340 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. Xlll. 



was their King, their instructor, and even the father 

 of their race ; who taught tliem the secrets of 

 husbandry, the arts of civilisation, and the advan- 

 tages of social intercourse ; and who, extending 

 his dominion over the whole world, permitted all 

 mankind to partake of his beneficent influence. 

 They represent him to have been assailed by the 

 malignant attacks of some monster, or enemy of 

 man, either as an evil principle, or the type of a 

 destructive power. He is sometimes exposed to 

 the waters of the sea, (an evident allusion to the 

 great deluge,) from which he is saved, by taking 

 refuge in a cavern, or by means of a floating 

 island, a lotus, or a snake, which bears him safely 

 to the summit of a mountain. He is frequently 

 aided by the interposition of some female com- 

 panion, who is his sister, his daughter, or his 

 wife, and the mother, as he is the father, of the 

 human race, which springs from their three sons ; 

 like the family of Adam, repeated in that of Noah. 

 But though we observe some analogy between 

 these and the history of Osiris, it is only in par- 

 ticular points that any positive resemblance can 

 be admitted : the office of Osiris was of a more 

 important character than that usually assigned to 

 the hero God and parent of man ; as the notion 

 of a Trinity was of a more exalted nature than 

 that given to the material work of its hands, — the 

 three sons of Noah and his prototype. 



Osiris is frequently represented of a black colour, 

 as Plutarch observes *, but more usually green ; 



* Plut. de Is. s. 33. 



