(M107) Before we conclude this study of Osiris it will be worth while to
consider an ancient view of his nature, which deserves more attention than
it has received in modern times. We are told by Plutarch that among the
philosophers who saw in the gods of Egypt personifications of natural
objects and forces, there were some who interpreted Osiris as the moon and
his enemy Typhon as the sun, “because the moon, with her humid and
generative light, is favourable to the propagation of animals and the
growth of plants; while the sun with his fierce fire scorches and burns up
all growing things, renders the greater part of the earth uninhabitable by
reason of his blaze, and often overpowers the moon herself.”(321) Whatever
may be thought of the physical qualities here attributed to the moon, the
arguments adduced by the ancients to prove the identity of Osiris with
that luminary carry with them a weight which has at least not been
lightened by the results of modern research. An examination of them and of
other evidence pointing in the same direction will, perhaps, help to set
the original character of the Egyptian deity in a clearer light.(322)
1. Osiris was said to have lived or reigned twenty-eight years. This might
fairly be taken as a mythical expression for a lunar month.(323)
2. His body was reported to have been rent into fourteen pieces.(324) This
might be interpreted of the waning moon, which appears to lose a portion
of itself on each of the fourteen days that make up the second half of a
lunar month. It is expressly said that his enemy Typhon found the body of
Osiris at the full moon;(325) thus the dismemberment of the god would
begin with the waning of the moon. To primitive man it seems manifest that
the waning moon is actually dwindling, and he naturally enough explains
its diminution by supposing that the planet is being rent or broken in
pieces or eaten away. The Klamath Indians of Oregon speak of the moon as
“the one broken to pieces” with reference to its changing aspect; they
never apply such a term to the sun,(326) whose apparent change of bulk at
different seasons of the year is far too insignificant to attract the
attention of the savage, or at least to be described by him in such
forcible language. The Dacotas believe that when the moon is full, a great
many little mice begin to nibble at one side of it and do not cease till
they have eaten it all up, after which a new moon is born and grows to
maturity, only to share the fate of its countless predecessors.(327) A
similar belief is held by the Huzuls of the Carpathians, except that they
ascribe the destruction of the old moon to wolves instead of to mice.(328)
3. At the new moon of the month Phamenoth, which was the beginning of
spring, the Egyptians celebrated what they called “the entry of Osiris
into the moon.”(329)
4. At the ceremony called “the burial of Osiris” the Egyptians made a
crescent-shaped chest “because the moon, when it approaches the sun,
assumes the form of a crescent and vanishes.”(330)
5. The bull Apis, held to be an image of the soul of Osiris,(331) was born
of a cow which was believed to have been impregnated, not in the vulgar
way by a bull, but by a divine influence emanating from the moon.(332)
6. Once a year, at the full moon, pigs were sacrificed simultaneously to
the moon and Osiris.(333)
7. In a hymn supposed to be addressed by Isis to Osiris, it is said that
Thoth—
“_Placeth thy soul in the bark Ma-at,_
_In that name which is thine, of __GOD MOON__._”
And again:—
“_Thou who comest to us as a child each month,_
_We do not cease to contemplate thee._
_Thine emanation heightens the brilliancy_
_Of the stars of Orion in the firmament._”(334)
Here then Osiris is identified with the moon in set terms. If in the same
hymn he is said to “illuminate us like Ra” (the sun), that is obviously no
reason for identifying him with the sun, but quite the contrary. For
though the moon may reasonably be compared to the sun, neither the sun nor
anything else can reasonably be compared to itself.
