Chapter 43 (part 38)

{Greek Mo'non de` tw^n merw^u tou^ O?si'ridos th`n I?^sin ou`x e`urei^n to` ai?doi^n e`uðu`s ga`r ei's to`n potamo`n r!ifh^nai kai` geu'sasðai to'n te lepidwto`n au`tou^ kai` to`n fa'gron kai` to`n o?ksu'rugxon. k.t.l. }. By the festival celebrated by the Egyptians in honour of the model of the lost member of Osiris, we are probably to understand the public performance of the ceremony of "setting up the Tet in Tattu", which we know took place on the last day of the month Choiak; see Loret, Les Fêtes d'Osiris au mois de Khoiak ( Recueil de Travaux , t. iv., p. 32, § 87); Plutarch, De Iside , § xviii. 3. An account of the battle is also given in the IVth Sallier papyrus, wherein we are told that it took place on the 26th day of the month Thoth. Horus and Set fought in the form of two men, but they afterwards changed themselves into two bears, and they passed three days and three nights in this form. Victory inclined now to one side, and now to the other, and the heart of Isis suffered bitterly. When Horus saw that she loosed the fetters which he had laid upon Set, he became like a "raging panther of the south with fury," and she fled before him; but he pursued her, and cut off her head, which Thoth transformed by his words of magical power and set upon her body again in the form of that of a cow. In the calendars the 26th day of Thoth was marked triply deadly. See Chabas, Le Calendrier , p. 28 ff.] {p. lii} the deceased; in a word, the deceased is identified with Osiris. If Osiris liveth for ever, the deceased will live for ever; if Osiris dieth, then will the deceased perish.[1] [1. The origin of Plutarch's story of the death of Osiris, and the Egyptian conception of his nature and attributes, may be gathered from the following very remarkable hymn. (The text is given by Ledrain, Les Monuments Égyptiens de la Bibliothèque Nationale , Paris, 1879, pll. xxi-xxvii. A French translation of it was published, with notes, by Chabas, in Revue Archéologique , Paris, 1857, t. xiv., p. 65 ff.; and an English version was given in Records of the Past , 1st series, vol. iv., p. 99 ff. The stele upon which it is found belongs to the early part of the XVIIIth dynasty, by which is meant the period before the reign of Amenophis IV.; this is proved by the fact that the name of the god Amen has been cut out of it, an act of vandalism which can only have been perpetrated in the fanatical reign of Amenophis IV.): Hymn to Osiris.