VIII. 1. For nothing reasonless, or [purely] fabulous,

or from [mere] superstition, as some suppose, has been incorporated into the foundation of the sacred opera- tions, but some things have moral and needful causes, while others are not without a share in the embellish- ment of science and physics, — as, for instance, in the case of the onion.
2. [The story] that Diktys,^ the nursling of Isis,* fell into the river and was drowned, in trying to catch the onions with his hands,' [is] utterly incredible.
3. The priests, however, keep themselves pure of the onion, and treat it hardly, being [ever] on the watch against it, because it is the only thing whose nature is to be well nourished and to flourish when the moon's a- wane.
It's food * for neither fast nor feast, — neither for the former in that it makes those feeding^ on it thirst, while for the latter it makes them weep.
4. And in like manner also they consider the sow an unholy animal, because it seems to be covered especially when the moon is on the wane, while the bodies of those who drink its milk burst forth ^ into leprosy^ and scabrous roughnesses.
^ Diktys^the Netter. In other myth-cycles Diktys was son of Poseidon, and is often called simply the Fisher.
* Of, xvi., xvii.
* 4wiipaw4/A9wop, The Fisher-sonl, therefore, presumably fell oat of the celestial boat or barii of Isis, and the myth may not be quite so i»l$wow as Plutarch would have us think. Cf, xviL 3. Ordinary onions do not grow in rivers.
* Or«fit"— »P
* r»ht np
*
7 \twpi» — that which makes the skin scaly and rough (ktwphs, as opposed to x*7os, smooth) ; there being also, I believe, a mystical under-meaning in it all.
272 THRICE-OREATEST HKRMK8
5. And the tale (logos) they tell after onoe mlj^ sacrificing and eating pig at the full-moon — [name^] that Typhon when pursuing pig towards full-moon found the wooden cofl^ in which the body of Osiris lay dstd, and scattered it in pieces^ — they do not all receive, thinking it is a trifling mis-hearing [of the true tile] like many more.'
6. But they say their ancients so protected themsehss against softness [of living] and extravagaDoe and agreeable sensations, that they said a slab was set up in the holy place at Thebes with deprecations in-lettered on it against Meinis^ the King, who first ohanged the Egyptians from the way of life without rictns and without needs and plain.
7. Moreover, Technactis, father of Bocchoris,* is said, when marching on the Arabs,^ when his baggpige w« delayed,^ to have used with joy the food nearest at hand, and afterwards to have fallen into deep sleep on a bed of straw,' and so embraced frugality; and in
1 Apparently once a year. « Cf. xviii. 1.
' This makes us doubt whether there may not be a number of similar ** miA-hearings " in the myth as handed on by Plutarch.
* Probably this should be Mxcvit (Mnevis), the sacred Uack baD, venerated as the symbol of the ka of Ra, and so it may contaia some mystical allusion. Cf, xxxiii. 5.
* rdxr^KTu is, perhaps, a word-play on Wx {y/rm, rUrm}, ** creative " or ** generative,'' and iucrit^ " ray " ; while $9ttx4po may also be a play — such as, if one is allowed to speculate wUdfy, $ovSf " or Cowherd.
* It is to be noticed that there was an Arab nome in E^Qfp^ and that £gypt was mapped out into a mystic body ; and farther, that the different surroimding nations were regarded as repre> sentative each of certain powers.
7 Or it may mean "when his filth delayed him," sod «> contain a mystical implication.
* M mfiiii»s. It may also mean ^ on the way."
THE MYSTERIES OF ISIS AND OSIRIS 273
consequence of this [be is said] to have execrated the Meinian, and, with the approval of the priests, to have graven his execration on stone.
The Kmos, the Riddles of thb Priests, and
THE MeANIKO of AmOUN
IX 1. The kings were appointed from the priests or from the warriors, — the one caste possessing worth and honour through manliness, and the other through wisdom.
2. And he who was appointed from the warriors immediately became [one] of the priests and shared in their philosophy, — which for the most part was hidden in myths and words (logoi), containing dim reflections and transparencies of truth, as, doubtless, they them- selves make indirectly plain by fitly setting sphinxes up before the temples, as though their reasoning about the Grods possessed a wisdom wrapped in riddle.^
3. Indeed, the seat ^ of Athena (that is Isis, as they think) at Sals used to have the following inscription on it:
" I am all that has been and is and shall be, and no mortal has ever re-vealed* my robe."*
4 Moreover, while the majority think that the proper name of Zeus with the Egyptians is Amoun (which we by a slight change call Ammon), Manetho, the Sebennyte, considers it His hidden [one], and that His [power of] hiding is made plain by the very articulation of the sound.
1 Cf. M. L. ridsUuSy F. ridsaUf a curtain or veil
' The technical term for the sitting statue of a god or goddess.
s Avfjr^vff r— that is, no one within dualitj has expressed or ahown that in which this aspect of feminine life veils itself.
« For this mystical logoi of Net (NeithX the Qreat Mother, cf. Budge, op, eit.f 1/469 f.
VOL. L 18
274 THRICE-ORBATBST HBRME8
5. Hecatseus^ of Abd€ra, however, aajs that the Egyptians use this word to one another also whoi tfaof call one to them, for that its sound has got the powv of "calling to."*
6. Wherefore when they call to the First God— who they think is the same for eveiy man — as unto the Unmanifest and Hidden, invoking Him to make ffim manifest and plain to them, they say '' Amoon ! "
So great, then, was the care Egyptiana took about the wisdom which concerned the mysteries of the Goda
Of the Grikk Disciples of Egtptians and of Ptthagoras and his Symbols