Section XLI and XLII: Fourth Explanation of the Story

[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

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