Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride, Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator), 32

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[32] Such, then, are the possible interpretations which these facts suggest. But now let us begin over again, and consider first the most perspicuous of those who have a reputation for expounding matters more philosophically. These men are like the Greeks who say that Cronus is but a figurative name for Chronus¹ (Time), Hera for Air, and that the birth of Hephaestus symbolizes the change of Air into Fire.² And thus among the Egyptians such men say that Osiris is the Nile consorting with the Earth, which is Isis, and that the sea is Typhon into which the Nile discharges its waters and is lost to view and dissipated, save for that part which the earth takes up and absorbs and thereby becomes fertilized.³

There is also a religious lament sung over Cronus.⁴ The lament is for him that is born in the regions on the left, and suffers dissolution in the regions on the right; for the Egyptians believe that the eastern regions are the face of the world, the northern the right, and the southern the left.⁵ The Nile, therefore, which runs from the south and is swallowed up by the sea in the north, is naturally said to have its birth on the left and its dissolution on the right. For this reason the priests religiously keep themselves aloof from the sea, and call salt the spume of Typhon; and one of the things forbidden them is to set salt upon a table⁶; also they do not speak to pilots,⁷ because these men make use of the sea, and gain their livelihood from the sea. This is also not the least of the reasons why they eschew fish,⁸ and they portray hatred by drawing the picture of a fish. At Saïs in the vestibule of the temple of Athena was carved a babe and an aged man, and after this a hawk, and next a fish, and finally an hippopotamus. The symbolic meaning of this was⁹: O ye that are coming into the world and departing from it, God hateth shamelessness. The babe is the symbol of coming into the world and the aged man the symbol of departing from it, and by a hawk they indicate God,¹⁰ by the fish hatred, as has already been said,¹¹ because of the sea, and by the hippopotamus shamelessness; for it is said that he kills his sire¹² and forces his mother to mate with him. That saying of the adherents of Pythagoras, that the sea is a tear of Cronus,¹³ may seem to hint at its impure and extraneous nature.

Let this, then, be stated incidentally, as a matter of record that is common knowledge.

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.) — 32 focus

[32] ταῦτα μὲν οὖν τοιαύτας ὑπονοίας δίδωσιν· ἀπʼ ἄλλης δʼ ἀρχῆς τῶν φιλοσοφώτερόν τι λέγειν 5 δοκούντων¹ τοὺς ἁπλουστάτους σκεψώμεθα πρῶτον. οὗτοι δʼ εἰσὶν οἱ λέγοντες, ὥσπερ Ἕλληνες Κρόνον ἀλληγοροῦσι τὸν χρόνον, Ἥραν δὲ τὸν ἀέρα, γένεσιν δὲ Ἡφαίστου τὴν εἰς πῦρ ἀέρος μεταβολήν, οὕτω παρʼ Αἰγυπτίοις Νεῖλον εἶναι τὸν Ὄσιριν Ἴσιδι 10 συνόντα τῇ γῇ, Τυφῶνα δὲ τὴν θάλασσαν, εἰς ἣν ὁ Νεῖλος ἐμπίπτων ἀφανίζεται καὶ διασπᾶται, πλὴν 363e ὅσον γῆ μέρος ἀναλαμβάνουσα καὶ δεχομένη γίγνεται γόνιμος ὑπʼ αὐτοῦ. καὶ θρῆνός ἐστιν ἱερὸς ἐπὶ τοῦ Κρόνου² γενόμενος, θρηνεῖ δὲ τὸν ἐν τοῖς ἀριστεροῖς 15 γιγνόμενον μέρεσιν, ἐν δὲ τοῖς δεξιοῖς φθειρόμενον· Αἰγύπτιοι γὰρ οἴονται τὰ μὲν ἑῷα τοῦ κόσμου πρόσωπον εἶναι, τὰ δὲ πρὸς βορρᾶν δεξιά, τὰ δὲ πρὸς νότον ἀριστερά. φερόμενος οὖν ἐκ τῶν νοτίων ὁ Νεῖλος, ἐν δὲ τοῖς βορείοις ὑπὸ τῆς θαλάσσης καταναλισκόμενος 20 εἰκότως λέγεται τὴν μὲν γένεσιν ἐν τοῖς ἀριστεροῖς ἔχειν, τὴν δὲ φθορὰν ἐν τοῖς δεξιοῖς. διὸ τήν τε θάλασσαν οἱ ἱερεῖς ἀφοσιοῦνται καὶ τὸν ἅλα Τυφῶνος ἀφρὸν καλοῦσι· καὶ τῶν ἀπαγορευομένων 363f ἕν ἐστιν αὐτοῖς ἐπὶ τραπέζης ἅλα μὴ προτίθεσθαι. 25 καὶ κυβερνήτας οὐ προσαγορεύουσιν, ὅτι χρῶνται θαλάττῃ καὶ τὸν βίον ἀπὸ τῆς θαλάττης ἔχουσιν. οὐχ ἥκιστα δὲ καὶ τὸν ἰχθὺν ἀπὸ ταύτης προβάλλονται τῆς αἰτίας, καὶ τὸ μισεῖν ἰχθύι γράφουσιν. ἐν Σάι γοῦν ἐν τῷ προπύλῳ³ τοῦ ἱεροῦ τῆς Ἀθηνᾶς ἦν γεγλυμμένον βρέφος, γέρων, καὶ μετὰ τοῦτον⁴ ἱέραξ, ἐφεξῆς δʼ ἰχθύς, ἐπὶ πᾶσι δʼ ἵππος ποτάμιος. 5 ἐδήλου δὲ συμβολικῶς ὦ γιγνόμενοι καὶ ἀπογιγνόμενοι, θεὸς ἀναίδειαν μισεῖ· τὸ μὲν γὰρ βρέφος γενέσεως σύμβολον, φθορᾶς δʼ ὁ γέρων⁵ ἱέρακι δὲ τὸν θεὸν φράζουσιν, ἰχθύι δὲ μῖσος, ὥσπερ εἴρηται, διὰ τὴν θάλατταν· ἵππῳ ποταμίῳ δʼ ἀναίδειαν· λέγεται 10 364a γὰρ ἀποκτείνας τὸν πατέρα τῇ μητρὶ βίᾳ μίγνυσθαι. δόξει δὲ καὶ τὸ ὑπὸ τῶν Πυθαγορικῶν λεγόμενον, ὡς ἡ θάλαττα Κρόνου δάκρυόν ἐστιν, αἰνίττεσθαι τὸ μὴ καθαρὸν μηδὲ σύμφυλον αὐτῆς.

