DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43363#0305
ISIS and OSIRIS. 87
four chords or bars, which make such a rattling when
they are ihaken—nor is this without its meaning; for
that part of the universe which is subjed to generation
and corruption is contained within the sphere of the
moon; and whatever motions or changes may happen
therein, they are all effeded by the different combina-
tions of the four elementary bodies, fire, earth, water,
and air—-moreover, upon the upper part of the convex
surface of the Sistrum is carved the effigies of a Cat
with a human visage, as on the lower edge of it, under
those moving chords, is engraved on the one side the
face of and on the other that of Nepthys—by these
faces symbolically representing Generation and Corrup-
tion (which, as has been already observed, is nothing
but the motion and alteration of the four elements one
amongst another) as by the Cat, they would denote
the moon; its variety of colours, its adivity in the
night, and the peculiar circumstances which attend its
fecundity making it a proper emblem of that body.
For it is reported os this creature, that it at first brings
forth one, then two, afterwards three, and so goes on
adding one to each former birth till it comes to seven;
so that she brings forth twenty-eight in all, corres-
ponding as it were to the several degrees of light, which
appear during one of the moon’s revolutions. But
though this perhaps may appear to carry the air of fic-
tion with it, yet may it be depended upon, that the
pupills of her eyes seem to fill up and to grow larger
upon the full of the moon, and to decrease again and
diminiih in their brightness upon its warning—as to the
human countenance with which this Cat is carved, this
S 4 is
four chords or bars, which make such a rattling when
they are ihaken—nor is this without its meaning; for
that part of the universe which is subjed to generation
and corruption is contained within the sphere of the
moon; and whatever motions or changes may happen
therein, they are all effeded by the different combina-
tions of the four elementary bodies, fire, earth, water,
and air—-moreover, upon the upper part of the convex
surface of the Sistrum is carved the effigies of a Cat
with a human visage, as on the lower edge of it, under
those moving chords, is engraved on the one side the
face of and on the other that of Nepthys—by these
faces symbolically representing Generation and Corrup-
tion (which, as has been already observed, is nothing
but the motion and alteration of the four elements one
amongst another) as by the Cat, they would denote
the moon; its variety of colours, its adivity in the
night, and the peculiar circumstances which attend its
fecundity making it a proper emblem of that body.
For it is reported os this creature, that it at first brings
forth one, then two, afterwards three, and so goes on
adding one to each former birth till it comes to seven;
so that she brings forth twenty-eight in all, corres-
ponding as it were to the several degrees of light, which
appear during one of the moon’s revolutions. But
though this perhaps may appear to carry the air of fic-
tion with it, yet may it be depended upon, that the
pupills of her eyes seem to fill up and to grow larger
upon the full of the moon, and to decrease again and
diminiih in their brightness upon its warning—as to the
human countenance with which this Cat is carved, this
S 4 is