Note 911 — OMPHI,

We have a curious inscription to this purpose, and a representation, which was first exhibited by the learned John Price in his observations upon Apuleius. It is copied from an original, which he saw at Venice: and there is an engraving from it in the Edition of Herodotus by [911]Gronovius, as well as in that by [912]Wesselinge: but about the purport of it they are strangely mistaken. They suppose it to relate to a daughter of Mycerinus, the son of Cheops. She died, it seems: and her father was so affected with her death, that he made a bull of wood, which he gilt, and in it interred his daughter. Herodotus says, that he saw the bull of Mycerinus; and that it alluded to this history. But, notwithstanding the authority of this great author, we may be assured that it was an emblematical representation, and an image of the sacred bull Apis and Mneuis. And, in respect to the sculpture above mentioned, and the characters therein expressed, the whole is a religious ceremony, and relates to an event of great antiquity, which was commemorated in the rites of Osiris. Of this I shall treat hereafter: at present, it is sufficient to observe, that the sacred process is carried on before a temple; on which is a Greek inscription, but in the provincial characters: Ενδον Πατρικην Ἑορτην Φερω. How can Ἑορτη Πατρικη relate to a funeral? It denotes a festival in honour of the Sun, who was styled, as I have shewn, Pator; and his temple was called Patra: whence these rites were denominated Patrica. Plutarch alludes to this Egyptian ceremony, and supposes it to relate to Isis, and to her mourning for the loss of her son. Speaking of the month Athyr, he mentions [913]Βουν διαχρυσον ἱματιῳ μελανι βυσσινῳ περιβαλοντες επι πενθει της Θεου δεικνυουσιν (ὁι Αιγυπτιοι). The Egyptians have a custom in the month Athyr of ornamenting a golden image of a bull; which they cover with a black robe of the finest linen. This they do in commemoration of Isis, and her grief for the loss of Orus. In every figure, as they are represented in the sculpture, there appears deep silence and reverential awe: but nothing that betrays any sorrow in the agents. They may commemorate the grief of Isis; but they certainly do not allude to any misfortune of their own: nor is there any thing the least funereal in the process. The Egyptians of all nations were the most extravagant in their [914]grief. If any died in a family of consequence, the women used by way of shewing their concern to soil their heads with the mud of the river; and to disfigure their faces with filth. In this manner they would run up and down the streets half naked, whipping themselves as they ran: and the men likewise whipped themselves. They cut off their hair upon the death of a dog; and shaved their eyebrows for a dead cat. We may therefore judge, that some very strong symptoms of grief would have been expressed, had this picture any way related to the sepulture of a king's daughter. Herodotus had his account from different people: one half he confessedly [915]disbelieved; and the remainder was equally incredible. For no king of Egypt, if he had made a representation of the sacred [916]bull, durst have prostituted it for a tomb: and, as I have before said, Ἑορτη Πατρικη can never relate to a funeral.