Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 3,1): Zeus god of the dark sky (earthquake, clouds, wind, dew, rain, meteorits): Text and notes (Cambridge, 1940)

The holed vessel in Egypt 345

The nearest parallel to the effigy of Kanopos is to be found, not
In the so-called 'Canopic jars' used to contain the viscera of the
deceased and commonly topped by the heads of the four children
°f Horos1, but in certain remarkable simulacra, which may be seen

e salt water of the sea, which as the river sank forced its way up the river-bed. Thus
e old conflict between Osiris and Set was interpreted at Kanopos as a struggle between
le river-water and the sea-water. When the priests of Kanopos found fresh water
streaming into their holy vessel, they celebrated with joy the finding of Osiris. Weber
Seeks support for his reconstruction in Plout. de Is. et Os. 39 (Typhon's drought attacks
and masters the moisture that generates and nurtures the Nile. Typhon's ally is the
(jr-e.en °^ 'ne Aithiopes, i.e. south winds that master the etesian winds, which were
and"1^ t'16 C'ouc's towards Aithiopia and so bringing rain to increase the Nile. Typhon
n his ally send a weakened and lowered river to the sea—a fact represented by the
osure of Osiris in his coffin. This happens in the month Athyr, when the nights
/,-°W }0nger and daylight declines. The priests then drape a gilded cow in a black
• «* hon of fine linen—the cow representing Isis or the earth—and exhibit it for four
t,le of tbe month [ = Nov- t3—16: see Frazer Golden Bough'3: Adonis
{<rro\ is3 8+l- But on the 19th they go down by night to the sea, and the drapers
(Kta ,t<r7"a0 and priests bring out the sacred ark (kIittt)) containing a golden casket

who int° which they pour drinkable

water. A shout is raised by the people present,
J10 cry that Osiris has been found ! Then they mix fruitful soil with the water (ttjv
incgj^*0* ^) 'arider and others cjj. yTjv KaoTrifiov) (pvpdcrt rip BSart), add costly spices and
ail(j ' and mould a little moon-shaped image (^voetSes ayakfi&Tiov), which they clothe
*ater) °rn' tbereby indicating their belief that these deities are essentially earth and

such ' ' "*Uis Budge Tlie Mummy Cambridge 1893 pp. 194—201 states that four
the dead WGre leSu'arly employed by the Egyptians to contain the principal intestines of
d0g_jle ' They were dedicated respectively to the man-headed Mestha or Amset, the
f0Ur ^ ?api> the jackal-headed Tuamautef, and the hawk-headed Qebhsennuf. These
thernse] S °^ ^ ^e&^ are described as the children of Horus or the children of Osiris and
Selket ES sto°d under the protection of four goddesses, viz. Isis, Nephthys, Neith, and
PP- 1 °r ^erclet- G- Elliot Smith—W. R. Dawson Egyptian Mummies London 1924
dynast^ th'^ ^^"ne Canopic Jars') point out that down to the end of the eighteenth
'Wren f 'la<^ buman heads, but that later they were made to resemble the four
stomach 1° ^°rus 'human, hawk, jackal, ape), the liver being protected by Imsety, the
^'fe in a ^ Puamute'> the lungs by Hapy, and the intestines by Qebeh-snewef. A. Erman
%ures <"Clent Egypt trans. H. M. Tirard London 1894 p. 317 describes and ib. p. 306
alabaster~ pL xxxiii> *) a typical set of the four jars. PI. xxxiii, 2 is from a set, made of
and Ethi 'nvmy possession- See also H. R. Hall in J. Hastings Encyclopedia of Religion
l^lif>. 1" mburgh 1911 iv. 459*. A. H. Gardiner The Tomb of Amenemhet London
^Ofrer3/;' "° CaSe 'S there any just'fication for the current term 'Canopic.'
lfbe\\ah ° P' w'lhout citing his authority, says that such jars sen

^•'isteid rUn^ ^eS ^T''wassers und der Muniieneingeweide.' In this connexion note

UeX. P. 392. without dting h^ori* says ttat such j£*rv«l 'W
^bewahrung des Nihvassers und der Mumieneingewe.de. In th.s con"LXlon
JjWd. or. 48. 362 (iL to Dindorf) «, i*P» AlTftmo. "^' "JV

ZtV In View °fthe fact that corpses or parts of corpses, e.g._the head, are
J^d %vith wat£r as rain charP er GMen Bough>: The Mapc Art u *£.

of I^VP the body of a recently buried Tew' abstraCt thC hC o, occasion have

I graham.)), it is presumably flu, ordinary intestine-jars may on occas.on

Used for the same puqiose; but evidence is lacking.