sdi

A man decays
His corpse is dust
His family dies
But his books live on

(Chester Beatty Papyrus IV, as translated by Susan Brind Morrow.)

The tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.
The unnamable is the eternally real.
Naming is the origin
of all particular things.

(Laozi, Tao Te Ching I, as translated by Stephen Mitchell.)

Its definition, in fact, could be only "the indefinable": what is not a thing is not some definite thing. We are in agony for a true expression; we are talking of the untellable; we name, only to indicate for our own use as best we may. And this name, The One, contains really no more than the negation of plurality: under the same pressure the Pythagoreans found their indication in the symbol "Apollo" [a=not, pollon=of many] with its repudiation of the multiple. If we are led to think positively of The One, name and thing, there would be more truth in silence: the designation, a mere aid to enquiry, was never intended for more than a preliminary affirmation of absolute simplicity to be followed by the rejection of even that statement: it was the best that offered, but remains inadequate to express the Nature indicated. For this is a principle not to be conveyed by any sound; it cannot be known on any hearing but, if at all, by vision; and to hope in that vision to see a form is to fail of even that.

(Plotinos, Enneads V v "On the Nature of the Good" §6.)

Gutei raised his finger whenever he was asked a question about Zen. A boy attendant began to imitate him in this way. When anyone asked the boy what his master had preached about, the boy would raise his finger. Gutei heard about the boy's mischief. He seized him and cut off his finger. The boy cried and ran away. Gutei called and stopped him. When the boy turned his head to Gutei, Gutei raised up his own finger. In that instant the boy was enlightened.

(Wumen Huikai, The Gateless Gate, as translated by Nyogen Senzaki and Paul Reps.)

To write something and leave it behind us,
It is but a dream.
When we awake we know
There is not even anyone to read it.

(Ikkyu.)

I have never understood Memory. Why should one wish to remember or be remembered? The earth is not a place of Memory, it is a place of Forgetting, and it is by Forgetting we become unearthly. Isn't it?

And yet the "Orphic" tradition highly prizes Memory: Hesiod was initiated by her daughters; Homer urges the initiate to remember everything; Pythagoras's prior incarnation, Aithalides, so prized Memory that it was the one gift he asked of Hermes (Apollonios Rhodios, Argonautica 640 ff.; Diogenes Laertios, The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers VIII iv); the Delphic god says "Know Thyself;" the Orphics and Platonists emphasize drinking from her pool rather than the stream of Forgetting; the Orphic Hymn to Memory goes so far as to say that it is wicked to forget. But Memory is a thing of the world below: God has no Memory, it simply Is; even Souls have no Memory, they merely survey the entire sweep of their great Life as attention requires.

Memory is, perhaps, simply a paradox. There is nothing that can be said, and yet where would I be if they didn't try?

εἰπεῖν· Γῆς παῖς εἰμι καὶ Οὐρανοῦ ἀστερόεντος,
αὐτὰρ ἐμοὶ γένος Οὐράνιον· τόδε δ’ ἴστε καὶ αὐτοί.
δίψηι δ’ εἰμὶ αὔη καὶ ἀπόλλυμαι. ἀλλὰ δότ’ αἶψα
ψυχρὸν ὕδωρ προρέον τῆς Μνημοσύνης ἀπὸ λίμνης.
To say: "I am a child of Earth and starry Heaven,
but my race is of Heaven—even you yourselves know this—
and I am parched with thirst and dying; so, quick, please give me
the cool water flowing forth from the pool of Memory."
(The Petelia Tablet, ll. 6–9a. Note that "dying," apollumai, is a pun with Apollon.)

The Orphics used to tie little gold leaves inscribed with instructions around the necks of deceased initiates, that they might avoid reincarnation. When the recently deceased came to the guardians of Haides, they would be asked, "Who are you?" and they were to answer, "I am a child of Earth and starry Heaven, but my race is of Heaven." This was called to mind today, and it reminded me, of course, of Horos (see here, item 9)—when brought to judgement (e.g. after death), the gods held him, though born of both fiery Osiris and earthy Isis, to be of the race of his father and thus worthy of his throne.

That the Orphics, who are thought to be Pythagorean, got their doctrines from Egypt is no surprise; but there's something else: that first line from the tablet is taken, nearly word-for-word, from old Hesiod:

χαίρετε τέκνα Διός, δότε δ᾽ ἱμερόεσσαν ἀοιδήν·
κλείετε δ᾽ ἀθανάτων ἱερὸν γένος αἰὲν ἐόντων,
οἳ Γῆς τ᾽ ἐξεγένοντο καὶ Οὐρανοῦ ἀστερόεντος,
Νυκτός τε δνοφερῆς, οὕς θ᾽ ἁλμυρὸς ἔτρεφε Πόντος.
Greetings, children of Zeus, and grant me a delightful song:
glorify the sacred race of the immortals who always are,
who were born from Earth and starry Heaven,
and from dark Night, and those who were nourished by salty Sea.
(Hesiod, Theogony 104–7, emphasis mine.)

But wait a second, Hesiod lists not only the parents of the immortals, but their nurses, too. But is this not just what Empedokles said?

τέσσαρα γὰρ πάντων ῥιζώματα πρῶτον ἄκουε·
Ζεὺς ἀργὴς Ἥρη τε φερέσβιος ἠδ' Ἀιδωνεύς,
Νῆστις θ' ἣ δακρύοις τέγγει κρούνωμα βρότειον. [...]
ἐκ τῶν πάνθ' ὅσα τ' ἦν ὅσα τ' ἔστι καὶ ἔσται ὀπίσσω,
δέδρεά τ' ὲβλάστησε καὶ ἀνέρες ἠδὲ γυναῖκες,
θῆρές τ' οἰωνοί τε καὶ ὑδατοθρέμμονες ἰχθῦς,
καί τε θεοὶ δολιχαίωνες τιμῇσι φέριστοι.
First, hear of the four roots of all things:
shining Zeus and life-giving Hera and Aidoneus
and Nestis, who wets the springs of mortals with her tears. [...]
From these all things were and are and will be:
sprouting trees and men and women,
beasts and birds and water-dwelling fish,
even long-living, most-exalted gods.

That Earth is Isis and Heaven is Osiris is an easy association to make: Ouranos even lost his penis in the sea (ll. 176 ff.), just like Osiris lost his in the Nile. Even though Hesiod associates Night with Watery things later on (like Death and Sleep and Dreams, ll. 211 ff.), I think those might be due to reconciliation of the source teaching—after all, Hesiod was the great systematizer of all the wild panoply of Greek theology (thus probably mixing the pure teachings from several sources), and anyway we are unable to see at Night meanwhile Haides means "unseen" (both references to how Airy beings are without form). And Sea is obviously Watery (like Nestis), here described as a nurse (like Nephthus and Nestis both), and of course the father of the Old Man of the Sea and all other shapeshifters (as Watery beings have fluid form rather than the fixed form of Earthy beings).

I had speculated before that Hesiod's "races of men" came from the same source as Empedokles's "roots;" after seeing this, I now think the case is even stronger that Hesiod's Muses were Egyptian. I even begin to wonder if the laurel staff they gave him was, in fact, a was-scepter, the symbol of authority:

𓌀

Well, shit. I think I finally figured it out.

It's well-known that the myth of Perseus is illustrated in the night sky:

There's Perseus holding Medousa's head (the demon star Algol from Arabic ra's al-ghul "head of the ogre"), rushing to save Andromeda, chained to a rock, from the sea monster Ketus (the ecliptic nicely acting as the surface of the sea), while Kepheus and Kassiopeia look on.

