Editing Osiris myth (section)

==Synopsis==
===Death and resurrection of Osiris===
At the start of the story, Osiris rules Egypt, having inherited the kingship from his ancestors in a lineage stretching back to the creator of the world, Ra or [[Atum]]. His queen is [[Isis]], who, along with Osiris and his murderer, [[Set (deity)|Set]], is one of the children of the earth god [[Geb]] and the sky goddess [[Nut (goddess)|Nut]]. Little information about the reign of Osiris appears in Egyptian sources; the focus is on his death and the events that follow.{{sfn|Pinch|2004|pp=75–78}} Osiris is connected with life-giving power, righteous kingship, and the rule of ''[[maat]]'', the ideal natural order whose maintenance was a fundamental goal in ancient Egyptian culture.{{sfn|Pinch|2004|pp=159–160, 178–179}} Set is closely associated with violence and chaos. Therefore, the slaying of Osiris symbolizes the struggle between order and disorder, and the disruption of life by death.{{sfn|te Velde|1967|pp=81–83}}

Some versions of the myth provide Set's motive for killing Osiris. According to a spell in the ''[[Pyramid Texts]]'', Set is taking revenge for a kick Osiris gave him,{{sfn|Pinch|2004|p=78}} whereas in a Late Period text, Set's grievance is that Osiris had sex with [[Nephthys]], who is Set's consort and the fourth child of Geb and Nut.{{sfn|Smith|2008|p=2}} The murder itself is frequently alluded to, but never clearly described. The Egyptians believed that written words had the power to affect reality, so they avoided writing directly about profoundly negative events such as Osiris's death.{{sfn|Pinch|2004|pp=6, 78}} Sometimes they denied his death altogether, even though the bulk of the traditions about him make it clear that he has been murdered.{{sfn|Griffiths|1960|p=6}} In some cases the texts suggest that Set takes the form of a wild animal, such as a crocodile or bull, to slay Osiris; in others they imply that Osiris's corpse is thrown in the water or that he is drowned. This latter tradition is the origin of the Egyptian belief that people who had drowned in the [[Nile]] were sacred.{{sfn|Griffiths|2001|pp=615–619}} Even the identity of the victim can vary, as it is sometimes the god Haroeris, an elder form of Horus, who is murdered by Set and then avenged by another form of Horus, who is Haroeris's son by Isis.{{sfn|Meltzer|2001|p=120}}

By the end of the New Kingdom, a tradition had developed that Set had cut Osiris's body into pieces and scattered them across Egypt. Cult centers of Osiris all over the country claimed that the corpse, or particular pieces of it, were found near them. The dismembered parts could be said to number as many as forty-two, each piece being equated with one of the forty-two [[nome (Egypt)|nome]]s, or provinces, in Egypt.{{sfn|Pinch|2004|pp=79–80}} Thus the god of kingship becomes the embodiment of his kingdom.{{sfn|Griffiths|2001|pp=615–619}}

