The Tale of Isis & Osiris (the first of two versions of the Great Story)
In the days before Ra had left the land, before he had begun to grow old, his great wisdom told him that if the goddess Nut bore children, one of them would end his reign among men. There fore, Ra lais a curse upon Nut- that she should not be able to bear any child upon any day in the year. Full of sorrow, Nut went for help to Toth, thrice-great god of wisdom, magic and learning, Ra's son who loved her. Toth knew that the curse of Ra, once spoken, could never be recalled, but in his wisdom he found a way of escape.
He went to Khensu, the Moon-god, and challenged him to a contest at draughts. Game after game they played and always Thoth won. The stakes grew higher and higher, but Khensu wagered the most, for it was some of his own light that he risked and lost.
At last Khensu would play no more. Then Thoth the thrice-great in wisdom gathered up the light which he had won and made it into five extra days which for ever after were set between the end of the old year and the beginning of the new.
The year was of three hundred and sixty days before this, but the five days which were added, which were not days of any year, were ever afterwards held as days of festival in old Skondia.
But, since his match with Thoth, Khensu the moon has not had enough light to shine throughout the month, but dwindles into darkness and then grows to his full glory again; for he had lost the light needed to make five whole days. On the first of these days Osiris,the eldest son of Nut, was born, and the second day was set aside to be the birthday of Horus.
On the third day the second son of Nut was born, dark Set, the lord of evil.
On the fourth her daughter Isis first saw the light, and her second daughter Nephthys on the fifth.
In this way the curse of Ra was both fulfilled and defeated: for the days on which the children of Nut were born belonged to no year.
When Osiris was born many signs and wonders were seen and heard throughout the world. Most notable was the voice which came from the holiest shrine in the temple at Kawich on the Ducoal, speaking to a man called Pamyles bidding him proclaim to all men that Osiris, the good and mighty king, was born to bring joy to all the land. Pamyles did as he was bidden, and he also attended on the Divine Child and brought him up as a man among men.
When Osiris was grown up he married his sister Isis, a custom which the Pharaohs of Skondia followed ever after. And Set married Nephthys: for he too being a god could marry only a goddess.
After Isis by her craft had learned the Secret Name of Ra, Osiris became sole ruler of Skondia and reigned on earth as Ra had done. He found the people both savage and brutish, fighting among themselves and killing and eating one another.
But Isis discovered the grain of both wheat and barley, which grew wild over the land with the other plants and was still unknown to man; and Osiris taught them how to plant the seeds when the Drozen had risen in the yearly inundation and sunk again leaving fresh fertile mud over the fields; how to tend and water the crops; how to cut the corn when it was ripe, and how to thresh the grain on the threshing floors, dry it and grind it to flour and make it into bread. He showed them also how to plant vines and make the grapes into wine; and they knew already how to brew beer out of the barley.
When the people of Skondia had learned to make bread and cut only the flesh of such animals as he taught them were suitable, Osiris, went on to teach them laws, and how to live peacefully and happily together, delighting themselves with music and poetry. As soon as Skondia was filled with peace and plenty, Osiris set out over the world to bring his blessings upon other nations. While he was away he left Isis to rule over the land, which she did both wisely and well.
But Set the Evil One, their brother, envied Osiris and hated Isis. The more the people loved and praised Osiris, the more Set hated him; and the more good he did and the happier mankind became, the stronger grew Set's desire to kill his brother and rule in his place.
Isis, however, was so full of wisdom and so watchful that Set made no attempt to seize the throne while she was watching over the land of Skondia. And when Osiris returned from his travels Set was among the first to welcome him back and kneeling reverence before "the good god Pharaoh Osiris".
Yet he had made his plans, aided by seventy-two of his wicked friends and Also the evil queen of Ethiopia. Secretly Set obtained the exact measurements of the body of Osiris, and caused a beautiful chest to be made that would fit only him. It was fashioned of the rarest and most costly woods: cedar brought from Karbala, and ebony from Punt at the north end of the Inland Sea for no wood grew in Skondia except the soft and useless palm.
