ART. XIX. Monumens Egyptiens, &c. i. e. Egyptian Monuments, engraven on Two Hundred Plates, comprehending about Seven Hundred Subjects, with their Historical Explications. 2 Vols. Folio. Rome. 1791. Imported by Mulini, London. Price 21. 12s. 6d. in Boards.

IT will eafily be imagined that the engravings form the greater part of thefe very curious volumes. They confift of reprefentations of obelifks, pyramids, fepulchres, ftatues of idols and of priests, mummies, a great number of the deities of Egypt, bas-reliefs, facrifices, facred animals, &c. The work is dedicated to Cardinal de Zelada, Grand Penitencier, and Secretary of State; whofe portrait is prefixed, fubfcribed by the two following lines:

Sculpfimus hic vultus et religionis honores;

Sculpfiffe ingenium non erat artis opus!

The editors profefs themselves well aware that many of these monuments are already to be found in other celebrated collections: but it is obferved that they were never brought all together into one point of view, as they are in this publication; and that a great number are here inferted, which have not before been engraved. The gentlemen perfuade themselves, that the attention, which has been exerted to render it as perfect as poffible, will have fome weight with the public, and will engage them to allow to this a reception as favourable as that which honoured a former production of a fimilar kind. fine,' fay they, concluding the preface, we have been equally careful to confult ancient and modern authors, that we might give the work all the perfpicuity and all the accuracy which it requires, and of which it is fufceptible.'

In

Whether arts and fciences originated in Egypt, or whether other nations have not in fome refpects an equal or a prior claim to the honour of this fuppofition, is a fubject which it is unneceffary for us to difcufs: we obferve, however, some senfible remarks on this point in the preface to these volumes; among others, notice is taken of the uniformity which accompanies these remains of former ages: Following one and the fame rule, the Egyptians could make no innovation, could change nothing, either in their defigns or their figures; so that what is ancient appears as new as what is modern, because the modern is no better than what is ancient, and the ancient is not worse than the modern.'

In furveying these wonderful teftimonies of industry, invention, and ingenuity, fancy, fuperftition, and folly, in fo very diftant a period of time, we are fomewhat difficulted, as a celebrated judge ufed to fay, in regard to the fpecimens which

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we ought to felect: we fhall, therefore, as it were, fortuitously extract a few, and leave them to the reader's own reflections:

Vol. i. plate vii. fig. 3. Fragment of an obelisk.

Of all the remains of ancient Alexandria, few, in our opinion, are fo precious as this column of Pompey: without pretending to decide whether this title be justly affigned to it, we content ourfelves with remarking, that it is a quarter of a league diftant from the walls of the new city, raised on a natural hill of folid stone, steep on every fide, and between twenty and thirty cubits high. Its proportions are most beautiful; for we obferve a gradual diminution at each end, and a well in the middle: yet it is difficult to determine the order to which it belongs.

This column is in three pieces: the capital is one, the shaft and three feet of the bafe, which are united, form the fecond; the third is the base itself: each fide of this base is at least fifteen feet wide, and of the fame height. Its dimenfions and its elevation render it fuperior, without difpute, to any pillar in the world. Without fear of exaggeration, it may be confidently affirmed to be One hundred and ten feet high; and of proportionable thickness; four men can with difficulty compafs it. The bafe is as entire as ever: the capital, hollowed toward the top, anfwers to the other parts. Perhaps it may have fupported the image of Pompey, whofe name has been given to the monument; or poffibly the ftatue of fome other hero or emperor may have been placed at the fummit of this aftonishing mafs.'

Plate ix. Ifis.