[[File:Abydos Tempelrelief Sethos I. 36.JPG|thumb|right|300px|alt=Relief of a man wearing a tall crown lying on a bier as a bird hovers over his phallus. A falcon-headed man stands at the foot of the bier and a woman with a headdress like a tall chair stands at the head.|Isis, in the form of a bird, copulates with the deceased Osiris. At either side are Horus, although he is as yet unborn, and Isis in human form.{{sfn|Meeks|Favard-Meeks|1996|p=37}}]]
Osiris's death is followed either by an [[interregnum]] or by a period in which Set assumes the kingship. Meanwhile, Isis searches for her husband's body with the aid of Nephthys.{{sfn|Pinch|2004|pp=79–80}} When searching for or mourning Osiris, the two goddesses are often likened to [[falcon]]s or [[kite (bird)|kites]],{{sfn|Griffiths|1980|pp=49–50}} possibly because kites travel far in search of carrion,{{sfn|Wilkinson|2003|pp=147–148}} because the Egyptians associated their plaintive calls with cries of grief, or because of the goddesses' connection with Horus, who is often represented as a falcon.{{sfn|Griffiths|1980|pp=49–50}} In the New Kingdom, when Osiris's death and renewal came to be associated with the annual [[flooding of the Nile]] that fertilized Egypt, the waters of the Nile were equated with Isis's tears of mourning{{sfn|Tobin|2001|p=466}} or with Osiris's bodily fluids.{{sfn|Pinch|2004|pp=178–179}} Osiris thus represented the life-giving divine power that was present in the river's water and in the plants that grew after the flood.{{sfn|Tobin|1989|pp=110–112}}
[[File:La_Tombe_de_Horemheb_cropped.jpg|alt=Painted relief of a seated man with green skin and tight garments, a man with the head of a jackal, and a man with the head of a falcon|thumb|297x297px|The gods Osiris, Anubis, and Horus depicted together in the Tomb of Horemheb ([[KV57]]) in the Valley of the Kings.]]
The goddesses find and restore Osiris's body, often with the help of other deities, including [[Thoth]], a deity credited with great magical and healing powers, and [[Anubis]], the god of embalming and [[Ancient Egyptian burial customs|funerary rites]]. Osiris becomes the first [[mummy]], and the gods' efforts to restore his body are the mythological basis for Egyptian embalming practices, which sought to prevent and reverse the decay that follows death. This part of the story is often extended with episodes in which Set or his followers try to damage the corpse, and Isis and her allies must protect it. Once Osiris is made whole, Isis conceives his son and rightful heir, Horus.{{sfn|Pinch|2004|pp=80–81, 178–179}} One ambiguous spell in the [[Coffin Texts]] may indicate that Isis is impregnated by a flash of lightning,{{sfn|Faulkner|1973|pp=218–219}} while in other sources, Isis, still in bird form, fans breath and life into Osiris's body with her wings and copulates with him.{{sfn|Pinch|2004|pp=79–80}} Osiris's revival is apparently not permanent, and after this point in the story he is only mentioned as the ruler of the [[Duat]], the distant and mysterious realm of the dead. Although he lives on only in the Duat, he and the kingship he stands for will, in a sense, be reborn in his son.{{sfn|Assmann|2001|pp=129–130}}

The cohesive account by Plutarch, which deals mainly with this portion of the myth, differs in many respects from the known Egyptian sources. Set—whom Plutarch, using Greek names for many of the Egyptian deities, refers to as "[[Typhon]]"—conspires against Osiris with seventy-two unspecified accomplices, as well as a queen from ancient [[Aethiopia]] ([[Nubia]]). Set has an elaborate chest made to fit Osiris's exact measurements and then, at a banquet, declares that he will give the chest as a gift to whoever fits inside it. The guests, in turn, lie inside the coffin, but none fit inside except Osiris. When he lies down in the chest, Set and his accomplices slam the cover shut, seal it, and throw it into the Nile. With Osiris's corpse inside, the chest floats out into the sea, arriving at the city of [[Byblos]], where a tree grows around it. The king of Byblos has the tree cut down and made into a pillar for his palace, still with the chest inside. Isis must remove the chest from within the tree in order to retrieve her husband's body. Having taken the chest, she leaves the tree in Byblos, where it becomes an object of worship for the locals. This episode, which is not known from Egyptian sources, gives an [[etiology|etiological]] explanation for a [[Cult (religious practice)|cult]] of Isis and Osiris that existed in Byblos in Plutarch's time and possibly as early as the New Kingdom.{{sfn|Griffiths|1970|pp=137–143, 319–322}}

Plutarch also states that Set steals and dismembers the corpse only after Isis has retrieved it. Isis then finds and buries each piece of her husband's body, with the exception of the penis, which she has to reconstruct with magic, because the original was eaten by fish in the river. According to Plutarch, this is the reason the Egyptians had a [[taboo]] against eating fish. In Egyptian accounts, however, the penis of Osiris is found intact, and the only close parallel with this part of Plutarch's story is in "[[The Tale of Two Brothers]]", a folk tale from the New Kingdom with similarities to the Osiris myth.{{sfn|Griffiths|1970|pp=145, 342–343}}

