But the
wiser of the priests call not only the Nile Osiris and the
sea Typhon, but they simply give the name of Osiris
to the whole source and faculty creative of moisture,1
believing this to be the cause of generation and the
substance of life-producing seed ; and the name of
Typhon they give to all that is dry, fiery, and arid,2
in general, and antagonistic to moisture. Therefore,
because they believe that he was personally of a
reddish sallow colour,3 they are not eager to meet
men of such complexion, nor do they like to associate
with them.
Osiris, on the other hand, according to their legendary tradition, was dark,4 because water darkens
everything, earth and clothes and clouds, when it
comes into contact with them.5 In young people the
presence of moisture renders their hair black, while
greyness, like a paleness as it were, is induced by
[p. 83]
dryness in those who are passing their prime.6 Also
the spring-time is vigorous, prolific, and agreeable ;
but the autumn, since it lacks moisture, is inimical to
plants and unhealthful for living creatures.
The bull kept at Heliopolis which they call Mneuis,7
and which is sacred to Osiris (some hold it to be the
sire of Apis), is black and has honours second only to
Apis. Egypt, moreover, which has the blackest of
soils,8 they call by the same name as the black portion
of the eye, ‘Chemia,’ and compare it to a heart9; for
it is warm and moist and is enclosed by the southern
portions of the inhabited world and adjoins them, like
the heart in a man's left side.
1 Cf. 365 b, infra.
2 Cf. 369 a and 376 f, infra.
3 Cf. 359 e and 363 b, supra.
4 Cf. 359 e, supra.
5 Cf. Moralia, 950 a.
6 Cf. Aristotle, De Generatione Animalium, v. 1 (780 b 6).
7 Cf. Diodorus, i. 21; Eusebius, Praepar. Evang. iii. 13. 1-3; Strabo, xvii. 1. 22; Aelian, De Natura Animalium, xi. 11.
8 Cf. Herodotus, ii. 12.
9 Horapollo, Hieroglyphica, i. 22.