Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/462

 1 54 Colour Synibolisvi.

ship of the nether divinities, to Plouton, Denieter, Perse- phone and .the Erinyes." Sir James Frazer would have been more convincing if, instead of attempting to prove the existence of a " Green Demeter " who personified green corn, he had entered a plea in favour of a " White Demeter," " We," writes Farnell,^ " find in the neighbourhood of Megalopolis, where the Euminides were distinguished in cult and legend as the black goddesses and the white goddesses, a parallel to the Phigalein cult of the Black Demeter." Egypt had a " Black Hathor " and a " White Hathor " ; it had also, in addition to the " Golden Hathor," a " Red Hathor." ^ Demeter, who came from Egypt, was undoubtedly a form of Hathor.

There is absolutely no evidence in the Egyptian texts to support the theory that the priests had Osiris painted green to symbolise green corn. I cannot see what purpose could have been served by their doing such a thing.

The mistake which, in my opinion. Sir James Frazer makes is to try and account for the greenness of Osiris in relation to corn, instead of the greenness of corn in relation to Osiris. He puts the cart in front of the horse. It was not the greenness of Osiris that the ancient priests had to explain when dealing with vegetation. It was rather the greenness of corn. They attached, as did the Grimaldi Cro-Magnons, an importance to green stones before they began to grow corn. There can be little doubt that the Egyptians believed the greenness of corn came from the green Osiris. Osiris was essentially the river Nile. The Nile made Egypt green. In the payprus story of the eloquent peasant, who compared the grand steward to the Nile, occurs the significant passage :

" Thou art like the flood (inundation), thou art the Nile tliat makes green the fields and furnishes the waste lands." ^ 1 Cults of the Greek States, vol. ii. p. 54. ^ Budge, Gods of the Egyptians, vol. i. p. 438. ^ Breasted, op. cit. p. 221.