# Books on Egypt and Chaldaea/Collection 10/Volume 32/The Legend of the Death and Resurrection of Horus, and other Magical Texts

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VIII.
The Legend of the Death and Resurrection of Horus, and other Magical Texts.
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​Golénischeff. The importance of the stele is enhanced by the fact that it mentions the name of the king in whose reign it was made, viz., Nectanebus I., who reigned from B.C. 378 to B.C. 360.
The first spell is an incantation directed against reptiles and noxious creatures in general. The chief of these was Āpep, the great enemy of Rā, who took the form of a huge serpent that "resembled the intestines," and the spell doomed him to decapitation, and burning, and hacking in pieces. These things would be effected by Serqet, the Scorpion-goddess. The second part of the spell was directed against the poison of Āpep, and was to be recited over anyone who was bitten by a snake. When uttered by Horus it made Āpep to vomit, and when used by a magician properly qualified would make the bitten person to vomit, and so free his body from the poison.
​The next spell is directed to be said to the Cat, i.e., a symbol of the daughter of Rā, or Isis, who had the head of Rā, the eyes of the uraeus, the nose of Thoth, the ears of Neb-er-tcher, the mouth of Tem, the neck of Neḥeb-ka, the breast of Thoth, the heart of Rā, the hands of the gods, the belly of Osiris, the thighs of Menthu, the legs of Khensu, the feet of Ȧmen-Horus, the haunches of Horus, the soles of the feet of Rā, and the bowels of Meḥ-urit. Every member of the Cat contained a god or goddess, and she was able to destroy the poison of any serpent, or scorpion, or reptile, which might be injected into her body. The spell opens with an address to Rā, who is entreated to come to his daughter, who has been stung by a scorpion on a lonely road, and to cause the poison to leave her body. Thus it seems as if Isis, the great magician, was at some time stung by a scorpion.
The next section is very difficult to understand. Rā-Harmakhis is called upon to come to his daughter, and Shu to his wife, and Isis to her sister, who has been poisoned. Then the Aged One, i.e., Rā, is asked to let Thoth turn back Neḥa-ḥer, or Set. "Osiris is in the water, but Horus is with him, and the Great Beetle overshadows him,” and every evil spirit which dwells in the water is adjured to allow Horus to proceed to Osiris. Rā, Sekhet, Thoth, and Ḥeka, this last-named being the spell personified, are the four great gods who protect Osiris, and who will blind and choke his enemies, and cut out their tongues. The cry ​of the Cat is again referred to, and Rā is asked if he does not remember the cry which came from the bank of Neṭit. The allusion here is to the cries which Isis uttered when she arrived at Neṭit near Abydos, and found lying there the dead body of her husband.
At this point on the Stele the spells are interrupted by a long narrative put into the mouth of Isis, which supplies us with some account of the troubles that she suffered, and describes the death of Horus through the sting of a scorpion. Isis, it seems, was shut up in some dwelling by Set after he murdered Osiris, probably with the intention of forcing her to marry him, and so assist him to legalize his seizure of the kingdom. Isis, as we have already seen, had been made pregnant by her husband after his death, and Thoth now appeared to her, and advised her to hide herself with her unborn child, and to bring him forth in secret, and he promised her that her son should succeed in due course to his father’s throne. With the help of Thoth she escaped from her captivity, and went forth accompanied by the Seven Scorpion-goddesses, who brought her to the town of Per-Sui, on the edge of the Reed Swamps. She applied to a woman for a night’s shelter, but the woman shut her door in her face. To punish her one of the Scorpion-goddesses forced her way into the woman’s house, and stung her child to death. The grief of the woman was so bitter and sympathy-compelling that Isis laid her hands on the child, and, having uttered one of her most potent ​spells over him, the poison of the scorpion ran out of his body, and the child came to life again. The words of the spell are cut on the Stele, and they were treasured by the Egyptians as an infallible remedy for scorpion stings. When the woman saw that her son had been brought back to life by Isis, she was filled with joy and gratitude, and, as a mark of her repentance, she brought large quantities of things from her house as gifts for Isis, and they were so many that they filled the house of the kind, but poor, woman who had given Isis shelter.
