336 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. 



is dressed up and adorned, to show that these 

 Gods are the powers of earth and water.* 



" Isis havmg recovered the body of Osiris, and 

 brought her son Horus to maturity, (whose strength, 

 by means of exhalations and clouds, was continu- 

 ally increasing,) Typho was in his turn conquered, 

 though not totally destroyed. For the Goddess, 

 who is the Earth, in order to maintain a proper 

 temperament of heat and cold, would not permit 

 this enemy of moisture to be quite extinguished, 

 but loosed his bonds and set him at liberty, well 

 knowing that it was impossible for the world to 

 subsist in perfection, if the force of heat was to- 

 tally extinguished." 



To sum up the details of this story according to 

 the foregoing interpretation, we may apply to each 

 its distinct meaning, as follows : — 



Osiris, the inundation of tlie Nile. 



Isis, the irrigated portion of the land of Egypt. 



Horus, their offspring, the vapours and exhal- 

 ations reproducing rain. 



Buto (Latona), the marshy lands of Lower 

 Egypt, where those vapours were nourished. 



Nephthys, the edge of the desert, occasionally 

 overflowed during the high inundations. 



Anubis, the son of Osiris and Nephthys, the pro- 

 duction of that barren soil, in consequence 

 of its being overflowed by the Nile. 



* Conf. Clem. Recogn. lib. x. 27., " Osiri aquam, Hammoni arie- 

 tem ; " Origen. V. in Celsum, p. 65., " Osiris water, and Isis earth ;"' 

 or the ^"ile, according to Heliodoriis, lib. ix. ; and Clem. Honiil. vi. 9., 

 " aquam terra inferiorem. . . . Osirin nuncuparunt." 



