Like Osiris, she appears in the Pyramid Texts from the 5th Dynasty – in the tomb of Unas, from 2345 BC) and spends part of the myth as the nursemaid of Horus, which means she was also considered to be the nursemaid of the pharaoh. She also had at least one son of her own, the previous god of the dead, Anubis.
Nephthys is generally considered to be the wife and consort of Set.
Anubis
The jackal-headed god Anubis was the original god of mummification before Osiris. He was the guardian of tombs and protector of the dead, and, rather oddly, he pre-dates both his uncle Osiris and his mother – Nephthys – who both entered the mythology around the 5th Dynasty (2494-2345 BC).
THE DUAT
The Duat is the underworld of Egyptian mythology. It is not quite an underworld in the Greek, Roman, or even Christian sense as a domain of the dead, however. It was more than that, being also the home of the gods and demons, and the world across which the sun travelled at night.
When the early Egyptians looked up at the sky during the day, they saw the sun rise in the east, travel across, and sink into the west. At night they saw the Milky Way, and thought it was a river like the Nile, so they viewed the sun as being the sun god Ra, sailing on that river in a boat.
They also worked out very quickly that Ra’s boat travelled back the other way at night, and so deduced that the Milky Way was one half of the river, and that the other half ran underneath the world. This underground half they named the Duat.
They then populated that underworld with dangers and threats, with the gods, and, eventually, with the dead. The Duat was thought to be a real and physical place, with all the geological and geographical features that people saw in the surface world. There was a central river, just like both the Nile and the Milky Way, and there were mountains, islands, deserts, gardens, and buildings. The Duat was also surrounded by the eternal sea of chaos that had existed before the world began, but this sea was much closer to the Duat than its equivalent, the form of the night sky, was to the mortal world.
Unlike many other underworlds in mythology, the Duat’s relationship to the dead was not simply as the afterlife or their abode. Rather, it was a realm through which the souls of the dead would have to travel in their attempts to reach the true afterlife, which was called the Field of Offerings. The trials of Ra each night and the mortal life after death were somewhat different, but related. In both cases, the Duat was divided into twelve sections. In Ra’s case, he had to switch boats twice to cross it, and be at risk of attack from the giant chaos serpent Apep. Apep lived in the Duat, and it was said that when he thrashed his dragon-like coils, the earth above quaked. A mortal soul would follow the path of this journey and have his life judged by the gods, with his heart weighed against a feather to see how sinful he had been. If the deceased’s heart weighed the same as or less than the feather, he was allowed on to Ra’s boat to go to the Field of Offerings. If, however, the heart weighed more than the feather, then it was fed to the demon Ammit – part lion, part crocodile, and part hippopotamus. In this way the person’s souls – the Egyptians believed everyone had two souls, called the Ba and the Ka – would be destroyed, and so he or she could never go to the paradise of the Field of Offerings. The dead were also at risk of attack from Apep, so it was wise to be prepared, in order that the journey through the Duat was smooth and swift. To prepare the deceased, many of the Egyptian funerary texts were intended as spells or instructions, both warning the deceased of the trials, and advising on the correct responses to them. In particular, a text called the Amduat gives a map, as well as details of each of the tests one would face.
Set, the god of the desert, storms, and Upper Egypt, which was the southern half of the Kingdom. Set was a martial god, and therefore popular with soldiers and generals.
Anubis, like his official father, Set, was drawn from the mythology of Upper Egypt, and he also had important duties in the Duat. There, he would preside over the weighing of the heart ceremony, which would decide whether the deceased was too sinful to enter the afterlife.
Wadjet
Protector of Lower Egypt, Wadjet was a goddess in the form of a cobra, who looked after the lands of the Nile Delta. She was the Lady of Flame, able to spit venom at the faces of enemies attacking Ra’s boat, just as spitting cobras do. As the protector of Lower Egypt, she was the ideal goddess to protect the baby Horus when necessary. Interestingly, her annual celebration day was on what is now 25th December, now Christmas Day.
All of these various gods, along with many other supernatural beings, had their home in the Duat.