Now soon after Isis had restored to life the son of the woman who had shown churlishness to her, a terrible calamity fell upon her, for her beloved son Horus was stung by a scorpion and died. The news of this event was conveyed to her by the gods, who cried out to her to come to see her son Horus, whom the terrible scorpion Uḥāt had killed. Isis, stabbed with pain at the news, as if a knife had been driven into her body, ran out distraught with grief. It seems that she bad gone to perform a religious ceremony in honour of Osiris in a temple near Ḥetep-ḥemt, leaving her child carefully concealed in Sekhet-Ȧn. During her absence the scorpion Uḥāt, which had been sent by Set, forced its way into the hiding-place of Horus, and there stung him to death. When Isis came and found the dead body, she burst forth in lamentations, the sound of which brought all the people from the neighbouring districts to her side. As she related to ​them the history of her sufferings they endeavoured to console her, and when they found this to be impossible they lifted up their voices and wept with her. Then Isis placed her nose in the mouth of Horus so that she might discover if he still breathed, but there was no breath in his throat; and when she examined the wound in his body made by the fiend Āun-ȧb she saw in it traces of poison. No doubt about his death then remained in her mind, and clasping him in her arms she lifted him up, and in her transports of grief leaped about like fish when they are laid on red-hot coals. Then she uttered a series of heart­breaking laments, each of which begins with the words “Horus is bitten.” The heir of heaven, the son of Un-Nefer, the child of the gods, he who was wholly fair, is bitten! He for whose wants I provided, he who was to avenge his father, is bitten! He for whom I cared and suffered when he was being fashioned in my womb, is bitten! He whom I tended so that I might gaze upon him, is bitten! He whose life I prayed for is bitten! Calamity hath overtaken the child, and he hath perished.
Whilst Isis was saying these and many similar words, her sister Nephthys, who had been weeping bitterly for her nephew Horus as she wandered about among the swamps, came, in company with the Scorpion-goddess Serqet, and advised Isis to pray to heaven for help. Pray that the sailors in the Boat of Rā may cease from rowing, for the Boat cannot travel ​onwards whilst Horus lies dead. Then Isis cried out to heaven, and her voice reached the Boat of Millions of Years, and the Disk ceased to move onward, and came to a standstill. From the Boat Thoth descended, being equipped with words of power and spells of all kinds, and bearing with him the “great command of maā-kheru,” i.e., the Word, whose commands were per­formed, instantly and completely, by every god, spirit, fiend, human being, and by every thing, animate and inanimate, in heaven, earth, and the Other World. Then he came to Isis and told her that no harm could possibly have happened to Horus, for he was under the protection of the Boat of Rā; but his words failed to comfort Isis, and though she acknowledged the great­ness of his designs, she complained that they savoured of delay. “What is the good,” she asks, "of all thy spells, and incantations, and magical formulae, and the great command of maā-kheru, if Horus is to perish by the poison of a scorpion, and to lie here in the arms of Death? Evil, evil is his destiny, for it hath entailed the deepest misery for him and death.”
In answer to these words Thoth, turning to Isis and Nephthys, bade them to fear not, and to have no anxiety about Horus, "For,” said he, “I have come from heaven to heal the child for his mother.” He then pointed out that Horus was under protection as the Dweller in his Disk (Ȧten), the Great Dwarf, the Mighty Ram, the Great Hawk, the Holy Beetle, the Hidden Body, the Divine Bennu, etc., and proceeded ​to utter the great spell which restored Horus to life. By his words of power Thoth transferred the “fluid of life” of Rā, and as soon as this came upon the child’s body the poison of the scorpion flowed out of him, and he once more breathed and lived. When this was done Thoth returned to the Boat of Rā, the gods who formed its crew resumed their rowing, and the Disk passed on its way to make its daily journey across the sky. The gods in heaven, who were amazed and uttered cries of terror when they heard of the death of Horus, were made happy once more, and sang songs of joy over his recovery. The happiness of Isis in her child’s restora­tion to life was very great, for she could again hope that he would avenge his father’s murder, and occupy his throne. The final words of Thoth comforted her greatly, for he told her that he would take charge of the case of Horus in the Judgment Hall of Ȧnu, wherein Osiris had been judged, and that as his advocate he would make any accusations which might be brought against Horus to recoil on him that brought them. Furthermore, he would give Horus power to repulse any attacks which might be made upon him by beings in the heights above, or fiends in the depths below, and would ensure his succession to the Throne of the Two Lands, i.e., Egypt. Thoth also promised Isis that Rā himself should act as the advocate of Horus, even as he had done for his father Osiris. He was also careful to allude to the share which Isis had taken in the restoration of Horus to life, saying, “It is the words ​of power of his mother which have lifted up his face, and they shall enable him to journey wheresoever he pleaseth, and to put fear into the powers above. I myself hasten [to obey them].” Thus everything turned on the power of the spells of Isis, who made the sun to stand still, and caused the dead to be raised.
Such are the contents of the texts on the famous Metternich Stele. There appears to be some confusion in their arrangement, and some of them clearly are misplaced, and, in places, the text is manifestly corrupt. It is impossible to explain several passages, for we do not understand all the details of the system of magic which they represent. Still, the general meaning of the texts on the Stele is quite clear, and they record a legend of Isis and Horus which is not found so fully described on any other monument.