This was declared in so many words by Saul, when the parts of the slaughtered oxen were sent among the tribes: "Whosoever cometh not forth after Saul and after Samuel, so shall it be done to his oxen." In like manner, when the dismembered parts of Osiris were sent among the cities by the seventy-two "conspirators"--in other words, by the supreme judges of Egypt, it was equivalent to a solemn declaration in their name, that "whosoever should do as Osiris had done, so should it be done to him; so should he also be cut in pieces."
When irreligion and apostacy again arose into the ascendant, this act, into which the constituted authorities who had to do with the ringleader of the apostates were led, for the putting down of the combined system of irreligion and despotism set up by Osiris or Nimrod, was naturally the object of intense abhorrence to all his sympathisers; and for his share in it the chief actor was stigmatised as Typho, or "The Evil One." *
* Wilkinson admits that different individuals at different times bore this hated name in Egypt. One of the most noted names by which Typho, or the Evil One, was called, was Seth (EPIPHANIUS, Adv. Hoeres). Now Seth and Shem are synonymous, both alike signifying "The appointed one." As Shem was a younger son of Noah, being "the brother of Japhet the elder" (Gen 10:21), and as the pre-eminence was divinely destined to him, the name Shem, "the appointed one," had doubtless been given him by Divine direction, either at his birth or afterwards, to mark him out as Seth had been previously marked out as the "child of promise." Shem, however, seems to have been known in Egypt as Typho, not only under the name of Seth, but under his own name; for Wilkinson tells us that Typho was characterised by a name that signified "to destroy and render desert." (Egyptians) Now the name of Shem also in one of its meanings signifies "to desolate" or lay waste. So Shem, the appointed one, was by his enemies made Shem, the Desolator or Destroyer--i.e., the Devil. The influence that this abhorred Typho wielded over the minds of the so-called "conspirators," considering the physical force with which Nimrod was upheld, must have been wonderful, and goes to show, that though his deed in regard to Osiris is veiled, and himself branded by a hateful name, he was indeed none other than that primitive Hercules who overcame the Giants by "the power of God," by the persuasive might of his Holy Spirit. In connection with this character of Shem, the myth that makes Adonis, who is identified with Osiris, perish by the tusks of a wild boar, is easily unravelled. * The tusk of a wild boar was a symbol. In Scripture, a tusk is called "a horn"; among many of the Classic Greeks it was regarded in the very same light. **
* In India, a demon with a "boar's face" is said to have gained such power through his devotion, that he oppressed the "devotees" or worshippers of the gods, who had to hide themselves. (MOOR'S Pantheon) Even in Japan there seems to be a similar myth. ** Pausanian admits that some in his day regarded tusks as teeth; but he argues strongly, and, I think, conclusively, for their being considered as "horns."
When once it is known that a tusk is regarded as a "horn" according to the symbolism of idolatry, the meaning of the boar's tusks, by which Adonis perished, is not far to seek. The bull's horns that Nimrod wore were the symbol of physical power. The boar's tusks were the symbol of spiritual power.