De Iside et Osiride
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"De Iside et Osiride" is a philosophical treatise by Plutarch that interprets the Egyptian myth of Osiris and Isis. According to Plutarch's account, the god Osiris was murdered and dismembered by his brother, Seth. Isis, Osiris's consort, gathered the scattered pieces of his body, except for his phallus, and resurrected him. Osiris then became the ruler and judge of the underworld. This myth symbolizes fertility and the cycle of death and rebirth, with Osiris representing the dead king and his son Horus embodying the living king. The work explores the religious and philosophical significance of these deities and their associated rituals within ancient Egyptian beliefs.123
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- Middle Eastern religionLiterary sources of knowledge of ancient Middle Eastern religion
The Greek biographer Plutarch’s De Iside et Osiride (“Concerning Isis and Osiris”) is still the best description of the Egyptian myth of Isis and Osiris and of the cult of the dead. The Greek satirist Lucian’s De Dea Syra (“Concerning the Syrian Goddess”) is of enduring value for an…
Read MoreThe Greek biographer Plutarch’s De Iside et Osiride (“Concerning Isis and Osiris”) is still the best description of the Egyptian myth of Isis and Osiris and of the cult of the dead. The Greek satirist Lucian’s De Dea Syra (“Concerning the Syrian Goddess”) is of enduring value for an…
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mystery religionLiterature…wrote the philosophical treatise “About Isis and Osiris,” which gives an interpretation of the Isis Mysteries. Arnobius, a 3rd-century Christian apologist, described an interesting semiphilosophical, semireligious mystery community known as the viri novi (“the new men”). Arnobius seems to have lived among them in North Africa for a time…
Read More…wrote the philosophical treatise “About Isis and Osiris,” which gives an interpretation of the Isis Mysteries. Arnobius, a 3rd-century Christian apologist, described an interesting semiphilosophical, semireligious mystery community known as the viri novi (“the new men”). Arnobius seems to have lived among them in North Africa for a time…
Read More