X. 1. And the most wise of the Greeks also are

witnesses — Solon, Thales, Plato, Eudoxus, FythagoraSi and, as some say, Lycurgus as well — through coming to Egypt and associating with her priests.
2. And so they say that Eudoxus was hearer of Chououphis' of Memphis, and Solon of Sonchis of Saia, and Pythagoras of CEnuphis of Heliopolis.
3. And the last especially, as it appears, being con- templated and contemplating,^ brought back to the
^ H. flouriahed 550-475 ac A wm a town on the aouthani shore of Thrace.
* wpwKknruHiif, H. thus seems to suggest that it (t Amen) was a ''word of power," a word of magic for evoking the Aa of a person, or summoning it to appear. It does not aeem Teij probable that the Egyptians shouted it after one another in the street.
' That is, presumably, Knoupb or Knei
* $aviitiv$tU Koi $avfU^asy passive and active of the verb of UsSipM^ generally translated " wonder," but meaning radically *' locd: at with awe " ; hence contemplate religiously (the art of 99mpU\ and hence the Platonic (? Pythagorean) saying : '* The beginnii^ ol philosophy is wonder.*' Compare the variants of the new-fomd Je&us logoi (" Let not him who seeks,'' etc.), which preserve boUi ia/Afini^U and Oa»/Uras.
THE MYSTERIES OF ISIS AND OSIRIS 275
memory of his men their ^ symbolic and mysterious [art], containing their dogmas in dark sayings.
4. For most of the Pythagoric messages leave out nothing of what are called the hieroglyphic letters; for instance : " Eat not on what bears two "; ^ ** Sit not down on measure "; • " Plant not phoenix "; * " Stir not fire with knife ^ in house."
5. And, for myself at least, I think that his men's calling the monad Apollo,^ and the dyad Artemis, and the hebdomad Athena, and the first cube^ Poseidon, also resembles those whose statues preside over the sacred places, and whose dramas are acted [there], yea and [the names] painted ® [there as well].
1 That ia, to the men of Greece the art of the Egyptians.
* M Slipp»» (=Si-^^poi;)— variouBly translated ''off a chair," " in a chariot," hence " on a journey." ** That which bears two" is that which either carries two or brings forth two ; the logot is thus, perhaps, a warning against falling into duality of any kind, and hence an injunction to contemplate unity.
' The x*^^^ was a dry measure, the standard of a man's (slave's) daily allowance of com. Hence, perhaps, in one sense the symbol may mean: **Be not content ¥nth your 'daily bread' only " ; yet any meaning connected with "that which measures" would suit the interpreUtion, such as, "Rest not on measure, but move in the unimmeasurable."
* ^•Tpi^ means a " PhcBuician " (as opposed to an Egyptian), a ''date palm" (as opposed to a "pine"), and a "phcenix"; in colour this was "purple red," "purple," or "crimson," The phoenix proper rose again from its ashes ; Hi colour was golden. ^vT^tiM means " plants" but also " engender," " beget."
^ /Uxatpa was, in Homeric times, the technical term for the sacred sacrificial knife— the knife that kills and divides the victim's body, while the fire transmutes and consumes it. There may, perhaps, be some connection between the symbol and the gnomic couplet of Hesiod quoted above (iv. 3) ; it is, however, generally said to mean, "Do not provoke an angry man," but this leaves out of consideration the concluding words " in house."
• Cy.lxxv. 14.
7 Presumably the ogdoad or eight.
• Or "written" or "engraved."
276 THRI0S-GRSATB8T HKRMB8
6. For they write the King and Lord, OsiiiB,^ witii ^ eye " and *' sceptre." * But some interpret the name also as " many-eyed/' since in the Egyptian tongue a means " many," and iri " eye."
7. And they write Heaven, as onageing through eternity,' with ''heart," [that is] spirit,^ [rising] from " altar " ^ underneath.
8. And at Thebes there used to be set up hand-less statues of judges, while the [statue] of the chief judge had its eyes tight shut, — seeing that Justice neither gives nor takes gift, and is not worked on.
9. And for the warriors, " scarab " was their seal-em- blem ; — for the scarab ia not female, but all [scarabs] are male,^ and they engender their seed into matter [or material] which they make into spheres, preparing a field not so much of nourishment^ as of genesis.
Advice to Elea conczrnino the Hidden Mianinq OF THE Myths