Horus: The Baby Bird

Hey guys!  Hope you all had a lovely week.

So in my last two posts I talked about Osiris and his wife Isis, who became pregnant with Horus.  Even before Horus was born his life was plagued with trials and woe.  His uncle Set, who feared Horus as the rightful heir to the Egyptian throne, captured the pregnant Isis and held her hostage.  It was only through the aid of the god Thoth that she was able to escape with her unborn son.

Isis went into hiding, and Horus was born in the riverlands.  Thoth advised the goddess to keep her son hidden and allow him to grow away from the dangers of his uncle, and that was what Isis did.  Horus grew up a fugitive near the river.

It is here that I shall begin my story of the day.

First off - why the title of "The Baby Bird"?  Horus is often depicted in Egyptian mythology as having the head of a falcon and the body of a man, like so:

Since he is an infant in the story I'm about to tell, the title seemed apropos.  But, I'll admit...mostly I just wanted an excuse to share this picture:

One day Isis had to leave to run some heavenly errands - just because Set was hunting for her didn't mean she got to stop being a goddess!  So Isis tucked Horus away safely into the reeds of the river and then left for the day.

Unfortunately, Set was hunting for the child.

Ever since Isis had escaped his nefarious clutches Set had had scouts out looking for she and the child.  On this particular day one of the scouts, a highly venomous scorpion, happened across the baby Horus.  Recognizing its target the scorpion struck, stinging Horus before making its escape.

By the time Isis returned Horus was dead.  The goddess wept and wailed, for her child had been murdered.

(I find it interesting that in our post last week Isis saved another child from being killed by scorpion venom...but she was unable to save her own.)

As it turned out, Isis was in luck.  Her laments were so loud that Ra, god of the sun, heard them as he and his flaming barge were passing by overhead.

(Ra is awesome.  He rides a boat made of fire that serves as the sun, and fights an evil serpent every night to make sure that the sun rises once again in the morning.  Such a cool god!)

Ra paused his boat in the sky and sent one of his companions down to check on Isis.  As it happened, this god was Thoth.

I find it fascinating that Thoth is really responsible for so much of the good in these stories.  It was he who figured out a way for Nut to give birth to Isis and her siblings.  It was he who helped the pregnant Isis escape from Set's clutches.

It was also Thoth who would save Horus' life.

When the god of wisdom found Isis holding her son's lifeless body he took great pity on her.  Thoth used his magic (apparently stronger than Isis') to raise Horus from the dead.  The boy was returned to life, and Isis wept with gratitude.

I know we didn't actually talk much about Horus in this post, but I promise I'll go into more detail next week!  Tune in then for the awesome finale to our ongoing family drama, featuring the great showdown between Set and Horus.  I'll see you then!

Isis: The Mystic Mama

Hey all!  I hope you had a lovely weekend and are doing well.

Alright guys, let's talk serious for a moment.  I know that ISIS is currently a very uncomfortable topic for most people.  I've read articles about Nutella refusing to print a customized jar for a girl named Isis out of fear that it would be associated with ISIS.  I myself had a friend advise me to get rid of mentioning the goddess Isis in Lovesick out of worry that it would bring to mind the terrorist organization.

To quote a very wise fictional wizard: "Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself."

Isis was a goddess in ancient Egypt long before the acronym ISIS came into being.  She was a deity of duty, honor, and beauty, and is one of my favorite mythological characters.

I refuse to allow all mention of her to be automatically associated with ISIS, and so I'm going to do a blog post that instead focuses on the positive being behind the name.  I hope, in time, that more people will remember Isis the goddess than ISIS the group.

That having been said, here's the post:

The story of Isis' birth is very interesting to me, and it helps to explain some of the mysticism possessed by the goddess.  I mentioned in my post last week that the god of the earth, Geb, had four children with the goddess of the sky, Nut.  These children were Isis, Osiris, Nepthys, and Set.  While this is technically true, it is only true in some versions of the myth.  It is to another version of the story of their birth that I wish to turn.

The story goes that Nut was originally married to Ra, god of the sun.  Unfortunately for Ra, Nut fell in love with the god Geb.

The two conceived four children together, but Ra found out about their union before the babies could be born.  Enraged by Nut's infidelity, Ra cursed her so that her babies could not be born in any month of any year.

Now, most women who become pregnant eventually reach the point where they are fed up and just want the baby out of them.  This is especially true around the last trimester when the baby is biggest.

Imagine that there are four children inside of you.

Imagine that you have a due date for them.  The end is in sight, and there is much rejoicing!

