April] SOCIETYOF BIBLICAL ARCHEOLOGY. [1890.
On comparing theselistsit is impossible to avoid the conclusion
that 1 _p |l a j] auset wasmeant to be an equivalent of j] q, the
ideogram of Isis, as truly as <=^> }^stands for ]^J ^j Horus,
or as the I © 1\ v , at Abydos correspondstoVfk , in the
tombsof Seti II and RamesesIV.
No importance whateveris to be attached to the beard which
has thoughtlessly beenaddedto the divine figure. I have referred
to the undoubted nameof Isis, J] q>, which is written overa bearded
figurein the papyrus of isuti Kenna. AndI have during the last
threeor four yearsrepeatedlymetwithsimilarblunders.
Thata goddess was meant, andnot a male personage,is evident
fromthe text. A prayer is addressed to each divinity,and the
sex of each divinitycanbe seen by the pronoun attachedto the
verb. The imperatives addressed to Tmu, Shu, Seb,and Horus
havethe masculine suffixv, a, ; the imperative addressedto Auset
has the feminine a.
It can no longer thenbe said that the name of Isis has not
been found phoneticallywritten. It is so written on the temple
wallsof Abydos.
Mistakesof course are conceivable; andwithreferenceto this
particularnameit might be suspected thatjj> was wronglywritten
f°r _^.- But if the j] in Isis be the same as in j| <3>- there
can be no doubt that _p u is a necessary part of the sound.
Andin proof of this I appeal to a document of the same date
as the monuments we have beenconsidering.
In the Hymn to Osiris with whichthe Papyrus of Ani begins
we have the following playuponnames:—
The name of Osiris is here connected by paronomasia with
| P us, just as Sekar is connected with |l J ^—n sek. Brugsch
has already quotedevidenceof this kindfromthe texts of a later
period. But there can be no doubt about the name at a time
when it was written ]-o>-, ,111,^7m&, and _P5>.$, for ]
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