These are nearly all the important points of the legend, with the omission of the most infamous of the tales, such as that about the dismemberment of Horus Cf. Moralia , 1026 c, and De Anima , i. 6 (in Bernardakis’s ed. vol. vii. p. 7). and the decapitation of Isis. There is one thing that I have no need to mention to you: if they hold such opinions and relate such tales about the nature of the blessed and imperishable (in accordance with which our concept of the divine must be framed) as if such deeds and occurrences actually took place, then Much need there is to spit and cleanse the mouth, as Aeschylus Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. , Aeschylus, no. 354. has it. But the fact is that you yourself detest those persons who hold such abnormal and outlandish opinions about the gods. That these accounts do not, in the least, resemble the sort of loose fictions and frivolous fabrications which poets and writers of prose evolve from themselves, after the manner of spiders, interweaving and extending their unestablished first thoughts, but that these contain narrations of certain puzzling events and experiences, you will of yourself understand. Just as the rainbow, according to the account of the mathematicians, is a reflection of the sun, and owes its many hues to the withdrawal of our gaze from the sun and our fixing it on the cloud, so the somewhat fanciful accounts here set down are but reflections of some true tale which turns back our thoughts to other matters; their sacrifices plainly suggest this, in that they have mourning and melancholy reflected in them; and so also does the structure of their temples, Cf. Strabo, xvii. 1. 28 (p. 804). which in one portion are expanded into wrings and into uncovered and unobstructed corridors, and in another portion have secret vesting-rooms in the darkness under ground, like cells or chapels; and not the least important suggestion is the opinion held regarding the shrines of Osiris, whose body is said to have been laid in many different places. Cf. 358 a, supra , and 365 a, infra . For they say that Diochites The introduction of Diochites here is based upon an emendation of a reading found in one ms. only. The emendation is drawn from Stephanus Byzantinus, a late writer on a geographical topics. is the name given to a small town, on the ground that it alone contains the true tomb; and that the prosperous and influential men among the Egyptians are mostly buried in Abydos, since it is the object of their ambition to be buried in the same ground with the body of Osiris. In Memphis, however, they say, the Apis is kept, being the image of the soul of Osiris, Cf. 362 c and 368 c, infra . whose body also lies there. The name of this city some interpret as the haven of the good and others as meaning properly the tomb of Osiris. They also say that the sacred island by Philae Cf. Diodorus, i. 22, and Strabo, xvii. p. 803, which seem to support the emendation Philae. Others think that the gates (the ms. reading) of Memphis are meant. at all other times is untrodden by man and quite unapproachable, and even birds do not alight on it nor fishes approach it; yet, at one special time, the priests cross over to it, and perform the sacrificial rites for the dead, and lay wreaths upon the tomb, which lies in the encompassing shade of a persea- The persea-tree was sacred to Osiris. tree, which surpasses in height any olive. Eudoxus says that, while many tombs of Osiris are spoken of in Egypt, his body lies in Busiris; for this was the place of his birth; moreover, Taphosiris Cf. Strabo, xvii. 1. 14 (pp. 799 and 800). Tradition varies between Taphosiris and Taposiris, and there may be no tomb in the word at all. requires no comment, for the name itself means the tomb of Osiris. I pass over the cutting of wood, Cf. 368 a, infra . the rending of linen, and the libations that are offered, for the reason that many of their secret rites are involved therein. In regard not only to these gods, but in regard to the other gods, save only those whose existence had no beginning and shall have no end, the priests say that their bodies, after they have done with their labours, have been placed in the keeping of the priests and are cherished there, but that their souls shine as the stars in the firmament, and the soul of Isis is called by the Greeks the Dog-star, but by the Egyptians Sothis, Cf. Moralia , 974 f. and the soul of Horus is called Orion, and the soul of Typhon the Bear. Also they say that all the other Egyptians pay the agreed assessment for the entombment of the animals held in honour, Cf. Diodorus, i. 84, ad fin. , for the great expense often involved. but that the inhabitants of the Theban territory only do not contribute because they