That Osiris is identical with Dionysus who could more fittingly know than yourself, Clea ? For you are ii t the head of the inspired maidens of Delphi, and have been consecrated by your father and mother in the holy rites of Osiris. If, however, for the benefit of others it is needful to adduce proofs of this identity, let us leave undisturbed what may not be told, but the public ceremonies which the priests perform in the burial of the Apis, when they convey his body on an improvised bier, do not in any way come short of a Bacchic procession; for they fasten skins of fawns about themselves, and carry Bacchic wands and indulge in shoutings and movements exactly as do those who are under the spell of the Dionysiac ecstasies.Cf. Diodorus, i. 11. For the same reason many of the Greeks make statues of Dionysus in the form of a bullA partial list in Roscher, , i. 1149.; and the women of Elis invoke him, praying that the god may come with the hoof of a bullCf., 299 a, where the invocation is given at greater length; also Edmonds, , iii. p. 510 (L.C.L.).; and the epithet applied to Dionysus among the Argives is Son of the Bull. They call him up out of the water by the sound of trumpets,Cf., 671 e. at the same time casting into the depths a lamb as an offering to the Keeper of the Gate. The trumpets they conceal in Bacchic wands, as SocratesMüller, iv. p. 498, Socrates, no. 5. has stated in his treatise on The Holy Ones. Furthermore, the tales regarding the Titans and the rites celebrated by night agree with the accounts of the dismemberment of Osiris and his revivification and regenesis. Similar agreement is found too in the tales about their sepulchres. The Egyptians, as has already been stated,358 a and 359 a, supra. point out tombs of Osiris in many places, and the people of Delphi believe that the remains of Dionysus rest with them close beside the oracle; and the Holy Ones offer a secret sacrifice in the shrine of Apollo whenever the devotees of DionysusThat is, the inspired maidens, mentioned at the beginning of the chapter. wake the God of the Mystic Basket.Callimachus, (vi.), 127; vi. 165; Virgil, i. 166. To show that the Greeks regard Dionysus as the lord and master not only of wine, but of the nature of every sort of moisture, it is enough that Pindar 153 (Christ). Plutarch quotes the line also in , 745 a and 757 f. be our witness, when he says May gladsome Dionysus swell the fruit upon the trees, The hallowed splendour of harvest-time. For this reason all who reverence Osiris are prohibited from destroying a cultivated tree or blocking up a spring of water.

Not only the Nile, but every form of moistureCf. 366 a, 371 b, infra, and 729 b. they call simply the effusion of Osiris; and in their holy rites the water jar in honour of the god heads the procession.Cf. Clement of Alexandria, , vi. 31. 1 (p. 758 Potter). And by the picture of a rush they represent a king and the southern region of the world,Such a symbol exists on Egyptian monuments. and the rush is interpreted to mean the watering and fructifying of all things, and in its nature it seems to bear some resemblance to the generative member. Moreover, when they celebrate the festival of the Pamylia which, as has been said,355 e, supra. is of a phallic nature, they expose and carry about a statue of which the male member is tripleCf. 371 f, infra, Herodotus, ii. 48, and Egyptian monuments.; for the god is the Source, and every source, by its fecundity, multiplies what proceeds from it; and for many times we have a habit of saying thrice, as, for example, thrice happy, Homer, v. 306, and vi. 154. It is interesting that G. H. Palmer translates this most happy. and Bonds, even thrice as many, unnumbered,Ibid. viii. 340. unless, indeed, the word triple is used by the early writers in its strict meaning; for the nature of moisture, being the source and origin of all things, created out of itself three primal material substances, Earth, Air, and Fire. In fact, the tale that is annexed to the legend to the effect that Typhon cast the male member of Osiris into the river, and Isis could not find it, but constructed and shaped a replica of it, and ordained that it should be honoured and borne in processions,Cf. 358 b, supra. plainly comes round to this doctrine, that the creative and germinal power of the god, at the very first, acquired moisture as its substance, and through moisture combined with whatever was by nature capable of participating in generation.

There is another tale current among the Egyptians, that Apopis, brother of the Sun, made Avar upon Zeus, and that because Osiris espoused Zeus’s cause and helped him to overthrow his enemy, Zeus adopted Osiris as his son and gave him the name of Dionysus. It may be demonstrated that the legend contained in this tale has some approximation to truth so far as Nature is concerned; for the Egyptians apply the name Zeus to the wind,Cf. Diodorus, i. 12. 2. and whatever is dry or fiery is antagonistic to this. This is not the Sun, but it has some kinship with the Sun; and the moisture, by doing away with the excess of dryness, increases and strengthens the exhalations by which the wind is fostered and made vigorous.