There is much difagreement concerning the origin of Ifis: fome fay that she was the wife of Ofiris; others, that he was his fifter and his wife. Eufebius makes Ofiris the husband, the brother, and the fon, of this goddefs: the most received opinion identifies her with Io, daughter of Inachus, king of Argos:-Ifis, according to Herodotus, has been generally regarded as fignifying all the goddeffes, for which reafon fhe was called Myrionyme, or the goddess of a thoufand names. He adds, that the Egyptians confider her as the Ceres of the Greeks: he was refpected in Greece as well as in Egypt; and though her ceremonies were often rejected at Rome, yet the gradually received the fame honours that were paid to any other divinity. The Egyptians venerated her as the queen of heaven: but they adored her at first under her proper name of Io, which in their language fignified the moon. Inachus, the first king of Argos, introduced this worthip into Greece, one hundred and twenty years before the birth of Mofes. In a courfe of time, the priests of Egypt, believing that the moon alfo, like the fun, by her influence on the atmosphere, was a caufe of the inundation of the Nile, represented this effect by the name of Ifis, which fignifies the cause of plenty. In the Egyptian language, fays Servius on the Æneid, lib. 8. Iis alfo denotes the earth. The changes of nature were readily expreffed by

It is fuppofed to have been erected after the time of Strabo, as that writer makes no mention of it.

the ornaments allotted to this deity. Euftathius the grammarian reports, that in her feafts, they celebrated, with the fiftrum, the increafe of the Nile. Plutarch alfo affures us, that the different rifings of that river answered to the phases of the moon.'

There are many reprefentations of Ifis in thefe volumes;: concerning that, in particular, to which the above account is annexed, it is added, after the defcription of the figure and drefs, that it may poffibly have been intended to announce the opening of fpring, or the new moon of winter.

Plate xxix. fig. 1. Ofiris.

From the remoteft antiquity, the Egyptians adored the fun and moon under the pompous titles of the king and queen of heaven. The luminary of the day was at first called Phré: but when a difcovery was made of the Solar year, in the reign of Afeth, three hundred and twenty years after the departure of the Ifraelites, to im mortalize that important event, they gave him the name of Ofiris, or the author of time.-In this print, we fee him with a mitre on his head, the plant of Perfia* (la plante Perféa) under his chin, and holding a whip in his right hand; he is fo completely enveloped in drapery, that he might be taken for a Terminus, were it not that each of his hands appear placed on his ftomach.'

Plate xlviii. fig. 1, 2. Ifis, Cleopatra.

All the images reprefenting is with Horus, her child, on her knees, very much refemble each other; here, in order to fuckle him, the fuftains him on the right arm: the head-dress is different from that in which the commonly appears; it is round, fomewhat in the form of a bufhel, the circumference of which is exactly covered with plumes of feathers; a kind of ornament very ufual among the Egyptians. In this figure, we fee bracelets on the wrift, and on the arm near the fhoulder. The head-drefs of little Horus is not less remarkable than that of his mother.

Fig. 2. The hiftory of Cleopatra is not connected with our immediate fubject. Whatever were her voluptuous exceffes, her perfidy and cruelty, yet a reasonable man will not be fevere, and will always refpect the general character of the fex. The construction. the elegance, and the happy proportions, of this little ftatue, merit the attention of the artift. The natural appearance here exhibited is beautiful, and all, (except the homely face,) is conformable to the qualities and the charms which have ever been attributed to Cleopatra. The tunic, which spreads over the limbs, and one of the shoulders, and the back, covers alfo the binder part of her head, which is encircled by a diadem. Befide her bracelets, the other Ornaments of her drefs, together with the ferpent which he holds in her hand, fufficiently characterize this famous queen'

Plante Perfea, a plant, or a branch of a tree, fo called, growing in Egypt, as alfo in Perfia, feems to have been a diflinguishing mark of the priests, and perhaps of fome other confiderable perfons; whether it was fo requifite to their deities, is not perfectly clear, and may therefore fometimes leave us uncertain as to these flatues

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Vol. ii. plate i. Idol.

This is a woman, feated, and almoft naked, with the head of a lion clothed in a manner like that in which Ifis fometimes appears; the neck, or rather the bofom, is ornamented with a collar of feveral rows; fhe holds a key in her left hand. It has been thought that this idol marked the increase of the Nile in the months of July and Auguft, and alfo the opening of the fluices in the month of September, when the fun entered Virgo. This monument came, a fhort time fince, from Upper Egypt, beyond Memphis: it is of granite, well preferved, and may be seen at the country-houfe of M. Le Senateur Quirini, called Altichiero, fituated on the Brent, near Padua.'

Plate lviii. fig. 1. Ifis with the Head of a Cat.

