Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride
Frank Cole Babbitt, Ed.

Isis is, in fact, the female principle of Nature, and is receptive of every form of generation, in accord with which she is called by Plato¹ the gentle nurse and the all-receptive, and by most people has been called by countless names, since, because of the force of Reason, she turns herself to this thing or that and is receptive of all manner of shapes and forms. She has an innate love for the first and most dominant of all things, which is identical with the good, and this she yearns for and pursues ; but the portion which comes from evil she tries to avoid and to reject, for she serves [p. 131] them both as a place and means of growth, but inclines always towards the better and offers to it opportunity to create from her and to impregnate her with effluxes and likenesses in which she rejoices and is glad that she is made pregnant and teeming with these creations. For creation is the image of being in matter, and the thing created is a picture of reality.