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are informed that the Mosaic tabernacle was of dimensions not unlike, and shape exactly similar: and was supposed to contain the Sephyroth or spheric lights, and the two stones of the law. Now we learn from Plutarch that a chest containing a golden ark, was used in the mysteries of Osiris. Synesius informs us that these arks, according to the priests, contained the hemispheres, which agree both with the Sephyroth and Dioscuri. The two cherubim placed over the Jewish tabernacle had perhaps a not dissimilar interpretation. At all events those of Ezekiel coincide closely with the attendant masques of Serapis, the calf alone being substituted for the dog.

In the Bacchanalian mysteries a coffer was used, containing the secret symbols of the deity. These are of Egyptian extraction, (perhaps deposited with Osiris), consisted of the phallus, grains of sesame, heads of poppies, pomegranates, dry stems, cakes, salt, carded wool, rolls of honey and cheese; a child, a serpent, and a fan. In the mysteries of Ceres there was a similar coffer called the mundus Cereris," which contained phalli, grains of wheat and barley, a comb, a mirror, and a serpent. We are told, moreover, by Suidas and Eusebius, that arks were devoted to the mysteries of fire and the three Cabiri, and more particularly to the great triple deity of Eleusis, Bacchus, Proserpine, and Ceres. But that no link of affinity may be wanting in order to identify such arks with the pyramids and the sarcophagus, Pausapias informs us that the image of Bacchus or Osiris was found in an ark, which was said to be the work of Vulcan-that Vulcan of whom the pyramid is a symbol. He adds that the king who opened the coffer went mad on seeing him; and a similar story is told of Maneros in Egypt; the same author also informs us that the triple-headed palladium of Troy was deposited in a sacred chest. To a similar source may be attributed the fable of the chest in which Minerva deposited Erechthonius, consigning him to the care of three virgins. The curiosity of one, it seems, got the better of her obedience; and her fright at seeing his serpent limbs, and her subsequent punishment, are circumstances which clearly

'Exodus xxxvii, ver. 1. Two exact cubes. So is the incense-altar, ibid. ver. 25.; but it is worthy remark in this place, that as the coffers agree, so do the tabernacle and its enclosing chamber; there is scarcely any difference on this latter point, and the internal arrangement must have been as like as wooden and marble layers could be.

2 Clem. Alex. Cohort. ad Gent, p. 19.

3 Pausanias. It was made of the bones of Pelops, in which sense it agrees with the talismanic figures of Osiris made by Isis, and Sesoștris.

harmonise with the prohibition to Adam, and perhaps are con nected with the fabled coffers of Psyche and Pandora. Lastly, to sum up the evidence, we learn that the image of Osiris was consigned to a sepulchre for three days; and that, on the fourth, the priests opened it and brought forth a heifer to the people, as the deity restored to life. Other authority proves that it was in the immediate vicinity of the Pyramids, and near a temple of Vulcan who made the coffer of Osiris, that this apparition took place. Now it is not a little singular that Arabians,3 most likely ignorant of these rites, should assert the finding of a statue, in the coffer of the great Pyranid. But, lest historical testimony should appear insufficient, there are ocular and pictorial evidences now extant of the great leading fact here assumed.

We have, as I hinted, no regular detail from history of the Epoptic mysteries connected with the death of Ŏsiris or Apis; but the gap is well supplied by sculpture and painting. Thus on Alexander's Sarcophagus are portrayed the magnificent water spectacles of the lower mysteries, the search of Isis, and the boats that accompanied her, and the great torch transferred afterwards to Eleusis. It is a remarkable confirmation of Bryant's hypothesis that the ship Baris, represented thereon, contains eight persons, the number in the ark. Among other appendages, are tumblers on their heads to represent perhaps the bouleversement of nature; and the plough-share and sickle are very conspicuous, as well as the crocodile Typhon. But our main business lies with the sculptured tomb of Osiris. He lies horizontally surrounded by the folds of a four-headed serpent, implying the four days of his sepulture, or the four great years. during which the body was fated to attend its resurrection. At his head is a beetle, the type of the lower hemisphere, darkness and death; and that no doubt may remain that it was intended for his tomb, the same peculiar symbol decorates the entrances to the tombs of the kings.