This is often said to be the only complete mytheme still illustrated in the constellations as we know them today, but I just realized that this is mistaken: there's another one, right next to it:

Nut is the sky. Geb is the earth, and his penis is the axis the earth turns around. Their children are the constellations, and Ra prevents her from giving birth because the Sun hides the constellations from view: we can only see them at night. Osiris is the one we call Orion, the great man in the sky, and the shape of Orion is, I presume, the reason why the Egyptians drew figures in their peculiar profile. The Nile is the Milky Way, of course, and there we see Isis in her boat, which we call by its Greek name, the Argo, still sailing the Nile searching for her husband. Osiris's penis is highlighted in the myth because it's the most notable feature of his constellation, though we call it Orion's sword. (Perhaps this is a euphemism, though; in Greek, the word for sword, ἄορ, literally means "hanging thing.") Next to Osiris, we see the Apis bull, though we call it by its Latin name, Taurus. The children of the constellations are, of course, the stars: Horos is Sirius, the brightest star of heaven, literally following in his father's footsteps; while Anoubis is Canopus, the second-brightest, attending to Isis in her boat.

Thus the theogony, as I said, is exoteric because everyone can look up at the sky and see the constellations; but the Mysteries are esoteric because only the initiated can look up at the sky and understand what the constellations mean.

Wepwawet is onomatopoeia for the wild dog's cry, the well-known coyote's cry at the rising of the moon. But in keeping with the tendency of hieroglyphs to contain layes of deeper meaning, this word is not simply a name. It is a verbal phrase. The hieroglyphic name (𓄋𓈐𓈐𓈐) is spelled with a pair of horns, wp (to open), followed by wat (path) in the plural, wawat: three pictures of the sign for path. Hence the action is implicit in the thing, the verb is hidden in the noun: the dog, conjured by the sound of its name, does something—it is the opener of paths. The dog embodies a primary Egyptian concept, what we have come to call evil. The wild dog is a very dangerous animal. Yet the dog has a dual nature. It is its own twin: it is wild but can be tamed. Hence, the wild dog is not a bad thing; it is, after all, a dog, the ultimate tracker, the animal that finds the path. The dog appears in the text as a gradual elaboration of this idea. It appears as Anubis (𓃢), the wild dog tamed, ears back, tail down, black like the night, where it shows you how to find the way. Next the dog appears as Set (𓃩), with ears up and raised tail forked like lightning, ready to kill. Set is the universal embodiment of the wilderness, the wolf. This form of the dog means danger. [...] The dog embodies the purest love and the greatest danger, the mystery of good and bad in one.

(Susan Brind Morrow, The Dawning Moon of the Mind I ii.)

This links up to my thought that Anoubis is karma: a dog can be wild, which hungrily chases one and tears them to pieces (cf. Aktaion), or it can be tamed, devotedly following one and supporting them (cf. Anoubis weighing the heart).

It is also a support of my theory that Plotinos is a wepwawet (woof woof)...

There is a lot of overlap between the Mysteries and the Epic Cycle:

#	Epic Cycle	Horos	Orestes
1	Kupria	Seth holds a feast.	The wedding of Peleus and Thetis.
2	Kupria	Seth kills Osiris, seals him in a box, and drops the box in the Nile.	The judgement of Paris.
3	Kupria	The box lands at Bublos. A heather stalk grows around the box. Malkander takes the heather stalk into his house.	The rape of Helene.
4	Kupria	Isis wanders. Nephthus exposes Anoubis. Isis finds Anoubis and takes him as her attendant.	Gathering of the armies. Agamemnon sacrifices Iphegenia, but Artemis replaces her with a deer, makes her immortal, and takes her as her attendant.
5		Isis tracks Osiris to Bublos, sits by a spring, and weeps. Astarte invites her into her house.	[cf. 10]
6	Kupria	Isis kills Astarte's youngest son.	Failed first war on Troia. Troilos dies.
7	Ilias	Isis takes Diktus as her attendant.	Akhilleus commits to dying at Troia.
8		Isis recovers Osiris.	[cf. 11]
9	Aithopis	Isis kills Diktus for his curiosity.	Paris kills Akhilleus.
10	Ilias Mikra	[cf. 5]	Troian horse.
11	Iliou Persis	[cf. 8]	Troia sacked. Menelaus recovers Helene.
12	Nostoi	Isis returns to Egypt. Seth divides Osiris into fourteen pieces. A fish eats the penis. Isis recovers the pieces and reassembles Osiris.	The Akhaians are scattered but eventually return home, except Aias (who dies at sea), Menelaus and Odusseus (who are lost at sea), and Agamemnon (who is assassinated by Aigisthos and Klutaimnestra).
13	Odusseia	Isis draws Osiris's essence from his corpse and gives birth to Horos. When Horos grows up, Osiris trains him from Duat. Horos beheads Isis, is judged by the gods, defeats Seth, and becomes king.	Orestes flees into exile. When Orestes grows up, the Puthia tells him to avenge his father. Orestes kills Aigisthos and Klutaimnestra, is chased by the Erinues, is judged by Athena, and becomes king.

(I have omitted the Telegoneia as it concerns Odusseus and not Orestes, who is a different hero.)

If my associations are correct, then Osiris=Helene, Isis=the Akhaian host (e.g. those oathbound to Menelaus, notably not including Akhilleus who was too young to woo Helene), Seth=Eris, Anoubis=Iphegenia, Bublos=Troia, Astarte's unnamed son=Troilos (and the first Troian war generally), Diktus=Akhilleus (and the second Troian war generally), Horos=Orestes, Osiris as a jackal=the Puthia, Seth as a red bull=Aigisthos, the council of gods=the Athenian jury.

The only difficulty, really, is that it is Osiris that is divided up upon his return to Egypt and not Isis, whereas it is the Akhaians who are divided up on their return to Akhaia (and not Helene). This is a really significant symbolic difference and is necessary for the two narratives to work. From the pattern in the myth, Agamemnon should presumably have to be Osiris's penis, which I guess shouldn't be too surprising, since anybody who's read the Iliad can tell you he's a dick.

Despite that problem, though, the stories are so close there must be something to it. I still don't have a convincing thesis for what's going on here; I'm presently wondering if the version of the Horos-myth we have is, in fact, late and Syrian (presumably the oldest versions of the Horos-myth don't involve Bublos)—in which case it could have been influenced from both sides of the Mediterranean. I'm going to need to go over the Pyramid Texts with more care, I think...

Βασιλεύς. τὸ πάνσοφον νῦν ὄνομα τοῦτό μοι φράσον.

King Pelasgos. Now, tell me his masterly-devised name.

(Aiskhulos, Suppliant Maidens 320, as translated by yours truly.)

ὣς ἄρα οἱ εἰπόντι ἐπέπτατο δεξιὸς ὄρνις,
κίρκος, Ἀπόλλωνος ταχὺς ἄγγελος: ἐν δὲ πόδεσσι
τίλλε πέλειαν ἔχων, κατὰ δὲ πτερὰ χεῦεν ἔραζε
μεσσηγὺς νηός τε καὶ αὐτοῦ Τηλεμάχοιο.

As he was saying so a bird flew towards him on the right,
a falcon, the swift messenger of Apollon; and with its feet
it plucked a pigeon it was holding, and feathers fell to the ground
between Telemakhos and his ship.

(Homer, Odyssey XV 525–8, as translated by yours truly. Emphasis mine, too.)

I can't believe I didn't notice this before now! In Greek, κίρκος kirkos means "falcon" or "hawk," obviously as suited to Apollon as it is to Horos. But this is the same word as Κίρκη Kirke, daughter of the Sun and initiator of Odusseus.

I think I've found the mistake that I've been making: I've been mixing and matching my myths up! I have noted that the Horos-myth concerns growing up and gaining one's inheritance, while the Greek myths concern exile-and-return, but I'm starting to think that these are not two different takes on the same idea; rather, I think they're two different myths and I have been conflating them.

