Cleopatra's Needle Part 5

According to Cooper, the sacred beetle was in the habit of laying its eggs in a ball of clay, which it kept rolling until the eggs were vivified by the heat of the sun. The beetle thus became the emblem of the sun, the vivifier, and was therefore consecrated to Ra, who is on that account called Ra-Kheper.

When dedicated to Ra, the beetle holds the cosmic ball between its front legs. Sometimes it is an emblem of the world, and is then consecrated to Ptah, the creator of heaven and earth.

The divine name, or prenomen, of Thothmes is thus _Ra-Men-Kheper_, frequently read _Men-Khepera-Ra_, and is made up of three hieroglyphs, which stand for Ra, Amen, and Ptah, the supreme G.o.ds respectively worshipped at Heliopolis, Thebes, and Memphis. From these three great deities Thothmes thus claims his descent.

The cartouche with the divine name of Thothmes occurs four times on the obelisk, once on each side at the top of the central column of hieroglyphs. The sacred beetle occurs in two other places in the central columns of Thothmes, but never appears in the eight lateral columns of Rameses.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "He has made as it were monuments to his father Haremakhu."]

EYE (=ar=) _made_. As a verb _ar_ signifies to make.

ZIGZAG (=en=) _has_. After verbs the zigzag means _has_, and is therefore a sign of perfect.

HORNED SNAKE (=ef=) _he_. The usual personal p.r.o.noun.

OWL (=mu=) _as it were_.

CHESSBOARD (=men=) _monument_.

VASE (=nu=). The vase represents an _ampulla_ or bottle. The three vases in this place are used as a determinative to _men_, monument; and being three in number, indicate plurality, making MEN into MENU, monuments.

HORNED SNAKE (=ef=) _his_. This figure is often called cerastes.

Standing by itself it usually stands for the possessive p.r.o.noun _his_.

ZIGZAG (=en=) _to_. Used here as a preposition.

SEMICIRCLE and CERASTES (=tef=) _father_. The semicircle is here an alphabetic phonetic, equal to _t_, and with _ef_ makes TEF, meaning father.

HAWK (=bak=) _Horus_. The hawk alone stood for any solar deity. With the solar disk on the head and two ovals by the side, as in the present hieroglyph, it stood for Haremakhu, the sun in the horizon.

The two ovals are called KHU, and stand for the eastern and western horizons.

Thothmes III. claims Horus as his father, and it is moreover evident from the above that the obelisk itself is dedicated to the rising sun. The great Sphinx at the pyramids of Ghizeh is also dedicated to Haremakhu, and this may account for the fact that the gigantic figure faces the east, the region of the rising sun.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "He has set up two great obelisks capped with gold."]

THRONE BACK (=es=). This may be the back of a chair. It is the old hieroglyph for the letter _s_.

REEL (=ha=) _set up_. This hieroglyph is by some thought to be the leg of a stool.

ZIGZAG (=en=) _has_.

HORNED SNAKE (=ef=) _he_.

OBELISK (_tekhen_) is in this place an image or picture of the thing spoken of, namely obelisk. This hieroglyph is therefore an iconograph, or representation. Two obelisks are here depicted, to indicate that two were set up. According to Cooper the obelisk was an emblem of the sun--the clearest symbol of supreme deity. The Egyptian name was TEKHEN, a word signifying mystery, and it was regarded among the initiated as the esoteric symbol of light and life. The obelisk was consequently dedicated to Horus, the G.o.d of the rising sun, while the pyramid, the house of the dead, was dedicated to Tum, or Atum, the G.o.d of the setting sun. Hence obelisks are found only on the east bank of the Nile, while pyramids are built on the west side, by the edge of the silent desert.

SWALLOW (=ur=) _great_. The swallow is an emblem of greatness, and therefore may be called an ideograph, or symbolic hieroglyph.

Two swallows are here depicted, because there are two obelisks, and the dual form extends to the adjective.

TWO LEGS (=bu=) _capped_. There are two legs, to express duality, and thus agree with the preceding substantive, two obelisks. A human leg is the original alphabetic sign for letter _b_. The letter _u_ is a plural termination.

SEMICIRCLE (=ta=) _the_. Under the right leg is a semicircle, which is here the feminine article to agree with the little triangular hieroglyph below.

PYRAMIDION. The summit of the obelisk, known as the pyramidion, from its resemblance to a small pyramid, is here represented by a small triangle. This hieroglyph represents the top or cap of the obelisk, and is a determinative to _capped_.

