322 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XlII- 



supports it, are of early time, and present the name 

 of "Osiris" on one side, and of " Osiris, Amun-re, 

 Lord (of the thrones?) of the world, president of 

 Thebes, Aroeris?" on the other; but it is evident 

 that this did not belong originally to the statue, 

 having been applied to it, probably by those who 

 found it at Thebes, (like some more in this and 

 other museums,) to increase its support, its beauty, 

 or its value. There is therefore great uncertainty, 

 both respecting its age, and the person it represents. 



The custom of applying the name of Osiris both 

 to men and women, who were supposed to par- 

 take sufficiently of the qualities of the good being 

 to be worthy that honour, appears to have some 

 connection with the Greek notion of Dionysus or 

 Bacchus (who was thought to answer to Osiris) 

 being both male and female. * It is also worthy 

 of remark, that Servius, in commenting on the 

 ** mystica vannus lacchi," of Virgil, affirms that 

 *' the sacred rites of Bacchus pertained to the pu- 

 rification of souls." 



If Osiris was represented as one of the Gods of 

 the third order t, (who, according to their extra- 

 vagant calculation, lived 15,000 years before the 

 reign of Amasis, and consequently later than Her- 

 cules, Pan, and other Deities of the second class,) 

 we may suppose that this was intended to show that 

 he visited the earth after the religion of Egypt had 

 been long established ; or that it was an idea intro- 



* As in Aristides, p. 52. 8., and 52. 10.; and the Orphic poems, 

 hymn 30., and 42. 4. Vide supra, p. 316. 

 ■f Herodot. ii. 145. 



