Legends of the Gods Part 12

[FN#308] We meet with a similar statement in the Tale of the Two Brothers, where we are told that the younger brother, having declared his innocence to the elder brother, out off his phallus and threw it into the river, where it was devoured by the naru fish.

XIX. After these things Osiris returned from the other world, and appeared to his son Horus, and encouraged him to fight, and at the same time instructed him in the exercise of arms. He then asked him what he thought was the most glorious action a man could perform, to which Horus replied, "To revenge the injuries offered to his father[FN#309] and mother." Osiris then asked him what animal he thought most serviceable to a soldier, and Horus replied, "A horse." On this Osiris wondered, and he questioned him further, asking him why he preferred a horse to a lion, and Horus replied, "Though the lion is the more serviceable creature to one who stands in need of help, yet is the horse more useful in overtaking and cutting off a flying enemy."[FN#310] These replies caused Osiris to rejoice greatly, for they showed him that his son was sufficiently prepared for his enemy. We are, moreover, told that amongst the great numbers who were continually deserting from Typhon's party was his concubine Thoueris,[FN#311] and that a serpent which pursued her as she was coming over to Horus was slain by his soldiers. The memory of this action is, they say, still preserved in that cord which is thrown into the midst of their a.s.semblies, and then chopped in pieces. Afterwards a battle took place between Horus and Typhon, which lasted many days, but Horus was at length victorious, and Typhon was taken prisoner. He was delivered over into the custody of Isis, who, instead of putting him to death, loosed his fetters and set him free. This action of his mother incensed Horus to such a degree that he seized her, and pulled the royal crown off her head; but Hermes came forward, and set upon her head the head of an ox instead of a helmet.[FN#312] After this Typhon accused Horus of illegitimacy, but, by the a.s.sistance of Hermes, his legitimacy was fully established by a decree of the G.o.ds themselves.[FN#313] After this two other battles were fought between Horus and Typhon, and in both Typhon was defeated. Moreover, Isis is said to have had union with Osiris after his death,[FN#314] and she brought forth Harpokrates,[FN#315] who came into the world before his time, and was lame in his lower limbs.

[FN#309] The texts give as a very common t.i.tle of Horus, "Horus, the avenger of his father."

[FN#310] There is no evidence that the Egyptians employed the horse in war before the XVIIIth Dynasty, a fact which proves that the dialogue here given is an invention of a much later date than the original legend of Osiris.

[FN#311] In Egyptian, TA-URT, the hippopotamus G.o.ddess.

[FN#312] According to the legend given in the Fourth Sallier Papyrus, the fight between Horus and Set began on the 26th day of the month of Thoth, and lasted three days and three nights. It was fought in or near the hall of the lords of Kher-aha, i.e., near Heliopolis, and in the presence of Isis, who seems to have tried to spare both her brother Set and her son Horus. For some reason Horus became enraged with his mother, and attacking her like a "leopard of the south," he cut off the head of Isis. Thereupon Thoth came forward, and using words of power, created a subst.i.tute in the form of a cow's head, and placed it on her body (Sallier, iv., p. 2; see Select Papyri, pl. cxlv.).

[FN#313] Horus inherited the throne by his father's will, a fact which is so often emphasized in the texts that it seems there may be some ground for Plutarch's view.

[FN#314] This view is confirmed by the words in the hymn to Osiris, "she moved the inactivity of the Still-Heart (Osiris), she drew from him his essence, she made an heir."

[FN#315] In Egyptian, HERU-PA-KHART, "Horus the Child."

