3'24 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. 



Kings the use of the bow; Nepli shows them 

 the potter's art ; and Thoth instructs tliem in the 

 mode of catching birds with the net, in tlie art 

 of writing, and in every thing connected with cal- 

 culation, medicine, and astronomy. In all cases, 

 however, it was an abstract idea representing the 

 different means by which intellectual gifts were im- 

 parted from the Deity to man. 



The Greeks identified Osiris with Bacchus *, in 

 consequence of his reputed conquest of India, and 

 some other analogies in the attributes or charac- 

 ter of those two Deities. " The histories," says 

 Phitarch t, " on wliich the most solemn feasts of 

 Bacchus, the Titania and Nuktelia, are founded, 

 exactly correspond with what we are told of the 

 cutting to pieces of Osiris, of his rising again, and 

 of his new life." He was also supposed to an- 

 swer to Phito t, from his office of ruler of Hades or 

 Amenti ; "a circumstance of which the priests,'* 

 according to Plutarch §, " never speak but witli the 

 utmost caution and reserve. For the erroneous 

 acceptation of this truth has given occasion to 

 much disturbance, — the minds of the vulgar not 

 being able to conceive how the most pure and 

 truly holy Osiris should have his dwelling under 

 the earth, amongst the bodies of those who ap- 

 pear to be dead. This God is, indeed, removed 

 as far as possible from the earth, being free from all 



* pint, (le Is. s, 37. 13. The ancient Bacclnis of Greece was repre- 

 sented with a long heard ; the youthful Bacchus, on Greek vases, dates 

 after the time of Alexander. 



t Pint, de Is. s. 35. % Pint, de Is. ct Osir. ss. 27, 28. 



§ Pint, de Is. s. 79. 