OWL (=mu=) _with_. Owl, as a preposition, has the same meaning as the prepositions _with_, _from_, _by_--the usual signs of the ablative case.

BOWL (=neb=) _gold_. Under this crater or bowl will be noticed three small dots, probably designed to represent grains of the metal intended.

SCEPTRE (=user=) is here used as a determinative of metal; and some Egyptologists think that when it accompanies the bowl called NEB, the metal referred to is not gold but copper.

Among the hieroglyphs on the London Obelisk may be found many ideographs or pictures of outward objects, each of which stands for an attribute or abstract idea. Thus arm stands for power, interior of a hall for festivity, lizard for mult.i.tude, beetle for immortality, sceptre for power, crook for authority, Anubis staff for plenty, vulture for queenly royalty, asp for kingly royalty, ostrich feather for truth, ankh or crux ansata for life, weight for equality, adze for approval, pike for power, horn for opposition, the bird called bennu for l.u.s.tre, pyramous loaf for giving, hatchet called neter for G.o.d, lion's head for victory, swallow for greatness.

In addition to the obelisk, the other iconographs or picture representations found on the London Obelisk are the sun, moon, star, heaven, pole, throne, abode, altar, tree.

From this hieroglyphic sentence we learn that the pyramidion of each obelisk was covered or capped with some metal, probably copper. This was done to protect the monument from lightning and rain. Cooper draws attention to the fact that obelisks were capped with metals, and pyramids were covered with polished stones. The pyramidia of Hatasu's obelisks at Karnak were covered with gold. The venerable obelisk still standing at Heliopolis had a cap of bronze, which remained until the Middle Ages, and was seen by an Arabian physician about A.D. 1300.

The avarice of greed and the rapacity of war have long since stripped every obelisk of its metal covering.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "At the first festival of the Triakonteris."]

DISK (=aten=) _time_. The solar disk is usually a symbol of Ra, but as the sun is the measurer of times and seasons, the disk sometimes stands for time, as it does here.

The hieroglyphs following are defaced. Some think one hieroglyph is a cerastes, but Dr. Birch says the group probably consisted of a harpoon and three vertical lines--a common sign of plurality. Thus the preceding sentence would be "at time the first," that is, "at the first time."

OWL (=mu=) _in_. Here a preposition governing _time_.

PALACE (=se?=) _Festival of the Triakonteris_. This hieroglyph with three compartments probably represents the interior of a palace. It is the usual symbol for a festival. With two small thrones inside, as seen here, the hieroglyph probably represents the interior of a palace; and is the ideograph for the festival called triakonteris, because celebrated every thirty years. This cyclical festival was celebrated with great festivity. The s.p.a.ce of time between two successive feasts was called a triakontennial period. The thrones which distinguish the triakonteris from an ordinary festival indicates also the royal character of this great feast.

HALL (=se?=) is the usual hieroglyph for an ordinary festival, and represents the interior of a hall. It consists of two compartments.

The pole in the centre supporting the roof is here a carved post.

_Se?_ is here used as a determinative to the preceding hieroglyph.

The symbol for festival here stands on a large semicircle, with an inscribed diamond-shaped aperture. This semicircle with the diamond-shaped aperture is called HEB, and often appears alone as the hieroglyph for _festival_.

Thothmes III. reigned fifty-four years, and therefore witnessed the beginning of two triakontennial periods. Probably he set up the two obelisks at the first triakonteris that happened during his reign.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The hieroglyphs following seem to be zigzag, line, semicircle, zigzag, hoe, mouth, mouth, cerastes, semicircle, two arms united, line, eye, zigzag, cerastes. These are defaced somewhat on the obelisk, and therefore doubtfully copied in the transcript. Dr. Birch translates them: "according to his wish he has done it." The student should notice that the hieroglyphs hoe and mouth together mean _wish_.

Eye (=ar=) here means _done_; and zigzag _has_, the usual sign of perfect.

The nomen is the family name or surname of the monarch. It may be made up of iconographs, ideographs, syllabic signs, and alphabetic phonetics; or the name may consist of a combination of all these. If it be composed of the first three, then the nomen corresponds to what in heraldry is called a rebus. The name of Thothmes is made up of the well-known sacred bird called _ibis_, and the triple twig called _mes_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "Son of the Sun, Thothmes."]

GOOSE (=sa=) _son_. The goose was a common article of food in Egypt, and as hieroglyphs for the most part are representations of common objects, we find the goose repeatedly figured on the inscriptions.

Sometimes it stands for _Seb_, the father of the G.o.ds, the _Saturn_ of cla.s.sic mythology.