The Tale of Isis and Osiris
By Anne Spackman
Copyright 2012 by Anne Spackman
All rights reserved.
*This is the retelling of a myth from ancient Egypt.*
In the land called Kemet (the ancient name for the country we now call Egypt), the sun tipped over the horizon on a hot, clear, summer morning. The people of the countryside were beginning their daily tasks, and some had yet to wake to the day.
In the Palace of the Pharoah, the Pharoah (or King) Osiris, and his wife, Queen Isis woke and dressed for the day’s affairs.
“Darling, I have had another dream.” Said Isis in a serious tone. The royal couple were walking together to the throne room.
“A dream?” Osiris turned and looked at her with questioning eyes.
“About your brother, Seth.”
“Oh, Seth,” Osiris said, in a guarded manner, and sighed. Seth had been plotting to take over the throne of Kemet for years, and his treachery had been discovered by an advisor. Since that time, Seth had disappeared from the court, but Isis no longer felt safe, especially when her husband was not at home.
“Seth killed you in my dream,” said Isis, gravely. “It was a terrible dream that I had last night, and now I fear for your life more than ever. Please do be careful, my love, wherever you go.”
“I will do all I can to preserve the peace of the land and remain as safe as I can.” Said Osiris.
The couple appeared some time later in the throne room. There, they ruled over the land, and were kind and just rulers to the people of Kemet.
“I worry about what may befall us, and the kingdom, if Seth isn’t stopped.” Said Isis as she sat down on the throne for the Queen. The Queen held a fan made of ostrich feathers in her hand. Osiris signaled over to the fan holder to fan the Queen more closely, so that she would not be so uncomfortable in the heat.
“I trust I shall be all right,” said Osiris the King. “Do not worry, my love. I am thinking of holding a big banquet next week. I was even thinking of inviting my brother, Seth, to heal the rift between us.”
“But darling—“
“I feel this must be. I cannot go on fearing him. He will attend.”
“Yes,” said Isis. “I understand.”
So it came to pass a week later that the King and Queen held a grand banquet at the palace. Seth, bedecked in ostentatious dress, arrived with an entourage, and was secretly waiting to carry out a foul plot against the Pharoah, his brother Osiris.
“Ah, brother, welcome to our feast,” said Osiris as Seth entered the throne room.
“Delighted,” returned Seth. “As ever, I remain your humble servant, brother. And to you Isis, I extend many happy greetings.”
Isis stood behind her husband, dressed in formal attire, a linen dress with straps that had been ornately woven with images of hawks. Her eyes were darkened with stibium and kohl. She looked radiant in her dress, and spoke with an air of severity.
“Welcome, brother, to our feast.”
Seth was seated at the banquet, and in time drew the attention of everyone present with a story.
“I have in my possession,” said Seth, his eyes flashing mysteriously, “a coffin that is wondrous to behold, made of fine wood, and painted with icons and gold. I have promised to give it as a gift to any one who may fit precisely into it.”
“Let us see your coffin,” said Osiris. And in turn, each of the court tried to fit into the box, until at last it was the King himself whose turn it was to try to fit into the box.
Of course, the coffin had been made by Seth according to Osiris’ precise measurements, so once the King was in the coffin, his entourage surrounded the box and nailed it shut. Before the astonished crowd could protest or fight to save the King Osiris, Seth’s men had launched the coffin high and ran away with Osiris, flinging him into the river Nile.
Seeing what was happening, Isis screamed. She could do nothing to stop what was happening, and she began to weep as Seth fled the scene. She wept in shock, and the assembly went to look for Osiris.
“We cannot find him,” came the news of the sentries. “His body must have sailed too far down the river.”
Isis immediately took up a knife and symbolically cut off some of her hair. She then ran to her chamber and put on mourning clothes, and then set off to find the body of her husband.
Isis left that afternoon on a great journey all over the land, but Isis never found Osiris until one day, she came across some children sitting by the water.
“Have any of you seen a coffin?” begged Isis again.
“I saw a golden coffin being flung into the water,” said one of the children. “But it was a long time ago, and the coffin is long gone.”
Isis hurried away and continued on her journey. She left Kemet and came to a country called Byblos. Here, she heard some local fisherman talking about a miraculous tree that had started to grow on the shore all of a sudden.
