Tales of Ancient Egypt

by Roger Green

  As soon as Ra had taken his place in the heavens, Osiris became Pharaoh of Egypt with Isis as his Queen. They built the great city of Thebes as their capital, and ruled well and wisely.

  When Osiris came to the throne the Egyptians were cannibals, and lived more like wild animals than human beings. All this he and Isis altered very soon, teaching mankind to sow and reap both wheat and barley to make bread; how to grow various fruits such as the date and the grape for food and wine; how to make laws and live in peace under them; and how to do due honour to the gods and build temples for them – the first and greatest being that of Amen-Ra at Thebes.

  As soon as the land of the Delta and Upper Egypt as far as Thebes had learnt all the arts of peace and civilization, Osiris left Isis to rule over it and set out to teach the men and women in more distant parts. He took no army with him, but only a band of priests and musicians, and even the wildest tribes harkened to his kindly words and were won over by the sweet strains of music.

  Not all men, even in Egypt, followed Osiris, however. There was evil awake in the world to strive against good – and in Egypt that evil found its leader in Set, the younger brother of Osiris and Isis.

  Set would have rebelled and seized the throne while Osiris was away from Egypt on his mission. But Isis kept such good watch that he knew he would have no success. So he pretended to be a faithful subject and loving brother of the Pharaoh and his Queen. But he gathered secretly to him seventy-two wicked men, all of whom were ready to join in a conspiracy against Osiris, and to them he added Aso the queen of Ethiopia who was on a visit to the court of Thebes.

  As soon as Osiris returned, Set invited him to a great feast which he had prepared in honour of his brother.

  Suspecting nothing, Osiris came unattended, and was welcomed by Set and his seventy-two companions.

  It was a very splendid feast during which each of the guests vied with the others to do honour to Osiris. At last, as it was drawing to a close, Set said, ‘We have all paid our tributes of praise to my beloved brother, the good god Pharaoh Osiris. Now, to end the feast, I have a gift for one of my guests – but this time I do not know who it will be!’

  Set clapped his hands and his servants brought into the hall a most beautiful chest made of cedar wood from Lebanon and ebony from Ethiopia, inlaid with gold and silver, with ivory and lapis lazuli, and with precious stones.

  When it was placed in the midst of the guests, the servants retired, the doors of the hall were shut, and Set spoke again.

  ‘Here is my gift to one of my guests. It shall be his who fits most perfectly into the chest!’

  All were admiring its beauty with cries of delight; and now they began one by one to see how well each of them fitted into it. But some were too tall and some were too short, some too fat and others too thin.

  ‘Let me try,’ said Osiris at last. He stepped into the chest and lay down – and it fitted him perfectly, for Set had secretly obtained the exact measurements of his brother’s body.

  ‘It is mine!’ cried Osiris gaily. ‘See, it fits me like the skin I was born in!’

  ‘It is certainly yours,’ answered Set. ‘And it is fit to be the coffin you shall die in!’

  So saying he slammed down the lid, and with feverish haste he and his evil companions nailed it up tightly, filled every crack with molten lead, and cast it secretly into the Nile.

  It was the time of the Inundation, and the swift waters hurried it out through the Delta and into the sea near the city of Tanis. Away it went over the waves until it came at last to the city of Byblos in Syria, the oldest city in the world. There a great wave lifted it over the shingle and cast it into the heart of a young tamarisk tree growing near the shore. Speedily the tamarisk clasped it with its branches and grew round it until the chest was completely hidden in its trunk.

  Of all trees this tamarisk was the fairest, with lovely blossoms and sweetly-scented wood. Very soon it became famous throughout Syria – more famous even than the great cedars on Mount Lebanon at the foot of which stood the city of Byblos. Presently the fame of the tree brought Malcander the king of that land to see it, with his wife Queen Astartē; and it seemed to them so wonderful that Malcander had it cut down and a pillar fashioned out of its trunk which he set up in the place of honour in his palace. And all men marvelled at the beauty of the wood and its fragrance, though none knew that it held the body of a god.

