Egyptian Mythology |
the story of Isis and Osiris
![Picture](/uploads/5/2/1/1/52110449/2540462.jpg?229)
After the many days Re had left the Earth, before he had begun to grow old, his high and great wisdom had told him that if Nut had bore children, one of them will end him. So Pharaoh Re, had laid a curse upon Nut, so that she should not be able to bear any child, on any day of the year.
Full of sadness and sorrow, Nut went to seek help from the great god of wisdom and magic, Thoth. Although Thoth knew that the curse of Re could never be recalled, but in his wisdom, he found a way to escape the curse. He went to Khonsu the Moon-God, and challenged him to a game of contest of draughts. Game after game they played, and higher and higher the stakes grew; but one day Khonsu would play no more, and for his moon, was no longer able to shine for long periods of time.
On the first day of this Osiris the eldest son of Nut was born. The second day was set aside to be a birthday of Horus the Elder. On the third day the second son of Nut was born, dark Seth, the lord of evil. On the fourth day Isis was born and saw the first light. Then on the fifth day her second daughter was born Nephthys was born. Done correctly this way the curse of Re was finally defeated; for the days Nut’s children were born, they belonged to no year.
When Osiris grew up, he married his sister Isis, a custom in which Pharaohs of Egypt had followed for years to come, and Seth had married Nephthys. For a god and only marry a goddess.
After Isis by her wisdom and craft learned the Secret Name of Re, Osiris became the sole-ruler of Egypt. For he then reigned on earth as Re had. Once so he had found the people to be brutish, fighting and eating on another. But Isis had discovered wheat and barley, which grows wild over the land of Egypt. Along with other plants unknown to mankind.
So Osiris taught the people of Egypt to plant the seeds when the Nile had risen and sunk leaving fertile mud over the land, he taught them how to tend and water the crops, how to cut the ripe corn, thresh the grain on threshing floors, and dry it and grind it into flour to make bread. He showed them how to plant vines and crush the grapes into wine. Osiris taught the people of Egypt how to live and survive.
Once the people of Egypt knew how to farm, and hunt suitable or eatable animals, he set off to teach the world his ways. By doing so he left Isis to rule over the land of Egypt. Which she did wisely and well.
Although the evil lord Seth hated Osiris more and more. Every day more people loved and praised Osiris for his good ruling. But Seth had then decided that it was finally time to see that Pharaoh Osiris, met his fate.
Secretly, Seth and his seventy-two wicked friends along with the Queen of Ethiopia, had made a chest for the king. For this, Seth stealthily got the measurements of the king so that the chest only fit the king himself.
With the measurements taken of the king, Seth and his friends set out to collect rarest and most costly of woods in all of Egypt: cedar from Lebanon, ebony from Punt at the south end of the Red Sea. Once the chest for the king was finished and hidden away, Seth gave a great feast, greater than any feast given in Egypt. Foods wee choicer, the wines stronger, and the dancing girls more beautiful than before.
Once the heart of the king was satisfied with the feast, Seth and his friends brought in the chest. Once it entered the room everyone marveled at its beauty. Rare cedar inlaid with ebony and ivory, with less rare gold and silver, and painted inside with figures of gods and birds and other animals. He loved it greatly.
Seth then said, “I shall give this chest whomever fits it!”
Everyone tried to fit in the chest: but one person was too short, another too tall, one was too fat, and another too thin. All had tried in vain to win the glorious treasure.
Osiris said, “Let me see if I can fit in this piece of work!”
He laid himself down with everyone gathering around breathlessly.
“I fit it the chest is mine!” cried Osiris.
“It is yours indeed my brother, and shall be so forever!”
Seth quickly closed the lid and in desperate haste Seth and his friends quickly nailed the chest shut and closing the openings with molten lead. Osiris suffocated and died in the chest. His spirit went west across the Nile into the Duat Place of Testing; but beyond it to Amenti where those live forever who have lived well on earth and passed the judgments of Duat.
Once Osiris’s life had quickly ended, Seth and his companions then took the chest which held the body of Osiris and threw it into the Nile. Osiris’s body floated down the Nile and into the Green Sea. Then the chest had reached the shore of Phoenicia near the city of Byblos, once the chest was on shore it then rested under a tamarisk tree that grew on the shore. This was a fit resting place for the good god Osiris.
