Canobus
Canobus
(or Canopus), in Egyptian mythology, was the original name of a city, near one of the mouths of the Nile. which wars therefore called the Canobian mouth. A certain Canabus was also spoken of, who came as pilot with Menelaus to Egypt, and in memory of whom the Spartans named the city Canobus. He was associated with Menuthis, his wife, and both are said to have been divinely worshipped ten miles from the city.
The name Canopus was also given to a kind of jug, with a short foot, wide body, narrow neck, and a head thereon, which was used to filter the water of the Nile, and represented the god Canobus. In later times it was related that the ship of Osiris was the same as that which the Greeks called Argo, and that its pilot Canobus had been placed among the stars. Strabo says: "There is a temple of Serapis here (at Canopus), which is visited with such godly fear that even the most celebrated men show respect for it, often sleeping in this temple in order to find out for themselves and others the future." This temple of Serapis was that of Canobus, who was a symbol of fruitfulness.
Canobus was really the funereal god Amset, one of the four infernal deities who had charge of the viscera of the dead.