  Meanwhile Isis learnt what had happened, and set out at once in search of the body of Osiris. For until the proper funeral rites were performed his spirit could not be free to enter the Duat, the Land of the Dead.

  But first of all she went to the island of Chemmis in one of the streams of the Nile Delta; and there, tended by Buto the kindly goddess of Lower Egypt, her son Horus was born.

  When she could travel, Isis set out once more in search of the body of her husband. But she left Horus in the care of Buto, and as a further safeguard against Set she loosened the island of Chemmis from its foundations and set it afloat – sometimes on the Nile, sometimes on the sea itself – so that Set might not find it.

  Then she cut her hair in token of mourning and went hither and thither on her search throughout Egypt. At first she had no success; but presently she found a group of children who had seen the beautifully decorated chest floating down the Nile near Tanis and heading for the Great Green Sea.

  Asking the children at their games along the sea-shore, Isis followed the chest until she came at last to Byblos. And only then was her magic able to show her where the body of Osiris was.

  Isis sat by the shore at Byblos in the likeness of an old woman. When Queen Astartē’s serving-maids came down to the sea to wash their clothes and bathe in the waves, Isis spoke kindly to them and taught them how to braid their hair – for no one before this had ever thought to twist their hair into plaits and twine it on their heads with flowers and leaves as ornaments.

  When they returned to the palace Astartē asked her maids where they had learnt this new art, and they told her of the dignified old woman who sat on a rock beside the sea.

  Full of curiosity, Astartē bade them bring her to the palace. When Isis came, Astartē realized that here was a stranger of no ordinary kind, though she thought her no more than a woman filled with the wisdom for which Egypt was already famous. So she welcomed her, and begged her to dwell in the palace and tend her little son the Prince Diktys – a delicate baby who seemed likely to die.

  Isis nursed Diktys so well that day by day he grew and became stronger in a way that seemed more than natural. Queen Astartē was curious, the more so because her maids told her that each night the strange nurse would turn them out of the room and lock the door. Then they would hear her heap up the fire; and after that there was a long silence broken only by a sound like the twittering of a swallow.

  So Astartē hid herself in the room one night. Presently she saw Isis turn out the serving-maids, bar the door and heap up the fire. When the fire was burning fiercely, Isis made a glowing red space between the logs, took the baby Diktys and placed him in it. And immediately she herself turned into a swallow and flew round and round the pillar which held the body of Osiris, twittering mournfully.

  With a scream Astartē rushed forward and snatched Diktys out of the fire – to find that he was quite unharmed by it, and indeed began to cry indignantly at being plucked so suddenly from such a warm and comfortable bed.

  Full of fear, Astartē turned to flee, clutching her child in her arms. But instead she sank to the floor and hid her eyes: for Isis stood before her, tall and beautiful and quite obviously a goddess.

  ‘Foolish woman!’ cried Isis. ‘Had you but left your son to my care I would have burned away all that was human in him and made him one of the gods, even as I am. But now he will die when old age comes to him, as all men do – if indeed death does not come to him sooner.’

  Again and again King Malcander and Queen Astartē knelt before Isis, be
gging her to forgive them and offering all the riches of Byblos if she would continue to tend their son.

  ‘That I cannot do,’ said Isis. ‘But I will leave my blessing on you if you will give me what yonder pillar contains.’

  Then the King sent for his workmen, and the pillar was taken down and split open. Inside rested the coffin of Osiris; and when this had been lifted out Isis poured perfume on the pillar, and said, ‘Place this in your most sacred temple, and it will bring pilgrims to Byblos for many ages. For this wood has held the body of a god.’

  So the people of Byblos built a temple in which they set the wooden pillar; and it became known as the Temple of Baalat Gebal, ‘The Lady of Byblos’, the remains of which may be seen to this day.

  But Isis set the coffin on a boat and sailed away from Byblos. When she was passing the mouth of the river Phaedros, the current flowed so strongly that it seemed about to drive the ship out to sea – so Isis in a moment of anger cast a spell upon the river and dried up the water.

