De Iside Research Articles

The Mazdean Image of the Bird and its ‘Earthly’ Egg in Light of Plutarch’s De Iside et Osiride, ch. 47, and its Later Continuations

The Avestan text of Yašt 13,2-3 preserves an archaic simile in which the earth is described as an egg brooded by a bird. This beautiful image cannot be framed within any proto- Iranian cosmological myth, so that we cannot presume a priori the existence of an ancestral description of the earth and the sky as globular or spherical. Of course, images such as the one of Yašt 13,2-3 might inspire later cosmological developments, although the inter-textual references are unclear and need a further investigation. In this respect, it is remarkably important a brief, but precise, allusion to a cosmic “egg” (ᾠόν), mentioned in a well-known book of Plutarch (De Iside et Osiride, ch. 47). This source actually introduces the image of the whole “good creation” compared with an “egg”, practically corresponding to the earth. Thus, this cosmic egg assumes a specific role within the myth of the Ahremanic extra-cosmic aggression of the world. In fact, Ahreman attacks and pierces the surface of the egg. The present doctrine could be a reflex of an earlier Avestan tradition, although not explicitly preserved, in which the eggshell represented the heavens, while the yolk corresponded to the earth. This simple cosmological architecture would have probably paved the way to some later Mazdean visualizations of the heavens, as the one contained into the Dādestān ī Mēnōg ī Xrad 44,8-11, which compares the sky, the earth, the waters and all the rest placed in between with an egg” (xāyag-dēs). In any case, a prudent approach to the sources does not allow us to assume that the early Iranian cosmology developed any special doctrine of Indo-Iranian heritage with regard to the cosmic egg, although this image assumed an interesting role in later times, but without the same emphasis attested in other ancient cultures.

Myth, Allegory and Inspired Symbolism in Early and Late Antique Platonism

Abstract The idea that mythos and logos are incompatible, and that truth is a product of scientific and dialectical thinking, was certainly disproven by later Platonic philosophers. Deploying the works of Hesiod and Homer, Homeric Hymns and other such literature, they considered myth a valuable and significant augment to philosophical discourse. Plato’s denigration of myth gave his followers an incentive to read myth as allegory. The Stoics and first-century philosophers such as Philo, treated allegory as a legitimate interpretive strategy. The Middle Platonists incorporated myth, for example, deifying the Monad and Dyad, as did 2nd century Platonists. Plutarch’s Isis and Osiris (2nd century CE), for example, equates Isis and Osiris with form and matter: the god (Osiris) sows in matter (Isis) logoi (forms or ideas) from himself (De Iside. 372F). Porphyry’s allegorizing of Plato’s Cave of the Nymphs is another example. Plotinus is a strong influence on how the late Neoplatonists regarded myth. This paper argues that these philosophers’ use of allegory prepared the way for the Neoplatonists treatment of myth as inspired symbolism. Proclus and Syrianus, as reported by Hermias, did something more extreme by using mythology to construct inspired symbolic argument. Mythos becomes another type of logos, a vehicle for representing the invisible world of being, another kind of truth that can even serve a function in anagogic ascent.

VIRTUE, MASCULINITY, AND HIERARCHIES OF DOMINATION IN PLUTARCH’S ANTONY AND DE ISIDE

Plutarch’s Antony and De Iside et Osiride together tackle the manly woman and the effeminate man. I suggest that De Iside is the theoretical exposition of the metaphysics underlying this problem of gender, resolved by gendering the parts of the tripartite soul. In the Antony, these expressions of gender in the body are examined in practice. Female masculinity is defined as a manifestation of virtue without contradicting the natural fact of the female body, while manliness is an unvirtuous expression of a desire to dominate. Plutarch refines the hierarchy of domination that affirms women’s claim to virtue and preserves traditional social order by examining the relation between embodied sex and ensouled gender and assigning an ethical value to its expressions.

