{"collection":"Gnosticism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/gno/th1/th126.htm","path":"gno/th1/th126.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/gno/th1/th126.htm","text":"Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. 1, by G.R.S. Mead, [1906]\n5. And not least of all does the belief of the Osirians\u2014since the body [of Osiris] is said to be in many places\u2014[suggest this].\n6. For they say that both Diochit\u0113 is called Polichn\u0113, 3 because it alone has the true one; and [also] that it is at Abydos that the wealthy and powerful of the Egyptians are mostly buried,\u2014their ambition being to have a common place of burial with the body of Osiris; and [again] that it is at Memphis that the Apis is\nreared as the image of the soul of Osiris, because it is there also that his body lies.\n7. And as for the City, 1 some interpret it as \u201cHarbour of Good Things,\u201d but others give it the special meaning of \u201cTomb of Osiris\u201d; it is, however, the little island one 2 at Phil\u00e6 [they say] which is in other respects inaccessible and inapproachable by all, and that not even the birds light on it or fish come near it, but at a certain season the priests cross over [to it] and make offerings to the dead, and place wreaths on the monument which is overshadowed by a . . . 3 tree, which is greater in size than any olive.\nXXI. 1. Eudoxus, however, [says] that, though many tombs are spoken of in Egypt, the body lies at B\u016bsiris, for that this had been the native city of Osiris; nevertheless Taphosiris requires no further reason [to establish its claim], for the name explains itself\u2014namely, \u201cBurying of Osiris.\u201d\n\u201cBut I rede of cutting of wood, of rending of linen, and pouring of pourings, because many of the mystery-[meanings] have been mixed up with them.\u201d 4\n2. But the priests say that not only of these Gods, but also of all the other gods also who are not ingenerable and indestructible, the bodies lie buried with them when they 1 have done their work, and have service rendered them, while their souls shine in heaven as\nstars; and that [of the former] the [soul] of Isis is called Dog by the Greeks, but S\u014dthis by the Egyptians, while the [soul] of Horus [is called] \u014cri\u014dn, 1 and Typhon\u2019s Bear. 2\n3. And [they say] that for the burials of the animals to whom honour is paid, the rest [of the Egyptians] pay the [dues which are] mutually determined; but that those alone who inhabit the Thebaid give nothing, since they believe that no God is subject to death, and that he whom they themselves call Kn\u0113ph is ingenerable and immortal.\n292:3 Either the reading is at fault, or some word-play is intended. Dio-chit\u0113 is probably Zeus-something; but I cannot resolve it. While Polichn\u0113 is a rare diminutive of \u03c0\u03cc\u03bb\u03b9\u03c2, and would thus mean \u201cLittle City.\u201d\n293:1 ? Memphis; or, perhaps, as contrasted with the Little City above.\n293:2 Sc. city; \u03bd\u03b9\u03c3\u03c4\u03b9\u03c4\u03ac\u03bd\u03b7\u03bd is a hopeless reading, and as the editors can make nothing out of it, I suggest \u03bd\u03b7\u03c3\u03af\u03c4\u03b9\u03b4\u03b1 or \u03bd\u03b7\u03c3\u03b9\u03b4\u03ac\u03bd\u03b7\u03bd (\u03c0\u03cc\u03bb\u03b9\u03bd).\n293:3 \u03bc\u03b7\u03b8\u03af\u03b4\u03b7\u03c2\u2014apparently an error; Bernardakis suggests \u03bc\u03af\u03bd\u03b8\u03b7\u03c2 (Lat. mentha) \u201cmint.\u201d Can the right reading be \u03bc\u03b7\u03b4\u03b9\u03ba\u1fc6\u03c2 (\u03c0\u03cc\u03b1\u03c2)? The herba medica, was, however, the sainfoin or lucerne, which, though reminding us of the melilote of xiv., is hardly capable of overshadowing a tomb even in the most intricate symbolical sense.\n293:4 Evidently a verbal quotation from Eudoxus. The \u201ccutting of wood\u201d presumably refers to the trunk with lopped branches, which, as we have already mentioned, occurs so frequently on so-called \u201cGnostic\u201d gems; the \u201crending of linen\u201d (\u03bb\u03af\u03bd\u03bf\u03c5) might also be made to refer to Linus, the Bard, and his being torn to pieces like Osiris; Linos also means the \u201cSong of Linus,\u201d so called, it is supposed by some, because in earliest times the strings of the cithara were made of flax. For other names of singers used for lays or modes of song, compare Maner\u014ds and P\u00e6an; though, of course, the modern way is to regard the singer as the personification of the lay. Thus in Emil Naumann\u2019s History of Music (trans, by F. Praeger; London, 1882), p. 3, we read: \u201cThe Greek tribes of Peloponnesus and Hellas, as well as the Egyptians, Ph\u0153nicians, the Greeks inhabiting the isles of the \u00c6gean Sea, and especially those of Cyprus, had a primitive \u2018Lament\u2019 which seems to have come originally from Ph\u0153nicia. It was a funeral chant on the death of the youthful Adonis. . . . The Egyptians changed its signification into a lament of Isis for Osiris. The Greeks called it Linos, and the Egyptians Maneros.\u201d The beginning of the \u201cManer\u014ds,\u201d or the Lament of Isis for her Beloved, is given as follows by Naumann (p. 40):\n\u201cReturn, oh, return! \nGod Panu, return!\nThose that were enemies are no more here.\nOh lovely helper, return,\nThat thou may\u2019st see me, thy sister,\nWho loves thee.\nAnd com\u2019st thou not near me?\nO beautiful youth, return, oh, return!\nWhen I see thee not\nMy heart sorrows for thee,\nMy eyes ever seek thee,\nI roam about for thee, to see thee in the form of the Nai,\nTo see thee, to see thee, thou beautiful lov\u2019d one.\nLet me the Radiant, see thee\nGod Panu, All-Glory, see thee again!\nTo thy belov\u00e8d come, blessed Onn\u00f2fris,\nCome to thy sister, come to thy wife,\nGod Urtuhet, oh, come!\nCome to thy consort!\u201d\n294:1 The bodies; presumably referring to the mummies of those men and women who were believed to have reached the god-stage while living.\n295:1 Cf. xxii. 3.\n295:2 Probably all name-plays: \u03ba\u03cd\u03c9\u03bd (dog), \u221a\u03ba\u03c5 (conceive)\u2014see lxi. 6; H-\u014dr-os, \u014cr-i\u014dn; \u1f04\u03c1\u03ba-\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2 (bear), \u221a\u03b1\u03c1\u03ba (suffice, endure, bear); Ursa Major is called the Wain.","title":"Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. 1: IX. Plutarch: Concerning ...","type":"page"}