Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride 20 (part 1)

ταῦτα σχεδόν ἐστι τοῦ μύθου τὰ κεφάλαια τῶν δυσφημοτάτων ἐξαιρεθέντων, οἷόν ἐστι τὸ περὶ τὸν Ὥρου διαμελισμὸν καὶ τὸν Ἴσιδος ἀποκεφαλισμόν. ὅτι μὲν οὖν, εἰ ταῦτα περὶ τῆς μακαρίας καὶ ἀφθάρτου φύσεως, καθʼ ἣν μάλιστα νοεῖται τὸ θεῖον, ὡς ἀληθῶς πραχθέντα καὶ συμπεσόντα δοξάζουσι καὶ λέγουσιν, ἀποπτύσαι δεῖ καὶ καθήρασθαι στόμα κατʼ Αἰσχύλον, οὐδὲν δεῖ λέγειν πρὸς σέ. καὶ γὰρ αὐτὴ δυσκολαίνεις τοῖς οὕτω παρανόμους καὶ βαρβάρους δόξας περὶ θεῶν ἔχουσιν. ὅτι δʼ οὐκ ἔοικε ταῦτα κομιδῇ μυθεύμασιν ἀραιοῖς καὶ διακένοις πλάσμασιν, οἷα ποιηταὶ καὶ λογογράφοι καθάπερ οἱ ἀράχναι γεννῶντες ἀφʼ ἑαυτῶν ἀπʼ ἀρχῆς ἀνυποθέτου ὑφαίνουσι καὶ ἀποτείνουσιν, ἀλλʼ ἔχει τινὰς ἱστορίας καὶ παθῶν διηγήσεις, οἶσθʼ αὐτή, καὶ καθάπερ οἱ μαθηματικοὶ τὴν ἶριν ἔμφασιν εἶναι τοῦ ἡλίου λέγουσι ποικιλλομένην τῇ πρὸς τὸ νέφος ἀναχωρήσει τῆς ὄψεως, οὕτως μῦθος ἐνταῦθα λόγου τινὸς ἔμφασίς ἐστιν ἀνακλῶντος ἐπʼ ἄλλα τὴν διάνοιαν, ὡς ὑποδηλοῦσιν αἵ τε θυσίαι τὸ πένθιμον ἔχουσαι καὶ σκυθρωπὸν ἐμφαινόμενον, αἵ τε τῶν ναῶν διαθέσεις πῆ μὲν ἀνειμένων εἰς πτερὰ καὶ δρόμους ὑπαιθρίους καὶ καθαρούς, πῆ δὲ κρυπτὰ καὶ σκότια κατὰ γῆς ἐχόντων στολιστήρια Θηβαίοις ἐοικότα καὶ σηκοῖς· οὐχ ἥκιστα δʼ ἡ τῶν Ὀσιρείων δόξα, πολλαχοῦ κεῖσθαι λεγομένου τοῦ σώματος·

These are nearly all the important points of the legend, with the omission of the most infamous of the tales, such as that about the dismemberment of Horus and the decapitation of Isis. There is one thing that I have no need to mention to you: if they hold such opinions and relate such tales about the nature of the blessed and imperishable (in accordance with which our concept of the divine must be framed) as if such deeds and occurrences actually took place, then Much need there is to spit and cleanse the mouth, as Aeschylus has it. But the fact is that you yourself detest those persons who hold such abnormal and outlandish opinions about the gods. That these accounts do not, in the least, resemble the sort of loose fictions and frivolous fabrications which poets and writers of prose evolve from themselves, after the manner of spiders, interweaving and extending their unestablished first thoughts, but that these contain narrations of certain puzzling events and experiences, you will of yourself understand. Just as the rainbow, according to the account of the mathematicians, is a reflection of the sun, and owes its many hues to the withdrawal of our gaze from the sun and our fixing it on the cloud, so the somewhat fanciful accounts here set down are but reflections of some true tale which turns back our thoughts to other matters; their sacrifices plainly suggest this, in that they have mourning and melancholy reflected in them; and so also does the structure of their temples, which in one portion are expanded into wrings and into uncovered and unobstructed corridors, and …