lemies when
the religion of Egypt came into contact with Greece. Isis was identified
simultaneously with Demeter, Aphrodite, Hera, Semele, Io, Tyche, and
others. She was considered the queen of heaven and hell, of earth and sea.
She was "the past, the present and the future,"[42] "nature the mother of
things, the mistress of the elements, born at the beginning of the
centuries."[43] She had numberless names, an infinity of different aspects
and an inexhaustible treasure of virtues. In short, she became a
pantheistic power that was everything in one, _una quae est omnia_.[44]

The authority of Serapis was no less exalted, and his field no less
extensive. He also was regarded as a universal god of whom men liked to say
that he was "unique." ([Greek: Heis Zeus Sarapis]) In him all energies were
centered, although the functions of Zeus, of Pluto or of Helios were
especially ascribed to him. For many centuries Osiris had been worshiped at
Abydos both as author of fecundity and lord of the underworld,[45] and this
double character early caused him to be identified with the sun, which
fertilizes the earth during its diurnal course and travels through the
subterranean realms at night. Thus the conception of this nature divinity,
that had already prevailed along the Nile, accorded without difficulty with
the solar pantheism that was the last form of Roman paganism. This
theological system, which did not gain the upper hand in the Occident until
the {90} second century of our era, was not brought in by Egypt. It did not
have the exclusive predominance there that it had held under the empire,
and even in Plutarch's time it was only one creed among many.[46] The
deciding influence in this matter was exercised by the Syrian Baals and the
Chaldean astrology.

The theology of the Egyptian mysteries, then, followed rather than led the
general influx of ideas. The same may be said of their ethics. It did not
force itself upon the world by lofty moral precepts, nor by a sublime ideal
of holiness. Many have admired the edifying list in the Book of the Dead,
that rightfully or otherwise sets forth the virtues which the deceased
claims to have practised in order to obtain a favorable judgment from
Osiris. If one considers the period in which it appears, this ethics is
undoubtedly very elevated, but it seems rudimentary and even childish if
one compares it with the principles formulated by the Roman jurists, to say
nothing of the minute psyc