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.
1 Sc. the lights. 2 eirayontvats — or " now intercalated."
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'i42857 — a number not so very far removed from our own calculations. The " each " in the text may thus be an error.
4 A voice from heaven, a Bath-kol, proceeding from the Womb of Ehea.
5 Tra/*t\i7 — presumably a play on vav (all) and v\i\ (matter).
6 v5ptvo/j.tvi)v — presumably by the Great Moistener ; it is, however, generally translated " drawing water."
7 That is the " Phallus-Bearing." » Eg. Heru-ur.
9 ir\t Spa — 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.
On the fifth Nephthys, whom they name End and
Aphrodite, while some [call] her also Victory.
7. And [they say] that Osiris and Aroueris were from Helios, Isis from Hermes, and Typhon and Nephthys from Kronos, and therefore the kings considering the third1 of the "induced" [days] nefast, used neither to consult nor serve themselves till night.2
8. And [they say] that Nephthys was married to Typhon ; 3 but Isis and Osiris being in love with each other, united even before they were born, down in the Womb beneath the Darkness.4
9. Some, moreover, say that Aroueris thus came to birth, and that he is called Elder Horus by Egyptians, but Apollo by Greeks.
XIII. 1. And [they say] that when Osiris was king, he straightway set free the Egyptians from a life from which they could find no way out and like unto that of wild beasts,5 both setting fruits before them, and laying down laws, and teaching them to honour the Gods.
2. And that subsequently he went over the whole earth, clearing it,6 not in the least requiring arms, but drawing the multitude to himself by charming them with persuasion and reason (logos),7 with song and every art the Muses give ; 8 and that for this cause he seems to the Greeks to be the same as Dionysus.1
1 That is, the birthday of Typhon.
2 A strange sentence ; but as the kings were considered Gods, they probably worshipped themselves, or at least their own lea, and consulted themselves as oracles.
3 Presumably as being opposite, or as hating one another.
4 Cf. liv. 4.
6 Metaphors reminiscent of the symbolism of the so-called Book of the Dead.
6 Sc. of wild beasts ; but may also mean " softening it," when Osiris stands for Water, and again "making it mild," or " civilising it." ' He himself being the Logos.
8 novffmrjs — music, in the modern meaning of the term, was only one of the arts of the Muses, the nine daughters of Zeus.
3. And [they say] that while he was away, Typhon attempted no revolution, owing to Isis keeping very careful guard, and having the power2 in her hands, holding it fast ; but that when he [Osiris] came back, he made with art a wile for him, con-juring seventy-two men, and having as co-worker a queen coming out of Ethiopia, whom they call Aso.3
4. But that after measuring out for himself in secret the body of Osiris,4 and having devised, according to the size,6 a beautiful and extraordinarily ornamented chest,6 brought it into the banqueting hall.7
1 At6-wffos — that is, " lie of the Mount (vCo-a) of Zeus."
2 That is "sovereignty."
3 Probably the prototype of the Alchemical Azoth. ^Ethiopia was the land of the black folk south of Egypt, the land^or 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. ^Ethiopia would also mean the Dark Earth as opposed to the Light Heaven.
4 The " body of Osiris " may mean the cosmos (great or little), as the " body of Adam," its copy in the Kabalah.
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.