DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.30604#0057
THE LEGEND OF OSIRIS.
xlix
The story of Osiris is nowhere found in a connected form in Egyptian litera- piutarch’s version 0f
ture, but everywhere, and in texts of all periods, the life, sufferings, death and lhc Use“L
resurrection of Osiris are accepted as facts universally admitted. Greek writers
have preserved in their works traditions concerning this god, and to Plutarch in
particular we owe an important version of the legend as current in his day. It is
clear that in some points he errs, but this was excusable in dealing with a series of
traditions already some four thousand years old.1 According to this writer the
goddess Rhea [Nut], the wife of Helios [Ra], was beloved by Kronos [Seb]. When
Helios discovered the intrigue, he cursed his wife and declared that she should
not be delivered of her child in any month or in any year. Then the god Hermes,
who also loved Rhea, played at tables with Selene and won from her the seventieth
part of each day of the year, which, added together, made five whole days. These
he joined to the three hundred and sixty days of which the year then consisted.2
Upon the first of these five days was Osiris brought forth ;3 4 and at the moment of
his birth a voice was heard to proclaim that the lord of creation was born. In
course of time he became king of Egypt, and devoted himself to civilizing his
subjects ancl to teaching them the craft of the husbandman ; he established a code
of laws and bade men worship the gods. Having made Egypt peaceful and
flourishing, he set out to instruct the other nations of the world. During his
absence his wife Isis so well ruled the state that Typhon [Set], the evil one, could
do no harm to the realm of Osiris. When Osiris came again, Typhon plotted with
seventy-two comrades, and with Aso, the queen of Ethiopia, to slay him ; and
secretly got the measure of the body of Osiris, and made ready a fair chest, which
was brought into his banqueting hall when Osiris was present together with other
guests. By a ruse Osiris was induced to lie down in the chest, which was imme-
diately closed by Typhon and his fellow conspirators, who conveyed it to the
Tanaitic mouth of the Nile.1' These things happened on the seventeenth day of
1 For the text see De Iside et Osiride, ed. Didot (Scripta Moralia, t. iii., pp. 429-69), § xii. ff.
2 The days are called in hieroglyphics ^ ~^\. ^ ^ ^, “the five additional days of the
year,” eVa^o'/teverj yjnepcu Trivre\ see Brugsch, Thesaurus Inscriptionum Aegyptiacarum, Abt. ii. (Kaleti-
darische Inschriften), Leipzig, 1883, pp. 479, 480; Brugsch, Aegyptologie, p. 361; Chabas, Le Calendrier,
Paris (no date), p. 99 ff.
8 Osiris was born on the first dav, Horus on the second, Set on the third, Isis on the fourtb, and
Nephthys on the fifth ; the first, third, and fifth of these days were considered unlucky by the Egyptians.
4 The mouths of the Nile are discussed and described by Strabo, XVII., i., 18 (ed. Didot, p. (,81);
and by Diodorus, I., 33, 7 (ed. Didot, p. 26).
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xlix
The story of Osiris is nowhere found in a connected form in Egyptian litera- piutarch’s version 0f
ture, but everywhere, and in texts of all periods, the life, sufferings, death and lhc Use“L
resurrection of Osiris are accepted as facts universally admitted. Greek writers
have preserved in their works traditions concerning this god, and to Plutarch in
particular we owe an important version of the legend as current in his day. It is
clear that in some points he errs, but this was excusable in dealing with a series of
traditions already some four thousand years old.1 According to this writer the
goddess Rhea [Nut], the wife of Helios [Ra], was beloved by Kronos [Seb]. When
Helios discovered the intrigue, he cursed his wife and declared that she should
not be delivered of her child in any month or in any year. Then the god Hermes,
who also loved Rhea, played at tables with Selene and won from her the seventieth
part of each day of the year, which, added together, made five whole days. These
he joined to the three hundred and sixty days of which the year then consisted.2
Upon the first of these five days was Osiris brought forth ;3 4 and at the moment of
his birth a voice was heard to proclaim that the lord of creation was born. In
course of time he became king of Egypt, and devoted himself to civilizing his
subjects ancl to teaching them the craft of the husbandman ; he established a code
of laws and bade men worship the gods. Having made Egypt peaceful and
flourishing, he set out to instruct the other nations of the world. During his
absence his wife Isis so well ruled the state that Typhon [Set], the evil one, could
do no harm to the realm of Osiris. When Osiris came again, Typhon plotted with
seventy-two comrades, and with Aso, the queen of Ethiopia, to slay him ; and
secretly got the measure of the body of Osiris, and made ready a fair chest, which
was brought into his banqueting hall when Osiris was present together with other
guests. By a ruse Osiris was induced to lie down in the chest, which was imme-
diately closed by Typhon and his fellow conspirators, who conveyed it to the
Tanaitic mouth of the Nile.1' These things happened on the seventeenth day of
1 For the text see De Iside et Osiride, ed. Didot (Scripta Moralia, t. iii., pp. 429-69), § xii. ff.
2 The days are called in hieroglyphics ^ ~^\. ^ ^ ^, “the five additional days of the
year,” eVa^o'/teverj yjnepcu Trivre\ see Brugsch, Thesaurus Inscriptionum Aegyptiacarum, Abt. ii. (Kaleti-
darische Inschriften), Leipzig, 1883, pp. 479, 480; Brugsch, Aegyptologie, p. 361; Chabas, Le Calendrier,
Paris (no date), p. 99 ff.
8 Osiris was born on the first dav, Horus on the second, Set on the third, Isis on the fourtb, and
Nephthys on the fifth ; the first, third, and fifth of these days were considered unlucky by the Egyptians.
4 The mouths of the Nile are discussed and described by Strabo, XVII., i., 18 (ed. Didot, p. (,81);
and by Diodorus, I., 33, 7 (ed. Didot, p. 26).
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