DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43363#0246
j PLUTARCH’S Trsatife of
ticular, was the soul of Ι/is tranilated into what the
Greeks call the Dog-flar, and the Egyptians Sotbis,
Orus’s into Orion, and typho’s into the Bear —- The
inhabitants of '1’hebais indeed do not acknowledge those
to be Gods, who were once mortal; for they worship
their God Kneph only, whom they look upon, as with-
out beginning, so without end ; and are for this reason
alone exempt from that tax, which is levied upon all
the rest of their countrymen, towards the maintainence
©f the sacred animals.
firf explication of the preceding mythoi^
gical hiftory.
22. Now as to those, who, from the many things of
this nature, which are some of them openly related,
and others more darkly exhibited in their religious in-
stitutions, would conclude that the whole story is no
other than a mere commemoration os the various ac-
tions of their kings and other great men, who by rea-
son of their excellent vertue, and the mightiness of
their power ast u med to their other titles the honour
of the divinity, the/ they afterwards fell into many
and grievous calamities; those, I say, who would in
this manner account for the various scenes above-
mentioned, must be owned indeed to make use of a
very plauiible method of eluding such difficulties as
may arise upon this subjedt, and ingeniouily enough
to transfer the most shocking parts of it from the
divine to the human nature ; nor indeed is such solu-
tion, must it be allowed, altogether destitute of an ap¬
pearance of historical evidence for its support,
For
when
ticular, was the soul of Ι/is tranilated into what the
Greeks call the Dog-flar, and the Egyptians Sotbis,
Orus’s into Orion, and typho’s into the Bear —- The
inhabitants of '1’hebais indeed do not acknowledge those
to be Gods, who were once mortal; for they worship
their God Kneph only, whom they look upon, as with-
out beginning, so without end ; and are for this reason
alone exempt from that tax, which is levied upon all
the rest of their countrymen, towards the maintainence
©f the sacred animals.
firf explication of the preceding mythoi^
gical hiftory.
22. Now as to those, who, from the many things of
this nature, which are some of them openly related,
and others more darkly exhibited in their religious in-
stitutions, would conclude that the whole story is no
other than a mere commemoration os the various ac-
tions of their kings and other great men, who by rea-
son of their excellent vertue, and the mightiness of
their power ast u med to their other titles the honour
of the divinity, the/ they afterwards fell into many
and grievous calamities; those, I say, who would in
this manner account for the various scenes above-
mentioned, must be owned indeed to make use of a
very plauiible method of eluding such difficulties as
may arise upon this subjedt, and ingeniouily enough
to transfer the most shocking parts of it from the
divine to the human nature ; nor indeed is such solu-
tion, must it be allowed, altogether destitute of an ap¬
pearance of historical evidence for its support,
For
when