I have before me similar records arranged to accompany every stage of the same fabulous drama and every grade of initia tion: but as my purpose chiefly lies with the funereal rites of Osiris and their application to the Pyramid, I shall not bur

Plutarch de Iside et Osir. Bacchus slept three nights with Proserpine. The word Orgies is derived from Argoz, a chest or ark.

2 To the north and south of this temple, were personifications of Cancer and Capricorn, the two gates of the Sun.

3 Ebd Ibn Alhokm.

* The Sarcophagus of the Persian Hossein is carried by eight men.

den the attention with too much unnecessary detail, however interesting. Let us proceed to a second representation of these rites, which is to be found in the Zodiac of Esne. On that remarkable monument we have not only the tomb of Osiris, but portions of his dismembered body. We have not only the triple symbols of the infernal deity on the coffin, but the pyramidal temple of solar fire to which it is conducted. The coffin is like that described by Plutarch in a scyphus, and resembles in shape the double cubic form of the chest in the great pyramid. The next historic picture in the series is from the subterranean crypt in the temple of Tentyra, and represents the four days' sepulture of Osiris. The first seems to signify his death and subterraneous place of sepulture. The second his tomb, the back of a lion, with the lamentations of the ancient Almehs. The scene in the third represents the same tomb, and an offering of that thigh of Apis, to which Horus as Bacchus Bugenes owed his birth. The sphinx-like position of the god perhaps implied the day of his incarnation or new birth, in the figure of Apis, when the voice was heard proclaiming " the mighty Lord of all things is born." In the fourth picture, representing the fourth day, the figure is resurgant, and the presentation of the Tau evidently means resurrection. That the above leonine couch meant a tomb has been sufficiently argued. Bochart says, that Orph means neck, and Aridaca a tame lion; thence the story of Orpheus, and the eastern banner of Sol in dorsa Leonis. There is a similar figure between two serpents, appositely placed on a mummy in the British Museum, with Anubis the barker,3 waking the deceased from death.

2

Lastly, Denon furnishes a representation of a tomb with the image of the funereal Osiris, mentioned by Plutarch, reclined below, and the Ox Apis above, for such I conceive it to be, at the moment of apparition. The triple image of the globe, wing, and serpent, apparently dedicated to him, (see the Bembine table) is a circumstance deserving of remark. The re-appearance of Osiris in the form of Apis, was sometimes designated by a Sphinx with a hawk's head, and a bull's body.

The meaning of all this seems to be a typical representation

The two first verses of Hosea, ch. vi. express the same initiatory revival.

2 He also was cut in pieces, and slept three nights with Proserpine: Tauriformis was one of his titles.

3 Perhaps the harking of dogs and hissing of snakes at Eleusis may be referred to pictures like this.

of the sentence of death on the first man, and to comprise some tradition of that promised redemption to which initiation offered to direct the way. It appears from the Zendavesta that the first man was represented as a minotaur, like Bacchus Tauriformis; and it would seem that Joseph and his promised seed were represented under the same figure. There was no blame attaching to those, who in the dearth of language expressed a divine tradition by a hieroglyphic of astronomy; nor any impropriety in Jacob's adverting to the typical vehicle in which a true and glorious prophecy was innocently conveyed, though perhaps perverted, as it was by the Jews themselves shortly after. Huet thinks, that Apis was Joseph; this is not easily proved; but if the above premises be well based, the prophecy of Jacob, respecting Joseph, could not well avoid some reference to the rites of Apis, or the funereal Osiris; and it presents the features of an obvious connexion.

