Other forms of Isis.

uræus ; a pair of horns follows the contour of the white crown, and above them is a star. No. 11,143 is a fine bronze figure of a woman, standing upright upon a pedestal ; the right arm hangs by her side, but the left arm is bent, and her hand, holding an object, is laid upon her breast. She has the same head-dress as No. 110, and I believe her to be the same goddess, although she is labelled Hesi-Sept. [Isis-Sothis or the Dog Star.] Dr. Birch probably had some reason for thus labelling it, but it is unknown to me. The British Museum possesses one example also in faïence, No. 13,664, in which the goddess stands upright.

Sebek the sun, and his worship is as old as the XIIIth dynasty. The British Museum possesses one example of this god in bronze, No. 22,924, in which he stands upright, and has the head of a crocodile surmounted with disk, plumes and uræi, which have disks and horns

no

Anḥer sent" the leader of the celestial regions,” which Shu supports, is usually represented wearing plumes

nn M, and holding a dart; he is at times called o neb mõb, “ lord of the dart.” The British Museum possesses a glazed faïence pendant, No. 11,335, upon which this god is represented in relief, standing upright and wearing plumes ; in his right hand he holds f and in the left the sceptre 1. This sceptre is usually composed of f, 1, and 1 arranged perpendicularly one above the other. He is sometimes called Ån-her Shu se Rā, “ Ån-her Shu, the son of Rā.”

Bes JP7, a god whose worship in Egypt dates from a very remote period, seems to have possessed a double character. He is represented as a grotesque person with horns and eyes on a level with the top of his head, his tongue hangs out, and he has bandy legs. He wears a crown of

The various aspects of Bes.

feathers on his head, and a leopard's skin thrown round his
body. As a warrior, or the god of war, he is armed with a
shield and sword, and sometimes he has a bow; he was also
the god of music and the dance, and in this character he
is represented as a tailed creature, half man, half animal,
playing a harp, or striking cymbals together and dancing.
It is thought that he symbolized the destructive power of
nature, and in this capacity he is identified in the Book of the
Dead with Set; as the god of joy and pleasure figures of him
are carved upon the kohl jars, and other articles used by
Egyptian ladies in their toilet. The worship of this god
seems to have been introduced into Egypt from
Neter ta, i.e., the land which was situated by the eastern bank
of the Nile, supposed by the Egyptians to be the original
home of the gods. Figures of this god in bronze and faïence
are very common, and they represent him as described above.
Faïence figures were made as much as fourteen inches long,

Worship of Bes of foreign origin.

and were sometimes in relief and sometimes “in the round.”
The British Museum possesses a large mould (No. 20,883)
used for making flat figures, presented by F. G. Hilton
Price, F.S.A., who obtained it from Bubastis ; it also possesses
a beautiful figure in the round in blue glazed faïence
(No. 28,112), about fourteen inches high. A remarkable
example of the use of the head and face of this god is
furnished by a bronze bell in the British Museum (No. 6374).
The plumes on his head form the handle, and the head,
hollowed out, forms the bell. Bronze and faïence statues
of this god, to which have been added the distinguishing
characteristics of many other gods,
also exist. B.M. No. 17,169 is a

Various bronze ithyphallic bird with two pairs

forms of of outstretched wings and the legs of

Bes. a man, from the knees of which spring serpents, the arms of a man, and the head of Bes. Above the wings is a second pair of outstretched arms, with clenched fists, and on each side of his head, in relief, are the heads of a ram, a dog-headed ape, a crocodile, and a hawk (?). Above the head are two

x pairs of horns, two pairs of uræi and two pairs of plumes, between which is a disk. In this figure are united the attributes of Amen-Rā, Åmsu, Horus, Chnemu, Sebek, and other gods. No. 1205, a bronze cast from

Bes. a genuine bronze, makes this polytheistic figure stand upon crocodiles; the whole group is enclosed within a serpent having his tail in his mouth. A very interesting example of a similar kind of figure in faïence is described by Lanzone in his Dizionario, p. 211, tav. lxxx., and compare B.M. No. 11,821. It need hardly be said that such figures belong to a very late period, and they are found imitated on gems inscribed for the Gnostics ; see B.M. Nos. G. 10, 11, 12, 151, 205, etc. On the Metternich stele Bes is represented in much the same way as in the bronze figures,

but in the pair of outstretched arms and hands he holds

sceptres of #, | | knives, NN, etc., and in those

which hang by his side he holds | and † ; he has on his

head in addition eight knives and the figure “myriads of years.” He stands on an oval in which are a lion, two serpents, a jackal, crocodile, scorpion, hippopotamus and tortoise. This scene is repeated very accurately on a Gnostic lapis-lazuli plaque in the British Museum, No. 12, on the back of which is an address to IAU) XABA(A)6 = nish: Fr with whom this polytheistic deity was identified.

Figures of the god Bes are common on gems and seals other than Egyptian, and on a small Babylonian cylinder in the possession of Sir Charles Nicholson he is represented in the

Bes in form in which he ordinarily occurs #. On a red carnelian Baby

* * cylinder in the British Museum (Reg. No. 4) he is enio

graved, full face, wearing plumes, and holding a lotus flower in each hand; on each side of him is a male bearded figure, with upraised hands and arms, supporting a winged disk. This seal was inscribed for Arsaces, and belongs to the Persian period.

and was, in this capacity, the mother of Neser-Atmu and I-em-hetep; she was the second person of the triad of Memphis. She represented the violent heat of the sun and its destroying power, and in this capacity destroyed the souls of the wicked in the underworld. In bronze and fasence figures she has the head of a lion, upon which she wears the

disk and uraeus, and she holds in her right hand and s in her left; she is sometimes scated, when her hands are laid upon her knees.

Bast |S: represents the heat of the sun in its softened

form as the producer of vegetation. She has often the head of a lion, but, properly speaking, the head of a cat is her distinguishing characteristic; in her right hand she holds a