Mythology Book

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and the ibis god, Thoth, to help

them. Together they pieced Osiris’s

body back together into its true

shape. Then Anubis embalmed

the body with fragrant ointments

and wrapped it in linen bandages,

before laying it on a lion-headed

bier. The wrapped and embalmed

body of Osiris became the first

mummy, setting a pattern for all

of the kings that followed.

His divine force, however, was not

quite spent: Isis changed herself

into a kite and, hovering over the

mummified body, fanned the breath

of life back into Osiris for long

enough to conceive a child, Horus,

who would avenge his father. Then

Osiris descended to the Underworld

and became its ruler. Isis devoted

herself to caring for the shrines of

her dead husband.

OSIRIS AND THE UNDERWORLD

The jackal god, Anubis, attends to

the dead in a wall painting from the

tomb that the artisan Sennedjem built

for himself in Set Maat, near Thebes, in

the 12th century bce.

In time, Horus sought to challenge

Seth and establish his right to the

throne of his father, Osiris. Horus

and Seth appeared before the

Ennead. This council of the nine

major gods met for 80 years without

reaching a decision as to which of

the two had the better claim.

Vying for the throne

Thoth wrote to Neith—creator of

the universe, mother of the sun god

Ra, and goddess of war—to ask for

a judgment. Neith awarded the

throne to Horus. Ra favored Seth,

however, because Seth protected

him every night from the chaos

serpent, Apophis. Outraged by

Neith’s decision, Ra became

neglectful of his duties and only

cheered up when the goddess

Hathor exposed herself to him and

made him laugh. Despite Neith’s

judgment, the gods continued to

dispute the question of who should

rule, until Isis tricked Seth into

Seth envies his

brother, King Osiris.

With an evil trick, he

traps Osiris in a

casket and throws it

into the River Nile.

The coffin drifts

down the Nile and is

swept over the sea to

Phoenicia, where a

tamarisk tree grows

around it.

Isis finds the coffin

after a long search

and weeps over it,

kissing the face of

Osiris.

Isis sails away with the

coffin but Seth finds it,

cuts Osiris’s body into 14

pieces, and scatters them

across the whole of Egypt.

The murder of Osiris

and its aftermath

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281

Falcon-headed Horus stands with

his father, Osiris, and his mother, Isis,

on this funerary stele dedicated to

the gods of Abydos in the reign of

Seti I (1290–1279 bce).

speaking against his own case.

Furious, Seth challenged Horus to

a battle. Both gods transformed

themselves into hippopotamuses

and stayed underwater to see who

could remain submerged for longer.

Isis fashioned a harpoon with a

copper barb and flung it into the

water. First it hit Horus; he cried

out to his mother, who quickly

recalled the harpoon. She hurled it

back into the water, and this time

it pierced Seth. He, in turn, asked

Isis how she could so mistreat her

brother, and again she recalled the

harpoon. This so infuriated Horus

that he leapt out of the water and

cut off his mother’s head. Then the

goddess transformed herself into

a headless statue of flint so that the

Ennead could see what her son,

Horus, had done to her.

Quarreling continues

The gods searched for Horus to

punish him. Seth found him asleep

beneath a tree and gouged out both

his eyes, burying them in the

ground, where they grew into two

lotuses. When the goddess Hathor

found Horus weeping in the desert,

she captured a gazelle and milked

it. Then she knelt beside the young

god and poured the milk into his

eye sockets to restore his sight.

Hathor told the gods what Seth

had done, but they had wearied of

the quarreling and declared a truce.

Appearing conciliatory, Seth

invited Horus to come to his house,

and Horus accepted. That night,

ANCIENT EGYPT AND AFRICA

when Horus was asleep, Seth lay

between his thighs, and spilled his

semen into Horus’s hand. When

Horus revealed to Isis what Seth

had done, she cut off her son’s

hands and threw them into the

water, replacing them with new

hands. Then Isis took semen from

Horus and smeared it on the lettuce

that was Seth’s staple food. Seth ❯❯

Anubis mummifies

Osiris’s body after

Isis and Nepthys

recover the pieces.

Isis turns herself

into a kite and fans

life into Osiris so that

she can conceive a

child to avenge him.

Seth and

Horus turn into

hippopotamuses

in a contest which

neither wins.

The child, Horus,

challenges Seth and

asserts his right to his

father’s throne at a

council of the gods.

Finally, Osiris,

Lord of the Dead,

intercedes for his

son, and Horus is

crowned king.

It is no good, this cheating

me in the presence of the

Ennead and depriving me of

the office of my father, Osiris.

The Contendings of

Horus and Seth

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