XX. Such then are the princ.i.p.al circ.u.mstances of this famous story, the more harsh and shocking parts of it, such as the cutting up of Horus and the beheading of Isis, being omitted. Now, if such could be supposed to be the real sentiments of the Egyptians concerning those divine Beings whose most distinguis.h.i.+ng characteristics are happiness and immortality, or could it be imagined that they actually believed what they thus tell us ever to have actually taken place, I should not need to warn you, O Clea, you who are already sufficiently averse to such impious and absurd notions of the G.o.d, I should not, I say, have need to caution you, to testify your abhorrence of them, and, as Aeschylus expresses it, "to spit and wash your mouth" after the recital of them. In the present case, however, it is not so. And I doubt not that you yourself are conscious of the difference between this history and those light and idle fictions which the poets and other writers of fables, like spiders, weave and spin out of their own imaginations, without having any substantial ground or firm foundation to work upon. There must have been some real distress, some actual calamity, at the bottom as the ground-work of the narration; for, as mathematicians a.s.sure us, the rainbow is nothing else but a variegated image of the sun, thrown upon the sight by the reflection of his beams from the clouds; and thus ought we to look upon the present story as the representation, or rather reflection, of something real as its true cause. And this notion is still farther suggested to us as well by that solemn air of grief and sadness which appears in their sacrifices, as by the very form and arrangement of their temples, which extend into long avenues and open aisles in some portions,[FN#316] and in others retreating into dark and gloomy chapels which resembled the underground vaults which are allotted to the dead. That the history has a substantial foundation is proved by the opinion which obtains generally concerning the sepulchres of Osiris. There are many places wherein his body is said to have been deposited, and among these are Abydos and Memphis, both of which are said to contain his body. It is for this reason, they say, that the richer and more prosperous citizens wish to be buried in the former of these cities, being ambitious of lying, as it were, in the grave with Osiris.[FN#317] The t.i.tle of Memphis to be regarded as the grave of Osiris seems to rest upon the fact that the Apis Bull, who is considered to be the image of the soul of Osiris, is kept in that city for the express purpose that it may be as near his body as possible.[FN#318] Others again tell us that the interpretation of the name Memphis[FN#319] is "the haven of good men," and that the true sepulchre of Osiris lies in that little island which the Nile makes at Philae.[FN#320] This island is, they say, inaccessible, and neither bird can alight on it, nor fish swim near it, except at the times when the priests go over to it from the mainland to solemnize their customary rites to the dead, and to crown his tomb with flowers, which, they say, is overshadowed by the branches of a tamarisk-tree, the size of which exceeds that of an olive-tree.

[FN#316] Plutarch refers to the long colonnaded courts which extend in a straight line to the sanctuary, which often contains more than one shrine, and to the chambers wherein temple properties, vestments, &c., were kept.

[FN#317] In what city the cult of Osiris originated is not known, but it is quite certain that before the end of the VIth Dynasty Abydos became the centre of his wors.h.i.+p, and that he dispossessed the local G.o.d An-Her in the affections of the people. Tradition affirmed that the head of Osiris was preserved at Abydos in a box, and a picture of it, #### became the symbol of the city. At Abydos a sort of miracle play, in which all the sufferings and resurrection of Osiris were commemorated, was performed annually, and the raising up of a model of his body, and the placing of his head upon it, were the culminating ceremonies. At Abydos was the famous shaft into which offerings were cast for transmission to the dead in the Other World, and through the Gap in the hills close by souls were believed to set out on their journey thither. One tradition places the Elysian Fields in the neighbourhood of Abydos. A fine stone bier, a restoration probably of the XXVIth Dynasty, which represented the original bier of Osiris, was discovered there by M. Amelineau. It is now in the Egyptian Museum at Cairo.

[FN#318] Apis is called the "life of Osiris," ####, and on the death of the Bull, its soul went to heaven and joined itself to that of Osiris, and it formed with him the dual-G.o.d Asar-Hep, i.e., Osiris- Apis, or Sarapis. The famous Serapeum at Memphis was called ####.

[FN#319] In Egyptian, Men-Nefer, i.e., "fair haven."

[FN#320] Osiris and Isis were wors.h.i.+pped at Philae until the reign of Justinian, when his general, Na.r.s.es, closed the temple and carried off the statues of the G.o.ds to Constantinople, where they were probably melted down.

