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The under-meaning a reflexion of a certain Reason
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THE UNDER-MEANING A REFLEXION OF A CERTAIN REASON
XX. I. These are approximately the chief headings of their myth, after the most ill-omened have been removed, —such as, for instance, the one about the cutting up into pieces of Horus, and the beheading of Isis.
2. That, however, if people suppose and say these things about that Blessed and Incorruptible Nature according to which especially the Divine conceives itself, as though they were actually enacted and really took place, “thou shouldst spit out and cleanse mouth, ” according to Æ schylus, 6 there is no need to tell thee; 7 for of thyself thou showest displeasure at those who hold illegitimate and barbarous notions about the Gods.
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3. But that these things are not at all like lean tales and quite empty figments, such as poets and prose-writers weave and expand as though they were spiders spinning them out of themselves from a source that has no basis in fact, but that they contain certain informations and statements, —thou knowest of thyself.
4. And just as the Mathematici 1 say that “Iris” 2 is the sun’s reflexion many-coloured by the return of its visual impression to the cloud, so the myth down here is a reflexion of a certain reason (logos) that bends its thinking back on other things; as both the sacred offerings suggest by the reflected element of mournfulness and sadness they contain, and also the dispositions of the temples which in one direction open out into side-walks and courts for moving about in, open to the sky and clear of objects, while in the other they have hidden and dark robing-rooms under ground, like places for putting coffins in and burying-spots.
Footnotes
291: 6 Ed. Nauck, p. 84.
291: 7 Sc. Klea.
292: 1 Presumably, again, the Pythagorean grade above the Hearers.
292: 2 Sc. the rainbow.
CONCERNING THE TOMBS OF OSIRIS
5. And not least of all does the belief of the Osirians—since the body [of Osiris] is said to be in many places—[suggest this].
6. For they say that both Diochitē is called Polichnē, 3 because it alone has the true one; and [also] that it is at Abydos that the wealthy and powerful of the Egyptians are mostly buried, —their ambition being to have a common place of burial with the body of Osiris; and [again] that it is at Memphis that the Apis is
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reared as the image of the soul of Osiris, because it is there also that his body lies.
7. And as for the City, 1 some interpret it as “Harbour of Good Things, ” but others give it the special meaning of “Tomb of Osiris”; it is, however, the little island one 2 at Philæ [they say] which is in other respects inaccessible and inapproachable by all, and that not even the birds light on it or fish come near it, but at a certain season the priests cross over [to it] and make offerings to the dead, and place wreaths on the monument which is overshadowed by a. . . 3 tree, which is greater in size than any olive.
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XXI. 1. Eudoxus, however, [says] that, though many tombs are spoken of in Egypt, the body lies at Bū siris, for that this had been the native city of Osiris; nevertheless Taphosiris requires no further reason [to establish its claim], for the name explains itself—namely, “Burying of Osiris. ”
“But I rede of cutting of wood, of rending of linen, and pouring of pourings, because many of the mystery-[meanings] have been mixed up with them. ” 4
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2. But the priests say that not only of these Gods, but also of all the other gods also who are not ingenerable and indestructible, the bodies lie buried with them when they 1 have done their work, and have service rendered them, while their souls shine in heaven as
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stars; and that [of the former] the [soul] of Isis is called Dog by the Greeks, but Sō this by the Egyptians, while the [soul] of Horus [is called] Ō riō n, 1 and Typhon’s Bear. 2
3. And [they say] that for the burials of the animals to whom honour is paid, the rest [of the Egyptians] pay the [dues which are] mutually determined; but that those alone who inhabit the Thebaid give nothing, since they believe that no God is subject to death, and that he whom they themselves call Knē ph is ingenerable and immortal.
Footnotes
292: 3 Either the reading is at fault, or some word-play is intended. Dio-chitē is probably Zeus-something; but I cannot resolve it. While Polichnē is a rare diminutive of π ό λ ι ς, and would thus mean “Little City. ”
293: 1? Memphis; or, perhaps, as contrasted with the Little City above.
293: 2 Sc. city; ν ι σ τ ι τ ά ν η ν is a hopeless reading, and as the editors can make nothing out of it, I suggest ν η σ ί τ ι δ α or ν η σ ι δ ά ν η ν (π ό λ ι ν ).
293: 3 μ η θ ί δ η ς —apparently an error; Bernardakis suggests μ ί ν θ η ς (Lat. mentha) “mint. ” Can the right reading be μ η δ ι κ ῆ ς (π ό α ς )? The herba medica, was, however, the sainfoin or lucerne, which, though reminding us of the melilote of xiv., is hardly capable of overshadowing a tomb even in the most intricate symbolical sense.
293: 4 Evidently a verbal quotation from Eudoxus. The “cutting of wood” presumably refers to the trunk with lopped branches, which, as we have already mentioned, occurs so frequently on so-called “Gnostic” gems; the “rending of linen” (λ ί ν ο υ ) might also be made to refer to Linus, the Bard, and his being torn to pieces like Osiris; Linos also means the “Song of Linus, ” so called, it is supposed by some, because in earliest times the strings of the cithara were made of flax. For other names of singers used for lays or modes of song, compare Manerō s and Pæ an; though, of course, the modern way is to regard the singer as the personification of the lay. Thus in Emil Naumann’s History of Music (trans, by F. Praeger; London, 1882), p. 3, we read: “The Greek tribes of Peloponnesus and Hellas, as well as the Egyptians, Phœ nicians, the Greeks inhabiting the isles of the Æ gean Sea, and especially those of Cyprus, had a primitive ‘Lament’ which seems to have come originally from Phœ nicia. It was a funeral chant on the death of the youthful Adonis. . . . The Egyptians changed its signification into a lament of Isis for Osiris. The Greeks called it Linos, and the Egyptians Maneros. ” The beginning of the “Manerō s, ” or the Lament of Isis for her Beloved, is given as follows by Naumann (p. 40):
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“Return, oh, return!
God Panu, return!
Those that were enemies are no more here.
Oh lovely helper, return,
That thou may’st see me, thy sister,
Who loves thee.
And com’st thou not near me?
O beautiful youth, return, oh, return!
When I see thee not
My heart sorrows for thee,
My eyes ever seek thee,
I roam about for thee, to see thee in the form of the Nai,
To see thee, to see thee, thou beautiful lov’d one.
Let me the Radiant, see thee
God Panu, All-Glory, see thee again!
To thy belovè d come, blessed Onnò fris,
Come to thy sister, come to thy wife,
God Urtuhet, oh, come!
Come to thy consort! ”
Unfortunately, Naumann does not give any references by which we can control his statements.
294: 1 The bodies; presumably referring to the mummies of those men and women who were believed to have reached the god-stage while living.
295: 1 Cf. xxii. 3.
295: 2 Probably all name-plays: κ ύ ω ν (dog), √ κ υ (conceive)—see lxi. 6; H-ō r-os, Ō r-iō n; ἄ ρ κ -τ ο ς (bear), √ α ρ κ (suffice, endure, bear); Ursa Major is called the Wain.
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