Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride 14

πρώτων δὲ τῶν τὸν περὶ Χέμμιν οἰκούντων τόπον Πανῶν καὶ Σατύρων τὸ πάθος αἰσθομένων καὶ λόγον ἐμβαλόντων περὶ τοῦ γεγονότος, τὰς μὲν αἰφνιδίους τῶν ὄχλων ταραχὰς καὶ πτοήσεις ἔτι νῦν διὰ τοῦτο πανικὰς προσαγορεύεσθαι· τὴν δʼ Ἶσιν αἰσθομένην κείρασθαι μὲν ἐνταῦθα τῶν πλοκάμων ἕνα καὶ πένθιμον στολὴν ἀναλαβεῖν, ὅπου τῇ πόλει μέχρι νῦν ὄνομα Κοπτώ. ἕτεροι δὲ τοὔνομα σημαίνειν οἴονται στέρησιν· τὸ γὰρ ἀποστερεῖν κόπτειν λέγουσι. πλανωμένην δὲ πάντῃ καὶ ἀποροῦσαν οὐδένα προσελθεῖν ἀπροσαύδητον, ἀλλὰ καὶ παιδαρίοις συντυχοῦσαν ἐρωτᾶν περὶ τῆς λάρνακος· τὰ δὲ τυχεῖν ἑωρακότα καὶ φράσαι τὸ στόμα, διʼ οὗ τὸ ἀγγεῖον οἱ φίλοι τοῦ Τυφῶνος εἰς τὴν θάλασσαν ἔωσαν. ἐκ τούτου τὰ παιδάρια μαντικὴν δύναμιν ἔχειν οἴεσθαι τοὺς Αἰγυπτίους, καὶ μάλιστα ταῖς τούτων ὀττεύεσθαι κληδόσι παιζόντων ἐν ἱεροῖς καὶ φθεγγομένων ὅ τι ἂν τύχωσι. αἰσθομένην δὲ τῇ ἀδελφῇ ἐρῶντα συγγεγονέναι διʼ ἄγνοιαν ὡς ἑαυτῇ τὸν Ὄσιριν, καὶ τεκμήριον ἰδοῦσαν τὸν μελιλώτινον στέφανον, ὃν ἐκεῖνος παρὰ τῇ Νέφθυι κατέλιπε, τὸ παιδίον ζητεῖν (ἐκθεῖναι γὰρ εὐθὺς τεκοῦσαν διὰ φόβον τοῦ Τυφῶνος)· εὑρεθὲν δὲ χαλεπῶς καὶ μόγις, κυνῶν ἐπαγόντων τὴν Ἶσιν, ἐκτραφῆναι καὶ γενέσθαι φύλακα καὶ ὀπαδὸν αὐτῆς, Ἄνουβιν προσαγορευθέντα, καὶ λεγόμενον τοὺς θεοὺς φρουρεῖν, ὥσπερ οἱ κύνες τοὺς ἀνθρώπους.

The first to learn of the deed and to bring to men’s knowledge an account of what had been done were the Pans and Satyrs who lived in the region around Chemmis, and so, even to this day, the sudden confusion and consternation of a crowd is called a panic. Isis, when the tidings reached her, at once cut off one of her tresses and put on a garment of mourning in a place where the city still bears the name of Kopto. Others think that the name means deprivation, for they also express deprive by means of koptein. But Isis wandered everywhere at her wits’ end; no one whom she approached did she fail to address, and even when she met some little children she asked them about the chest. As it happened, they had seen it, and they told her the mouth of the river through which the friends of Typhon had launched the coffin into the sea. Wherefore the Egyptians think that little children possess the power of prophecy, and they try to divine the future from the portents which they find in children’s words, especially when children are playing about in holy places and crying out whatever chances to come into their minds. They relate also that Isis, learning that Osiris in his love had consorted with her sister through ignorance, in the belief that she was Isis, and seeing the proof of this in the garland of melilote which he had left with Nephthys, sought to find the child; for the mother, immediately after its birth, had exposed it because of her fear of Typhon. And when the child had been found, after great toil and trouble, with the help of dogs which led Isis to it, it was brought up …