The Feminine, the Origin of Evil and the Motion of Matter in Plutarch’s De animae procreatione

Plutarch’s De animae procreatione is, by the author’s own admission, an unusual account of the cosmogony in the Timaeus, yet what is most original about it is often overlooked. The philosopher and biographer has a relatively positive view of women’s intellectual capabilities, including their ability to attain virtue, and as such the suggestion that the feminine principle of the cosmos is the origin of sublunary evil presents both an ethical and a metaphysical problem. Plutarch attempts to solve this problem by separating Matter from its movement, thus theorising a third kind, disorderly motion that ultimately causes evil. Even so, he maintains a close relationship between Motion and Matter by stressing their acosmic interaction, which allows for a degree of scepticism regarding the feminine and the female while creating space for the virtue of women. He does so by incorporating Matter and Motion into a single acosmic principle of disorder, the Indefinite Dyad. This division of kinds is apparent also in De Iside, where it becomes clear that Plutarch intends to frame the feminine as a potentially positive force in the cosmos.

Reading Plutarch’s Women: Moral Judgement in the Moralia and Some Lives

Plutarch has two distinct bodies of work: the Moralia and the Lives. Increasingly, however, questions about the unity of Plutarch’s work as a whole have been raised, and it has become of some concern to scholars of ancient biography to establish the level of philosophical content in the Lives. A comparative study of the women of the Lives and those in the Moralia may provide some insight into Plutarch’s greater philosophical project and narrative aims. Plutarch’s writings on and for women in the Conjugalia praecepta, Mulierum virtutes, Amatorius, De Iside et Osiride, and Consolatio ad uxorem lays a firm groundwork for the role of Woman in society and the marital unit. The language in these works is consistent with the language used to describe women in the Lives, where historical women appear as exempla for the moral improvement of his female students. This case study of five prominent women in the Lives reveals an uncomfortable probability: Plutarch presents women in the Lives in accordance with the principles set out in the Moralia and uses certain concepts to guide his readers towards a judgement of the exempla that agrees with his views on the ideal Woman.

Dioniso y el toro: fuentes literarias y epigráficas

En el estudio de las inscripciones sobre Dioniso en el área de Beocia, sobresale un epígrafe especial hallado en Tespias (IG 7, 1787), que cita “Θεοῦ Ταύρου”. La posible relación de la inscripción con el dios Dioniso sigue siendo objeto de controversia y, sin embargo, no es tan extraña la vinculación entre este dios y el toro; así lo demuestran diversas fuentes: Nono de Panópolis en su Dionisíaca, Eurípides en Bacantes y Plutarco en De Iside et Osiride, entre otras. La asociación entre el rey-arconte, como responsable de presidir las fiestas y último representante del dios, la reina y el toro parece derivar de las asociaciones estatales de cultos mistéricos. Algunos mitos apoyan esta hipótesis en la medida en que la Antigüedad percibe al toro como símbolo de fertilidad y proliferación, aunque también de furia y peligro. Después de considerar estos argumentos, vamos a explorar la relación entre este animal y la figura de Dioniso.

Plutarch’s Theory of Cosmological Powers in the De Iside et Osiride

Abstract The Platonic section of the De Iside (chapters 45–64) offers a complex account of Plutarch’s theory of cosmological principles. In this paper I shall supplement conventional interpretations and set out to demonstrate that: Osiris is the whole of the “positive” and ordering powers operating within the actual (that is, post-creational) world; Typhon is not the pre-cosmic soul, but the negative and destructive powers at work within it; Isis is not mere matter or the world soul, but the world soul as the material “battlefield” for opposite powers in the world; the object of Plutarch’s analysis is not the pre-cosmic world, but the post-creational stage. Finally, I shall explain the logic of Plutarch’s account, which fits with the literary genre he develops in this text.

