CHAT. XIII. GODS DIFFERENTLY HONOURED. 345 



place alone occupied many and the choicest places. 

 But few temples, if any, denied a post to I sis and 

 Osiris, *' the greatest of all the Gods."* *' For," 

 says Herodotus, " the Egyptians do not give equal 

 honours to all their Gods, and the only two to 

 whom the same worship is universally paid are Isis 

 and Osiris." t With regard to the sacred animals, 

 they were looked upon with feelings so different 

 in various parts of the country, that those wor- 

 shipped in one town were often held in abhorrence 

 in another ; as is shown by the civil war between 

 the Oxyrhinchites and the people of Cynopolis, 

 mentioned by Plutarch t, and by a similar contest 

 related in Juvenal § between the people of Ombos 

 and Tentyris. But, as T have elsewhere observed ||, 

 though the objects of their worship varied, it is 

 not probable that such excesses were committed in 

 early times, during the rule of their native Princes. 

 Philai and Abydus were the two places where 

 Osiris was particularly worshipped ; and so sacred 

 was the former, that no one was permitted to visit 

 that holy island without express permission ; and 

 in the temple which still remains there, his mys- 

 terious history is recorded in the manner already 

 mentioned. % Besides the celebration of the great 

 mysteries, which took place at Philas (as at Sais and 

 Biisiris), a grand ceremony was performed at a par- 

 ticular time, when the priests in solcnm procession 

 visited his tomb and crowned it with flowers.** 



* Herotlot. ii. -iO. f Ik-rodot.ii. 4:^. 



X Pint, dc Is. s. 72. § .Tuv. Sat. \v. .36. 



II Bcpinninpof Chap. xiv. i[ Vide sirprd, p. 189. 255. 



** Pint, cle Is. s. 21. 



