And as they term the Nile the efflux of Osiris, so they hold and esteem
the earth for the body of Isis; and not all of it either, but that part
only which the Nile, as it were, leaps over, and thereby impregnates
and mixes with it. And by this amorous congress they produce Horus.
Now this Horus is that Hora, or sweet season and just temperament of
the ambient air, which nourisheth and preserveth all things; and they
report him to have been nursed by Latona in the marshy grounds about
Buto, because moist and watery land best feeds those exhaled vapors
which quench and relax drought and parching heat. But those parts of
the country which are outmost and upon the confines and sea-coast they
call Nephthys; and therefore they give her the name of Teleutaea (or
the outmost) and report her to be married to Typhon. When therefore the
Nile is excessive great, and so far passes its ordinary bounds that it
approaches to those that inhabit the outmost quarters, they call this
Osiris’s accompanying with Nephthys, found out by the springing up of
plants thereupon, whereof the melilot is one; which (as the story tells
us), being dropped behind and left there, gave Typhon to understand the
wrong that had been done to his bed. Which made them say that Isis had
a lawful son called Horus, and Nephthys a bastard called Anubis. And
indeed they record in the successions of their kings, that Nephthys
being married to Typhon was at first barren. Now if they do not mean
this of a woman but of a Goddess, they must needs hint that the earth,
by reason of its solidity, is in its own nature unfruitful and barren.
39. And the conspiracy and usurpation of Typhon will be the power
of the drought, which then prevails and dissipates that generative
moisture which both begets the Nile and increases it. And the queen of
Ethiopia, that abetted his quarrel, will denote the southern winds that
come from Ethiopia. For when these come to overpower the Etesian (or
anniversary) winds which drive the clouds towards Ethiopia, and by that
means prevent those showers of rain which should augment the Nile from
discharging themselves down, Typhon then being rampant scorcheth all,
and being wholly master of the Nile, which now through weakness and
debility draws in its head and takes a contrary course, he next thrusts
him hollow and sunk as he is into the sea. For the story that is told
us of the closing up of Osiris in a chest seems to me to be nothing
else but an imitation of the withdrawing and disappearing of the water.
For which reason they tell us that Osiris was missing upon the month
of Athyr; at which time the Etesian winds being wholly ceased, the
Nile returns to his channel, and the country looks bare; the night
also growing longer, the darkness increases, and so the power of light
fades away and is overcome. And as the priests act several other
melancholy things upon this occasion, so they cover a gilded cow with
a black linen pall, and thus expose her to public view at the mourning
of the Goddess, for four days together, beginning at the seventeenth
of the month. For the things they mourn for are also four; the first
whereof is the falling and recess of the river Nile; the second,
because the northern winds are then quite suppressed by the southern
overpowering them; the third, because the day is grown shorter than the
night; and the last and chiefest of all, the barrenness of the earth,
together with the nakedness of the trees, which then cast their leaves.
And on the nineteenth day at night they go down to the sea-side, and
the priest and sacred livery bring forth the chest, having within it a
little golden ark into which they pour fresh and potable water, and all
that are there present give a great shout for joy that Osiris is now
found. Then they take fertile mould, and stir it about in that water,
and when they have mixed with it several very costly odors and spices,
they form it into a little image, in fashion like a crescent, and then
dress it up in fine clothes and adorn it, intimating hereby that they
believe these Gods to be the substance of earth and water.
40. But Isis again recovering Osiris, and rearing up Horus, made strong
by exhalations, mists, and clouds, Typhon was indeed reduced, but not
executed; for the Goddess who is sovereign over the earth would not
suffer the opposite nature to wet to be utterly extinguished, but
loosed it and let it go, being desirous the mixture should continue.
