Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride, Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator), 23

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[23] I hesitate, lest this be the moving of things immovable¹ and not only warring against the long years of time, as Simonides² has it, but warring, too, against many a nation and race of men who are possessed by a feeling of piety towards these gods, and thus we should not stop short of transplanting such names from the heavens to the earth, and eliminating and dissipating the reverence and faith implanted in nearly all mankind at birth, opening wide the great doors to the godless throng, degrading things divine to the human level, and giving a splendid licence to the deceitful utterances of Euhemerus of Messene,who of himself drew up copies of an incredible and non-existent mythology,³ and spread atheism over the whole inhabited earth by obliterating the gods of our belief and converting them all alike into names of generals, admirals, and kings, who, forsooth, lived in very ancient times and are recorded in inscriptions written in golden letters at Panchon, which no foreigner and no Greek had ever happened to meet with, save only Euhemerus. He, it seems, made a voyage to the Panchoans and Triphyllians, who never existed anywhere on earth and do not exist!

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.) — 23 focus

[23] ὀκνῶ δέ, μὴ τοῦτʼ ᾖ τὰ ἀκίνητα κινεῖν καὶ πολεμεῖν οὐ τῷ πολλῷ χρόνῳ (κατὰ Σιμωνίδην)¹ μόνον, πολλοῖς δʼ ἀνθρώπων ἔθνεσι καὶ γένεσι κατόχοις ὑπὸ τῆς πρὸς τοὺς θεοὺς τούτους ὁσιότητος, οὐδὲν ἀπολιπόντας ἐξ² οὐρανοῦ μεταφέρειν ἐπὶ 15 γῆν ὀνόματα τηλικαῦτα, καὶ τιμὴν καὶ πίστιν ὀλίγου 360a δεῖν ἅπασιν ἐκ πρώτης γενέσεως ἐνδεδυκυῖαν ἐξιστάναι καὶ ἀναλύειν, μεγάλας μὲν τῷ ἀθέῳ λεῲ κλισιάδας ἀνοίγοντας καὶ ἐξανθρωπίζοντας³ τὰ θεῖα, λαμπρὰν δὲ τοῖς Εὐημέρου τοῦ Μεσσηνίου φενακισμοῖς 20 παρρησίαν διδόντας, ὃς αὐτὸς ἀντίγραφα συνθεὶς ἀπίστου καὶ ἀνυπάρκτου μυθολογίας πᾶσαν ἀθεότητα κατασκεδάννυσι τῆς οἰκουμένης, τοὺς νομιζομένους θεοὺς πάντας ὁμαλῶς διαγράφων εἰς ὀνόματα⁴ στρατηγῶν καὶ ναυάρχων καὶ βασιλέων ὡς δὴ 25 πάλαι γεγονότων, ἐν δὲ Πάγχοντι γράμμασι χρυσοῖς 360b ἀναγεγραμμένων,⁵ οἷς οὔτε βάρβαρος οὐδεὶς οὔθʼ Ἕλλην, ἀλλὰ μόνος Εὐήμερος, ὡς ἔοικε, πλεύσας εἰς τοὺς μηδαμόθι γῆς γεγονότας μηδʼ ὄντας Παγχώους⁶ καὶ Τριφύλλους ἐντετυχήκει.⁷

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.) — 23 focus

[23] But I fear this would be to stir things that are not to be stirred, and to declare war not only (as Simonides speaks) against length of time, but also against many nations and families of mankind, whom a religious reverence towards these Gods holds fast bound like men astonished and amazed. And this would be no other than going about to remove so great and venerable names from heaven to earth, thereby shaking and dissolving that worship and persuasion that hath entered into almost all men’s constitutions from their very birth, and opening vast doors to the Atheists’ faction, who convert all divine matters into human, giving also a large license to the impostures of Euhemerus the Messenian, who out of his own brain contrived certain memoirs of a most incredible and imaginary mythology, and thereby spread all manner of Atheism throughout the world. This he did by describing all the received Gods under the style of generals, sea-captains, and kings, whom he makes to have lived in the more remote and ancient times, and to be recorded in golden characters in a certain country called Panchon, with which notwithstanding never any man, either Barbarian or Grecian, had the good fortune to meet, except Euhemerus alone, who (it seems) sailed to the land of the Panchoans and Triphyllians, that neither have nor ever had a being.

Notes on the current edition

Isis and Osiris

1. Proverbial; cf. e.g. Plato, Laws, 684 d.

2. Cf. Bergk, Poet. Lyr. Graec. iii., Simonides, no. 193, and Edmonds, Lyra Graeca, ii. p. 340 in L.C.L.

3. Doubtless ἡ ἱερὰ ἀναγραφή ( sacra scriptio); see Diodorus, v. 41-46, and vi. 1.

Plutarch De Iside et Osiride 23

Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator)

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