Osiris has a name made up from ‘holy’ (hosion)
and ‘sacred’ (kieron)1; for he is the combined relation of the things in the heavens and in the lower
world, the former of which it was customary for
people of olden time to call sacred and the latter to
call holy. But the relation which discloses the things
in the heavens and belongs to the things which tend
upward is sometimes named Anubis and sometimes
Hermanubis2 as belonging in part to the things above
and in part to the things below.3 For this reason
they sacrifice to him on the one hand a white cock
and on the other hand one of saffron colour, regarding
the former things as simple and clear, and the others
as combined and variable.
There is no occasion to be surprised at the revamping of these words into Greek.4 The fact is that
countless other words went forth in company with
those who migrated from Greece, and persist even to
this day as strangers in strange lands; and, when the
poetic art would recall some of these into use, those
who speak of such words as strange or unusual falsely
accuse it of using barbarisms. Moreover, they record
that in the so-called books of Hermes it is written in
regard to the sacred names that they call the power
which is assigned to direct the revolution of the Sun
Horus, but the Greeks call it Apollo ; and the power
assigned to the wind some call Osiris and others
[p. 147]
Serapis, and Sothis in Egyptian signifies ‘pregnancy’ (caesis) or ‘to be pregnant’ (cyein) : therefore in Greek, with a change of accent,5 the star is
called the Dog-star (Cyon), which they regard as the
special star of Isis.6 Least of all is there any need
of being very eager in learning about these names.
However, I would rather make a concession to the
Egyptians in regard to Serapis than in regard to
Osiris ; for I regard Serapis as foreign, but Osiris as
Greek, and both as belonging to one god and one
power.