He further desecrated the corpse by cutting it into sixteen pieces and scattering them across Egypt. What is known is that the story of what happened immediately following the king’s death evolved to become more complex and dramatic.Īccording to later stories, Set was not content simply to kill his brother.
A full description would have been seen as an unlucky invocation of tragedy. The Egyptians did not write about the death of Osiris in detail. He decided to kill his brother and take the throne for himself. Whatever the offense, it was great enough that Set vowed to get revenge. In another, he kicked Set during a minor dispute. In one account, Osiris had an affair with Nephthys. While many modern retellings of the story simply say that Set was jealous of his brother’s position, others go into more detail. There were many legends that explained why Set felt such animosity toward Osiris, although their conflict was often intentionally left out of written sources in Egypt to avoid invoking a taboo. Set represented the forces of disorder and chaos, so he and his brother were often at odds. The king was in almost constant conflict with his brother, however. He was a wise and just ruler who brought stability to the land. Osiris was given the throne and made the king of all of Egypt. Although some legends claim that Set and Nephthys were as well, there is much less evidence for that union. Eventually, they and the Ennead, the principal gods of that city, became nationally important.Īccording to the mythology of Heliopolis, Isis and Osiris were two of the four children of the earth god Geb and his partner, the sky goddess Nut. While initially centered around the city of Heliopolis, their importance grew significantly over time. Evidence for both of them is rarely seen before the Fifth Dynasty in the middle of the second millennium BC. The worship of Isis was closely linked to that of her husband and brother, Osiris. Her appeal ultimately spread far beyond this culture, however. In her own culture she was view as a royal mother, patroness of kings, mistress of magic, source of healing, and the inventor of mourning. She was a loving, nurturing mother who could also be fiercely, even violently, protective. The Egyptians viewed her as one of their greatest protectors and the archetype for all queens. She was seen as powerful and strong-willed in her own right even though many of her stories emphasized her role as a wife and mother. The wife of Osiris, her role went far beyond that of royal consorts in many other traditions. Today as well as in the past, Isis is considered the most popular and powerful goddess of the ancient Egyptian pantheon.