8. In art Osiris is sometimes represented as a human-headed mummy grasping
in his hands his characteristic emblems and wearing on his head, instead
of the usual crown, a full moon within a crescent.(335)
(M108) Now if in one of his aspects Osiris was originally a deity of
vegetation, we can easily enough understand why in a later and more
philosophic age he should come to be thus identified or confounded with
the moon.(336) For as soon as he begins to meditate upon the causes of
things, the early philosopher is led by certain obvious, though
fallacious, appearances to regard the moon as the ultimate cause of the
growth of plants. In the first place he associates its apparent growth and
decay with the growth and decay of sublunary things, and imagines that in
virtue of a secret sympathy the celestial phenomena really produce those
terrestrial changes which in point of fact they merely resemble. Thus
Pliny says that the moon may fairly be considered the planet of breath,
“because it saturates the earth and by its approach fills bodies, while by
its departure it empties them. Hence it is,” he goes on, “that shell-fish
increase with the increase of the moon and that bloodless creatures
especially feel breath at that time; even the blood of men grows and
diminishes with the light of the moon, and leaves and herbage also feel
the same influence, since the lunar energy penetrates all things.”(337)
“There is no doubt,” writes Macrobius, “that the moon is the author and
framer of mortal bodies, so much so that some things expand or shrink as
it waxes or wanes.”(338) Again, Aulus Gellius puts in the mouth of a
friend the remark that “the same things which grow with the waxing, do
dwindle with the waning moon,” and he quotes from a commentary of
Plutarch’s on Hesiod a statement that the onion is the only vegetable
which violates this great law of nature by sprouting in the wane and
withering in the increase of the moon.(339) Scottish Highlanders allege
that in the increase of the moon everything has a tendency to grow or
stick together;(340) and they call the second moon of autumn “the ripening
moon” (_Gealach an abachaidh_), because they imagine that crops ripen as
much by its light as by day.(341)
(M109) From this supposed influence of the moon on the life of plants and
animals, men in ancient and modern times have deduced a whole code of
rules for the guidance of the husbandman, the shepherd, and others in the
conduct of their affairs. Thus an ancient writer on agriculture lays it
down as a maxim, that whatever is to be sown should be sown while the moon
is waxing, and that whatever is to be cut or gathered should be cut or
gathered while it is waning.(342) A modern treatise on superstition
describes how the superstitious man regulates all his conduct by the moon:
“Whatever he would have to grow, he sets about it when she is in her
increase; but for what he would have made less he chooses her wane.”(343)
In Germany the phases of the moon are observed by superstitious people at
all the more or even less important actions of life, such as tilling the
fields, building or changing houses, marriages, hair-cutting, bleeding,
cupping, and so forth. The particular rules vary in different places, but
the principle generally followed is that whatever is done to increase
anything should be done while the moon is waxing; whatever is done to
diminish anything should be done while the moon is waning. For example,
sowing, planting, and grafting should be done in the first half of the
moon, but the felling of timber and mowing should be done in the second
half.(344) In various parts of Europe it is believed that plants, nails,
hair, and corns, cut while the moon is on the increase, will grow again
fast, but that if cut while it is on the decrease they will grow slowly or
waste away.(345) Hence persons who wish their hair to grow thick and long
should cut it in the first half of the moon.(346) On the same principle
sheep are shorn when the moon is waxing, because it is supposed that the
wool will then be longest and most enduring.(347) Some negroes of the
Gaboon think that taro and other vegetables never thrive if they are
planted after full moon, but that they grow fast and strong if they are
planted in the first quarter.(348) The Highlanders of Scotland used to
expect better crops of grain by sowing their seed in the moon’s
increase.(349) On the other hand they thought that garden vegetables, such
as onions and kail, run to seed if they are sown in the increase, but that
they grow to pot-herbs if they are sown in the wane.(350) So Thomas Tusser
advised the peasant to sow peas and beans in the wane of the moon “that
they with the planet may rest and arise.”(351) The Zulus welcome the first
appearance of the new moon with beating of drums and other demonstrations
of joy; but next day they abstain from all labour, “thinking that if
anything is sown on those days they can never reap the benefit
thereof.”(352) But in this matter of sowing and planting a refined
distinction is sometimes drawn by French, German, and Esthonian peasants;
plants which bear fruit above ground are sown by them when the moon is
waxing, but plants which are cultivated for the sake of their roots, such
as potatoes and turnips, are sown when the moon is waning.(353) The reason
for this distinction seems to be a vague idea that the waxing moon is
coming up and the waning moon going down, and that accordingly fruits
which grow upwards should be sown in the former period, and fruits which
grow downwards in the latter. Before beginning to plant their cacao the
Pipiles of Central America exposed the finest seeds for four nights to the
moonlight,(354) but whether they did so at the waxing or waning of the
moon is not said. Even pots, it would seem, are not exempt from this great
law of nature. In Uganda “potters waited for the new moon to appear before
baking their pots; when it was some days old, they prepared their fires
and baked the vessels. No potter would bake pots when the moon was past
the full, for he believed that they would be a failure, and would be sure
to crack or break in the burning, if he did so, and that his labour
accordingly would go for nothing.”(355)
(M110) Again, the waning of the moon has been commonly recommended both in
ancient and modern times as the proper time for felling trees,(356)
apparently because it was thought fit and natural that the operation of
cutting down should be performed on earth at the time when the lunar orb
was, so to say, being cut down in the sky. In France before the Revolution
the forestry laws enjoined that trees should only be felled after the moon
had passed the full; and in French bills announcing the sale of timber you
may still read a notice that the wood was cut in the waning of the
moon.(357) So among the Shans of Burma, when a house is to be built, it is
a rule that “a lucky day should be chosen to commence the cutting of the
bamboos. The day must not only be a fortunate one for the builder, but it
must also be in the second half of the month, when the moon is waning.
