XXXVI. 1. And they call not only the Nile, bat also

without distinction all that is moist, ** Osiris* efflux"; and the water-vase always heads the processionB of the priests in honour of the GkxL
2. And with ''rush"' they write "king" and the "southern climate" of the cosmos; and "rush* is interpreted as "watering" and ''conception'' of all things, and is supposed to resemble in its natore the generative member.
3. And when they keep the feast F^unylia, which is
phallic, as has been said,^ they bring out and oaiiy
round an image having a phallus three times the sise
of it
1 Cf. XX. 5. s Bezgk, L 4S3w
> #p^M^ — confounded by King (ta loc) with ipUw^ ''fig kaf*
(perhaps connected with r^i, from the three lobes of the leaf) ;
the ** nuh" is presomably the papynu. * Of. xiL
THE MYSTERIES OF ISIS AND OSIRIS 313
4. For Grod is source, and every sooroe by the power of generation makes manifold that which comes from it. And ''many times" we are accustomed to call " thrice," as, for instance, " thrice-blessed," and " three times as many, endless, bonds "^ — unless, indeed, "three fold" was used in its authentic meaning by those of old ; for the Moist Nature, as being source and genesis of all, moved from the beginning the first three bodies — earth, air, and fire.
5. For the logos that is superadded to the myth — how that Typhon cast the chief part of Osiris into the river, and Isis could not find it, but after dedicating an object answering to it, and having made it ready, she commanded them to keep the Phallephoria in its honour — comes to this: namely, an instruction that the generative and spermatic [powers] of the God had moisture as their first matter, and by means of moisture were immingled with those things which have been produced to share in genesis.
6. But there is another logos of the Egjrptians — that Apophis, as brother of the Sun, made war on Zeus, and that when Osiris fought on his [Zeus'] side and helped him to conquer his foe, Zeus adopted him as his son and called him Dionysus.
7. Moreover, the mythical nature of this logos goes to show that it connects with the truth about nature. For Egyptians call [Cosmic] Breath' Zeus — to which Dry and Fiery is hostile ; this [latter] is not the Sun, but it has a certain kinship with him. And Moisture, by quenching the excess of Dryness, increases and strengthens the exhalations by which the Breath nourishes itself and waxes strong.