CHAP. XV. COW OF MYCERINUS. 313 



paid to it on such an occasion could not have 

 referred solely to a princess, whose body was de- 

 posited within it : they were evidently intended 

 for the Deity of whom it was the emblem ; and the 

 introduction of Athor with the mysterious rites of 

 Osiris may be explained by the fact of her fre- 

 quently assuming the character of Isis. 



Plutarch*, who seems to have in view the same 

 ceremony, states the animal exposed to public view 

 on this occasion to be an ox, in commemoration of 

 the misfortunes reported to have happened to 

 Osiris. " About this time (the month of Athyr, 

 when the Etesian winds have ceased to blow, and 

 the Nile, returning to its own channel, has left the 

 country every where bare and naked), in conse- 

 quence of the increasing length of the nights, the 

 power of darkness appears to prevail, whilst that 

 of light is diminished and overcome. The priests, 

 therefore, practise certain dolefid rites ; one of 

 which is to expose to public view, as a proper re- 

 presentation of the present grief of the Goddess 

 (Isis), an ox covered with a pall of the finest black 

 linen, that animal being looked upon as the living 

 image of Osiris, t The ceremony is performed four 

 days successively, beginning on the lyth t of the 

 above-mentioned month. They represent thereby 

 four things which they mourn: —1. The falling of 



* Plut. de Is, s, 39. 



-f- Diodonis says, " The reason of the worship of this hull (Apis) is, 

 that the soul of Osiris was thought to have passed into it ; others say 

 because Isis deposited the members of Osiris in a wooden co^t', enve- 

 loped in cloths of fine linen {byssine), whence the name of the city 

 Busms." (i. 85.) 



% Vide supra, p. 295. ; and Vol. I. (2d Series) p. 335. 337, 338. 



