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[FOURTH EXPLANATION OF THE STORY.]

[§ XLI. Osiris is the Moon, and Typhon is the Sun; Typhon is therefore called Seth, 1 a word meaning "violence," "force," &c. Herakles accompanies the Sun, and Hermes the Moon. In § XLII. Plutarch connects the death-day of Osiris, the seventeenth of Hathor, with the seventeenth day of the Moon's revolution, when she begins to wane. The age of Osiris, twenty-eight years, suggests the comparison with the twenty-eight days of the Moon's revolution. The tree-trunk which is made into the shape of a crescent at the funeral of Osiris refers to the crescent moon when she

p. 246

wanes. The fourteen pieces into which Osiris was broken refer to the fourteen days in which the moon wanes.]

Footnotes

245:1 In Egyptian, , or which Plutarch seems to connect with set, .