In the beginning Ra cursed Nut so that she could not have children on any day of the year. Nut begged Thot for help. Thot, the god of magic, learning, and wisdom, whom the Greeks called Hermes Trismegistus, loved her. Although the curse once uttered by the great God Ra could never be revoked, Thot opened a way through his wisdom. He went to the Moon god, whose luster was almost equal to that of the Sun itself, and challenged him to a game of dice. The stakes were great on both sides, but the Moon god's was the greatest, for he bet his own light. They played game after game and luck was always on Thot's side until the Moon stopped playing. Then Thot collected the light, that he had won and by his power and greatness he divided it over five days. And since then, the Moon has not had enough light to shine all month, but has diminished until it is completely dark, and then slowly grows back to its full brilliance; for the light of five whole days had been taken from him. And these five days placed Thot between the end of the old year and the beginning of the new, so that he kept them separate from both; and on these five days the five children of Nut were born: Osiris on the first day, Horus on the second, Set on the third, Isis on the fourth, and
Nephthys on the fifth. Thus the curse of Ra was simultaneously fulfilled and undone, for the days on which the children of Nut were born did not belong to a year.
When Osiris was born, signs and wonders were seen all over the world, for a voice echoed all over the earth: "The Lord of the Universe comes to light." And a woman who drew water on the holy forecourt of the temple was filled with divine inspiration and hurried away, shouting: "Osiris, the King is born".
Now Egypt was a barbaric country, where people fought each other and ate human flesh; they knew nothing of the gods, they were lawless and uncivilized. But Osiris became King of Egypt and showed his people how to cultivate the land and sow corn and plant the vine, and taught them what they owed to the Gods, and made laws and destroyed their barbaric and uncivilized customs. Wherever he went, the people bowed down before him, for they loved even the ground upon which his feet walked; and whatever he prescribed, they did it. Thus Osiris ruled over the Egyptians; with unrolled banners and sounding music he left Egypt to bring all countries under his scepter.
But Set hated his brother Osiris, and he gathered seventy-two conspirators; and among them was Aso, queen of Ethiopia. And they conceived the plan that when Osiris returned, they would kill him and set Set on the throne; but they kept their plans secret and approached Osiris with kind faces when he entered Egypt again in triumph. They kept meetings secret, in secret they also prepared a chest made of precious wood, painted and decorated with rich drawings and glowing colors, a mixture of shades and an abundance of artisan craftsmanship, so that all of them they wanted to have in their possession. Set, de Booze, had secretly measured the body of Osiris and the coffin was made that way.
When everything was ready, Set invited his brother and the seventy-two conspirators to a party in his large party hall.
When the party was over, they sang the song of Mancros, as was the custom, and slaves offered round cups of wine and wound wreaths around the heads of the guests and poured incense upon them until the banquet hall was infused with delightful scents. And while joy reigned, slaves entered, carrying the coffin, and all the guests uttered a cry of admiration for seeing her beauty.
Then Set got up from his seat and said, "He who lays down in this coffin and fits into it will I give her." His words were honey sweet, but in his heart was the bitterness of evil.
One by one, the conspirators lay in the coffin with jokes and laughter; one was too long, another was too short, a third was too wide and a fourth too narrow. Then it was Osiris' turn and, assuming no harm, he resigned himself to it. Suddenly the conspirators grabbed the lid and slammed it shut; some nailed it tightly, while others poured molten lead into all openings so that he could not breathe and live. Thus died the great Osiris, who is called Unnefer, the Triumphant, and after his death he entered the Duat and became King of the Dead and Ruler over those living in the West.
The conspirators raised the coffin, which was now a coffin, and carried it to the river. They hurled her far into the water and Hapi, the Nile god, caught her and carried her on his stream to the sea; the Great Green Waters picked her up and the waves carried her to Byblos and lifted her into the tamarind, which grew on the beach. Then large branches grew out of the tree, carrying leaves and flowers, to form a suitable resting place for the God, and the fame of his beauty spread throughout the land.
In Byblos, King Malkander and his wife, Queen Athenaism, reigned. They went to the beach to see the tree, for nothing could be seen but leaves and blossoms that concealed the coffin. Then King Malkander ordered the tree to be cut down and brought to the Royal Palace. Everyone was surprised to see her beauty, although no one knew that it contained the body of a God.
Isis was extremely afraid of Set. His kind words did not mislead her, and she knew his hostility toward Osiris, but the great King would not believe his brother's wickedness. When the soul of Osiris left the body, Isis immediately knew that he was dead, although no man had told her. She took her son, who is called Harpocrates or the Child Horus, and fled with him to the swamps of the Delta and hid him in the city of Pé. The city of Pé was old and gray and it stood on an island; there lived the goddess Uazet, who is also called Buto and Latona, for she is worshiped under many names. Uazet took the child under her protection and Isis dislodged the island through her divine power and it threatened to disappear on the surface of the Great Green Waters, so that no one could say where it could be found. For she feared the power of Set, which might destroy the child, just as he had destroyed the father.
Since the souls of men cannot find rest until the funeral ceremonies are fulfilled and the funeral sacrifices are made, she traveled lonely and only to seek the body of her husband and bury it according to his rank and greatness. She met many people, both men and women, but no one had seen the coffin, and her power did not help in this matter. Then she thought to ask the children, and they immediately told her of a painted coffin floating in the Nile. And to this day the children have a prophetic power and can explain the will of the Gods and look ahead to the things that will come.