Shans believe that if bamboos are cut during the first half of the month,
when the moon is waxing, they do not last well, as boring insects attack
them and they will soon become rotten. This belief is prevalent all over
the East.”(358) A like belief obtains in various parts of Mexico. No
Mexican will cut timber while the moon is increasing; they say it must be
cut while the moon is waning or the wood will certainly rot.(359) In
Colombia, South America, people think that corn should only be sown and
timber felled when the moon is on the wane. They say that the waxing moon
draws the sap up through the trunk and branches, whereas the sap flows
down and leaves the wood dry during the wane of the moon.(360) But
sometimes the opposite rule is adopted, and equally forcible arguments are
urged in its defence. Thus, when the Wabondei of Eastern Africa are about
to build a house, they take care to cut the posts for it when the moon is
on the increase; for they say that posts cut when the moon is wasting away
would soon rot, whereas posts cut while the moon is waxing are very
durable.(361) The same rule is observed for the same reason in some parts
of Germany.(362)
(M111) But the partisans of the ordinarily received opinion have sometimes
supported it by another reason, which introduces us to the second of those
fallacious appearances by which men have been led to regard the moon as
the cause of growth in plants. From observing rightly that dew falls most
thickly on cloudless nights, they inferred wrongly that it was caused by
the moon, a theory which the poet Alcman expressed in mythical form by
saying that dew was a daughter of Zeus and the moon.(363) Hence the
ancients concluded that the moon is the great source of moisture, as the
sun is the great source of heat.(364) And as the humid power of the moon
was assumed to be greater when the planet was waxing than when it was
waning, they thought that timber cut during the increase of the luminary
would be saturated with moisture, whereas timber cut in the wane would be
comparatively dry. Hence we are told that in antiquity carpenters would
reject timber felled when the moon was growing or full, because they
believed that such timber teemed with sap;(365) and in the Vosges at the
present day people allege that wood cut at the new moon does not dry.(366)
We have seen that the same reason is assigned for the same practice in
Colombia.(367) In the Hebrides peasants give the same reason for cutting
their peats when the moon is on the wane; “for they observe that if they
are cut in the increase, they continue still moist and never burn clear,
nor are they without smoke, but the contrary is daily observed of peats
cut in the decrease.”(368)
(M112) Thus misled by a double fallacy primitive philosophy comes to view
the moon as the great cause of vegetable growth, first, because the planet
seems itself to grow, and second, because it is supposed to be the source
of dew and moisture. It is no wonder, therefore, that agricultural peoples
should adore the planet which they believe to influence so profoundly the
crops on which they depend for subsistence. Accordingly we find that in
the hotter regions of America, where maize is cultivated and manioc is the
staple food, the moon was recognized as the principal object of worship,
and plantations of manioc were assigned to it as a return for the service
it rendered in the production of the crops. The worship of the moon in
preference to the sun was general among the Caribs, and, perhaps, also
among most of the other Indian tribes who cultivated maize in the tropical
forests to the east of the Andes; and the same thing has been observed,
under the same physical conditions, among the aborigines of the hottest
region of Peru, the northern valleys of Yuncapata. Here the Indians of
Pacasmayu and the neighbouring valleys revered the moon as their principal
divinity. The “house of the moon” at Pacasmayu was the chief temple of the
district; and the same sacrifices of maize-flour, of wine, and of children
which were offered by the mountaineers of the Andes to the Sun-god, were
offered by the lowlanders to the Moon-god in order that he might cause
their crops to thrive.(369) In ancient Babylonia, where the population was
essentially agricultural, the moon-god took precedence of the sun-god and
was indeed reckoned his father.(370)
(M113) Hence it would be no matter for surprise if, after worshipping the
crops which furnished them with the means of subsistence, the ancient
Egyptians should in later times have identified the spirit of the corn
with the moon, which a false philosophy had taught them to regard as the
ultimate cause of the growth of vegetation. In this way we can understand
why in their most recent forms the myth and ritual of Osiris, the old god
of trees and corn, should bear many traces of efforts made to bring them
into a superficial conformity with the new doctrine of his lunar affinity.