De Iside et Osiride

But where Typhon forces his way in and seizes upon the outermost areas, there we may conceive of her as seeming sad, and spoken of as mourning, and that she seeks for the remains and scattered members of Osiris and arrays them, receiving and hiding away the things perishable, from which she brings to light again the things that are created and sends them forth from herself.

The relations and forms and effluxes of the God abide in the heavens and in the stars; but those things that are distributed in susceptible elements, earth and sea and plants and animals, suffer dissolution and destruction and burial, and oftentimes again shine forth and appear again in their generations. For this reason the fable has it that Typhon cohabits with Nephthys[*](Cf. 356 a, supra.) and that Osiris has secret relations with her[*](Cf. the note on 356 e, supra.); for the destructive power exercises special dominion over the outermost part of matter which they call Nephthys or Finality.[*](Cf. 355 f and 366 b, supra.) But the creating

and conserving power distributes to this only a weak and feeble seed, which is destroyed by Typhon, except so much as Isis takes up and preserves and fosters and makes firm and strong.[*](Cf. 356 f, supra.)