such were attached to the figures of the gods.[1] Of course they were not intended to be in any sense works of art, which such strange unnatural objects could never be; nor were they regarded as actually representative of the deities, which would have been simply absurd and profane, but they were emblematic signs of the divine attributes and nature, and were understood and recognised as such.
In one tablet at Karnak, Thothmes III. is depicted offering wine and incense to his father Amen-Ra, and the accompanying inscription is an heroic poem or hymn which must have been composed towards the close of his victorious reign. In it the god himself recounts all that he has brought to pass on behalf of his 'son.'
'Come to me,' he says, 'and rejoice in beholding my favour towards thee, O my son Men-kheper-Ra,[2] thou who livest for evermore! I am glorified by the vows thou renderest; my heart is glad when thou draw-*
- ↑ It is comparatively easy to understand the choice of certain animals as symbolic (see on p. 198), but it is impossible to comprehend how an ostrich feather came to be the emblem of Ma, goddess of truth, or a shuttle the sign of Neith, goddess of wisdom. A certain resemblance in name seems sometimes to have suggested the symbol.
- ↑ Honorific or crown name of Thothmes III.
