XXIV. 1. And yet mighty deeds of Semiramis are

sung of among Assyrians, and mighty [deeds] of Sesostris in Egypt, ^d Fhrygians even imto this day call splendid and marvellous doings " manic," owing to the fact that Manes, one of their bygone kings, proved himself a good and strong man among them — the one whom some call Mazdes.* Cyrus led Fersians and Alexander Macedonians, conquering to almost the ends of the earth; still they have the name and memory of good kings [only].
2. ''And if some elated by vast boastfulness," as Plato says,* ''concomitant with youth and ignorance, through having their souls inflamed with pride," have accepted titles like gods and dedications of temples, their glory has flourished for a short time [only], and afterwards they have incurred the penalty of vanity and imposture coupled with impiety and indecency : ^
Death coming swift on them, like smoke they rose and f elL*
And now like runaway [slaves] that can be lawfully
^ The capital, presumably, of the mythical island of Panchsea, which was supposed to be somewhere on the southern coast of Asia, and to which Evemerus pretended he had sailed on a voyage down the Red Sea.
* Eling notes : ** The common title of the Sassanean kings was * Masdesin '— * servant of Ormazd.' "
» Lw.,716a.
* A bold thing to write in an age of Emperor-divinising.
* Apparently from an otherwise unknown poet. See Bergk, iii. 637.
298 THRICE-ORBATB8T HIRMICS
taken, torn from the temples and altarii thej ha^ naught but their tombs %nd graves.
3. Wherefore Antigonos the Blder, when m osortsin Hermodotus, in his poems, proclaimed him " Scm of the Sun and Qoi," remarked : " My night-stool boy has not 80 exalted an opinion of ma"
And with reason also did Lysippns^ Uie senator, blame Apelles, the painter, for putting m thunderbolt in Alexander's hand when painting his portrait ; whersss he himself gave him a spear-head, — from which nai even time itself shall take away the glory, for it is true and really his.
Thi Theort of thk Daimonks
XXV.^ 1. They, therefore, [do] better who believe that the things related about Tyj^on and Osiris and Isis are passions neither of gods nor of men, but of mighty daimones, who— 4U9 Plato and Pythagoras and Xenocrates and Chrysippus say, following the theologeis of bygone days — have been bom more manful than men, far surpassing us in the strength of their nature, yet not having the divine unmixed and pure, but pro- portioned with the nature of soul and sense of body, susceptible of pleasure and pain and all the passions, which as innate to such metamorphoses trouble some [of them] more and others less.
2. For the Gigantic and Titanic [Passions] sung of among the Oreeks, and certain lawless deeds of Kronos and antagonisms of Python against Apollo, and fleeing^ of Dionysus, and wanderings of Demeter, in no way fall behind the Osiric and Typhonic [Passions], and others which all may hear unrestrainedly spoken of in myth.
And all these things which, under the veil of mystic
> This chapter is quoted by Eusebios, Prwp. Bv^ Y. ▼. 1.
THE MYSTERIES OF ISIS AND OSIRIS 299
sacred rites and perfectionings, are carefully kept from being spoken of to, or being allowed to be seen by, the multitude, have a similar reason {logos)}