342 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. 



Osiris also takes the character of the God Benno, 

 with the head of a crane, pecuharised by a tuft of 

 two long feathers ; and he sometimes appears as a 

 human figure, with a simple cap surmounted by two 

 ostrich plumes.* The statement of Plutarch t, that 

 the dress of Osiris was of one uniform shining co- 

 lour, is confirmed by the paintings, which generally 

 represent him clad in white. Isis was dressed in 

 robes of various hues, because, according to the 

 same writer, " her power was wholly conversant 

 about matter^ which becomes all things and admits 

 all, light and darkness, day and night, fire and water, 

 life and death, beginning and end." Osiris also 

 appears, when in the character of Sokari-Osiris, 

 with the head of a hawk.t Under that title he has 

 some connection § with Pthah ; and it is then that 

 he is considered to have risen from the dead after 

 his visit to the world. ll 



The Phallic ceremonies, said to have been per- 

 formed in honour of Osiris, appear rather to have 

 belonged to the generative principle^ of the Deity 

 worship])ed under the name of Khem ; though 

 Phitarcii and other writers assert that they derived 

 their origin from the search made by Isis for the 

 scattered members of her husband.** Plutarch, in 

 another place, says ft, the festival of the Paamylia, 

 which bears a great resemblance to the Phallepho- 

 ria of Greece, was kept in honour of the birth of 



* Plate 33. figs. 5. and 1. f Plut. de Is. s. 78. 



X Conf. Plut. de Is. s, 51. § Vide infra, on Isis, ad fin. note. 



II Vide supra, p. 255. 



S Vide infra, on the Ceremonies, Chap. xv. 



•* Plut. de Is.s. 18. ft Plut. de Is. s. 12. 



