6. Pthah, the Creative Power.--Plutarch says, that in consequence of there being no females of this species, but all males, they were considered fit types of the creative power, self-acting and self-sufficient.[72] Some, too, have supposed that its position upon the female figure of the heavens, which encircles the zodiacs, refers to the same singular idea of its generative influence.[73]
7. Pthah Tore, another character of the creative power.[74]
8. Pthah-Sokari-Osiris.--Of this pigmy Deity of Memphis, it was adopted as a distinctive mark, being placed on his head.[75]
9. Regeneration, or reproduction, from the fact of its being the first living animal observed upon the subsidence of the waters of the Nile.[76]
11. The Egyptian month anterior to the rising of the Nile, as it appears first in that month.[78] It also may have been a symbol of a lunar month from an above-mentioned belief, namely, that its pellets remain twenty-eight days in the ground. It is sometimes found with the joints of its tarsi numbering but twenty-eight instead of thirty, hence the supposition is that it was held as a symbol of a lunar, as well as a solar, month.
12. Fecundity.--Dr. Clarke informs us that these beetles are even yet eaten by the women to render them prolific.[79]
13. With the eyes pierced by a needle, of a man who died from fever.[80]
14. Surrounded by roses, of a voluptuary, because they thought that the smell of that flower enervated, made lethargic, and killed the beetle.[81]
15. An only son; because, says Fosbroke, they believed that every beetle was "both male and female."[82] Was it not because they imagined these insects were all males, as above stated upon the authority of Plutarch, and hence the analogy in a family of an only son since it could be but of the masculine gender?
The Scarabæus was also connected with astronomical subjects, occurring in some zodiacs in the place of Cancer; and with funereal rites.[83]
To no place in particular, as the dog at Cynopolis, the ichneumon at Heracleopolis, was the worship of the beetle confined; but traces of it are found throughout the whole of Egypt. It is probable, however, it received the greatest honors at Memphis and Heliopolis, of which cities Pthah and the Sun were the chief Deities.[84] The worship is also of great antiquity, for in many of the above-mentioned characters, the beetle occurs upon the royal sepulchers of Biban-el-Moluc, which are said to be more ancient than the Pyramids.[85] Scarabæi are, in fact, to be retraced in all their monuments and sculptures, and under divers positions, and often depicted of gigantic dimensions. Mr. Hamilton tells us that in the most conspicuous part of the magnificent temple which marks the site of the ancient Ombite nome, priests are represented paying divine honors to this beetle, placed upon an altar; and, that it might have a character of more mysterious sanctity, it was generally figured with two mitered heads--that of the common hawk, and that of the ram with the horn of Ammon.[86] It may be remarked here, that the Scarabæus, when represented with the head of a hawk, or of a ram, is meant to be an emblem of the sun; and as such emblem it is most commonly found. It often occurs in a boat with extended wings, holding the globe of the sun in its claws, or elevated in the firmament as a type of that luminary in the meridian. Figures too of other Deities are often seen praying to it when in this character.[87]