λέγεται δʼ ὁ μῦθος οὗτος ἐν βραχυτάτοις ὡς ἔνεστι μάλιστα, τῶν ἀχρήστων σφόδρα καὶ περιττῶν ἀφαιρεθέντων. τῆς Ῥέας φασὶ κρύφα τῷ Κρόνῳ συγγενομένης, αἰσθόμενον ἐπαράσασθαι τὸν Ἥλιον αὐτῇ μήτε μηνὶ μήτʼ ἐνιαυτῷ τεκεῖν ἐρῶντα δὲ τὸν Ἑρμῆν τῆς θεοῦ συνελθεῖν, εἶτα παίξαντα πέττια πρὸς τὴν Σελήνην καὶ ἀφελόντα τῶν φώτων ἑκάστου τὸ ἑβδομηκοστόν, ἐκ πάντων ἡμέρας πέντε συνελεῖν καὶ ταῖς ἑξήκοντα καὶ τριακοσίαις ἐπαγαγεῖν, ἃς νῦν ἐπαγομένας Αἰγύπτιοι καλοῦσι καὶ τῶν θεῶν γενεθλίους ἄγουσι. τῇ μὲν πρώτῃ τὸν Ὄσιριν γενέσθαι, καὶ φωνὴν αὐτῷ τεχθέντι συνεκπεσεῖν, ὡς ὁ πάντων κύριος εἰς φῶς πρόεισιν. ἔνιοι δὲ Παμύλην τινὰ λέγουσιν ἐν Θήβαις ὑδρευόμενον ἐκ τοῦ ἱεροῦ τοῦ Διὸς φωνὴν ἀκοῦσαι διακελευομένην ἀνειπεῖν μετὰ βοῆς, ὅτι μέγας βασιλεὺς εὐεργέτης Ὄσιρις γέγονε· καὶ διὰ τοῦτο θρέψαι τὸν Ὄσιριν, ἐγχειρίσαντος αὐτῷ τοῦ Κρόνου, καὶ τὴν τῶν Παμυλίων ἑορτὴν αὐτῷ τελεῖσθαι, Φαλληφορίοις ἐοικυῖαν. τῇ δὲ δευτέρᾳ τὸν Ἀρούηριν, ὃν Ἀπόλλωνα, ὃν καὶ πρεσβύτερον Ὧρον ἔνιοι καλοῦσι· τῇ τρίτῃ δὲ Τυφῶνα μὴ καιρῷ μηδὲ κατὰ χώραν, ἀλλʼ ἀναρρήξαντα πληγῇ διὰ τῆς πλευρᾶς ἐξαλέσθαι· τετάρτῃ δὲ τὴν Ἶσιν ἐν πανύγροις γενέσθαι· τῇ δὲ πέμπτῃ Νέφθυν, ἣν καὶ Τελευτὴν καὶ Ἀφροδίτην, ἔνιοι δὲ καὶ Νίκην ὀνομάζουσιν. εἶναι δὲ τὸν μὲν Ὄσιριν ἐξ Ἡλίου καὶ τὸν Ἀρούηριν, ἐκ δὲ Ἑρμοῦ τὴν Ἶσιν, ἐκ δὲ τοῦ Κρόνου τὸν Τυφῶνα καὶ τὴν Νέφθυν, διὸ καὶ τὴν τρίτην τῶν ἐπαγομένων ἀποφράδα νομίζοντες οἱ βασιλεῖς οὐκ ἐχρημάτιζον οὐδʼ ἐθεράπευον αὑτοὺς μέχρι νυκτός. γήμασθαι δὲ τῷ Τυφῶνι τὴν Νέφθυν. Ἶσιν δὲ καὶ Ὄσιριν ἐρῶντας ἀλλήλων καὶ πρὶν ἢ γενέσθαι κατὰ γαστρὸς ὑπὸ σκότῳ συνεῖναι. ἔνιοι δέ φασι καὶ τὸν Ἀούηριν οὕτω γεγονέναι καὶ καλεῖσθαι πρεσβύτερον Ὧρον ὑπʼ Αἰγυπτίων, Ἀπόλλωνα δʼ ὑφʼ Ἑλλήνων.
