Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride 32 (part 1)

ταῦτα μὲν οὖν τοιαύτας ὑπονοίας δίδωσιν· ἀπʼ ἄλλης δʼ ἀρχῆς τῶν φιλοσοφώτερόν τι λέγειν δοκούντων τοὺς ἁπλουστάτους σκεψώμεθα πρῶτον. οὗτοι δʼ εἰσὶν οἱ λέγοντες, ὥσπερ Ἕλληνες Κρόνον ἀλληγοροῦσι τὸν χρόνον, Ἥραν δὲ τὸν ἀέρα, γένεσιν δὲ Ἡφαίστου τὴν εἰς πῦρ ἀέρος μεταβολήν, οὕτω παρʼ Αἰγυπτίοις Νεῖλον εἶναι τὸν Ὄσιριν Ἴσιδι συνόντα τῇ γῇ, Τυφῶνα δὲ τὴν θάλασσαν, εἰς ἣν ὁ Νεῖλος ἐμπίπτων ἀφανίζεται καὶ διασπᾶται, πλὴν ὅσον γῆ μέρος ἀναλαμβάνουσα καὶ δεχομένη γίγνεται γόνιμος ὑπʼ αὐτοῦ. καὶ θρῆνός ἐστιν ἱερὸς ἐπὶ τοῦ Κρόνου γενόμενος, θρηνεῖ δὲ τὸν ἐν τοῖς ἀριστεροῖς γιγνόμενον μέρεσιν, ἐν δὲ τοῖς δεξιοῖς φθειρόμενον· Αἰγύπτιοι γὰρ οἴονται τὰ μὲν ἑῷα τοῦ κόσμου πρόσωπον εἶναι, τὰ δὲ πρὸς βορρᾶν δεξιά, τὰ δὲ πρὸς νότον ἀριστερά. φερόμενος οὖν ἐκ τῶν νοτίων ὁ Νεῖλος, ἐν δὲ τοῖς βορείοις ὑπὸ τῆς θαλάσσης καταναλισκόμενος εἰκότως λέγεται τὴν μὲν γένεσιν ἐν τοῖς ἀριστεροῖς ἔχειν, τὴν δὲ φθορὰν ἐν τοῖς δεξιοῖς. διὸ τήν τε θάλασσαν οἱ ἱερεῖς ἀφοσιοῦνται καὶ τὸν ἅλα Τυφῶνος ἀφρὸν καλοῦσι· καὶ τῶν ἀπαγορευομένων ἕν ἐστιν αὐτοῖς ἐπὶ τραπέζης ἅλα μὴ προτίθεσθαι. καὶ κυβερνήτας οὐ προσαγορεύουσιν, ὅτι χρῶνται θαλάττῃ καὶ τὸν βίον ἀπὸ τῆς θαλάττης ἔχουσιν. οὐχ ἥκιστα δὲ καὶ τὸν ἰχθὺν ἀπὸ ταύτης προβάλλονται τῆς αἰτίας, καὶ τὸ μισεῖν ἰχθύι γράφουσιν. ἐν Σάι γοῦν ἐν τῷ προπύλῳ τοῦ ἱεροῦ τῆς Ἀθηνᾶς ἦν γεγλυμμένον βρέφος, γέρων, καὶ μετὰ τοῦτον ἱέραξ, ἐφεξῆς δʼ ἰχθύς, ἐπὶ πᾶσι δʼ ἵππος ποτάμιος.

Such, then, are the possible interpretations which these facts suggest. But now let us begin over again, and consider first the most perspicuous of those who have a reputation for expounding matters more philosophically. These men are like the Greeks who say that Cronus is but a figurative name for Chronus (Time), Hera for Air, and that the birth of Hephaestus symbolizes the change of Air into Fire. And thus among the Egyptians such men say that Osiris is the Nile consorting with the Earth, which is Isis, and that the sea is Typhon into which the Nile discharges its waters and is lost to view and dissipated, save for that part which the earth takes up and absorbs and thereby becomes fertilized. There is also a religious lament sung over Cronus. The lament is for him that is born in the regions on the left, and suffers dissolution in the regions on the right; for the Egyptians believe that the eastern regions are the face of the world, the northern the right, and the southern the left. The Nile, therefore, which runs from the south and is swallowed up by the sea in the north, is naturally said to have its birth on the left and its dissolution on the right. For this reason the priests religiously keep themselves aloof from the sea, and call salt the spume of Typhon; and one of the things forbidden them is to set salt upon a table; also they do not speak to pilots, because these men make use of the sea, and gain their livelihood from the sea. This is also not the least of the reasons why they eschew fish, and they portray hatred by drawing the picture of a fish. At Saïs in …