DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43363#0260
42 PLUTARCH’S Treatife of
tation which they make over Ofiris, (c bewailing him
“ who was born on the right side of the world, and
ec who periihed on the left”—For it muit be observed,
that the Egyptians look upon the east as the front or
face of the world, upon the north as its right side, and
upon the south as its left: as therefore the Nile rises
in the south, and running diredtly northwards is at last
swallowed up by the sea; it may with propriety enough
be said to be born on the right, and to perish on the
left side—and this conclusion, say they, is hill farther
ilrengthened from that abhorrence, which the priests ex-
press both towards the sea, as well as sait5 calling this
latter typho'sfoam, and amongst their other prohibitions,
forbidding it to be ever laid upon their tables—and is it
not for this cause like wise, that they so carefully avoid
speaking to pilots, because this order of men make so
much use of the sea, and get their livelihood by it ? nor
is its relation to the sea perhaps one of their weakest
reasons for that great aversion which they have for
fiih, so as to make it even the symbol of hatred, as
may be gathered from those figures, which are to be
seen in the porch of the temple of Minerva at Sais.
The first os which is an infant, next to him hands an
old-man, after him follows a hawk, then a sish, and last
of all a Jea-horJe— the meaning of all which is plainly
this, iC O1 you who are coming the world, and who
<s are going out of it, (that is, both young and old)
cc God hateth impudence” ! for by the infant is in-
tended, all those who are coming into life; by the old-
man, those who are going out of it; by the hawk,
God ; by the sifh, hatred, on account of the sea as has
been
tation which they make over Ofiris, (c bewailing him
“ who was born on the right side of the world, and
ec who periihed on the left”—For it muit be observed,
that the Egyptians look upon the east as the front or
face of the world, upon the north as its right side, and
upon the south as its left: as therefore the Nile rises
in the south, and running diredtly northwards is at last
swallowed up by the sea; it may with propriety enough
be said to be born on the right, and to perish on the
left side—and this conclusion, say they, is hill farther
ilrengthened from that abhorrence, which the priests ex-
press both towards the sea, as well as sait5 calling this
latter typho'sfoam, and amongst their other prohibitions,
forbidding it to be ever laid upon their tables—and is it
not for this cause like wise, that they so carefully avoid
speaking to pilots, because this order of men make so
much use of the sea, and get their livelihood by it ? nor
is its relation to the sea perhaps one of their weakest
reasons for that great aversion which they have for
fiih, so as to make it even the symbol of hatred, as
may be gathered from those figures, which are to be
seen in the porch of the temple of Minerva at Sais.
The first os which is an infant, next to him hands an
old-man, after him follows a hawk, then a sish, and last
of all a Jea-horJe— the meaning of all which is plainly
this, iC O1 you who are coming the world, and who
<s are going out of it, (that is, both young and old)
cc God hateth impudence” ! for by the infant is in-
tended, all those who are coming into life; by the old-
man, those who are going out of it; by the hawk,
God ; by the sifh, hatred, on account of the sea as has
been