The Golden Bough (Third Edition, Vol. 7 of 12) - Mirrors

§ 4. The Corn-spirit slain in his Human Representatives. 309scattered up and down the land, and buried by Isis on the spotswhere they lay, 810 may very well be a reminiscence of a custom,like that observed by the Khonds, of dividing the human victimin pieces and burying the pieces, often at intervals of many milesfrom each other, in the fields. 811 However, it is possible that thestory of the dismemberment of Osiris, like the similar story toldof Tammuz, may have been simply a mythical expression for thescattering of the seed. Once more, the legend that the body ofOsiris enclosed in a coffer was thrown by Typhon into the Nile,perhaps points to a custom of casting the body of the victim, orat least a portion of it, into the Nile as a rain-charm, or ratherto make the river rise. For a similar purpose Phrygian reapersseem to have flung the headless bodies of their victims, wrapt incorn-sheaves, into a river, and the Khonds poured water on theburied flesh of the human victim. Probably when Osiris ceased tobe represented by a human victim, an image of him was annuallythrown into the Nile, just as the effigy of his Syrian counterpart, [263]Adonis, used to be cast into the sea at Alexandria. Or water mayhave been simply poured over it, as on the monument alreadymentioned 812 a priest is seen pouring water over the body ofOsiris, from which corn-stalks are sprouting. The accompanyinglegend, “This is Osiris of the mysteries, who springs from thereturning waters,” bears out the view that at the mysteries ofOsiris a charm to make rain fall or the river rise was regularlywrought by pouring water on his effigy or flinging it into theNile.It may be objected that the red-haired victims were slain as The black andrepresentatives, not of Osiris, but of his enemy Typhon; for thevictims were called Typhonian, and red was the colour of Typhon,green Osiris likethe black and greenDemeter.810 Plutarch, Isis et Osiris, 18.811 See above, p. 248; and compare Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Second Edition, pp.331 sqq.812 See Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Second Edition, p. 323.