AFRICA. The whole company tried it one after the other CHAP. V. without success. At last Osiris laid himself down in it, upon which Typhon and his fellow-conspirators immediately nailed on and soldered the lid, and set the case afloat on the Nile. The chest was carried to sea through the Tanaitic mouth, which henceforth was held in the utmost abhorrence by the Aegyptians. These things happened in the 17th day of the month Athryr, when the sun was in Scorpio, and in the 28th year of the reign, or, as some said, of the age of Osiris. Isis hears of the disaster, and discovers Anubis, the son of Osisister Neph ris by her thys. Obtains the had been Byblos : Typhon ly recovers the body in pieces and scatters The Pans and Satyrs who lived about Chemmis were the first who made known the news, and thus originated the name of Panics. Isis, directly the report reached her, cut off one of her locks of hair and put on mourning. She was also informed that her sister Nephthys, having fallen in love with Osiris, had personated herself (Isis), and so far deceived Osiris as to bear him a son, but that, dreading the anger of her own husband Typhon, she had exposed the child as soon as it was born. Isis, after some difficulty, found the boy and bred him up, and he was afterwards called Anubis. Meantime the chest had floated to the Phoenician chest, which city of Byblos, and having been cast ashore had stranded at lodged on the branches of a Tamarisk bush; the bush had grown into a large tree and enclosed it subsequent within its trunk; and the tree itself had been cut it, and tears down by the king of the country, and the part to fourteen containing the chest had been used as a pillar to support the roof of the palace. Isis, divinely conducted, went to Byblos, obtained possession of the pillar, and returned to Aegypt with the chest, which she opened and carried to Buto, where her son Horus was being brought up. Here she deposited the body in secrecy, but Typhon found it one night whilst he was hunting by moonlight, and tearing it into fourteen pieces disposed of them in different parts of the country. them about Aegypt. Isis in a boat of papyrus re Isis now again set out in search of her husband's body, using a boat made of the papyrus rush, for the cepting one, purpose of traversing the marshes. Wherever she AFRICA. found one of the scattered pieces, there she buried CHAP. V. it, and this accounts for the many different sepul- gains all the chres of Osiris shown in Aegypt. At length she pieces exrecovered all the different members excepting one, and consewhich had been devoured by the fishes, Lepidotus phallus as a and Phragrus. To make amends for this loss Isis memorial of consecrated the phallus, and instituted a solemn festival to its memory. crates the her loss. turns from the final of Typhon. Osiris returned from Hades and assisted Horus Osiris reagainst Typhon. A battle ensued, in which Typhon Hades, and was taken prisoner, but Isis, into whose hands he assists in was committed, instead of putting him to death, set overthrow him at liberty. Horus was so enraged at this circumstance that he tore off the royal diadem from his mother's head, but Hermes supplied its place by a helmet shaped like the head of a cow. Two other battles took place before Typhon was finally subdued. It was also related that Isis had intercourse with Osiris after his death, and had given birth to Harpocrates, who consequently came into the world before his time, and with a weakness in his lower limbs. the myth of my. Such is the myth preserved by Plutarch, and of Traces in which the substance was apparently well known to a reference Herodotus. It represents the Osirian circle as be- to astronolonging to those five intercalary days which, at a comparatively modern date, were added to the 360 days of the ancient calendar. It therefore confirms the statement of Herodotus that Osiris and Isis belonged to the third class deities; as we may take it for granted that the previous gods belonged to the ancient calendar of 360 days, every day being, according to our author, assigned to some particular divinity. Other traces of a connexion with as 1ii. 82. The addition of the five days to the Aegyptian calendar undoubtedly took place at a very remote period. According to Syncellus, (Chron. p. 123,) it was made by one of the Shepherd-kings named Asseth. Lepsius however asserts that he has found traces of them in a grotto of the 12th dynasty, or prior to the invasion of the Shepherds. It however by no means follows, as a historical fact, that the Osirian worship did not exist prior to the addition of the five intercalary days; whilst the mythic history of the adventures of Osiris upon earth certainly CHAP. V. year AFRICA. tronomy are also to be found in the legend. The 72 conspirators correspond to the 72nd part of the year which Hermes won from the Moon, and which consisted of the five intercalary days. The 28 years of the life or reign of Osiris may refer to the number of days in a lunar month. The season of the in which the dismemberment of Osiris took place, was the sun's entrance into the Scorpion, being the time when, after light and darkness have been equally balanced at the equinox, darkness begins to preponderate through the gloomy months of winter. The order in which the events are recorded, also favours the supposition that they relate to the disappearance of the sun from the northern hemisphere. The disappearance of Osiris in the chest took place in autumn; the voyage of Isis to discover his remains was performed in the month of December; the search for them in Aegypt occurred about the middle of winter; and in the end of February, Osiris entering into the moon fertilized the