Isis and Osiris X: A Brief Note Concerning Oceanus and Tethys

[sdi]

Plutarch says (Isis and Osiris XXXIV),

[The wiser of the Egyptian priests] think also that Homer,​ like Thales, had gained his knowledge from the Egyptians, when he postulated water as the source and origin of all things; for, according to them, Oceanus is Osiris, and Tethys is Isis, since she is the kindly nurse and provider for all things.

This is apparently referring to the "Deception of Zeus" in the Iliad, where Hera spins an excuse to get Aphrodite's help in seducing Zeus:

εἶμι γὰρ ὀψομένη πολυφόρβου πείρατα γαίης,
Ὠκεανόν τε θεῶν γένεσιν καὶ μητέρα Τηθύν,
οἵ μ' ἐν σφοῖσι δόμοισιν ἐῢ τρέφον ἠδ' ἀτίταλλον
δεξάμενοι Ῥείας, ὅτε τε Κρόνον εὐρύοπα Ζεὺς
γαίης νέρθε καθεῖσε καὶ ἀτρυγέτοιο θαλάσσης:
τοὺς εἶμ' ὀψομένη, καί σφ' ἄκριτα νείκεα λύσω:
ἤδη γὰρ δηρὸν χρόνον ἀλλήλων ἀπέχονται
εὐνῆς καὶ φιλότητος, ἐπεὶ χόλος ἔμπεσε θυμῷ.

"For I am going to visit the limits of the bountiful Earth,
and Oceanus, father of the gods, and mother Tethys,
who reared me well and nourished me in their halls,
having taken me from Rhea, when far-seeing Zeus
imprisoned Cronus beneath the earth and the barren sea.
Them am I going to visit, and their endless strife will I loose,
for already this long time they hold apart from each other,
apart from love and the marriage bed, since wrath hath settled in their hearts."

(Hera speaking. Homer, Iliad XIV 200–217, as translated by Andrew Lang, with minor edits by yours truly.)

Osiris and Isis are not, to my knowledge, ever described as discordant. (Quite the opposite, in fact.) As Oceanus and Tethys are described as the parents of the gods and elsewhere as the "source of all," and since Oceanus seems an obvious reference to the heavens, I wonder if these are parallel forms of Uranus and Gaia, therefore equivalent to the Egyptian Shu and Tefnut. We have record of myths in which Shu and Tefnut fight, and—while I remind you that I am not a linguist—Tethys seems like it could be a plausible transliteration of Tefnut.

So it's another point possibly in favor that Egyptian mythology was current in various forms in the early literature of ancient Greece, and that Plutarch didn't actually know a whole lot about what Egyptian priests may or may not have thought, but not much more than that, I don't think.

Comments

[boccaderlupo]

Funny, I have queued up in my reading an essay, "The Temple of Isis in the Campus Martius in Rome," which I believe deals in part with the manifestation of the Isis cult in the ancient world. Will have to revisit your series on this when I'm through.

At any rate, hope your process of meditating on them has been fruitful, and all the best to you in the new year.

Axé!

[sdi]

Blessings to you in the new year as well, dear Wolf!