Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride, Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator), 42

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[42] The Egyptians have a legend that the end of Osiris s life came on the seventeenth of the month, on which day it is quite evident to the eye that the period of the full moon is over.¹ Because of this the Pythagoreans call this day the Barrier, and utterly abominate this number. For the number seventeen, coming in between the square sixteen and the oblong rectangle eighteen, which, as it happens, are the only plane figures that have their perimeters equal to their areas,² bars them off from each other and disjoins them, and breaks up the ratio of eight to eight and an eighth³ by its division into unequal intervals.

Some say that the years of Osiris’s life, others that the years of his reign, were twenty-eight⁴; for that is the number of the moon’s illuminations, and in that number of days does she complete her cycle. The wood which they cut on the occasions called the burials of Osiris they fashion into a crescent-shaped coffer because of the fact that the moon, when it comes near the sun, becomes crescent-shaped and disappears from our sight. The dismemberment of Osiris into fourteen parts they refer allegorically to the days of the waning of that satellite from the time of the full moon to the new moon. And the day on which she becomes visible after escaping the solar rays and passing by the sun they style Incomplete Good; for Osiris is beneficent, and his name means many things, but, not least of all, an active and beneficent power, as they put it. The other name of the god, Omphis, Hermaeus says means benefactor when interpreted.

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

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Funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities.

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.) — 42 focus

[42] ἑβδόμῃ ἐπὶ¹ δέκα τὴν Ὀσίριδος γενέσθαι 20 τελευτὴν Αἰγύπτιοι μυθολογοῦσιν, ἐν ᾗ μάλιστα γίγνεται πληρουμένη κατάδηλος ἡ πανσέληνος. διὸ 367f καὶ τὴν ἡμέραν ταύτην ἀντίφραξιν οἱ Πυθαγόρειοι καλοῦσι, καὶ ὅλως τὸν ἀριθμὸν τοῦτον ἀφοσιοῦνται. τοῦ γὰρ ἑξκαίδεκα τετραγώνου καὶ τοῦ ὀκτωκαίδεκα 25 ἑτερομήκους, οἷς μόνοις ἀριθμῶν ἐπιπέδων συμβέβηκε τὰς περιμέτρους ἴσας ἔχειν τοῖς περιεχομένοις ὑπʼ αὐτῶν χωρίοις, μέσος ὁ τῶν ἑπτακαίδεκα παρεμπίπτων ἀντιφράττει καὶ διαζεύγνυσιν ἀπʼ ἀλλήλων, καὶ διαιρεῖ² τὸν³ ἐπόγδοον λόγον εἰς ἄνισα διαστήματα τεμνόμενος. ἐτῶν δʼ ἀριθμὸν οἱ μὲν βιῶσαι 5 τὸν Ὄσιριν οἱ δὲ βασιλεῦσαι λέγουσιν ὀκτὼ καὶ 368a εἴκοσι· τοσαῦτα γὰρ ἔστι φῶτα τῆς σελήνης καὶ⁴ τοσαύταις ἡμέραις τὸν αὑτῆς κύκλον ἐξελίσσει. τὸ δὲ ξύλον ἐν ταῖς λεγομέναις Ὀσίριδος ταφαῖς τέμνοντες κατασκευάζουσι λάρνακα μηνοειδῆ διὰ τὸ τὴν 10 σελήνην, ὅταν τῷ ἡλίῳ πλησιάζῃ, μηνοειδῆ γιγνομένην ἀποκρύπτεσθαι. τὸν δʼ εἰς δεκατέσσαρα μέρη τοῦ Ὀσίριδος διασπασμὸν αἰνίττονται πρὸς τὰς ἡμέρας, ἐν αἷς φθίνει μετὰ πανσέληνον ἄχρι νουμηνίας τὸ ἄστρον. ἡμέραν δέ, ἐν ᾗ φαίνεται πρῶτον ἐκφυγοῦσα 15 368b τὰς αὐγὰς καὶ παρελθοῦσα τὸν ἥλιον, ἀτελὲς ἀγαθόν προσαγορεύουσιν. ὁ γὰρ Ὄσιρις ἀγαθοποιός, καὶ τοὔνομα πολλὰ φράζει, οὐχ ἥκιστα δὲ κράτος ἐνεργοῦν⁵ καὶ ἀγαθοποιὸν ὃ λέγουσι. τὸ δʼ ἕτερον⁶ ὄνομα τοῦ θεοῦ τὸν Ὄμφιν⁷ εὐεργέτην ὁ Ἑρμαῖός⁸ 20 φησι δηλοῦν ἑρμηνευόμενον.

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.) — 42 focus

[42] It is fabled by the Egyptians that Osiris’s death happened upon the seventeenth day of the month, at which time it is evident that the moon is at the fullest. For which reason the Pythagoreans call that day Antiphraxis (or disjunction) and utterly abominate the very number. For the middle number seventeen, falling in betwixt the square number sixteen and the oblong parallelogram eighteen (which are the only plane numbers that have their peripheries equal with their areas), disjoins and separates them from each other; and being divided into unequal portions, it makes the sesquioctave proportion (9:8). Moreover, there are some that affirm Osiris to have lived eight and twenty years; and others again, that he only reigned so long, for that is the just number of the moon’s degrees of light and of the days wherein she performs her circuit. And after they have cleft the tree, at the solemnity they call Osiris’s Burial, they next form it into an ark in fashion like a crescent, because the moon, when it joins the sun, becomes first of that figure and then vanishes away. Likewise the division of Osiris into fourteen parts sets forth unto us symbolically the number of days in which that luminary is decreasing, from the full to the change. Moreover, the day upon which she first appears, after she hath now escaped the solar rays and passed by the sun, they term imperfect good; for Osiris is beneficent, and as this name hath many other significations, so what they call effectuating and beneficent force is none of the least. Hermaeus also tells us, that his other name of Omphis, when interpreted, denotes a benefactor.

Notes on the current edition

Isis and Osiris

1. Fourteen days, or one half of a lunar month, before the ἕνη καὶ νέα, if the lunar month could ever be made to square with any system of chronology!

2. That is: 4 x 4 = 16 and 4 + 4 + 4 + 4 = 16: so also 3 x 6 = 18 and 3 + 6 + 3 + 6 = 18.

3. That is, 1/8 of a number added to itself: thus 16 + 16/8 = 18. Eighteen, therefore, bears the epogdoon relation to sixteen, which is broken up by the intervention of seventeen, an odd number.

4. Cf. 358 a, supra.

Plutarch De Iside et Osiride 42

Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator)

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