Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/237

Rh ANUBIS. ad Odyss. p. 1821 ; Mich. Apost. Centur. Proverb. xvii. No. 7.) The fact that Socrates used to swear by a dog is so well known, that we scarcely need mention it. (Athen vii. p. 300 ; Porphyr. de Ab- stin. iii. p. 285.) It is however a remarkable fact, that, notwithstanding this, the name of Anubis is not expressly mentioned by any writer previous to the age of Augustus ; but after that time, it fre- quently occurs both in Greek and Roman authors. (Ov. Met. ix. 690, Amor. iL 13. 11 ; Propert. iii. 9. 41 ; Virg. Aen. viii. 698 ; Juven. xv. 8 ; Lucian, Jup. trag. Condi. Deor. 10, 11, Toxar, 28.) Several of the passages here referred to attest the importance of the worship of this divinity, and Strabo expressly states, that the dog was worship- ped throughoutEgypt (xvii. p. 812); but the prin- cipal and perhaps the original seat of the worship appe«ir8 to have been in the nomos of Cynopolis in middle Eg)-pt. (Strab. /.c.) In the stories about Anubis which have come down to us, as well as in the explanations of his nature, the original charac- ter — that of a fetish — is lost sight of, probably be- cause the philosophical spirit of later times wanted to find something higher and loftier in the worship of Anubis than it originally was. According to the rationalistic view of Diodorus (i. 18), Anubis was the son of king Osiris, who accompanied his father on his expeditions, and was covered with the skin of a dog. For this reason he was repre- sented as a human being with the head of a dog. In another passage (i. 87) the same writer explains this monstrous figure by saying, that Anubis per- formed to Osiris and Isis the service of a guard, which is performed to men by dogs. He mentions a third account, which has more the appearance of a genuine my thus. When Isis, it is said, sought Osiris, she was preceded and guided by dogs, which defended and protected her, and expressed their desire to assist her by barking. For this reason the procession at the festival of Isis was preceded by dogs. According to Plutarch ( Is. et Os.) Anubis was a son of Osiris, whom he begot by Nephthys in the belief that she was his wife Isis. After the death of Osiris, Isis sought the child, brought him up, and made him her guard and com- panion under the name of Anubis, who thus per- formed to her the same service that dogs perform to men. An interpretation of this mythus, derived from the physical nature of Egypt, is given by Plutarch. {Is. et Os. 38.) Osiris according to him is the Nile, and Isis the country of Egypt so far as it is usually fructified by the river. The districts at the extremities of the country are Nephthys, and Anubis accordingly is the son of the Nile, which by its inundation has fructified a distant part of the country. But this only explains the origin of the god, without giving any definite idea of him. In another passage (/. c. 40) Plutarch Niys, that Nephthys signified everything which was under the earth and invisible, and Isis everything which was above it and visible. Now the circle or hemisphere which is in contact with each, which unites the two, and which we call the horizon, is called Anubis, and is represented in the form of a dog, because this animal sees by night as well as by day. Anubis in this account is raised to the rank of a deity of astronomical import. (Clem. Alex. Strom, v. p. 567.) In the temples of Egypt he seems always to have been represented as the guard of other gods, and the place in the front of a temple {SpSfios) was particularly sacred to him. ANYTE. 219 (Strab. xvii. p. 805 ; St<it. St/lv. iii. 2. 112.) For further partictilars respecting the worship of Anu- bis the reader is referred to the works on Eg}-ptiun mythology, such as .Jablonsky, Panth. Aegrjpt. v. ]. § 1 2, &c.; Champollion (le Jeune), Pantheon I'^ryp- tien, Paris, 1823 ; Pritchard, Egyptian Mythology. We only add a few remarks respecting the notions of the Greeks and Romans about Anubis, and his worship among them. The Greeks identified the Egyptian Anubis with their own Hermes. (Pint. Ibid. 11), and thus speak of Hermanuphis in the same manner as of Zeus Ammon. (Plut. 61.) Hig worship seems to have been introduced at Rome towards the end of the republic, as may be in- ferred from the manner in which Appian {Bell. Civ. iv. 47 ; comp. Val. Max. vii. 3. § 8) describes the escape of the aedile M. Volusius. Under the em- pire the worship of Anubis became very widely spread both in Greece and at Rome. (Apulei. Met. xi. p. 262 ; Lamprid. Commod. 9 ; Spartian, Pes- cenn. Nig. 6, Anton. Carac. 9.) [L. S.] ANliLI'NUS, P. CORNELIUS, one of the generals of Severus, gained a battle over Niger at Issus, A. D. 194. He afterwards commanded one of the divisions of the army which Severus sent against Adiabene, A. D. 197. He was consul in A. D. 199. (Dion Cass. Ixxiv. 7, Ixxv. 3.) ANXURUS, an Italian divinity, who was wor- shipped in a grove near Anxur (Terracina) to- gether with Feronia. He was regarded as a youthful Jupiter, and Feronia as Juno. (Serv. ad Aen. vii. 799.) On coins his name appears as Axur or Anxur. (Drakenborch, ad SiL Itul. viii. 392 ; Morell. Thesaur. Num. ii. tab. 2.) [L. S.] A'NYSIS i^Avvffis), an ancient king of Egypt, who, according to Herodotus, succeeded Asychis. He was blind, and in his reign Eg3*pt was invaded by the Ethiopians under their king Sabaco, and re- mained in their possession for fifty yearg. Anysis in the meanwhile took refuge in the marshes of Lower Egypt, where he formed an island which afterwards remained unknown for upward of seven centuries, until it was discovered by Amyrtaeus. When after the lapse of fifty years the Ethiopians withdrew from Egypt, Anysis returned from the marshes and resumed the government. (Herod, ii. 137, 140.) [L. S.] A'NYTE, of Tegea ('Avutt? Teyeans), the au- thoress of several epigrams in the Greek Anthology, is mentioned by Pollux (v. 5) and by Stephanus Byzantinus (s. v.T€76a). She is numbered among the lyric poets by Meleager (Jacobs, Anthol. i. 1, v. 5), in whose list she stands first, and by Antipater of Thessalonica {Ibid. ii. 101, no. 23), who names her with Praxilla, Myro, and Sappho, and calls her the female Homer (©tjAw "Ofirfpov), an epithet which might be used either with reference to the martial spirit of some of her epigrams, or to their antique character. From the above notices and from the epigrams themselves, which are for the most part in the style of the ancient Doric choral songs, like the poems of Alcman, we should be disposed to place her much higher than the date usually assigned to her, on the authority of a pas- sage in Tatian {adv. Graecos^ 52, p. 114, Worth.), who says, that the statue of Anyte was made by Euthycrates and Cephisodotus, who are known to have flourished about 300 B. c. But even if the Anyte here mentioned were certainly the poetess, it would not follow that she was contemporary j with these artists. On the other hand, oue of