In order to diftinguish the attributes common to feveral deities, it is neceffary to remark the fmalleft differences which are to be found on the monuments, and it is only in this manner that we can discover the cause and the object. As idolatry was founded on a veneration for fenfible objects, we can only discover the impreffions which they made by examining the country, the climate, and their productions. The Incas adored the fun as their benefactor, while the people of Chili regarded that luminary with horror, and paid their vows to the fea.-It was customary to give the name of fis to all the female divinities of Egypt; it is for this reafon that here is an Ifis with the head of a cat: this animal has always been an emblem of Ifis, because of her (fuppofed) connection with (Ses rapports) or relation to the moon. This might be Ifis of Bubafte, as the cat was principally worshipped in that city. The dress of the head is fingular;-befide other particularities, the hair is croffed by a little ferpent.'

Plate c. The Nile.

The Nile has its fource in the middle of a fwamp* in the kingdom of Abyffinia. Its courfe thence to the Mediterranean is at least 970 leagues. When the river is tranquil, it flows gently within the bed which nature and art have prepared for it: but when ruffled and fwelled by the rains which fall in abundance in Ethiopia, during the months of June, July, and Auguft, it burfts its limits, and covers with its enriching waters a fpace of more than two hundred leagues, which, without its affiftance, would be converted into a defert. The ancient Egyptians, as an acknowlegement of the vaft advantages which the Nile procured for them, erected altars to it, and there paid the most folemn worship, furpaffing in its pomp any that was ever offered by the worshippers of rivers. Ofiris and Ifis, themselves, that is to fay, the fun and the moon, had their altars only on account of their connection with the Nile, and their influence on its waters.

See alfo Mr. Bruce's account, or our extract, Review, New Series, vol. ii. p. 427.

The

The people of Egypt, more fully to teftify their gratitude to this beneficent river, to which they almoft owe their existence, have bestowed on it the most pompous titles of, Father, the Saviour of the Country, and the Te reftrial Ofiris: they have gone so far as to fay that the gods were born on its banks. They founded the city Nilopolis in honour of it, with a fuperb temple: in confiderable cities, they have priests confecrated to the Nile, who embalm the bodies of thofe who have been killed by crocodiles, or have otherwife perished in its waters.

The inundation, which commenced at the fummer folftice, occafioned the great feast of the Nile, a folemnity which, according to Heliodorus, was the most celebrated in the country, because the Egyptians revered the river as the first of their deities, proclaiming that it was the rival of heaven, since it watered their plains without any foreign affistance. At the moment when its increase began, the priests, who were deftined to this fervice, brought, from the temples of Serapis, the Nilometer, and carried it in pomp through the towns. This Nilometer was a ftatue of wood, which, after the decrease of the waters, was deposited again in the fanctuary whence it had been taken. That which is here reprefented, is of marble, and is now lodged in the Vatican Museum: it reprefents the Nile, perfonified as a man, lying on a bed of rofes, leaning on a Sphinx, with one arm again it a cornu copiæ, and a number of children playing about him on all fides, who are probably intended to mark the number of degrees to which the waters have risen.

• All the festivals which have been appointed in honour of the Nile, are not entirely abolished to this day. When the Nile was flow in its advance, the ancient Egyptians are faid to have facrificed to Serapis the most beautiful young woman that they could find; who, being clothed in the richest attire, was drowned in the river, as a victim capable of appealing the anger of the deity, and of rendering him propitious. The Caliph Omar, according to the Arabian historians, abolished this barbarous rite, and threw a letter into the river, by which he commanded it to increafe, if it were the will of God. It is pretended that this ceremony has been renewed by the prefent inhabitants of Egypt, whenever the Nile did not afcend to its accustomed height.'

We have thus endeavoured to give our readers a flight view of the prefent entertaining and inftructive performance. We fhall only farther remark that, however we may be disposed to admire the ingenuity of the ancient Egyptians, we are alfo obliged, from fuch remains as thefe, to acknowlege their remarkable ignorance and abfurdity. Priefts and princes knew then, as they have known fince, by what means they might beft gain an abfolute afcendancy over the people!

Hi...s. ART.