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Footnotes
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278: 3 The Mother of the Gods—“Flowing, ” that is, motion pure and simple, unordered or chaotic.
278: 4 In the most primitive meaning of the word α ἰ σ θ ό μ ε ν ο ν —from √ α ι σ, lengthened form of α ι (compare ἀ ΐ ω ).
278: 5 μ η ν ὶ μ η τ ᾽ ἐ ν ι α υ τ ῷ. Both words are connected with roots meaning “one” in ancient dialects; μ ὴ ν = μ -ε ὶ ς (Æ ol. ) and ἔ ν ο ς = an-nus (Lat. ). Cf. ε ἵ ς, μ -ί α, ἕ ν; hence ἐ ν ι -α υ τ ό ς = “one-same. ” The Goddess, therefore, apart from the Sun, could only bring forth in a day.
278: 6 π έ τ τ ι α, —π ε σ σ ό ς was an oval-shaped stone for playing a game like our draughts; it was also used for the board on which the game was played, divided by 5 straight lines each way, and therefore into 36 squares.
278: 7 Sc. the moon.
278: 8 Or “taking away. ”
279: 1 Sc. the lights.
279: 2 ἐ π α γ ο μ έ ν α ι ς —or “now intercalated. ”
279: 3 This is an exceedingly puzzling statement. The “lights” cannot be the “lights” of the moon, of which there were 30 phases. It more probably has some connectipn with 360, the 70th of which works out at 5⋅ 142857—a number not so very far removed from our own calculations. The “each” in the text may thus be an error.
279: 4 A voice from heaven, a Bath-kol, proceeding from the Womb of Rhea.
279: 5 π α μ ί λ η —presumably a play on π ᾶ ν (all) and ὕ λ η (matter).
279: 6 ὑ δ ρ ε υ ο μ έ ν η ν —presumably by the Great Moistener; it is, however, generally translated “drawing water. ”
279: 7 That is the “Phallus-Bearing. ”
279: 8 Eg. Heru-ur.
279: 9 π λ ε ῦ ρ α —meaning in man radically “rib”; also side of a square, and root of a square (or cubic) number. Typhon would be represented by the diagonal.
280: 1 That is, the birthday of Typhon.
280: 2 A strange sentence; but as the kings were considered Gods, they probably worshipped themselves, or at least their own ka, and consulted themselves as oracles.
280: 3 Presumably as being opposite, or as hating one another.
280: 4 Cf. liv. 4.
280: 5 Metaphors reminiscent of the symbolism of the so-called Book of the Dead.
280: 6 Sc. of wild beasts; but may also mean “softening it, ” when Osiris stands for Water, and again “making it mild, ” or “civilising it. ”
280: 7 He himself being the Logos.
280: 8 μ ο υ σ ι κ ῆ ς —music, in the modern meaning of the term, was only one of the arts of the Muses, the nine daughters of Zeus.
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281: 1 Δ ι ό -ν υ σ ο ς —that is, “he of the Mount (ν ῦ σ α ) of Zeus. ”
281: 2 That is “sovereignty. ”
281: 3 Probably the prototype of the Alchemical Azoth. Æ thiopia was the land of the black folk south of Egypt, the land par excellence of the black magicians as opposed to the good ones of the Egyptians (this, of course, being the Egyptian point of view). The Osiris-myth was in Egyptian, presumably, as easily interpretable into the language of magic and con-juration as into other values. Compare the Demotic folk-tales of Khamuas, in Grifiith’s Stories of the High Priests of Memphis, for how this view of it would read in Egyptian. Æ thiopia would also mean the Dark Earth as opposed to the Light Heaven.
281: 4 The “body of Osiris” may mean the cosmos (great or little), as the “body of Adam, ” its copy in the Kabalah.
281: 5 Or, “according to the greatness”—using “greatness” in its Gnostic signification, as here meaning the great cosmos and also the cosmic body of man.
281: 6 In Pythagorean terms, “an odd-ly ordered rectangular encasement”—referring, perhaps, to a certain configuration of cosmic permanent atoms. But see the plate which Isaac Myer calls “A Medieval Idea of the Makrokosm, in the Heavenly Zodiacal Ark, ” but which intitles itself “Forma Exterior Arcæ Noë ex Descriptione Mosis. ” This is a coffin, and within it lies the dead Christ. The plate is prefixed to p. 439 of Myer’s Qabbalah (Philadelphia, 1888). It also presumably refers to the “germ” of the cosmic robe of the purified man, the “robe of glory. ” In mysticism the metaphors cannot be kept unmixed, for it is the apotheosis of syncretism.
