aced obliquely (h). The varying
conventionalizations of (a) or (b) are shown in (d), (e), and (f)
(Griffith, "Hieroglyphics," p. 34).

(k) The sign for a lotus leaf, which is a phonetic equivalent of the
sign (h), and, according to Griffith ("Hieroglyphics," p. 26), "is
probably derived from the same root, on account of its shell-like
outline".

(l) The hieroglyphic sign for a pot of water in such words as _Nu_
and _Nut_.

(m) A "pomegranate" (replacing a bust of Tanit) upon a sacred column at
Carthage (Arthur J. Evans, "Mycenaean Tree and Pillar Cult," p. 46).

(n) The form of the body of an octopus as conventionalized on the coins
of Central Greece (compare Fig. 24 (d)). Its similarity to the Egyptian
pot-sign (l) (which also has the significance of mother-goddess) is
worthy of note.]

Referring to the sign (g and h) for "a shell," Mr. Griffith says (p.
25): "It is regularly found at all periods in the word _haw.t_ =
altar,[334] and perhaps only in this word: but it is a peculiarity of
the Pyramid Texts that the sign shown in the text-figures _c_, _h_,
and _i_ is in them used very commonly, not as a word-sign, but also
as a phonetic equivalent to the sign labelled _k_ (in the text-figure)
for _h'_ (_kha_), or apparently for _h_ alone in many words.

"The name of the lotus leaf is probably derived from the same root, on
account of its shell-like outline or _vice versa_."

[Illustration: Fig. 7.

(a) An Egyptian design representing the sun-god Horus emerging from a
lotus, representing his mother Hathor (Isis).

(b) Papyrus sceptre often carried by goddesses and animistically
identified with them either as an instrument of life-giving or
destruction.

(c) Conventionalized lily--the prototype of the trident and the
thunder-weapon.

(d) A water-plant associated with the Nile-gods.]

The familiar representation of Horus (and his homologues in India and
elsewhere) being born from the lotus suggests that the flower represents
his mother Hathor. But as the argument in these pages has led us towards
the inference that the original form of Hathor was a shell-amulet,[335]
it seems not unlikely that her identification with the lotus may have
arisen from the confusion between the latter and the cowry, which no
doubt was also in part due to the belief that both the shell and the
plant were expressions of the vital powers of the water in which they
developed.

The identification of the Great Mother with a pot was on