the conquered nations to plow with oxen; Bacchus
with Bulls horns for the same reason, and with Grapes
because he taught the nations to plant vines, and
upon a Tiger because he subdued India; Orus
the son of Osiris with a Harp, to signify the
Prince who was eminently skilled on that instrument;
Jupiter upon an Eagle to signify the sublimity
of his dominion, and with a Thunderbolt to represent
him a warrior; Venus in a Chariot drawn with
two Doves, to represent her amorous and lustful; Neptune
with a Trident, to signify the commander of a fleet
composed of three Squadrons; AEgeon, a Giant,
with 50 heads, and an hundred hands, to signify Neptune
with his men in a ship of fifty oars; Thoth
with a Dog’s head and wings at his cap and feet,
and a Caduceus writhen about with two Serpents,
to signify a man of craft, and an embassador who reconciled
two contending nations; Pan with a Pipe and
the legs of a Goat, to signify a man delighted in
piping and dancing; and Hercules with Pillars
and a Club, because Sesostris set up pillars
in all his conquests, and fought against the Libyans
with clubs: this is that Hercules who,
according to [302] Eudoxus, was slain by Typhon;
and according to Ptolomaeus Hephaestion [303]
was called Nilus, and who conquered Geryon
with his three sons in Spain, and set up the
famous pillars at the mouth of the Straits:
for Diodorus [304] mentioning three Hercules’s,
the Egyptian, the Tyrian, and the son
of Alcmena, saith that the oldest flourished
among the Egyptians_, and having conquered a great
part of the world, set up the pillars in Afric_:
and Vasaeus, [305] that Osiris, called
also Dionysius, came into Spain_ and
conquered Geryon, and was the first who brought
Idolatry into Spain_. Strabo [306] tells
us, that the Ethiopians called Megabars
fought with clubs: and some of the Greeks
[307] did so ’till the times of the Trojan
war. Now from this hieroglyphical way of writing
it came to pass, that upon the division of Egypt
into Nomes by Sesostris, the great men
of the Kingdom to whom the Nomes were dedicated,
were represented in their Sepulchers or Temples of
the Nomes, by various hieroglyphicks; as by
an Ox, a Cat, a Dog, a Cebus,
a Goat, a Lyon, a Scarabaeus,
an Ichneumon, a Crocodile, an Hippopotamus,
an Oxyrinchus, an Ibis, a Crow,
a Hawk, a Leek, and were worshipped
by the Nomes in the shape of these creatures.