  When the ship was sailing gently over the sea once more in the direction of Egypt, Isis bade all leave her by herself, went into the cabin and opened the coffin. But the prince of Byblos who commanded her escort, Maneros, was so filled with curiosity that he hid in the cabin and peeped over her shoulder at what was in the coffin. Isis felt his presence and turning gave him one glance – one awful look of anger – and he fell dead to the floor.

  When the ship reached Egypt, Isis guided it to where the floating island of Chemmis was waiting for her and bade the sailors set the coffin on its shore. As soon as this was done and she stood beside it, she bade the sailors row home to Byblos as fast as they could, and she sent a wind to help them on their way.

  But she herself floated up the Nile on the island, where Buto was still guarding the infant Horus, and hid it among the reeds of the Delta until she could perform the funeral rites of Osiris.

  However, her quest was by no means at an end. For on the very next night Set and his followers came hunting through the darkness and the moonlight – for Set best loved the hours of darkness when evil things wander the earth.

  As ill luck would have it, he came to the island of Chemmis that seemed now to be part of the firm earth. Isis hid with Horus deep down among the reeds and escaped his notice. But he saw the chest which had become the coffin of Osiris, and at once he recognized it.

  With a great howl of rage and hate he snatched the body of his murdered brother out of the chest, tore it into fourteen pieces, and scattered them far and wide over the land of Egypt.

  ‘It seems hard to destroy the body of a god!’ he cried. ‘Yet now I have destroyed Osiris and kept his spirit out of the Duat!’

  He went on his way laughing. But Isis crept out of her hiding-place, entrusted Horus once more to Buto, and set out again in search of the pieces of her husband’s body.

  As she rowed hither and thither on the Nile in her boat made of papyrus, the very crocodiles took pity on her and let her pass – and ever since anyone sailing on the Nile in a papyrus boat has been safe from the crocodiles, who think that it is still Isis searching for the last piece of the body of Osiris.

  For she found all but one piece, which had fallen into the Nile and been eaten by certain fishes who were accursed for ever after. But the other pieces she found with the help of Anubis, the son of Set and Nephthys, who took the shape of a wild dog in order to help her the better in her search.

  Fearing lest Set should desecrate even the tomb of Osiris, Isis buried him in the thirteen different places at which she found the pieces of his body, making a complete body by her magic in each place so that a great funeral might be performed. And for this reason thirteen cities of Egypt all boasted that they held the burial place of Osiris.

  Yet some say that in her fear of Set, Isis deceived even the high priests and people of the thirteen cities by burying the whole body of Osiris (adding the one missing piece by magic) on the holy island of Philae beyond the First Cataract above Elephantinē. And they prove this by the fact that in later years the most sacred oath an Egyptian could swear was ‘By Him who sleeps at Philae!’

  Whatever his earthly burial, once it was accomplished, the spirit of Osiris passed into the Duat. There he became the King of the Dead, welcoming all those whom the Judges of the Dead found worthy to enter his kingdom, and adding them to his army of the blessed with whom he would return to reign on earth after the last great battle with Set.

  Horus the Avenger

  When the body of Osiris was safely buried and his spirit had gone to dwell in the Duat, Isis hastened back to the floating island of Chemmis to guard the baby Horus. For Set now ruled in Egypt, and above all things he desired to slay Horus as he had slain his father Osiris.

  Isis well knew the danger which threatened Horus, and yet at first she seemed powerless to protect him. For, though she guarded the baby both day and night, Set found where he was hidden and made his way on to the island when it had come to rest against the west bank of the Nile.

  When night fell, Set took the shape of a scorpion and crept up to the cradle in which Horus lay sleeping in a simple hut among the high papyrus reeds. When the moon rose, Isis stepped out of the hut to make her prayer to Khonsu the Moon-god that he would guard her son.

  While she prayed, the scorpion who was Set crept into the cradle and stung Horus. Hearing the baby scream, Isis rushed back into the hut and snatched him up in her arms while Set slipped away into the darkness unseen, and left the island of Chemmis long before it floated away from the shore next morning.