XXI. Eudoxus indeed a.s.serts that, although there are many pretended sepulchres of Osiris in Egypt, the, place where his body actually lies is Busiris,[FN#321] where likewise he was born.[FN#322] As to Taphosiris, there is no need to mention it particularly, for its very name indicates its claim to be the tomb of Osiris. There are likewise other circ.u.mstances in the Egyptian ritual which hint to us the reality upon which this history is grounded, such as their cleaving the trunk of a tree, their wrapping it up in linen which they tear in pieces for that purpose, and the libations of oil which they afterwards pour upon it; but these I do not insist on, because they are intermixed with such of their mysteries as may not be revealed.

[FN#321] In Egyptian, Pa-Asar-neb-Tetu, "the house of Osiris, the lord of Tetu." In the temple of Neb-Sekert, the backbone of the G.o.d was preserved, according to one text, but another says it was his jaws(?) and interior.

[FN#322] This view represents a late tradition, or at all events one which sprang up after the decay of Abydos.

[FIRST EXPLANATION OF THE STORY.]

XXII. Now as to those who, from many things of this kind, some of which are proclaimed openly, and others are darkly hinted at in their religious inst.i.tutions, would conclude that the whole story is no other than a mere commemoration of the various actions of their kings and other great men, who, by reason of their excellent virtue and the mightiness of their power, added to their other t.i.tles the honour of divinity, though they afterwards fell into many and grievous calamities, those, I say, who would in this manner account for the various scenes above-mentioned, must be owned indeed to make use of a very plausible method of eluding such difficulties as may arise about this subject, and ingeniously enough to transfer the most shocking parts of it from the divine to the human nature. Moreover, it must be admitted that such a solution is not entirely dest.i.tute of any appearance of historical evidence for its support. For when the Egyptians themselves tell us that Hermes had one hand shorter than another, that Typhon was of red complexion, Horus fair, and Osiris black, does not this show that they were of the human species, and subject to the same accidents as all other men?[FN#323] Nay, they go farther, and even declare the particular work in which each was engaged whilst alive. Thus they say that Osiris was a general, that Canopus, from whom the star took its name, was a pilot, and that the s.h.i.+p which the Greeks call Argo, being made in imitation of the s.h.i.+p of Osiris, was, in honour of him, turned into a constellation and placed near Orion and the Dog-star, the former being sacred to Horus and the latter to Isis.

[FN#323] Red is the colour attributed to all fiends in the Egyptian texts. One of the forms of Horus is described as being "blue-eyed," and the colour of the face of Osiris is often green, and sometimes black.

XXIII. But I am much afraid that to give in to this explanation of the story will be to move things which ought not to be moved; and not only, as Simonides says, "to declare war against all antiquity," but likewise against whole families and nations who are fully possessed with the belief in the divinity of these beings. And it would be no less than dispossessing those great names of their heaven, and bringing them down to the earth. It would be to shake and loosen a wors.h.i.+p and faith which have been firmly settled in nearly all mankind from their infancy. It would be to open a wide door for atheism to enter in at, and to encourage the attempts of those who would humanize the divine nature. More particularly it would give a clear sanction and authority to the impostures of Euhemerus the Messenian, who from mere imagination, and without the least appearance of truth to support it, has invented a new mythology of his own, a.s.serting that "all those in general who are called and declared to be G.o.ds are none other than so many ancient generals and sea-captains and kings." Now, he says that he found this statement written in the Panchaean dialect in letters of gold, though in what part of the globe his Panchaeans dwell, any more than the Tryphillians, whom he mentions at the same time with them, he does not inform us. Nor can I learn that any other person, whether Greek or Barbarian, except himself, has ever yet been so fortunate as to meet with these imaginary countries.

