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Isis and Osiris II: Outline
Aug. 10th, 2024 06:26 am
Have you ever heard of Feynman's Algorithm? It is a description of how the Nobel-Prize-winning physicist is said to have solved problems:
- Write down the problem.
- Think real hard.
- Write down the solution.
This is often presented as a joke (e.g. "just be a genius"), but I don't think that's it at all: the idea is to get yourself as clarified a version of the problem as possible, and then simply marinate yourself in that clarified version to allow your subconscious, intuitive mind to piece it together. Eventually, you'll have a nebulous intuition of the solution, and by writing it out and trying to explain it, you apply your conscious, reasoning mind to it, finally obtaining something concrete and linear from what was once abstract and amorphous.
In that vein, let's begin with the myth of Isis and Osiris by trying to get ourselves a clarified version of it that we can contemplate. The below outline is extracted from §§12–20 of Plutarch's Isis and Osiris.
Frank Babbitt Cole notes in his introduction to the Loeb Classical Library edition of Isis and Osiris, "Herodotus in the fifth century BC had visited Egypt, and he devoted a large part of the second book of his History to the manners and customs of the Egyptians. Plutarch, however, draws but little from him. Some of the information that Plutarch gives us may be found also in Diodorus Siculus, principally in the first book, but a little also in the second. Aelian and, to a less extent, other writers mentioned in the notes on the text [e.g. Pausanias, Strabo, Pseudo-Apollodrus, Dio Chrysostom, Lucian, Athenaeus, and Eusebius], have isolated fragments of information which usually agree with Plutarch and Diodorus. All this points to the existence of one or more books, now lost, which contained this information, possibly in a systematic form." Whatever this source was, it was inconsistently Hellenized, sometimes converting Egyptian gods to roughly-equivalent Greek ones (for example, Set is called Typhon), while at other times merely transliterating the Egyptian name into Greek (for example, 𓅃𓀭𓅮𓄿𓄡𓂋𓂧𓀔𓀭 [Heru-pa-khered, "Horus the Child"] is transliterated Ἁρποκράτης [Harpokrates]). Usually, this is merely annoying, but sometimes it can cause problems. (For example, it is important to the myth that Nut is pregnant, but her name is translated to Kronos, who is male!) I have regularized these by translating them into English when appropriate, and using the most common modern spelling of the name otherwise (frustratingly, at least to a nerd like me, sometimes this is from the Greek, as in "Osiris," and other times this is from the Egyptian, as in "Tewaret"). The names Plutarch uses are included in brackets, and in cases where I am unable to unambiguously identify the Egyptian god, I have either omitted the Egyptian entirely (e.g. Helios, Selene) or added my own guesswork (e.g. Leto).
Let's do it!
[§12] Heaven [Kronos=Nut] and Earth [Rhea=Geb] continually have intercourse.
The Sun [Helios] sees them and curses Heaven to be unable to give birth during any month of the year.
Thoth [Hermes] takes pity on Heaven and takes a seventieth part of the Moon's [Selene's] light and fashions it into five intercalary days which he adds to the year, allowing Heaven to circumvent the curse.
On the first day, Heaven gives birth to Osiris.
On the second day, Heaven gives birth to Horus the Elder, who was born to Isis and Osiris in Nut's womb.
On the third day, Set [Typhon] bursts out of Heaven's side.
On the fourth day, Heaven gives birth to Isis, wife of Osiris.
On the fifth day, Heaven gives birth to Nephthys, wife of Set.
[§13] While Isis watches over Set, Osiris leaves Heaven and teaches the Egyptians the arts of civilization.
Upon his return, Set secretly measures him and constructs a beautifully-ornamented box sized to fit him exactly.
On 17 Hathor, Set invites Osiris, Queen Aso of Ethiopia, and seventy-two conspirators to a party. [17 Hathor=13 November (Julian)=26 November (Gregorian) after 238 BC, but varies prior.]
Set and the conspirators trick Osiris into the box, nail it shut, seal it with molten lead, and push it into the Nile, after which it floats downriver, reaching the sea near Tanis.
[§14] Pan and the satyrs learn of Osiris's death and tell Isis.
Isis grieves and wanders in search of Osiris.
Some children tell Isis that they saw the box float into the sea.
Isis meets Nephthys. Seeing a token of sweet yellow clover belonging to Osiris on her, Isis discovers that Osiris had accidentally slept with her, believing her to be Isis; Nephthys bore a child by him and exposed it in fear of discovery by Set.
