Parallel Myths (35 page)

The Master told them that the young warrior must return as he came; it wasn’t his time yet. He was to carefully trace his steps back to his body, put it on, and return home. He did this and became a great chief, happy in the assurance that he would see his bride once again.

(Egypt)

O
siris was a god who once ruled Egypt as a king during the time when death had not yet entered the world. In fact, the people knew nothing of sin; there was neither violence nor greed, envy, hatred, nor any other division among humans. People spoke sweetly to each other in poetry; they were always honest and gentle. Osiris himself loved the people and taught them the arts of raising crops, irrigation, wisdom, and the laws of the gods.

Geb (earth) and Nut (sky) were the parents of both Osiris and his wife, Isis. As they were gods, there was no sin in their being husband and wife as well as brother and sister. They ruled the land together in prosperity, causing the Nile to overflow its banks, leaving moist, rich silt that produced bread. Their faithful companion was the god of wisdom, Thoth, who invented writing and numbers, teaching these arts to the first people.

However, the gods also had a wicked brother, Set, who ruled the
lifeless desert. Even as Osiris was the author of creativity and life, Set was destructive. He was so violent by nature that he ripped a hole in his mother’s side when he was born. As the people reclaimed land through irrigation, he was angered that Osiris was diminishing his desert kingdom. He grew to envy his brother more day by day.

Set looked out over his kingdom and saw only dunes, scorpions, and rocks. He had plenty of time to think, as nothing ever happened in his realm. Once he measured Osiris by observing his brother’s shadow, and then built a beautiful casket of fragrant wood for Osiris.

Before the arrival of the dry season (Set’s favorite, of course), Set called a great feast of all the gods, placing the casket in the center of the entrance hall. All of the gods admired the box: It smelled of balsam, cedar, and incense woods. They played, taking turns lying in it. Osiris was late in arriving at the feast; all of the other gods were already in the dining hall. So Set and Osiris were alone in the entrance hall with the casket. Set persuaded his brother, who was honest and trusting, to try out the casket. As soon as Osiris was in the casket, Set’s attendants came out, nailed the box shut, and sealed it with hot lead.

The sound of the hammers roused the other gods from their feasting. As they entered the entrance hall, Set and his minions had already fled with the casket into the desert night. The gods tried to pursue them, realizing that Osiris was inside the box, but it was too late. Finally, the evil ones flung the casket into the Nile, by which time Osiris had died of suffocation.

From the moment of the death of Osiris, Egypt suffered miseries hitherto unknown. Set’s deserts encroached upon and parched fertile farmlands, causing famine. The people began to fight and steal for the meager remaining food. Mothers did not sleep at night, as the cries of their hungry children kept them awake. With the disruption of agriculture and irrigation, Set’s kingdom of sand grew until it nearly reached the banks of the Nile. The despair was so great that the people envied the dead.

Isis, her sister Nephthys (who was Set’s wife), and the wise god Thoth went in search of Osiris throughout the land of Egypt, following
the course of the Nile. The casket had drifted down the river through the delta and into the Mediterranean Sea. Finally it arrived in the land of Byblos,
*
which was ruled by King Melkart and Queen Astarte.
†

Meanwhile, a small tree had sprung up near the casket. Over time, it became a great tree that swallowed the casket in its trunk. The sweet-smelling woods it now enveloped caused the tree to give off a pleasant fragrance that made it famous throughout the world. Isis heard of this phenomenon and the description of the scent sounded like that of the casket.

While following the casket to Byblos, Isis had cut off a lock of her hair as a sign of mourning. Thoth advised her to regain her strength by resting on an island in the papyrus swamps of the Nile delta. Seven scorpions accompanied Isis on her journey. While she was resting at the home of a pious woman, one of the scorpions bit the woman’s child, killing him. Moved by the cries of the mother, the goddess brought the child back to life.

Before Isis reached Byblos, King Melkart and Queen Astarte decided that the famous tree was one of the treasures of their kingdom and ordered it cut down. It was then fashioned into a pillar in their palace. Thus, when Isis arrived at Byblos, there was only a fragrant stump left. She remained seated on this stump for many months, saying nothing.

When Melkart and Astarte learned of the beautiful stranger, probably a goddess, they immediately sent for her. When Isis came to the palace, she placed her hand on the queen’s head; immediately a sweet fragrance emanated from Astarte’s body. Isis nursed the queen’s child upon her finger as other women nurse by the breast. As the nurse of the royal child, Isis lived in the palace.

At night, by stealth, Isis chipped away at the pillar that contained Osiris, throwing the wood chips into the fire. The wood had been transformed magically by contact with her husband so that, when it burned, one could pass through the flames without harm. Isis placed
the royal child right into the flames to keep it warm, and the baby remained safe.

