The Creation of The Gods and Humans

How the Gods Came To Be

In the beginning, there was only chaos, which stretched, dark and silent, throughout all space and eternity. Later, people in some parts of Egypt came to see this bottomless abyss containing a limitless ocean of black, lifeless water as a living being.

They called the nothingness Nu and worshipped him as a god. Whatever one chooses to call this dismal and foreboding state of nonexistence, a time came, long ago, when a dramatic and wonderful event transformed nonexistence into existence.

This was the creation of Amun, the First One, the King of the Gods, the maker of all things. No other god was needed to make him. Indeed, because he had no father or mother, Amun somehow created himself, in an invisible, secret way that no human being has ever known or will ever discover.

The Murder of Osiris

Seth Overcomes Osiris

There was once a golden age in which the people of Egypt lived in a state of prosperity and happiness. By order of the sun god Ra, the kindly god Osiris ruled the land as king.

Osiris’s sister, the goddess Isis, sat at his side as his wife and Egypt’s beautiful, wise, and strong-willed queen. Osiris was indeed a kind and helpful king.

He showed the people how to plant crops and to irrigate them using the waters that were so plentiful when the Nile River overflowed its banks each year. He also instructed them in making laws and worshipping the gods in the proper manner. Eventually, the god-king went on a long pilgrimage to bring these same gifts of civilization to the inhabitants of other lands.

While Osiris was away, Isis ruled Egypt in his stead. She kept a watchful eye on their brother Seth because she sensed that Seth felt jealousy and hatred for Osiris, and she feared that Seth might be scheming to steal his brother’s throne.

Isis and The Seven Scorpions

Isis Flees From Seth

After Seth had killed Osiris, Isis had given birth to her son, Horus, and the sun god Ra had made Osiris lord of the Underworld, Isis began weaving a shroud to place around her husband’s mummy. Although Osiris’s spirit now reigned beneath the horizon, his lifeless body still required preparation for burial, as well as burial itself.

The infant Horus lay in a crib beside Isis as she worked. Soon Thoth, the god of wisdom, approached the new mother and warned, “Take care, Isis. Seth is looking for you and your son. I fear he means to kill you both.”

“I must protect my son at all costs,” she said. “That is my primary task, since I am his mother. But what can I do? Where can I hide? Seth knows every rock, cave, and bush for miles around. He is sure to find us.”

The Revenge of Horus

Horus Challenges Seth

After he had killed Osiris and ascended to Egypt’s throne, Seth expected to reign for a very long time. As it turned out, however, he was sorely mistaken.

Seth had not reckoned on the birth of Horus or foreseen that this son of his brother Osiris and his sister Isis would come to challenge his uncle for mastery of the lands of the Nile.

Indeed, this is exactly the course of action Horus pursued when he grew old enough. First, he summoned the gods of the sacred Ennead, along with a number of other deities, and asked them to sit in judgment, reviewing his claim for the throne that had once belonged to his father.

One of these deities was his mother, Isis, who over the years had protected her son from Seth and patiently watched the boy grow into a handsome, adult god.

The Near Destruction of Humanity

The Wisdom of Nu

The mighty Ra had ruled the land of Egypt for so long that no human being could conceive of, let alone count, the number of years. Although the sun god had governed fairly and well, it was clear that he was becoming old and frail, for apparently even the deathless ones were somewhat susceptible to the aging process when they took an earthly form.

Consequently, various groups of people in different parts of Egypt began to question Ra’s continued ability to rule. They held secret meetings behind his back, and some began plotting to overthrow him and set a human king on his throne.

What these conspirators did not realize was that Ra, frail or not, still held many important powers. Among them were extremely acute senses of sight and hearing; thus he was able to watch and overhear the plotters as they drew their plans against him.

Ra decided that something had to be done to teach these ungrateful humans a lesson, so he secretly convened a council made up of most of the gods to ask for their advice.

The Princess and The Demon

The Royal Sisters from Bakhtan

One day the mighty pharaoh Rameses II decided to leave Egypt and travel into Syria, a region bordering the eastern Mediterranean Sea, several hundred miles north of Egypt. There, he collected tribute, or payment acknowledging submission - in the form of gold and other valuables - from the princes of several surrounding lands.

Some of these lands he had recently conquered, while others saw the wisdom of submitting to the pharaoh before he sent his armies against them. Either way, a payment signified that a realm acknowledged Rameses’ dominion and authority.

One of these princes, the king of faraway Bakhtan, sent the usual collection of precious metals, rare gems, cartloads of timber, and other valuable commodities.

The Cleverest Egyptian of Them All

The New Treasure Room

In all of Egypt’s history, so it is said, no pharaoh was wealthier than Rhampsinitus, who possessed gold, silver, precious gems, and other treasures in incredible abundance. Not surprisingly, he worried that someone might try to steal his treasures.

That would make him a poor king, and in Rhampsinitus’s mind a poor king was a powerless one who would not be remembered by his people after he had passed on to Osiris’s nether realm beneath the horizon.

Consequently, Rhampsinitus ordered that a special treasure room be built along one side of the palace. “There are to be no windows and only a single door,” he told the architect. “Furthermore, I want you to construct the walls, floor, and ceiling out of huge stone blocks that a man with a large ax would not be able to chip away, even if he worked at it day and night for twenty years.”

The Ship Wrecked Sailor

The Cheerless Trader

As the hot summer sun beat down, an Egyptian envoy stood at the railing of his ship. It was floating northward along the Nile River in the direction of the Egyptian capital of Thebes on its return voyage from Nubia. One of the envoy's assistants, who was sitting nearby mending a garment, suddenly noticed that his boss seemed cheerless and depressed. "Why so glum, sir?" asked the assistant, approaching the other man.

"You look as though you have lost all your friends and your money, too."

"It might just as well be that way," said the envoy.

"As you well know, because of my reputation as a successful trader, the pharaoh sent me to Nubia to bring back a load of gold from the rich mines in that land. But the mines were all empty. What am I going to say to him when I reach Thebes with an empty ship? My reputation will be ruined. And he will have me scrubbing the floors in the House of the Dead, that dreadful, foul-smelling place where they mummify dead bodies. I just know it."