A final difference in Plutarch's account is Horus's birth. The form of Horus that avenges his father has been conceived and born before Osiris's death. It is a premature and weak second child, [[Harpocrates]], who is born from Osiris's posthumous union with Isis. Here, two of the separate forms of Horus that exist in Egyptian tradition have been given distinct positions within Plutarch's version of the myth.{{sfn|Griffiths|1970|pp=147, 337–338}}

===Birth and childhood of Horus===
[[File:Egyptian - Isis with Horus the Child - Walters 54416 - Three Quarter Right.jpg|thumb|left|alt=Small statue of a seated woman, with a headdress of horns and a disk, holding an infant across her lap|Isis nursing Horus]]
In Egyptian accounts, the pregnant Isis hides from Set, to whom the unborn child is a threat, in a thicket of papyrus in the [[Nile Delta]]. This place is called ''Akh-bity'', meaning "papyrus thicket of the king of [[Lower Egypt]]" in [[Egyptian language|Egyptian]].{{sfn|Hart|2005|pp=80–81}} Greek writers call this place ''Khemmis'' and indicate that it is near the city of [[Buto]],{{sfn|Griffiths|1970|p=313}} but in the myth, the physical location is less important than its nature as an iconic place of seclusion and safety.{{sfn|Assmann|2001|p=133}} The thicket's special status is indicated by its frequent depiction in Egyptian art; for most events in Egyptian mythology, the backdrop is minimally described or illustrated. In this thicket, Isis gives birth to Horus and raises him, and hence it is also called the "nest of Horus".{{sfn|Pinch|2004|pp=79–80}} The image of Isis nursing her child is a very common motif in [[Art of ancient Egypt|Egyptian art]].{{sfn|Hart|2005|pp=80–81}}

There are texts such as the [[Metternich Stela]] that date to the Late Period in which Isis travels in the wider world. She moves among ordinary humans who are unaware of her identity, and she even appeals to these people for help. This is another unusual circumstance, for in Egyptian myth, gods and humans are normally separate.{{sfn|Meeks|Favard-Meeks|1996|pp=82, 86–87}} As in the first phase of the myth, she often has the aid of other deities, who protect her son in her absence.{{sfn|Pinch|2004|pp=79–80}} According to one magical spell, seven minor scorpion deities travel with and guard Isis as she seeks help for Horus. They even take revenge on a wealthy woman who has refused to help Isis by stinging the woman's son, making it necessary for Isis to heal the blameless child.{{sfn|Meeks|Favard-Meeks|1996|pp=82, 86–87}} This story conveys a moral message that the poor can be more virtuous than the wealthy and illustrates Isis's fair and compassionate nature.{{sfn|Baines|1996|pp=371–372}}

In this stage of the myth, Horus is a vulnerable child beset by dangers. The magical texts that use Horus's childhood as the basis for their healing spells give him different ailments, from scorpion stings to simple stomachaches,{{sfn|Meeks|Favard-Meeks|1996|p=73}} adapting the tradition to fit the malady that each spell was intended to treat.{{sfn|Pinch|2004|p=39}} Most commonly, the child god has been bitten by a snake, reflecting the Egyptians' fear of snakebite and the resulting poison.{{sfn|Pinch|2004|pp=79–80}} Some texts indicate that these hostile creatures are agents of Set.{{sfn|Griffiths|1960|p=50}} Isis may use her own magical powers to save her child, or she may plead with or threaten deities such as Ra or Geb, so they will cure him. As she is the [[archetypal]] mourner in the first portion of the story, so during Horus's childhood she is the ideal devoted mother.{{sfn|Pinch|2004|pp=147, 149–150, 185}} Through the magical healing texts, her efforts to heal her son are extended to cure any patient.{{sfn|Assmann|2001|p=133}}

===Conflict of Horus and Set===
The next phase of the myth begins when the adult Horus challenges Set for the throne of Egypt. The contest between them is often violent but is also described as a legal judgment before the [[Ennead]], an assembled group of Egyptian deities, to decide who should [[royal succession|inherit]] the kingship. The judge in this trial may be Geb, who, as the father of Osiris and Set, held the throne before they did, or it may be the creator gods Ra or Atum, the originators of kingship.{{sfn|Griffiths|1960|pp=58–59}} Other deities also take important roles: Thoth frequently acts as a conciliator in the dispute{{sfn|Griffiths|1960|p=82}} or as an assistant to the divine judge, and in "Contendings", Isis uses her cunning and magical power to aid her son.{{sfn|Assmann|2001|pp=135, 139–140}}

