DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7416#0077
m
struck out and swallowed one of his eyes;1 whence the itinerant
priests and priestesses of the ./Egyptian religion, under the Roman
emperors, always appeared with this deformity:3, but the meaning
of the fable cannot now be ascertained, any more than that of the
single lock of hair, worn on the right side of the head, both by
Horus and his priests.
89. According to Manethos, the ./Egyptians called the loadstone,
the bone of Osiris:3 by which it should seem that he represented
the attractive principle; which is by no means incompatible with his
character of separator and deliverer of the elements ; for this separa-
tion was supposed to be produced by attraction. The Sun, according to
the ancient system, learnt by Pythagoras from the Orphic, and other
znystic traditions,being placedin the centre of the universe, with the pla-
nets moving round,4 was, by its attractive force, the cause of all union
and harmony in the whole, and, by the emanation of its beams, the
cause of all motion and activity in the parts. This system, so remote
from all that is taught by common sense and observation, but now
so fully proved to be true, was taught secretly by Pythagoras ; who
1 Kai Ktyovtriv Sti tov 'npov vvv fx^v tiraTa£e, vvv b° e&Auv naTeiriev <5 Tvipwv tov
ap8a\p.ov. Plutarch, de Is. et Osir.
2 Lusca sacerdos, Juv. A bronze head of an Agyrtes, with this deformity,
belongs to Mr. P. Knight.
3 Etj tijv <ri$npmv \Wov oa-rtw 'Clpov, (fcciAown)—is \oTopei W.avtBos. Plutarch de Is.
ct Osir. p. 370.
EvaVTioii 01 irept Tf\v lra\iay, naXovfj.woi Se TlvBayoptioi, \eyovtxiv ctl yap tov ^lccov
•nop aval tyaffi, tt]V 5e yqv kv toiv ao~t~ojv ovaav kvkKio (pepo/ievTjv irtpi to ptirov, vvxtk Te
KcuTif-tpav-iroiew. Aristot. de Ccel. lib. ii. c. 13.
The author of the trifling book on the tenets of the Philosophers, falsely
attributed to Plutarch, understands the central fire, round which the Earth
and planets were supposed to move, not to be the Sun; in which he has been
followed by Adam Smith and others : but Aristotle clearly understands it to
be the Sun, or he could not suppose it to be the cause of day and oigtu ; nei-
ther could the Pythagoreans have been so ignorant as to attribute that cause
to any other fire. This system is alluded to in an Orphic Fragment : Too™-
peoiov Kara icvkXov Arpvras eipopeno, No. xxxiii. ed. Gi'Mier; and by Galen :
'HpaK\et5^s 5c Kai ol Tlvdayopeioi ktcaiTTOv ticv u.o'Ttpav Koa^ov eivcu vofxi^ovtri, yrjy
napex0VTa Kai aiOtpa ev Tip aireipip Kepi, ravra Sf to Soy/Mra (v tvwis QptpiKois (pepcc&ai
xtyovn. Hist. Phil. c. xiiL
struck out and swallowed one of his eyes;1 whence the itinerant
priests and priestesses of the ./Egyptian religion, under the Roman
emperors, always appeared with this deformity:3, but the meaning
of the fable cannot now be ascertained, any more than that of the
single lock of hair, worn on the right side of the head, both by
Horus and his priests.
89. According to Manethos, the ./Egyptians called the loadstone,
the bone of Osiris:3 by which it should seem that he represented
the attractive principle; which is by no means incompatible with his
character of separator and deliverer of the elements ; for this separa-
tion was supposed to be produced by attraction. The Sun, according to
the ancient system, learnt by Pythagoras from the Orphic, and other
znystic traditions,being placedin the centre of the universe, with the pla-
nets moving round,4 was, by its attractive force, the cause of all union
and harmony in the whole, and, by the emanation of its beams, the
cause of all motion and activity in the parts. This system, so remote
from all that is taught by common sense and observation, but now
so fully proved to be true, was taught secretly by Pythagoras ; who
1 Kai Ktyovtriv Sti tov 'npov vvv fx^v tiraTa£e, vvv b° e&Auv naTeiriev <5 Tvipwv tov
ap8a\p.ov. Plutarch, de Is. et Osir.
2 Lusca sacerdos, Juv. A bronze head of an Agyrtes, with this deformity,
belongs to Mr. P. Knight.
3 Etj tijv <ri$npmv \Wov oa-rtw 'Clpov, (fcciAown)—is \oTopei W.avtBos. Plutarch de Is.
ct Osir. p. 370.
EvaVTioii 01 irept Tf\v lra\iay, naXovfj.woi Se TlvBayoptioi, \eyovtxiv ctl yap tov ^lccov
•nop aval tyaffi, tt]V 5e yqv kv toiv ao~t~ojv ovaav kvkKio (pepo/ievTjv irtpi to ptirov, vvxtk Te
KcuTif-tpav-iroiew. Aristot. de Ccel. lib. ii. c. 13.
The author of the trifling book on the tenets of the Philosophers, falsely
attributed to Plutarch, understands the central fire, round which the Earth
and planets were supposed to move, not to be the Sun; in which he has been
followed by Adam Smith and others : but Aristotle clearly understands it to
be the Sun, or he could not suppose it to be the cause of day and oigtu ; nei-
ther could the Pythagoreans have been so ignorant as to attribute that cause
to any other fire. This system is alluded to in an Orphic Fragment : Too™-
peoiov Kara icvkXov Arpvras eipopeno, No. xxxiii. ed. Gi'Mier; and by Galen :
'HpaK\et5^s 5c Kai ol Tlvdayopeioi ktcaiTTOv ticv u.o'Ttpav Koa^ov eivcu vofxi^ovtri, yrjy
napex0VTa Kai aiOtpa ev Tip aireipip Kepi, ravra Sf to Soy/Mra (v tvwis QptpiKois (pepcc&ai
xtyovn. Hist. Phil. c. xiiL