“A coffin floated to shore one day,” said one of the fisherman. Isis gasped, but continued to listen. “There, it was stuck in a bush. There was someone inside, and the bush sprouted into a divine tree. The King of Byblos had it cut down to make some of his palace.”
“May I see this palace?” asked the weeping Isis, and she was shown the way to the palace of Byblos by the fisherman and the villagers of the palace city. Isis waited a very long time at the gate for the handmaidens of the Queen to appear.
“I am a headdresser from Kemet,” said Isis. She then braided the handmaidens’ hair so that a smell of divine origin was magically pleated into their hair, and they were delighted.
“We will bring you to the Queen.” Said the handmaidens. The Queen of Byblos was lovely, with dark hair already pleated up in a fashionable way. She saw Isis and immediately liked her.
“This is a headdresser from Kemet,” the handmaidens said to the Queen.
“Hmmm, perhaps you might take care of my young son for me.” Said the Queen. “I am in need of a good servant.”
So Isis became a member of the Byblos court. After a few days of caring for the young prince, Isis went out at night and found the tree trunk that enclosed Osiris’ coffin. Isis went there every night while the prince was asleep. She found the room that had been made from the tree of her husband’s body and cried for him. Every day she looked after the young prince of Byblos, and in time, she came to care for the young boy. She had a notion of making him immortal with her magical powers.
One night, Isis brought the young Byblos prince to the pillar where Osiris’ casket was hidden inside. She knelt down and lit a fire. She spoke magic words and put the prince into the fire, but it didn’t hurt him, and instead burned away his mortality with a magical fire. Isis magically turned into a swallow bird and flew around the pillar, crying out to Osiris.
The Queen of Byblos heard a noise and woke up, and ran into the room that was ablaze.
“What is going on here?” she cried. And she screamed loudly, and the swallow turned back into Isis. The magical fire died.
“I am Isis, magical Queen of Kemet,” said Isis. “I was making your son immortal, like one of the gods.”
“Heavens!” exclaimed the Queen of Byblos. “Can you still do this?”
“No, now it is impossible,” said Isis, and the boy crept up and returned to his mother.
“I am sorry, Queen of Kemet, that I interrupted your gift to my son. Is there something I can do for you?”
“May I have this pillar with my husband’s body inside?”
“Yes, certainly.”
Isis took up a knife and hacked the pillar to pieces so that the
coffin could come out of it. She took up the bits and later drenched them in oil and wrapped them in fine linen.
“Please, Queen of Byblos, keep these pieces of this pillar in the Temple here for me. Now, farewell, for I must leave to return to my own people.”
Isis returned to Kemet, bringing the casket of her dead husband. She opened it and embraced his body.
“He looks asleep only,” she cried in sorrow. Then she closed the lid once more and continued on her way home to bury him at the palace.
That evening, Seth the evil murderer of the King Osiris, was out hunting with his henchmen.
“What’s that?” called Seth aloud, seeing the casket and Isis sleeping beside it.
“Sshh, it is the King and Queen.” Said Seth. “We shall steal upon them, and do harm to Osiris before he can be returned to court.” Then Seth tiptoed to the coffin and opened it while Isis slept. He took out a knife and hacked Osiris’ body into pieces.
“Here, take these and we will separate and spread his body around the country. Isis will not be able to find him or restore the King then.”
And while Isis slept they departed with the dismembered body of the King.
Isis awoke to a bright dawn of clear skies. She saw the open casket empty as she got up, and shrieked aloud so loudly that her cry shook the world.
“Nephthys, my sister,” she called with the magical arts of her kind. “Come to me.”
A few days passed, and Nepthys appeared to comfort and console her sister, who had taken up refuge by the casket.
“We shall together find the body of the King, my husband,” said Isis.
“Yes, together we can piece his body back together,” agreed Nepthys.
Years passed, and the sisters Isis and Nepthys at last managed to piece together the dismembered but magically preserved body of the King Osiris. Isis made his body into a mummy as soon as he was all whole once more.
She incanted magic words, and then breathed new life into the body of her dead husband.
Osiris came to life and was alive once more. Isis lay with him one night, and conceived the child Horus that night. But, after that one night it was clear that Osiris had been transmogrified into the God or King of the Dead, and could live no more among mortal men.
“Good-bye, my love,” Isis called as Osiris descended down into the Underworld.
The next year, Isis bore her dead husband a living son whom she called Horus, God of Falcons. And in the years to come, it was he who would ascend to the throne of Kemet and become the King.
The End.