Wilkinson, John Gardner: The Architecture Of Ancient Egypt: In Which The Columns Are Arranged In Orders, And The Temples Classified; With Remarks On The Early Progress Of Architecture, Etc.; With A Large Volume Of Plates Ilustrative Of The Subject, And Containing The Various Columns And details, From Actual Measurement (Text) (London, 1850)

62 ARCHITECTURE OF EGYPT. PART II.

ing, is no less strange and unsightly, being bevelled
downwards from the window-sill, and having also
the appearance of being placed upside down.* But
these fungus-shaped columns were not imitated by
the successors of that capricious royal architect;
who, not satisfied with erecting a greater number
of buildings than any of his predecessors, com-
mitted the injustice of erasing the name of his
sister, and copartner in the throne, from the monu-
ments she built, and claiming them as his own.

8. The eighth order is the Osiride pillar,
answering to the Caryatide of Greece, f It con-
sists of a square pillar, with the statue of a king, in
the form of Osiris (the abstract idea of goodness)
attached to the front of it; from which I have
given it the name of Osiride pillar. It evidently
derived its origin from the square pillar, with the
figure of the god painted, and afterwards sculptured
in relief, upon it; and the same remark applies
to those, which have figures of a Typhonian
monster attached to them.J The statue itself does
not support any member of the building; and the
architrave rests solely on the square pillar behind
it; in which respect it differs from the Caryatide,
that bore on its head the entablature of the edi-
fice. It is, nevertheless, reasonable to suppose that
the Greeks borrowed the idea from Egypt; and
though they placed their figures of Persians, Cary-
ans, or others, to support the entablature, without

* Plate xv, figs. 2, 3. t Plate xvi, figs. 1, 2.

% As at Gebel Berkel in Ethiopia, where the temples are copies of
those in Egypt, and partly built by Egyptians.