Argumentative Strategies in the ‘Platonic Section’ of Plutarch’s De Iside et Osiride (chapters 45-64)

Plutarch’s De Iside et Osiride has been studied from several points of view. In this paper I set out to demonstrate first of all that the core of the work fully rests on Plato’s philosophy, since according to Plutarch’s methodological assumptions Plato had grasped the truth hidden behind the Isis myth. Then I shall focus on the argumentative structure of the work, highlighting its twofold nature. The De Iside is entirely structured as a philosophical zetema, whose apex rests on Plato’s doctrine. Finally, I will argue that the ‘Platonic section’ (45-64) is framed in a different way, its aim being to progressively deepen Plutarch’s underlying assumption: the notion of the dualistic nature of being.

Dualités présocratiques

This papers tries to show at first that the dualism Plutarchus attributed in the De Iside et Osiride to most ancient thinkers, mainly «presocratics», has been largely influenced by the doxographical overview given by Aristotle at the beginning of the Metaphysics, which not only assumed that Empedocles was the first to introduce principles of Good and Evil, but also compared the theory of Anaxagoras to the alleged platonic dualism of the One and the Other. If dualities are quite present and important in some of the main theories of the so‑called presocratic philosophers, the question remains to determine in which cases these dualities can be compared to dualism in the sense this word has taken since Hyde. The second part of this article will thus consist to try to answer this question on the ground of three examples of thinkers for whom dualities played a crucial role : Alcmaeon, Parmenides and, chiefly, Empedocles, who had obviously linked Love and Strife to an axiological pattern in his Katharmoi.

Du dualisme et de l’ambivalence séthienne dans la pensée religieuse de l’Égypte ancienne

In his De Iside, Plutarch uses the example of the Osirian myth and the cases of Osiris, Horus and Typhon (Seth) to define his doctrine of dualism which according to him offers an explication for the philosophical problem of the existence of Good and Evil. Since the philosopher has based himself on Egyptian mythology, the present study seeks to elucidate what the documentation of “pharaonic” Egypt teaches us about the conception of an opposition between Good and Evil, about the place that the complex figure of Seth takes within this concept, and about the typically Egyptian binary way of thinking.

Plutarque développe‑t‑il réellement une pensée dualiste ?

Plutarch is often seen as a dualist philosopher. Yet, when one studies the texts which are most often quoted to back such an opinion, the so‑called dualist doxographies in De Iside et Osiride and in De animae procreatione, one is actually lead to think otherwise. When they are replaced in their context, it so happens that these texts describe the conditions to obtain harmony and the mixing of the contraries which are both necessary to the birth and to the very existence of the universe. However, harmony and mixing cannot be obtained without the receptacle of the contraries that constitute them. Far from being a simple intermediary, this receptacle, which takes different aspects in the different treatises, is indeed a constituent principle according to Plutarch. Without it, there can be neither encounter nor opposition of the contraries, and so, paradoxically, precisely because it is a guarantee of dualism, it makes dualism disappear. Dualism then turns out to be a mere preparatory step in the elaboration of a really triadic philosophy.

A Case of Divine Adultery Investigated

This paper investigates a corpus of ancient Egyptian documents vis-a-vis the so-called adultery that occurred between Osiris and Nephthys. So far the only account about this story is mentioned by the Greek classical writer Plutarch in his treatise De Iside et Osiride which constitutes part of his work the Moralia as called in Latin in addition to a magical spell found in P. Paris Bibliotheque Nationale Supplement Gr. 574. Moreover, other documents have been perceived as suggesting a relationship between both deities. The main aim of this study is to demonstrate that these documents were taken out of context in order to prove its compatibility with Plutarch’s account. Additionally, other cases that can be seen as divine adultery or reflecting misdeeds of the deities are presented.

Chronotopic adaptation in Nawal El Saadawi’s isis

Chronotopic adaptation in Nawal El Saadawi’s isis

<b>Paideia e filosofia nos <i>Moralia</i> de Plutarco: o <i>De liberis educandis</i> e o <i>De Iside et Osiride</i>, isto é, quando o pedagogo prepara o estudante para ser filosofo

The De liberis educandis and the De Iside et Osiride are specifically related to paideia: the former work analyzes how to train a student in philosophy; the latter shows how a person educated in philosophy could relate himself to a cult alien to Greek religious tradition. In fact, only through philosophy it is possible to understand the deeper meaning of a mythology which is quite different from the Greek one. In fact, the concept of dualism is hidden within the strange tale of Isis and Osiris, or rather, a notion that only a philosophical-allegorical interpretation may reveal.

