to the help of his father Osiris (and?) in his benevolent
disposition towards the Gods has consecrated to the temples
revenues of silver and of corn, and has undergone many
expenses in order to lead Egypt into the sunlight and give
peace to the Temples, and has with all his powers shown love
of mankind.'

When the people of Lycopolis revolted, we hear:

'in a short time he took the city by storm and slew all the
Impious who dwelt in it, even as Hermes and Horus, son of Isis
and Osiris, conquered those who of old revolted in the same
regions . . . in return for which the Gods have granted him
Health Victory Power and all other good things, the Kingdom
remaining to him and his sons for time everlasting.'[157:1]

The conclusion which the Priests draw from these facts is that the
young king's titles and honours are insufficient and should be
increased. It is a typical and terribly un-Hellenic document of the
Hellenistic God-man in his appearance as King.

Now the early successors of Alexander mostly professed themselves
members of the Stoic school, and in the mouth of a Stoic this doctrine
of the potential divinity of man was an inspiring one. To them virtue
was the really divine thing in man; and the most divine kind of virtue
was that of helping humanity. To love and help humanity is, according to
Stoic doctrine, the work and the very essence of God. If you take away
Pronoia from God, says Chrysippus,[158:1] it is like taking away light
and heat from fire. This doctrine is magnificently expressed by Pliny in
a phrase that is probably translated from Posidonius: 'God is the
helping of man by man; and that is the way to eternal glory.'[158:2]

The conception took root in the minds of many Romans. A great Roman
governor often had the chance of thus helping humanity on a vast scale,
and liked to think that such a life opened the way to heaven. 'One
should conceive', says Cicero (_Tusc._ i. 32), 'the gods as like men
who feel themselves born for the work of helping, defending, and saving
humanity. Hercules has passed into the number of the gods. He would
never have so passed if he had not built up that road for himself while
he was among mankind.'

I have been using some rather late authors, though the ideas seem
largely to come from Posidonius.[159:1] But before Posidonius the sort
of fact on which we have been dwelling had had its influence on
religious speculatio