Let me start somewhere else and hopefully it'll become clear as we go. No less than Hesiod tells us that the Theban Wars and the Troian War are the two major events of the age of Heroes:

In the former, Europe was snatched away from Tyre to Crete, and her son Kadmos left Crete (simultaneously by choice and compulsion) to found Thebai, which was ruled by his descendents. Eventually, Thebai was besieged by the Seven, who failed (with six of the Seven dying), and the Epigone (their "offspring," including Diomedes and Eurualos), who successfully sacked the city ten years later, carrying Europe's magic necklace and robe and Manto away.
In the latter, Helene was snatched away from Argos to Troia (simultaneously by choice and compulsion) by Paris. The Danaans sent an envoy to Troia, and when that failed, they (including Diomedes and Eurualos) besieged it for ten years (during which many of their heroes died), eventually sacking the city and carrying Helene and Kassandra away.

Mythically speaking, though, these have the same meaning: the stories of both follow largely the same events, with the only meaningful difference between them being that individuals in the Troia myth are represented by bloodlines in the Thebai myth. We see a very similar story in the Theseus myth, too: the Athenian Youths are snatched away from Athens to the labyrinth (mostly unwillingly, though Theseus by choice). He enters the labyrinth, slays it's inhabitant, and carries the Athenian Youths and Ariadne away. (It is noteworthy that labyrinths are called "Troy-Towns" in England and Scandinavia to this day.)

These don't follow the pattern of the Horos myth, since Horos never leaves Egypt; instead, he avenges his father and claims his birthright. So if Horos represents one category of myth (the Hero-myth), I think the three above constitute a second one; let's call it the City-myth.

Now, I've been looking at a bunch of myths so far, and treating them all as following the Hero-myth model. But I think this is a miscategorization and causes problems (which is why I pulled my Hero Myth Rosetta Stone some weeks ago). The Perseus and Orestes myths clearly follow the Hero-myth model. The Odusseus myth does too, but only if we treat the Odyssey as self-contained, treating the Odusseus of the Iliad as a separate mythic character.

But Kore of the Persephone-myth isn't Horos, she's Europe! Just as Europe is beguiled by Zeus-as-a-bull and a crocus, Kore is beguiled by Hades (the "Khthonic Zeus") and a narcissus. Just as Helene is snatched away to the house of Paris, Kore is snatched away to the house of Hades. Here, though, the envoy from Olumpos (that is, Demeter and her attendants) manage to secure a truce rather than the house of Hades being destroyed. (That is, it covers the first half of the myth but not the last half.)

There's another City-myth I haven't discussed: the Aesir-Vanir War and Ragnarok. Here, Freyja goes (by choice?) to Asgard, the Vanir send an envoy, and the war ends in a truce with Freyja being held hostage by the Aesir. Then things settle for a long time before Asgard is eventually destroyed during Ragnarok (a second, separate war mostly involving the children of the first war, like with Thebai). Frustratingly, while there are tantalizing similarities (for example, Freyja has the Brisingamen and a magic cape, matching Europe's magic necklace and robe), what remains of the Asgard myth—or at least my understanding of it, from my light studies so far!—seems fragmentary...

Now, while I think these are separate myths, there is an interesting way these fit together. The first half of the Hero-myth (that is, concerning Osiris, Danae, etc.) matches the City-myth: beautiful and wonderful Osiris being Europe, Helene, the Athenian Youths, Kore, Freyja, etc., but the second half of the Horos-myth has nothing to do with it. Now, Thebai, Troia, the labyrinth, Asgard, etc. are all obviously the material world in which we live. Horos is born of Isis (in the material world), so if we're looking for a Horos-equivalent in the City-myth, we're looking for someone on the "side" of the city (rather than an invader) and who avoids it's destruction (since Horus is not present for any city's destruction). (That is, even though Homer treats the Danaans as the protagonists of his tale, we should be wary of them, since we are the Troians!) There was exactly one Troian hero who survived the sack of Troia: Aineias, son of Ankhises and Aphrodite, most pious of the Troians, called "hero" by Apollon himself, and most beloved by the gods. I think he's our Horos, and the parallel is made explicit by Dionusos of Halicarnassos, who tells us that Aineias's father warns him before Troia falls, causing him to withdraw to Ida; this is the direct correspondence with Osiris coming to Horos from Hades, and is the point at which the Hero-myth diverges from the City-myth: with the City going on to its destruction while Horos goes on to do something else.

There's two things interesting about Aineias. First, I've always considered Virgil's Aenead to be a second-rate knock-off of the Odyssey, but if I'm right and Aineias is Horos, then this makes sense, since the Odusseus of the Odyssey is also Horos, and thus they ought to tell the same myth. Second, I had been assuming that Baldr was the Germanic equivalent of Apollon or Horos, but Snorri Sturluson identifies Aineias as Víðarr, slayer of Fenrir and one of the only Aesir to survive Ragnarok, and who goes on to found a new city. Thus, presumably Víðarr is also Horos; and if (as Ploutarkhos says) that Seth is to be identified with the eclipse, then Fenrir (who gobbles up the Sun) is presumably Seth (or, more likely, one of his avatars, perhaps the red bull Horos fights).

In the same way, I assume Daidalos (successful) and Ikaros (cautionary) are the Horos-equivalents in the Theseus myth, literally taking on wings and leaving the labyrinth behind to its fate.

Please consider this a first-draft conjecture, there are many, many details that I have yet to chase down, but it resolves the discrepancies that caused me to need to rework my Hero Myth Rosetta Stone, which I will of course be working at as time permits.

It also carries with it the uncomfortable thought that Troia has not yet fallen: the material world is still here, the old gods are not yet dead. Hesiod is unclear on the end of the Heroic age and the beginning of the Iron age—they seem to blend together—but on the basis of his descriptions of the end of the Iron age, the Voluspa's descriptions of the prelude to Ragnarok, and of course my own theories that the old ways remain open (but probably not for much longer), the sack of Troia presumably comes soon. I urge to you to keep a weather eye out for Troian horses and to heed the warning of Laocoon which prompted Ankhises and Aineias to flee:

Timeō Danaōs et dōna ferentēs.
I fear the Danaans, even those bearing gifts.

Even after five millennia, people still paint Horos on walls.

I've been continuing to research and ponder the Horos-myth. Here's my current best-effort to reconstruct it from available sources, all cited below. No interpretations, today, though: this page is for those who wish to study or contemplate the myth for themselves.

