The Book of the Dead | Page 6

unharmed among the crocodiles and other evil beasts that
infested the waters of the Delta at that time.

When Horus arrived at years of maturity, he set out to find Set and to
wage war against his father's murderer. At length they met and a fierce
fight ensued, and though Set was defeated before he was finally hurled
to the ground, he succeeded in tearing out the right eye of Horus and
keeping it. Even after this fight Set was able to persecute Isis, and
Horus was powerless to prevent it until Thoth made Set give him the
right eye of Horus which he had carried off. Thoth then brought the eye
to Horus, and replaced it in his face, and restored sight to it by spitting
upon it. Horus then sought out the body of Osiris in order to raise it up
to life, and when he found it he untied the bandages so that Osiris
might move his limbs, and rise up. Under the direction of Thoth Horus
recited a series of formulas as he presented offerings to Osiris, and he
and his sons and Anubis performed the ceremonies which opened the
mouth, and nostrils, and the eyes and the ears of Osiris. He embraced
Osiris and so transferred to him his ka, i.e., his own living personality
and virility, and gave him his eye which Thoth had rescued from Set
and had replaced in his face. As soon as Osiris had eaten the eye of
Horus he became endowed with a soul and vital power, and recovered
thereby the complete use of all his mental faculties, which death had
suspended. Straightway he rose up from his bier and became the Lord
of the Dead and King of the Under World. Osiris became the type and
symbol of resurrection among the Egyptians of all periods, because he
was a god who had been originally a mortal and had risen from the
dead.
But before Osiris became King of the Under World he suffered further
persecution from Set. Piecing together a number of disconnected hints
and brief statements in the texts, it seems pretty clear either that Osiris
appealed to the "Great Gods" to take notice that Set had murdered him,
or that Set brought a series of charges against Osiris. At all events the
"Great Gods" determined to investigate the matter. The Greater and the
Lesser Companies of the Gods assembled in the celestial Anu, or
Heliopolis, and ordered Osiris to stand up and defend himself against
the charges brought against him by Set. Isis and Nephthys brought him
before the gods, and Horus, "the avenger of his father," came to watch
the case on behalf of his father, Osiris. Thoth appeared in the Hall of
Judgment in his official capacity as "scribe," i.e., secretary to the gods,

and the hearing of the evidence began. Set seems to have pleaded his
own cause, and to have repeated the charges which he had made against
Osiris. The defence of Osiris was undertaken by Thoth, who proved to
the gods that the charges brought against Osiris by Set were unfounded,
that the statements of Set were lies, and that therefore Set was a liar.
The gods accepted Thoth's proof of the innocence of Osiris and the
guilt of Set, and ordered that Osiris was to be considered a Great God
and to have rule over the Kingdom of the Under World, and that Set
was to be punished. Thoth convinced them that Osiris was "MAA
KHERU," "true of word," i.e., that he had spoken the truth when he
gave his evidence, and in texts of all periods Thoth is frequently
described as S-MAA KHERU ASAR, i.e., he who proved Osiris to be
"true of word." As for Set the Liar, he was seized by the ministers of
the Great Gods, who threw him down on his hands and face and made
Osiris mount upon his back as a mark of his victory and superiority.
After this Set was bound with cords like a beast for sacrifice, and in the
presence of Thoth was hacked in pieces.

CHAPTER VI
Osiris as Judge of the Dead and King of the Under World.
When Set was destroyed Osiris departed from this world to the
kingdom which the gods had given him and began to reign over the
dead. He was absolute king of this realm, just as Ra the Sun-god was
absolute king of the sky. This region of the dead, or Dead-land, is
called "Tat," or "Tuat," but where the Egyptians thought it was situated
is not quite clear. The original home of the cult of Osiris was in the
Delta, in a city which in historic times was called Tetu by the Egyptians
and Busiris by the Greeks, and it is reasonable