Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride, Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator), 13

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[13] One of the first acts related of Osiris in his reign was to deliver the Egyptians from their destitute and brutish manner of living.¹ This he did by showing them the fruits of cultivation, by giving them laws, and by teaching them to honour the gods. Later he travelled over the whole earth civilizing it² without the slightest need of arms, but most of the peoples he won over to his way by the charm of his persuasive discourse combined with song and all manner of music. Hence the Greeks came to identify him with Dionysus.³

During his absence the tradition is that Typhon attempted nothing revolutionary because Isis, who was in control, was vigilant and alert; but when he returned home Typhon contrived a treacherous plot against him and formed a group of conspirators seventy-two in number. He had also the co-operation of a queen from Ethiopia⁴ who was there at the time and whose name they report as Aso. Typhon, having secretly measured Osiris’s body and having made ready a beautiful chest of corresponding size artistically ornamented, caused it to be brought into the room where the festivity was in progress. The company was much pleased at the sight of it and admired it greatly, whereupon Typhon jestingly promised to present it to the man who should find the chest to be exactly his length when he lay down in it. They all tried it in turn, but no one fitted it; then Osiris got into it and lay down, and those who were in the plot ran to it and slammed down the lid, which they fastened by nails from the outside and also by using molten lead. Then they carried the chest to the river and sent it on its way to the sea through the Tanitic Mouth. Wherefore the Egyptians even to this day name this mouth the hateful and execrable. Such is the tradition. They say also that the date on which this deed was done was the seventeenth day of Athyr,⁵ when the sun passes through Scorpion, and in the twenty-eighth year of the reign of Osiris; but some say that these are the years of his life and not of his reign.⁶

De Iside et Osiride. Plutarch. Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1936.

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Current edition Perseus

Isis and Osiris (English) (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. V. Babbitt, Frank Cole, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1936 (printing).)

Editions (1)

Περὶ Ἴσιδος και Ὀσίριδος Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, Vol II. Vernardakēs, Grēgorios N., editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1889.) — 13 focus

[13] βασιλεύοντα δʼ Ὄσιριν Αἰγυπτίους μὲν εὐθὺς ἀπόρου βίου καὶ θηριώδους ἀπαλλάξαι, καρπούς τε 356b δείξαντα καὶ νόμους θέμενον αὐτοῖς καὶ θεοὺς διδάξαντα¹ τιμᾶν· ὕστερον δὲ γῆν πᾶσαν ἡμερούμενον 15 ἐπελθεῖν, ἐλάχιστα μὲν ὅπλων δεηθέντα, πειθοῖ δὲ τοὺς πλείστους καὶ λόγῳ μετʼ ᾠδῆς καὶ πάσης μουσικῆς θελγομένους προσαγόμενον· ὅθεν Ἕλλησι δόξαι Διονύσῳ τὸν αὐτὸν εἶναι. Τυφῶνα δʼ ἀπόντος μὲν οὐδὲν νεωτερίζειν, διὰ τὸ τὴν Ἶσιν εὖ μάλα φυλάττεσθαι 20 καὶ προσέχειν ἐγκρατῶς ἔχουσαν,² ἐπανελθόντι δὲ δόλον μηχανᾶσθαι, συνωμότας ἄνδρας ἑβδομήκοντα καὶ δύο πεποιημένον καὶ συνεργὸν ἔχοντα βασίλισσαν ἐξ Αἰθιοπίας παροῦσαν, ἣν ὀνομάζουσιν 356c Ἀσώ· τοῦ δʼ Ὀσίριδος ἐκμετρησάμενον λάθρα τὸ 25 σῶμα καὶ κατασκευάσαντα πρὸς τὸ μέγεθος λάρνακα καλὴν καὶ κεκοσμημένην περιττῶς εἰσενεγκεῖν εἰς τὸ συμπόσιον. ἡσθέντων δὲ τῇ ὄψει καὶ θαυμασάντων, ὑποσχέσθαι τὸν Τυφῶνα μετὰ παιδιᾶς, ὃς ἂν ἐγκατακλιθεὶς³ ἐξισωθῇ,⁴ διδόναι δῶρον αὐτῷ τὴν λάρνακα. 5 πειρωμένων δὲ πάντων καθʼ ἕκαστον, ὡς οὐδεὶς ἐνήρμοττεν, ἐμβάντα τὸν Ὄσιριν κατακλιθῆναι. τοὺς δὲ συνόντας⁵ ἐπιδραμόντας ἐπιρράξαι⁶ τὸ πῶμα καί, τῶν μὲν γόμφοις καταλαβόντων⁷ ἔξωθεν, τῶν δὲ θερμοῦ μολίβδου καταχεαμένων, ἐπὶ τὸν ποταμὸν 10 ἐξενεγκεῖν καὶ μεθεῖναι διὰ τοῦ Τανιτικοῦ⁸ στόματος εἰς τὴν θάλασσαν, ὃ διὰ τοῦτο μισητὸν ἔτι νῦν καὶ κατάπτυστον ὀνομάζειν Αἰγυπτίους. ταῦτα δὲ πραχθῆναι λέγουσιν ἑβδόμῃ ἐπὶ δέκα μηνὸς Ἀθύρ, ἐν ᾧ τὸν σκορπίον ὁ ἥλιος διέξεισιν, ὄγδοον ἔτος καὶ 15 356d εἰκοστὸν ἐκεῖνο⁹ βασιλεύοντος Ὀσίριδος. ἔνιοι δὲ βεβιωκέναι φασὶν αὐτόν, οὐ βεβασιλευκέναι χρόνον τοσοῦτον.