believe in no mortal god, but only in the god whom they call Kneph, whose existence had no beginning and shall have no end. Many things like these are narrated and pointed out, and if there be some wrho think that in these are commemorated the dire and momentous acts and experiences of kings and despots who, by reason of their pre-eminent virtue or might, laid claim to the glory of being styled gods, and later had to submit to the vagaries of fortune, That is, to die, and thus to lose their claim to divinity; Cf. 360 b, infra . This is common Euhemeristic doctrine. then these persons employ the easiest means of escape from the narrative, and not ineptly do they transfer the disrepute from the gods to men; and in this they have the support of the common traditions. The Egyptians, in fact, have a tradition that Hermes had thin arms and big elbows, that Typhon was red in complexion, Horus white, and Osiris dark, Cf. 363 a and 364 b, infra . as if they had been in their nature but mortal men. Moreover, they give to Osiris the title of general, and the title of pilot to Canopus, from whom they say that the star derives its name; also that the vessel which the Greeks call Argo, in form like the ship of Osiris, has been set among the constellations in his honour, and its course lies not far from that of Orion and the Dog-star; of these the Egyptians believe that one is sacred to Horus and the other to Isis. I hesitate, lest this be the moving of things immovable Proverbial; cf. e.g. Plato, Laws , 684 d. and not only warring against the long years of time, as Simonides Cf. Bergk, Poet. Lyr. Graec. iii., Simonides, no. 193, and Edmonds, Lyra Graeca , ii. p. 340 in L.C.L. has it, but warring, too, against many a nation and race of men who are possessed by a feeling of piety towards these gods, and thus we should not stop short of transplanting such names from the heavens to the earth, and eliminating and dissipating the reverence and faith implanted in nearly all mankind at birth, opening wide the great doors to the godless throng, degrading things divine to the human level, and giving a splendid licence to the deceitful utterances of Euhemerus of Messene,who of himself drew up copies of an incredible and non-existent mythology, Doubtless ἡ ἱερὰ ἀναγραφή ( sacra scriptio ); see Diodorus, v. 41-46, and vi. 1. and spread atheism over the whole inhabited earth by obliterating the gods of our belief and converting them all alike into names of generals, admirals, and kings, who, forsooth, lived in very ancient times and are recorded in inscriptions written in golden letters at Panchon, which no foreigner and no Greek had ever happened to meet with, save only Euhemerus. He, it seems, made a voyage to the Panchoans and Triphyllians, who never existed anywhere on earth and do not exist! However, mighty deeds of Semiramis are celebrated among the Assyrians, and mighty deeds of Sesostris in Egypt, and the Phrygians, even to this day, call brilliant and marvellous exploits manic because Manes, Cf. Herodotus, i. 94, iv. 45, and W. M. Ramsay, Mitteilungen des deutsch. arch. Institutes in Athen , viii. 71. one of their very early kings, proved himself a good man and exercised a vast influence among them. Some give his name as Masdes. Cyrus led the Persians, and Alexander the Macedonians, in victory after victory, almost to the ends of the earth; yet these have only the name and fame of noble kings. But if some, elated by a great self-conceit, as Plato Adapted from Plato, Laws , 716 a. says, with souls enkindled with the fire of youth and folly accompanied by arrogance, have assumed to be called gods and to have temples dedicated in their honour, yet has their repute flourished but a brief time, and then, convicted of vain-glory and imposture, Swift in their fate, Jike to smoke in the air, rising upward they flitted, From Empedocles: Cf. H. Diels, Poetarum Philosophorum Fragmenta , p. 106, Empedocles, no. 2. 4. and now, like fugitive slaves without claim to protection, they have been dragged from their shrines and altars, and have nothing left to them save only their monuments and their tombs. Hence the elder Antigonus, when a certain Hermodotus in a poem proclaimed him to be the Offspring of the Sun and a god, said, the slave who attends to my chamberpot is not conscious of any such thing! Plutarch tells the same story with slight variations in Moralia , 182 c. Moreover, Lysippus the sculptor was quite right in his disapproval of the painter Apelles, because Apelles in his portrait of Alexander had represented him with a thunderbolt in his hand, whereas he himself had represented Alexander holding a spear, the glory of which no length of years could ever dim, since it was truthful and was his by right.