Isis’s Quest for Osiris’s Remains

Osiris the Pharaoh is tricked into a chest, which is then sealed and thrown into the Nile by his evil brother Set.

The waters of the Nile swept the chest carrying the body of Osiris far, far away and finally down to the sea. The giant waves tossed it this way and that, taking it farther away to the shores of Byblos, a city in Syria. A particularly large wave threw the chest onto the beach where it landed under a young tamarisk tree.

The tree, sensing the divine presence inside, clasped the chest tightly and enclosed it in its trunk. The tree grew to an enormous size and the King of Byblos, who saw it and admired its scent, ordered it to be made into a pillar to adorn his palace. The tree was cut down and the trunk, bearing Osiris’s coffin, was made into a beautiful pillar.

Meanwhile in Egypt, the evil Set had usurped the throne and a grieving Isis was with child. With Set as the pharaoh, Isis knew her unborn child’s life was in danger.

Set had her imprisoned in a spinning house where slaves sat night and day, spinning flax into thread. But Thoth, the god of all knowledge, unlocked the prison with his spells.

‘Set is an evil one. He will kill you too. Flee at once!’ he urged.

Under the cover of darkness, Isis ran away and hid in the swamps. There, among the papyrus reeds, she gave birth to her son Horus.

Isis left the baby in the care of Wadjet, the kind-hearted snake goddess, and went in search of her husband’s coffin along the river. Some children playing by the Nile told her how they had seen this beautiful chest being carried to the sea by the current of the river.

Isis, with her magical powers, called out to the sea demons for help. ‘If you can persuade the King of Byblos to cut down the finest pillar in the hall of his palace, you will find what you seek!’ they told her. So Isis sprouted a pair of impressive wings with which she flew to the shores of Byblos.

There, she shed her goddess form and sat by a fountain. She offered to braid the hair of the queen’s maids, who were touched by the kindness of the beautiful stranger. Isis breathed a sweet perfume into the plaits of the maids, and when the queen heard of this, she sent for Isis. Impressed by the gentle lady, the queen appointed her as nurse to her son.

The prince, who had been weak and sickly, became healthy in such a short time under Isis’s care that the queen became suspicious. ‘There’s some magic involved,’ she thought, and decided to secretly spy on Isis one night.

Every night, Isis would nurse the child by the fire in the great hall after everyone had retired to sleep. That night, the queen watched in horror as Isis laid the child on the fire and, as the flames licked the infant, turned into a swallow and flew round and round the great pillar, chirping mournfully. The queen rushed in and snatched her son from the fire.

‘Foolish mother!’ shouted Isis, appearing now in her true goddess form. ‘If you had not interrupted, your son would have become a god. Now he will no longer be immortal.’ Isis then told her who she was and why she had come there in the first place. The king and queen begged for forgiveness, for they had let a goddess be a mere servant in their home.

The king ordered the pillar to be cut and the chest taken out. Isis wept bitterly on seeing her husband’s coffin and returned secretly by boat to Egypt with it. Hiding it in the marshes, she returned to claim her baby from the snake goddess.

But that very night, Set and his followers, who came boar hunting to the marshes, discovered the coffin. Breaking open the chest, Set tore the body of Osiris into fourteen pieces and scattered them throughout the Nile for the crocodiles to eat.