DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.809#0075
CONNEXIONS: LIBYAN AND EGYPTIAN FACTORS 51
Athena, just as Rhea succeeded her at Knossos. In this connexion
a great interest attaches to the persistent Greek tradition which regarded
Pallas Athene as herself of Libyan origin.1 It can hardly be doubted that
Neith was the same as the Goddess of the Ausean2 Libyans, dwelling
about Lake Tritonis, who is identified with Athena in a special way by
Herodotus ;3 indeed the widespread cult of Neith among the Libyan tribes is
P 4
oar
□Of
□aaDDaQaoQQOoo
d e
Fig. 24. a, On Pre-dynastic Slate Palette ; b, Wall-painting, Beni-Hassan ;
c, Stela of Mer-Neith ; d, On Tablet of Aha ; e, Libyan Rock-carving.
attested by the recurrence of her symbol as a native tattoo-mark (Fig- '23,g, h).*
As a Sky Goddess, Mother of the Sun, who took the lead in his passage through
the Under-World and stood, generally, in a close relation to the cult of the
dead, Neith, who also assumed the form of a cow, was closely assimilated to Arrows of
Hathor and the Delta Goddess Wazet, whose cult, as we have seen, is partly shrineat
reflected by that of the Goddess who occupied the Central Shrine at Knossos-
Knossos.5 May not the votive arrows there found point to a fusion with
this sister divinity ?
A Libyan rock-carving (Fig. 24, e) from the Atlas region 6 shows that
1 Herodotus, ii. 28, 59, 83, 169, 170, 175; 3 iv. 180.
cf. Diod., i. 28, &c; Plato, Timaeus, ed. Franc. * H. Brugsch, Religion und Mythologie der
1043 ; Hesychius, s. v. Ny]td; cf. D. Mallet, alten Aegypter, p. 340 seqq.; O. Bates, op. at.,
Le Culte de Neit a Sais (Paris, 1888, &c.) and p. 139, and cf. p. 206.
AV. Drexler in Roschet's Lexikon (Nit). ■' P. of M., i, p. 509 seqq.
2 The parallelism between Neith and the ° G.-B.-M. Flamand, Inscriptions de la Gara
Ausean Goddess is worked out in the most des Chorfa, p. it, Fig. 7 ; O. Bates, Eastern
elaborate and conclusive way by Oric Bates Libyans, p. 148, Fig. 60.
(Eastern Libyans, p. 203 seqq.)
E 2
Athena, just as Rhea succeeded her at Knossos. In this connexion
a great interest attaches to the persistent Greek tradition which regarded
Pallas Athene as herself of Libyan origin.1 It can hardly be doubted that
Neith was the same as the Goddess of the Ausean2 Libyans, dwelling
about Lake Tritonis, who is identified with Athena in a special way by
Herodotus ;3 indeed the widespread cult of Neith among the Libyan tribes is
P 4
oar
□Of
□aaDDaQaoQQOoo
d e
Fig. 24. a, On Pre-dynastic Slate Palette ; b, Wall-painting, Beni-Hassan ;
c, Stela of Mer-Neith ; d, On Tablet of Aha ; e, Libyan Rock-carving.
attested by the recurrence of her symbol as a native tattoo-mark (Fig- '23,g, h).*
As a Sky Goddess, Mother of the Sun, who took the lead in his passage through
the Under-World and stood, generally, in a close relation to the cult of the
dead, Neith, who also assumed the form of a cow, was closely assimilated to Arrows of
Hathor and the Delta Goddess Wazet, whose cult, as we have seen, is partly shrineat
reflected by that of the Goddess who occupied the Central Shrine at Knossos-
Knossos.5 May not the votive arrows there found point to a fusion with
this sister divinity ?
A Libyan rock-carving (Fig. 24, e) from the Atlas region 6 shows that
1 Herodotus, ii. 28, 59, 83, 169, 170, 175; 3 iv. 180.
cf. Diod., i. 28, &c; Plato, Timaeus, ed. Franc. * H. Brugsch, Religion und Mythologie der
1043 ; Hesychius, s. v. Ny]td; cf. D. Mallet, alten Aegypter, p. 340 seqq.; O. Bates, op. at.,
Le Culte de Neit a Sais (Paris, 1888, &c.) and p. 139, and cf. p. 206.
AV. Drexler in Roschet's Lexikon (Nit). ■' P. of M., i, p. 509 seqq.
2 The parallelism between Neith and the ° G.-B.-M. Flamand, Inscriptions de la Gara
Ausean Goddess is worked out in the most des Chorfa, p. it, Fig. 7 ; O. Bates, Eastern
elaborate and conclusive way by Oric Bates Libyans, p. 148, Fig. 60.
(Eastern Libyans, p. 203 seqq.)
E 2