The sky goddess, Nut,
and her husband, the earth god, Geb, were so
close that nothing could exist between
them. So Shu, their father, separated them,
holding Nut's body aloft so the living things
could exist on the earth. Nut brought forth
two sets of twins. Osiris and Isis, and Set and
Nepthys. Isis and Osiris loved each other,
but Nepthys hated Set; she too, loved Osiris.
At the birth of
Osiris a voice was heard all over the world,
saying, "The lord of all the earth is
born!" Osiris became the king of Egypt and
ruled wisely with Isis as his queen. He
established laws, and taught the people how to
grow food and how to worship the gods.
Osiris had only one
enemy; his jealous brother, Set. Set
secretly measured Osiris's body and made a
painted coffin to fit it exactly.
Then he gave a feast,
to which he invited his brother. He showed
off the magnificent coffin and said that he would
give it as a present to whomever fit inside it.
All the guests took
turns lying down in the coffin, but they were all
too small. At last Osiris himself lay down; his
body fitting perfectly. Then Set and his
friends nailed down the lid, poured boiling lead
over it to seal it, and set the coffin adrift on
the Nile River.
When Isis heard what
had happened to her husband, she was stricken
with grief. She cut off her long hair,
dressed in mourning, and set off in search of the
coffin. No one she asked could tell her
what had become of it; but at last some children
playing by the river told her where it lay.
Isis pried open the
coffin and summoned Anubis, the jackal-headed
god, to embalm Osiris' body. But first she turned
herself into a sparrow hawk and, hovering over
Osiris, fanned breath into his body with her
wings. She revived him long enough to
conceive a son, Horus. Then she hid the
child from the wrath of Set.
Set, hunting in the
moonlight, came upon the opened coffin and , in a
rage, tore the body of Osiris into fourteen
pieces, which he scattered all over the country.
Isis traveled all over Egypt in a boat of papyrus
reeds, gathering up the corps of Osiris and
burying each piece where she found it.
