The Sun.
London, England, 1803-02-03 00:00:00

ANTroprrizs

The reliewink is thro.4-,est Account we have met tvith‘of the
Egypttart,o..aments in the, British Museym.
They ,were takrm from the French Army, in
AleXandria,.and sent to England in September -Wt.
under the charge of Colonel TthiNEß.i and arc now
und%r slight temporary coverings in the coUrt_
yard of the Museum.
At either end of the first shed is a statue of white
marble, evidently Roman'; time first suppoect to be
Martur Ayrdiut; the second Se timut Seveeris;• but
both of very inferior workmanship. They were
discovered in the researches at Alexandria, and.it
tint known whence they originally came. The neat
fragment is a Raih's peadi Om four feet in length,
carved from ksofr red stone, calk() by the French
rouse grais, and was, brought from Upper Egypt.
It has part of the right bort, broken off; but the
Workmanship is' exquisite, and the expression of the
'eyes exceeding 80nd... The Rain's Head represent.
ed the Deity called Amour, whom the Greeks.(who
borrowed much of their MythOlogy from. Egypt)
afterwards adopted by .the 'name of Ammon. Amour)'
denoted to the Egyptians the creative powcr ofOod,
his beneficence
.and dlifttive influence through the
wotks of Nature. kuis.chief temple was at Thebes;
whence the epithet of T.W,,in was 'givan. to the
Ram ; which was also a. representation, of the Sun
in Aries. They who daiire u further acquaintance
with the 'symbolical
.attribwe6 of Amourt, may con,
suit jahlonskY's Pantheon rigyptiacurn, We next
c'une to two Otiiihis, richly charged with. Hero.
giyphics, am much resembling in their.general
itaaiice the one at Nlattareah, engraved in Dr.
Shaw's. Travels, These Obelisks, it is Supposed,
were ereaed by the. Egyptians as gnomons for
astronomic uses, sand had anciently a' ball on the top
seppotted by a very small shaft, the projetlion of
whose shadow on the grOund near that of the gno-
mon, formed au ellipsis, by
.which the middle de.
termioed by its position exaNy enough the, height
of the centre of the Sun." They.are of basaltes, and
were likewise brought from Upper Egypt. . Be.
t.,,yeen the Obelisks stands a large quart: Sarcophaglis
or chest, coMposed of 'what the French call tieche
appe;irs to he of an aggregate laird, with
which our minerakgista !islet-6 before unacquainted,
Zr wits brought front the Most)* r;f St. Athandsias,
in Alexandria. The hieroglyphic: language 'in-
scribed both inside and 4it, denotes It to have been
used for sacred porposes; Ilut;whether as a chest.
for 'the intoges of the Egyptian Deities, or as a els.
tern for the Holy Water, thed in the satrecknystear
ries, does not appea`r. In form 464 size it seems to
represent the great chest in the largest of the pyra.:
raids Of Egypt, except that the latter, which was
long taken for the tomb of CH eues, way unadorned
with hieroglyphics. However, that this chest was
somehow concerned with the mystical worship of
Osirk is more than probable : though. it.
,is not
likely, as has been stuested, that it was one of
the Adyta, or secret chambers, which had 60 great
a share in the Egyptian mysteries. Thai -it was
not placed' an end, seems probable from the had-
:up-Jul diteaion the hieroglyphics are drawn in.
Its weight is nine
,tons, and among. the SYmbols it
Is, covered with, the. eaer.ekl ifionkey is WervArOtly
rtTeateti ; aim animal that is not once menticnc,l
jablonsky, though Most classical rhtleri will re.
member the allusion to it at the openingialJuvenal's
istb Satite, t .

quis nescit, Vniusi hithynire, cittaliA d(.rn6is
'O, ,Egp) tos pimento olat i,c ft)C01100, atiote
" Vail; : pavet satutam Serrientihus thilt4-•
.6 ;,..?tretit c-tßcatrtittet."
Mae by life great chest lies a 7iii7rsrue Aincl, of
red granite, cletiched. It ,is , thought to have be.
lenva to .a.,Statu'e Vulcan, and was found by tht
French hniong tntne. ruins in the neighbourbood.ral
Memphis; roth its tool it appears to have, rested'
'on the knee and the Misue it, belonzed to must
at least, eighty feet in height.. Beside'
a sirr4/ fray/yr:is Of alight red stone, hay.
log on it, several dirainutiVe figureS, With three or
four repetitions of the crux a,jsnta. Stich arc; the
itanuments sheltered by the first covering.; at the
(MU corners of which are mutilated figures of
.of black granite, brOught from betters.
t e3Ol- end of the.seeond shetl.is a"shaft of pot.
.pltyry„ the first of Mitch is about three feet. and a
half diameter, and about four yards in length. Im.
tiVliately tucceeding, we have two figures olOsiris,
beated in bl.cic granite. He is represented with
. the head Of a lion, round which we see the sun, ac.
iornpanied by the usual head.dtess of the Egyptians;
team the neck doVimWord he is represented as a %fir.
ond'holds in liis left hand. the. fruir au.tata, and
on the seat ire a few hieroglyphics. Osiris; we
know was variously delineated, according to the
attributes'ot operations of the deity the Egyptian
.priests detiired to express, And the figure we,
have. here described .Wat peculiarly' syMbolleal of
the heat, vigour, and 'influence of thelum, in the
inundation of the Nile, when it pasied through the,
signs rif Leo and 11 irp. The crux anstzia,-hOWVICT,
is not So-easily eitplaincd. The 'best and most tic`
curate Writers on the symbolical learning of the
Egyptians have differed very widely in describing
is, 54114
.have thought the cro.t.t denoted ,the four
cletnents of the world, and the circle the influence
Ott sin had over then, Others. have Iflooght the
whole figtut to he the name of the aeing
who.. tettvelled through the world ; 10111 e, the,fiore
of the Deity,. not tit.itte in the likeness of,any Fret_-
ture ',some, the philaticty of
.isis,; arid others,
That it will the ineilfirble. itong Of Eternity. ()Ile
W.riter lysindeaVntireil, with a' (inslllerybie share
oncoming and ingelOty, to prove that it was the
,aensuoutica) or Manner's Compass, which he was
willing to believe , was ,known even to the Egyp.
clans. All these cordcattres. only serve to shew
that the 'illy tety c4ittc4a urnler tire symbolical
learning .of ..Egypt is inex'plicable.:, Close by the
figures of o,4itts is a Numv-,rbeit of hosaltes, with
a narrow border of It eroglyphies round the, outer
This- also calm trout U 1 per Egypt, and its
toe: itninediately pointed out icy the sh,ipe or the
carity, in which. the figure of the head and„
Cleat:ly seen. Nekt wit hive a flue wre.vihqui, Its
size is smaller than the one alte.l.tY r.ieotiOned hint