Translations (1)

Of Isis and Osiris, or of the Ancient Religion and Philosophy of Egypt. Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. IV. Goodwin, William W., editor; Baxter, William, translator. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company; Cambridge: Press of John Wilson and Son, 1874.) — 13 focus

[13] And they say that Osiris, when he was king of Egypt, drew them off from a beggarly and bestial way of living, by showing them the use of grain, and by making them laws, and teaching them to honor the Gods; and that afterwards he travelled all the world over, and made it civil, having but little need of arms, for he drew the most to him, alluring them by persuasion and oratory, intermixed with all sorts of poetry and music; whence it is that the Greeks look upon him as the very same with Bacchus. They further add that Typhon, while he was from home, attempted nothing against him; for Isis was very watchful, and guarded him closely from harm. But when he came home, he formed a plot against him, taking seventy-two men for accomplices of his conspiracy, and being also abetted by a certain Queen of Ethiopia, whose name they say was Aso. Having therefore privately taken the measure of Osiris’s body, and framed a curious ark, very finely beautified and just of the size of his body, he brought it to a certain banquet. And as all were wonderfully delighted with so rare a sight and admired it greatly, Typhon in a sporting manner promised that whichsoever of the company should by lying in it find it to be of the size of his body, should have it for a present. And as every one of them was forward to try, and none fitted it, Osiris at last got into it himself, and lay along in it; whereupon they that were there present immediately ran to it, and clapped down the cover upon it, and when they had fastened it down with nails, and soldered it with melted lead, they carried it forth to the river side, and let it swim into the sea at the Tanaitic mouth, which the Egyptians therefore to this day detest, and abominate the very naming of it. These things happened (as they say) upon the seventeenth of the month Athyr, when the sun enters into the Scorpion, and that was upon the eight and twentieth year of the reign of Osiris. But there are some that say that was the time of his life, and not of his reign.

Notes on the current edition

Isis and Osiris

1. Cf. Diodorus, i. 13-16.

2. Cf. Diodorus, i. 17. 1-3; 18. 5-6; 20. 3-4.

3. Cf. 362 b, 364 d-f, infra, and Herodotus, ii. 42 and 144.

4. Cf. 366 c, infra.

5. November 13. Cf. also 366 d and 367 e, infra.

6. Cf. 367 f, infra.

Plutarch De Iside et Osiride 13

Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator)

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