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.
5 That is, by the Companions of Horus (or Disciples of the Christ) — a frequent scene in the vignettes of the Book of the Dead.
6 That is, in the public mystery processions.
7. Horus, however, did not bear this temperately; but, laying hands on his mother, he drew off the crown from her head. Whereupon Hermes1 crowned her with a head-dress of cow-horns.
8. And [they say] that also when Typhon got the chance of bringing a bastardy suit against Horus, and Hermes was counsel for the defence, Horus was judged legitimate by the Gods.2
And that [afterwards] Typhon was fought under in two other fights.
9. And that Isis brought forth from her union with Osiris after his death 3 Harpocrates 4 — who missed the month and was weak in his limbs from below upwards.6
THE UNDER-MEANING A EEFLEXION OF A
CERTAIN KEASON
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 JEsehylus,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.
1 The symboliser as well as the interpreter of the Gods.
2 Of. liv. 3.
3 Or it may mean "completion" (T«A«I/T^X).
4 In Eg. Heru-p-khart, i.e., " Horus the Younger."
6 TOJS Kdrtadtv yAots — but, presumably, not from above downwards. 6 Ed. Nauck, p. 84. 7 Sc. Klea.
3. But that these things are not at all like lean tales and quite empty figments, such as poets and prosewriters 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 l 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.
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 Diochite is called Polichne,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 reared as the image of the soul of Osiris, because it is there also that his body lies.
1 Presumably, again, the Pythagorean grade above the Hearers.
2 Sc. the rainbow.
3 Either the reading is at fault, or some word-play is intended. Dio-chite is probably Zeus-something ; but I cannot resolve it. While Polichne is a rare diminutive of WA.«J, and would thus mean " Little City."
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 Philae [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.
XXI. 1. Eudoxus, however, [says] that, though many tombs are spoken of in Egypt, the body lies at Busiris, 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."