Geb and Nut have intercourse. Ra curses Nut so that she cannot give birth on any day of the year. Thoth takes pity on Nut and takes a seventieth part of Iah's light and adds five intercalary days to the year so that Nut can give birth. On each of those days, Nut gives birth to Osiris, Horos (who was born to Osiris and Isis while still in the womb), Seth (who bursts from Nut's side rather than being born normally), Isis, and Nephthus. [Ploutarkhos, Isis and Osiris XII. See also the similar version given by Diodoros, Library of History I xiii.]
Osiris becomes king of Egypt and civilizes it, then he travels the world and civilizes it, too. While he is away, Seth constructs a beautifully-ornamented box sized to fit Osiris exactly. When Osiris returns, Seth invites Osiris, Queen Aso of Ethiopia, and seventy-two conspirators to a feast. Seth tricks Osiris into the box, seals the box shut, throws it into the Nile, and usurps the throne. Seth's conspirators steer the box to the sea by way of Tanis. [Ploutarkhos, Isis and Osiris XIII. See also the detailed account of Osiris civilizing the world given by Diodoros, Library of History I xiv–xxi.]
Pan and the satyrs learn of Osiris's death and tell Isis. Isis grieves, cuts a lock of her hair, puts on mourning garments, and wanders in search of him. Isis meets some children, who tell her where Osiris's box entered the sea. Isis meets Nephthus and learns that she had a son by Osiris, named Anoubis, but exposed him in fear of Seth. Isis finds Anoubis and raises him to be her attendant. [Ploutarkhos, Isis and Osiris XIV. For another, sparser, account of Anoubis, see Diodoros, Library of History I lxxxvii.]
The box comes to land in a patch of heather near Bublos. The heather grows to an exceptional size, enclosing the box within its stalk. King Malkander of Bublos is so impressed by the stalk that he cuts it down for a pillar in his house. Isis comes to Bublos, sits by a spring, weeps, and speaks to nobody. The maids of Malkander's wife, Astarte, come by the spring. Isis plaits their hair and perfumes them. When the maids return, Astarte sees them beautifully made up and sends for Isis. Astarte makes Isis nurse of her son, Diktus. Isis nurses him with her finger rather than her breast, and puts him in a fire at night to burn away his mortal part. Meanwhile, she transforms into a swallow and flies around the pillar bewailing Osiris. Astarte becomes suspicious, spies Diktus burning, and cries out, which deprives Diktus of immortality. Isis explains herself and asks for the pillar. Astarte consents. Isis cuts the box out of the pillar, wraps the pillar in linen, perfumes it, entrusts it to the royal family as a relic, and laments her husband so profoundly that Astarte's (unnamed) younger son dies. Isis takes the box and Diktus and sails from Bublos. The Phaidros river delays the journey. Isis dries it up in spite. When she is alone, Isis opens the box and grieves over Osiris. Diktus, curious, peeks into the box. Isis, enraged, gives him such an awful look that he dies of fright. [Ploutarkhos, Isis and Osiris XV–XVII.]
Isis returns to Egypt by Buto and hides the box. Seth finds the box, divides Osiris into fourteen pieces, and scatters them across Egypt. A fish eats the penis. Isis searches the Nile in a papyrus boat; recovers the remaining pieces of Osiris; makes a replacement penis; reassembles him; and, using sorcery, has a son by dead Osiris, named Horos. She then institutes temples in the places where she found each part. [Ploutarkhos, Isis and Osiris XVIII. See also the very different version given by Diodoros, Library of History I xxi–xxii.]
Isis and Horos go into hiding from Seth. Later, Isis goes out to beg for food. A rich woman refuses to help Isis, while a poor woman gives her food. Seven scorpions who were following Isis sting the rich woman's son, who lies dying. Isis uses sorcery to neutralize the poison, and the rich woman apologizes for refusing Isis and gives her many gifts. Meanwhile, Seth sends a scorpion to their hiding place to sting Horos. The gods notify Isis. Isis races to Horos, but he dies before she arrives. Isis grieves. Nephthus and Serket advise Isis to pray to heaven. She does so. Thoth appears, comforts Isis by saying that heaven's protection of Horos is absolute, uses sorcery to resurrect him, and promises Isis that he will advocate for Horos when needed. [The Metternich Stela.]
When Horos grows up, Osiris comes to him from Duat in the form of a jackal to encourage him to fight and train him. Osiris tests Horos by asking what he believes is best. Horos answers, "to avenge one's parents for wrongdoing!" Osiris then asks what animal is most useful to a soldier. Horos answers, "a horse." Osiris is surprised by this and asks why he wouldn't prefer a lion to a horse. Horos answers, "A lion would be better in a pinch, but without a horse, how could you overtake and cut down a fleeing enemy?" Osiris believes that Horos is ready and rejoices. Seth's concubine, Thoueris, defects to Horos. A serpent chases her. Horos's men slay it. [Ploutarkhos, Isis and Osiris XIX. That Osiris visits in the form of a jackal, see Diodoros, Library of History I lxxxviii; J. Gwyn Griffiths, The Conflict of Horus and Seth IV ii.]
Horos and Seth engage in battle. Seth turns into a red bull and gouges out Horos's eye. Horos cuts off Seth's testicles. After many days, Horos defeats Seth, takes him prisoner, and delivers him to Isis. Isis releases Seth instead of executing him. Horos, enraged, beheads Isis and takes the crown for himself. Thoth replaces Isis's head with a cow's. [Ploutarkhos, Isis and Osiris XIX. That Seth turns into a red bull, see the Pyramid Texts 418a, 679d, 1543a–1550a, 1977b; Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde XLVIII p. 72. That Horos loses his eye, that Seth loses his testicles, and that they are restored after the trial, see the Pyramid Texts 36a, 39a, 65b, 95c, 418a, 535a–b, 578d, 591b, 594a, 595a–596c, 679d, 946a–c, 1614b. That Isis was beheaded, see Ploutarkhos, Isis and Osiris XX; the Papyrus Sallier IV.]
Seth takes Horos to court over the legitimacy of his birth (and, consequently, of his claim to the throne). Thoth argues persuasively in favor of Horos. The gods find Horos to be the legitimate son of Osiris but not of Isis, stripping Horos of his mother's part (his flesh) but leaving him his father's part (his bones). They force Horos and Seth to restore each other's missing parts and divide Egypt between them, making Horos king of Lower Egypt and Seth king of Upper Egypt. Horos defeats Seth in battle a second time. [Ploutarkhos, Isis and Osiris XIX. That Horos is stripped of his outer part after the trial, see the Papyrus Jumilhac; Ploutarkhos, Isis and Osiris XX; Ploutarkhos on Desire and Grief VI; Ploutarkhos on the Generation of the Soul in the Timaios XXVII. That Horos and Seth's missing parts are restored after the trial, see refs. to [8], above. That Horos is granted Lower Egypt after the trial, see the Shabaka Stone.]
Horos defeats Seth in battle a third time, becomes king of Upper Egypt (and, consequently, unifying it), and reconciles with Seth. [Ploutarkhos, Isis and Osiris XIX. That Horos becomes king of all Egypt, see the Turin King List; the Shabaka Stone; Herodotos, Histories II cxliv; Manetho, History of Egypt; Diodoros, Library of History I xxv; etc. That Horos and Seth reconcile, see the Pyramid Texts 390b, 678a–c, 801b–c, 971a–b, 975a–b, 1453b, 2100a–b; the Shabaka Stone; but see also the account where Seth was executed given by Diodoros, Library of History I xxi.]

Here are keys that I have found useful in case one is lost: Ra ("the Sun") is Love is the unifying force. Iah ("the Moon") is Strife is the separatory force. Nut ("the sky") is the state in which all is held together in Love. Thoth ("ibis-like") is Necessity (the need of the all to produce all). Geb ("the ground") is the state in which all is held apart in Strife. Osiris ("the seat of the eye") is Fire is universal consciousness. Horos ("falcon") is Light is individual consciousness (called "child" when embodied and "great" when unembodied). Seth ("to oppress" or "to subdue," cf. Ploutarkhos, Isis and Osiris XLI) is Air is the spiritual medium which transmits consciousness (separating it from universal to individual). Nephthus ("lady of the house") is Water is the material medium which transmits consciousness (distorting it from selfless to selfish). Isis ("the seat") is Earth is the material medium which receives consciousness. Anoubis ("prince") is cause-and-effect or karma (the consequences of the actions of selfish consciousness). Thoueris ("the great one") is desire. The serpent that chases Thoueris is the consequences of desire.

Plotinos has a line (at the end of Enneads IV ii §2, my translation) which has haunted me ever since I first read it:

ἔστιν οὖν ψυχὴ ἓν καὶ πολλὰ οὕτως· τὰ δὲ ἐν τοῖς σώμασιν εἴδη πολλὰ καὶ ἕν· τὰ δὲ σώματα πολλὰ μόνον· τὸ δ' ὑπέρτατον ἓν μόνον.
So then, soul is one and many in this way; the forms within bodies are many and one; bodies are only many; but the highest is only one.

He was speaking of his emanative principles, but I think it applies just as clearly to Empedocles's roots. Bear with me as I try to explain.

First, forget everything that modern science has taught us about atoms, molecules, gravity, planets, the solar system, etc. Try to think of the universe the way somebody might have three thousand years ago. At the "bottom" of everything is the Earth; above that, Water flows in rivers and lakes and the sea; above that, Air fills the void; and somewhere way above is Fire, the Sun. We think of each of these things as made of particles and such, but the ancients wouldn't have: the Sun is a single "thing;" Air isn't something that can be divided up, it's more of a space-filling continuum; Water can be divided but it can just as easily be joined back together and tends to act as a unit; Earth, however, once divided isn't easily put back together again. And so we see that Plotinos's distinction seems applicable: Fire is one thing only; Air is one thing but it occupies many places; Water is many things but acts as one thing; Earth is many things only.

