The many variants of the constellation or star termed “the divine triangle” or “the triangle of the god” next claim attention. An extremely interesting variant of this constellation represents a hawk-headed sphinx, next to the triangle (pl. [vi], 1); 2-4 represent the common form expressing the name Sopedet. As Brugsch informs us, the above name was changed at a more recent period into Satit (6-8), which he translates as “she who shoots, the archeress” or “she who causes the Nile to rise.” In these cases the written name either contains an arrow (6), the pyramid symbol for earth (7), or a seated figure above whose head is a single star (8). A rarer form of representing the same constellation is 9 and 10, the group being transcribed by “Satit Hont Khabsu” which Brugsch translates as “Sothis, the Queen of the ... stars.” From the feminine terminations employed in the text it is clear that it is a cow which figures here in the boat, with a single star between its horns and it appears to me to be obvious that we have to deal here with the feminine form of Polaris, with Auset=Isis, closely related to the Assyrian “goddess of battle,” Ishtar, the [pg 406] female counterpart of Ausar=Osiris, the Assyrian Anshar, or Ashur, the “god of battle.”
Plate VI.
This view is confirmed by further astronomical pictures published by Brugsch, which appear to me not merely to signify the constellations Orion and Sirius as Brugsch infers, but to be hieroglyphs intended to be understood by the initiated only, representing two or more of the forms under which Amen-Ra was figured. At Edfu (pl. [vi], 11) the boat=au, uaa, and the mummy=sah form a fair rebus for Ausar=Osiris, while the boat alongside of it contains the cow, a form under which Isis=Hathor was worshipped in Egypt during centuries. At Denderah (12) there is a cow in one boat=Isis; and a man in another who holds the sceptre tam, emblematic of power, and turns his head around, an evident allusion to the action an=he who turns himself around, or to sah=one who turns away. Between both is the hawk=bak or Hur-chuti=Horus, standing on the sceptre named aut, composed of the lotus flower=ankh. A variant of the same group (13) also symbolizing the “Above, Below and Middle,” and from Denderah, represents Isis only in the celestial boat and Osiris standing (on earth) holding, beside the tam, the whip=nekhe khu, emblematic of rule. In 14, a female figure stands in the boat under the written name Auset=Isis and bears in her hand the ankh sign and the lotus flower=ankh sceptre. In the second boat the figure of a boy (ahi) turning (an or sah) his head, holds up the ankh. In 15, we seem to have an evidence of the ascendancy of Isis worship, for the boat contains not only the cow, under the name satit=she who shoots, or the archeress, but also the standing figure of the goddess, crowned by the disk or circle between two horns.
A striking proof that the knowledge of the true, hidden meaning of the signs just discussed was regarded by those who possessed it as an evidence of an advanced stage of initiation in the mysteries of the priesthood, is furnished by the following text, which accompanies pl. [vi], 16:
In the Book of the Dead (Leyden, Papyrus, p. 16), in a chapter entitled: “Chapter of the knowledge of the eastern spirits, ro en rex biu abti,” the dead person utters the following words: “I know that eastern mountainous region of the heaven whose south is at the sea Kharo and the north at the river of Ro, at the place where the day-god Ra drives around amidst storm-winds. I am a welcome comrade in the boat and I row without tiring in the bark [pg 407] of Ra. I know that tree of emerald green brandies amongst which Ra shows himself when he goes over the layer of clouds of the god Su. I know that gate out of which Ra issues. I know the meadow of alo, whose wall is of iron.... I know the eastern spirits, namely the god Hur-Chuti, the calf next to this god and the god of the morning,” the original text of the latter sentence being: “au-a-rekh-ku-a biu abti Hur-chuti pu behsu kher nutar pen nutar duaut pu” (Brugsch, op. cit., i, p. 72).
The evasion and caution with which the speaker alludes to his knowledge of the meaning of the signs, without betraying the latter, sufficiently indicate the obligation of absolute secrecy which bound him, and it may be inferred that several of the words he employed were intended to be misleading to an outsider just as the astronomical pictures, exposed to public view, were purposely made to seem to relate to the more familiar sun, moon and constellations, the mind being thus led away from the hidden but true star-god=Polaris. The circumstance that, on the body of the young bull in the boat, there are seven dots and above it a single star and that the hawk-headed seated deity behind it is crowned by the serpent circle or disk of Amen-Ra, sufficiently enlightens us as to the true, veiled significance which represents different forms of the “hidden god,” of the group. A careful analysis of this and of the astronomical images suffices, however, to disclose the limited scope of the meaning of such groups, each one being but a different rebus containing the same phonetic elements. Let us now briefly indicate what appear to have been the essential components which all images contain and a few of the myriad of ways by which they were expressed.
Uahi=permanent, and Ua=One. Represented by
Fig. [66]. 1. An arrow=au (cf. abau=to fight), an arm=a, and the numerical one=ua.