For it would be impossible for the world to be complete and perfect, if
the property of fire should fail and be wanting. And as these things
are not spoken by them without a considerable show of reason, so
neither have we reason wholly to contemn this other account which they
give us; which is, that Typhon in the more ancient times was master
of Osiris’s portion. For (say they) Egypt was once all sea. For which
reason it is found at this day to have abundance of fish-shells, both
in its mines and on its mountains. And besides that, all the springs
and wells (which in that country are extreme numerous) have in them a
salt and brackish water, as if some remainder of the ancient sea had
run thither, to be laid up in store. But in process of time, Horus got
the upper hand of Typhon; that is, there happened such an opportunity
of sudden and tempestuous showers of rain, that the Nile pushed the
sea out, and discovered the champaign land, and afterwards filled it
up with continual profusions of mud; all which hath the testimony of
sense to confirm it. For we see at this day that, as the river drives
down fresh mud and lays new earth unto the old, the sea by degrees
gives back and the salt water runs off, as the parts in the bottom gain
height by new accessions of mud. We see, moreover, that the Pharos,
which Homer observed in his time to be a whole day’s sail from Egypt,
is now a part of it; not because it changed its place or came nearer
the shore than before, but because, the river still adding to and
increasing the main land, the intermediate sea was obliged to retire.
To speak the truth, these things are not far unlike the explications
which the Stoics used to give of the Gods. For they also say that the
generative and nutritive property of the air is called Bacchus; the
striking and dividing property, Hercules; the receptive property,
Ammon; that which passes through the earth and fruits, Ceres and
Proserpine; and that which passes through the sea, Neptune.
41. But those who join with these physiological accounts certain
mathematical matters relating to astronomy suppose Typhon to mean the
world of the sun, and Osiris that of the moon; for that the moon, being
endued with a prolific and moistening light, is very favorable both to
the breeding of animals and the springing up of plants; but the sun,
having in it an immoderate and excessive fire, burns and dries up such
things as grow up and look green and by its scorching heat renders a
great part of the world wholly uninhabitable, and very often gets the
better of the moon. For which reason the Egyptians always call Typhon
Seth, which in their language signifies a domineering and compelling
power. And they tell us in their mythology, that Hercules is placed in
the sun and rides about the world in it, and that Hermes doth the like
in the moon. For the operations of the moon seem to resemble reason and
to proceed from wisdom, but those of the sun to be like unto strokes
effected by violence and mere strength. But the Stoics affirm the sun
to be kindled and fed by the sea, and the moon by the waters of springs
and pools, which send up a sweet and soft exhalation to it.
42. It is fabled by the Egyptians that Osiris’s death happened upon
the seventeenth day of the month, at which time it is evident that the
moon is at the fullest. For which reason the Pythagoreans call that day
Antiphraxis (or _disjunction_) and utterly abominate the very number.
For the middle number seventeen, falling in betwixt the square number
sixteen and the oblong parallelogram eighteen (which are the only plane
numbers that have their peripheries equal with their areas), disjoins
and separates them from each other; and being divided into unequal
portions, it makes the sesquioctave proportion (9 : 8). Moreover, there
are some that affirm Osiris to have lived eight and twenty years; and
others again, that he only reigned so long, for that is the just number
of the moon’s degrees of light and of the days wherein she performs
her circuit. And after they have cleft the tree, at the solemnity they
call Osiris’s Burial, they next form it into an ark in fashion like a
crescent, because the moon, when it joins the sun, becomes first of
that figure and then vanishes away. Likewise the division of Osiris
into fourteen parts sets forth unto us symbolically the number of days
in which that luminary is decreasing, from the full to the change.
Moreover, the day upon which she first appears, after she hath now
escaped the solar rays and passed by the sun, they term “imperfect
good;” for Osiris is beneficent, and as this name hath many other
significations, so what they call “effectuating and beneficent force”
is none of the least. Hermaeus also tells us, that his other name of
Omphis, when interpreted, denotes a benefactor.
43. They moreover believe that the several risings of the river Nile
bear a certain proportion to the variations of light in the moon. For
they say that its highest rise, which is at Elephantine, is eight and
twenty cubits high, which is the number of its several lights and the
measures of its monthly course; and that at Mendes and Xois, which is
the lowest of all, it is six cubits high, which answers the half-moon;
but that the middlemost rise, which is at Memphis, is (when it is at
its just height) fourteen cubits high, which answers the full moon.
