Wilkinson, John Gardner; Birch, Samuel [Contr.]: The Egyptians in the time of the pharaohs: being a companion to the Crystal Palace Egyptian collections (London, 1857)

15S

DOMESTIC HABITS OF THE EGYPTIANS.

Athens, and was borrowed from the bell-shaped capital of
Egypt.* Eor, however we may admire
the beautiful tale of its invention from
the basket and acanthus leaf, we readily
perceive its real origin ; and the whole
history of architecture clearly shows
how one style after another has bor-
rowed from a predecessor. (See, also,
the fragment found at Delphi, in Stuart
and Rivett's Athens, Suppl. Vol., p. 34,
pi. 2). 8°. The curve of the cornice,
borrowed from that of Egypt. The antefixw only bear an
accidental resemblance to the row of asps. 9°. The triglyphs

,t

(W. 124.)

tilt

At

fff. 123.)

and Metopes ; which were a common ornament of an Egyptian
temple (woodcut 125). They were, as usual, so far changed by
the Greeks, as to present a new character; but the opinion that
those over the so-called tombs of the kings, near Jerusalem,
were of any other than Greek origin, is utterly untenable.

10°. The band round the torus, as at the Parthenon, perhaps
modified from that of Egypt (above, p. 14G, woodcut, and p. 148).
11°. The guilloche, the scroll pattern, the zig-
zag or chevron, and others so common on the
oldest Egyptian ceilings and vases. (See above,
p. 42 to 46.)
12°. The Greeks, too, borrowed sphinxes, and
various conventional designs, common on their old vases, as the

* There is another proof of the bell-shaped capitals of Greece, the parents of
the Corinthian, having been derived from Egypt, in those of the "Treasury of
Atreus," given iu "Stuart and Rivett's Athens," Suppl. Vol., Mycena), PI. V.