tions of the dominant god. The falcon god Horus sits behind the head of the great statue of Chephren. So late a monarch as Rameses III (XIXth Dynasty) is represented upon his sarcophagus (now at Cambridge) bearing the distinctive symbols of .png)
Inscription (round the edges of cover), as far as decipherable.
"Osiris, King of Upper and Lower Egypt, lord of the two countries… son of the Sun, beloved of the gods, lord of diadems, Rameses, prince of Heliopolis, triumphant! Thou art in the condition of a god, thou shalt arise as Usr, there is no enemy to thee, I give to thee triumph among them...." Budge, Catalogue, Egyptian Collection, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
the three great gods of the Egyptian system.[1] He carries the two sceptres of Osiris, the god of Day and Resurrection; upon his head are the horns of the cow goddess Hathor, and also the sun ball and feathers of Ammon Ra. He is not merely wearing the symbols of these gods as a devout Babylonian might wear the symbols of Bel-Marduk; he is these three gods in one.
The student will find much more in Sir J. G. Frazer's Golden Bough about the ancient use of human beings as well as statues to represent gods. Here we have merely to point to an apparent difference of idea between the Asiatic and African monarchies in this respect.
We find also a number of sculptures and paintings to enforce
- ↑ See S. Sharpe's Egyptian Mythology and Egyptian Christianity.
