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Concerning Typhon. Footnotes. The theory of the Physicists
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CONCERNING TYPHON
XXX. 1. Osiris and Isis have, then, changed from good daimones into gods. While as for the dimmed and shattered power of Typhon, though it is at the last
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gasp and in its final death-throes, they still appease and soothe it with certain feasts of offerings.
2. Yet, again, every now and then at certain festivals they humiliate it dreadfully and treat it most despitefully, —even to rolling red-skinned men in the mud, and driving an ass over a precipice (as the Koptos folk), because Typhon was born with his skin red and ass-like. While the Busiris folk and Lycopolitans do not use trumpets at all, as they sound like an ass [braying].
3. And generally they think that the ass is not clean, but a daimonic animal, on account of its resemblance to that [god]; and making round-cakes for feasts of offerings on both the month of Paÿ ni and that of Phaō phi, 1 they stamp on them an “ass tied. ” 2
4. And on the Feast of Offerings of the Sun, they pass the word to the worshippers not to wear on the body things made of gold nor to give food to an ass. 3
5. The Pythagorics also seem to consider Typhon a daimonic power; for they say that Typhon was produced on the six-and-fiftieth even measure; and again that the [power 4] of the equilateral triangle is that of Hades and Dionysus and Ares; that of the square is that of Rhea and Aphroditē and Demeter and Hestia (that is, Hera); that of the dodecagon, that of Zeus; and that of the fifty-six angled [regular polygon], that of Typhon—as Eudoxus relates. 5
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XXXI. 1. And, as Egyptians believe that Typhon was born red-skinned, 1 they offer in sacrifice even the red ones of the oxen [only] after making the scrutiny so close, that if [the beast] has even a single hair black or white, they consider it ought not to be offered; for if it were sacrificed, it would not be an acceptable offering to the gods, but the contrary, [as are] all those animals which have seized on the souls of impure and unrighteous men in the course of their transformation into bodies other [than human].
2. Wherefore after uttering imprecations on the head of the victim, 2 and cutting off its head, they used to cast it into the river in olden days, but nowadays they give it to strangers.
3. But as to the one that is to be sacrificed, those of the priests who are called Sealers, set a mark upon it—the seal (as Kastō r 3 relates) having the impression of a man forced down on one knee with his hands drawn round behind him, and a sword sticking in his throat. 4
4. And they think that the ass also has the distinction of its resemblance [to Typhon], as has been said, owing to its aversion to being taught and to its wantonness, no less than on account of its skin. 5
5. For which cause also since they especially detested
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[paragraph continues] Ō chus 1 of [all] the Persian kings as being blood-polluted and abominable, they gave him the nickname of “Ass. ”
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But he, with the retort: “This Ass, however, will make a fine feast off your Ox”—slaughtered the Apis, as Deinō n has told us. 2
6. Those, however, who say that Typhon’s flight from the fight on an ass lasted seven days, and that after reaching a place of safety he begat sons—Hierosolymus and Judæ us—are instantly convicted of dragging Judaï c matters into the myth. 3
Footnotes
305: 1 Copt. Paō ni and Paopi—corr. roughly with June and October.
305: 2 ὄ ν ο ν δ ε δ ε μ έ ν ο ν. Cf. Matt. xxi. 2: ὄ ν ο ν δ ε δ ε μ έ ν η ν; cf. also 1. 3, where it is a hippopotamus.
305: 3 That is, presumably, not to weigh down their minds with the superfluity of riches, nor to feed up the stupid and lustful energies of their souls.
305: 4 A “power” in Pythagorean technology is the side of a square (or, perhaps, of any equilateral polygon) in geometry; and in arithmetic the square root, or that which being multiplied into itself produces the square.
305: 5 Eudoxus seems to have been Plutarch’s authority for his statements regarding Pythagorean doctrine; cf. vi., lii., lxii. The Typhonic figure might be generated by “sevening” the interior angles of a regular octagon and producing the radii to the circumference of the circumscribed circle, or by “eighting” the interior angles of a regular heptagon.
306: 1 Or “fire-coloured. ”
306: 2 Compare the Ritual of Azā zel (the scape-goat), one of the two goats set apart on the Great Day of Atonement among the Jews (Lev. xvi. 8 ff. ).
306: 3 Cf. also Plut., Æ tia Romana, x. Castor was a Greek historian who was a contemporary of Cicero and Julius Cæ sar.
306: 4 The ox was, therefore, the vicarious atonement of the man.
306: 5 It was a red ass, then, which symbolised the Typhonic power.
307: 1 Cf. xi. 4.
