ḫem is minuere, and as the ordinary meaning of the Demotic
is “small,” like the Coptic ϣⲟⲙ = λεπτὸς, it is not improbable that the stars received this appellation on account of their tiny size as compared with the Sun and Moon. They were what Horace called the “ignes minores.”
The Sun and Moon, as we all know, are called in Gen. i, 16, the “Two Great Lights.”
[4.] Both the Eastern and the Western horizon are mentioned in this chapter, but “Horus of the Two Horizons,” has no reference to this distinction. Whatever the Sun passes through or over is always conceived as double. The Two Earths imply simply the Earth as divided by the passage of the Sun above it. It is to M. Grébaut that we are indebted for the discovery of this important key to many Egyptian expressions.