The rivalry of Horus and Set is portrayed in two contrasting ways. Both perspectives appear as early as the ''Pyramid Texts'', the earliest source of the myth. In some spells from these texts, Horus is the son of Osiris and nephew of Set, and the murder of Osiris is the major impetus for the conflict. The other tradition depicts Horus and Set as brothers.{{sfn|Griffiths|1960|pp=12–16}} This incongruity persists in many of the subsequent sources, where the two gods may be called brothers or uncle and nephew at different points in the same text.{{sfn|Assmann|2001|pp=134–135}}

[[File:Edfu47.JPG|thumb|right|alt=Relief of a falcon-headed man standing on a hippopotamus and driving a spear into its head as a woman stands behind them|Horus spears Set, who appears in the form of a hippopotamus, as Isis looks on]]
The divine struggle involves many episodes. "Contendings" describes the two gods appealing to various other deities to arbitrate the dispute and competing in different types of contests, such as racing in boats or fighting each other in the form of hippopotami, to determine a victor. In this account, Horus repeatedly defeats Set and is supported by most of the other deities.{{sfn|Lichtheim|2006b|pp=214–223}} Yet the dispute drags on for eighty years, largely because the judge, the creator god, favors Set.{{sfn|Hart|2005|p=73}} In late ritual texts, the conflict is characterized as a great battle involving the two deities' assembled followers.{{sfn|Pinch|2004|p=83}} The strife in the divine realm extends beyond the two combatants. At one point Isis attempts to harpoon Set as he is locked in combat with her son, but she strikes Horus instead, who then cuts off her head in a fit of rage.{{sfn|Lichtheim|2006b|pp=218–219}} Thoth replaces Isis's head with that of a cow; the story gives a [[origin myth|mythical origin]] for the cow-horn headdress that Isis commonly wears.{{sfn|Griffiths|2001|pp=188–190}}

In a key episode in the conflict, Set sexually abuses Horus. Set's violation is partly meant to degrade his rival, but it also involves homosexual desire, in keeping with one of Set's major characteristics, his forceful and indiscriminate sexuality.{{sfn|te Velde|1967|pp=55–56, 65}} In the earliest account of this episode, in a fragmentary Middle Kingdom papyrus, the sexual encounter begins when Set asks to have sex with Horus, who agrees on the condition that Set will give Horus some of his strength.{{sfn|Griffiths|1960|p=42}} The encounter puts Horus in danger, because in Egyptian tradition semen is a potent and dangerous substance, akin to poison. According to some texts, Set's semen enters Horus's body and makes him ill, but in "Contendings", Horus thwarts Set by catching Set's semen in his hands. Isis retaliates by putting Horus's semen on lettuce-leaves that Set eats. Set's defeat becomes apparent when this semen appears on his forehead as a golden disk. He has been impregnated with his rival's seed and as a result "gives birth" to the disk. In "Contendings", Thoth takes the disk and places it on his own head; other accounts imply that Thoth himself was produced by this anomalous birth.{{sfn|te Velde|1967|pp=38–39, 43–44}}

