Chapter 10 (part 8)

The natural opposition of the day and night was at an early period confounded with the battle which took place between Horus, the son of Isis, and Set, wherein Isis intervened, and it seems that the moral idea of the battle of right against wrong[3] became attached to the latter combat, which was undertaken by Horus to avenge his father's murder by Set. Nebt-het or Nephthys the last member of the company of the gods of Annu, was the daughter of Seb and Nut, the sister of Osiris and Isis, and the [1. ###. Ledrain, Monuments Égyptiens , pl. XXV., ll. 2, 3. 2. In the pyramid of Unas, l. 190, they are called the ### or "two combatants "; and see pyramid of Teta, l. 69, where we have the spelling ###. 3. On the personification of evil by Set, see Wiedemann, Die Religion , p. 117.] {p. cxvii} sister and wife of Set. When the sun rose at the creation out of the primeval waters, Nephthys occupied a place in his boat with Isis and other deities; as a nature goddess she either represents the day before sunrise or after sunset, but no portion of the night. She is depicted in the form of a woman, having upon her head the hieroglyphics which form her name, "lady of the house". A legend preserved by Plutarch[1] makes her the mother of Anpu or Anubis by Osiris. In Egyptian texts Anpu is called the son of Ra.[2] In religious texts Nephthys is made to be the companion of Isis in all her troubles, and her grief for her brother's death is as great as that of his wife. Anpu , or Anubis, the son of Osiris or Ra, sometimes by Isis and sometimes by Nephthys, seems to represent as a nature god either the darkest part of the twilight or the earliest dawn. He is depicted either in human form with a jackal's head, or as a jackal. In the legend of Osiris and Isis, Anubis played a prominent part in connexion with the dead body of Osiris, and in papyri we see him standing as a guard and protector of the deceased lying upon the bier; in the judgment scene he is found as the guard of the balance, the pointer of which he watches with great diligence. He became the recognized god of the sepulchral chamber, and eventually presided over the whole of the "funeral Mountain." He is always regarded as the messenger of Osiris. Another form of Anubis was the god Ap-uat , the ### of the pyramid texts,[3] or "Opener of the ways," who also was depicted in the form of a jackal; and the two gods are often confounded. On sepulchral stelæ and other monuments two jackals are frequently depicted; one of these represents Anubis, and the other Ap-uat, and they probably have some connexion with the northern and southern parts of the funereal world. According to M. Maspero, the god Anubis led the souls of the dead to the Elysian Fields in the Great Oasis.[4] Among the primeval gods are two, Hu and Saa who are seen in the boat of the sun at the creation. They are the children of Tmu or Tmu-Ra, but the exact part which they play as nature gods has not yet, it seems, been satisfactorily made out. The first mention of them in the pyramid texts records their subjugation by the deceased,[5] but in the Theban Book of the Dead [1.