[31] The Egyptians, because of their belief that Typhon was of a red complexion,
1
also dedicate to sacrifice such of their neat cattle as are of a red colour,
2
but they conduct the examination of these so scrupulously that, if an animal has but one hair black or white, they think it wrong to sacrifice it
3
; for they regard as suitable for sacrifice not what is dear to the gods but the reverse, namely, such animals as have incarnate in them souls of unholy and unrighteous men who have been transformed into other bodies. For this reason they invoke curses on the head of the victim and cut it off, and in earlier times they used to throw it into the river, but now they sell it to aliens.
4
Upon the neat animal intended for sacrifice those of the priests who were called
Sealers
5
used to put a mark; and their seal, as Castor records, bore an engraving of a man with his knee on the ground and his hands tied behind his back, and with a sword at his throat.
6
They think, as has been said,
7
that the ass reaps the consequences of his resemblance because of his stupidity and his lascivious behaviour no less than because of his colour. This is also the reason why, since they hated Ochus
8
most of all the Persian kings because he was a detested and abominable ruler, they nicknamed him
the Ass; and he remarked,
But this Ass will feast upon your Bull, and slaughtered Apis, as Deinon has recorded. But those who relate that Typhon’s flight from the battle was made on the back of an ass and lasted for seven days, and that after he had made his escape, he became the father of sons, Hierosolymus and Judaeus, are manifestly, as the very names show, attempting to drag Jewish traditions
9
into the legend.
De Iside et Osiride. Plutarch. Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1936.
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