Next, consider each of these with respect to light. Fire emits light; Air transmits light freely, without distortion; Water transmits light, but it distorts it with refractions and reflections; Earth, however, does not transmit light at all, and merely receives it.

Are you with me so far? I hope I'm making sense.

The magic trick is to equate light and consciousness. Fire is the image of God, who is the source of all consciousness: just as the Sun illuminates all, so too does God experience all (and, indeed, all experience is God's). Light travels freely through the Air in many directions, and this is the image of Heaven, where God's one consciousness pervades all angels, allowing for individualized consciousness but still acting as one; God sees and acts as one through many eyes; this consciousness is as yet unreflective and unselfconscious, but moves and moves rightly as God wills. Water, however, introduces distortions to light and may be physically separated; God's will can be turned to the individuals' wills, and beings may join together and act as one or separate and act individually as they choose. Earth, finally, does not transmit light, but only receives it; the body is a dead thing, unconscious, merely acting as a container for Water.

Because it only acts as a container, beings cannot have Earth-consciousness. Beings with Water-consciousness (whether possessing an Earthy body or not) have the two peculiar properties that they can be self-conscious, on the one hand, and may choose to align or not with God's purposes, on the other. Beings with Air-consciousness are not self-conscious or reflective (though this is not to say without unique characteristics), and convey only God's light to all, acting as one, naturally and without effort. And, of course, there is only one Fire-consciousness, and it simply is.

Thus we see our five gods: fiery Osiris simply is, innocent and pure; airy Seth is divisive only insofar as he is the medium for individual consciousness; earthy Isis and watery Nephthus are always working together, mother supporting and nurse nourishing; and bright Horos is the light which shines from Osiris through and onto all.

Thus we also see our three worlds: fire, air, and our muddy Tartaros. If you wish to leave Tartaros, it isn't enough to leave the body behind: you must clear your water so as to transmit light as clearly and as naturally as possible, with as little need of self-conscious reflection as possible (though I think it takes lots of self-conscious reflection to get to that point). Is this way you diminish the individual will and allow God's will to operate through you. One can do that with or without a body, and so the body becomes vestigial, allowing one to join the angels. Plotinos says (Enneads III v §2) that there is no marriage in heaven, but this seems to me to have the emphasis backwards: there, all things are joined together.

Many years ago, while I was studying Zen, I misquoted Ruth Fuller Sasaki in my diary: "Only when one has no things in their mind and no mind in their things are they unearthly, empty, and marvelous." (I didn't write down the source or the original quote, alas.) But the misquote has stuck with me and I feel like I'm finally beginning to understand it.

(welp my blog has gone from R-rated to X-rated if it hasn't already, sorry)

Something's been bothering me about the Horos myth.

In the Persephone myth, we see that the individual soul lives a blissful existence in Nusa until she "sins" by being tempted by the beautiful narcissus and is forced to live a half-life thereafter; in Hesiod, daimons live on Olumpos until they perjure their oaths to the Stux, being forced into a temporary exile for doing so; in Plotinus, individual souls are eternal and changeless, but temporarily focus their attention away from eternity in inverse proportion to their strength. All of these assume that individual souls pre-exist bodies.

In the Horos myth, though, we have something very different: it is Osiris (consciousness, soul) that falls (in its entirety); Horos doesn't even exist until much later, being born of both Osiris and Isis (matter). This implies that bodies pre-exist individual souls, which is a very different conception of where individual souls come from. Let's see if we can puzzle out what that means, shall we? I think there's four major points we can work from:

It is clear that the gods—Osiris, Set, Isis, and Nephthys—are eternal: when they are said to be born of Geb and Nut, it is speaking of an ontological relationship. But we know that at least the things born of Isis—that is, material things—are mortal and therefore subject to time. I think this is somewhat true of Osiris, too: Empedocles calls the children of Zeus, the daimons, "long-lived" or "immortal," suggesting that they too are subject to time, even if they aren't subject to death. All of this seems to imply that Horos, the individual soul, is of a lower degree than the gods: he isn't eternal but is subject to time, and presumably has a beginning but not an ending.
We also know that Horos is formed from the "essence" of Osiris which Isis magically draws out of his scattered pieces.
We also know that Horos is born premature and lame; he only becomes strong as time goes on.
Finally, we know that while Horos is initially born of Isis and Osiris, the gods eventually strip him of his Isis-part, leaving only the Osiris-part.

These four points seem to suggest to me something like the following:

When a human body is born and is in need of a soul to animate it, it is drawn from some amalgamation of soul-stuff; we might as well call this amalgamation "random," though it is certainly some part of soul that is appropriate to the conditions of the body. Now, this soul-stuff contributes the material of soul, but it is initially unformed or unshaped; by living a human life, the soul is imprinted with some amount of patterning and structure. When the body fails, if the patterning and structure is sufficient to hold the mass of soul together, then a Horos is born; the mass of soul has crystallized into an individual soul. This soul is said to be "born lame" because it initially requires the material body to act as a crutch. On the other hand, if the patterning and structure gained from that first life is insufficient to hold the mass of soul together, then it falls apart and rejoins the pool of unformed soul-stuff from which it came.

Presumably, once the individual soul is born, it can and does go on to animate further bodies and refine its patterning and structure. When this refining has gone on for long enough, it has developed structures or organs of consciousness within it that allow it to exist on its own, without the need for a material body. Once that occurs, then the gods take away Horos's flesh and leave his bones: that is, he exists solely as a construct of consciousness.

If that is all right, it suggests that the teaching presumes that some fraction of people—whatever fraction is presently on their first incarnation—don't have individual souls. I couldn't begin to estimate that fraction, though I imagine it varies by time and place, and it would explain why the myth of Osiris so emphasized the right ordering of society in order to maximize the potential for Horoi to develop (as opposed to, say, ours, which seems to be an attempt to minimize this potential).

It also makes sense of why individual souls are always considered so beautiful and precious: it's because they are precious, being initially very fragile and difficult to bring into being. Of course, all soul-stuff will eventually find its way back to its source, but the rate at which this occurs depends greatly upon how helpful we are to the youngest souls among us (which is to say, presently not at all).

The notion that (some) humans may not have individual souls is not one I have seen in occult philosophy; in fact, the only example that comes to mind is the story of Peer Gynt, where at the end of his life, the Button-Molder insists that Peer is so mediocre that his soul is worthy of neither heaven nor hell and must be melted back down into soul-stuff.

Is any of this likely to be true? I doubt it; it's a model, and "all models are wrong, but some are useful." A better question, then, is what use can we make of such a model?

Gonna go out on a limb and say that I'm pretty sure now that Hephaistos is (another) Horos.

The name Hephaistos is not terribly different from the Egyptian heru-pa-khered "Horos the Younger."
Hephaistos was born lame, just like Horos.
Hephaistos treated his mother cruelly, just like Horos (though imprisoning her is, granted, a lot better than beheading her).
Hephaistos was banished from heaven, just like Horos.
Hephaistos was only restored back to heaven by Dionusos, just like heroes (Horoi) are only restored back to heaven by the application of the mysteries. (Indeed, Horos himself was only restored back to heaven through Osiris's intervention.)
Hephaistos is associated with fire (and Fire), just as Horos comes to be (after recovering his father's throne).

I think it is interesting that Hephaistos married (in Homer) Grace or (in Hesiod) Radiance (after losing his first wife, Aphrodite), while Heracles married Youth (after losing several earlier wives, including Husband-Killer, whose name you'd think would have been a hint), Jason married Princess (after abandoning his first wife, Cunning), Theseus married Bright (after abandoning his first wife, Holiest), etc. etc. etc. Horos's consorts are less clear to me, and, alas, poor Apollo never seemed to have much luck with anyone.

𓎬 𓊽 𓋹

When I revisited the Horus myth in light of discovering what Plutarch censored from it, I had neglected to revisit the sacred talismans of the mysteries, but I think what was omitted from the trial makes it clear what's going on with them.

