DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4393#0461
ABYDUS AND CAIRO. 443
slabs, like the roofing-stones of the temples. "We see how
Khufu and Khafra and Menkara lay, each under his
mountain of stone, with his family and his nobles around
him. We see the great causeways which moved Herodotus
to such wonder, and along which the giant stones were
brought, llecognizing how clearly the place is a great
cemetery, one marvels at the ingenious theories which turn
the pyramids into astronomical observatories, and abstruse
standards of measurement. They are the grandest graves*
in all the world—and they are nothing more.
The little way to the southward, from the midst of a
sandy hollow, rises the head of the sphinx. Older than
the 'pyramids, older than history, the monster lies couch-
ant like a watch-dog, looking ever to the east, as if for
some dawn that has not yet risen, f A depression in the
* The word pyramid, for which so many derivations have heeu
suggested, is shown in the geometrical papyrus of the British
Museum to be distinctly Egyptian, and is written Per-cm-iis.
•)■ " On sait par line stele du musee deBoulaq, que le grand Sphinx
anterieur an Rois Cheops de la IV Dynastie."—"Die. d'Arch. Egypti-
enne:" Article Sphinx. P. Pierret. Paris, 187o.
[It was the opinion of Mariette, and it is the opinion of Professor
Mapero, that the sphinx dates from the inconceivable remote period
of the HornhcKti, or " followers of Horns;" that is to say, from those
prehistoric times when Egypt was ruled by a number of petty chief-
tains, before Mena welded the ancient principalities into a united
kingdom. Those principalities then became the nomes, or provinces,
of historic times; and the former local chieftains became semi-inde-
pendent feudatories, such as we find surviving with undiminished
authority and importance during the twelfth dynast}-.—[Note to
second edition.]
A long-disputed question as to the meaning of the sphinx has of
late been finally solved. The sphinx is shown by M. J. de Kongo, ac-
cording to an inscription at Edfu, to represent a transformation of
Horns, who in order to vanquish Set (Typhon) took the shape of a
human-headed lion. It was under this form that llorus was adored
in the Nome Leontopolites. In the above-mentioned stela of Boulak,
known as the stone of Cheops, the Great Sphinx is especially desig-
nated as the Sphinx of llor-em-Khou, or Ilorus-on-the-IIori'/.on.
This is evidently in reference to the orientation of the figure. It
has often been asked why the sphinx is turned to the east. I pre-
sume the answer would be, because llorus, avenger of Osiris, looks
to the east, awaiting the return of his father from the lower world.
As Horns was supposed to have reigned over Egypt, every Pharaoh
took the title of Living llorus, Golden Hawk, etc Hence the
features of the reigning king were always given to the sphinx
form when architecturally employed, as at Karnak, Wady Sabooah,
Tanis. etc.
slabs, like the roofing-stones of the temples. "We see how
Khufu and Khafra and Menkara lay, each under his
mountain of stone, with his family and his nobles around
him. We see the great causeways which moved Herodotus
to such wonder, and along which the giant stones were
brought, llecognizing how clearly the place is a great
cemetery, one marvels at the ingenious theories which turn
the pyramids into astronomical observatories, and abstruse
standards of measurement. They are the grandest graves*
in all the world—and they are nothing more.
The little way to the southward, from the midst of a
sandy hollow, rises the head of the sphinx. Older than
the 'pyramids, older than history, the monster lies couch-
ant like a watch-dog, looking ever to the east, as if for
some dawn that has not yet risen, f A depression in the
* The word pyramid, for which so many derivations have heeu
suggested, is shown in the geometrical papyrus of the British
Museum to be distinctly Egyptian, and is written Per-cm-iis.
•)■ " On sait par line stele du musee deBoulaq, que le grand Sphinx
anterieur an Rois Cheops de la IV Dynastie."—"Die. d'Arch. Egypti-
enne:" Article Sphinx. P. Pierret. Paris, 187o.
[It was the opinion of Mariette, and it is the opinion of Professor
Mapero, that the sphinx dates from the inconceivable remote period
of the HornhcKti, or " followers of Horns;" that is to say, from those
prehistoric times when Egypt was ruled by a number of petty chief-
tains, before Mena welded the ancient principalities into a united
kingdom. Those principalities then became the nomes, or provinces,
of historic times; and the former local chieftains became semi-inde-
pendent feudatories, such as we find surviving with undiminished
authority and importance during the twelfth dynast}-.—[Note to
second edition.]
A long-disputed question as to the meaning of the sphinx has of
late been finally solved. The sphinx is shown by M. J. de Kongo, ac-
cording to an inscription at Edfu, to represent a transformation of
Horns, who in order to vanquish Set (Typhon) took the shape of a
human-headed lion. It was under this form that llorus was adored
in the Nome Leontopolites. In the above-mentioned stela of Boulak,
known as the stone of Cheops, the Great Sphinx is especially desig-
nated as the Sphinx of llor-em-Khou, or Ilorus-on-the-IIori'/.on.
This is evidently in reference to the orientation of the figure. It
has often been asked why the sphinx is turned to the east. I pre-
sume the answer would be, because llorus, avenger of Osiris, looks
to the east, awaiting the return of his father from the lower world.
As Horns was supposed to have reigned over Egypt, every Pharaoh
took the title of Living llorus, Golden Hawk, etc Hence the
features of the reigning king were always given to the sphinx
form when architecturally employed, as at Karnak, Wady Sabooah,
Tanis. etc.