OSI 
than tumbling the plants loofe inacart. The common ofier 
he cut for this purpofe at three years, and that with yellow 
bark at four.” 
OSIMO, in Geography, a town of the marquifate of 
Ancona, the fee of a bifhop, anciently a city of Umbria, 
named “ Auxinum ;’’ 12 miles S.S.W. of Ancona. N. lat 
E. long. 13° 36’. 
DATO, in Biography, is the author of a curi- 
ous {peculative trad, publithed at Milan in 1637, entitled 
en difcoperta da Teodato Ofio,” 
n f{peech or fimple profe and verfe, eftablifhed by the 
see ‘of arithmetic, of mufical fpeculations, and the Py- 
thagorean ratio of numbers. 
We procured this little book with great eagernefs, in hopes 
that we fhould find fome acute and ingenious refleCions on 
recitative, with nice seg ne bet ween common fpeech, 
t in the moft ample and minute 
trad, the word recitative 
of the exiftence of a mufica rapprefentativa, or recitative, 
which was neither finging nor fpeaking, bu intermedi- 
ion of vocal found, between both. 
opera at Vie s was performed in 1637, the pre- 
cife period of fignor Ofio’s publication, which is written in 
an obfcure and myfterious ftyle, bordering on pedantry ; 
nor is it eafy to fay, after perufal, what is the author’s 
object. 
Osto, in Geography, a town of Sweden, in Eaft Goth- 
land ; 32 miles W.S.W. of Linkioping. 
OSIRIS, in Mythology, one of the great gods of the 
Egyptians, to whem they paid their chief pedis Ofiris 
was fuppofed to reprefent the fun, and Ifis the 
Some writers in theology have fuppofed, that ail the other 
deities of the Egyptians were only attributes of Ofiris and 
Tfis, See Isis and Orvs. 
The worfhipof Bacchus among the Greeks was formed 
upon that of Ofiris, as we learn from many paflages in Dio- 
dorus Siculus. (See Baccuus ) Ofiris was among the Egyp- 
tians the fymbol or emblem of the fun, which was the firft 
obje& of their idolatry, and Ifis was that of the moon; and 
itis faid that their names refer to thofe luminaries, fince in 
their Janguage Ofiris denotes ‘‘ one who fees clear,’’ and Ifis 
the ‘ancient,’ an expreflion which among them fgnified the 
moon: All the learned agree, that the oxen Apis and Mnevis, 
confecrated to Ofiris after his apotheofis, were the fymbols of 
the fun. Thus, whether it was that the Egyptian siete 
to cover the hiftory of this prince from the eyes of the 
beams, diffufes fertility and plenty over all, and that to him 
the priefts had found the art of making idolatry lefs 
‘snot a mortal man, but an eternal 
ublic adoration. It a 8 
OS! 
wifdom, and at other times as beings of an immortal natare, 
who had framed the world, and ranged matter into the form 
which it ftill retains. Thofe who fuppofe that they had been 
human perfons, agreed that they were brother and fitter ; 
but they differ about their parents. moft common 
sha is that reported by Diodorus Sieulus, als fays, that 
e Sun was the firft who reigned in Egypt; that he was fuc- 
ceeded by Vulcan, and Vulcan by Saturn, who having mar- 
ried Rhea, his fifter, had by her Ifis and Ofiris.s The E 
tian mythology with regard to thefe fancied deities is flated 
by fome writers in the following manner. e Egyptians, 
feeing good and evil equally prevalent in the world, asd not 
pai able to conceive that a being effentially good ‘fhould be 
capable of pal ire! evil, and much lefs be the author of 
it, weret rft who invented two principles, the one good, 
the other cai, and introduced this error which afterwards fo 
generally prevailed. 
under the name 
yphon; hence fprung the wars and penne of the 
latter againft his brother, whom he afterwards cut o ~ 
they attributed all the evil that exifted in the world to 
phon, fo they confidered Ofiris as the author of all the eon 
The creation of the world, for a long time difputed and re- 
tarded by the machinations of the evil principle, together with 
the order and harmony that prevailed in it, was the work of 
= ; and all the wars and troubles, and kinds of evils that 
u 
on ancient traditions, poffeffed three qualities, of 
which the one performed the office of father, and this was 
Ofiris; the other that of mother, who was Ifis; and that of fon, 
aflerted by others, that this king of Payer was more ancie . 
than they, and that his worfhip wa ifhed in their tim 
through all Egypt, fince the Tiraelites imitated its pao 
in the adoration of the golden ca 
Banier is of opinion, that Ofiris is he fame as Mizraim, the 
on of Ham, who peopled Egypt fome time after the de- 
luge, and who, after his death, was deified 3 and he is called 
by the ancients the fon of Jupiter, becaufe he was the fon 
of Ham, or Hammon, whom he himfelf had acknowledged 
as a god. arfham takes Ofiris to have been Ham him.- 
felf, known under the name of Menis at the head of the 
dynafties, which fucceeded to the gods and demigods. In- 
deed the learned in general allow, that Ofiris was one of the 
firft defcendants of Noah by Ham, and that he governed 
Egypt, whither his father a repaired, and there founded 
a {mall kingdom, a few years after the difperfion which 
happened in the time of Peleg. Diodorus afferts, that 
this prince is the fame with Manes, the firft king of Egypt ;. 
and perhaps at his apotheofis his name was changed to that 
a al For other particulars we refer to the article- 
The learned Jablonfki deduces the term Ofiris from Ofch- 
o makes time.” Accordingly it is al- 
the Eyyptian pally wat after repeated ob. 
v by the courfe of the fun; 
that the folar year was eftablithed by the academy of Helio- 
polis, ; fter ae departure of the 
Ifraelites ; and that the priefts, who t i i 
the fun under his proper name oat sp 
im, in comme-noration of fo important an event, 
that of - or author of time. a s Letters in 
Egypt, vol,3 
OSITH, or 1 OsytH, Si. in Caney. an ifland of aH 