Each of these objects represent, I think, a token from a critical scene in the mysteries themselves. The tyet knot is Isis's girdle, which she removes when she cuts her hair and puts on garments of mourning—I presume she gives the girdle to the initiate watching the mysteries, or perhaps a miniature version is given them in reminiscence of it. The djed pillar is the stalk of heather in which Osiris was imprisoned, which was perfumed and wrapped in linen and given to Malkander and Astarte—I presume a normal-sized heather stalk wrapped in linen is given to initiates at that point in the mysteries.

But what about the ankh?

Well, the tyet is intentionally soft—not only is it a garment, but it is also representative of feminine matter, which receives and is changed by receiving. The djed is intentionally hard—not only is it a structural element in the story, but it is also representative of masculine spirit, which gives and is unchanged by giving. But these are just the same as the parts of Horus mentioned in the trial: his Isaic part is his soft tissue, his flesh, while his Osirian part is his structure, his bones. By defeating Set he legitimized himself to his father, but by beheading Isis he delegitimized himself from his mother, and so the council of gods gave him the kingdom but took away his flesh. This is saying that when the soul no longer has need of a material crutch, the nature of the cosmos is that they ascend to an unembodied life.

But this is just what we see in the ankh, which writers from antiquity on all agree is representative of "eternal life," and which is expressed in the object itself: it's hard and structural like the djed—presumably initiates were given one made of reed or something—but it has the shape of the tyet knot. This is indicating spirit shaped by matter, which is just what the ascended soul is when divested of its material part: a living idea given its peculiar form through its exile in the world.

So I wonder if the ankh talisman was given to initiates as a part of the trial scene, as a symbol of Horus and a reminder that "eternal life" isn't a gift or an inevitability, but something to be hard-won through the contemplation of the mysteries and the development of one's own, personal meaning from them.

In ancient times, the Nile had seven branches to the sea: the Pelusiac, Tanitic, Mendesian, Phatnitic, Sebennytic, Bolbitine, and Canopic. In myth, the Nile is the Milky Way and the sea is the material world. The seven streams by which the influences of the spiritual world empty into ours are, of course, the seven planets. Perhaps this is where the notion that every guardian angel's influence resonates most greatly with some one or the other of the planets comes from.

This post is a bit of a revision to my exploration of the myth of Horus: in the month since then, I found a few lost bits and pieces of the Horus myth, and my interpretation of it has evolved a little bit. I think it also agrees even more closely with the Odysseus story than it did before, and it is easier to confidently associate characters and events between the two:

#	Plutarch, Isis and Osiris	Homer, Odyssey
1	[cf. 3]	Odysseus comes to Ææa. Circe turns half his men into pigs. Odysseus, with the help of Hermes, gains Circe's allegience. She restores his men.
2	Osiris comes to Horus from Duat in the form of a jackal to encourage him to fight and train him. Osiris tests Horus by asking what he believes is best. Horus answers, "to avenge one's parents for wrongdoing!" Osiris then asks what animal is most useful to a soldier. Horus answers, "a horse." Osiris is surprised by this and asks why he would prefer a horse to a lion. Horus answers, "A lion would be better in a pinch, but without a horse, how could you overtake and cut down a fleeing enemy?" Osiris believes that Horus is ready and rejoices.	Odysseus goes to Hades, summons Teiresias, and asks him for advice. Teiresias advises Odysseus. Odysseus steels himself for the challenges ahead and meets with various dead heroes and women.
3	Set's concubine Tewaret defects to Horus.	[cf. 1]
4	Tewaret is chased by a serpent. Horus's men slay it.	Odysseus returns to Ææa. Circe advises him concerning various monsters: the Sirens, the Wandering Rocks, Scylla, and Charybdis. Odysseus encounters and escapes from each.
5	Horus and Set engage in battle. Set turns into a red bull and gouges out Horus's eye. Horus cuts off Set's testicles. After many days, Horus defeats Set and takes him prisoner.	Odysseus comes to the island of Thrinacia and is stranded there many days. While Odysseus sleeps, his men slaughter and eat the cattle of Helios. Helios complains to Zeus, and Zeus destroys Odysseus's ship and his men.
6	Horus delivers Set to Isis as a prisoner, but Isis releases him instead of executing him. Horus is furious at this, beheads Isis, and takes the crown for himself.	Odysseus washes ashore on Ogygia and is held prisoner by Calypso, but he spurns her advances and spends his days longing for home.
7	Thoth replaces Isis's head with a cow's.	[cf. 9]
8	Set takes Horus to court over the legitimacy of his birth (and, consequently, of his claim to the throne). Thoth argues persuasively in favor of Horus. The gods find Horus to be the legitimate son of Osiris, but not of Isis (because he murdered her).	Athena beseeches Zeus to allow Odysseus to return home. Zeus agrees.
9	[cf. 7]	Hermes tells Calypso that Zeus demands she let Odysseus go. Calypso helps Odysseus build a raft.
10	The council of gods strip Horus of his mother's part (his flesh), give the throne to his father's part (his bones), and force Horus and Set to restore each other's missing parts.	Poseidon destroys Odysseus's raft. Odysseus, with the help of the White Goddess, swims three days and nights to Phæacia. Odysseus comes to the house of Alkinous; tells his story; and, with the help of Athena, pursuades Alkinous to ferry him to Ithaca.
11	Horus defeats Set in battle a second time.	Odysseus comes to Ithaca, finds his home ransacked by suitors after Penelope, and defeats them with the help of Athena.
12	Horus defeats Set in battle a third time, becomes undisputed king of Egypt, and reconciles with Set.	Tiresias foretells (but it does not occur in the Odyssey) that Odysseus must find a land where the sea is unknown and sacrifice a ram, a bull, and a boar to Poseidon, and that if he does so, he will live comfortably to an old age and die peacefully.

The left column is taken from Plutarch, Isis and Osiris XIX, but I have amended it (sometimes a little speculatively) with the italicized sections as follows:

2. Diodorus Siculus (Library of History I lxxxviii) says that Osiris came to Horus "in the form of a wolf," which most likely refers to 𓃢𓏃𓏠𓅂 Khenti-Amentiu "Foremost of the Westerners," who was jackal-headed (woof woof) and equated with Osiris (J. Gwyn Griffiths, The Conflict of Horus and Seth IV ii). The confusion of canids isn't anything to wonder at: Lycopolis ("City of Wolves") was consecrated to Anubis and Wepwawet, both jackals.
5. Set turning into a red bull is attested in the Pyramid Texts (418a, 679d, 1543a–1550a, 1977b) and apparently is a commonplace of later Egyptian myth (Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde XLVIII p. 72), though I have not found direct references. The loss of Horus's eye and Set's testicles is attested in the Pyramid Texts (418a, 594a, 679d), and also of course suggested by their restoration (see [8]).
6–7. Plutarch censors this episode in Isis and Osiris XIX, but says Isis was beheaded immediately after in XX, and this is confirmed in the Papyrus Sallier IV. I have retained Horus taking Isis's crown and therefore claiming kingship, since otherwise Set would have no reason for taking him to court.
8–10. I had mistakenly thought that Set took Horus to court over the legitimacy of his rule, but I was incorrect: it is over the legitimacy of his birth (Greek νοθεία notheia, "birth out of wedlock"). Plutarch censors this episode in Isis and Osiris XIX, but references the uncensored version in Desire and Grief VI and On the Generation of the Soul in the Timæus XXVII, and this is confirmed in the Papyrus Jumilhac. These vary in what parts, specifically, are assigned to the mother and father, but in any case the mother's part is always the outward part (skin, fat, flesh), and the father's part is always the inward part (blood, bones, marrow). The restoration of Horus's eye and Set's testicles is mentioned in the Pyramid Texts (36a, 39a, 65b, 95c, 535a–b, 578d, 591b, 595a–596c, 946a–c, 1614b). There is another version of the trial in The Contendings of Horus and Seth (Papyrus Chester Beatty I), but it conflicts with Plutarch's version of the myth (for example, Thoth is created from Horus "impregnating" Set, rather than pre-existing), and so I consider it a parallel tradition.
12. Horus displacing Set to become undisputed king is implied by Turin King List; Herodotus, Histories II cxliv; Manetho, History of Egypt; Diodorus Siculus, Library of History I xxv; etc. The reconciliation between Horus and Set is suggested by the Pyramid Texts (390b, 678a–c, 801b–c, 971a–b, 975a–b, 1453b, 2100a–b), but Diodorus Siculus (Library of History I xxi) says that Set was executed (but his version of the myth differs in a number of other ways, too, so it is less trustworthy).