King Malcander, and his wife Queen Astarte, had gone and went to the tree. Once they had gotten there the tree roots had grown over the chest of the god Osiris. King Malcander then ordered to have the tree cut and fashioned into a glorious pillar for his new palace. But no one knew that the tree roots had withheld the body of a god.
Back in Egypt, Isis was filled with great fear. She knew that Seth was evil but Osiris had his doubts about his brother’s wickedness. No one told her that her husband was dead, but she knew. So she fled to the marshes of the Delta, carrying the baby Horus with her. There she found shelter on an island where the goddess Buto lived, and she trusted her child to her. To then keep her, Horus, and Buto safer from Seth, Isis loosened the island from its foundations and let it float away into the Green Sea. So no one could tell where to find it.
Afterwards Isis had then searched all over Egypt to find the resting place of her husband. She asked every person she came across but to no avail. Until she wondered the shoreline of the Nile river. Isis came across playing children and asked them if they have seen a chest. They said they saw it float down the river out to the Green Sea. Overjoyed Isis had then blessed the children and decreed that ever afterwards that they only speak words of wisdom, and sometimes tell of things to come.
Isis had then came onto the seashore of Byblos and sat there. The maidens who attended Queen Astarte came down there to bathe at the place. Once they came out of the water Isis had then taught them how to plait their hair – which had never been done before. When they went up to the palace a strange and wonderful perfume had seemed to cling to them. The Queen marveled at them and their hair. She then asked how this all had happened.
The Queen then sent for the woman by the seashore. Once Isis had reached the palace, she was asked if she could work there and tend to the Queen’s children. Isis had agreed to this. No one knew that this strange woman was a great goddess. Baby Dictys was ill and weak, while his older brother Prince Maneros was strong for a five year old. Soon in the care of Isis baby Dictys became strong and healthy, though Isis only gave him her finger to suck. But she then had become fond of the child and wanted to make him immortal. She had done this by burning away his mortal parts while she flew around and around him in the form of a swallow (bird).
Although, Astarte had been spying on the strange woman secretly. Once she saw her baby on fire she ran into the room screaming, with this, had broken the spell.
Then Isis had taken her own form and Queen Astarte had crouched in terror when she saw the shining goddess, and learned who she was.
Malcander and Astarte had offered Isis gifts of the richest treasures I all of Byblos. But Isis only asked for the pillar that held up the roof. With that they gave it to her. She had then caused the pillar to open and the chest of Seth had fallen out. She then gave the pillar back to the king and queen – which was now very precious since it contained the body of a god.
When the chest which had become the coffin of Osiris was given to her, she flung herself on top of it and let out a cry of sorrow so terrible, that Dictys died at the very sound.
But Isis at length caused the chest to be placed on the ship which King Malcander provided for her and set out for Egypt. With her went Maneros, the young Prince of Byblos; but he did not remain with her for long. For his curiosity got the best of him. Isis went to the chest and opened the lid. Maneros curious looked over her shoulder and Isis knew he was there. She gave him a look of anger and he fell backwards off the side of the ship.
Isis had made it to Egypt and hid the chest in the marshes of the floating island. But later that night Seth had come by with his dogs and wild boars. He saw the chest and recognized it immediately.
“It is not possible to destroy the body of a god!” cried Seth. “Yet I have done it – I have destroyed Osiris!” his laughter was heard throughout the land, and those that heard it trembles and hid.
Seth had one again taken the remains of Osiris.
Isis had once again begun her search. But this time she had helpers from Nephthys who left her wicked husband to help her sister. Along with Anubis who was the son of Osiris and Nephthys. Slowly piece by piece she collected the fragments of Osiris. Where ever she did so she formed by magic the likeliness of his whole body. Only one piece of his body was not recovered. It was eaten by certain man eating fishes, which their kind were accursed forever.
She recovered most of Osiris’s missing body parts and rejoined them by magic. She had then hid the body away where she alone knew.
Horus grew to be a strong man, and Osiris’s spirit had visited him often, and taught him all that how the great warrior should know. One who was to fight against Seth. Both in body and spirit.
One day Osiris said to the boy: “Tell me what is the noblest thing that a man can do?”
“To avenge his father and mother for the evil done to them.” Replied Horus.
Osiris, pleased with this reply, he then asked: “And what animal is useful for the avenger to take with him as he goes out to battle?”
