Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. I — G. R. S. Mead (1906)
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2. As for the dogmas of the Greeks, they are, I take it, plain to all, ascribing as they do the good allotment to Olympian Zeus, and that which has to be averted to Hades.
3. Moreover, they have a myth that Harmony is the child of Aphrodite and Ares, the latter of whom is harsh and strife-loving, while the former is gentle and a lover of love-striving.
4. For Heracleitus plainly calls " War " — " father and king and lord of all," 1 and says that Homer, when he prays " that strife and hatred cease from gods as well," 2 forgets that he is imprecating the means of birth of all, in that they have their genesis from conflict and antipathy; that:
" Sun will not o'erstep his proper bounds, for if he do,
Furies, Eight's bodyguard, will find him out. " 3
5. The Pythagorics [also], in a list of names, set
down the predicates of Good as — One, Finite, Abiding,
Straight, Odd, Square, Equal, Right, Light ; and of
Bad as — Two, Infinite, Moving, Curved, Even, Oblong,
Unequal, Left, Dark, — on the ground that these are the
underlying principles of genesis.
6. Aristotle [also predicates] the former as Form and the latter as Privation.
7. While Plato, though in many passages disguising himself and hiding his face, calls the former of the opposite principles Same and the latter Other.
1 Fairbanks, (44) pp. 34, 35.
2 Cf. II, xviii. 107 ; Fairbanks, (43) pp. 34, 35.
3 Fairbanks, (29) pp. 32, 33.
8. But in his Laws, being now older, no longer in riddles and in symbols, but with authentic names, he says l cosmos is moved not by one soul, but probably by several, in any case not less than two, — whereof the one is good-doing, the other the opposite to this and maker of things opposite.
9. He leaves out, however, a certain third intermediate nature, neither soul-less nor reason-less nor motion-less of itself, as some think,2 but depending on both of them, and for ever longing for and desiring and following after the better, as the following [passages] of the argument (logos),3 combining as it does for the most part the theology of the Egyptians with their philosophy, show.
XLIX. 1. For though the genesis and composition of this cosmos has been blended from opposing, though not equal-strengthed, powers, the lordship is nevertheless that of the Better [one].
2. Still it is impossible the Worse should be entirely destroyed, as it is largely innate in the body and largely in the soul of the universe, and ever in desperate conflict with the Better.
3. In the Soul [of cosmos], then, Mind and Season (Logos), the guide and lord of all the best in it, is Osiris ; and so in earth and air and water and heaven and stars, that which is ordered and appointed and in health, is the efflux of Osiris, reflected in seasons and temperatures and periods.
4. But Typhon is the passionate and titanic and reasonless and impulsive [aspect] of the Soul, while of its corporeal [side he is] the death-dealing and pestilent and disturbing, with unseasonable times and intemperate atmospheres and concealments of sun and moon, — as though they were the charges and obliterations of Typhon.
1 This is a very brief summary of the argument in Legg., x. 896 ff. (Jowett, v. 282 ff.).
2 Of. xlv. 6.
3 This "argument" is Plutarch's own treatise and not Plato's dialogue, as King supposes.
5. And the name is a predicate of Seth, as they call
Typhon ; for [Seth] means " that which oppresses and
constrains by force ; " l it means also, frequently,
" turning upside down," and, again, " overleaping."
6. Some, moreover, say that one of the companions of Typhon was Bebon;2 while Manethos [says] that Typhon himself was also called Bebon, and that the name signifies "holding back" or "hindering," since the power of Typhon stands in the way of things going on their way and moving towards what they have to.
L. 1. Wherefore also of domestic animals they apportion to him the least tractable — the ass ; while of wild ones, the most savage — the crocodile and hippopotamus.
2. As to the ass, we have already given some explanation. At Hermes-city, however, as image of Typhon, they show us a hippopotamus on which stands a hawk3 fighting a snake, — indicating by the hippopotamus Typhon, and by the hawk power and rule, of which Typhon frequently possessing himself by force, ceases not from being himself in and throwing [others] into a state of disorder by means of evil.