June

PROCEEDINGS.

i]

The

following Communication

Mr. P. Le Pae:e Renouf

The Name

of S^^

II

no time

The

in

some remarks upon M. Lefebure's

offer

on

Egyptian

the

our Proceedings of June

do so

to

the Blind Horus.

'<2>-,

111

very interesting communication

Ichneumon,

from

has been received

have long wished to

[1886.

name

of the

2nd, 1SS5, but have had

now.

till

T ^^,

picture of the animal called

by the

X^^^^'

Egyptians appears in the tomb of Ramses VI as a symbolical representation of the god whose

name

^x^^

there written

is

[Ull

Heru yent en man, who is known to us from the Turin text of

Book of the Dead, and from many other documents under

the

the

-^
00

S>\ lllll
[fill
Heru -vent an man. "Horus prince
_^^ '^^"'
of blindness," or as others might translate it, " resident in the realm

orthography

of darkness."

M.

Pierret renders

"le dieu qui est sans yeux."

it

This myth has been explained long ago.

when he
he

is

similar

is

the sun, and

no longer seen, but has disappeared beneath the horizon,

and

said to have lost his eyes,

is

Horus

myths are

be found

to

in

to

many

be

Very

sitting in darkness.

parts of the world.

Now

Horus was worshipped specially under this title x^'^^ ^'^

7nau in the town of Sechem, named by the Greeks Letopolis, and
under this title he was called the Lord of Sechem. Whenever the
Lord of Sechem is mentioned, it is the blind Horus who is meant.
But the

title

itself

underwent a curious transformation, through the

carelessness of the Egyptian scribes.

which occurs

in so

its

X^nt,

the

that

.^_ru>

god was often

" Sight " or "

Two

it

^^w-aa

or

its

homophone

was dropped altogether

written,

Eyes

an,

no doubt can

which

being confounded with the phonetic complement of

and sometimes

correctness or signification, was frequently

written with the phonetic sign

its

negative particle

many independent documents

be entertained about

led to

The

even

so that the

mh,

name

of

in the earliest times, as Prince of

" instead

of " Blindness."

155

June

SOCIETY OF BIBLICAL ARCHEOLOGY,

i]

[1886.

no doubt, in order to escape from the difficulty of choosing

between two contradictory readings of the same reHgious text, that
It was,

god was struck out of the eighteenth chapter of the

Book of the Dead, where it occurs in all the ancient copies, and that
for it in the later recension we find substituted " Lord of Sechem,"
this title of the

or -^ent Sechem.

M.
word

Left^bure

is

unquestionably right in identifying the old Egyptian

Coptic CLJA-OOtX, to which the native lexicons

-xptruyN'w^i the

meaning

assign the
that the

We

is

an

Museum

(No. 1604) a bronze

exceedingly like the picture in the royal tomb, but it does not

have

The

Shrewmouse.
"

with the

Ichneumons

The

true

have been
for his

.not so sure

in the British

represent the Ichneumon, but the Blind Mouse,

it

am

animal whose picture occurs in the royal tomb

Ichneumon.
figure,

Ichneumon; but

ju^^^JJ^, the

the

hieroglyphic inscription at the base identifies

Lord of Sechem," whereas the

identify

x^'^^ ^'^ '""^^^ of the

on our

inscriptions

them with the goddess 'HK

meaning of

rightly

commonly called

c^ [/

god

of

Uat'it*

Sechem must

understood by those who so appropriately chose

symbol an animal of the same zoological family as the

Mole, and with very similar habits and physical characteristics.

.<2>-

n,in
it

would be an excellent Egyptian name

would be

for the

Mole.

But the god of Sechem

is

Dynasty with another name

The

Shrew, as

for the

determinative of this

found

<=>

name

at

y^ert

XXVIth

the time of the

(Denkm.

Ill, pi.

in the plate jjublished

277a).

by Lepsius

seems to be a Lion. It would be interesting to verify the accuracy

The Egyptian 7vord reminds one at once of the Semitic
of this.

iSn,

Ir^^^! ''^'id
Shrewmouse after all.
There

is

another

and the Lion may turn out

JkLs-,

name

^~^

hetes,

which belongs

these insinuating t animals, ichneumon, weasel or shrew.

*

The Ichneumons

in the British

Museum

to

to

be a

one of
Identifi-

arc always represented standing on

their hind legs.

+ This is the meaning of the Semitic root from which these animals derive
The name of tlie prophetess Iluldah lias the same origin.
their names.