Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. I — G. R. S. Mead (1906)
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2. When, then, we say Matter, we should not be swept into the opinions of some philosophers, and suppose some body or other of itself soul-less and quality-less, and inert and inefficient; for we call oil the " matter " of a perfume, [and] gold that of a statue, though they are not destitute of every quality.
3. [Nay,] we submit the soul itself and [even] the thought of man as the "matter" of knowledge and virtue to the reason (logos) to order and bring into rhythm.
4. Moreover, some have declared the mind [to be]
" region of ideas," and, as it were, the " impressionable
substance l of the intelligibles."
5. And some think that the substance of the woman 2 is neither power nor source, but matter and nutriment of birth.
6. If, then, we attach ourselves to these, we ought thus also to think of this Goddess as having eternally her share in the First God, and consorting [with Him] for love of the goodness and beauty that surround Him, never opposed to Him, but, just as we say that a lawful and righteous husband loves [his wife] righteously, and a good wife though she has her husband and consorts with him, still desires [him], so [should we] think of Her as clinging to Him, and importuning Him,3 though [ever] filled full with His supremest and purest parts.
LIX. 1. But where Typhon steals in, laying hold of the last [parts, we should think of Her as] then seeming to wear a melancholy countenance, and being said to
. Cf. Plat., Tim., 50 c ; Thseet., 191 c, 196 A.
mourn, and to be seeking after certain relics and fragments of Osiris, and enfolding them in her robes, receiving them when destroyed into herself, and hiding them away, just as She also produces them again when they are born, and sends them forth from herself.
2 rb o-ire'p/ta TTJS "ywaiK6s — lit., " the seed of the woman."
3 Cf. Ivii. 2.
2. For while the reasons (logoi) and ideas and emanations of the God in heaven and stars remain [for ever], those that are disseminated into things passible — in earth and sea and plants and animals — being dissolved and destroyed and buried, come to light over and over again and reappear in their births.
3. For which cause the myth says that Typhon lived with Nephthys, but that Osiris had knowledge of her secretly.
4. For the last parts of Matter, which they call Nephthys and End, are mainly in possession of the destructive power ; nevertheless the Generative and Saving One distributes into them weak and faint seed which is destroyed by Typhon, except so much as Isis by adoption saves and nourishes and compacts together.
LX. 1. But He is on the whole the Better one, as both Plato and Aristotle suppose ; and the generative and moving [power] of Nature moves to Him and towards being, while the annihilating and destructive [moves] from Him and towards non-being.
2. Wherefore they derive the name Isis from hastening (lea-Oai) and coursing with knowledge, since she is ensouled and prudent motion.
3. For her name is not foreign ; l but just as all the Gods have a common name from two elements — " that which can be seen" and "that which runs"2 — so we call this Goddess " Isis " from " knowledge," l and Egyptians [also] call her Isis.2
1 That is, non-Greek — Qapl3aptK6i>. Cf. ii. 2.
2 The word-play being Otbs — Gturbs — 6eov.
4. And thus Plato also says the ancients signified the " Holy 3 [Lady] " by calling her " Isia," — and so also " Mental Perception " and " Prudence," in as much as she is [the very] course and motion of Mind hastening 4 and coursing, and that they placed Understanding — in short, the Good and Virtue — in things that flow 5 and run.
5. Just as [he says] again, the Bad is railed at with corresponding names, when they call that which hinders nature and binds it up and holds it and prevents it from hastening and going, "badness,"6 "difficulty,"7 " cowardice " 8 [and] " distress."
LXI. 1. And Osiris has had his name from a combination of ocn oy (holy) and te/oo? (sacred) ; for there is a common Reason (Logos) of things in Heaven and of things in Hades, — the former of which the ancients were accustomed to call sacred, and the latter holy.
2. And the Reason that [both] brings [down] to light the heavenly things and is [also] of things that are
1 Cf. ii. 3 for the word-play, and also for Ma. in the next paragraph.
2 They, however, probably called her something resembling Ast.