Note 114 — Chapter XVI · ABOU SIMBEL.

It is not often that one can say of a female head in an Egyptian wall painting that it is beautiful; but in these portraits of the queen, many times repeated upon the walls of the first hall of the Temple of Hathor, there is, if not positive beauty according to our western notions, much sweetness and much grace. The name of Nefertari means perfect, good, or beautiful companion. That the word “Nefer” should mean both good and beautiful—in fact, that beauty and goodness should be synonymous terms—is not merely interesting as it indicates a lofty philosophical standpoint, but as it reveals, perhaps, the latent germ of that doctrine which was hereafter to be taught with such brilliant results in the Alexandrian schools. It is remarkable that the word for truth and justice (Ma) was also one and the same.

There is often a quaint significance about Egyptian proper names which reminds one of the names that came into favor in England under the commonwealth. Take, for instance, Bak-en-Khonsu, Servant-of-Khons; Pa-ta-Amen, the Gift of Ammon; Renpitnefer, Good-year; Nub-en Tekh, Worth-Her-Weight-in-Gold (both women’s names); and Hor-mes-out’-a-Shu, Horus Son-of-the-Eye-of Shu—which last, as a tolerably long compound, may claim relationship with Praise-God Barebones, Hew-Agag-in-Pieces-before-the-Lord, etc.