XXXVII. 1. Moreover, both Greeks consecrate the

> Bemardakis gives the references as 72., vi. 154 and viii. 340, but I am unable to verify them. ' Or "Spirit" (wfv/Aa).
314 THRICE-ORSATBST mroifffg
ivy to DioDTSus and [also] among Egy^timnm it is aid to be called chenrotirii — the name meaning, llMjaif, " Osuris-plant"
2. Further, Ariston, who wrote Colamdtg ef AihtnicLM^ came across some Letter or otber of Aki- archusV in which it is related that DionjBuSy as soa of Osiris and Isis, is not called Osiria but Araapbte faj the Egyptians — ([this is] in Ariston's first book)— d» name signifying " manliness."
3. Hemueus also supports this in the first book of his Cime«ming the BgyptianB^ for he says tiiat * OBiris* is, when translated, ** Strong." *
4. I disregard Mnaseas,' who associated DioDysas and Osiris and Sarapis with Epaphoe ; ^ I alao dimgaid Antideides,* who says that Isis, as daughter of Pto- metheus,* lived with Dionysus; for the peculiarities which have been stated about the festivals and offeriagi carry a conviction with them that is clearer than the witnesses [I have produced].
XXXVIIL 1. And of the stars they consider Siriia to be Isis's^ — as being a water-bringer. And thsy honour the Lion, and ornament the doors of the temples with gaping lions' mouths; since Nilns over- flows:
When fint the Sun doth with the Lion join.*
1 Ariston and Alexarchos and Hermaus (^. zliL 7) seem to be otherwise unknown to ft^me.
> ififipifi»s=ifipiti»t — strong, virile, manly. Cf, the sacred name Brimoe for lacchos.
' Flourished latter half of 3rd century B.a
* Son of Zeus and lo, bom in the Nile, after the long ings of his mother. He is fabled bj the Greeka to have Bubisequently King of Egypt and to have built Memphis^ Hero- dotus (ii. 153 ; iii. 27, 28) says that Epaphoe « Apia.
* A Qreek writer sabeequent to the time of Alexander the GreaL
* qf.iiLl. 7 But^. IzL 5. • Aratna^ PkmmmL, »h
THE MYSTERIES OF ISIS AND OSIRIS 315
2. And as they hold the Nile to be '« Osins's efflux/' so too they think earth Isis's body — not all [of it], but what the Nile coyers, sowing [her] with seed and mingling with her; and from this intercourse they give birth to Horus.
3. And Horus is the season {&pa) and [fair] blend of air that keeps and nourishes all in the atmosphere — who, they say, was nursed by Leto in the marshes round But5 ; for the watery and soaked-through earth especially nourishes the exhalations that quench and abate dryness and drought
4. And they call the extremities of the land, both on the borders and where touching the sea, Nephthys; for which cause they give Nephthys the name of " End," ^ and say she Uves with Typhon.
5. And when the Nile exceeds its boundaries and OTerflows more than usual, and [so] consorts with the extreme districts, they call it the union of Osiris with Nephthys — proof of which is given by the springing up of plants, and especially of the honey-clover,^ for it was by its falling [from Osiris] and being left behind that Typhon was made aware of the wrong done to his bed« Hence it is that Isis conceived Horus in lawful wedlock, but Nephthys Anubis clandestinely.
6. In the Successions of the Kings,' however, they record that when Nephthys was married to Typhon, she was at first barren ; and if they mean this to apply not to a woman but to their Goddess, they enigmatically refer to the utterly unproductive nature of the land owing to sterility.