[In Sec. XXIV. Plutarch goes on to say that the a.s.syrians commemorate Semiramis, the Egyptians Sesostris, the Phrygians Manis or Masdis, the Persians Cyrus, and the Macedonians Alexander, yet these heroes are not regarded as G.o.ds by their peoples. The kings who have accepted the t.i.tle of G.o.ds have afterwards had to suffer the reproach of vanity and presumption, and impiety and injustice.]

[SECOND EXPLANATION OF THE STORY.]

XXV. There is another and a better method which some employ in explaining this story. They a.s.sert that what is related of Typhon, Osiris, and Isis is not to be regarded as the afflictions of G.o.ds, or of mere mortals, but rather as the adventures of certain great Daemons. These beings, they say, are supposed by some of the wisest of the Greek philosophers, that is to say, Plato, Pythagoras, Xenocrates, and Chrysippus, in accordance with what they had learned from ancient theologians, to be stronger and more powerful than men, and of a nature superior to them. They are, at the same time, inferior to the pure and unmixed nature of the G.o.ds, as partaking of the sensations of the body, as well as of the perceptions of the soul, and consequently liable to pain as well as pleasure, and to such other appet.i.tes and affections, as flow from their various combinations. Such affections, however, have a greater power and influence over some of them than over others, just as there are different degrees of virtue and vice found in these Daemons as well as in mankind. In like manner, the wars of the Giants and the t.i.tans which are so much spoken of by the Greeks, the detestable actions of Kronos, the combats between Apollo and the Python, the flights of Dionysos, and the wanderings of Demeter, are exactly of the same nature as the adventures of Osiris and Typhon. Therefore, they all are to be accounted for in the same manner, and every treatise of mythology will readily furnish us with an abundance of other similar instances. The same thing may also be affirmed of those other things which are so carefully concealed under the cover of mysteries and imitations.

[In Sec. XXVI. Plutarch points out that Homer calls great and good men "G.o.d-like" and "G.o.d's compeers," but the word Daemon is applied to the good and bad indifferently (see Odyssey, vi. 12; Iliad, xiii. 810, v. 438, iv. 31, &c.). Plato a.s.signs to the Olympian G.o.ds good things and the odd numbers, and the opposite to the Daemons. Xenocrates believed in the existence of a series of strong and powerful beings which take pleasure in scourgings and fastings, &c. Hesiod speaks of "holy daemons" (Works and Days, 126) and "guardians of mankind," and "bestowers of wealth," and these are regarded by Plato as a "middle order of beings between the G.o.ds and men, interpreters of the wills of the G.o.ds to men, and ministering to their wants, carrying the prayers and supplications of mortals to heaven, and bringing down thence in return oracles and all other blessings of life." Empedocles thought that the Daemons underwent punishment, and that when chastened and purified they were restored to their original state.]

[Sec. XXVII. To this cla.s.s belonged Typhon, who was punished by Isis. In memory of all she had done and suffered, she established certain rites and mysteries which were to be types and images of her deeds, and intended these to incite people to piety, and, to afford them consolation. Isis and Osiris were translated from good Daemons into G.o.ds, and the honours due to them are rightly of a mixed kind, being those due to G.o.ds and Daemons. Osiris is none other than Pluto, and Isis is not different from Proserpine.]

[Sec. x.x.x. Typhon is held by the Egyptians in the greatest contempt, and they do all they can to vilify him. The colour red being a.s.sociated with him, they treat with contumely all those who have a ruddy complexion; the a.s.s[FN#324] being usually of a reddish colour, the men of Koptos are in the habit of sacrificing a.s.ses by casting them down precipices. The inhabitants of Busiris and Lycopolis never use trumpets, because their sounds resemble the braying of an a.s.s. The cakes which are offered at the festivals during Paoni and Paopi are stamped with the figure of a fettered a.s.s. The Pythagoreans regarded Typhon as a daemon, and according to them he was produced in the even number fifty-six; and Eudoxus says that a figure of fifty-six angles typifies the nature of Typhon.]