This is how Isis, always questioning the children, arrived at Byblos. She sat at Great Green Waters and the virgins of Queen Athenaism came to bathe and play in the waves. Then Isis spoke to her and braided her hair and fixed her jewels; the breath of the Goddess was sweeter than the scents of the Land Punt and he shared his scent with the hair and the jewels and the clothes of the virgins. When they returned to the palace, Queen Athenaism asked her how they had received that incense, and they replied: "A woman, strange and sad, sat on the beach when we went to bathe and she braided our hair and fastened our jewels and the incense came from her, although we do not know how. " Queen Athenais went to the beach to see the strange woman and talked to her and they talked to each other like mothers talk, because they both had a son; the son of Isis was far away and the son of Athenaism was very ill.
Then Isis, the Mighty One in Magic, the able Healed rose up and said, "Take me to your son!" Together the Goddess and the Queen returned to the palace and Isis took little Diktys into her arms and said: "I can make him strong and healthy; but in my own way I want to do it and no one should interfere."
Every day Queen Athenaism was surprised at her son. From a small, weeping child he became a strong and healthy boy, but Isis did not speak a word and nobody knew what she was doing. Athenais questioned her virgins and they replied: "We do not know what she is doing, but we know that she is feeding him, and at night she locks the doors of the hall where the column is, and stacks logs on the fire and when we listen, we cannot hear anything but the chirping of a swallow. "
Athenian was full of curiosity and hid himself in the great hall at night and watched Isis bolt the doors and stack the logs on the fire until the flames flared high. Then, sitting in front of the fire, she made an open space between the flaming logs, an open space that was glowing red, and in that space she laid the child and, turning into a swallow, flew around the column, mourning and complaining, and the moaning was like the swallow of a swallow. Queen Athenais uttered a cry and grabbed the child from the fire and turned to flee. But before her, Isis, the Goddess, stood tall and terrible.
"O foolish mother!" said Isis. "Why did you seize the child? Only a few days and everything that was mortal in him would have been consumed by the fire and he would have been like the Gods, immortal and eternally young."
The Queen trembled deeply, for she knew that she was looking at one of the gods. As humbly as possible, she and King Malkander the Goddess begged to accept a gift. All the riches of Byblos were spread before her, but they were indifferent to her.
"Give me," she said, "what this column contains and I will be satisfied." Workers were immediately summoned, they tore down the column, cut them open and lifted the box. And Isis took fragrant spices and fragrant blossoms, and scattered them over the column, then wrapped them in fine linen, and gave them to the King and Queen. And all the people from Byblos worship them to this day, because they once contained the body of a God.
But Isis took the coffin on a boat and sailed away from Byblos, and when the waves of the Phaedrus river, lashed by the wind, threatened to wash the coffin away, she made the water dry with her magic spells. Then, in a lonely place, she opened the coffin and beheld the face of the dead God, she mourned and complained.
Now some say that when Isis Byblos left, she took Diktys with him and that he fell out of the boat and drowned. Others say that her wailing sounded so terrible in his bitter sorrow that his heart broke and he died. But I think he stayed in Byblos, and because he had lain in the arms of Divine Mother and had gone through the cleansing fire, he grew up to be a great and noble King who ruled his people wisely.
Then Isis hid the coffin and traveled to the city of Pé, on the floating island, where her son Harpocrates was safe under the care of Uazet, the Goddess of the Northern Land. And while she was gone, Set came to hunt wild bears with his dogs. He hunted by moonlight, for he loved the night when all the evil demons appeared; and the air was filled with the screams and the hello of the hunters and the barking of the dogs chasing their prey. And when Set passed by, he saw the painted box, the colors of which shone and sparkled in the moonlight. On that face hatred and wrath came over him like a red cloud and he roared like a panther from the South. He dragged the chest from the place where she was hidden and broke it open; he seized the body and tore it into fourteen pieces, and by his mighty and divine power he scattered the pieces through the land of Egypt. And he laughed and said: "It is not possible to destroy the body of a God, but I have done the impossible: I have destroyed Osiris." And his laughter echoed through the world, and those who heard it fled and trembled.
When Isis returned, she found nothing but the destroyed coffin and knew that Set had done that. Her search now had to start again. She took a small sloop made of papyrus stems joined together and sailed through the marshes to search for the pieces of Osiris's body, and all the birds and animals went with her to help her; and to this day the crocodiles will not touch a boat of stalks of papyrus, for they think it is the weary Goddess who is still seeking.
Mighty and cunning was her enemy and only through policy could he be overcome; therefore, wherever she found part of the divine body, she built a beautiful burial monument and performed the funeral ceremonies as if she had buried the corpse there. But in reality she took the pieces with her, and after long wanderings she had found them all, she reunited them all into one body by the great power of her magic.
For if Horus the Child had grown up to be a man, he would fight with Set and avenge his father; and after he had won the victory, Osiris would live again. But until that day Osiris will live in the Duat, where he rules the Dead as wisely and nobly as he did the living when he was still on earth. Because, although Horus is fighting Set and the fighting is fierce, no decisive victory has yet been achieved and Osiris has never returned to earth.
Story Source: Ancient Egyptian Legends, by MA Murray
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