I think I can fairly confidently say, now, that Odysseus is Horus's bones, Circe is Tewaret, Hermes and Athena are Thoth (who is always the advisor to the king, whether he be Ra, Osiris, Isis, or Horus), Teiresias is Khenti-Amentiu (the avatar of Osiris), the monsters following Circe are the serpent chasing Tewaret, Helios is Set as a red bull (and the cows are his testicles), Calypso is Isis, Odysseus's various ships (his original one, the raft, and the Phæacian ship) are Horus's flesh, and Poseidon is Set.

I had hurried past Osiris's questions to Horus, as I was unsure what to make of them. J. Gwyn Griffiths (The Conflict of Horus and Seth IV iii) suggests that the first question is meant to demonstrate Horus's piety and the second is meant to demonstrate his intelligence, which is no less reasonable than my supposition of blood-thirstiness.

The main change from my prior analysis is that the stripping of Horus's material part makes it obvious that Horus triumphs over matter in the first battle, not the second, as I had previously thought. In a way, this makes more sense: it means that the battles with Set are not the mastery of the virtues, but the climbing of the levels of the tetractys (that is, the reverse process of the birth of the gods): one transcends Earth and Water together, then transcends Air, and finally all becomes one again at the end of time. So we can therefore associate mastery of the civic virtues (e.g. separating men from beasts) with defeating Circe (who does not turn Odysseus's men into pigs, but rather makes their outward form reflect their inward form); similarly, the mastery of the purificatory virtues (e.g. transcending desire) can be associated with defeating Calypso (who appeals to Odysseus's sensual desires, and yet he spends all his time on the shore, longing for home).

That it is only the Osirian part of Horus that becomes king of Egypt is supportive of my hypothesis that Horus the Elder is the seed of the individual soul within Osiris when he is born of Nut. It is also strongly suggestive of the principle that all things return to their source: Fire to Fire, and Earth to Earth. To my recollection, Empedocles never mentions such a principle, though Plutarch does (On the Man in the Moon XXX), albeit in different terms.

In the version of the trial included in The Contendings of Horus and Seth, Horus "impregnates" Set and Thoth pops out of Set's forehead as a result, which is awfully reminiscent of the Athena myth and also agrees with my prior argument that Hermes is Odysseus's intelligence while Athena is Odysseus's wisdom.

Previously I said that the White Goddess was like those daimons who speed the rising soul on their way, but I think this is incorrect: if that's so, why does she remain in the sea, and why does Odysseus throw back her veil? No, I think the White Goddess is the mysteries themselves (appropriate, for the daughter of Cadmus!) and her veil is the mystery teachings; Odysseus makes use of them during his three-day-and-night-swim (that is, Plato's "three philosophical lives"), and he returns the veil because, as the Buddha remarks in his Parable of the Raft, teachings are for crossing over but not for holding on to: once one has transcended the material world, the teachings are simply no longer relevant.

I hadn't paid any attention to the sacrifice of the three animals to Poseidon at the end of the Odyssey. I wonder if these three are recapitulations of the three battles: that is, they express the reason why this is all the way it is. We are living offerings to divinity: the experiences we have, the teachings we learn, the states of consciousness we enter as we individuate and climb the latter of being: all of these are what we bring back to the Source at the end of time. We are god coming to know itself: one ram, one bull, one boar at a time.

I've been thinking about what the purpose and value of the mysteries are, and I think what I've come to appreciate most about all this is that it provides such a lovely map of mystical experience: one can confidently say "oh, this is where I am!" and it gives guidance on what you're dealing with and what you can expect to deal with next. At least the little bit I have memory and experience of seems to fit, anyway, and I have good hopes for what comes after.

It seems that in the Egyptian myth, Shu separates his married children Nut (Heaven) and Geb (Earth); in retaliation, Geb kills Shu (his father), marries Tefnut (his mother, since his wife Nut remains inaccessible to him), and usurps the throne. This is, of course, related to the myth of Kronos, but I suppose it's also the source of the Œdipus myth. The sphinx, then, is a reference to the source of the myth (Egypt) and its riddle is meant to say that the story is to be interpreted mythically rather than literally.

Fire	actively	static
Air	actively	changing
Water	passively	changing
Earth	passively	static

That is to say, Osiris-Zeus and Set-Aidoneus are male because they act upon, while Isis-Hera and Nephthys-Nestis are female because they are acted upon. Osiris-Zeus and Isis-Hera are married and king/queen of the golden age because they are static; Set-Aidoneus and Nephthys-Nestis are married and always trying to topple and/or put back together the golden age because they are mutable.

Thus, without soul acting on bodies, they simply fall apart. With soul acting on them, they grow on their own, requiring no special effort. The higher mental faculties, however, require effort in order to grow and develop. Consciousness itself is already at its peak capacity and is ever-illuminating.

The goal of the Mysteries is to overcome Earth and Water, and so they enjoined silence on their followers in order to force them to make effort, because that is the only way one's Airy part can grow.

Well, shit.

While Agamemnon is away, Aegisthus usurps the throne of Mycenae. When Agamemnon returns, Aegisthus invites him to a feast, whereupon he murders Agamemnon. Years later, Agamemnon's son Orestes returns and kills Aegisthus and Clytemnestra, but the Furies prevent him from taking the throne. Athena holds a trial in which the role of each parent in procreation is central and rules in favor of Orestes, who becomes king of Mycenae.

Compare to:

While Osiris is away, Set makes plans to usurp the throne of Egypt. When Osiris returns, Set invites him to a feast, whereupon he murders Osiris and usurps the throne. Years later, Osiris's son Horus defeats Set and kills Isis, but Set prevents him from taking the throne. The gods hold a trial in which the role of each parent in procreation is central and, on the advice of Thoth, rule in favor of Horus, who becomes king of Egypt.

Osiris is Fire itself, but his symbol is the "eye of Ra," the Sun, which is a reflection of Fire in the material world.

Set is Aither itself, but his symbol is a dragon or serpent (cf. the serpent chasing Tewaret, the Python, etc.) as representative of the Eclipse, which is a reflection of Aither in the material world (since shadows can only exist in the material aither, e.g. in "empty" space).

Horus is the prototype of the ascended individual soul (and thus a Platonic Form or Idea existing within Osiris). While not being a god in the same sense as the others, he too may be symbolically or virtually reflected within the material world, and hence he may be considered to be symbolized by the "eye of Horus," the Moon, which is an illuminating rocky body and thus the reflection of both Fire and Earth (e.g. the child of Osiris and Isis). (Apollo is the equivalent in Greek, and his "silver bow" is the crescent moon.) While the "true" Horus is an Idea rather than a being, he exists representationally at all levels of being, and these are what we interact with (e.g. a saint might be an Earthy Horus, a venerated ancestor might be a Watery Horus, a hero might be an Airy Horus).

Anubis is another Idea existing within Osiris, that of transition between levels of being, and his symbol is the dawn or dusk (the meeting point of the Firey Sun and the Watery horizon, e.g. the child of Osiris and Nephthys). (Artemis is the equivalent in Greek, which is why she presides over both childbirth in her role as midwife and death in her role as huntress, and her "golden darts" are the reflection of the rising or setting Sun over the sea, which looks like a shaft tipped by the Sun itself pointing upwards.) He, too, exists representationally at all levels of being (e.g. a seer or shaman might be an Earthy Anubis, a spirit guide might be a Watery Anubis, etc.).