High and low Niles: A natural phenomenon and its mythological interpretation according to Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride 38 and Coffin Texts Spell 168*

Plutarch' De Iside et Osiride 38 identifies the Nile with Osiris' bodily fluids, the riparian lands with Isis, the part of the floodplain closest to the desert with Nepthys, and the desert with Seth. Moreover, the Nile flood is interpreted as Osiris impregnating Isis with Horus and Nephthys with Anubis. This can be interpreted as a new source about Seth's impotence and Osiris' committing adultery with Seth's wife Nephthys. CT spell 168, a hitherto obscure text about ‘joining the river banks,’ may be rooted in the same atmosphere. The text seems to describe Isis and Nephthys as the two river banks, and may relate the low Nile to the impotence of Seth, whose testicles are said to be crushed by the hands of Shesmu.

UN FRAMMENTO DEL DE AEGYPTIIS SIVE DE PROVIDENTIA DI SINESIO

The Cod. Par. Gr. 3025 does not contain fragments from Plutarch’s De Iside et Osiride (as Omont’s Inventaire states), but only a fragment of Plutarch’s De lib. educ ., followed by a part of Synesius’ Aigyptioi vel de Providentia . The paper examines the textual variants for this Synesius’ treatise.

Isis Rising: The Ancient Theology of Donatello's "Virgin" in the Santo

As signaled by the citation of Proverbs 8:24 and Sirach 24:31 in its prologue, the decree of the Council of Basel on the Immaculate Conception represented a triumph of the immaculist Marian teaching of the Franciscan theologian and philosopher John Duns Scotus. The Franciscan Studium Generale at the church of Sant'Antonio in Padova had been a flourishing center of Scottist philosophy and theology since the beginning of the fourteenth century, when the Franciscan companions and allies of the Subtle Doctor and his immediate successors returned from their studies in Paris and Oxford. It seems plausible that after Basel the Franciscans might have wished to celebrate the victory of the Immaculata and their own Scottist theology in a new altarpiece for their church, carried out by Donatello between 1446 and 1450. The interpretation sets the Virgin's sapiential persona into the broader context of the long-standing Christian homology between Genesis and the Timaeus, producing a Platonic reading of the Immaculata as the feminine principle in creation: the mother, receptacle, and womb of all generation. In his treatise De Iside et Osiride Plutarch had identified that primordial feminine principle with Isis, the Egyptian goddess of wisdom. Certain formal resemblances between Donatello's Virgin and figures of Isis are interpreted in terms of this homology. Given that the Council of Basel was schismatic by the time it issued the decree on the Immaculate Conception, the Isis persona provided a well-found confirmation of their predelicted doctrine in the writings of some ancient theologians.

