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Today it is a pleasure to share selections from “The History of Isis and Osiris,” explanations by Plutarch (vegetarian), as recorded in the book “Legends of the Gods” by E. A. Wallis Budge, which explain how the religious rites and ceremonies of the Egyptians focus on promoting morality and happiness. The History of Isis and Osiris, With explanations of the same, collected by Plutarch, and supplemented by His own views. Section 8 “This much may be depended upon: the, religious rites and ceremonies of the Egyptians were never instituted upon irrational grounds, never built upon mere fable and superstition, but founded with a view to promote the morality and happiness of those who were to observe them, or at least to preserve the memory of some valuable piece of history, or to represent to us some of the phenomena of nature. As concerning the abhorrence which is expressed for onions, it is wholly improbable that this detestation is owing to the loss of Diktys, who, whilst he was under the guardianship of Isis, is supposed to have fallen into the river and to have been drowned as he was reaching after a bunch of them. No, the true reason of their abstinence from onions is because they are observed to flourish most and to be in the greatest vigor at the wane of the moon, and also because they are entirely useless to them either in their feasts or in their times of abstinence and purification, for in the former case they make tears come from those who use them, and in the latter they create thirst. […] All agree, however, in saying that so great was the abhorrence which the ancient Egyptians expressed for whatever tended to promote luxury, expense, and voluptuousness, that in order to expose it as much as possible they erected a column in one of the temples of Thebes, full of curses against their King Meinis, who first drew them off from their former frugal and parsimonious course of life. […]” Section 9 “Now, the kings of Egypt were always chosen either out of the soldiery or priesthood, the former order being honored and respected for its valor, and the latter for its wisdom. If the choice fell upon a soldier, he was immediately initiated into the order of priests, and by them instructed in their abstruse and hidden philosophy, a philosophy for the most part involved in fable and allegory, and exhibiting only dark hints and obscure resemblances of the truth. […]”