Then imagine that you are cursed so that you can never get the kids out.  You'll have to carry them around, for all eternity.

Understandably, Nut freaked out.

Luckily for Nut, she was a very beautiful woman and a lot of gods loved her.  When she approached Thoth, the god of knowledge, she found her solution.  Thoth was willing to do anything for Nut, and he was very clever.  The god made a bet with the goddess of the moon and won, allowing him to take some of her light.  Thoth used this light to create 5 days outside of the normal calendar, allowing Nut to give birth to one child each day.  One of these children was Isis.

Isis grew up and embraced the mystical nature that surrounded her birth.  She became the goddess of magic, but she was also the embodiment of all that was considered good in both a wife and a mother.  She was dutiful and loyal above all else.  My post last week talked about Isis' quest to resurrect her husband/brother Osiris.  In the process she became pregnant with his child (possibly conceived while Osiris was dead, but hey, let's not dwell on the creepy past).  Let us turn now to an adventure Isis had while pregnant with Horus, one which highlights her more compassionate, mothering nature.

After reassembling Osiris' body and raising him from the dead (after a fashion), Isis was found by a furious Set.  The god trapped her in his house, intending to hold her prisoner until Horus was born.

Luckily for Isis, Thoth was looking out for her.  He found where she was imprisoned and set the goddess free, advising her to run to the Delta area and hide until Horus was born.  Isis took his advice and set out.

Another deity, the goddess Selket, also lent her aid to Isis.

Selket was the goddess of scorpions, but she was also represented as the protector of the throne and kings...and the unborn Horus was the rightful king of Egypt.  As such, Selket sent seven giant scorpions to escort Isis and Horus to safety.

In the midst of their journey night fell, and Isis grew weary.  She sought shelter at the home of one of the leaders of a town.  Unfortunately, when the wife of the owner saw the scorpions accompanying the goddess she panicked and refused.

This refusal really pissed Selket off.  After all, here was a goddess carrying the rightful king of the gods, and this mortal had the audacity to refuse her shelter?  Nuh-uh.  Not happening.  So Selket had six of her scorpions transfer their venom to the seventh (apparently making an uber-venom), and then sent that scorpion into the woman's home.  It sought out the woman's young son and stung him, immediately bringing him close to death.

When the woman realized what had happened she carried her son out into the street, crying and lamenting.  His demise was imminent, but Isis heard the cries of the grieving mother and took pity on her.  She went to the boy and used her magic, instantly healing him.  She and the scorpions then took their leave and hid far from civilization until Horus was born.

That is the Isis that I like to remember.

What do you guys think of the goddess?

I'll see you next week with a post continuing the adventures of the divine family!

Osiris: The Resurrected God

Hey guys!  Welcome back to my series about Egyptian mythology!  Today we're going to be taking a look at Osiris, one of the main Egyptian deities.

The story of Osiris is one of the more interesting ones in Egyptian mythology (at least to me).  Let's start at the beginning, shall we?  Two of the first Egyptian deities - Nut, goddess of the sky, and Geb, god of the earth - once had four children.  These heavenly kids were Nepthys, Isis, Set, and Osiris.  Once they had grown up, Osiris wound up being put in charge of the kingdom.

(As a note: before Osiris took the throne, the kids had split up into couples.  Nepthys and Set had married, as had Isis and Osiris.  Siblings getting married is actually pretty common in mythology - take a look at the Greek myths!)

Unfortunately, Osiris' rule was not to last.  His brother Set became incredibly jealous at the power given to Osiris...power which he thought should belong to him.  Set was quite cunning, and developed a plan to fool his brother.  After much shenanigans and conniving he tricked Osiris into laying down in a box.  Set then closed the box on his unsuspecting brother, nailed it shut, and sealed the edges with lead.  Osiris, and his prison, were then thrown into the Nile River.

Ahhh, sibling quarrels.  Always so much fun!

When she realized that something had happened to her husband, Isis immediately set out to look for him.

(By some accounts their sister Nepthys helped her search.  Of course, by some accounts Set murdered Osiris for sleeping with Nepthys, so...)  Eventually the box containing Osiris was found at the bottom of the river.  Isis pried off the lid and was heartbroken to find her husband dead within.

Now, we'll talk a little more about Isis and her abilities in a post specifically about her, but it is important to know that Isis is the goddess of magic.  When she discovered that Osiris was dead, instead of giving up she decided "There's a spell for that!"

Are you ready for the story to get really creepy?  Tell me, how do you guys feel about necrophilia?

