DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.30604#0059
THE LEGEND OF OSIRIS.
1
chest by ship to Egypt, where she opened it and embraced the body of her husband, piutarch’s version.
weeping bitterly. Then she sought her son Horus in Buto, in Lower Egypt, first
having hidden the chest in a secret place. But Typhon, one night hunting by the
light of the moon, found the chest, and, recognizing the body, tore it into fourteen
pieces, which he scattered up and down throughout the land. When Isis hearcl of
this she took a boat made of papyrus1—a plant abhorred by crocodiles—and sailing
about she gathered the fragments of Osiris’s body.3 Wherever she found one, there
she built a tomb. But now Horus had grown up, and being encouraged to the use
of arms by Osiris, who returned from the other world, he went out to do battle
with Typhon, the murderer of his father. The hght lasted many days, and
Typhon was made captive. But Isis, to whom the care of the prisoner was
given, so far from aiditig her son Horus, set Typhon at liberty. Horus in his rage
tore from her head the royal diadem; but Thoth gave her a helmet in the shape of
a cow’s head. In two other battles fought between Horus and Typhon, Horus
was the victor.3
This is the story of the sufferings and death of Osiris as told by Plutarch. identity of the
_ . . . deceased with Osi
Osins was the god through whose surferings and death the Egyptian hoped that
his body might rise again in some transformed or glorified shape, and to him who
had conquered death and had become the king of the other world the Egyptian
appealed in prayer for eternal life through his victory and power. In every
funeral inscription known to us, from the pyramid texts down to the roughly-
written prayers upon coffins of the Roman period, what is done for Osiris is done
also for the deceased, the state and condition of Osiris are the state and condition of
1 The ark of “ bulrushes ” was, no doubt, intended to preserve the child Moses from crocodiles.
which we know took place on the last day of the month Choiak; see Loret, Les Fetes d’Osiris au mois
de Khoiak (Recueil de Travaux, t. iv., p. 32, § 87); Plutarch, De Iside, §xviii.
3 An account of the battle is also given in the IVth Sallier papyrus, wherein we are told that it
took place on the 26th day of the month Thoth. Horus and Set fought in the form of two men, but
they afterwards changed themselves into two bears, and they passed three days and three nights in
this form. Victory inclined now to one side, and now to the other, and the heart of Isis suffered
bitterly. When Horus saw that she loosed the fetters which he had laid upon Set, he became like
a “raging panther of the south with fury,” and she fled before him; but he pursued her, and cut off
her head, which Thoth transformed by his words of magical power and set upon her body again in the
form of that of a cow. In the calendars the 26th day of Thoth was marked triply deadly |TA fV^ •
See Chabas, Le Calendrier, p. 28 ff.
1
chest by ship to Egypt, where she opened it and embraced the body of her husband, piutarch’s version.
weeping bitterly. Then she sought her son Horus in Buto, in Lower Egypt, first
having hidden the chest in a secret place. But Typhon, one night hunting by the
light of the moon, found the chest, and, recognizing the body, tore it into fourteen
pieces, which he scattered up and down throughout the land. When Isis hearcl of
this she took a boat made of papyrus1—a plant abhorred by crocodiles—and sailing
about she gathered the fragments of Osiris’s body.3 Wherever she found one, there
she built a tomb. But now Horus had grown up, and being encouraged to the use
of arms by Osiris, who returned from the other world, he went out to do battle
with Typhon, the murderer of his father. The hght lasted many days, and
Typhon was made captive. But Isis, to whom the care of the prisoner was
given, so far from aiditig her son Horus, set Typhon at liberty. Horus in his rage
tore from her head the royal diadem; but Thoth gave her a helmet in the shape of
a cow’s head. In two other battles fought between Horus and Typhon, Horus
was the victor.3
This is the story of the sufferings and death of Osiris as told by Plutarch. identity of the
_ . . . deceased with Osi
Osins was the god through whose surferings and death the Egyptian hoped that
his body might rise again in some transformed or glorified shape, and to him who
had conquered death and had become the king of the other world the Egyptian
appealed in prayer for eternal life through his victory and power. In every
funeral inscription known to us, from the pyramid texts down to the roughly-
written prayers upon coffins of the Roman period, what is done for Osiris is done
also for the deceased, the state and condition of Osiris are the state and condition of
1 The ark of “ bulrushes ” was, no doubt, intended to preserve the child Moses from crocodiles.
which we know took place on the last day of the month Choiak; see Loret, Les Fetes d’Osiris au mois
de Khoiak (Recueil de Travaux, t. iv., p. 32, § 87); Plutarch, De Iside, §xviii.
3 An account of the battle is also given in the IVth Sallier papyrus, wherein we are told that it
took place on the 26th day of the month Thoth. Horus and Set fought in the form of two men, but
they afterwards changed themselves into two bears, and they passed three days and three nights in
this form. Victory inclined now to one side, and now to the other, and the heart of Isis suffered
bitterly. When Horus saw that she loosed the fetters which he had laid upon Set, he became like
a “raging panther of the south with fury,” and she fled before him; but he pursued her, and cut off
her head, which Thoth transformed by his words of magical power and set upon her body again in the
form of that of a cow. In the calendars the 26th day of Thoth was marked triply deadly |TA fV^ •
See Chabas, Le Calendrier, p. 28 ff.