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

To put the matter briefly, it is not right to believe that water or the sun or the earth or the sky is Osiris or Isis¹; or again that fire or drought or the sea is Typhon, but simply if we attribute to Typhon² whatever there is in these that is immoderate and disordered by reason of excesses or defects ; and if we revere and honour what is orderly and good and beneficial as the work of Isis and as the image and reflection and reason of Osiris, we shall not be wrrong. Moreover, we shall put a stop to the incredulity of Eudoxus³ and his questionings how it is that Demeter has no share in the supervision of love affairs, but Isis has ; and the fact that Dionysus cannot cause the Nile to rise, nor rule over the dead. For by one general process of reasoning do we come to the conclusion that these gods have been assigned to preside over every portion of what is good ; and whatever there is in nature that is fair and [p. 153] good exists entirely because of them, inasmuch as Osiris contributes the origins, and Isis receives them and distributes them.