Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. I — G. R. S. Mead (1906)
The text is shown on its own: no facing layer is held for this issue.
3. And they have two reasons [for this], of which I will later on take up the sacred and extraordinary [one], according with the facts religiously deduced concerning Osiris and Typhon. The evident, the one that's close at hand, in showing forth the fish as a not necessary and a not unsuperfluous cooked food, bears witness unto Homer, who makes neither the Phaeacians of luxurious lives, nor yet the Ithakesian Island men, use fish, nor yet Odysseus's Companions4 in so great a Voyage and on the Sea before they came to the last Strait.5
4. And generally [the priests] think that the sea's from fire and is beyond the boundaries — nor part nor element [of earth], but of another kind, a superfluity cor-rupted and cor-rupting.
1 Copt. Thoth — corr. roughly with September.
2 vpb TTJS av\flov Bvpas — that is, the outside door into the av\-fi, or court of the house. Of. the title of the Trismegistic treatise given by Zosimus — " The Inner Door." There may, perhaps, be some mystical connection.
3 Cf. Luke xxiv. 42 : " And they gave Him a piece of broiled
fish." This was after His " resurrection." Also cf. Talmud Bab.,
" Sanhedrin," 103a : " That thou shalt not have a son or disciple
who burns his food publicly, like Jeschu ha-Notzri" (D. J. L.,
189).
4 Compare the Companions of Horus in the Solar Boat.
5 I fancy there must be some under-meaning here, and so I have put the key- words in capitals.
THE ONION AND PIG TABOOS
VIII. 1. For nothing reasonless, or [purely] fabulous, or from [mere] superstition, as some suppose, has been incorporated into the foundation of the sacred operations, but some things have moral and needful causes, while others are not without a share in the embellishment of science and physics, — as, for instance, in the case of the onion.
2. [The story] that Diktys,1 the nursling of Isis,2 fell into the river and was drowned, in trying to catch the onions with his hands,3 [is] utterly incredible.
3. The priests, however, keep themselves pure of the onion, and treat it hardly, being [ever] on the watch against it, because it is the only thing whose nature is to be well nourished and to flourish when the moon's a- wane.
It's food 4 for neither fast nor feast, — neither for the former in that it makes those feeding5 on it thirst, while for the latter it makes them weep.
4. And in like manner also they consider the sow an unholy animal, because it seems to be covered especially when the moon is on the wane, while the bodies of those who drink its milk burst forth6 into leprosy7 and scabrous roughnesses.
1 Diktys = the Netter. In other myth-cycles Diktys was son of Poseidon, and is often called simply the Fisher.
2 Cf. xvi., xvii.
3 tin5pa(rff<lnfvoi>. The Fisher-soul, therefore, presumably fell out of the celestial boat or baris of Isis, and the myth may not be quite so InriOavov as Plutarch would have us think. Uf. xvii. 3. Ordinary onions do not grow in rivers.
* Or "fit"— Kp6<T<t>opov.
5 TOI»S •n-poff<f>fpofj.evovs — a word-play on " food."
6 ^ov0«r— lit., " flower."
7 \ewpav — that which makes the skin scaly and rough (\arpbs, as opposed to A.«JOJ, smooth) ; there being also, I believe, a mystical under-meaning in it all.
5. And the tale (logos) they tell after once only l sacrificing and eating pig at the full-moon — [namely] that Typhon when pursuing pig towards full-moon found the wooden coffin in which the body of Osiris lay dead, and scattered it in pieces2 — they do not all receive, thinking it is a trifling mis-hearing [of the true tale] like many more.3
6. But they say their ancients so protected themselves against softness [of living] and extravagance and agreeable sensations, that they said a slab was set up in the holy place at Thebes with deprecations in-lettered on it against Meinis 4 the King, who first changed the Egyptians from the way of life without riches and without needs and plain.
7. Moreover, Technactis, father of Bocchoris,6 is said, when marching on the Arabs,6 when his baggage was delayed,7 to have used with joy the food nearest at hand, and afterwards to have fallen into deep sleep on a bed of straw,8 and so embraced frugality; and in
1 Apparently once a year.
2 Cf. xviii. 1.
3 This makes us doubt whether there may not be a number of similar " mis-hearings " in the myth as handed on by Plutarch.