The Wyandot pioneer. (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1853-1868, 1854-04-06
-aBusac For the Wyandot Pioneer.
Extracts from Mr.. Dement'S Lecture.
ts l--r II EGYPT
-s7tg [Continued from our last.l


,lca.14,H ~ EeIPr .s
0 CONTINUED from our last.
DENDARA.
DR.. Hawks gives the following descrip-
ton of this famous temple:
.'Another hour carried us through
fields Of barly, beans, peaches and lentlls,
and over the mounds of rubish which
completely surrounded and concealed the
temple; but what an awful feeling of
grandeur struck upon me, when without
waiting to go round through the portico,
L bounded down the vale and stood before
the striking fabric. There on the cell
ing move along the heroes and gods, the
the priests and kings, the great and good,
and powerful of Egyptian mythology and
story. There are the colors that have
stood the storms of eighteen centuries
and along the better protected roof, the
winged globes are repeated gliding into
one another, surrounded by stars where
thebue is SO fresh that I half immagine
myself in the Senate chamber, in the cap
itol OF. my own land.
Above the capitals, Isis, in the charac-
of Diana; receives offering of the priests.
Further en- in the next entrance, she sur
mounts the beautiful capitals. This is
more distinct than the pronaos, and is
probably the ancient temple erected to
Athor; the pronaos having been erected
afterwards and consecrated to the Roman
Venus, in A ID, 65, by Tiberius Ceaser.
But pass to consider the philosophical
idea Of the whole, the purpose for which
the temple was erected. ~9
Athor has been defined by St. John,
as that principle in nature. by which
things naturally assimilate to each other,
are brought together for the production
of new and beautiful forms. This princi-
pie, the generative power of nature, was
beautiful and divine goddess with the
ancient Egyptians, as the fount of all Gre
alton and beauty.
Athor was worshipped as that power
which produced and continues the human
race, the mystery of conception and faith
growing out of beauty and love, in our
race and with which the animals are like
us endowed; which in the vegetable crea-
tion,, as the seed decays, the pollen and
anther are brought together, produce the
new germ: this creative power of Nature
was Athor. 1t was a sweet woman; a
beautiful form-a woman and mother!
70 this power was the temple erected
Beauty, Love, Creation y
DIR. Hawks thus describes the tenn
pie:
DR.. Hawks was probably not acquain-
ted with the science of emblems or he
would not have failed to notice the repre-
sentative character of these devices and
their adaptation to the mysteries sciences
of olden time While on the spot nv
own thoughts wandered back to the days
of Egyptian glory. When the ceremonies
here portrayed were practiced and their
emblematical meaning explained to the
pupil Initiated into the learning and wis
dom of Egypt.
The following sentences are from my
own notes written on the ground. The
temple Of Dendera is indeed a magnif-
cent monument of bygone ages. Altho'
the portico may have been added by Ii
berius, the Roman. The great body OF
the ediGce is older by far than Roman or
Greek authority in Egypt. While some
writers have labored to give Egyptian
temples, a greater antiquity than they
can justly claim. Others have in the
instance of Dendara have tried to bring
the whole ediice within period altogeth-
! er too limited for truth. l observed on
the exterior will the picture of Cleopatra
and of the mothers nursing their children
SO laudably described by Spenser.
Madame Romer thus speaks of Denda-
ra. "This is one of those beautiful Ptol-
emaic structures, the architecture of which
is as fautless as the sculptures are faulty
Beautiful indeed it must be, since l could
really admire it after Karnak, which
thought had exhausted all my admirinc
capabilities, and, at the same time, SO ex
tends my wandering powers, that nothing
less than the great pyramid of Ghizeh
can now extract an exclamation from me
But with the grace and majesty of Den
dera, was enchanted; and nothing tha
Ihaye yet noticed in the peculiarities O.
Egyptian architecture has pleased me Sc
mush as the twenty four colossal pillars
that support the pronaos of the temple
surrounded by quadrilatral capitals eacl
side containing full face of Isis, witt
cows, cars and wearing the usual an
tique hand, head dress the ends of whicl
descend on each side of the throat dow
to where the bosom might be where th,
bust represented, and from a graceful
fulted termination to the capital. Blu
destroyers have mercilessly mutilated tn,
mild countenance of the moon faced Isl