Chapter 5 (part 4)

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. Identity of the deceased with Osiris. This is the story of the sufferings and death of Osiris as told by Plutarch. Osiris was the god through whose sufferings 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. 2. {Greek Mo'non de` tw^n merw^u tou^ O?si'ridos th`n I?^sin ou`x e`urei^n to` ai?doi^n e`uðu`s ga`r ei's to`n potamo`n r!ifh^nai kai` geu'sasðai to'n te lepidwto`n au`tou^ kai` to`n fa'gron kai` to`n o?ksu'rugxon. k.t.l. }. By the festival celebrated by the Egyptians in honour of the model of the lost member of Osiris, we are probably to understand the public performance of the ceremony of "setting up the Tet in Tattu", which we know took place on the last day of the month Choiak; see Loret, Les Fêtes 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. See Chabas, Le Calendrier , p. 28 ff.] the deceased; in a word, the deceased is identified with Osiris. If Osiris liveth for ever, the deceased will live for ever; if Osiris dieth, then will the deceased perish. [1. The origin of Plutarch's story of the death of Osiris, and the Egyptian conception of his nature and attributes, may be gathered from the following very remarkable hymn. (The text is given by Ledrain, Les Monuments Égyptiens de la Bibliothèque Nationale , Paris, 1879, pll. xxi-xxvii.