[FN#324] The a.s.s is a.s.sociated with Set, or Typhon, in the texts, but on account of his virility he also typifies a form of the Sun-G.o.d. In a hymn the deceased prays, "May I smite the a.s.s, may I crush the serpent-fiend Sebau," but the XLth Chapter of the Book of the Dead is ent.i.tled, "Chapter of driving back the Eater of the a.s.s." The vignette shows us the deceased in the act of spearing a monster serpent which has fastened its jaws in the back of an a.s.s. In Chapter CXXV. there is a dialogue between the Cat and the a.s.s.

[Sec. x.x.xI. The Egyptians only sacrifice red-coloured bulls, and a single black or white hair in the animal's head disqualifies it for sacrifice. They sacrifice creatures wherein the souls of the wicked have been confined, and through this view arose the custom of cursing the animal to be sacrificed, and cutting off its bead and throwing it into the Nile. No bullock is sacrificed which has not on it the seal of the priests who were called "Sealers." The impression from this seal represents a man upon his knees, with his hands tied behind him, and a sword pointed at his throat. The a.s.s is identified with Typhon not only because of his colour, but also because of his stupidity and the sensuality of his disposition. The Persian king Ochus was nicknamed the "a.s.s," which made him to say, "This a.s.s shall dine upon your ox," and accordingly he slew Apis. Typhon is said to have escaped from Horus by a flight of seven days on an a.s.s.]

[THIRD EXPLANATION OF THE STORY.]

x.x.xII. Such then are the arguments of those who endeavour to account for the above-mentioned history of Isis and Osiris upon a supposition that they were of the order of Daemons; but there are others who pretend to explain it upon other principles, and in more philosophical manner. To begin, then, with those whose reasoning is the most simple and obvious. As the Greeks allegorize their Kronos into Time, and their Hera into Air, and tell us that the birth of Hephaistos is no other but the change of air into fire, so these philosophers say that by Osiris the Egyptians mean the Nile, by Isis that part of the country which Osiris, or the Nile, overflows, and by Typhon the sea, which, by receiving the Nile as it runs into it, does, as it were, tear it into many pieces, and indeed entirely destroys it, excepting only so much of it as is admitted into the bosom of the earth in its pa.s.sage over it, which is thereby rendered fertile. The truth of this explanation is confirmed, they say, by that sacred dirge which they make over Osiris when they bewail "him who was born on the right side of the world and who perished on the left."[FN#325] For it must be observed that the Egyptians look upon the east as the front or face of the world,[FN#326] upon the north as its right side,[FN#327] and upon the south as its left.[FN#328] As, therefore, the Nile rises in the south, and running directly northwards is at last swallowed up by the sea, it may rightly enough be said to be born on the right and to perish on the left side. This conclusion, they say, is still farther strengthened from that abhorrence which the priests express towards the sea, as well as salt, which they call "Typhon's foam." And amongst their prohibitions is one which forbids salt being laid on their tables. And do they not also carefully avoid speaking to pilots, because this cla.s.s of men have much to do with the sea and get their living by it? And this is not the least of their reasons for the great dislike which they have for fish, and they even make the fish a symbol of "hatred," as is proved by the pictures which are to be seen on the porch of the temple of Neith at Sais. The first of these is a child, the second is an old man, the third is a hawk, and then follow a fish and a hippopotamus. The meaning of all these is evidently, "O you who are coming into the world, and you who are going out of it (i.e., both young and old), G.o.d hateth impudence." For by the child is indicated "all those who are coming into life"; by the old man, "those who are going out of it"; by the hawk, "G.o.d"; by the fish, "hatred," on account of the sea, as has been before stated; and by the hippopotamus, "impudence," this creature being said first to slay his sire, and afterwards to force his dam.[FN#329] The Pythagoreans likewise may be thought perhaps by some to have looked upon the sea as impure, and quite different from all the rest of nature, and that thus much is intended by them when they call it the "tears of Kronos."

[FN#325] Plutarch here refers to Osiris as the Moon, which rises in the West.

