H A R P O C R A T E S.
Harpocrates, the son of Isis and Osiris, is the god of Silence. He is represented, in his statues as young, but with a countenance calm and severe, and on his brow a mitre, divided into two equal portions. His finger is placed upon his lip, to intimate the silence he maintains, and hence, all modern works of art adopt the same sign, when they wish to represent the quality over which Harpocrates is supposed to preside.
The Romans placed his statue at the entrance of their temples, to intimate that the mysteries of religion should never be revealed to the people.
"There is a lake that to the North
Of Memphis, stretches grandly forth,
Upon whose silent shore the dead
Have a proud city of their own,
With shrines and pyramids o'erspread—
Where many an ancient, kingly head
Slumbers, immortalized in stone;
And where, through marble grots beneath,
The lifeless, ranged like sacred things,
Nor wanting aught of life, but breath,
Lie in their painted loveliness,
And in each new successive race,
That visit their dim haunts below,
Look with the same unwithering face,
They wore three thousand years ago.
There Silence, thoughtful god, who loves
The neighbourhood of death, in groves
Of Asphodel lies hid, and weaves
His hushing spell among the leaves—
Nor ever noise disturbs the air,
Save the low, humming, mournful sound
Of priests, within their shrines at prayer,
For the fresh dead, entombed around."
Moore.