Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1152

 I12S TEXTYDA. the name of the town, and is geuerally attached to the head-dress of Athor, accompanied by the sign Kali or " the land." The Tentyrite Athor has a human face with the ears of a cow (IJoseliini, Monum. dd. CiiUo, pi. 2{). 3), and her attributes so closely resemble those of Lsis, that it was long doubtful to which of the two goddesses the great temple al Tentyra was dedicated. Like lsis, Athor is delineated nursing a young ciiild named Ehuou, said, in hieroglyiihics, to be her son. He is the third member of the Tentyrite triad of deities. The princijial fabrics and jiroduce of Tentyra were flax and linen. (Plin. xix. 1.) Its inhabit- ants held the crocodile in abhorrence, and engaged in sanguinary conflicts with its worshippers, espe- cially with those of tlie Unibite Nome [Ojibos]. Juvenal appears to have witnessed one of these com- bats, in which the Ombites had the worst of it, and one of them, falling in his flight, was torn to pieces and devoured by the Tentyrites. Juvenal, indeed, describes this fight as between the inhabitants of contiguous nomes ('"inter finitinios") ; but this is incorrect, since Ombos and Tentyra are more than 50 miles apart. As, however, Coptos and Tentyra were nearly ojiposite to each other, and the crocodile was worshipped by the Coptites also, we .should probably read Coptos for Ouibos in Juvenal. (^Sat. xv.) Tiie latter were so expert in the chase of this animal in its native element, that they were wont to follow it into the Nile, and drag it to shore. (Aelian, Hist. Aniin. x. 24 ; Plin. viii. 25. s. 38.) Seneca (A'«<. Quaest. ii. 2) says that it was their presence of mind that gave the Tentyrites the advantage over the cro- codile, for the men themselves were small sinewy fellows. Strabo (svii. pp. 814, 815) saw at Rome the exhibition of a combat between the crocodile and men purposely imported from Tentyra. They plunged boldly into the tanks, and, entangling the crocodiles in nets, haled them backwards and forwards in and out of the water, to the great amazement of the be- holders. So long as Aegypt was comparatively unexplored, no ruins attracted more admiration from travellers than those of Tenr}ra. They are the first in tolerable presei-vation and of conspicuous magnitude that meet the e}-es of those who ascend the Nile. They are remote from the highways arid habitations of men, standing at the foot of the Libyan hills, amid the .^aiuis of the western desert. But though long regarded as works of a remote era, Aegyptian art was already on the decline when the temples of Tentyra were erected. The architecture, indeed, reflects the grandeur of earlier periods ; but the sculptures are ungraceful, and the hieroglyidiics un- skilfully crowded upon its monuments. The most ancient of the inscriptions do not go farther back than the reigns of the later Ptolemies ; but the names of the Oaesar.s, troni Tiberius to Antoninus Pius (a. ij. 14 — i(il), are of frecpieut occurrence. Tentyra, in common with Upper Aegypt generally, appears to have profited by the peace and security it enjoyed under the imperial government to enlarge or lestore its nionuuieuts, which, since the Persian oc- cupation of the country, had mostly fallen into de- ca.y. The principal structures at Tentyra are the great temple dedicated to Athor; a temple of L>is; a Typhonium; and an isolated building without a roof, of which the object has not been discovered. With the exception of the latter, these structures are inclosed by a crude brick wall, forming a square, each bide of which occupies 1000 feet, and which is TENTYPtA. 1 in some parts 35 feet high and 15 feet thick. FuU descriptions of the remains of Tentyra may be found j in the fo'liowiug works ; Belzoni's Travels in Nuhin ; I Hamilton's Atf/yptiaca ; and Kichardson's Travels along the Mediterranean and Paris adjacent, in I the three principal edifices : — 1. T/ie Temple of' Atlitn: — The approach to this temple is through a dromos, conmiencing at a soli- I tary stone ]>ylon, inscribed with the names of Do- [ milian and Trajan, and extending to the portico, a dis- I tar.ce of about 110 paces. The portico is open at the I top, and supported by twenty-four columns, ranged j in four rows with quadrangular capitals, having on ! each side a colossal head of Athor, surmounted by a ! quadrangular block, on each side of which is caiTed
 * 1816 — 1817. Here it must suffice to notice briefly
 * :i temple doorway with two winged globes above it.

I These heads of the goddess, looking down upon I corations of the temple. To the portico succeeds a hall supported by six columns, and flanked by three chanibers on either side of it. Next comes a central chamber, opening on one side upon a ] .staircase, on the other into two small chambers. This is followed by a similar chamber, also with I lateral rooms ; and, lastly, conjes the naos or sanctu- ! ary, which is small, surrounded by a corridor, and flanked on either side by three chambers. The hie- merous, that nowhere on the walls, colunms. archi- i Iraves, or ceiling of the temple, is there a space of tw-o feet nnoccuj)ied by them. They represent men and women engaged in various religious or secular employments; aninuils, plants, public ceremonies and processions, and the emblems of agriculture or manu- factures. Occasionally, also, occur historical jior-
 * the dromos, were doubtless the most imposing de-
 * roglyphics and picturesque decorations are so nu-
 * traits of great interest, such as those of Cleopatra

and her son Caesarion. The effect of this wilder- ! ness of highly-coloured basso-relievos was greatly I enhanced by the mode by which the temple itself was lighted. The sanctuary itself is quite dark: the ! light is admitted into the chambers through small j)erforations in their walls. Yet the entire structure displays wealth and labour rather than skill or good taste, and, although so elaborately ornamente<l, was never completed. The emperor Tiberius finished the naus, erected the portico, and added much to the decoration of the exterior walls; but some of the cartcjuches designed for royal or imperial names have never been filled up. On the ceiling of the portico is the famous zodiac of Tentyra, long imagined to be a work of the Pha- raonic times, but now ascertained to have been exe- cuted within the Christian era. Though denomi- nated a zodiac, however by the French savans, it is doubtful whether this drawing be not merely mythological, or at most astrological, in its object. In the first place the number of the supposed signs is incom])lete. The crab is wanting, and the order of tl'.e other zodiacal signs is not strictly observed. Indeed if any astral signification at all be intended in the picture, it refers to astrology, the zodiac, as we know it, being unknown to the Aegyptians. Archaeologists are now j)retty well agreed that a })anegyris or procession of the Tentyrite triad with their cognate deities is here represented. The Greek inscription, which, long overlooked, determines the recent date of this portion of the temple, runs along the projecting summit of the connce of the portico. It was engraved in the twenty-first year of Tiberius, A. D. 35 (Letronne, Inscript. p. 97). Upon the