DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.3720#0152
SUBJECTS ON THE PYKAMIDAL TOWERS. 135
all the architectural details, were conspicuous with the same
rich mode of decoration. Even granite was painted, except
when the surface, well-polished, was thought to have sufficient
effect in its own colour.
The historical subjects on the walls of the temple were those
that chiefly excited the admiration of strangers in old times;
and from them the priests read to Germanicus " the amount of
tribute imposed on conquered nations," which was pronounced
by Tacitus to have been " not less magnificent than that exacted
by Parthian despotism, or levied by the power of Home."
On the large pyramidal towers, forming the facade of the
temple, the king generally slays a group of captives in the pre-
sence of the god, who, holding forth a falchion, says, " Take
this, and smite with it the chiefs (heads) of the impure na-
tions." This emblematic group is typical of the victory he has
been permitted to obtain, and not, as some have supposed, a
human sacrifice ; for the advanced state of civilisation to which
the Egyptians had arrived, which had taught them to lay aside
their arms in the city, and which made them rescue from death,
even in the heat of battle, those enemies whose galley had been
upset, sufficiently proves that such representations were not
offerings of human victims to a god; which is farther confirmed
by the Ptolemies having the same emblematic group on temples
of their time. It is equally erroneous to call these several
captives with uplifted arms a figure of Briareus. But of all the-
misconceptions of modern days the most extraordinary is that
which sees in the " sacred sycamore " of IS'etpe (Rhea) the
tree of the Garden of Eden ; the goddess being innocently occu-
pied in giving the fruit to the deserving dead; as Athor (Venus)
gives it from the Persea; together with the drink of heaven,—
the evident origin of the ambrosia and nectar of Greek fable.*
See Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptian^ plttn 82, oO'J
all the architectural details, were conspicuous with the same
rich mode of decoration. Even granite was painted, except
when the surface, well-polished, was thought to have sufficient
effect in its own colour.
The historical subjects on the walls of the temple were those
that chiefly excited the admiration of strangers in old times;
and from them the priests read to Germanicus " the amount of
tribute imposed on conquered nations," which was pronounced
by Tacitus to have been " not less magnificent than that exacted
by Parthian despotism, or levied by the power of Home."
On the large pyramidal towers, forming the facade of the
temple, the king generally slays a group of captives in the pre-
sence of the god, who, holding forth a falchion, says, " Take
this, and smite with it the chiefs (heads) of the impure na-
tions." This emblematic group is typical of the victory he has
been permitted to obtain, and not, as some have supposed, a
human sacrifice ; for the advanced state of civilisation to which
the Egyptians had arrived, which had taught them to lay aside
their arms in the city, and which made them rescue from death,
even in the heat of battle, those enemies whose galley had been
upset, sufficiently proves that such representations were not
offerings of human victims to a god; which is farther confirmed
by the Ptolemies having the same emblematic group on temples
of their time. It is equally erroneous to call these several
captives with uplifted arms a figure of Briareus. But of all the-
misconceptions of modern days the most extraordinary is that
which sees in the " sacred sycamore " of IS'etpe (Rhea) the
tree of the Garden of Eden ; the goddess being innocently occu-
pied in giving the fruit to the deserving dead; as Athor (Venus)
gives it from the Persea; together with the drink of heaven,—
the evident origin of the ambrosia and nectar of Greek fable.*
See Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptian^ plttn 82, oO'J