The story is thus told after the most concise manner, the most useless and unnecessary parts being cut off. They tell us how that once on a time, Rhea having accompanied with Saturn by stealth, the Sun found them out, and pronounced a solemn curse against her, containing that she should not be delivered in any month or year; but that Hermes, afterwards making his court to the goddess, obtained her favor, in requital of which he went and played at dice with the Moon, and won of her the seventieth part from each day, and out of all these made five new days, which he added to the three hundred and sixty other days of the year; and these the Egyptians therefore to this day call the Epagomenae (or the superadded days), and they observe them as the birthdays of their Gods. Upon the first of these, as they say, Osiris was born, and a voice came into the world with him, saying, The Lord of all things is now born. There are others that affirm that one Pamyles, as he was fetching water at Thebes, heard a voice out of the temple of Jupiter, bidding him to publish with a loud voice that Osiris, the great and good king, was now born; and that he thereupon got to be foster-father to Osiris, Saturn entrusting him with the charge of him, and that the feast called Pamylia (resembling the Priapeian procession which the Greeks call Phallephoria) was instituted in honor of him. Upon the second day Arueris was born, whom some call Apollo, and others the elder Horus. Upon the third Typhon was born, who came not into the world either in due time or by the right way, but broke a hole in his mother’s side, and leaped out at the wound. Upon the fourth Isis was born in Panygra. And upon the fifth Nephthys, whom they sometimes call the end, and sometimes Venus, and sometimes also Victory. Of these they say Osiris and Arueris were begot by the Sun, Isis by Hermes, and Typhon and Nephthys by Saturn. For which reason their kings, looking upon the third of the Epagomenae as an inauspicious day, did no business upon it, nor took any care of their bodies until the evening. They say also that Nephthys was married unto Typhon, and that Isis and Osiris were in love with one another before they were born, and enjoyed each other in the dark before they came into the world. Some add also that Arueris was thus begotten, and that he was called by the Egyptians the elder Horus, and by the Greeks Apollo.
βασιλεύοντα δʼ Ὄσιριν Αἰγυπτίους μὲν εὐθὺς ἀπόρου βίου καὶ θηριώδους ἀπαλλάξαι, καρπούς τε δείξαντα καὶ νόμους θέμενον αὐτοῖς καὶ θεοὺς διδάξαντα τιμᾶν· ὕστερον δὲ γῆν πᾶσαν ἡμερούμενον 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 καὶ προσέχειν ἐγκρατῶς ἔχουσαν, ἐπανελθόντι δὲ δόλον μηχανᾶσθαι, συνωμότας ἄνδρας ἑβδομήκοντα καὶ δύο πεποιημένον καὶ συνεργὸν ἔχοντα βασίλισσαν ἐξ Αἰθιοπίας παροῦσαν, ἣν ὀνομάζουσιν Ἀσώ· τοῦ δʼ Ὀσίριδος ἐκμετρησάμενον λάθρα τὸ 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 ἐγκατακλιθεὶς ἐξισωθῇ, διδόναι δῶρον αὐτῷ τὴν λάρνακα. πειρωμένων δὲ πάντων καθʼ ἕκαστον, ὡς οὐδεὶς ἐνήρμοττεν, ἐμβάντα τὸν Ὄσιριν κατακλιθῆναι. τοὺς δὲ συνόντας ἐπιδραμόντας ἐπιρράξαι τὸ πῶμα καί, τῶν μὲν γόμφοις καταλαβόντων ἔξωθεν, τῶν δὲ θερμοῦ μολίβδου καταχεαμένων, ἐπὶ τὸν ποταμὸν ἐξενεγκεῖν καὶ μεθεῖναι διὰ τοῦ Τανιτικοῦ 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 εἰκοστὸν ἐκεῖνο βασιλεύοντος Ὀσίριδος. ἔνιοι δὲ βεβιωκέναι φασὶν αὐτόν, οὐ βεβασιλευκέναι χρόνον τοσοῦτον.
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.
