1.

CHAP. most antient types of the Cyprian Venus'. A very considerable degree of illustration, with regard to the history of the idols discovered at Larneca, is afforded by the appearance of one of them, although little more of it remains than a mere torso. It belonged to an androgynous Figure, represented as holding, in its right hand a lion's cub, pendent by the tail, upon the abdomen of the statue. We might in vain seek an explanation of this singular image, were it not for the immense erudition of Athanasius Kircher, whose persevering industry, notwithstanding all his visionary hypotheses, enabled him to collect, and to compare, the innumerable forms of Egyptian Deities. According to the different authorities he has cited, the Momphta, or type of humid nature3, (that is to say, the passive principle,) was borne by Isis in her left hand, and generally represented by a lion. In her right she carried the dog Anubis. Either of these symbols separately denoted the Magna Mater; and may thus be explained. The leonine figure, as employed

(1) CUJUS NUMEN UNICUM, MULTIFORMI SPECIE, RITU VARIO, NOMINE MULTIJUGO, TOTUS VENERATUR ORBIS.

(2) Vid. Kircher. Edip. Egypt. tom. III. pp. 98, 184, 221, 323, 504. Rom. 1654.

(3)" Per Leonem, Momphta, humidæ naturæ præses." Kirch. de Diis Averruncis, synt. 17.

(4) See the engravings in Kircher. Edip. Egypt. tom. III. p. 502. Also tom. II. pars 2. p. 259.

to signify water, was derived from the astro-
nomical sign of the period for the Nile's
inundation". Hence we sometimes see the
Momphta expressed by a sitting image with
the lion's head.
epithet Momphæan'. Her double sex is alluded
to by Orpheus, who describes her as the father
and the mother of all things". By the figure
of Anubis, Isis was again typified as the Hecate
of the Greeks. It is a symbol frequently placed
upon their sepulchral monuments; and was
otherwise represented by the image of Cerberus,
with three heads, or with fifty, as allusion is
intended either to the Diva triformis, or to the
pantamorphic nature of the Goddess. Among

Plutarch gives to Isis the

CHAP.

I.

Gems.

the gems found in Cyprus, we noticed intagliated Antient scarabei with similar symbols; and obtained one upon which Isis was exhibited, holding the quadruped as in the example of the statue discovered at Larneca. Since these antiquities

(5) "Pingitur leonino vultu, quòd Sole in Leonem ingrediente incrementa Nilotica seu inundationes contingant." Kircher, Edip. Egypt. tom. III. p. 323.

(6) A beautiful colossal statue of this description is now in the British Museum. It was among the antiquities surrendered by the French at the capitulation of Alexandria.

(7) Plut. de Isid. et Osir. Kirch. Obel. Sallust. syntag. 4. cap. 4. (8) Also as Luna, according to Plutarch (De Is. et Osir. c. 43), Isis bears the same description with regard to her double sex. They call the Moon," says he," Mother of the World, and think it has a double sex.” Διὸ καὶ Μητέρα τὴν Σελήνην τοῦ Κόσμου καλοῦσι, καὶ φύσιν ἔχειν ἀρσενόθηλυν οἴονται.

(9) See the Author's "Greek Marbles," p. 10. No. XII.

CHAP.

I.

Signet
Rings.

in

were found, the inhabitants have also dug up a number of stone coffins, of an oblong rectangular form; each, with the exception of its cover being of one entire mass of stone. One of them contained a small vase of terra cotta, of the rudest workmanship, destitute of any glazing or varnish'. Several intaglios were also discovered, and brought to us for sale. We found it more difficult to obtain antient gems Larneca than in the interior of the island, owing to the exorbitant prices set upon them. At Nicotia, the goldsmiths part with such antiquities for a few parás. The people of Larneca are more accustomed to intercourse with strangers, and expect to make a harvest in their coming. Among the ring-stones we left in that town, was a beautiful intaglio representing Cupid whipping a butterfly; a common method, among antient lapidaries, of typifying the power of love over the soul. Also an onyx, which there is every reason to believe one of the Ptolemies had used as a signet. It contained a very curious monogram, expressing all the letters of the word ΠΤΟΛΕΜΑΙΟΥ, according to the manner here represented:

The
The

The use of such instruments for signature is
recorded in the books of Moses, seventeen
hundred years before the Christian æra; and the
practice has continued in Eastern countries,
with little variation, to the present day.
signets of the Turks are of this kind.
Romans, Greeks, and Egyptians, had the same
custom indeed, almost all the antient intaglios,
were so employed. In the thirty-eighth chapter
of Genesis, it is related that Tamar demanded
the signet of Judah; and above three thousand
years have passed since the great Lawgiver of
the Jews was directed to engrave the names of
the children of Israel upon onyx-stones, "like
the engravings of a signet ;" that is to say, (if
we may presume to illustrate a text so sacred,
with reference to a custom still universally
extant,) by a series of monograms, graven as
intaglios, to be set "in ouches of gold, for the
shoulders of the ephod." That the signet was
of stone set in metal, in the time of Moses, is also
clear, from this passage of Sacred History:
"With the work of an engraver in stone, like
the engravings of a signet, shalt thou engrave the
two stones. Thou shalt make them to be set
in ouches of gold." Signets without stones, and
entirely of metal, did not come into use, according

(2) Exod. xxviii. 9, 10, 11.

CHAP.

1.

CHAP.

1.

to Pliny', until the time of Claudius Cæsar. The most antient intaglios of Egypt were graven upon stones, having the form of scarabæ. This kind of signet was also used by the Phoenicians, as will further appear. The characters upon them are therefore either in hieroglyphical writing, Phænician letters, or later monograms derived from the Greek alphabet. Alexander, at the point of death, gave his signet to Perdiccas3; and Laodice, mother of Seleucus, the founder of the Syro-Macedonian empire, in an age when women, profiting by the easy credulity of their husbands, apologized for an act of infidelity by pretending an intercourse with Apollo, exhibited a signet found in her bed, with a symbol afterwards used by all the Seleucidæ1. The introduction of sculptured animals upon the signets of the Romans was derived from the sacred symbols of the Egyptians: hence the origin of the Sphinx for the signet of Augustus. When the practice of deifying princes and venerating heroes became general, portraits of men supplied the place of more antient types. This custom gave birth to the of the Ca- Camachuia, or Caméo; a later invention, merely

Origin

machuia.

(1) Hist. Nat. lib. xxxiii. c. 1.

(2) See a former note in this Chapter, for the history of the antient superstition concerning the Scarabæus.

(3) Justin. lib. xii.

(4) Ibid. lib. xv. c. 4.