281: 7 Lit., the “drinking together, ” referring perhaps to the conjunction of certain cosmic forces, and also microcosmically to souls in a state of joy or festivity or bliss, prior to incarnation.
282: 1 That is, prove the “permanent atoms” were his own—if we think in terms of reincarnation.
282: 2 Sc. the Sacred Nile, Great Jordan, etc., the Stream of Ocean, which, flowing downwards, is the birth of men, and upwards, the birth of Gods.
282: 3 τ α ν -ι τ ι κ ο ῦ —probably a word-play connected with √ τ α ν, “to stretch, ” and so make tense or thin, or expand, and so the “widestretched mouth of the Great River. ” Cf. the Titans or Stretchers.
282: 4 Copt. Hathō r—corr. roughly to November.
282: 5 Cf. xlii. 4.
282: 6 Two classes of elemental existences.
282: 7 That is Ȧ pu, the Panopolis of the Greeks; the name Chemmis, the modern Akhmī m, is derived from an old Egyptian name. See Budge, op. cit., ii. 188.
283: 1 π ά θ ο ς —the technical term of what was enacted in the mystery-drama.
283: 2 As Mother Nature.
283: 3 Meaning “I cut”; and in mid. “I cut or beat the breast, ” as a sign of mourning.
283: 4 “The depriving things of their power” or “negation”; Osiris being the fertilising or generative or positive power.
283: 5 Sc. the way or passage. In little children the life force is not sexually polarised.
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283: 6 ἀ γ γ ε ῖ ο ν —a vase or vessel of any kind, hence funerary urn or even coffin; but μ ε τ α γ γ ί ζ ε ι ν means “to pour from one vessel into another, ” and μ ε τ α γ γ ι σ μ ὸ ς is the Pythagorean technical term for metempsychosis or palingenesis.
283: 7 This paragraph, which breaks the narrative, is introduced to give the myth of the birth of Anubis.
284: 1 Sc. Nephthys.
284: 2 Meli-lote—lotos in Greek stands for several plants; it might be translated as “honey-lotus. ” Cf. xxxviii. 5.
284: 3 Her legitimate spouse.
284: 4 A term used frequently among the Greeks (who presumably got the idea elsewhere) for the servants, agents, or watchers of the higher Gods; thus the Eagle is called the “winged dog” of Zeus Æ sch., Pr., 1022). “Dog, ” as we have seen (xi. 1, n. ) signifies a power of the World, Soul or Great Animal, also of individual souls.
284: 5 That is, “Papyrus. ” This Byblos was a “city in the Papyrus Swamps of the Delta. ” (So Budge, op. cit., ii. 190. )
284: 6 ἐ ρ ε ί κ η —probably a play on the root-meaning of ἐ ρ ε ί κ ε ι ν, “to quiver, ” is intended. The Egyptian erī ca was taller and more bushy than ours. Or it may be the tamarisk; elsewhere it is called a mulberry-tree.
284: 7 Sc. the “coffin”—perhaps here signifying what has lately been called the “permanent atom” in man.
284: 8 The ruler of the form-side of things.
285: 1 On the erroneously called “Gnostic” gems, the lopped trunk is a frequent symbol; the lopped “five-branched, ” presumably.
285: 2 Notice the three stages of awareness: (i. ) the babbling of children; (ii. ) the intelligence given by the dog; (iii. ) the daimonian spirit of a voice (Heb. Bath-kol).
285: 3 Isis, when she first lost Osiris, cut off a curl (xiv. 2).
285: 4 Apparently, though curiously, a play on the Semitic MLK or Malek, “king, ” and the Greek andr, “man”—that is, “king of men. ”
285: 5 Or “Nemanō s. ” The names seem to have been impartially maltreated by the copyists; thus we find such variants as Aspartē, Sooses, Neimanoë.
285: 6 There was among the ancients an art of name-translation, as Plato tells us in the Story of Atlantis, in which the Atlantic names he says, were translated into Greek by Solon or by the priests of Saï s. Here, I believe, there is also a word-play intended. Isis, as we have seen, was pre-eminently Nurse, τ ί τ θ η, a further intensification of the intensified τ ί -θ η; from √ θ α, “suckle”; the common form of “nurse” was τ ι -θ ή -ν η. On the contrary, ἀ θ η ν α ΐ ς is a daughter or derivative of ἀ -θ ή -ν η, one who does not give suck; for Athena was born from the head and was the virgin goddess par excellence. Mythologically, Athenais was wife of Alalkomeneus, the eponymous hero of a city in Bœ otia, where was a very ancient temple of Athena. In the Pindaric ode quoted in S. (1) of chapter, “Myth of Man in the Mysteries, ” Alalkomeneus is given as one of the equivalents for the “first man. ”
286: 1 The child’s name was Diktys, according to viii. 2.
