EGYPT'S LIGHT
Alfred D. Byrd
Copyright 2011 Alfred D. Byrd
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Chapter 1: MYTHOLOGY
OF THE LAND of Ancient Egypt,
Legend tells of a beginning
In which order was established
By a process of creation
That began in lightless ocean.
Here appears a single story
Of the many taught Egyptians
To explain the world's unfolding.
From the vast primeval waters
Filled with darkness born of chaos,
Life emerged, and land to bear it.
Light arose and from the heavens
Shone on humans looking upwards
At the sun, the god that ruled them,
And the moon, which marked out seasons
For the planting and the harvest.
Law was spoken and then written
To ensure that life continued
In an ever-turning circle
Born again each day at sunrise.
In the vision of Egyptians,
Gods and goddesses abounded.
Over all was Ra, the sun-god,
Maker of both earth and heaven
In his early name of Atum.
Gods made he from his own body,
Which gave birth as well to humans;
All else spoke he into being.
Ra, each day, would sail in glory
In his boat across the heavens
To give light to lands below him,
But each night would sail through darkness
Where the demon Apep waited
To consume his light forever.
Only if the sun-god conquered,
Slaying Apep before morning,
Could the day come back to Egypt.
Ruler and his priests with prayers,
And with endless rites of magic,
Aided Ra in his dire combat
And ensured each new day's dawning.
Gods and goddesses could marry
And give birth just like us mortals.
Geb, the god of earth below us,
Wedding Nut, the cow of heaven,
Fathered four outstanding children —
Seth, Osiris, Nepthys, Isis —
Who determined Egypt's future.
Like the kings whom Egypt honored
In the days when mortals ruled there,
Brother took as wife his sister:
Nephthys lived with Seth as husband;
Isis wedded with Osiris.
Seth was dark, a lord of Chaos,
Kin to pigs and males of hippos,
And to crocodiles and serpents.
Light, though, shimmered on Osiris,
Teacher of the arts of living
In communities of justice.
In a time set down in legend,
Egypt's ruler was Osiris,
Bringing order out of conflict.
Godhood, though, was not perfection.
Sometimes, even judges stumble,
Doing what they hate in others.
When Osiris slept with Nepthys,
Sister-wife of Seth, his brother,
She conceived a son, Anubis,
Who became the god of mummies.
Jealous of his brother's glory
And enraged at Nepthys' treason,
Seth, in vengeance, asked Osiris
To attend a splendid banquet
Where Seth sealed his hated brother
In a chest and cast him in it
To be drowned in Egypt's river.
Isis, grieving, claimed the body,
But, in fear of her reviving
Dead Osiris through her magic,
Seth took back his brother's body,
Cut the body into pieces,
And dispersed them through all countries.
Isis, mourning murdered husband,
Vowed to make him ever living.
Nepthys and Anubis helped her
Seek Osiris' scattered organs.
Isis found what Seth had hidden,
Put her husband back together,
And conceived by him a man-child
Who would win his father justice.
Still, her triumph was not total.
Isis won no life in Egypt
For her resurrected husband.
He must travel to Amentet,
Land beyond the dusk's horizon,
Where he ruled the dead in judgment,
Giving or denying mortals
Life eternal by a river
Bearing Egypt's light and pleasure.
When the son of lost Osiris
Came of age, he wanted vengeance
On the killer of his father.
Eighty years did Seth and Horus
Fight each other in dark battles
In which Horus nearly perished
Many times before his triumph.
In one battle born of vengeance,
Seth put out the eyes of Horus,
But the goddess Hathor healed them,
And Osiris' son kept fighting.
Eye of Ra who worked his vengeance,
Hathor was a cow-horned goddess
Watching over love and music,
Making beauty last, and giving
Children to a childless woman.
Hathor, for her role in saving
Egypt's king from loss of eyesight,
Would gain honor in the future
As the mother of each ruler
Who would reign in place of Horus.
One day, Horus gave his kingship
To his sons, Egyptian Pharaohs,
Mortals to mere human vision,
But the blood of gods within them
Set them far above their subjects.
As a god among his people,
Pharaoh took his throne in glory;
Son of Ra and living Horus,
Pharaoh was a god made human.
Egypt's Light Page 1