“A horse.” Said Horus.
“Surely a lion would be better still?”
“A lion would indeed be best for a man who had needed the help,” said Horus. “but a horse is best for pursuing a flying foe and cutting him off from escape.”
Osiris then knew it was time to declare war on Seth. Horus gathered his forces and prepared to begin the war. Re himself the father of gods came to his aid in his own divine boat that sailed across the heavens and the dangerous underworld.
Before they set sail Re drew Horus aside so as to gaze into his blue eyes; for whomever looks into them, gods or men, can see the future of what lays ahead in the war. But Seth was watching, so he took it upon himself to turn himself into a form of a black pig. Fierce to look at, with tusks to strike terror into the hearts of the bravest of men.
Meanwhile Re said to Horus, “Let me gaze into your eyes and see what is to come of this war.”
He gazed into the eyes of Horus and their color was that of the Great Green Sea, when the summer sky, turns them into the deepest blues.
While he gazed the black pig passed by distracting his attention.
“Look at that! I have never seen such a huge and fierce pig!”
Horus looked but did not know it was Seth, but thought it was a wild boar from the thickets in the north.
Seth aimed a blow of fire at Horus’s eyes, Horus cried out in pain and was in a great rage.
Re caused Horus to be taken into a dark room until he was fully recovered. Re returned to the sky but Horus was just relieved that he could see. He had then set out up the Nile at the front of his army.
There were many battles in that war, but the greatest was the battle of Edfu. Where the great temple of Horus stands to this day in memory of it.
Seth in the form of a red hippopotamus of a huge size, sprang up on the island of Elephantine and uttered a great curse against Horus and Isis:
“Let there come a terrible raging storm and a flood against my enemies!”
At once the storms came up all at once on Horus and his army. The wind roared and the water was heaped into great waves.
Opposite of Edfu, Seth turned and stood at the bay. Straddling the whole stream of the Nile. But Horus took himself into the shape of a handsome young man ten feet tall. In his hand held a harpoon thirty feet long with a blade six feet wide. Seth opened his jaws to destroy Horus and his followers, but Horus cast his harpoon and struck the hippopotamus deep into the head.
That one blow slew Seth the wicked one.
A huge celebration was held after the wicked one was defeated. After that there were no more battles of the Nile. Osiris can finally rest silently in peace in his grave. Isis had admitted that she was on the island of Philae the most sacred place of all.
Full of sadness and sorrow, Nut went to seek help from the great god of wisdom and magic, Thoth. Although Thoth knew that the curse of Re could never be recalled, but in his wisdom, he found a way to escape the curse. He went to Khonsu the Moon-God, and challenged him to a game of contest of draughts. Game after game they played, and higher and higher the stakes grew; but one day Khonsu would play no more, and for his moon, was no longer able to shine for long periods of time.
On the first day of this Osiris the eldest son of Nut was born. The second day was set aside to be a birthday of Horus the Elder. On the third day the second son of Nut was born, dark Seth, the lord of evil. On the fourth day Isis was born and saw the first light. Then on the fifth day her second daughter was born Nephthys was born. Done correctly this way the curse of Re was finally defeated; for the days Nut’s children were born, they belonged to no year.
When Osiris grew up, he married his sister Isis, a custom in which Pharaohs of Egypt had followed for years to come, and Seth had married Nephthys. For a god and only marry a goddess.
After Isis by her wisdom and craft learned the Secret Name of Re, Osiris became the sole-ruler of Egypt. For he then reigned on earth as Re had. Once so he had found the people to be brutish, fighting and eating on another. But Isis had discovered wheat and barley, which grows wild over the land of Egypt. Along with other plants unknown to mankind.
So Osiris taught the people of Egypt to plant the seeds when the Nile had risen and sunk leaving fertile mud over the land, he taught them how to tend and water the crops, how to cut the ripe corn, thresh the grain on threshing floors, and dry it and grind it into flour to make bread. He showed them how to plant vines and crush the grapes into wine. Osiris taught the people of Egypt how to live and survive.
Once the people of Egypt knew how to farm, and hunt suitable or eatable animals, he set off to teach the world his ways. By doing so he left Isis to rule over the land of Egypt. Which she did wisely and well.
Although the evil lord Seth hated Osiris more and more. Every day more people loved and praised Osiris for his good ruling. But Seth had then decided that it was finally time to see that Pharaoh Osiris, met his fate.
