DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7416#0052
42
young bull ;* who is the mystic god Epapbus, the Apis of the
./Egyptians, fabled by the Greeks to have been the son of Jupiter
and Io.z
54. As men improved in the practice of the imitative arts, they
gradually changed the animal, for the human form ; preserving still
the characteristic features, which marked its symbolical meaning.
Of this^the most ancient specimens now extant are the heads of Venus
or Isis, (for they were in many respects the same personification,)5
upon the capitals of oneof the temples of Philae, an island in the Nile
between JEgypt and ./Ethiopia : and in these we find the horns and
ears of the cow joined to the beautiful features of a woman in the
prime of life.4 In the same manner the Greek sculptors of the
finest ages of the art represented lo ;! who was the same goddess
confounded with an historical or poetical personage by the licen-
tious imaginations of the Greek mythologists; as we shall further
show in the sequel. Her name seems to have come from the north ;
there being no obvious etymology for it in the Greek tongue :
but, in the ancient Gothic and Scandinavian, Io and Gio signified
the earth ; as Isi and Isa signified ice, or water in its primordial
state; and both were equally titles of the goddess, that represented
the productive and nutritive power of the earth; and, therefore,
may afford a more probable etymology for the name lsis, than any
that has hitherto been given.6 The god or goddess of Nature is
1 See those of Dyrrachium and Parium.
I Euripid. Phceniss. 688. ed. Porson.
3 'H yap \&is ecri i±ev to ttis (pu&eus 8t}\v, Kai Scktikov airaaas 7€y€<rea)s, KadoTiBi^vri
Kat iravfiexqs inro UXarwvos, vwo 5e Ttav iroXKuv p.vpia)yv^ios Ke/cA7]Tai, 5ta to iraaas into
tov Xoyov Tpexo^vT) nop<pas Sex^at feat iSeas. Plutarch, de Is. & Osir. p. 372.
Isis juncta religione celebratur, qua? est vel terra, vel natura rerum Soli
subjacens. Macrob. Sat. 1. c. xx.
+ Norden's .Egypt.
S To yap ttjs linos ayaXfia, eov yvvami]iov 0ovKepuv eori, Karairip "E.XXi)vts ttjv low
ypatpovffi. Herodot. lib. ii.
e 01. Rudbeck. Atlant. p. l. c. xviii. & xx. p. 854. p. 11. c. v. p. 208-314,
340, & 451.
Edda Snorron. Myth. i-v.
young bull ;* who is the mystic god Epapbus, the Apis of the
./Egyptians, fabled by the Greeks to have been the son of Jupiter
and Io.z
54. As men improved in the practice of the imitative arts, they
gradually changed the animal, for the human form ; preserving still
the characteristic features, which marked its symbolical meaning.
Of this^the most ancient specimens now extant are the heads of Venus
or Isis, (for they were in many respects the same personification,)5
upon the capitals of oneof the temples of Philae, an island in the Nile
between JEgypt and ./Ethiopia : and in these we find the horns and
ears of the cow joined to the beautiful features of a woman in the
prime of life.4 In the same manner the Greek sculptors of the
finest ages of the art represented lo ;! who was the same goddess
confounded with an historical or poetical personage by the licen-
tious imaginations of the Greek mythologists; as we shall further
show in the sequel. Her name seems to have come from the north ;
there being no obvious etymology for it in the Greek tongue :
but, in the ancient Gothic and Scandinavian, Io and Gio signified
the earth ; as Isi and Isa signified ice, or water in its primordial
state; and both were equally titles of the goddess, that represented
the productive and nutritive power of the earth; and, therefore,
may afford a more probable etymology for the name lsis, than any
that has hitherto been given.6 The god or goddess of Nature is
1 See those of Dyrrachium and Parium.
I Euripid. Phceniss. 688. ed. Porson.
3 'H yap \&is ecri i±ev to ttis (pu&eus 8t}\v, Kai Scktikov airaaas 7€y€<rea)s, KadoTiBi^vri
Kat iravfiexqs inro UXarwvos, vwo 5e Ttav iroXKuv p.vpia)yv^ios Ke/cA7]Tai, 5ta to iraaas into
tov Xoyov Tpexo^vT) nop<pas Sex^at feat iSeas. Plutarch, de Is. & Osir. p. 372.
Isis juncta religione celebratur, qua? est vel terra, vel natura rerum Soli
subjacens. Macrob. Sat. 1. c. xx.
+ Norden's .Egypt.
S To yap ttjs linos ayaXfia, eov yvvami]iov 0ovKepuv eori, Karairip "E.XXi)vts ttjv low
ypatpovffi. Herodot. lib. ii.
e 01. Rudbeck. Atlant. p. l. c. xviii. & xx. p. 854. p. 11. c. v. p. 208-314,
340, & 451.
Edda Snorron. Myth. i-v.