Excerpts from Hieroglyphika

Horapollo

Athene the Heavens
When they mean mother, or sight, or boundaries, or foreknowledge, or the year, or the heavens, or pity, or Athene, or Hera; they draw a vulture. A mother, since there is no male in this species of animal … Athene and Hera, since it seems to the Egyptians that Athene rules over the upper hemishphere of heaven and Hera over the lower. Wherefore they hold it absurd that the heavens should be male; female are the heavens. For the generation of the sun and moon and the rest of the stars is accomplished in such a way that it is the work of the female. And the race of vultures, as was said above, is female only. Because of this the Egyptians place the vulture as a crown on all female figures, wherefore the Egyptians extend the word to all goddesses. – 1.11

Athene Androgynous
To symbolize Hephaistos they draw a beetle and a vulture. And Athene, a vulture and a beetle. For the universe seems to them to be made up of the male and the female. And they draw a vulture in place of Athene, for only these gods among them are hermaphroditic. – 1.12

 

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