Horus Seeks Revenge

This is the story of how the Egyptians got their first mummy and how Osiris’s son avenged his father’s death.

The crocodiles did not touch the remains of the gentle god and pharaoh, Osiris. Poor Isis began her search once again. She made a boat of papyrus leaves and travelled up and down the Nile looking for pieces of Osiris’s body. Nephthys, Set’s wife and Isis’s sister, helped her in her search and together they managed to find every piece.

As the sisters wept bitterly, Ra, the great god, heard them and sent down Anubis, the jackal-headed god. Anubis showed them how to bind Osiris’s body with linen bandages, and thus the first mummy was made.

Isis tried to breathe life into her dead husband’s body, fanning him gently with her magical wings, but her powers could only restore him to half-life and it was decreed that he live in the underworld as king.

Horus, the infant son of Osiris and Isis, lay hidden in the marshes till he was attacked by Set, who appeared in the form of a scorpion and poisoned him. All of Isis’s magical powers could not bring him back to life. This was too much to bear for Isis; she had just lost her beloved husband, and now her little one too. Oh, what an unfair world it was!

The cries of a distraught Isis, who was now inconsolable, were heard by Ra again. This time, he sent Thoth the Wise. Thoth took the still baby in his arms and said, ‘Wake up, Horus! You have a destiny to fulfil. Destroy the one that killed your father. Live to bring happiness to your mother, who has known none. It is you who will sit upon the throne of Osiris. You are Horus the Avenger!’

And with his powers, Thoth revived the infant son of Isis. She, in turn, entrusted the child to Thoth’s care so that his words could be fulfilled. After all, it was Thoth who had been her own guardian and mentor. Even the child’s father, Osiris, had been entrusted to Thoth by his mother, Nut, as you may recall. So Horus grew up under the tutelage of Thoth and the day came when he moved to win his kingdom back.

He approached the Council of Gods, claiming his right to the throne. But Set was not one to give up so easily. ‘I’m the mightiest of all gods,’ he thundered. ‘No one can take away my kingdom, especially a mere boy like this one!’ He summoned his army of wicked followers to fight Horus.

The great battle between Horus and Set was fought up and down the Nile. Horus, the great hawk, soared high in the sky and into the eye of the sun, whereupon he became a winged disk. As he swooped down upon his enemies, their eyes were blinded by the light and their ears could not bear the horrible sound. In their confusion, they killed each other, for they could not see their adversaries. As they lay dead, Set led an army of crocodiles against Horus’s boats. But Horus’s men threw chains into the waters of the Nile and, once the crocodiles became entangled in these, speared them. Set quickly transformed into a serpent and disappeared into a crack in the earth.

The battle continued for eighty years. Finally, Horus challenged Set to a duel. When Isis heard of the duel, she brought her son a boat made of gold.

‘This boat will bring you victory. Go and fight for your father’s throne, and my spirit goes with you.’

When Horus set sail in the golden boat, Set turned into a giant red hippopotamus and lay waiting in the Nile. As the boat approached, he cursed Horus in a thundering voice. The earth shook and the winds rose. The waters of the Nile swirled and the golden boat was tossed this way and that. But young Horus was unfazed. He stood on the prow of his boat, resplendent and regal, holding a great harpoon. The golden boat maintained its course, unshaken by the mighty storm that Set had stirred up.

Set was just under the surface of the water, waiting for Horus to approach so he could topple the boat. But Horus had spotted the hippopotamus’s red form glistening under the swirling waters and stood poised with his harpoon, ready to strike. Set raised his nostrils above the water and immediately, the harpoon came down upon him, striking his large head and sinking it deeper into the river. With that one stroke, the evil Set was dead!

Horus was now crowned pharaoh and ruled for many hundreds of years.