Another important episode concerns mutilations that the combatants inflict upon each other: Horus injures or steals Set's testicles and Set damages or tears out one, or occasionally both, of Horus's eyes. Sometimes the eye is torn into pieces.{{sfn|Pinch|2004|pp=82–83, 91}} Set's mutilation signifies a loss of virility and strength.{{sfn|te Velde|1967|pp=42–43}} The removal of Horus's eye is even more important, for this stolen [[Eye of Horus]] represents a wide variety of concepts in Egyptian religion. One of Horus's major roles is as a sky deity, and for this reason his right eye was said to be the sun and his left eye the moon. The theft or destruction of the Eye of Horus is therefore equated with the darkening of the moon in the course of its cycle of phases, or during [[lunar eclipse|eclipses]]. Horus may take back his lost Eye, or other deities, including Isis, Thoth, and Hathor, may retrieve or heal it for him.{{sfn|Pinch|2004|pp=82–83, 91}} The Egyptologist Herman te Velde argues that the tradition about the lost testicles is a late variation on Set's loss of semen to Horus, and that the moon-like disk that emerges from Set's head after his impregnation is the Eye of Horus. If so, the episodes of mutilation and sexual abuse would form a single story, in which Set assaults Horus and loses semen to him, Horus retaliates and impregnates Set, and Set comes into possession of Horus's Eye when it appears on Set's head. Because Thoth is a moon deity in addition to his other functions, it would make sense, according to te Velde, for Thoth to emerge in the form of the Eye and step in to mediate between the feuding deities.{{sfn|te Velde|1967|pp=43–46, 58}}

In any case, the restoration of the Eye of Horus to wholeness represents the return of the moon to full brightness,{{sfn|Kaper|2001|p=481}} the return of the kingship to Horus,{{sfn|Griffiths|1960|p=29}} and many other aspects of ''maat''.{{sfn|Pinch|2004|p=131}} Sometimes the restoration of Horus's eye is accompanied by the restoration of Set's testicles, so that both gods are made whole near the conclusion of their feud.{{sfn|te Velde|1967|pp=56–57}}

===Resolution===
As with so many other parts of the myth, the resolution is complex and varied. Often, Horus and Set divide the realm between them. This division can be equated with any of several fundamental dualities that the Egyptians saw in their world. Horus may receive the fertile lands around the Nile, the core of Egyptian civilization, in which case Set takes the barren desert or the foreign lands that are associated with it; Horus may rule the earth while Set dwells in the sky; and each god may take one of the two traditional halves of the country, [[Upper Egypt|Upper]] and [[Lower Egypt]], in which case either god may be connected with either region. Yet in the Memphite Theology, Geb, as judge, first apportions the realm between the claimants and then reverses himself, awarding sole control to Horus. In this peaceable union, Horus and Set are reconciled, and the dualities that they represent have been resolved into a united whole. Through this resolution, order is restored after the tumultuous conflict.{{sfn|te Velde|1967|pp=59–63}}

A different view of the myth's end focuses on Horus's sole triumph.{{sfn|Pinch|2004|p=84}}<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Pearson |first=Patricia O'Connell |title=World History: Our Human Story |last2=Holdren |first2=John |date=May 2021 |publisher=Sheridan Kentucky |isbn=978-1-60153-123-0 |location=Versailles, Kentucky |pages=29}}</ref> In this version, Set is not reconciled with his rival but utterly defeated,{{sfn|te Velde|1967|pp=66–68}} and sometimes he is exiled from Egypt or even destroyed.{{sfn|Meeks|Favard-Meeks|1996|p=29}} His defeat and humiliation is more pronounced in sources from later periods of Egyptian history, when he was increasingly equated with disorder and evil, and the Egyptians no longer saw him as an integral part of natural order.{{sfn|te Velde|1967|pp=66–68}}

With great celebration among the gods, Horus takes the throne, and Egypt finally has a rightful king.{{sfn|Assmann|2001|pp=141–144}} The divine decision that Set is in the wrong corrects the injustice created by Osiris's murder and completes the process of his restoration after death.{{sfn|Smith|2008|p=3}} Sometimes Set is made to carry Osiris's body to its tomb as part of his punishment.{{sfn|te Velde|1967|pp=97–98}} The new king performs funerary rites for his father and gives food offerings to sustain him—often including the Eye of Horus, which in this instance represents life and plenty.{{sfn|Assmann|2001|pp=49–50, 144–145}} According to some sources, only through these acts can Osiris be fully enlivened in the afterlife and take his place as king of the dead, paralleling his son's role as king of the living. Thereafter, Osiris is deeply involved with natural cycles of death and renewal, such as the annual growth of crops, that parallel his own resurrection.{{sfn|Pinch|2004|pp=84, 179}}

An alternate version of the myths where Set is defeated has Osiris return to life after the fight between Set and Horus.<ref name=":0" />