world." Physical interpret ation of the myth as given by A physical interpretation of the myth is given by Plutarch. Osiris is the inundation of the Nile. Isis is that portion of the land of Aegypt which is irriPlutarch. gated by its overflow. Horus, their offspring, is the vapour which rises from the conjunction of the two. Buto, or Leto, is the marshy part of the Delta, where the vapour is nourished. Nephthys is the edge of the desert, which is occasionally overflowed during the very high inundations. Anubis, the illegitimate son of Osiris by Nephthys, is the production of that barren edge of the desert which had been fertilized by the extraordinary overflow. Typhon is the sea which swallows up the waters of the Nile. The conspirators are the drought overcoming the moisture from which the increase of the Nile proceeds. The chest refers to the banks of the Nile, within which the river retires after its inundation. The Tanaitic mouth refers to the low belongs to a very much later date, for no representation of it is to be found on the older monuments of Aegypt. 1 1 Prichard's Analysis, quoted by Kenrick. and barren lands in the neighbourhood, which being AFRICA. annually overflowed without producing any benefit CHAP. V. to the country, were held in great abhorrence by the Aegyptians. The 28 years of the life of Osiris are the 28 cubits to which the Nile rises at Elephantine, being its greatest height. The 17th day of the month Athyr is the period when the river retires within its banks. The Queen of Aethiopia is the south wind, which blowing from that country prevents the Etesian, or annual north winds, from carrying the clouds towards it, and thus keeps away those showers of rain which cause the inundation of the Nile. The different members of the body of Osiris are the main channels and canals by which the inundation passed into the interior of the country, where each was said to have been subsequently buried. The unrecovered member is the general power of the Nile which still continued in the stream itself. The victory of Horus refers to the power possessed by the clouds of causing the successive inundations of the Nile. Harpocrates, whom Isis brought forth about the winter solstice, refers to those weak shootings of the corn which are produced after the subsiding of the overflow.' account of Osiris, or and Isis, or We now turn to Herodotus's account of Osiris, Herodotus's Isis, and Horus. Of their history he says as little Osiris, Isis, as possible, though he is repeatedly obliged to refer and Horus. to their adventures. Osiris and Isis he describes as Dionysus the two great national deities of Aegypt, and the Demeter, only ones who were worshipped in the same manner tional deiby all the people. Osiris was identified with Dio- ties of nysus; Isis with Demeter. The image of Isis was Isis reprein the form of a woman, having the horns of a cow, lo, and per 3 2 1 Wilkinson, Ancient Egyptians, vol. i., Second Series, to which volume the reader is referred for fuller information upon the subject. Further explanations of the Osirian myth will be found in Plutarch's Treatise of Isis and Osiris. 2 ii. 42. 3 ii. 144. The conquests of Dionysus in India probably led the Greeks to consider him to be the same as Osiris; and Dionysus also, under the name of Zagreus, was said to have been torn in pieces by the Titans. ii. 59, 156. the two na Aegypt. sented like AFRICA. and thus resembled the Greek images of Io,' and CHAP. V. appears to have been regarded as the moon.2 haps regarded as the moon. son, and 3 Osiris and Isis were the parents of two children; namely, the younger Horus, who was identified by Horus the the Greeks with Apollo; and Bubastis, or Pasht, who Bubastis the was identified with Artemis. When Typhon was daughter, of searching everywhere for Horus, the goddess Isis Isis conceal- confided both Horus and his sister Bubastis to the in the float- care of Leto, who henceforth became their nurse ing island of and preserver. Leto is said to have concealed them ed by Leto Chemmis from Ty phon. Osiris, his tombat Sais. Annual re presentation of his allegorical adventures on the circular lake. Isis, the greatest Acgyptian goddess. Represent in that island, called Chemmis, which was situated in the broad and deep lake near her own sacred precinct in the city of Buto, and which in the time of Herodotus was called the floating island.* The tomb of Osiris was in the temple of Athene at Sais, behind the chapel of the goddess. Herodotus considered it would be impious to divulge his name, but there can be no doubt that Osiris is meant. Near it was a lake ornamented with a stone margin, and resembling in size and shape the circular lake at Delos.5 At night time, on this lake, was performed a representation of the allegorical adventures of the same person, (Osiris,) which the Aegyptians called mysteries; and as this took place at night, it was probably celebrated on the same occasion as the Festival of Burning Lamps. Herodotus was accurately acquainted with the particulars of these mysterious adventures, but considers himself obliged to preserve a discreet silence.' 8 Isis was considered by the Aegyptians to be the greatest of all the goddesses. And she was represented in the form of a woman, with the horns of a ed like the cow, in the same way that the Greeks represented Her temple Io. Her largest temple was erected in the city of Busiris, in the centre of the Delta, and here was Greek Io. and festival 3 Comp. page 450. 7 ii. 171. Traces of this lake are still existing, as well as of the temple and of the tombs of the Saitic kings. Wilkinson, Modern Egypt and Thebes, vol. i. 8 ii. 59. ii. 41. For the connexion between Isis and Athor, see page 459. |