They also say that the Apis is the living image of Osiris, and that
he is begotten when a prolific light darts down from the moon and
touches the cow when she is disposed for procreation; for which reason
many things in the Apis bear resemblance to the shapes of the moon,
it having light colors intermixed with shady ones. Moreover, upon the
kalends of the month Phamenoth they keep a certain holiday, by them
called Osiris’s ascent into the moon, and they account it the beginning
of their spring. Thus they place the power of Osiris in the moon, and
affirm him to be there married with Isis, which is generation. For
which cause they style the moon the mother of the world, and believe
her to have the nature both of male and female, because she is first
filled and impregnated by the sun, and then herself sends forth
generative principles into the air, and from thence scatters them
down upon the earth. For that Typhonian destruction doth not always
prevail; but it is very often subdued by generation and fast bound like
a prisoner, but afterwards gets up again and makes war upon Horus. Now
this Horus is the terrestrial world, which is not wholly exempted from
either generation or destruction.
44. But there are some that will have this tale to be a figurative
representation of the eclipses. For the moon is under an eclipse at
the full, when the sun is in opposition to her, because she then falls
into the shadow of the earth, as they say Osiris did into his chest.
But she hides and obscures the sun at the new moon, upon the thirtieth
day of the month, but doth not extinguish the sun quite, any more than
Isis did Typhon. And when Nephthys was delivered of Anubis, Isis owned
the child. For Nephthys is that part of the world which is below the
earth, and invisible to us; and Isis that which is above the earth,
and visible. But that which touches upon both these, and is called the
horizon (or bounding circle) and is common to them both, is called
Anubis, and resembles in shape the dog, because the dog makes use of
his sight by night as well as by day. And therefore Anubis seems to me
to have a power among the Egyptians much like to that of Hecate among
the Grecians, he being as well terrestrial as Olympic. Some again
think Anubis to be Saturn; wherefore, they say, because he produces
all things out of himself and breeds them in himself, he had the name
of Kyon (which signifies in Greek both a dog and a breeder). Moreover,
those that worship the dog have a certain secret meaning that must not
be here revealed. And in the more remote and ancient times, the dog had
the highest honor paid him in Egypt; but after that Cambyses had slain
the Apis and thrown him away contemptuously like a carrion, no animal
came near to him except the dog only; upon this he lost his first honor
and the right he had of being worshipped above other creatures. There
are also some that will have the shadow of the earth, into which they
believe the moon to fall when eclipsed, to be called Typhon.
45. Wherefore it seems to me not to be unconsonant to reason to hold
that each of them apart is not in the right, but all together are. For
it is not drought, nor wind, nor sea, nor darkness, but every part of
Nature that is hurtful or destructive, that belongs to Typhon. For we
are not to place the first origins of the universe in inanimate bodies,
as do Democritus and Epicurus; nor to make one reason, and one forecast
overruling and containing all things, the creator of matter without
attribute, as the Stoics do; for it is alike impossible for any thing
bad to exist where God is the cause of all things, and for any thing
good to exist where he is the cause of nothing. For the harmony of
the world is (according to Heraclitus) like that of a bow or a harp,
alternately tightened and relaxed; and according to Euripides,
Nor good nor bad here’s to be found apart;
But both immixed in one, for greater art.[24]
And therefore this most ancient opinion hath been handed down from the
theologists and lawgivers to the poets and philosophers, it having
an original fathered upon none, but having gained a persuasion both
strong and indelible, and being everywhere professed and received
by barbarians as well as Grecians,—and that not only in vulgar
discourses and public fame, but also in their secret mysteries and open
sacrifices,—that the world is neither hurried about by wild chance
without intelligence, discourse, and direction, nor yet that there is
but one reason, which as it were with a rudder or with gentle and easy
reins directs it and holds it in; but that on the contrary, there are
in it several differing things, and those made up of bad as well as
good or rather (to speak more plainly) that Nature produces nothing
here but what is mixed and tempered. Not that there is as it were one
store-keeper, who out of two different casks dispenses to us human
affairs adulterated and mixed together,[25] as a host doth his liquors;
but by reason of two contrary origins and opposite powers—whereof the
one leads to the right hand and in a direct line, and the other turns
to the contrary hand and goes athwart—both human life is mixed, and the
world (if not all, yet that part which is about the earth and below
the moon) is become very unequal and various, and liable to all manner
of changes. For if nothing can come without a cause, and if a good
thing cannot afford a cause of evil, Nature then must certainly have a
peculiar source and origin of evil as well as of good.