Isis searches for the baby. Dogs lead her to it and she raises the baby, Anubis, to be her guardian and attendant.
[§15] The box lands in a patch of heather near Byblos in Phoenecia.
The heather grows to exceptional size, enclosing the box within its stalk.
Malkander, the king of Byblos, discovers the heather and is so impressed by it that he cuts it down (unbeknownst to him, with the box still inside) for a pillar in his house.
Isis hears rumors of all of this and travels to Byblos, sitting beside a spring, weeping, and speaking to nobody.
Queen Astarte's maids come by the spring, and Isis plaits their hair and perfumes them with ambrosia.
When the queen sees her maids so beautifully made up, she sends for Isis, who so ingratiates herself with the queen so as to become nurse of the baby prince.
[§16] Isis nurses the baby with her finger rather than her breast.
Isis periodically transforms into a swallow and flies around the pillar, bewailing Osiris. The queen sees this.
Isis gradually burns away the child's mortal part at night. The queen eventually sees this, at which she cries out and deprives the child of immortality.
Isis explains herself and asks for the pillar. The Queen consents, and Isis removes it, cuts the box out of it, and then wraps its remains in linen, perfumes it, and entrusts it to the royal family as a relic.
Isis laments her husband so profoundly that the Queen's younger son dies.
Isis takes the box and the elder prince and sails from Byblos, drying up the Phaedrus river as she goes in spite for delaying her.
[§17] When finally alone, Isis opens the box, sees Osiris's body, and grieves.
Curious, the elder prince peeks into the box. Enraged, Isis gives him such an awful look that he dies of fright.
[§18] Isis proceeds to Buto, where Horus the Elder is being raised [§38 by Leto], and hides the box. [40, below, suggests Leto=Tewaret, except that she has not yet defected. The Pyramid Texts suggest Leto=Nephthys, which is more reasonable.]
Set finds the box, divides Osiris's corpse into fourteen pieces, and scatters them all over Egypt. [Different manuscripts of Diodorus say sixteen or twenty-six pieces.]
Isis discovers this and searches for the pieces.
Isis finds every part except for Osiris's penis, which is eaten by a fish.
Isis reassembles Osiris, fashioning and consecrating a replacement penis.
[§19] Osiris visits Horus the Elder from Duat [Hades] and trains him for battle.
Osiris asks Horus the Elder questions to see if he is ready, and receives satisfactory answers.
Many of Set's allies switch allegience to Horus the Elder, including his concubine Taweret, who comes chased by a serpent which Horus the Elder's men cut into pieces.
Horus the Elder defeats Set in battle.
Set is delivered as a prisoner to Isis, who releases him.
Horus the Elder, enraged, takes Isis' royal diadem from her head. Thoth gives her a helmet shaped like a cow's head to replace it.
Set takes Horus the Elder to court over the legitimacy of his rule, but with the aid of Thoth, the gods rule in favor of Horus the Elder.
Set battles Horus the Elder twice more, but loses each time.
Osiris and Isis conceive Horus the Younger, but he is born premature and lame.
[§13] Osiris travels the world, civilizing it with persuasive discourse and song. [Plutarch doesn't say when this occurs. Diodorus says Isis rules Egypt in his stead and that Horus the Elder and Anubis accompany him, so I have placed this event here.]
[§20. Plutarch explicitly notes that he omits stories concerning the dismemberment of Horus and the decapitation of Isis.]
I will refrain from much commentary on the myth itself today, as I have much to unpack yet. Indeed, I was in despair of it the other day, as it is so much work and it often seems so pointless to me: after all, what is the practical consequence to be gained from all that effort? But my angel said to me, "But why are you upset? Do you not see that you are extracting meaning from a story?" (My angel's words are somehow always pregnant with deeper meaning, and it was clear that when they said this, that they meant, in modern occult terminology, transmuting an astral phenomenon to a mental one.) They continued, "Is that not the point?" And, of course, it is: the practical consequence is growth. I suppose I am just weary of the growing pains!
I have mentioned in the past how valuable an exercise it is to take a myth and walk through it point-by-point, and this time was no different: even though I had just read Isis and Osiris a couple months ago, I had missed quite a few points and had mentally rearranged others.
It is clear that this is not merely a myth, but rather an entire cycle of myths. While I think it is crucial to keep the entire thing in mind as one contemplates it, I will be analyzing it in pieces as we proceed.