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But where Typhon
forces his way in and seizes upon the outermost areas,
there we may conceive of her as seeming sad, and
spoken of as mourning, and that she seeks for the
remains and scattered members of Osiris and arrays
them, receiving and hiding away the things perishable, from which she brings to light again the things
that are created and sends them forth from herself.
The relations and forms and effluxes of the God
abide in the heavens and in the stars ; but those things
that are distributed in susceptible elements, earth
and sea and plants and animals, suffer dissolution and
destruction and burial, and oftentimes again shine
forth and appear again in their generations. For this
reason the fable has it that Typhon cohabits with
Nephthys1 and that Osiris has secret relations with
her2; for the destructive power exercises special
dominion over the outermost part of matter which
they call Nephthys or Finality.3 But the creating
[p. 143]
and conserving power distributes to this only a weak
and feeble seed, which is destroyed by Typhon,
except so much as Isis takes up and preserves and
fosters and makes firm and strong.4
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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