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And they say that Osiris, when he was king of
Egypt, drew them off from a beggarly and bestial way of
living, by showing them the use of grain, and by making
them laws, and teaching them to honor the Gods; and that
afterwards he travelled all the world over, and made it
civil, having but little need of arms, for he drew the most
to him, alluring them by persuasion and oratory, intermixed
with all sorts of poetry and music; whence it is that the
Greeks look upon him as the very same with Bacchus.
They further add that Typhon, while he was from home,
[p. 76]
attempted nothing against him; for Isis was very watchful,
and guarded him closely from harm. But when he came
home, he formed a plot against him, taking seventy-two
men for accomplices of his conspiracy, and being also
abetted by a certain Queen of Ethiopia, whose name they
say was Aso. Having therefore privately taken the measure of Osiris's body, and framed a curious ark, very finely
beautified and just of the size of his body, he brought it
to a certain banquet. And as all were wonderfully delighted with so rare a sight and admired it greatly, Typhon in
a sporting manner promised that whichsoever of the company should by lying in it find it to be of the size of his
body, should have it for a present. And as every one of
them was forward to try, and none fitted it, Osiris at last got
into it himself, and lay along in it; whereupon they that
were there present immediately ran to it, and clapped down
the cover upon it, and when they had fastened it down
with nails, and soldered it with melted lead, they carried it
forth to the river side, and let it swim into the sea at the
Tanaitic mouth, which the Egyptians therefore to this day
detest, and abominate the very naming of it. These things
happened (as they say) upon the seventeenth of the month
Athyr, when the sun enters into the Scorpion, and that
was upon the eight and twentieth year of the reign of
Osiris. But there are some that say that was the time of
his life, and not of his reign.
Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals. Translated from the Greek by several hands. Corrected and revised by. William W. Goodwin, PH. D. Boston. Little, Brown, and Company. Cambridge. Press Of John Wilson and son. 1874. 4.
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