307: 2 Mü ller, ii. 95. Deinō n was a contemporary of Alexander the Great, and wrote a history of Persia.
307: 3 This item of ancient scandal would almost seem to have come from the pen of an Apion; it is an interesting specimen of theological controversy in story-form.
THE THEORY OF THE PHYSICISTS
XXXII. 1. 4 The above [data] then afford [us] such and such suggestions. But from another start let us consider the simplest of those who seem to give a more philosophical explanation.
2. These are those who say that, just as the Greeks allegorise time as Kronos, and air as Hera, and the changes of air into fire as the generation of Hephæ stus, so, with the Egyptians, Osiris uniting with Isis (earth) is Neilos, and Typhon is the sea, into which Neilos falling vanishes and is dispersed, except such part [of him] as the earth takes up and receives, and so becomes endowed with productiveness by him.
3. And there is a sacred dirge made on Kronos 5—and it laments “him who is born in the left-hand and died in the right-hand parts. ”
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4. For Egyptians think that the eastern [parts] of cosmos are “face, ” the northern “right hand, ” and the southern “left hand. ”
5. The Nile, accordingly, since it flows from the southern [parts] and is consumed by the sea in the northern, is naturally said to have its birth in the left hand and its death in the right hand.
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6. Wherefore the priests both pronounce the sea expiate and call salt “Typhon’s foam”; and one of the chief prohibitions they have is: “Not to set salt on table. ” And they do not give greeting to sailors, 1 because they use the sea, and get their living from it. And for this cause chiefly they accuse fish of being a cause of offence, and write up: “Hate fish! ”
7. At anyrate at Saï s, in the entrance of the temple of Athena, there used to be chiselled up “babe, ” “old man, ” and after that “hawk, ” then “fish, ” and last of all “hippopotamus. ”
8. This meant in symbols: “O ye who are being born and are dying, God hates shamelessness. ”
9. For “babe” is the symbol of birth, and “old man” of death, and by “hawk” they mean God, and by “fish” hatred—as has been said on account of the sea—and by “hippopotamus” shamelessness, for it is fabled that after it has killed its sire it violates its dam.
10. Moreover, what is said by the Pythagorics, namely, that the sea is the tears of Kronos, would seem to riddle the fact of its not being pure and cognate with itself.
11. Let these things then be stated from outside sources as matters of common information.
XXXIII. 1. But the more wise of the priests call not only the Nile Osiris, and the sea Typhon; but [they
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call] without exception every source and power that moistens, Osiris—considering [him] cause of generation and essence of seed, and Typhon everything dry and fiery, and of a drying nature generally and one hostile to moisture.
2. And for this cause also, as they think he [Typhon] was born with a reddish-yellow body, somewhat pale, they do not by any means readily meet or willingly associate with men that look like this.
3. On the other hand, again, they say in the language of myth that Osiris was born black, because all [Nile] water blackens both earth and garments and clouds when mixed [with them], and [because] moisture in the young makes their hair black, whereas greyness comes on those past their prime, as though it were a turning pale owing to its drying up.
4. The spring, too, is blooming and productive and balmy; but autumn, through lack of moisture, is inimical to plants and baneful to animals.
5. And the ox that is kept at Sun-city which they call Mnevis—sacred to Osiris, while some also consider it sire of Apis—is black [also] and has second honours after Apis.
6. Moreover, they call Egypt, since it is especially black-soiled, just like the black of the eye, Chē mia, and liken it to a heart; for it is warm and moist, and is mostly confined in, and adjacent to, the southern part of the civilised world, just like the heart [is] in man’s left-hand side.
XXXIV. 1. Moreover, they say that sun and moon do not use chariots for vehicles, but sail round in boats—[thus] riddling their being nourished by and being born in the “Moist. ”
2. And they think that Homer also, like Thales, set down Water as source and birth of all things, after
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learning [it] from Egyptians; for that Oceanus is Osiris, and Tē thys 1 Isis, as nursing all things and rearing them all up together.
3. For Greeks also call “emission of seed” ἀ π -ο υ σ ί α ν and “intercourse” σ υ ν -ο υ σ ί α ν, and “son” (υ ἱ ὸ ν ) from “water” (ὕ δ α τ ο ς ) and “moisten” (ὗ σ α ι ); 2 and [they call] Dionysus Huē s, as lord of the Moist Nature, in that he is no other than Osiris.
4. In fact, Hellanicus 3 seems to have heard Osiris called Hu-siris by the priests; for he persists in thus calling the god, presumably from his nature and power of invention. 4
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