πρώτων δὲ τῶν τὸν περὶ Χέμμιν οἰκούντων τόπον Πανῶν καὶ Σατύρων τὸ πάθος αἰσθομένων καὶ λόγον ἐμβαλόντων περὶ τοῦ γεγονότος, τὰς μὲν αἰφνιδίους τῶν ὄχλων ταραχὰς καὶ πτοήσεις ἔτι νῦν διὰ τοῦτο πανικὰς προσαγορεύεσθαι· τὴν δʼ Ἶσιν αἰσθομένην κείρασθαι μὲν ἐνταῦθα τῶν πλοκάμων ἕνα καὶ πένθιμον στολὴν ἀναλαβεῖν, ὅπου τῇ πόλει μέχρι νῦν ὄνομα Κοπτώ. ἕτεροι δὲ τοὔνομα σημαίνειν οἴονται στέρησιν· τὸ γὰρ ἀποστερεῖν κόπτειν λέγουσι. πλανωμένην δὲ πάντῃ καὶ ἀποροῦσαν οὐδένα προσελθεῖν ἀπροσαύδητον, ἀλλὰ καὶ παιδαρίοις συντυχοῦσαν ἐρωτᾶν περὶ τῆς λάρνακος· τὰ δὲ τυχεῖν ἑωρακότα καὶ φράσαι τὸ στόμα, διʼ οὗ τὸ ἀγγεῖον οἱ φίλοι τοῦ Τυφῶνος εἰς τὴν θάλασσαν ἔωσαν. ἐκ τούτου τὰ παιδάρια μαντικὴν δύναμιν ἔχειν οἴεσθαι τοὺς Αἰγυπτίους, καὶ μάλιστα ταῖς τούτων ὀττεύεσθαι κληδόσι παιζόντων ἐν ἱεροῖς καὶ φθεγγομένων ὅ τι ἂν τύχωσι. αἰσθομένην δὲ τῇ ἀδελφῇ ἐρῶντα συγγεγονέναι διʼ ἄγνοιαν ὡς ἑαυτῇ τὸν Ὄσιριν, καὶ τεκμήριον ἰδοῦσαν τὸν μελιλώτινον στέφανον, ὃν ἐκεῖνος παρὰ τῇ Νέφθυι κατέλιπε, τὸ παιδίον ζητεῖν (ἐκθεῖναι γὰρ εὐθὺς τεκοῦσαν διὰ φόβον τοῦ Τυφῶνος)· εὑρεθὲν δὲ χαλεπῶς καὶ μόγις, κυνῶν ἐπαγόντων τὴν Ἶσιν, ἐκτραφῆναι καὶ γενέσθαι φύλακα καὶ ὀπαδὸν αὐτῆς, Ἄνουβιν προσαγορευθέντα, καὶ λεγόμενον τοὺς θεοὺς φρουρεῖν, ὥσπερ οἱ κύνες τοὺς ἀνθρώπους.
And because the Pans and Satyrs that inhabited the region about Chemmis were the first that knew of this disaster and raised the report of it among the people, all sudden frights and discomposures among the people have been ever since called panics. But when Isis heard of it, she cut off in that very place a lock of her hair, and put on a mourning weed, where there is a town at this day named Kopto; others think that name signifies bereaving, for that some use the word for depriving. And as she wandered up and down in all places, being deeply perplexed in her thoughts, and left no one she met withal unspoken to, she met at last with certain little children, of whom also she enquired about the ark. Now these had chanced to see all that had passed, and they named to her the very mouth of the Nile by which Typhon’s accomplices had sent the vessel into the sea; for which reason the Egyptians account little children to have a faculty of divination, and use more especially to lay hold on their omens when they play in sacred places or chance to say an) thing there, whatever it be. And finding afterwards that Osiris had made his court to her sister, and through mistake enjoyed her instead of herself, for token of which she had found the melilot garland which he had left hard by Nephthys, she went to seek for the child; for her sister had immediately exposed it as soon as she was delivered of it, for fear of her husband Typhon. And when with great difficulty and labor she had found it, by means of certain dogs which conducted her to it, she brought it up; and he afterwards became her guardsman and follower, being named Anubis, and reported to guard the Gods as dogs do men.
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