THE JEALOUS BROTHER
Before He was Bad
For a long time, Set was content with his position as the god of Upper Egypt, sharing the duties of protecting The Two Lands with his brother Osiris. Set guided the sandstorms, and helped Egypt by placating foreign forces, or getting them lost in the desert when they were hostile. He and Nephthys had raised their son, Anubis, to be fair in his judgements of the dead, and a stalwart protector of the ancestors and their tombs. Set had other wives, of course, but none of them bore him sons or daughters.
Set also had another important job, as protector of Ra. The brothers’ great-grandfather, Ra, who had once called himself Atum, carried the sun across the sky each day, first on his golden barque Mandjet, the ‘Boat of a Million Years’, and then in the afternoon and evening he would switch to the multicoloured ‘Evening Boat’, Mesektet, which was studded with amethysts, emeralds and turquoises. At sunset, Ra descended aboard Mesektet through the Western Gates, and into the Duat. There, he would sail under the earth to be reunited with Mandjet, ready to rise in the morning.
Like any other soul who journeyed through the Duat, Ra faced trials and tests. Some of these were the same as the ones that the pharaoh, or anyone else, would undergo, but there were other threats to Ra specifically. On each of these journeys, Ra was vulnerable to attack from the evil god, Apep, who bore the simple title ‘Enemy of Ra’.
Apep was a different kind of god, who stood for the exact opposite of everything that Ra and the others represented. Where Ra and the other gods brought light, truth and order, Apep brought darkness and chaos. Where the other gods were human with animal heads, who could transform themselves into other creatures, Apep was never human. He was a huge and powerful serpent, 16 yards in length and with a head made of flint. No one ever worshipped Apep, or prayed to him; rather, they prayed for protection from him, and mortal priests conducted an annual rite of burning an effigy of him, to ward off his evil influence on the world.
Each night, Apep would try to catch and kill Ra. Usually he would try to ambush Ra’s boat either just after it entered the Duat or just before leaving it. Apep would twist his coils in the river to stop the boat, and fix Ra with his baleful and hypnotic gaze. In this way, Apep hoped to freeze Ra in terror and then devour him.
Tomb painting from the tomb of Tuthmose III, around 1425 BC. Note how the style of Egyptian art has changed over time to a much more simplified yet impressionistic style. (The Art Archive / Alamy)
Fortunately for Ra, he had support. Isis and Nephthys would patrol either riverbank to keep watch for the evil serpent, but Ra’s most important ally was none other than his martial great-grandson, Set. Ever-watchful and fiercely loyal, Set took the helm of Mesektet, guiding the boat swiftly and surely between the serpent’s coils that tried to block the Duat’s river. While Ra tried to stave off Apep’s hypnotic influence, Set would steer the boat to safety.
Once free of Apep’s coils, Set then joined in Ra’s fight against the great serpent. As a supernatural being, Apep could only be defeated in specific ways. Set was only too happy first to spit on Apep, and then kick him with his left foot and impale him with a spear. Angered, Apep turned on Set, but this broke his hold on Ra, who was then able to chain him. Finally, Set dispatched Apep with a blade, and Ra burned the body.
Sometimes other gods joined in, and when Ra’s daughter Bast, the cat goddess, came on the journey, Set let
her deliver the final blow with her claws. Occasionally, Apep would summon up the courage to attack during the day, and briefly swallow the sun, but Set and the other gods always came to the rescue very quickly, after no more than a few minutes. This battle was repeated each night, since Apep could never be completely killed, as he was a creature who came from the land of the dead and was a part of the eternal primal chaos that surrounded the world. With this assistance to Ra, Set both proved his worth to the world, and made certain that Ra favoured him.
Cleopatra (the seventh queen with that name, actually), with her son by Julius Caesar, Caesareon, on the southern wall of the temple of Hathor at Dendera. They’re showing homage to Hathor, Horus The Elder - who at this period was viewed as the husband of Hathor - and Osiris, who at this point was brother to the Elder Horus. (Library of Congress)
Osiris and Family
While Set was maintaining his reputation and relationship with Ra, his brother Osiris was ruling. In general, Osiris was a wise and benevolent ruler, usually seen as fair by both mortals and the other gods. This was not to say that he was always perfect. He was known for having a sharp sense of humour and a quick temper, which could easily sour relations with the other gods. When stressed, he could be acid-tongued and vindictive. He also had vices.
