1. Herodotus, Histories, 2.50, 2.53 (5th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •kleibl, kathrin Found in books: Eidinow and Kindt (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion, 131, 151 | 2.50. In fact, the names of nearly all the gods came to Hellas from Egypt . For I am convinced by inquiry that they have come from foreign parts, and I believe that they came chiefly from Egypt . ,Except the names of Poseidon and the Dioscuri, as I have already said, and Hera, and Hestia, and Themis, and the Graces, and the Nereids, the names of all the gods have always existed in Egypt . I only say what the Egyptians themselves say. The gods whose names they say they do not know were, as I think, named by the Pelasgians, except Poseidon, the knowledge of whom they learned from the Libyans. ,Alone of all nations the Libyans have had among them the name of Poseidon from the beginning, and they have always honored this god. The Egyptians, however, are not accustomed to pay any honors to heroes. 2.53. But whence each of the gods came to be, or whether all had always been, and how they appeared in form, they did not know until yesterday or the day before, so to speak; ,for I suppose Hesiod and Homer flourished not more than four hundred years earlier than I; and these are the ones who taught the Greeks the descent of the gods, and gave the gods their names, and determined their spheres and functions, and described their outward forms. ,But the poets who are said to have been earlier than these men were, in my opinion, later. The earlier part of all this is what the priestesses of Dodona tell; the later, that which concerns Hesiod and Homer, is what I myself say. |
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3. Plutarch, On Isis And Osiris, 18-19, 38, 68, 36 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Eidinow and Kindt (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Religion, 622 | 36. Not only the Nile, but every form of moisture Cf. 366 a, 371 b, infra , and 729 b. they call simply the effusion of Osiris; and in their holy rites the water jar in honour of the god heads the procession. Cf. Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis , vi. 31. 1 (p. 758 Potter). And by the picture of a rush they represent a king and the southern region of the world, Such a symbol exists on Egyptian monuments. and the rush is interpreted to mean the watering and fructifying of all things, and in its nature it seems to bear some resemblance to the generative member. Moreover, when they celebrate the festival of the Pamylia which, as has been said, 355 e, supra . is of a phallic nature, they expose and carry about a statue of which the male member is triple Cf. 371 f, infra , Herodotus, ii. 48, and Egyptian monuments. ; for the god is the Source, and every source, by its fecundity, multiplies what proceeds from it; and for many times we have a habit of saying thrice, as, for example, thrice happy, Homer, Od. v. 306, and vi. 154. It is interesting that G. H. Palmer translates this most happy. and Bonds, even thrice as many, unnumbered, Ibid. viii. 340. unless, indeed, the word triple is used by the early writers in its strict meaning; for the nature of moisture, being the source and origin of all things, created out of itself three primal material substances, Earth, Air, and Fire. In fact, the tale that is annexed to the legend to the effect that Typhon cast the male member of Osiris into the river, and Isis could not find it, but constructed and shaped a replica of it, and ordained that it should be honoured and borne in processions, Cf. 358 b, supra . plainly comes round to this doctrine, that the creative and germinal power of the god, at the very first, acquired moisture as its substance, and through moisture combined with whatever was by nature capable of participating in generation. There is another tale current among the Egyptians, that Apopis, brother of the Sun, made Avar upon Zeus, and that because Osiris espoused Zeus’s cause and helped him to overthrow his enemy, Zeus adopted Osiris as his son and gave him the name of Dionysus. It may be demonstrated that the legend contained in this tale has some approximation to truth so far as Nature is concerned; for the Egyptians apply the name Zeus to the wind, Cf. Diodorus, i. 12. 2. and whatever is dry or fiery is antagonistic to this. This is not the Sun, but it has some kinship with the Sun; and the moisture, by doing away with the excess of dryness, increases and strengthens the exhalations by which the wind is fostered and made vigorous. |
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