ταῦτα μὲν οὖν ἔξωθεν εἰρήσθω κοινὴν ἔχοντα τὴν 15 ἱστορίαν.

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.) — 32 focus

[32] And so much for the allegories and secret meanings which this head affords us. And now we begin at another head, which is the account of those who seem to offer at something more philosophical; and of these we will first consider the more simple and plain sort. And they are those that tell us that, as the Greeks are used to allegorize Kronos (or Saturn) into chronos ( time), and Hera (or Juno) into aer ( air) and also to resolve the generation of Vulcan into the change of air into fire, so also among the Egyptians, Osiris is the river Nile, who accompanies with Isis, which is the earth; and Typhon is the sea, into which the Nile falling is thereby destroyed and scattered, excepting only that part of it which the earth receives and drinks up, by means whereof she becomes prolific. There is also a kind of a sacred lamentation used to Saturn, wherein they bemoan him who was born in the left side of the world, and died in the right. For the Egyptians believe the eastern part to be the world’s face, and the northern its right hand, and the southern its left. And therefore the river Nile, holding its course from the southern parts towards the northern, may justly be said to have its birth in the left side and its death in the right; for which reason, the priests account the sea abominable, and call salt Typhon’s foam. And it is one of the things they look upon as unlawful and prohibited to them, to use salt at their tables. And they use not to salute any pilots, because they have to do with the sea. And this is not the least reason of their so great aversedness to fish. They also make the picture of a fish to denote hatred. And therefore at the temple of Minerva at Sais there was carved in the porch an infant and an old man, and after them a hawk, and then a fish, and after all a hippopotamus, which, in a symbolical manner, contained this sentence: O! ye that are born and that die, God hateth impudence. From whence it is plain, that by a child and an old man they express our being born and our dying; by a hawk, God; by a fish, hatred (by reason of the sea, as hath been before spoken); and by a river-horse, impudence, because (as they say) he killeth his sire and forceth his dam. That also which the Pythagoreans are used to say, that the sea is the tear of Saturn, may seem to hint out to us that it is not pure nor congenial with our race.

Notes on the current edition

Isis and Osiris

1. Cf. Cicero, De Natura Deorum, ii. 25 (64).

2. Cf. 392 c, infra.

3. Cf. 366 a, infra.

4. For Cronus as representing rivers and water see Pauly-Wissowa, xi. 1987-1988.

5. Cf. Moralia, 282 d-e and 729 b.

6. Ibid. 685 a and 729 a.

7. Ibid. 729 c.

8. Cf. 353 c, supra.

9. There is a lacuna in one ms. (E) at this point (God hateth . . . of departing from it). The supplement is from Clement of Alexandria; see the critical note.

10. Cf. 371 e, infra.

11. Cf. 353 c, supra.

12. Cf. Porphyry, De Abstinentia, iii. 23.

13. Cf. Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis, v. 50. 1 (p. 676 Potter), and Aristotle, Frag. 196 (ed. Rose).

Plutarch De Iside et Osiride 32

Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator)

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