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Accuracy of Tzetzes' statements

proved.

8. "For soul, a hawk; and also for sun and god."

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Heru, "Horus" or "the Sun-god."]

9. "For a female-bearing woman, and mother and time and sky, a vulture."

mut, "mother," is the common meaning of a vulture, and at times the goddess Mut seems to be identified with nut, "the sky." Horapollo says that the vulture also meant "year" (ed. Leemans, p. 5), and this statement is borne out by the evidence of the hieroglyphics, where we find that

©={8 rempit, “year.”]

10. "For king, a bee."

าง

[Compare suten net, "king of the North and
South."]

II. "For birth and natural growth, and males, a beetle."
[The beetle xepera was the emblem of the god
Chepera, who is supposed to have created
or evolved himself, and to have given birth to
gods, men, and every creature and thing in earth
and sky. The word
means to become,"

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and in late texts

Scheperu may

The

be fairly well rendered by "evolutions." meaning male comes, of course, from the idea of the ancients that the beetle had no female. See infra, under Scarab.]

12. For earth, an ox.”

[dhet

åḥet means field, and aḥ means “ox”;

can Chaeremon have confused the meanings of these two words, similar in sound?]

13. "And the fore part of a lion significs dominion and protection of every kind."

[Comparea, "chief, that which is in front, Accuracy

duke, prince."]

14. "A lion's tail, necessity."

[Compare pel, "to force, to compel, to be

strong."]

15, 16. “A stag, year; likewise the palm."

[Of the stag meaning "year" I can give no example.
The palm branch or renpit, is the common
word for "year."]

17. "The boy signifies growth."

[Compare, which is the determinative of words

meaning "youth" and juvenescence.]

18. "The old man, decay."

[Compare, the determinative of

ȧau, "old age."]

19. "The bow, the swift power."

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of Tzetzes' statements

proved.

[The Egyptian word for bow is

Compare

pet, " to run, to flee away."]

pet.

"And others by the thousand. And by means of these

characters Homer says place, if you please, to characters in Ethiopic Chaeremon." I

this. But I will proceed in another
explain the pronunciation of those
fashion, as I have learnt it from

from

In another place Tzetzes says, "Moreover, he was not Extract uninitiated into the symbolic Ethiopian characters, the Tzetzes. nature of which we will expound in the proper places. All this demonstrates that Homer was instructed in Egypt," ναὶ μὴν οὐδὲ τῶν Αιθιοπικών συμβολικῶν γραμμάτων ἀμύητος γέγονε, περὶ ὧν ἐν τοῖς οἰκείοις τόποις διδάξομεν ὁποῖα εἰσί, καὶ ταῦτα δὲ τὸν Ομηρον ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ παιδευθῆναι πaρadeiкvýοvσι, and upon this the scholia on Tzetzes say:Περὶ τῶν Αἰθιοπικῶν γραμμάτων Διό[δωρος] μὲν ἐπεμνήσθη, καὶ μερικῶς εἶπεν, ἀλλ ̓ ὥσπερ ἐξ ἀκοῆς ἄλλου μαθὼν καὶ οὐκ

1 Hermann, p. 123, ll. 2-29; Bachmann, p. 823, ll. 12-34.
Hermann, p. 17, ll. 21-25; Bachmann, p. 755, 11. 9-12.

Greek translation of Egyp

ἀκριβῶς αὐτὸς ἐπιστάμενος [ει] καί τινα τούτων κατέλεξεν ὥσπερ ἐν οἷς διδε παῤῥησιάζεται. Χαιρήμων δὲ ὁ ἱερογραμ ματεὺς ὅλην βίβλον περὶ τῶν τοιούτων γραμμάτων συνέταξεν. ἅτινα, ἐν τοῖς προ[σφόροις] τόποις τῶν Ομηρείων ἐπῶν ἀ[κρι]βέστερον καὶ πλατυτέρως ἐρῶ "Diodorus made mention of the Ethiopian characters and spoke particularly, yet as though he had learnt by hearsay from another and did not understand them accurately himself, although he set down some of them, as though he were talking confidently on subjects that he knew. But Chaeremon the sacred scribe compiled a whole book about the aforesaid characters, which I will discuss more accurately and more fully in the proper places in the Homeric poems." It is much to be regretted that Chaeremon's work, if he ever fulfilled his promise, has not come down to us.

One of the most valuable extracts from the works of Greek and Roman writers on Egypt is that from a translation tian text by of an Egyptian obelisk by Hermapion, preserved by

Herma

pion.

Ammianus Marcellinus; unfortunately, however, neither the name of Hermapion's work nor the time in which he lived is known. This extract consists of the Greek translation of six lines of hieroglyphics: three lines are from the south side of the obelisk, one line from the east side, and a second and a third line from the other sides. A comparison of the Greek extract with any inscription of Rameses II. on an obelisk shows at once that Hermapion must have had a certain accurate knowledge of hieroglyphics; his translation of the lines, however does not follow consecutively. The following examples will show that the Greek, in many cases, represents Compari the Egyptian very closely. Λέγει "Ηλιος βασιλεῖ ̔Ραμέστῃ δεδώρημαί σοι ἀνὰ πᾶσαν οἰκουμένην μετὰ χαρᾶς βασιλεύειν,

son of

Greek

translation with the Egyptian

text.

