The evil eye. An account of this ancient and wide spread superstition

ISIS A WINGED GODDESS 359
medal belonging to them she is represented as a
female standing, having wings of the angel kind,
but with a bird's tail and legs. There is thus every-
thing about the locality of Naples to connect it with
the Sirens, and we know their conventional shape,
but whence did the notion come, and how are we to
connect them with Proserpine ? ^^"
The Etruscan lamp once more directs us to
Egypt. There we find that I sis was represented
Fig. 170.—From Wilkinson, v(;l. iii. p. 107. P^IG. 171.
with wings (Fig. 170) as a flying goddess. This is a
step forward ; but Wilkinson, vol. iii. p. 115, shows us
precisely what we are looking for (Fig. 171). This
is the goddess Hatkor, holding precisely the same
relation to Isis as the Ephesian Artemis held to the
chaste Roman Diana ; or rather we may say that
Hathorwas to Isis what Proserpine was to Diana. ^^^
•'^- As to the mere word Siren, the meaning is not of much consequence,
for women's long, trailing skirts were formerly called Sirens. A horrible, discordant
instrument giving a warning hoot from a lightship is called a Siren.
The frog amulet in Naples is called a Siren : " Nos toiles de soie . . . si fines
et si diaphanes, q'a peine les voyoit-on sur le nud, sont appellees Syrenes par
Hesychius" (Les Sirenes, Paris, 1691, p. 48).
"^^ In Tabula Beinbina sive Mensa Isiaca, by Dr. W. Wynn Westcott,