Note 79 — XVIII THREE STATUETTES IN WOOD (The Louvre)

Sokari (Σώχαρις of the fragment of Cratinus the Younger, “Fragm. Comicor. græcorum,” edition Didot) was the god of the dead at Memphis, as Osiris was at Abydos; so they were soon identified one with the other, Sokar-Osiri, and with Phtah, Phtah-Sokari, Phtah-Sokar-Osiri. Here the scribe, who first took the three sacred names as belonging to one same god whom he qualified as Prince of Eternity in the singular, later regarded them as belonging to three different gods, and used the plural pronoun, SE, variant of SEN: “to whom THEY give” instead of “to whom HE gives.”