Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride 57

δόξειε δʼ ἂν ἴσως καὶ Ἡσίοδος τὰ πρῶτα πάντα Χάος καὶ Γῆν καὶ τάρταρον καὶ Ἔρωτα ποιῶν οὐχ ἑτέρας λαμβάνειν ἀρχάς, ἀλλὰ ταύτας· εἴγε δὴ τῶν ὀνομάτων τῇ μὲν Ἴσιδι τὸ τῆς Γῆς, τῷ δʼ Ὀσίριδι τὸ τοῦ ἔρωτος, τῷ δὲ Τυφῶνι τὸ τοῦ Ταρτάρου μεταλαμβάνοντές πως ἀποδίδομεν· τὸ γὰρ Χάος δοκεῖ χώραν τινὰ καὶ τόπον τοῦ παντὸς ὑποτίθεσθαι. προσκαλεῖται δὲ καὶ τὸν Πλάτωνος ἁμωσγέπως τὰ πράγματα μῦθον, ὃν Σωκράτης ἐν Συμποσίῳ περὶ τῆς τοῦ Ἔρωτος γενέσεως διῆλθε, τὴν Πενίαν λέγων τέκνων δεομένην τῷ Πόρῳ καθεύδοντι, παρακλιθῆναι, καὶ κυήσασαν ἐξ αὐτοῦ τεκεῖν τὸν Ἔρωτα, φύσει μικτὸν ὄντα καὶ παντοδαπόν, ἅτε δὴ πατρὸς μὲν ἀγαθοῦ καὶ σοφοῦ καὶ πᾶσιν αὐτάρκους, μητρὸς δʼ ἀμηχάνου καὶ ἀπόρου καὶ διʼ ἔνδειαν ἀεὶ γλιχομένης ἑτέρου καὶ περὶ ἕτερον λιπαρούσης γεγενημένον. ὁ γὰρ Πόρος οὐχ ἕτερός ἐστι τοῦ πρώτου ἐρατοῦ καὶ ἐφετοῦ καὶ τελείου καὶ αὐτάρκους· πενίαν δὲ τὴν ὕλην προσεῖπεν, ἐνδεᾶ μὲν οὖσαν αὐτὴν καθʼ ἑαυτὴν τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ, πληρουμένην δʼ ὑπʼ αὐτοῦ καὶ ποθοῦσαν ἀεὶ καὶ μεταλαμβάνουσαν. ὁ δὲ γενόμενος ἐκ τούτων κόσμος καὶ Ὧρος οὐκ ἀίδιος οὐδʼ ἀπαθὴς οὐδʼ ἄφθαρτος, ἀλλʼ ἀειγενὴς ὢν μηχανᾶται ταῖς τῶν παθῶν μεταβολαῖς καὶ περιόδοις ἀεὶ νέος καὶ μηδέποτε φθαρησόμενος διαμένειν.

It might appear that Hesiod, in making the very first things of all to be Chaos and Earth and Tartarus and Love, did not accept any other origins but only these, if we transfer the names somewhat and assign to Isis the name of Earth and to Osiris the name of Love and to Typhon the name of Tartarus; for the poet seems to place Chaos at the bottom as a sort of region that serves as a resting-place for the Universe. This subject seems in some wise to call up the myth of Plato, which Socrates in the Symposium gives at some length in regard to the birth of Love, saying that Poverty, wishing for children, insinuated herself beside Plenty while he was asleep, and having become pregnant by him, gave birth to Love, who is of a mixed and utterly variable nature, inasmuch as he is the son of a father who is good and wise and self-sufficient in all things, but of a mother who is helpless and without means and because of want always clinging close to another and always importunate over another. For Plenty is none other than the first beloved and desired, the perfect and self-sufficient; and Plato calls raw material Poverty, utterly lacking of herself in the Good, but being filled from him and always yearning for him and sharing with him. The World, or Horus, which is born of these, is not eternal nor unaffected nor imperishable, but, being ever reborn, contrives to remain always young and never subject to destruction in the changes and cycles of events.