46. And this is the opinion of the greatest and wisest part of mankind.
For some believe that there are two Gods, as it were two rival workmen,
the one whereof they make to be the maker of good things, and the other
of bad. And some call the better of these God, and the other Daemon;
as doth Zoroaster the Magian whom they report to be five thousand
years elder than the Trojan times. This Zoroaster now called the one
of these Horomazes, and the other Arimanius; and affirmed, moreover,
that the one of them did, of any thing sensible, the most resemble
light, and the other darkness and ignorance; but that Mithras was in
the middle betwixt them. For which cause the Persians call Mithras
the Mediator. And they tell us, that he first taught mankind to make
vows and offerings of thanksgiving to the one, and to offer averting
and feral sacrifice to the other. For they beat a certain plant called
_omomi_ in a mortar, and call upon Pluto and the dark; and then mix it
with the blood of a sacrificed wolf, and convey it to a certain place
where the sun never shines, and there cast it away. For of plants they
believe that some appertain to the good God, and others again to the
evil Daemon; and likewise they think that such animals as dogs, fowls,
and urchins belong to the good, but water animals to the bad, for which
reason they account him happy that kills most of these.
47. These men moreover tell us a great many romantic things about these
Gods, whereof these are some. They say that, Horomazes springing from
purest light, and Arimanius on the other hand from pitchy darkness,
these two are therefore at war with one another; and that Horomazes
made six Gods, whereof the first was the author of benevolence, the
second of truth, the third of law and order; and the rest, one of
wisdom, another of wealth, and a third of that pleasure which accrues
from good actions; and that Arimanius likewise made the like number of
contrary Gods to confront them. After this, Horomazes, having first
trebled his own magnitude, mounted up aloft, as far above the sun as
the sun itself above the earth, and so bespangled the heavens with
stars. But one star (called Sirius, or the Dog) he set as a kind of
sentinel or scout before all the rest. And after he had made four and
twenty Gods more, he placed them all in an egg-shell. But those that
were made by Arimanius (being themselves also of the like number)
breaking a hole in this beauteous and glazed egg-shell, bad things came
by this means to be intermixed with good. But the fatal time is now
approaching, in which Arimanius, who by means of this brings plagues
and famines upon the earth, must of necessity be himself utterly
extinguished and destroyed; at which time, the earth being made plain
and level, there will be one life and one society of mankind, made all
happy and of one speech. But Theopompus saith, that, according to the
opinion of the Magi, each of these Gods subdues and is subdued by
turns for the space of three thousand years apiece, and that for three
thousand years more they quarrel and fight, and destroy each other’s
works; but that at last Pluto shall fail, and mankind shall be happy,
and neither need food nor yield a shadow. And that the God who has
projected these things shall then for some time take his repose and
rest; but yet this time is not so much to him, although it seem so to
man, whose sleep is but short.
48. Such then is the mythology of the Magi. But the Chaldaeans say,
there are Gods of the planets also, two whereof they style benefics,
and two malefics; the other three they pronounce to be common and
indifferent. As for the Grecians, their opinions are obvious and well
known to every one; to wit, that they make the good part of the world
to appertain to Jupiter Olympius, and the hateful part to Pluto; and
likewise, that they fable Harmonia to have been begotten by Venus and
Mars, the one whereof is rough and quarrelsome, and the other sweet and
generative. In the next place consider we the great agreement of the
philosophers with these people. For Heraclitus doth in plain and naked
terms call war the father, the king, and the lord of all things; and
saith that Homer, when he first prayed,