Secretly, Seth and his seventy-two wicked friends along with the Queen of Ethiopia, had made a chest for the king. For this, Seth stealthily got the measurements of the king so that the chest only fit the king himself.
With the measurements taken of the king, Seth and his friends set out to collect rarest and most costly of woods in all of Egypt: cedar from Lebanon, ebony from Punt at the south end of the Red Sea. Once the chest for the king was finished and hidden away, Seth gave a great feast, greater than any feast given in Egypt. Foods wee choicer, the wines stronger, and the dancing girls more beautiful than before.
Once the heart of the king was satisfied with the feast, Seth and his friends brought in the chest. Once it entered the room everyone marveled at its beauty. Rare cedar inlaid with ebony and ivory, with less rare gold and silver, and painted inside with figures of gods and birds and other animals. He loved it greatly.
Seth then said, “I shall give this chest whomever fits it!”
Everyone tried to fit in the chest: but one person was too short, another too tall, one was too fat, and another too thin. All had tried in vain to win the glorious treasure.
Osiris said, “Let me see if I can fit in this piece of work!”
He laid himself down with everyone gathering around breathlessly.
“I fit it the chest is mine!” cried Osiris.
“It is yours indeed my brother, and shall be so forever!”
Seth quickly closed the lid and in desperate haste Seth and his friends quickly nailed the chest shut and closing the openings with molten lead. Osiris suffocated and died in the chest. His spirit went west across the Nile into the Duat Place of Testing; but beyond it to Amenti where those live forever who have lived well on earth and passed the judgments of Duat.
Once Osiris’s life had quickly ended, Seth and his companions then took the chest which held the body of Osiris and threw it into the Nile. Osiris’s body floated down the Nile and into the Green Sea. Then the chest had reached the shore of Phoenicia near the city of Byblos, once the chest was on shore it then rested under a tamarisk tree that grew on the shore. This was a fit resting place for the good god Osiris.
King Malcander, and his wife Queen Astarte, had gone and went to the tree. Once they had gotten there the tree roots had grown over the chest of the god Osiris. King Malcander then ordered to have the tree cut and fashioned into a glorious pillar for his new palace. But no one knew that the tree roots had withheld the body of a god.
Back in Egypt, Isis was filled with great fear. She knew that Seth was evil but Osiris had his doubts about his brother’s wickedness. No one told her that her husband was dead, but she knew. So she fled to the marshes of the Delta, carrying the baby Horus with her. There she found shelter on an island where the goddess Buto lived, and she trusted her child to her. To then keep her, Horus, and Buto safer from Seth, Isis loosened the island from its foundations and let it float away into the Green Sea. So no one could tell where to find it.
Afterwards Isis had then searched all over Egypt to find the resting place of her husband. She asked every person she came across but to no avail. Until she wondered the shoreline of the Nile river. Isis came across playing children and asked them if they have seen a chest. They said they saw it float down the river out to the Green Sea. Overjoyed Isis had then blessed the children and decreed that ever afterwards that they only speak words of wisdom, and sometimes tell of things to come.
Isis had then came onto the seashore of Byblos and sat there. The maidens who attended Queen Astarte came down there to bathe at the place. Once they came out of the water Isis had then taught them how to plait their hair – which had never been done before. When they went up to the palace a strange and wonderful perfume had seemed to cling to them. The Queen marveled at them and their hair. She then asked how this all had happened.
The Queen then sent for the woman by the seashore. Once Isis had reached the palace, she was asked if she could work there and tend to the Queen’s children. Isis had agreed to this. No one knew that this strange woman was a great goddess. Baby Dictys was ill and weak, while his older brother Prince Maneros was strong for a five year old. Soon in the care of Isis baby Dictys became strong and healthy, though Isis only gave him her finger to suck. But she then had become fond of the child and wanted to make him immortal. She had done this by burning away his mortal parts while she flew around and around him in the form of a swallow (bird).
Although, Astarte had been spying on the strange woman secretly. Once she saw her baby on fire she ran into the room screaming, with this, had broken the spell.
Then Isis had taken her own form and Queen Astarte had crouched in terror when she saw the shining goddess, and learned who she was.
