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Here follows the story related in the briefest
possible words with the omission of everything that
is merely unprofitable or superfluous :
They say that the Sun, when lie became aware of
Rhea's intercourse with Cronus,1 invoked a curse upon
her that she should not give birth to a child in any
month or any year ; but Hermes, being enamoured
of the goddess, consorted with her. Later, playing
at draughts with the moon, he won from her the
seventieth part of each of her periods of illumination,2
and from all the winnings he composed five days, and
intercalated them as an addition to the three hundred
and sixty days. The Egyptians even now call these
five days intercalated3 and celebrate them as the
birthdays of the gods. They relate that on the first
[p. 33]
of these days Osiris was born, and at the hour of his
birth a voice issued forth saying, ‘The Lord of All
advances to the light.’ But some relate that a certain
Pamyles,4 while he was drawing water in Thebes,
heard a voice issuing from the shrine of Zeus, which
bade him proclaim with a loud voice that a mighty
and beneficent king, Osiris, had been born ; and for
this Cronus entrusted to him the child Osiris, which
he brought up. It is in his honour that the festival
of Pamylia is celebrated, a festival which resembles
the phallic processions. On the second of these days
Ar ueris was born whom they call Apollo, and some call
him also the elder Horus. On the third day Typhon
was born, but not in due season or manner, but with
a blow he broke through his mother s side and leapt
forth. On the fourth day Isis was born in the regions
that are ever moist5; and on the fifth Nephthys, to
whom they give the name of Finality6 and the name
of Aphroditê, and some also the name of Victory.
There is also a tradition that Osiris and Arueris were
sprung from the Sun, Isis from Hermes,7 and Typhon
and Nephthys from Cronus. For this reason the kings
considered the third of the intercalated days as inauspicious, and transacted no business on that day,
nor did they give any attention to their bodies until
nightfall. They relate, moreover, that Nephthys
became the wife of Typhon8; but Isis and Osiris were
enamoured of each other9 and consorted together in
[p. 35]
the darkness of the womb before their birth. Some
say that Arueris came from this union and was called
the elder Horus by the Egyptians, but Apollo by the
Greeks.
1 Cf. Moralia, 429 f; Diodorus, i. 13. 4; Eusebius, Praeparatio Evang. ii. 1. 1-32.
2 Plutarch evidently does not reckon the ἕνη καὶ νέα (the day when the old moon changed to the new) as a period of illumination, since the light given by the moon at that time is practically negligible. An intimation of this is given in his Life of Solon, chap. xxv. (92 c). Cf. also Plato, Cratylus, 409 b, and the scholium on Aristophanes' Clouds, 1186. One seventieth of 12 lunar months of 29 days each (348 days) is very nearly five days.
3 Cf. Herodotus, ii. 4.
4 What is known about Pamyles (or Paamyles or Pammyles), a Priapean god of the Egyptians, may be found in Kock, Com. Att. Frag. ii. p. 289. Cf. also 365 b, infra.
5 The meaning is doubtful, but Isis as the goddess of vegetation, of the Nile, and of the sea, might very naturally be associated with moisture.
6 Cf. 366 b and 375 b, infra.
7 Cf. 352 a, supra.
8 Cf. 375 b, infra.
9 Cf. 373 b, infra.
Plutarch. Moralia. with an English Translation by. Frank Cole Babbitt. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1936. 5.
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