Again, we may reasonably suppose that an alate temple was built by the tomb of _Memnon_, said to be buried in _Phrygia_, who was turn’d into a bird on the funeral pile, at the request of his mother _Aurora_. We see some hints of it even from _Ovid_’s telling the story. This was done at the request of his mother _Aurora_, who petitions _Jupiter_ for this favour to her son, for herself she desires none. Thus she begins: _Omnibus inferior, quas sustinet aureus æther_ (_Nam mihi sunt totum rarissima templa per orbem_,) _Diva tamen venio: non ut delubra, diesque Des mihi sacrificos, caliturasque ignibus aras_, &c. He was turn’d into a bird, and a flock of the same birds, call’d _Aves Memnoniæ_, arose from the same funeral pile, which immediately divided into two companies, and fought till they destroy’d each other. And that a like flight of the same birds came on the same day every year from _Ethiopia_, went thrice round his monument, and then divided and fought in honour of their ancestor. What can we understand by this, but an assembly of his people and descendants to celebrate his anniversary, as was the custom of antiquity toward great men. The story is entirely of a piece with that told of _Cadmus_, and must be interpreted in the same way. In this sense we are treating of, are we to understand authors when they tell us, that _Cadmus_ built a temple to _Neptune_ in the island of _Rhodes_. This was not a cover’d temple with elegant pillars, nor an idolatrous one, which were matters of after-times; but one of our alate temples. _Phut_ had built a _Dracontium_ there before. _Antoninus Liberalis_ XII. speaks of the lake _Canopus_, which I suppose had its name from a _Cneph_ or alate temple near it, built by a hero, _Cygnus_, son of _Phut_, “who, the fable says, was turn’d into a bird there,” and _Phylius_ his sepulchral monument was by it. In this sense, _Strabo_ II. speaks of _Hercules_ being call’d _Canopeus_, from building such a temple. And we may now understand that hitherto abstruse _Egyptian_ antiquity called _Canopus_, a vase which they us’d for preserving of water in their temples and in their families, with a cover to it. In order to insure the blessing of heaven to this most necessary element, they frequently consign’d it with the sacred prophylactic character of the _Kneph_ or _circulus alatus_, which is the _greek Neptune_, the _dominator aquarum_. Many of these vases are still remaining in the cabinets of antiquarians. Such a one pictur’d in _Kircher_. And, by the by, I may mention that some of these vases are adorn’d with a _scarabeus_ with expanded wings, and this is entirely of the same meaning as the alate circle. But this is not a place to discourse larger on these matters.