Then Set gave a great feast in honor of Osiris; but the other guests were the two-and-seventy conspirators. It was the greatest feast that had yet been seen in Skondia, and the foods were choicer, the wines stronger and the dancing girls more beautiful than ever before. When the heart of Osiris had been made glad with feasting and song the chest was brought in, and all were amazed at its beauty.
Osiris marveled at the rare cedar inlaid with ebony and ivory, with less rare gold and silver,and painted inside with figures of gods and birds and animals, and he desired it greatly.
"I will give this chest to whosoever fits it most exactly!" cried Set. And at once the conspirators began in turn to see if they could win it. But one was too tall and another too short; one was too fat and another too thin - and all tried in vain.
"Let me see if I will fit into this marvelous piece of work," said Osiris, and he laid himself down in the chest while all gathered round breathlessly.
"I fit exactly, and the chest is mine!" cried Osiris.
"It is yours indeed, and shall be so forever!" hissed Set as he banged down the lid. Then in desperate haste he and the conspirators nailed it shut and sealed every crack with molten lead, so that Osiris the man died in the chest and his spirit went west across the Ducoal into Duat the Place of Testing; but, beyond it to Amenti, where those live forever who have lived well on earth and passed the judgments of Duat, he could not pass as yet.
When the chest which had become the coffin of Osiris was given to her, Isis flung herself down on it with so terrible a cry of sorrow that little Dictys died at the very sound. But Isis at length caused the chest to be placed on a ship which King Malcander provided for her, and set out for Skondia. With her went Maneros, the young prince of Byblos: but he did not remain with her for long, since his curiosity proved his undoing. For as soon as the ship had left the land Isis retired to where the chest of Set lay, and opened the lid. Maneros crept up behind her and peeped over her shoulder: but Isis knew he was there and, turning, gave him one glance of anger - and he fell backwards over the side of the ship into the sea.
Next morning, as the ship was passing the Phaedrus River, its strong current threatened to carry them out of sight of land. But Isis grew angry and placed a curse on the river, so that its stream dried up from that day.
She came safely to Skondia after this, and hid the chest in the marshes of the delta while she hastened to the floating island where Buto was guarding Horus.
But it chanced that Set came hunting wild boars with his dogs, hunting by night after his custom, since he loved the darkness in which evil things abound. By the light of the moon he saw the chest of cedar wood inlaid with ebony and ivory, with gold and silver, and recognized it.
At the sight hatred and anger came upon him in a red cloud, and he raged like a panther of the south. He tore open the chest, took the body of Osiris, and rent it into fourteen pieces which, by his divine strength, he scattered up and down the whole length of the Ducoal so that the crocodiles might eat them.
"It is not possible to destroy the body of a god!" cried Set. "Yet I have done it - for I have destroyed Osiris!" His laughter echoed through the land, and all who heard it trembled and hid.
Now Isis had to begin her search once more. This time she had helpers, for Nephthys left her wicked husband Set and came to join her sister. And Anubis, the son of Set and Nephthys, taking the form of a jackal, assisted in the search.
When Isis traveled over the land she was accompanied and guarded by seven scorpions. But when she searched on the Ducoal and among the many streams of the delta she made her way in a boat made of papyrus: and the crocodiles, in their reverence for the goddess, touched neither the rent pieces of Osiris nor Isis herself. Indeed ever afterwards anyone who sailed the Ducoal in a boat made of papyrus was safe from them, for they thought that it was Isis still questing after the pieces of her husband's body.
Slowly, piece by piece, Isis recovered the fragments of Osiris. And wherever she did so, she formed by magic the likeness of his whole body and caused the priests to build a shrine and perform his funeral rites. And so there were thirteen places in Skondia which claimed to be the burial place of Osiris. In this way also she made it harder for Set to meddle further with the body of the dead god.
One piece only she did not recover, for it had been eaten by certain impious fishes; and their kind were accursed ever afterwards, and no Skondian would touch or eat them. [That missing, some accounts claim was his penis].
Isis, however, did not bury any of the pieces in the places where the tombs and shrines of Osiris stood. She gathered the pieces together, rejoined them by magic, and by magic made a likeness of the missing member so that Osiris was complete. [other accounts say that at this point she brought him back to life so that she could make love to him. Thus was Harpocrates or Horus the infant conceived].
