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 The sequel I think shows that " and Osiris " is a gloss ; but see xii. 8.
6 Cf. Ixii.
7 These two paragraphs are, in my opinion, of the utmost value for the critical investigation of the sources of the famous Sophia-
LV. 1. But this Horns [of ours] is their Son,1 horizoned 2 and perfect, who has not destroyed Typhon utterly, but has brought over to his side his efficacy and strength ; hence they say it is that the statue of Horus at Coptos grasps in one hand Typhon's virilia.
2. Moreover, they have a myth that Hermes cut out the sinews of Typhon and used them for lyre strings, — [thus] teaching [us] how Eeason (Logos) brought the universe into harmony, and made it concordant out of discordant elements. He did not destroy the destructive power but lamed it.
3. Hence while weak and ineffective up there, down here, by being blinded and interwoven with the passible and changeable elements, it is cause of shakings and tremors in earth, of droughts and tempests in air, and again of lightnings and thunderings.
4. Moreover, it infects waters and winds with pestilences, and shoots up and rears itself as far as the moon, frequently blurring and blackening its light, as Egyptians think.
mythus of Gnosticism. The imperfect birth (Abortion) of the Sophia (Wisdom, Nature, Isis), as the result of her effort to bring forth of herself, without her consort, or syzygy, while still in the Pleroma (Womb of Rhea), paves the way for the whole scheme of one of the main forms of Gnostic cosmology and subsequent soteriology, the Creator Logos and Saviour having to perfect the imperfect product of Nature. This is, I believe, the first time that the above passage of Plutarch has been brought into connection with the Sophia-mythus, and all previous translations with which I am acquainted accordingly make havoc of the meaning. See F. F. F., pp. 339 ff.; and for the Pauline use of the technical term "Abortion," D. J. L., pp. 355 ff.; for " Balaam the Lame Man " (? a by-name for Jeschu-Horus), see ibid., p. 201. Reitzenstein (pp. 39, 40) quotes these two chapters, and adds some parallels from the Trismegistic literature.
1 Adopting the suggestion of Bernardakis — 6 vlbs for aMs.
2 Or " defined," wpiffpfvos — a play on
5. And they say that Typhon at one time strikes the Eye of Horus, and at another takes it out and swallows it. By "striking" they refer enigmatically to the monthly diminution of the moon, and by "blinding" to its eclipse, which the sun remedies by immediately shining on it after it has passed out of the shadow of the earth.1
LVI. 1. Now the better and diviner Nature is from these : — [to wit] the Intelligible and Matter, and that from them which Greeks call Cosmos.
2. Plato,2 indeed, was wont to call the Intelligible Idea and Model and Father ; and Matter Mother and Nurse — both place and ground of Genesis; and the offspring of both Genesis.
3. And one might conjecture that Egyptians [also revered3] the fairest of the triangles, likening the nature of the universe especially to this ; for Plato also, in his Republic,* seems to have made additional use of this in drawing up his marriage scheme.6
4. And this triangle has its perpendicular [side] of
" three," its base of " four," and its hypotenuse of
" five " ; its square being equal to the [sum of the]
squares on the containing sides.6
5. We must, accordingly, compare its perpendicular to male, its base to female, and its hypotenuse to the offspring of both ; and [conjecture] Osiris as source, Isis as receptacle, and Horus as result.
1 All this according to the Mathematici, presumably ; the
" eye " of Horus would rather signify " mentality."
2 Timceus, 50 C.
3 There is a lacuna in the text.
4 Rep., 545 D ff. See also Adam (J.), The Nuptial Number of
Plato : its Solution and Significance (London, 1891).
5 That is to say, that in Plutarch's opinion Platp derived the idea originally from Egypt.
6 That is, 9 + 16 = 25.
6. For the " three " is the first " odd " x and perfect ; 2 while the " four " [is] square from side " even " two ; 3 and the " five " resembles partly its father and partly its mother, being composed of "three " and " two."