Ra (Atum) was the creator of the world. He etablished a divine dynasty over Egypt. His grandchildren, Geb the earth god and Nut the sky goddess, give birth to Osiris, Set, Isis, and Nephthys. Osiris wed his sister Isis, and become the rulers of Egypt, while Set married Nephthys. Orisis enraged his brother Set by kicking him and having sex with Nephthys. Set drowned his brother or took on the form of a bull or crocodile to kill him. [In Plutarch's account Set and the Queen of Ethiopia conspired with 72 accomplices to plot the assassination; Set tricked his brother into getting into a box, which Set sealed shut with lead and threw it into the Nile.] Then he dismembered him, scattered the 42 pieces across the kingdom's 42 nomes (provinces) and usurped the throne. As kites or falcons, the two sister-wives searched for Osiris' corpse. Enlisting the aid of other gods, including their uncle Thoth and Anubis, the son of Osiris and Nephthys, they located and reassembled the body parts. [Again, according to Plutarch, Isis found the remains embedded in a tamarisk tree trunk which supported a palace roof in Byblos on the Phoenician coast.] Set and his followers attempted to destroy the corpse once more but failed. Isis used a spell learned from her father to bring her husband back to life, and she was impregnated by a flash of lightning; or, alternatively, still in bird form, she used her wings to fan breath and life back into his body and then copulated with him. But he died again, and she hid his body in the desert; months later, she gave birth to Horus. Set, hunting one night, came across the body, tore it into 14 pieces, and scattered them anew. Isis gathered all the body parts together, except the penis (which had been eaten by a fish) and bandaged them together for a proper burial, along with a golden phallus she fashionned. Impressed by the devotion of Isis, the other gods resurrected Osiris as the god of the underworld [the Duat]. Eventually Horus grew up and waged a long war against Set, during the course of which Set lost a testicle and Horus his left eye (which was then replaced by a new one made by Khonsu the moon god, the son of Amun and Mut). At one point Set tried to rape Horus, but Horus put his hand between his thighs to catch the semen, which he threw into the Nile; then he sprinkled his own semen over lettuce which he fed to Set. When Set called his semen forth in order to prove his dominance to the other gods, it answered from the river; but when Horus called forth Set's semen it answered from his stomach. Eventually, after 80 years of strife, they challenged each other to a stone boat race; Set's boat sank, but Horus sailed his to victory (because it was actually a wooden boat camouflaged as stone). Geb divided Egypt between them, giving Set the desert lands to the south and Horus the fertile lands in the north, but then reversed himself and gave sole control to Horus.
Ra (Atum) was the creator of the world. He etablished a divine dynasty over Egypt. His grandchildren, Geb the earth god and Nut the sky goddess, give birth to Osiris, Set, Isis, and Nephthys. Osiris wed his sister Isis, and become the rulers of Egypt, while Set married Nephthys. Orisis enraged his brother Set by kicking him and having sex with Nephthys. Set drowned his brother or took on the form of a bull or crocodile to kill him. [In Plutarch's account Set and the Queen of Ethiopia conspired with 72 accomplices to plot the assassination; Set tricked his brother into getting into a box, which Set sealed shut with lead and threw it into the Nile.] Then he dismembered him, scattered the 42 pieces across the kingdom's 42 nomes (provinces) and usurped the throne. As kites or falcons, the two sister-wives searched for Osiris' corpse. Enlisting the aid of other gods, including their uncle Thoth and Anubis, the son of Osiris and Nephthys, they located and reassembled the body parts. [Again, according to Plutarch, Isis found the remains embedded in a tamarisk tree trunk which supported a palace roof in Byblos on the Phoenician coast.] Set and his followers attempted to destroy the corpse once more but failed. Isis used a spell learned from her father to bring her husband back to life, and she was impregnated by a flash of lightning; or, alternatively, still in bird form, she used her wings to fan breath and life back into his body and then copulated with him. But he died again, and she hid his body in the desert; months later, she gave birth to Horus. Set, hunting one night, came across the body, tore it into 14 pieces, and scattered them anew. Isis gathered all the body parts together, except the penis (which had been eaten by a fish) and bandaged them together for a proper burial, along with a golden phallus she fashionned. Impressed by the devotion of Isis, the other gods resurrected Osiris as the god of the underworld [the Duat]. Eventually Horus grew up and waged a long war against Set, during the course of which Set lost a testicle and Horus his left eye (which was then replaced by a new one made by Khonsu the moon god, the son of Amun and Mut). At one point Set tried to rape Horus, but Horus put his hand between his thighs to catch the semen, which he threw into the Nile; then he sprinkled his own semen over lettuce which he fed to Set. When Set called his semen forth in order to prove his dominance to the other gods, it answered from the river; but when Horus called forth Set's semen it answered from his stomach. Eventually, after 80 years of strife, they challenged each other to a stone boat race; Set's boat sank, but Horus sailed his to victory (because it was actually a wooden boat camouflaged as stone). Geb divided Egypt between them, giving Set the desert lands to the south and Horus the fertile lands in the north, but then reversed himself and gave sole control to Horus.
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