While taking Osiris' body back to Egypt for burial, Isis conceived a child - Horus.  Now, according to some stories she used a magical scroll to raise Osiris from the dead for one night.  According to others...let's just leave it at "the child was conceived through magic" and move away from the creepiness, shall we?

At any rate, Osiris' body was returned to Egypt, but Isis had to go into hiding to prevent Set from killing her unborn son.  During the time she was hiding Set found Osiris' body and, in a rage, tore it into fourteen pieces.  These pieces were scattered by the angry Set throughout all of Egypt.

(This, for the record, is Set.  No one is entirely sure what animal Set's head is supposed to be based on.  There have been actual debates about it.)

Poor pregnant Isis once again landed the task of finding her husband's body - albeit in 14 different locations this time.  She managed to track down all of the pieces...save for one, a rather crucial part of male anatomy.  That particular appendage had been eaten by a fish, and Isis was not able to recover it.  Instead she reassembled her husband's body and had a golden phallus made in place of Osiris' missing flesh one.

Then Isis truly showed her mastery of magic.  She used her abilities to resurrect Osiris, though perhaps not in the way most people would think.  Osiris was returned to the realm of the living after a fashion, but was consigned to spend the rest of his new life in the Netherworld, the Egyptian afterlife.  Because of this Osiris effectively became king of the Underworld.  Unfortunately, that left him unable to reclaim his throne from Set, setting up (see what I did there?) a future conflict between Set and the rightful heir to the throne....Osiris' son, Horus.

(Yay, family photo time!  Mostly because I think baby Horus is just too adorable.)

We'll get to that story in a future post.

What I find most interesting about Osiris' story is the connection it has to the Egyptian practice of mummification and the journey to the afterlife.  Just about every detail in the tale of Osiris' resurrection has important ties to the process of mummification.  All parts of the body are to be assembled in a certain way.  Certain rituals (which are performed by Isis in the myth) must be performed.  If all is done properly, the spirit of the deceased will journey to the afterlife, just as the god Osiris did.

How interesting is it to have a god who actually died, and then returned to rule?  It's a motif not seen too often in mythology.  Hades, in the Greek myths, was a living being who nonetheless ruled over the dead.  Ereshkigal in Mesopotamia was also living.  Izanami, the Japanese goddess of death, died before begin given that title...but her death changed her and made her into a terrifying being.  Egyptian mythology is one of the only places where I have seen a god die, return, and reign without his nature changing - though it does have some interesting parallels to Christianity.

What did you guys think of Osiris?

I'll be back next week to tell the story of Isis and the birth of Horus, continuing the dramatic tale of this family's conflict.  See you then!

Intro to Egyptian Mythology

Hey guys, welcome to 2016!  I hope you had a good 2015, and I'm looking forward to geeking out about mythology with you this coming year.  I've got some fun things planned, and I hope you'll enjoy!

To kick off 2016 let's take a look at Egyptian mythology.

Egyptian mythology has long interested me because of its unique view of animals.  Many of the deities in Egyptian mythology have the bodies of humans but the heads of animals.  For instance:

Anubis, a god of the underworld, is depicted as having a human body with the head of a jackal.

Bast, the goddess of music and warfare, is shown with the head of a cat but the body of a woman.

Perhaps my favorite is Sobek, a protective military god with the head of a crocodile.

All of the above gods are very interesting, and I plan to do posts on them in the coming weeks.  However, the main players of Egyptian mythology are Isis, Osiris, Set, and Horus.  You know how the Star Wars movies all focus around the adventures and drama of one family, the Skywalkers?  Osiris and his family are basically the Skywalkers of Egyptian mythology.

We'll talk more about this in future posts, but the main conflict of Egyptian mythology revolves around those four characters.  Set and Osiris are brothers, and a jealous Set murders Osiris and literally tears him into pieces, scattering him to the corners of the world.  Isis, Osiris' wife, puts her husband back together again (much like Humpty Dumpty!).  Their son Horus winds up in an eternal conflict with his nefarious uncle Set.  Sounds like fun, right?

Another aspect of Egyptian mythology which I find fascinating is the way it personifies some forces of nature.  A perfect example of this is the Nile River.  The land around the Nile is particularly fertile, and is fantastic for growing crops.  The river is also prone to flooding at certain times of the year, leaving those who dwell with it with a healthy respect for the water.  This respect was represented in early Egyptian mythology by creating the Nile into a sort of deity.  Praises and hymns were written in its honor, because the Nile provided life to the surrounding lands.  Appeasements were also offered to the river in the hopes of preventing early flooding.

I'll leave you guys with that.  Have a great week, and I'll see you next Monday with a post about one of the gods!