Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. I — G. R. S. Mead (1906)
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5. And on the nineteenth, at night they go down to the sea ; and the keepers and priests carry out the
1 Aso ; cf. xiii. 3.
2 The " Etesian " winds, which, in Egypt blew from the N.W. during the whole summer.
3 Copt. Hathor — corr. roughly with November.
* Cf. " the golden calf " incident of the Exodus story.
sacred chest, having within it a small golden vessel, into which they take and pour fresh water ; and shouts are raised by the assistants as though Osiris were found.
6. Afterwards they knead productive soil with the water, and mixing with it sweet spices and fragrant incense, they mould it into a little moon-shaped image of very costly stuffs. And they dress it up and deck it out, — showing that they consider these Gods the essence of earth and water.
XL 1. And when again Isis recovers Osiris and makes Horus grow, strengthened with exhalations and moist clouds, — Typhon is indeed mastered, but not destroyed.
2. For the Mistress and Goddess of the earth did not allow the nature which is the opposite of moisture to be destroyed entirely, but she slackened and weakened it, wishing that the blend should continue ; for it was not possible the cosmos should be perfect, had the fiery [principle] ceased and disappeared.
3. And if these things are not said contrary to probability, it is probable also that one need not reject that logos also, — how that Typhon of old got possession of the share of Osiris ; for Egypt was [once] sea.1
4. For which cause many [spots] in its mines and mountains are found even to this day to contain shells ; and all springs and all wells — and there are great numbers of them — have brackish and bitter water, as though it were the stale residue of the old-time sea collecting together into them.
5. But Horus in time got the better of Typhon, — that, is, a good season of rains setting in, the Nile driving out the sea made the plain reappear by filling it up again with its deposits, — a fact, indeed, to which our
1 Another proof of the common persuasion that there had been a Flood in Egypt.
senses bear witness ; for we see even now that as the river brings down fresh mud, and advances the land little by little, the deep water gradually diminishes, and the sea recedes through its bottom being heightened by the deposits.
6. Moreover, [we see] Pharos, which Homer l knew as a day's sail distant from Egypt, now part [and parcel] of it; not that the [island] itself has sailed to land,2 or extended itself shorewards, but because the intervening sea has been forced back by the river's reshaping of and adding to the mainland.
7. These [explanations], moreover, resemble the theological dogmas laid down by the Stoics, — for they also say that the generative and nutritive Breath [or Spirit] is Dionysus ; the percussive and separative, Heracles ; the receptive, Ammon [Zeus]; that which extends through earth and fruits, Demeter and Kore ; and that [which extends] through sea, Poseidon.3
THE THEORY OF THE MATHEMATICI
XLI. 1. Those, however, who combine with the above [considerations] of the Physicists some of the Mathematic [doctrines] derived from star-lore, think that the solar cosmos is called Typhon and the lunar Osiris.4
2. For [they think] that the Moon, in that its light is generative and moistening, is favourable both for breedings of animals and sproutings of plants ; whereas the Sun, with untempered and harsh fire, burns and withers up [all] that are growing and blowing, and with fiery heat renders the major part of the earth entirely uninhabitable, and in many places utterly masters the Moon.
1 n., iv. 355.
2 A play on the "day's sail" (Sp^nov) and ava-tya/uoDo-w.
3 It is, of course, a very poor interpretation of the myth to talk only about floods and desert, sea and rain, etc. These are all facts illustrating the underlying truth, but they are not the real meaning.
4 This is a worse guess than even that of the Physicists. Of. li. 5.
3. For which cause Egyptians always call Typhon Seth,1 — that is, " that which oppresses and constrains by force."
4. And they have a myth that Heracles is settled in the Sun and accompanies him in his revolutions, while Hermes does the same with the Moon.
5. For the [revolutions] of the Moon resemble works of reason (logos) and super-abundant wisdom, while those of the Sun are like penetrating strokes [given] with force and power.2