Malcander and Astarte had offered Isis gifts of the richest treasures I all of Byblos. But Isis only asked for the pillar that held up the roof. With that they gave it to her. She had then caused the pillar to open and the chest of Seth had fallen out. She then gave the pillar back to the king and queen – which was now very precious since it contained the body of a god.
When the chest which had become the coffin of Osiris was given to her, she flung herself on top of it and let out a cry of sorrow so terrible, that Dictys died at the very sound.
But Isis at length caused the chest to be placed on the ship which King Malcander provided for her and set out for Egypt. With her went Maneros, the young Prince of Byblos; but he did not remain with her for long. For his curiosity got the best of him. Isis went to the chest and opened the lid. Maneros curious looked over her shoulder and Isis knew he was there. She gave him a look of anger and he fell backwards off the side of the ship.
Isis had made it to Egypt and hid the chest in the marshes of the floating island. But later that night Seth had come by with his dogs and wild boars. He saw the chest and recognized it immediately.
“It is not possible to destroy the body of a god!” cried Seth. “Yet I have done it – I have destroyed Osiris!” his laughter was heard throughout the land, and those that heard it trembles and hid.
Seth had one again taken the remains of Osiris.
Isis had once again begun her search. But this time she had helpers from Nephthys who left her wicked husband to help her sister. Along with Anubis who was the son of Osiris and Nephthys. Slowly piece by piece she collected the fragments of Osiris. Where ever she did so she formed by magic the likeliness of his whole body. Only one piece of his body was not recovered. It was eaten by certain man eating fishes, which their kind were accursed forever.
She recovered most of Osiris’s missing body parts and rejoined them by magic. She had then hid the body away where she alone knew.
Horus grew to be a strong man, and Osiris’s spirit had visited him often, and taught him all that how the great warrior should know. One who was to fight against Seth. Both in body and spirit.
One day Osiris said to the boy: “Tell me what is the noblest thing that a man can do?”
“To avenge his father and mother for the evil done to them.” Replied Horus.
Osiris, pleased with this reply, he then asked: “And what animal is useful for the avenger to take with him as he goes out to battle?”
“A horse.” Said Horus.
“Surely a lion would be better still?”
“A lion would indeed be best for a man who had needed the help,” said Horus. “but a horse is best for pursuing a flying foe and cutting him off from escape.”
Osiris then knew it was time to declare war on Seth. Horus gathered his forces and prepared to begin the war. Re himself the father of gods came to his aid in his own divine boat that sailed across the heavens and the dangerous underworld.
Before they set sail Re drew Horus aside so as to gaze into his blue eyes; for whomever looks into them, gods or men, can see the future of what lays ahead in the war. But Seth was watching, so he took it upon himself to turn himself into a form of a black pig. Fierce to look at, with tusks to strike terror into the hearts of the bravest of men.
Meanwhile Re said to Horus, “Let me gaze into your eyes and see what is to come of this war.”
He gazed into the eyes of Horus and their color was that of the Great Green Sea, when the summer sky, turns them into the deepest blues.
While he gazed the black pig passed by distracting his attention.
“Look at that! I have never seen such a huge and fierce pig!”
Horus looked but did not know it was Seth, but thought it was a wild boar from the thickets in the north.
Seth aimed a blow of fire at Horus’s eyes, Horus cried out in pain and was in a great rage.
Re caused Horus to be taken into a dark room until he was fully recovered. Re returned to the sky but Horus was just relieved that he could see. He had then set out up the Nile at the front of his army.
There were many battles in that war, but the greatest was the battle of Edfu. Where the great temple of Horus stands to this day in memory of it.
Seth in the form of a red hippopotamus of a huge size, sprang up on the island of Elephantine and uttered a great curse against Horus and Isis:
“Let there come a terrible raging storm and a flood against my enemies!”
At once the storms came up all at once on Horus and his army. The wind roared and the water was heaped into great waves.
Opposite of Edfu, Seth turned and stood at the bay. Straddling the whole stream of the Nile. But Horus took himself into the shape of a handsome young man ten feet tall. In his hand held a harpoon thirty feet long with a blade six feet wide. Seth opened his jaws to destroy Horus and his followers, but Horus cast his harpoon and struck the hippopotamus deep into the head.
That one blow slew Seth the wicked one.
A huge celebration was held after the wicked one was defeated. After that there were no more battles of the Nile. Osiris can finally rest silently in peace in his grave. Isis had admitted that she was on the island of Philae the most sacred place of all.