Manetho (Epitome of Physical Doctrines) and Diodorus Siculus (Library of History I xi) tell us that the Egyptian priests learned the myth of Isis and Osiris by careful observation of the Sun and Moon. That the myth refers to the month is also, of course, suggested by Thoth stealing the Moon's light to enable the "birth" of the gods. I had completely ignored that interpretation before, since I wanted to focus on Empedocles, but I thought it might be instructive to spend a little while on it.

We will start by following Manetho and Diodorus by assuming that the Sun is Osiris and the Moon is Isis. Plutarch adds (in his fourth explanation of the myth, Isis and Osiris XLIV) that Set is the eclipse and the fourteen pieces in which Osiris was divided are the fourteen days of the waning Moon. Now, the lunar month is twenty-nine-and-a-half days long, and we know that Egypt rounded it off to a 30-day civil month, and that it began once the Moon was no longer visible to the eye, which occurs approximately a day prior to the astronomical New Moon that we now use. This should give us enough to go on, and I've made a chart of the Moon's phases over the course of the month as an aid to following the touch points between the myth and the month (read it counter-clockwise from the top):

On the first day of the month, the Sun (Osiris) shines but the Moon (Isis) is invisible. If we regard Osiris as the soul and Isis as the body, then this is the golden age, where Osiris reigns in Egypt and the soul is pure and has no need of a body.
On the second day of the month, the astronomical New Moon occurs. It is possible on such days for a solar eclipse to occur, and this would fit the part of the myth where Set kills Osiris and hides him in a box (e.g. the Sun is obscured).
On the third day of the month, the Moon is still not yet visible. This is when Osiris's box floats down the Nile, and when Pan and the Satyrs see it and notify Isis. After this, for the remaining of the first half of the month, the Moon waxes and Isis wanders as a fugitive.
On the sixteenth day of the month, Isis finally recovers Osiris, which represents the Moon going full (which occurs approximately a day before the astronomical Full Moon), which is when the Moon reflects the Sun as perfectly as it is capable of and the full descent of soul into body. During the waxing Moon, the soul takes on various "incomplete" or "lower" forms of bodies, but now it is capable of manifesting itself in matter as perfectly as matter is capable of, in the human body which is capable of rational thought and reflective consciousness.
On the seventeenth day of the month, the astronomical Full Moon occurs. It is possible on such days for a lunar eclipse to occur, and this would fit the second appearance of Set in the myth, out hunting "by the light of the Full Moon" and chopping Osiris into fourteen pieces (the remaining fourteen days of the month, representing the various lives the soul has in a human body). At the same time, Horus (the individual soul) is born: while the soul lived in lower forms, it was as a part of a group soul; now, it is an individual and capable of making its own choices (for better or worse).
As the Moon wanes, the soul grows in power relative to the body (which shines ever less completely). On the twenty-fifth day of the month, the Moon becomes a waning crescent, which indicates that the soul is now more powerful than the body (as the fraction of the Moon which is dark is now greater than the fraction of the Moon which is bright). This is represented in the myth as Horus defeating Set the first time, Isis being beheaded and given a cow's head (with horns, representing the now-crescent Moon).
Eclipses are often portrayed as serpents or dragons; I wonder if Horus's men slaying the serpent, or Apollo slaying the Python, is simply a reiterated reference to the defeat of Set (that is, the resolution of the events which the eclipse originally "brought" into motion).
As the Moon continues to wane, the body loses it's hold over it, and the soul gains pre-eminence. At some point during this part of the cycle, Horus defeats Set for a second time, and the soul lives free of matter.
Finally, when the Moon is no longer visible, the Sun is again alone and the individual has rejoined its Source, Osiris rules in Egypt, and the cycle begins again.

I don't think any of these points change the interpretation of the myth at all, but based on the above, it is certainly reasonable to say the lunar cycle is woven throughout the myth, and may well indeed be its source. Further, it ties the myth to Plutarch's explanation of the Eleusinian Mysteries (On the Man in the Moon XXVII ff.), suggesting Egyptian authority behind Plutarch's secondhand account of the Mysteries (though in that case, Horus would be the Moon, while Isis would be the Earth).

Let's tie this to another myth, that of Europa and Zeus. Without considering the lunar cycle, it didn't quite line up—Isis becomes a cow at the end of the myth, while here, Zeus becomes a bull at the beginning—but, of course, the Moon has a crescent both when it waxes and when it wanes, and so the Europa myth lines up pretty easily.

Europa (εὐρύς-ὤψ "wide-faced," referring to the surface of the Earth) is Isis, Zeus is Osiris, and Minos is Horus. Europa being from Phoenecia but ending up in Crete shows the transmission of the myth. Zeus's transformation into a bull is representative of the waxing crescent Moon as Europa (the body) is snatched away from home (the spiritual world) to Crete (e.g. the material world)—here, there is no Set, no enemy, no sin: the "snatching away" is the normal, intended course of creation. In Crete, Zeus transforms back from a bull (e.g. the Moon is full and no longer crescent), and Europa has a son by him, Minos, who, like Horus, communed with his father from the spiritual world and was so righteous that he was appointed judge over the dead.

But wait, wasn't Minos a jerk who demanded human sacrifice of Athens every nine years? Well, Plutarch (Life of Theseus XVI) implies, and Diodorus Siculus (Library of History IV lx) says explicitly, that there were two Minoses: this myth concerns the first, who was righteous (like Horus); while the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur concerns the second, who was wicked (like Set), and presumably represents a further transmission and development of the myth (e.g. from Crete to Athens).

Socrates. Do you remember who Hesiod says the daimons are?

Hermogenes. No, I don't.

Socrates. Not even that he says a golden race was the first race of men to be born?

Hermogenes. That I remember.

Socrates. Here is what he says:

But since Fate has covered up this race,
They are called holy spirits under the earth,
Noble, averters of evil, guardians of mortal men.

Hermogenes. And?

Socrates. Well, I think what he means is not that the golden race was made of gold, but that it was good and beautiful. And I regard it as a proof of this that he further says we are the iron race.

(Plato, Cratylus 397E–398A.)

Gold is valuable, but it cannot equal iron in its multiplicity of uses.

(Yoshida Kenko, Tsurezuregusa.)

Pondering more on Hesiod's races of men:

Gold is extremely nonreactive ("incorruptable"), which is why the angels are called gold: they do not fall into matter. (Each of the other metals mentioned by Hesiod readily tarnish or corrode.)
Silver is extremely thermally and electrically conductive (that is, it allows energy to pass through it very readily), which is why the daimons are called silver. (Gold and silver are also very shiny and beautiful compared to bronze and iron, which is why Hesiod treats them as first-rate.)
Bronze is an alloy, of mixed characteristics, and in properties, intermediate between silver and iron: while it can be put to many uses, it maintains silver's high conductivity; in the same way, the shades could have accomplished anything, but were too readily "heated" by the passions and so tended towards silver.
Even though a 𓅃 heru "falcon" lives on the earth, it soars upwards into the high air, which is why the heroes are called heroic.
Iron is extremely versatile and can be put to a variety of uses, which is why men are called iron.

What use will you be put to?

Profile

May 2025

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31

Entries tagged with egypt

Mnemosune

On Hesiod's Sources

Sky Stories

Good and Evil

City-Myth Correspondences

Her True Name

The City and the Hero

Isis and Osiris XV: Ten Step Program

Becoming Luminous

Isis and Osiris XIV: The Birth of Horos

Heroic Associations

Isis and Osiris XIII: Briefly Revisiting the Talismans of the Mysteries

The Nile, Divided in its Seven Streams

Isis and Osiris XII: The Man of Many Turns

Geb and Œdipus

The Two Marriages

Toss Another One on the Pile

The Gods and Their Symbols

Isis and Osiris XI: A Brief Note Concerning the Sun and Moon

συνθήματα sunthemata "symbols"

Profile

May 2025

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary