For there is no reason we should attend to the writings of the Phrygians, which say that one Charopos was
daughter to Hercules, and that Typhon was son to Isaeacus, son of Hercules; no more than we have not to contemn Phylarchus, when he writes that Bacchus first brought
two bullocks out of India into Egypt, and that the name
of the one was Apis, and the other Osiris; but that Serapis
is the name of him who orders the universe, from σαίρειν,
which some use for beautifying and setting forth. For
these sentiments of Phylarchus's are very foolish and absurd; but theirs are much more so who affirm Serapis to
[p. 90]
be no God at all, but only the name of the chest in which
Apis lies; and that there are at Memphis certain great
gates of copper, called the gates of oblivion and lamentation, which, being opened when they bury the Apis, make
a doleful and hideous noise; which (say they) is the reason
that, when we hear any sort of copper instrument sounding, we are presently startled and seized with fear. But
they judge more discreetly who suppose his name to be
derived from σεύεσθαι or σοῦσθαι (which signifies to be borne
along) and so make it to mean, that the motion of the
universe is hurried and borne along violently. But the
greatest part of the priests do say that Osiris and Apis are
both of them but one complex being, while they tell us in
their sacred commentaries and sermons that we are to look
upon the Apis as the beautiful image of the soul of Osiris.
I, for my part, do believe that, if the name of Serapis be
Egyptian, it may not improperly denote joy and merriment, because I find the Egyptians term the festival which
we call merry-making in their language sairei. Besides, I
find Plato to be of opinion, that Pluto is called Hades
because he is the son of Αἰδώ (which is Modesty) and because he is a gentle God to such as are conversant with
him. And as among the Egyptians there are a great many
other names that are also definitions of the things they
express, so they call that place whither they believe men's
souls to go after death, Amenthes, which signifies in their
language the receiver and the giver. But whether this be
one of those names that have been anciently brought over
and transplanted out of Greece into Egypt, we shall consider some other time; but at present we must hasten to
despatch the remaining parts of the opinion here handled.
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