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BUTOS (Ancient city) EGYPT
Buto (Bouto), an Egyptian divinity, whom the Greeks identified with their Leto, and
who was worshipped principally in the town of Buto, which derived its name from
her. Festivals were celebrated there in her honour, and there she had also an
oracle which was in high esteem among the Egyptians. (Herod. ii. 59, 83, 111,
133, 152, 155; Aelian, V. H. ii. 41; Strab. xvii.). According to Herodotus, she
belonged to the eight great divinities; and in the mythus of Osiris and Isis she
acts the part of a nurse to their children, Horus and Bubastis. Isis entrusted
the two children to her, and she saved them from the persecutions of Typhon by
concealing them in the floating island of Chemnis, in a lake near the sanctuary
at Buto, where afterwards Bubastis and Horus were worshipped, together with Buto
(Herod. ii. 156; Plut. de Is. et Os. 18, 38). Stephanas of Byzantium appears (s.
v. Letons polis) to speak of an earlier worship of Buto (Leto) at Letopolis near
Memphis; but Letopolis was in later times known only by its name, and was destroyed
long before the time of Cambyses (Joseph. Ant. Jud. ii. 15.1). As regards the
nature and character of Buto, the ancients, in identifying her with Leto, transferred
their notions of the latter to the former, and Buto was accordingly considered
by Greeks as the goddess of night. (Plut. ap. Euseb. Praep. Ev. iii. 1). This
opinion seemed to be confirmed by the peculiar animal which was sacred to Buto,
viz. the shrew-mouse (mugale) and the hawk. Herodotus (ii. 67) states, that both
these animals were, after their death, carried to Buto; and, according to Antoninus
Liberalis (28), Leto (Buto) changed herself into a shrew-mouse in order to escape
the persecution of Typhon. About this mouse Plutarch (Sympos. iv. 5) relates,
that it was believed to have received divine honours in Egypt because it was blind,
and because darkness preceded light. This opinion of the ancients respecting the
nature of Buto has been worked out with some modifications by modern writers on
Egyptian mythology.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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