monotony of this Egyptian heaven was also relieved by long bands of
hieroglyphic inscriptions. The vultures of Nekheb and Ûati, the goddesses
of the south and north, crowned and armed with divine emblems (fig. 104),
hovered above the nave of the hypostyle halls, and on the under side of the
lintels of the great doors, above the head of the king as he passed through
on his way to the sanctuary. At the Ramesseum, at Edfû, at Philae, at
Denderah, at Ombos, at Esneh, the depths of the firmament seemed to open to
the eyes of the faithful, revealing the dwellers therein. There the
celestial ocean poured forth its floods navigated by the sun and moon with
their attendant escort of planets, constellations, and decani; and there
also the genii of the months and days marched in long procession. In the
Ptolemaic age, zodiacs fashioned after Greek models were sculptured side by
side with astronomical tables of purely native origin (fig. 105). The
decoration of the architraves which supported the massive roofing slabs was
entirely independent of that of the ceiling itself. On these were wrought
nothing save boldly cut inscriptions, in which the beauty of the temple,
the names of the builder-kings who had erected it, and the glory of the
gods to whom it was consecrated, are emphatically celebrated. Finally, the
decoration of the lowest part of the walls and of the ceiling was
restricted to a small number of subjects, which were always similar: the
most important and varied scenes being suspended, as it were, between earth
and heaven, on the sides of the chambers and the pylons.

[Illustration: Fig. 105.--Zodiacal circle of Denderah.]

These scenes illustrate the official relations which subsisted between
Egypt and the gods. The people had no right of direct intercourse with the
deities. They needed a mediator, who, partaking of both human and divine
nature, was qualified to communicate with both. The king alone, Son of the
Sun, was of sufficiently high descent to contemplate the god in his temple,