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to thee all lands and foreign countries with rest of heart, O king of the north and south, Usr-maat-Ra-setep-en-Rā,

1 Hermann, p. 146, ll. 12-22; Bachmann, p. 838, ll. 31-37.

2 Liber XVII. 4.

son of the Sun, Rameses, beloved of Amen-Rā." OEоyévvηTos

"born of

κτιστὴς τῆς οἰκουμένης =
the gods, possessor of the two lands” (¿.e., the world). 'O ÉσTÒs
ἐπ ̓ ἀληθείας δεσπότης διαδήματος, τὴν Αἴγυπτον δοξάσας
κεκτημένος, ὁ ἀγλαοποιήσας Ηλίου πόλιν =

୪୪୪

"[the mighty bull], resting upon

Law, lord of diadems, protector of Egypt, making splendid
Heliopolis with monuments.” Ἥλιος θεός μέγας δεσπότης

q

οὐρανοῦ = 731111

www. I

"Says Rā Har

machis, the great god, lord of heaven," Tλnpwσas Tòv veÒv Toû φοίνικος ἀγαθῶν, ᾧ οἱ θεοὶ ζωῆς χρόνον ἐδωρήσαντο

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filling the temple of the bennu (phoenix) with his splendours, may the gods give to him life like the Sun for ever," etc.

The Flaminian obelisk, from which the Egyptian passages Flaminian given above are taken, was brought from Heliopolis to Rome obelisk. by Augustus, and placed in the Circus Maximus,' whence it was dug out; it now stands in the Piazza del Popolo at Rome, where it was set up by Pope Sixtus V.in 1589.2 This obelisk was originally set up by Seti I., whose inscriptions occupy the middle column of the north, south, and west sides; the other columns of hieroglyphics record the names and titles of Rameses II. who, in this case, appropriated the obelisk of his father, just as he did that of Thothmes III. The obelisk was found broken into three pieces, and in order to render it capable of sustaining itself, three palms' length was cut from the base. The texts have been published by Kircher, Oedipus Aegyptiacus, t. iii. p. 213; by Ungarelli, Interpretatio Obeliscorum Urbis, Rome, 1842, p. 65, sqq.,

1 Qui autem notarum textus obelisco incisus est veteri, quem videmus in Circo etc. Ammianus Marcellinus, XVII. 4, § 17. It seems to be referred to in Pliny, XXXVI. 29.

2 For a comparative table of obelisks standing in 1840, see Bonomi, Notes on Obelisks, in Trans. Royal Soc. Lit., Vol. I. Second Series, p. 158.

Champollion's

estimate of

statements

on hieroglyphics.

plate 2; and by Bonomi, who drew them for a paper on this obelisk by the Rev. G. Tomlinson in Trans. Royal Soc. Lit., Vol. I. Second Series, p. 176 ff. For an account of this obelisk, see Zoëga, De Origine et Usu Obeliscorum, Rome, 1797, p. 92.

The next Greek writer whose statements on Egyptian hieroglyphics are of value is Clement of Alexandria, who flourished about A.D. 191-220. According to Champollion, "un seul auteur grec,... a démêlé et signalé, dans Clement's l'écriture égyptienne sacrée, les élémens phonétiques, lesquels en sont, pour ainsi dire, le principe vital 1 ..... Clément d'Alexandrie s'est, lui seul, occasionnellement attaché à en donner une idée claire; et ce philosophe chrétien était, bien plus que tout autre, en position d'en être bien instruit. Lorsque mes recherches et l'étude constante des monuments égyptiens m'eurent conduit aux résultats précédemment exposés, je dus revenir sur ce passage de Saint Clément d'Alexandrie, que j'ai souvent cité, pour savoir si, à la faveur des notions que j'avais tirées d'un examen soutenu des inscriptions hiéroglyphiques, le texte de l'auteur grec ne deviendrait pas plus intelligible qu'il ne l'avait paru jusquelà. J'avoue que ses termes me semblèrent alors si positifs et si clairs, et les idées qu'il renferme si exactement conformes à · ma théorie de l'écriture hiéroglyphique, que je dus craindre aussi de me livrer à une illusion et à un entraînement dont tout me commandait de me défier." From the above it will be seen what a high value Champollion placed on the statements concerning the hieroglyphics by Clement, and they have, in consequence, formed the subject of various works by eminent authorities. In his Précis (p. 328), Champollion gives the extract from Clement with a Latin translation and remarks

2

by Letronne." Dulaurier in his Examen d'un passage des Stromates de Saint Clément d'Alexandrie, Paris, 1833, again published the passage and gave many explanations of words in it, and commented learnedly upon it. (See also

Précis du Système hieroglyphique des anciens Egyptiens, Paris, 1824, p. 321. 2 Précis, p. 327.

3 See also Euvres Choisies, t. I. pp. 237-254.

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