Moreover, the Greeks are wont to consecrate the ivyDiodorus, i. 17. 4. to Dionysus, and it is said that among the Egyptians the name for ivy is chenosiris, the meaning of the name being, as they say, the plant of Osiris. Now, Ariston,Müller, iii. p. 324. the author of , happened upon a letter of Alexarchus, in which it is recorded that Dionysus was the son of Zeus and Isis, and is called not Osiris, but Arsaphes, spelled with an a, the name denoting virility. Hermaeus,Ibid. iv. p. 427. too, makes this statement in the first volume of his book ; for he says that Osiris, properly interpreted, means sturdy. I leave out of account Mnaseas’sIbid. iii. p. 155. annexation of Dionysus, Osiris, andSerapis to Epaphus, as well as Anticleides’Cf. Jacoby, 140, no. 13. statement that Isis was the daughter of PrometheusCf. 352 a, supra. and was wedded to Dionysus.Cf. Herodotus, ii. 156. The fact is that the peculiarities already mentioned regarding the festival and sacrifices carry a conviction more manifest than any testimony of authorities.

Of the stars the Egyptians think that the Dog-star is the star of Isis,Cf. 359 d, supra, and 376 a, infra. because it is the bringer of water.In the Nile. They also hold the Lion in honour, and they adorn the doorways of their shrines with gaping lions’ heads,Cf., 670 c; Horapollo, , i. 21. because the Nile overflows When for the first time the Sun comes into conjunction with Leo.Aratus, , 151. The Dog-star rises at about the same time.

As they regard the Nile as the effusion of Osiris,Cf. the note on 365 b, supra. so they hold and believe the earth to be the body of Isis, not all of it, but so much of it as the Nile covers, fertilizing it and uniting with it.Cf. 363 d, supra. From this union they make Horus to be born. The all-conserving and fostering Hora, that is the seasonable tempering of the surrounding air, is Horus, who they say was brought up by Leto in the marshes round about ButoCf. 357 f, supra.; for the watery and saturated land best nurtures those exhalations which quench and abate aridity and dryness.

The outmost parts of the land beside the mountains and bordering on the sea the Egyptians call Nephthys. This is why they give to Nephthys the name of Finality, Cf. 355 f, supra, and 375 b, infra. and say that she is the wife of Typhon. Whenever, then, the Nile overflows and with abounding waters spreads far away to those who dwell in the outermost regions, they call this the union of Osiris with Nephthys,Cf. the note on 356 e, supra. which is proved by the upspringing of the plants. Among these is the melilotus,Cf. 356 f, supra. by the wilting and failing of which, as the story goes, Typhon gained knowledge of the wrong done to his bed. So Isis gave birth to Horus in lawful wedlock, but Nephthys bore Anubis clandestinely. However, in the chronological lists of the kings they record that Nephthys, after her marriage to Typhon, was at first barren. If they say this, not about a woman, but about the goddess, they must mean by it the utter barrenness and unproduetivity of the earth resulting from a hard-baked soil.

The insidious scheming and usurpation of Typhon, then, is the power of drought, which gains control and dissipates the moisture which is the source of the Nile and of its rising; and his coadjutor, the Queen of the Ethiopians,Cf. 356 b, supra. signifies allegorically the south winds from Ethiopia; for whenever these gain the upper hand over the northerly or Etesian windsCf., 898 a, and Diodorus, i. 39. which drive the clouds towards Ethiopia, and when they prevent the falling of the rains which cause the rising of the Nile, then Typhon, being in possession, blazes with scorching heat; and having gained complete mastery, he forces the Nile in retreat to draw back its waters for weakness, and, flowing at the bottom of its almost empty channel, to proceed to the sea. The story told of the shutting up of Osiris in the chest seems to mean nothing else than the vanishing and disappearance of water. Consequently they say that the disappearance of Osiris occurred in the month of Athyr,The month of November. at the time when, owing to the complete cessation of the Etesian winds, the Nile recedes to its low level and the land becomes denuded. As the nights grow longer, the darkness increases, and the potency of the light is abated and subdued. Then among the gloomy rites which the priests perform, they shroud the gilded image of a cow with a black linen vestment, and display her as a sign of mourning for the goddess, inasmuch as they regard both the cow and the earthCf. 366 a supra. as the image of Isis; and this is kept up for four days consecutively, beginning with the seventeenth of the month. The things mourned for are four in number: first, the departure and recession of the Nile; second, the complete extinction of the north winds, as the south winds gain the upper hand; third, the day’s growing shorter than the night; and, to crown all, the denudation of the earth together with the defoliation of the trees and shrubs at this time. On the nineteenth day they go down to the sea at nighttime; and the keepers of the robes and the priests bring forth the sacred chest containing a small golden coffer, into which they pour some potable water which they have taken up, and a great shout arises from the company for joy that Osiris is found. Then they knead some fertile soil with the water and mix in spices and incense of a very costly sort, and fashion therefrom a crescent-shaped figure, which they clothe and adorn, thus indicating that they regard these gods as the substance of Earth and Water.