Promoting Morality & Happiness: Selections from “Isis and Osiris” by Plutarch (vegetarian), Part 2 of 2

Here Plutarch explains that many Greek philosophers traveled to Egypt to study their religion, which focuses on the Divine.

“[…] This is still farther evinced from those voyages which have been made into Egypt by the wisest men among the Greeks, namely, by Solo, Thales Plato, Eudoxus, Pythagoras, and, as some say, even by Lycurgus himself, on purpose to converse with the priests. And we are also told that Eudoxus was a disciple of Chnouphis the Memphite, Solo of Sonchis the Saïte, and Pythagoras of Oinuphis the Heliopolite.

But none of these philosophers seems either to have been more admired and in greater favor with the priests, or to have paid a more especial regard to their method of philosophizing, than this last named, who has particularly imitated their mysterious and symbolical manner in his own writings, and like them conveyed his doctrines to the world in a kind of riddle. For many of the precepts of Pythagoras come nothing short of the hieroglyphical representations themselves, such as, ‘eat not in a chariot,’ ‘sit not on a measure (choenix),’ ‘plant not a palm-tree,’ and ‘stir not the fire with a sword in the house.’

And I myself am of the opinion that, when the Pythagoreans appropriated the names of several of the gods to particular numbers, as that of Apollo to the unit, of Artemis to the duad, of Athene to the seven, and of Poseidon to the first cube, in this they allude to something which the founder of their sect saw in the Egyptian temples, or to some ceremonies performed in them, or to some symbols there exhibited. Thus, their great king and lord Osiris is represented by the hieroglyphics for an eye and a scepter, the name itself signifying ‘many-eyed,’ as we are told by some who would derive it from the words os, ‘many,’ and iri, an ‘eye,’ which have this meaning in the Egyptian language. Similarly, because the heavens are eternal and are never consumed or wax old, they represent them by a heart with a censer placed under it. Much in the same way are those statues of the Judges at Thebes without hands, and their chief, or president, is represented with his eyes turned downwards, which signifies that justice ought not to be obtainable by bribes, nor guided by favor or affection. […]”