Final Draft - Preview Matter - Florida State University
Final Draft - Preview Matter - Florida State University
Final Draft - Preview Matter - Florida State University
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opinion. This is a weak argument in support of a negative assessment of animal cult, but it does<br />
point out that personal opinion is one large factor that we must take into account when dealing<br />
with these literary sources. Again, the author’s viewpoint may or may not apply to the populace<br />
at large.<br />
Plutarch’s assessment of animal worship in his treatment of the cult of Isis and Osiris has<br />
been interpreted in two, quite opposite, ways. Based on their reading of Plutarch’s text, Smelik<br />
and Hemelrijk produce contradictory statements that support both a negative and positive view<br />
of animal worship. At one moment they state that,<br />
… Plutarch makes it clear that he cannot accept animal worship as such and that<br />
his interpretation of it is only an effort to present what was in fact unacceptable<br />
to himself and to his public, in such a way that it might be valued. 33<br />
This opinion is no doubt based upon a passage in Plutarch in which he states the following:<br />
But not least are the Egyptians well used to this in reference to the<br />
animals they honor. The Greeks, on the other hand, speak correctly in relation to<br />
these matters and regard the dove as the sacred animal of Aphrodite, the serpent<br />
of Athena, the raven of Apollo, and the dog of Artemis. Thus Euripides says,<br />
“You shall be a dog, an image of bright Hekate.”<br />
The majority of Egyptians, though, worship the animals themselves and<br />
treat them as gods, thus not only have they confounded the sacred rites with<br />
laughter and mockery, but this is the least evil of their stupidity; a terrible belief<br />
is implanted which subverts the weak and guileless into impotent superstition,<br />
but the more cunning and rash fall into godless and savage reasoning. 34<br />
But this is not the whole picture, as Smelik and Hemelrijk indicate in reference to the following<br />
passage. “Therefore, we should not honor these, but through them honor the Divine since they<br />
33 Smelik and Hemelrijk 1984, 1961. The assumption that Plutarch is wholly against animal worship is based<br />
primarily on Plut. De Is. et Os. 71, at which point he refers to the practice as a “stark superstition.” This is not the<br />
complete picture, however, as can be seen from numerous other points in Plutarch’s text and the Greek examples of<br />
animal cult he provides.<br />
34 Plut. De Is. et Os. 71. Greek Text taken from Plutarch’s De Iside et Osiride, edited by J G Griffith, Cambridge:<br />
<strong>University</strong> of Wales Press, 1970, p. 228, 230. (Translation by Author.)<br />
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