LVII. 1. And Heaiod ^ also, when be mmkes all the

first [elements to be] Chaos and Earth and Tartams and Love, might be thought to assume no other principles than these, — ^if at anjrate in substitutii^ the names we assign to Isis that of Earth, to Osiris that of Love, and to Typhon that of Tartarus ; for his Chaos aeems to be subsumed as ground and place of the universe.
2. Our data also in a way invite as witness Plato's myth which Socrates details in the l^fmponum * about the Birth of Love, — telling [us how] thatPoverty wanting children lay down by the side of sleeping Means^ and conceiving by him brought forth Love of a mixed nature and capable of assuming every shape, in as much, in- deed, as he is the offspring of a good and wise father and one sufficient for all, but of an incapable mother and one without means,' who on account of her need is ever clinging to some one else and importuning some one else.*
3. For lus Means is no other than the First Beloved and Desirable and Perfect and Sufficient ; and he calls Matter Poverty, — who is herself of herself deficient of the Good, but is ever being filled by Him and longing for and sharing in [Him].
4 And the Cosmos, that is Horus, is bom from these ; and Horus, though neither eternal nor impassible nor indestructible, but ever-generable, continues by means of the changes and periods of his passions to remain ever young and ever to escape destruction.
LVIIL 1. Now, we should make use of tiiie myths not
» Theog., 116-122.
s £fymp., 203b ; Jowett, L 578 IT.
* Av^f«y~a play on w4ft,
* Cf, IviiL 6, last clause.
THE MYSTEBIBS OF 1818 AND OSIRIS 839
as though they were altogether sacred sermons {logo%\ but taking the serviceable [element] of each according to its similitude [to reason].
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 ne] " region of ideas," and, as it were, the " impressionable substance ^ of the intelligibles."
6. And some think that the substance of the woman * 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,' though [ever] filled full with His supremest and purest parts.