Queen Astarte walked into the hall and, terrified to see her child in the fire, pulled it out of the heat. Isis now took the form of a swallow and flew around the pillar. She spoke to the heart of Astarte, explaining that the child would have gained immortality by remaining in the flames just a little while longer; as it was, the baby was assured of a long life. Isis then reassumed human form and told Astarte the entire story of Osiris. In the morning, King Melkart ordered that the pillar be split and the casket removed.

Isis returned to Egypt with the casket. When she opened it, she found that Osiris had not decomposed; his body was perfectly preserved. She took the lifeless body of her husband into her arms and kissed him, breathing life into him, and he revived. Still afraid of his evil brother, they remained in hiding.

But Set had certainly found out that Osiris was alive once more, because the desert immediately retreated and began to produce crops again. People resumed living in peace with their neighbors. Of course, Set again began to plot the murder of his brother. One day, under the pretext of hunting gazelles, Set came upon the sleeping Osiris and cut his body into fourteen pieces, scattering them throughout the land. To this day, there are fourteen places in Egypt known as “tombs” of Osiris. With the death of Osiris, evil again swept the land, but to a lesser degree than before.

Isis traveled throughout Egypt to gather the fourteen dismembered pieces of Osiris’s body. She reassembled her husband on an island in the Nile. When the pieces were all together, peace returned to Egypt. But a voice spoke to Isis, saying this peace would not last: Set had poisoned the hearts of men. Still, there would never again be a period completely devoid of goodness. Osiris’s soul had now gone to the land of the dead, where he was King of the Dead and the Great Judge, and now mortal men and women could gain immortality of the soul at death, their bodies and souls to be reunited by resurrection. Although Set had brought sin into the world, Osiris brought hope.

Soon after Osiris went to the Underworld as king, to Isis was born his child, whom she named Horus. Nephthys and Thoth protected
and instructed the boy. Horus was ordained to be the great avenger of his father, the champion of the gods and mankind against Set. With the birth of Horus, Set would never again rule uncontested. But Set caused a scorpion to bite Horus, killing him.

Isis prayed to Ra, the sun-god, who sent Thoth to teach her the incantations that would revive the boy. It was well, however, that Horus spent a little time in the land of the dead—it enabled him to meet his father, Osiris, and learn his wisdom: Horus is considered the patron of the reigning pharaoh and the guardian of the prosperity of Egypt.

The Laws of Osiris

Osiris established the laws that govern the land of the dead. There are three parts to a human being—his body, his “ka” spirit, and his “ba” spirit. At death, it is the ka that continues to live, and the human body is preserved by mummification, as it is the property and home of the ka. When Osiris calls the dead to live in the resurrection, the ka can take full possession of the body.

At the moment of death, the ka leaves the body and proceeds to its judgment. The soul wanders through the halls of the palace of Osiris where forty-two assessors initially consider the evidence of the life of the soul. These assessors are entirely impartial; one’s station in life makes no difference to their judgment in death. The ultimate judgment of the soul, however, is in the hands of the three judges of the dead in the Hall of the Two Truths.

These judges are the gods Horus, Anubis, and Thoth. Thoth, the god of wisdom, places a pure white feather symbolizing
Ma’at
, or “truth,” on one side of a scale balanced against the evidence of the individual’s life. If the soul honestly declares that it has not committed any of the forty-two sins, then Thoth takes the soul by the hand to the throne of Osiris, who then rules over the soul in everlasting bliss, and who will someday resurrect the body and reunite it with the soul.

If a person committed less than half of the forty-two sins, then Thoth makes the recommendation to Osiris that the soul be allowed
to enjoy everlasting bliss. For such individuals, the crucial evidence is the evidence of the heart—the intentions. Some say that the hearts of the warmhearted and the coldhearted are even weighed on different scales.

On the other hand, if the soul has committed over half of the forty-two sins, and it is coldhearted, Osiris either orders it to be reincarnated and to pay for its sins through labor on earth, or he sends it to one of the hells to be purged of its sins and then retried.

In Egyptian tombs, one finds food and personal possessions interred along with the body. This is to provide for the sustenance of the ka spirit, which doesn’t eat much, and also for the day when Osiris resurrects the body. The body is mummified in imitation of the preservation of the body of Osiris.

The Egyptian commonly referred to the recently deceased as “the Osiris ——” much as modern people say “the late ——.”

(Chinook)

BLUE JAY FINDS A WIFE

B
lue Jay was a trickster who enjoyed playing clever tricks on everyone, especially his sister Ioi. As she was the eldest sister, Blue Jay was supposed to obey her. But he deliberately misinterpreted what she said, excusing himself by saying, “Ioi always tells lies.”

Ioi decided that it was high time for Blue Jay to quit his playful life of trickery and settle down with a wife. She told him that he must select a wife from the people of the land of the dead, who were called the “Supernatural People.” Ioi recommended that Blue Jay choose an old woman for a wife and suggested the recently deceased wife of a chief. But Blue Jay balked; he wanted a young and attractive woman. He found the corpse of a beautiful young girl and took
it to Ioi, who advised him to take the body to the land of the dead to be revived.