{"collection":"Gnosticism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/gno/th1/th129.htm","path":"gno/th1/th129.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/gno/th1/th129.htm","text":"Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. 1, by G.R.S. Mead, [1906]\n4. For they say that Sarapis is no other than Pluto, and Isis Persephassa, as Archemachus of Eub\u0153a has said, 3 and Heracleides of Pontus, when he supposes that the seat of the oracle at Canopus is Pluto\u2019s.\nXXVIII. 1. And Ptolemy the Saviour 4 saw in a dream the gigantic statue of Pluto\u2014though he had not previously seen or known what form it was\u2014ordering him to bring it to Alexandria.\n2. And when he did not know and had no idea where [the statue] was set up even after he had described his vision to his friends, there was found a man, a great traveller, by name S\u014dsibius, who said he had seen at Sinope just such a colossus as the King seemed to have seen.\n3. He [Ptolemy] accordingly sent S\u014dtel\u0113s and Dionysius, who, after expending much time and pains, not, however, without the help of God\u2019s providence, removed it secretly and brought it away.\n4. And when it had been brought [to Alexandria] and set up publicly, the assistants of Timotheus, the interpreter, and of Maneth\u014ds, the Sebennyte, coming to the conclusion that it was a statue of Pluto\u2014judging by its cerberus and huge serpent\u2014convinced Ptolemy that it was that of no other of the Gods than Sarapis; for it did not come from Sinop\u0113 with this designation, but after it had been brought to Alexandria it received the Egyptian name for Pluto, namely, Sarapis.\n5. And yet people sink into the opinion of Heracleitus the physicist, when he says: \u201cHades 1 and Dionysus are the same, for whomsoever they rage and riot.\u201d\nFor those who postulate that Hades means the body, because the soul is as it were deranged and drunken in it, put forward a [too] meagre interpretation.\n6. But [it is] better to identify Osiris with Dionysus, and Sarapis 2 with Osiris, so designated after he had changed his nature. 3 Wherefore \u201cSarapis\u201d is common to all, 4 just as, you know, those who share in the sacred rites know that \u201cOsiris\u201d is.\nXXIX. 1. For it is not worth while paying attention to the Phrygian writings, in which Isis is said to have been the daughter of Charops, 1 son of Heracles, and Typhon [son] of \u00c6acus, 2 [also] son of Heracles.\n2. Nor [is it worth while] refraining from disregarding Phylarchus, 3 when he writes that \u201cit was Dionysus who first brought two oxen from India to Egypt, of which the name of one was Apis, and of the other Osiris; and Sarapis is the name of Him who orders [or adorns] the universe from sairein [\u2018sweep,\u2019 \u2018clean\u2019], which some say [means] \u2018beautifying\u2019 and \u2018adorning\u2019\u201d;\u2014for these [remarks] of Phylarchus are absurd.\n3. But still more so are those of them who say that Sarapis is not a god, but that the coffin of Apis 4 is thus named, and that certain brazen gates at Memphis, called \u201cGates of Oblivion and Wailing,\u201d open with a deep mournful sound, when they bury Apis, and that therefore at every sounding of brass 5 we are plunged into oblivion.\n4. More moderate are they who claim that the\nsimultaneous motion of the universe is thus called [sc. Sarapis], from seuesthai and sousthai 1 [\u201cspeed\u201d].\n5. But the majority of the priests say that \u201cOsiris\u201d and \u201cApis\u201d have been woven together into the same [name], explaining and teaching that we should look on the Apis as an en-formed image of the soul of Osiris.\n6. If, however, the name of Sarapis is Egyptian, I for my part think it denotes \u201cGood Cheer\u201d and \u201cDelight,\u201d\u2014finding a proof in the fact that Egyptians call the feast \u201cDelights\u201d\u2014Sairei.\nAnd, indeed, Plato says that Hades has been so called as being \u201csweet\u201d 2 and gentle to those with him.\n7. And with Egyptians both many other of their names are logoi, 3 and they call subterrene space, to which they think the souls depart after death, Amenth\u0113\u2014the name signifying \u201cthe [space] which takes and gives.\u201d 4\n8. But whether this, too, is one of the names that left Hellas long ago and have been brought back again, 5 we will examine later on; for the present, let us continue with the remaining [points] of the belief we have in hand.\n301:3 M\u00fcller, iv. 315.\n301:4 The first Greek King of Egypt, 324-285 B.C.\n302:1 That is, Pluto.\n302:2 Sar-apis\u2014a combination of Osiris and Apis, the soul of Osiris; cf. xxix. 5. In Eg. \u0226s\u0227r-Hapi.\n302:3 Presumably from that of a daimon to that of a god.\n302:4 That is, apparently, a common principle in all men.\n303:1 Lit. \u201cBright- (or Glad-) eyed.\u201d\n303:2 Lit., \u201cWailer.\u201d\n303:3 A historian; flourished c. 215 B.C.\n303:4 \u1f0c\u03c0\u03b9\u03b4\u03bf\u03c2 \u03c3\u03cc\u03c1\u03bf\u03bd\u2014another word-play, \u201csor-apis.\u201d\n303:5 \u1f20\u03c7\u03bf\u1fe6\u03bd\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2 . . . \u03c7\u03b1\u03bb\u03ba\u03ce\u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2. This has, nevertheless, presumably some mystic meaning. In the myths, cymbals were said to have been used to protect the infant Bacchus, and infant Zeus, and to keep off the Titans\u2014so, presumably, plunging them into oblivion. Compare also 1 Corinth. xiii. 1, where Paul, speaking of the exercise of the \u201cgift of tongues\u201d (glossalaly) without love (\u1f00\u03b3\u03ac\u03c0\u03b7), uses precisely the same term, when saying: \u201cI am become as sounding brass (\u03c7\u03b1\u03bb\u03ba\u1f78\u03c2 \u1f20\u03c7\u1ff6\u03bd) or tinkling cymbal\u201d the latter being, perhaps, a reference to the sistrum, while the former is perhaps a metaphor, derived from the hardness and colour (\u201cred\u201d) of brass, or rather bronze or copper, referring to a state of mind which plunges us into oblivion of our better part\u2014namely, spiritual love.\n304:1 A contracted form of the former\u2014from \u221a\u03c3\u03dd\u03b5 or \u221a\u03c3\u03b5\u03dd, with idea of \u201cswiftness.\u201d (?) Serapis\u2014sev-a-this\u2014sevesthai.\n304:2 \u1f01\u03b4\u03bf\u03cd\u03c3\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd\u2014unknown to the lexicons. I suggest that it may be connected with \u1f26\u03b4\u03bf\u03c2, from \u221a\u03c3\u03dd\u03b1\u03b4 of \u1f01\u03bd\u03b4\u03ac\u03bd\u03c9\u2014hence \u201csweet.\u201d\n304:3 Presumably \u201cwords of deep meaning\u201d\u2014another technical use of this Proteus-like term.\n304:4 Budge (op. cit., ii. 200) says: \u201cThe Egyptian form of the word is Amentet, and the name means \u2018hidden place.\u2019\u201d\n304:5 How very Greek! Cf. lxi. 4.","title":"Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. 1: IX. Plutarch: Concerning ...","type":"page"}