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.
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 Arcce Noe 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.
7 Lit., the "drinking together," referring perhaps to the con-
5. And that when they were delighted at the sight and wondered, Typhon, in sport, promised to give the chest to him who could make himself exactly equal to it by laying himself down in it.1
6. And that when all were trying, one after another, since no one fitted, Osiris stepped in and laid himself down.
7. And they who were present running up, dashed on the lid, and, after some [of them] had closed it down with fastenings, and others had poured hot lead over it, they carried it out to the Eiver,2 and let it go into the Sea by way of the Tanitic 3 mouth, which [they say] Egyptians call even to this day by a hateful and abominable name.
8. These things they say were done on the seventeenth of the month Athur,* in which [month] the Sun passes through the Scorpion ; it being the eightand-twentieth year of Osiris' reign.
9. Some, however, say that he had lived and not reigned so long.5
XIV. 1. And as the Pans and Satyrs6 that inhabit round Chemmis7 were the first to sense the junction of certain cosmic forces, and also microcosmically to souls in a state of joy or festivity or bliss, prior to incarnation.
1 That is, prove the " permanent atoms " were his own — if we think in terms of reincarnation.
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.
3 rav-tTiKov — probably a word-play connected with VTw, "to stretch," and so make tense or thin, or expand, and so the " widestretched mouth of the Great River." Cf. the Titans or Stretchers.
4 Copt. Hathor — corr. roughly to November, s Cf. xlii. 4.
6 Two classes of elemental existences.
7 That is Apu, the Panopolis of the Greeks ; the name Chemmis, the modern Akhmlm, is derived from an old Egyptian name. See Budge, op. cit., ii. 188.
passion l [of Osiris], and give tongue concerning what was being done, [they say] that on this account sudden disturbances and emotions of crowds are even unto this day called "panics."
2. But when Isis 2 sensed it, she cut off one of her curls, and put on a mourning dress, whence the city to this day bears the name Kopto.3
But others think the name signifies privation,4 for they say that koptein is to de-prive.
3. And [they say] that she, wandering about in every direction, and finding no way out, never approached any one without accosting him; nay, she asked even little children whom she happened to meet, about the chest.
4. And they happened to have seen, and showed the mouth 5 through which the friends of Typhon let the vessel 6 go into the Sea.
5. Because of this [they say] Egyptians believe that little children have prophetic power, and they especially divine from the sounds of their voices, when playing in the holy places and shouting about anything.
6.7 And [they say] that when [Isis] was aware that j — the technical term of what was enacted in the mystery -drama.
2 As Mother Nature.
3 Meaning " I cut " ; and in mid. " I cut or beat the breast," as a sign of mourning.
4 " The depriving things of their power " or " negation " ; Osiris being the fertilising or generative or positive power.
5 Sc. the way or passage. In little children the life force is not sexually polarised.
6 ayyeiov — a vase or vessel of any kind, hence funerary urn or even coffin ; but fitrayyt^tiv means "to pour from one vessel into another," and utrayyitr^s is the Pythagorean technical term for metempsychosis or palingenesis.
7 This paragraph, which breaks the narrative, is introduced to give the myth of the birth of Anubis.