  All night Isis tried every spell she knew to cure Horus of the scorpion’s poison. But all was in vain, and when the sun rose the child lay lifeless in her arms.

  Then in her despair Isis cried aloud to Thoth for help, and swiftly the thrice-mighty, the all-wise god stood before her.

  ‘See!’ she wailed. ‘Set has slain the son even as he slew the father! Yet Horus was born to be the Avenger of Osiris: say, wise Thoth, how this can be?’

  Then Thoth answered, ‘Horus shall live again. His spirit has but left him for a while to visit the spirit of Osiris in the Duat. It shall return in the shape of the Bennu bird – and in days to come the Bennu shall die in the bright heat of Ra’s glance as it perches on the great obelisk at Heliopolis, and out of its ashes shall the new Bennu rise, and his fame shall be known throughout the world.* But before Horus returns to earth and while his spirit dwells safely in the Duat with Osiris, I will call a council of the gods to decide who shall rule in Egypt.’

  The council of the gods was held at Heliopolis on the eastern bank of the Nile at the place where the river divides into the many streams of the Delta – the spot which divides Upper and Lower Egypt.

  When all were assembled before Amen-Ra, the Father of Gods and Men, Set put his case, saying that as the brother of Osiris, he should be the next Pharaoh – ‘And I am already the ruler of Egypt,’ he ended fiercely, ‘for my followers hold all the land, and if anyone tries to take it from me, I shall lay it waste with fire and water.’

  But wise Thoth spoke for Horus, saying, ‘Even as Osiris the first-born was the true King of Egypt, so his first-born son Horus should be the king who succeeds him.’

  ‘You would not have a babe to rule Egypt!’ cried Set. ‘And what proof have we that this child Horus, if still alive, is indeed the son of Osiris – for Osiris died long before he was born!’

  Then Isis sprang forward and spoke so well and so persuasively that Set saw that the gods were certain to be won by her words.

  ‘So you would let Egypt be ruled by a woman!’ he shouted suddenly. ‘Send Isis away, let her not take part in this council – she pleads for her son only so that she herself can rule all things! Remember how she won the land of Egypt for her husband when she learnt the Secret Name of Ra! Send her away, or I will bring war even among the gods and kill you who stand here one by one until all dwell with Osiris in the Duat.’

>   When Set had spoken Ra broke up the council for that day, saying, ‘In the morning we will meet once more to decide this matter. Let our place of meeting be upon the Central Island here, where the Nile divides – and let the ferryman take good heed that Isis does not come across the river to it.’

  So the gods and goddesses passed on to the island. But Isis, having taken counsel with Thoth, sought out her sister Nephthys, the wife of Set who had deserted her husband after the murder of Osiris and joined Isis, bringing her son Anubis with her.

  Nephthys had not been at the council of the gods, for she dreaded lest they should compel her to return to her husband Set, whom she now hated and feared. She agreed willingly to help Isis in her plot against Set, disguised herself as her sister and lent Isis the head-dress shaped like a basket which she herself was accustomed to wear.

  With the aid of her magic, Isis made herself look like Nephthys in face and voice as well as in her garments. Then, as soon as the full moon was shining over the river, she went down to the water’s edge, and bade the ferryman take her over to the island.

  At first he feared to do so thinking that her presence might anger Ra and Set almost as much as her sister’s. But Isis spoke to him with gentle words and offered him a rich gift.

  ‘My sister is forbidden to sit in the council of the gods,’ she said, ‘but I, Nephthys, have not been denied my rights, and I come to speak on behalf of Horus the son of Isis and Osiris.’

  So the ferryman rowed her across to the island, never suspecting that she was other than she seemed. And when she found Set, he also was deceived and exclaimed, ‘Nephthys, my Queen! I would have sent messengers to seek and bring you back to me on the morrow when I have been proclaimed Pharaoh of Egypt by all the gods in council. I am glad that you have returned to me of your own free will.’