"Joseph is a fruitful bull by a well, whose children run over the neck; the archers have sorely grieved him; and shot at, and hated him; but his bow abode in strength."

Of all this, there are before me pictorial illustrations: the heifer by an eye or well, the pleiads or chickens upon his neck, the archers shooting at him; his scyphus, bow, &c. I have before said, that Apis was dismembered like Osiris. In the rites of Bacchus a heifer, substituted for a man, was torn to pieces by the teeth of the priests. The thigh and head seem to be the most mysterious portions. Sufficient has been said of the first; the last appears frequently under a sacred aspect. It formed the ornament of friezes and doorways; it ornamented the angles of altars, and furnished the horns. An Egyptian altar exhibits it either as its upper part or in sacrifice upon it. It is seen frequently on Mithraic monuments. One sculpture portrays it on a pillar, and near it three steps, with a figure of Mithra or Eros, seated on a rainbow: another represents it hung upon a tree, with a quiver of arrows. On the Zodiac of Esne, a figure combined of the head and thigh of Apis, is held by Typhon, chained, while another figure pierces it with a dart. The derivation of Centaur here is sufficiently obvious, as well as the reason why Sagittarius is represented under the form of a Centaur whose arrow is directed towards the Zodiacal bull.

I have compressed a variety of interesting subjects here, the

Sometimes crowned with apples; see Montfaucon; sometimes his head with horns was hung on a tree to promote revivification. A bull's head hung upon an apple tree, was devoted to Mithra.

2 Porphyry de Abstinentia.

disquisition of which might fill many chapters, in order to keep the main argument in view. For any abruptness which the compression may have imparted to my style, I beg to apologize; but I have always thought that truth is better than fine words.

The main inference is, that the coffer in the Pyramid resembled, in purpose, the cista and petroma of Ceres, the tabernacle of the Jews, and the coffer in which Bacchus was deposited; that in the mysteries, it was used for the deposition of a similar image of Osiris, during his four days' sepulture, and perhaps for the members and relics of Apis. It is, moreover, probable that it was the great dénouement of the mysteries; that a resurgent image of Osiris Tauriformis was made to rise therefrom, or at least a mimic Sun, to which the animal was devoted, which bore the same name, that of Phra, and was an emblem of the great mediator and liberator, Orus or Mithra. And I found this latter supposition, apparently gratuitous, on several circumstances. If the Pyramid was a type of the universe, where could there be a better sanctuary for the tabernacle of the sun, than the centre of that structure? Analogy supports the inference; for the lower room still bears the name of the Queen's chamber (the Queen of Heaven, Hecate of the three ways.) The supposition accounts for the Eastern type of Sol in dorso tauri; and if the propriety of placing a sun in the realms of Serapis or Pluto be questioned, it must be recollected, that there was a sun of the inferior world, or Sol Inferus, which typified the mild calm of renewed life, that to produce light from darkness, a masonic emblem, illustrative of the creation, and the moral effect of a new birth, was an object of the mysteries, and as we know a leading feature. The final "beatific vision" has been already referred to, and some dazzling radiance seems to have been connected with it. "A miraculous light discloses itself," says Stobæus, describing

• All the Pagan nations had a Nyctilicus or Sol Inferus, who at once presided over funeral rites and Elysium, and to wliom pots of fruits and flowers in both capacities were offered. Among the Syrians these were called the gardens of Adonis, and among the Greeks dedicated to Pluto as Lord and founder of Elysium, and deposited with the dead. They were occasionally gilt, by which was implied either the lost golden age, or the lost golden fruit of Hesperus to be recovered by Hercules Engonasis (see the celestial sphere) the trampler on the Dragon's head. The hieroglyphic of the sun in the lower hemisphere is thus represented

according to Jablonski; but Serapis was the Sol Inferus of Egypt, as Pluto was the Jupiter Inferus of the Greeks. Pluto is the sun under the earth, says Porphyry (apud Euseb. præp. Evan. lib. iii. cap, 3).

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