He had, as gods from most cultures have tended to have, superhuman appetites, and this extended to the wives of other gods. Although he was married to one of his sisters, Isis, he also coveted Set’s wife, Nephthys. Indeed, some said that Anubis, supposedly the son of Nephthys and Set, was actually the heir of Osiris, and that Set was as barren as the desert he represented. In either case, when Set discovered his brother’s interest in his wife, he was furious.
Set immediately confronted Osiris over this betrayal, demanding that he stay away from Nephthys. Osiris opined that, as the senior of the brothers, it was his right to guide the family’s direction, and that, as the junior brother, it was Set’s duty to follow his lead. Set, of course, disagreed. As far as he could see, as brothers they were equals, and therefore Osiris should respect his boundaries and wishes, as much as Set respected those of Osiris.
Again and again, Set and Osiris would argue, especially when others whispered about the parentage of Anubis. This argument between them continued for some time, until, inevitably, violence was used. It was not Set who struck the first blow, however: it was Osiris, who began to kick his brother. Osiris was not a warrior like Set, however, and the kicks did no real physical damage. They offended Set, though, increasing the insult he felt from Osiris, and that stung him more than the impact itself. This was the last straw for Set, who was not the type to take kindly to such an assault. He was, however, the type to bear a grudge. It did not help that Nephthys, annoyed by the darkening mood of both brothers, left Set and went to stay with her sister, so that neither of them would be distracted from their own duties to Ra.
In this tomb painting from circa 1240 BC, Isis has her wings spread, representing Ma’at, or balance, so naturally she’d try to calm her husband down and restore his balance and calm. This image is from the tomb of Rameses the Great’s wife Nefertari. (The Print Collector / Alamy)
Isis convinced Osiris that it would be wiser to let everyone’s tempers cool by taking his wisdom around the whole of the known world. Osiris agreed, and left to tour the world, leaving Isis in charge of Lower Egypt. Isis also looked after her sister, and both were relieved that their husbands would have a chance to calm down. A fuming Set returned to the desert to think about how best to deal with his brother’s betrayal. He could not help feeling that perhaps Nephthys had gone to Osiris after all.
Set, like Osiris, had allies – his great-grandfather, Ra, viewed Set as someone who got things done, while 72 other lesser gods viewed him as a preferable leader to Osiris. However, his most immediate ally was the queen of Ethiopia, who ruled Egypt’s most powerful neighbour. This was in the days before the Ethiopian queens of Meröe were known to the Egyptians by the name Kandace, and this queen’s name was Aso. As the god of foreigners, it was Set’s duty to be a sort of ambassador, making sure that Egypt’s allies were looked after, and so he had made many foreign friends himself. Aso was both beautiful and a powerful warrior, two traits which Set admired, and therefore she was his closest ally.
Set could not stop thinking about the way his elder brother had treated him, and he began to come to a dark conclusion: if already having all the power was not enough for Osiris, why should being a lesser lord be enough for Set? The more people praised Osiris, the more Set despised him. Aso agreed with him and offered her help to set a trap for Osiris. Set knew his brother extremely well and gave Aso his exact measurements. Her people were master craftsmen and able to construct a chest to these measurements. It was a magnificent piece of work. Carved from Lebanese cedarwood and ebony from Punt, it was plated with gold and inlaid with ivory. It was so lavish and beautiful that Set knew no one, man or god, could fail to desire it.
Judgement of the dead, from the Book of the Dead. Left to right, Anubis brings in a soul, the heart is weighed (with the strange-looking Ammit waiting to eat it if it’s found wanting) while Thoth records the result. Another soul is being presented by Horus to Osiris, who is flanked by Isis and Nephthys. (The Art Gallery Collection / Alamy)
When Osiris returned from his travels, Set had already seen that the kingdom could get along perfectly well without him, and so was ready to put his revenge plan into action. Set announced that he would hold a feast, to which all the gods were invited, including his brother. Pretending to have forgotten and forgiven the kick that Osiris gave him, Set played the perfect host to his brother and his brother’s wife. He even knelt before Osiris, praising his wisdom. When everyone was suitably relaxed from enjoying the food, beer and wine, and finest dancing girls, Set had some of his 72 friends bring in the fabulous golden chest. As all the gods gasped at its wonder, Set announced a contest: whoever could fit him or herself inside the chest could keep it.
