Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. I — G. R. S. Mead (1906)
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3. Wherefore also when they make offerings on the seventh of the month Tybi,4 — which [day] they call
1 Cf. xli. 2.
2 Bf&cava, but perhaps rather £ej8«j/a — and so 0ej8<2$, a play on
" steadying " or " straining." In Eg. Bebi or Baba ; cf.
Budge, op. cit., ii. 92.
3 Cf. li. 2. 4 Copt. Tobi — corr. roughly to January.
" Arrival of Isis from Phoenicia," they mould on the cakes a bound hippopotamus.1
4. And at Apollo-city it is the custom for absolutely everyone to eat a piece of crocodile. And on one [particular] day they hunt down and kill as many [of them] as they possibly can, and throw them down right in front of the temple, saying that Typhon escaped Horus by turning himself into a crocodile, — considering as they do that all animals and plants and experiences that are evil and harmful are Typhon's works and parts and movements.
LI. 1. Osiris, again, on the other hand, they write with " eye " and " sceptre," 2 the former of which [they say] shows his providence, and the latter his power ; just as Homer, when calling him who is ruler and king of all " Zeus supreme counsellor,"3 seems by " supreme " to signify his supremacy, and by " counsellor " his good counsel and providence.
2. They frequently write this god with " hawk " 4 as well ; for it excels in tension of sight and swiftness of flight, and can naturally support itself on the smallest quantity of food.
3. It is said, moreover, to hover over the bodies of the unburied dead and to cast earth upon them.5 And when it drops down on the river to drink, it sets its wings upright, and after drinking it lowers them again, — by which it is evident it saves itself and escapes from the crocodile, for if it is caught its wings remain fixed as they were set.6
1 Cf. " bound ass " above, xxx. 3.
2 Cf. x. 6.
3 II., viii. 22 ; xvii. 339.
4 Cf. 1. 2. Compare the Eagle of Zeus.
5 More of the " Physiologus."
6 "In the crocodile's gullet," comments King, "and so prevents him gulping down the bird." We are, however, inclined
4. And everywhere they exhibit a man-shaped image of Osiris, — ithyphallic, because of his generative and luxuriant [nature].
And they dress his statue in a flame-coloured robe, — since they consider the sun as body of the power of the Good, as it were a visible [sign] of an essence that mind only can conceive.
5. Wherefore also we should pay no attention to those who assign the sphere of the sun to Typhon,1 — to whom nothing light or salutary, neither order nor genesis, nor any motion that has measure and reason, belongs, but [rather] their contraries.
6. And we should not set down drought which destroys many of the animals and plants, as the sun's work, but [rather as that] of the breaths and waters in earth and air not being seasonably blended when the principle of disorderly and unbounded power makes discord and quenches the exhalations.
LIT. 1. And in the sacred hymns to Osiris, they invoke him who is hidden in the Arms of the Sun ; 2 and on the thirteenth of the month of Epiphi 3 they keep with feast the Birthday of the Eye of Horus, when moon and sun are in the same straight line ; as they think that not only the moon but also the sun is eye and light of Horus.
2. And on the eighth of the waning [half] of Paophi * they keep the Birthday of the Sun's Staff, after the autumnal equinox, — signifying that he needs an underprop, as it were, and strengthening, deficient as he is to think that Plutarch is a bit of a humourist, and that there is no necessity for commenting seriously on his on dits.
1 Cf. xli. 1 ; also § 9 below.
2 That is the Sun's Rays.
3 Copt. Epep — corr. roughly with July.
4 Copt. Paopi — corr. roughly with October.
in heat and light, declining and moving obliquely from us.
3. Moreover, just after the winter solstice they carry the Cow round the shrine [seven times], and the circuit is called the Seeking for Osiris, as in winter the Goddess longs for the " water " of the Sun.
4. And she goes round this number of times, because he completes his passing from the winter to the summer solstice in the seventh month.
5. Moreover, Horus, son of Osiris, is said to have been the first of all to make offerings to the Sun on the fourth of the waxing moon, as is written in the [books] entitled Birthdays of Horus.