[FN#326] According to the texts the front of the world was the south, khent, #### and from this word is formed the verb #### #### "to sail to the south."

[FN#327] In the texts the west is the right side, unemi, #### in Coptic, ####.

[FN#328] In the texts the east is the left side, abti.

[FN#329] Each of these signs, ####, except the last, does mean what Plutarch says it means, but his method of reading them together is wrong, and it proves that he did not understand that hieroglyphics were used alphabetically as well as ideographically.

[Secs. x.x.xIII., x.x.xIV. Some of the more philosophical priests a.s.sert that Osiris does not symbolize the Nile only, nor Typhon the sea only, but that Osiris represents the principle and power of moisture in general, and that Typhon represents everything which is scorching, burning, and fiery, and whatever destroys moisture. Osiris they believe to have been of a black[FN#330] colour, because water gives a black tinge to everything with which it is mixed. The Mnevis Bull[FN#331] kept at Heliopolis is, like Osiris, black in colour, "and even Egypt[FN#332] itself, by reason of the extreme blackness of the soil, is called by them 'Chemia,' the very name which is given to the black part or pupil of the eye.[FN#333] It is, moreover, represented by them under the figure of a human heart." The Sun and Moon are not represented as being drawn about in chariots, but as sailing round the world in s.h.i.+ps, which shows that they owe their motion, support, and nourishment to the power of humidity.[FN#334] Homer and Thales both learned from Egypt that "water was the first principle of all things, and the cause of generation."[FN#335]]

[FN#330] Experiments recently conducted by Lord Rayleigh indicate that the true colour of water is blue.

[FN#331] In Egyptian, Nem-ur, or Men-ur, and he was "called the life of Ra."

[FN#332] The commonest name of Egypt is Kemt, "black land," as opposed to the reddish-yellow sandy deserts on each side of the "valley of black mud." The word for "black" is kam.

[FN#333] Plutarch seems to have erred here. The early texts call the pupil of the eye "the child in the eye," as did the Semitic peoples (see my Liturgy of Funerary Offerings, p. 136). The Copts spoke of the "black of the eye," derived from the hieroglyphic "darkness," "blackness."

[FN#334] There is no support for this view in the texts.

[FN#335] It was a very common belief in Egypt that all things arose from the great celestial ocean called Nu, whence came the Nile.

[Sec. x.x.xVI. The Nile and all kinds of moisture are called the "efflux of Osiris." Therefore a water-pitcher[FN#336] is always carried first in his processions, and the leaf of a fir-tree represents both Osiris and Egypt.[FN#337] Osiris is the great principle of fecundity, which is proved by the Pamylia festivals, in which a statue of the G.o.d with a triple phallus is carried about.[FN#338] The three-fold phallus merely signifies any great and indefinite number.]

[FN#336] Plutarch refers to the vessel of water, with which the priest sprinkles the ground to purify it.

[FN#337] He seems to refer here to the olive-tree: Beqet, "olive land," was one of the names of Egypt.

[FN#338] Plutarch seems to be confounding Osiris with Menu, the G.o.d of generation, who is generally represented in an ithyphallic form. The festival of the phallus survived in Egypt until quite recently.

[Sec. x.x.xVIII. The Sun is consecrated to Osiris, and the lion is wors.h.i.+pped, and temples are ornamented with figures of this animal, because the Nile rises when the sun is in the constellation of the Lion. Horus, the offspring of Osiris, the Nile, and Isis, the Earth, was born in the marshes of Buto, because the vapour of damp land destroys drought. Nephthys, or Teleute, represents the extreme limits of the country and the sea-sh.o.r.e, that is, barren land. Osiris (i.e., the Nile) overflowed this barren land, and Anubis[FN#339] was the result.[FN#340]]

[FN#339] The Egyptian Anpu. The texts make one form of him to be the son of Set and Nephthys.

[FN#340] Plutarch's explanations in this chapter are unsupported by the texts.