XXII. 1. Now, since many of such [? tombs] are

spoken of and pointed out, those who think these [myths] commemorate the awe-inspiring and mighty works and passions of kings and tyrants who, through surpassing virtue and power, put in a claim for the reputation of divinity, and afterwards experienced reverses of fortune, — employ a very easy means of escape from the [true] reason (logos), and not unworthily transfer the ill-omened [element in them] from Gods to men, and they have the following to help them from the narratives related.
2. For instance, the Egyptians tell us that Hermes had a short-armed^ body, that Typhon was red-skinned,
1 Cf. xxii. 3.
• Probably all name-plays : «^«r (dog), ^Jkv (conceive) — see IxL 6 ; H-or-oe, Or-ion ; ipicfs (bear), $JafK (suffice, endure, bear) ; Ursa Major is called the Wain.
3 yakt'dyKtoya — lit., weasel-armed. Now, as we are told further on (Ixxiv. 3) that the weasel {ya\ii\ or marten, was fabled to conceive through the ear and bring forth through the mouth, this animal was evidently a symbol of mind-conception. " Weasel- armed" may thus symbolise some faculty of the interpretative mind (Hermes).
296 THRIGB-OREATEST lTVLTt%n^
Horu8 white, and OsiriB black, as thou^ thej won [men] bom in the course of nature.
3. Moreover, also, they call Osiris ''Gtenerml" and Eanobus^ "Pilot," — from whom, they say, the star got its nama
And [they say] that the ship which Greeks cmU Aig5 is an image of the bark of Osiris, constellated in hii honour, and that it sails not far from Orida and Bog the former of which Egyptians consider the sacred [boat] of Horus and the latter of Isis.*