本帖最后由 webpassport 于 2014-4-26 11:28 编辑
The Egyptian Gods
Before there was air, earth, or even sky, there was only water—turbulent, bubbling water from which the first god, Ra, arose.
Ra transformed into a new element in the cosmos, the sun. But the paucity of other life soon weighed heavily upon him, and so through communion with his own shadow, he sired a daughter, Tefnut. She also was a new element—moisture. And Ra’s other child, Shu, became the air. They in turn had offspring of their own, Geb and Nut (the earth and sky). Soon an entire cosmological order had been established. But with it came unforeseen challenges.
Soon Ra found himself forced into daily battle with the serpent Apep for control of the atmosphere. Enlisting the help of wife and daughter Bast (goddess of cats and fertility), Ra was successful on most days. But on days when Apep prevailed, storms and foul weather were the rule.
This was the mere beginning of what Ra would contend with. The frustrations of lording over a human population that was prone to complaint and rebellion once led Ra, in a fit of anger, to cast one of his eyes out and hurl it toward the earth. The eye transformed into the goddess of vengeance Sekhmet, a force so destructive toward humanity that a remorseful Ra had to recall her via trickery. Ra ordered his servants to create thousands of vessels of beer. The beer would be mixed with pomegranate juice to appear like the blood of her human victims and used to flood the field surrounding her earthly abode.
The plan worked. When Sekhmet next emerged to finish slaughtering humankind, she caught her reflection in the gruesome red lake, fell in love with it, and drank the mixture, falling asleep harmlessly. It worked so well that she was eventually made wife of Ptah (the very god of creation). And later, ironically, she transformed into Hathor, goddess of love and celebration.
Still, taking responsibility for the entire cosmos was beginning to tax Ra’s vitality. As he grew older, Ra looked for a replacement for his duties overseeing the earth. It would be his great-grandson, Osiris.
Osiris (along with Isis, Set, and Nephthys) had been brought into the world through the union of Geb and Nut. But when Ra left dominion of the world to Osiris, the first sibling rivalry in cosmos history took place—and what a rivalry!
Osiris had been a benevolent dictator—under his rule the men of Egypt became civilized. But brother Set (the god of chaos and storms) was jealous of the favor shown Osiris, and murdered him. He constructed an elaborate chest and held a party, telling all his siblings that whoever fit into it could keep it for their own. But he had built the beautiful casket with but one of them in mind: Osiris. And when Osiris climbed in, Set had it sealed and his conspirators sent it down the Nile, hoping it would never be seen again.
Thus Osiris was the first god in history to die, and became the first god of the underworld. When Nephthys told her sister, Isis, of the murder, Isis became grief-stricken, for Osiris was her husband as well as her brother. She found the body and was even successful in reviving Osiris, and together they had a son, Horus. But Set soon discovered this and, enraged, ripped Osiris into 14 pieces, scattering the parts over Egypt so that even Isis could not piece them together. Anubis, inventor of embalming and son of Osiris, performed the funeral in the great pyramid.
Set was now lord of the world, and given his proclivity for chaos and violence, it seemed as if all of Osiris’s good works would soon be reversed. Set was even said to be plotting an overthrow of his father Ra.
In response, Ra and Horus amassed a great army to overthrow Set’s rule. They enlisted Thoth, god of wisdom and truth, who transformed Horus into a sun-disk with a heat so intense it confounded Set’s armies, and they destroyed one another.
But Set himself was nowhere to be found. He had gone into hiding a great distance away, where he was free to form yet another force with which to defeat Ra and Horus.
But it was not to be. And with eventual defeat, Horus dismembered Set much the way his father had been. Thus Horus came to rule the world and set the precedent for the pharaohs who followed.
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