in mythology, one of the gods of ancient Egypt, and very generally believed to have been the sun, or at least the mind actuating that luminary.

The Egyptians derived all things from two principles, an active and a passive. Their active principle, according to the learned Jablonski*, was an infinite Pantēs, and eternal spirit; and their passive principle was night. This spirit they considered sometimes as a male, sometimes as a female, divinity, and occasionally they attributed to it both sexes; but it does not appear to have been the object of their worship. It shall be shown elsewhere (see Polytheism), that the earliest objects of pagan adoration were the sun, moon, and planets; and that the philosophers and priests of ancient Egypt worshipped the sun by the name of Osiris, may be proved by numberless testimonies from the most authentic records of antiquity. Diogenes Laertius affirms, that they held the sun and moon for divinities, and that they called the latter Ifis; and Macrobius says expressly, "Nec in occulto est, neque alium esse Osirin quam Solem, nec Ifim alium esse quam terram." The same writer informs us, that in the hieroglyphic writings of ancient Egypt, "Osiris was represented by a sceptre and an eye," to denote that this god was the sun looking down from heaven on all things upon earth.

It must not, however, be concealed, that some of the ancients, and a few of the most learned moderns, have contended, that by Osiris the Egyptians understood the Nile or spirit of the Nile, whilst others have confounded him with the Grecian Bacchus. Scaliger and Selden have adopted the former of these opinions, and Servius on Virgil has given his countenance to the latter. But that they are all mistaken, has been evinced by Jablonski in such a manner as to enforce the fullest conviction: "When the Egyptians, in their sacred books, sometimes give the name of Osiris to the Nile and its wonderful increase during the heat of summer, they mean nothing more (says he) but to attribute to their god Osiris the gift which fertilizes their country." This they would the more readily do that they believed the Nile to have its source in heaven. Hence Eusebius tells us†, ὁ Ὀσίρις ταύτης ἡ Νεῖλος, ἢ ὅτι ὁ Ὀσίρις ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἐρχεται, ὁ Ὀσίρις is the Nile, because they think Osiris is sent down from heaven.—In one sense Osiris might be Bacchus, because the original Bacchus was himself the sun (see Mysteries, n. 12); but that the Egyptian god could not be worshipped as the inventor of wine is indeed undeniable, if, as Jablonski labours to prove, the primitive religion of that country inculcated upon its votaries, that wine was the gift, not of a benevolent god, but of an evil genius, the enemy of the human race. In support of this opinion our learned author quotes a passage from Plutarch, from which it appears, that, before the era of Prommetichus, the

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* Pantēs. † Eusebius. Egyptians neither drank wine themselves nor offered it in libations to the gods, because they believed that the first vine sprung from the earth that was impregnated by the blood of those giants who perished in the war with the gods. It is indeed true, that the Greeks, who borrowed their religion as well as the first principles of science from Egypt, attributed to their Bacchus many of the actions of Osiris; but it is likewise true, that they gave him other attributes, which the Egyptian god could not possess consistently with the known superstitions of that country. Salmasius, however, attempts to prove, from the import of the name, that the Osiris of Egypt must have been the Bacchus of Greece. Σερις or Σερις, he says, signifies a son in the Egyptian language; and hence he concludes, that the god was by that people called Osiris, for the same reason that by the Greeks he was called Κοσμός, and by the Romans Liber. But this seems all to be a mistake. Siris makes a part of many Egyptian proper names, as Buc-siris, Termo-siris, Tapo-siris, &c. and is in all probability derived from the Hebrew word Sar, Sur, or Sir, which signifies a prince, potentate, or grandee. As the name of the god was in Egypt not Osiris, but Isis or Isis, it was probably made up of Sir or Siris, and the Hebrew prefix I or I, denoting strength; so that the whole word will signify the strong or mighty prince. If so, we cannot doubt, as Diodorus Siculus, Eusebius, Sextus Empiricus, &c. all affirm, that the Egyptians worshipped the sun by the name of Osiris, but that by this name they meant the power or governing mind of the sun, as the Greeks and Romans seem to have done by their Phaëton and Apollo.

But though the original Osiris was undoubtedly the sun, or the intelligence actuating the sun, yet there is reason to believe that there was a secondary Osiris, who at a very early period reigned in Egypt, and was deified after his death for the benefits he had rendered to his country (see Polytheism). This is indeed so generally admitted, as to have occasioned great controversies among the learned respecting the time when he flourished, and whether he was the civilizer of rude barbarians or the victorious sovereign of a polished nation. The illustrious Newton, it is well known, has adopted the latter opinion; and with much plausibility endeavoured to prove, that Osiris was the same with Sesostris or Serapis; but it must be confessed, that his conclusion is contrary to all the most authentic records of antiquity; and that it would be easy, by the same mode of arguing, to give a show of identity to two persons universally known to have flourished in very distant ages. The annals of Egypt, as may be seen in the writings of Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, Plutarch, and others, who copied from those annals, expressly affected the distinct personality of Osiris and Sesostris, and placed them in eras vastly distant from each other. Osiris, if any credit be due to those historians, was the founder of the Egyptian monarchy; and, as was customary in those days, having either received the name of the sun, or communicated his own to that luminary, was after his death deified Osmund, for the benefits which he had rendered to his country; and being at first worshipped only as a demigod, was in process of time advanced to full divinity, and confounded with his heavenly godfather. The Greeks, who, though original in nothing, were always prompted by their vanity to hold themselves out as the first of the nations, claimed this Osiris as their own, and pretended that he was the son of Jupiter and Niobe. He reigned, say they, over the Argives; but afterwards delivered his kingdom to his brother Alcides, and took a voyage into Egypt, of which he made himself master, and married Io or Isis. He established good laws there; and they were both after their deaths worshipped as gods. That this is a ridiculous fiction needs no proof; since every one knows, that good laws were established in Egypt long before the Argives had any king, or indeed existed either as a tribe or nation.