286: 2 The √ δ ε κ in δ ά κ τ υ λ ο ς is said to be the same as that in δ έ κ α, “ten, ” and “ten” is the number of “perfection. ”
286: 3 Or “away. ”
286: 4 Lit., “croaking” like a raven, to match the “twittering” of the swallow.
286: 5 This presumably hints that Isis, as the Divine Mother, endeavours to make all perfect and sound, while the earthly mother prevents this.
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286: 6 Sc. the erī ca.
286: 7 Cf. John xix. 40: “So they took the body of Jesus and wrapped it in fine linen together with sweet herbs. ”
286: 8 τ ὸ ξ ύ λ ο ν —the term used repeatedly in the New Testament for the cross.
287: 1 Or “swooned, ” or lost consciousness.
287: 2 φ ά ι δ ρ ο ς —lit., Bright, Beaming, Shining—that is, the Sun-stream.
287: 3 Or “breath” (π ν ε ῦ μ α ).
287: 4 That is “at sun-rise. ”
287: 5 Cf. viii. 2.
287: 6 Sc. of the boat of Isis.
287: 7 Μ α ν -έ ρ ω ς. I fancy this is a play, in conjunction with the κ α τ α -μ α ν -θ ά ν -ο ν τ α, and ἀ π ο -θ ά ν -ο ν τ α (the “understanding” and “dying away”) above; the name would then mean either “love of understanding” or “understanding of love. ”
287: 8 π α λ α ι σ τ ι ν ό ς —perhaps a play on π α λ α ι σ τ ή ς, “a wrestler”; hence a “rival” or “suitor. ”
287: 9 Pelusium; the Pelusian was the eastern mouth of the Nile.
287: 10 See note on xii. 1.
288: 1 Generally supposed to stand for the city Butō, but may be some word-play. Can it be connected with Boō tes, the Ploughman—the constellation Arcturus—the voyage being celestial; that is, a movement of the world-soul or change of state in the individual soul? Budge (p. 192) gives its Egyptian equivalent as Per-Uatchit, i. e. “House of the Eye. ”
288: 2 Lit., from her feet.
288: 3 Lit., vessel; may also mean “cell. ”
288: 4 Vulg., “hunting. ”
288: 5 ἕ λ η —a probable play on the δ ι -ε λ ε ῖ ν (“tear to pieces”) above.
288: 6 Sc. the crocodiles.
288: 7 It is remarkable how that every now and then Plutarch inserts apparently the most naï ve superstitions without a word of explanation. They cannot be all simply irresponsible on dits. It is, perhaps, not without significance that the “chest” is first of all drifted to the Papyrus country, and that the baris of Isis should be made of papyrus. It seems almost as if it symbolised some “vehicle” that was safe from the “crocodile” of the deep. In other words, the skiffs are not paper boats and the crocodiles not alligators.
289: 1 “And Egypt they say is the body” to quote a refrain from Hippolytus concerning the “Gnostics. ”
289: 2 Presumably of the fourteen sacred ones.
289: 3 λ ε π ι δ ω τ ό ν.
289: 4 φ ά γ ρ ο ν.
289: 5 ὀ ξ ύ ρ υ γ χ ο ν.
289: 6 Anthropologically, “taboo. ”
289: 7 What these “fourteen parts” of Osiris may be is beyond the sphere of dogmatism. I would suggest that there may be along one line some connection with those seeds of life which have lately been called “permanent atoms”; and along another line, that of the birth of the Christ-consciousness, there may be a series of powers derived from past incarnations.
290: 1 Hades.
290: 2 The “Horse” may symbolise purified passion, and “Lion” a certain receptive power of the mind.
290: 3 The white “Horse” was presumably opposed to the red “Ass” of Typhon, as the purified vehicle of the soul contrasted with the impure. “Lion” was one of the grades in the Mithriac Mysteries; it was a sun-animal.
290: 4 Eg. Ta-urt (Budge, op. cit., p. 193).
290: 5 That is, by the Companions of Horus (or Disciples of the Christ)—a frequent scene in the vignettes of the Book of the Dead.
290: 6 That is, in the public mystery processions.
291: 1 The symboliser as well as the interpreter of the Gods.
291: 2 Cf. liv. 3.
291: 3 Or it may mean “completion” (τ ε λ ε υ τ ή ν ).
291: 4 In Eg. Ḥ eru-p-khart, i. e., “Horus the Younger. ”
291: 5 τ ο ῖ ς κ ά τ ω θ ε ν γ υ ί ο ι ς —but, presumably, not from above downwards.
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