This was an irresistible prize, and everyone in the room rushed forward to try it out. Even Set’s 72 friends tried to fit in, to disguise the fact that they knew what was going to happen. Guest after guest tried to squeeze themselves into the chest, shuffling and twisting to try to allow the lid to close, and many of them almost made it. Many times, there was only a finger or toe that did not quite let the lid close, and that was enough to mean that guest did not win. Eventually, of course, Osiris took his turn. He climbed into the chest, and lay down. To his delight, it fitted him snugly, as if it was a second skin. As the lid swung shut on him, Osiris belatedly realized that this was no mere chest – it was a sarcophagus, a coffin! It was already too late to escape, as Set slammed the lid closed. While many of his 72 allies milled around so that the other guests couldn’t see what was really happening, Set and Queen Aso sealed the lid closed with molten lead.
Osiris beguiled into the Chest by Evelyn Paul.
Osiris shouted furiously for them to let him out, and the sarcophagus shook as he wriggled around inside, trying to push the lid off. Set’s allies ignored his pleas, and swiftly carried the sarcophagus away into the night. The lead had cooled by now, however, leaving the sarcophagus completely airtight, and, as they ran through the night, it shook less and less, and Osiris’s shouts grew fainter. Soon, the air inside had run out, and it was clear that Osiris was dead.
Set and the queen of Ethiopia did not want anyone to know what had really happened to Osiris and decided to dispose of the body so that it could not be found. They took the sarcophagus to the Nile and threw it into the deepest part of the river, where the current was fast enough to carry it far away into the depths of the sea.
Satisfied that Osiris would never be seen again, Set prepared to look after the whole of Egypt while his brother was ‘away’.
The Birth of Horus
Isis was most upset at the disappearance of her husband, and although she could not know that Set was responsible, she was suspicious of her brother-inlaw. Atum-Ra, th
e creator and king of the gods, was only concerned with the practicalities of the world and was happy enough to leave Set in charge of both halves of the realm. Isis was determined to find her husband, and she set off in search of him, flying in the form of a sparrow. Amazingly, the sarcophagus had not been carried out to sink in the depths of the sea. Instead, it had floated out of the Nile Delta and along the coast to the city of Byblos, in what is now Lebanon. There it had been caught in the roots of a tamarisk tree that grew out of the riverbank.
Soon after Osiris’s resurrection with green skin, litte Horus was born. (Ivy Close Images / Alamy)
Horus and Hathor from the Temple at Philae. (Library of Congress)
Over time the tree grew taller, lifting the sarcophagus out of the river. Eventually it was noticed by the people of the city, who reported it to their king and queen. When King Malcander of Byblos came to see this fantastic gilded chest, he was certain that it was a gift from the gods, to show their approval of his people. He therefore had the whole tree, with the sarcophagus still held in its roots, transplanted to the central courtyard of his palace. There, it would be a grand centrepiece, showing the gods’ approval.
Horus, the son of Osiris and Isis, was the god of the more fertile and hospitable half of the country, Lower Egypt, which included the lush Nile Delta.
The entrance to Horus’s temple at Edfu – note the scale of the Horus falcon compared to a human. (Library of Congress)
Isis had flown over much of the world and found no sign of her husband. She kept searching and eventually reached the land of Byblos, where she soon heard some children talking about this ‘gift of the gods’. She recognized the description of the gift at once as the chest into which Osiris had been sealed. She went immediately to the centre of the city of Byblos, where she posed as a healer by anointing some of the maids of the queen of Byblos with oils. When Queen Astarte heard of this, she asked Isis to help cure her son of a sickness. Isis agreed, in return for the sarcophagus.
The War of Horus and Set Page 2