the departed, nor the damned, past, present or future, whoever they be, can do him hurt. He it is who cometh forth in safety; 'Whom men know not' is his name. The 'Yesterday which sees endless years' is his name, passing in triumph by the roads of heaven. The deceased is the Lord of eternity; he is reckoned even as Chepera; he is the master of the kingly crown." And as Osiris himself is identified with many other gods, so the deceased person is perpetually introduced speaking of himself in the person of Rā, Tmu, Chnemu, Seb, Horus and many others. The allusions are often simple enough, as when it is said, "I am Horus, and I am come to see my father Osiris;" or even, "I am he who resides in the middle of the eye;" for in all mythologies the Sun is spoken of as the eye, either of heaven[1] or of some deity. But a
- ↑ "Heaven's eye" is a frequent expression in Shakespeare, and the Friar in "Romeo and Juliet" says:
- "Now ere the Sun advance his burning eye."
Τον πανόπτην κύκλον ἡλίου. Æsch. Prom. 92. Ὦ χρυσέας ἁμέρας βλέφαρον. Soph. Antig. 103. Ἄλιον, Ἄλιον αἰτῶ τοῦτο … ὦ κρατιστεύων κατ' ὄμμα. Trach. 96. Ἀλλὰ σὺ γὰρ δὴ πᾶσαν χθόνα καὶ κατὰ πόντον αἰθέρος ἐκ δίης καταδέρκεαι ἀκτίνεσσι. Homer, Hymn. in Dem. 69.
From the Latin poets I will only quote Ovid's
Omnia qui video, per quem videt omnia tellus, Mundi oculus. Met. iv. 227.
