives the true force to such expressions as Τροίης ἱερὸν πτολίεθρον, ἱερὴν πόλιν Ηετίωνος, ἱερῷ ἔνι δίφρῳ, ἱερὸν μένος ̓Αλκινόοιο, ἱερὴ ΐς Τηλεμάχοιο. 2 The Alexandrians invented the barbarous word dvvaμów, which can always be used as a translation of the verb nutra. hitherto escaped observation is, that the connecting link nuntar has either been unknown to scholars or disregarded by them. In nuntar, a process as well known to Egyptian as to Indo-European scholars has taken place. The vowel of the first syllable has been strengthened by the addition of a nasal consonant. The old Egyptian word heket (beer) has by this process become henke in the Thebaic, and hemki in the Memphitic dialect. The following examples will illustrate the usage of the word. Large stones are often said to be nutru. This does not mean that they grow or that they are divine, but that they are mighty. In one of those paraphrases which are so common on the walls of Dendera, the unequivocal word uru, "great, mighty," is substituted for nutru. Sauit nutrit is a "strong wall." A crypt is aat nutrit, a "strong-hold." Three of the chambers 1 The change of n into m before t, as though the latter were preceded by a labial consonant, is not usual, but it is not without a parallel in other languages. Cf. xрiμπтw from root xp, the Latin tempto and the Lithuanian temptyva, both the latter from root ta, nasalized tan. The observations of Curtius, "Gr. Et.," pp. 46 and 481, on the m in yaμɛiv and the Lithuanian gim-ti, appear to me to ́justify the form tempto, which Corssen rejects, though it occurs in the best manuscripts as well as inscriptions. 2 Mariette, Dendera, I. pl. 67. So in the royal titles of the eighteenth dynasty, nutra sutenit of Tehutimes II. corresponds to the uah sutenit of Tehutimes III. and to the simpler ur sutenit of Chut en Aten. of the temple of Dendera are said to be nutru. "Qu'est ce qu'une salle divine?" very pertinently asks M. Mariette. Sat nutrit is a "potent talisman." Seti I. in his titles is the "potent image," sexem nutra, of Chepera. Nutra is constantly brought into parallelism with words implying "might." "Great (ura) is the Eye of Horus, Mighty (aa) is the Eye of Horus, Strong (nutra) is the Eye of Horus, the Giver of Strength (senutra) is the Eye of Horus.”1 "A mighty wall to Egypt, protecting their limbs; his force (pehti) is like Ptah in prostrating the barbarians, a child of might (sif nutra) in his coming forth like Harmachis." "He is strong (ten-re) in performing his duties to Amon-Rā, he is vigorous (nutra) in performing his duties to the sovereign, his lord." In the Demotic text of the tablet of Canopus, nutra is translated by xu, which signifies, "strengthen, fortify, protect, invigorate." It has constantly this meaning in the hieroglyphic texts. "Thy body is fortified (nutri-ta), protected (xu-ta), restored (seput-ta)." "Thy limbs are fortified (nutri-ta) by the Power (sexem) which is in heaven."4 Nutra men ma pet, "strong and durable as heaven." Nutra-f nut-ek er neken, "He fortifies thy city against destruction." Nutra-f Nutrit er nefu, "He strengthens 1 Sharpe, "Egyptian Inscriptions," Vol. II. p. 28. 4 Sharpe, Vol. II. p. 92. H Nutrit against harm." Nutrit, the name of a town (in this place equivalent to Dendera), has exactly the same meaning as Samaria, Ashdod, Gaza, Valentia, and many other names significant of strength. Religious purifications were supposed to give strength, and the verb nutra is therefore often found in parallelism with ab and tur, both of which have the sense of religious purification. I will add one more illustration, which by itself might not be of much weight, but is really important when taken in conjunction with other evidence. The goddess Isis is distinguished among other divinities by the frequent epithet nutrit. When the inscriptions in her honour are written in Greek, she is most frequently called μεγάλη Οι μεγίστη. There is yet another Egyptian word cognate to those we have been studying. Nutrit signifies "eye-ball." The notion here is of something fortified, protected, guarded. "Custodi me ut pupillam oculi:" " "Keep me as the apple of the eye." The Arabic word hadaqat, which means the same thing, has an exactly similar etymology. And several other parallel instances might be cited. The Egyptian nutar, I argue therefore, means Power, which is also the meaning of the Hebrew El. The 1 Many of the examples occur in Mariette's Dendera, Vol. I. pl. 6, 46. |