DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9059#0060
LANGUAGE AND WRITING.
55
mus. Evidently these were so many symbols
which meant: ' Oh, ye who are entering upon
life, and ye who are ready to quit it, God hates
impudence, arrogance, pride of heart, and self-
sufficiency.' Thus the entrance into life is ex-
pressed by a child, death by an old man, divinity
by a hawk, hatred by a fish, because of the sea,
and impudence by the hippopotamus." — "A vul-
ture signifies nature," says Ammianus Marcel-
linus. " Why ? Because it is said that amongst
those creatures no males are to be found. A
king is symbolized by a bee making honey.
Why ? Because the king is the director of his
people, whom he ought to be able to check by
his gentleness, at the same time that he incites
them." *
The discovery of Champollion, however, has
* These traditions are not entirely without foundation.
A fish is pronounced betu, and betu means evil, sin,
abomination. The bee is pronounced sekliet, and desig-
nates the sovereignty over Lower Egypt. If the temple of
Minerva at Sal's belonged to the Lower Period, it may
Well be that, in accordance with the maniere spirit of the
times, and regardless of all grammatical connection, they
wrote a child, an old man, a hawk, a fish, a hipfiopotamus,
for what would thus be rendered, "Oh, child, oh, old man,
the divinity holds all evil in abomination" (the hippo-
potamus being considered as a typhonian animal). Strictly
speaking, therefore, Diodorus, Plutarch and Ammianus
55
mus. Evidently these were so many symbols
which meant: ' Oh, ye who are entering upon
life, and ye who are ready to quit it, God hates
impudence, arrogance, pride of heart, and self-
sufficiency.' Thus the entrance into life is ex-
pressed by a child, death by an old man, divinity
by a hawk, hatred by a fish, because of the sea,
and impudence by the hippopotamus." — "A vul-
ture signifies nature," says Ammianus Marcel-
linus. " Why ? Because it is said that amongst
those creatures no males are to be found. A
king is symbolized by a bee making honey.
Why ? Because the king is the director of his
people, whom he ought to be able to check by
his gentleness, at the same time that he incites
them." *
The discovery of Champollion, however, has
* These traditions are not entirely without foundation.
A fish is pronounced betu, and betu means evil, sin,
abomination. The bee is pronounced sekliet, and desig-
nates the sovereignty over Lower Egypt. If the temple of
Minerva at Sal's belonged to the Lower Period, it may
Well be that, in accordance with the maniere spirit of the
times, and regardless of all grammatical connection, they
wrote a child, an old man, a hawk, a fish, a hipfiopotamus,
for what would thus be rendered, "Oh, child, oh, old man,
the divinity holds all evil in abomination" (the hippo-
potamus being considered as a typhonian animal). Strictly
speaking, therefore, Diodorus, Plutarch and Ammianus