PLUTARCH’S TABLE TALK

This volume concludes T.'s commentary on Plutarch's Quaestiones convivales; in my opinion it is noticeably superior to its two predecessors. Whether owing to the time elapsed (vol. 2 appeared in 1990) or because the author took seriously into account former reviews, this volume is both more readable and more diversified in its approach. To begin with, T. has now supplied each Talk with a brief but lucid and most useful introduction (omission of the titles of the individual Talks is, however, somewhat inconvenient). In each introduction he designates the place and the dramatic date of the Talk, gives information about the participants, summarizes the contents, and underscores the main points of interest or any relevant problems. The Commentary basically follows the methodological lines of the previous volumes, but here the author, apart from proposing interesting emendations and giving illustrative parallels, which testify to his solid philological background and scholarly expertise, also discusses with competence-and more extensively, I think, than before-the various philosophical, literary, and scientific topics of the Quaestiones. His comments on 7.5 (the pleasures from degenerate music), 7.8 (the appropriate dinner entertainment), 8.2 (God is always doing geometry), 8.8 (the Pythagorean fish taboo), 8.9 (the causes of new diseases), and 9.14 (about the Muses) are especially profound and illuminating. However, the lemmata could have been more concise had T. avoided some unnecessary repetitions. He did not need, for instance, to keep explaining why emendations or conjectures that have not passed muster are wrong or superfluous; he could have been more sparing in quoting lengthy passages and, perhaps, avoided altogether printing more than one parallel from the same work of the same author (pp. 81, 94 etc.). Occasionally, the same quotation is printed twice (a Theophrastean passage in two successive entries on p. 209, Galen 1.522 on pp. 292, 294); some lemmata are also unnecessarily repeated (e.g. 8atrv,ovaS, vol. II, p. 23 and vol. III, p. 103); the no doubt correct observation that Plutarch was fond of seafaring images occurs more than ten times (coupled with the reference to Fuhrmann's book). T. is very well-read in secondary literature (yet I saw no reference to Griffiths's commentary on De Iside, although several instances would call for it), but sometimes the bibliography he gives is clearly outdated (p. 134: Becker 1854; p. 247: Griechische Altertumer 1873; p. 256: Barth 1849) or disproportionately extensive for the significance of the subject (on p. 311 he gives eight books and articles about pentathlon). Further, several bibliographical references are printed in full time and time again (e.g. Babut's book on Stoicism, Martin's Symposion, etc.), whereas, incidentally, some obscure ancient authors are referred to in an abbreviated form (e.g. Nicomach. Geras. on p. 326; no full name in the indices). A separate Literatur Verzeichnis that would have lightened the lemmata is lacking. The book closes with two indices, one of English and one of Greek words, which, being short and deficient, do injustice, I am afraid, to the toil and contributions of the author. There is no separate index of proper names, and while there are superfluous names in both indices, many are missing altogether (e.g. Diogenianos, Protogenes,

Plutarch's Dualism and the Delphic Cult

AbstractThe article interprets Plutarch's dualism in the light of the Apollo-Dionysus opposition as presented in De E 388e-389c, arguing that Plutarch is no dualist in the strict sense of the word. A comparison of De E 393f-394a with De Iside 369b-d shows that it is only in the sublunary realm of Nature that Plutarch assumes a duality of two distinct Powers; at the higher levels of reality the divine is unified and harmonious. If Plutarch fails to emphasize this point clearly enough, it is because his primary philosophical interests were ethical, not metaphysical.

Job Xl 18 and the "Bones of Seth"

previously overlooked detail: in the of the animal, which are described in Job xl 18 as being like iron bars (kimtil bargdl). This metaphorical expression is of course intended as a reference to the beast's powerful bodily construction but not exclusively. The verse seems to contain a play on the mythical appellation of iron as bones of for which we have two Egyptian attestations: one in the Pyramid Texts (§ 14a, Utterance 21) 2), and another one in Manetho (Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride 62 = 376b). It is interesting to note that G. A. Wainwright, without mentioning Job xl 18, connects the bones of Seth with hippopotamus bones. In an article on Iron in the distinguished Egyptologist refers to Qaw el-Kebir 3) in central Egypt, where archeologists found a centre of devotion to Seth. During his excavations, Flinders Petrie uncovered great quantities of gigantic which had been collected in piles. They were mineralized, heavy, and black, and presented a metallic lustre and appearance. The vast majority were those of hippopotami, and one complete skull of a hippopotamus was found among them. They were considered sacred, for some of them, wrapped in linen, were found scattered in the tombs at Kaw. A stele was also found, addressed to Seth, and showing a hippopotamus in a papyrus swamp. There can be no doubt that these were not only sacred to Seth, but were also considered to be some sort of iron, or possibly meteorite. It must have been a belief of this sort that provided Plutarch with his otherwise extraordinary expression 'bones of Typhon 4). It is of course far from being sure that mineralized hippopotamus