III. 1. Yet many have set down that she is Hermes'

daughter, and many [that she is] Prometheus's, — holding the latter as discoverer of wisdom and fore- knowledge, and Hermes of the art of letters and the Muses' art.
2. Wherefore, in Hermes-city, they call the foremost of the Muses Isis, as well as Bighteousness,^ in that she's
remember the Alchemical literature which had its source in Obemia-Egypt. It will also permit us to comiect brimstone with Typhon— hoofe and all I
^ Or the Intelligible — voriroO.
* •U'o/i4vmp rh Ifr — a play on U-u-pif — fut. of %/*"«• (vid) from which comes also ttSritrit above. This may also mean *' seeing " as well as " knowing," and thus may refer to the Epopteia or Mystery of Sight) and not the preliminary Mystery of Hearing (Muesis).
• Mms — another play on I
^ 8iKcu9tf'^yiir, or Justice (Maat), that is, the *' power of the Judge," Hermes being Judge of the Scales. The Nine are the Paut of Hermes, he being the tenth, the mystery being here read differently from the Ogdoad point of view— that is to say, macro- ooamically instead of cosmically.
264 THRICE-OREATEST HERICES
wiae,^ as has been said,^ and shows' the mysteries of the Grods to those who are with truth and jostioe called the Carriers of the holy [symbols] and Wearers of the holy robes.^
3. And these are they who carry the holy reason (logos) about the Grods, purged of all superstition and superfluity, in their soul, as in a chest, and cast rofass round it^ — in secret disclosing such [things] of the opinion * about the Gods as are black and shadowy, and such as are clear and bright, just as they are suggested by the [sacred] dress.
4. Wherefore when the initiates of Isis at their "death" are adorned in these [robes], it is a symbd that this Season (Logos) is with them ; and with Him and naught else they go thereJ
5. For it is not the growing beard and wearing cloak that makes philosophers, 0 Elea, nor clothing in linen and shaving oneself that makes initiates of Isis ; bat a true Isiac is one who, when he by law ^ receives them, searches out by reason (logos) the [mysteries] shown and
* Or, perhaps, the reading Bhonld be " Wisdom.** » cy. ii. 1.
' Stucr^QVffw — probably a play on
* Upo^pois aral Up9(rr6Koit. Plutarch by luB ** with tmth and justice" warns the reader against taking tbese words to mesa ■imply the carriers of the sacred vessels and uutroments in the public processions, and the sacristans or keepers of the ncred vestments.
ft irffco-WxAorrtf, which also means oomxponen — ^that is, to lay out a corpse and so to bury.
* •{4«' as opposed to kiyot=im
7 Or "walk there" — that is, in •'Hades." Or, again, the ^ death " is the death unto sin when they become Alive and walk among the *^ dead " or ordinary men.
* That is, when the initiation is a lawful one, or really takes effect ; when a man's karma permits it, that is, after passing the proper tests.
THE MYSTERIES OP ISIS AND OSIRIS 265
done concerning these Grods, and meditates upon the truth in them*
Why the Pbiksts abe Shaven and Wbab Linen