Osiris. Between the sun-god Rē and Osiris, as the deity of the Underworld, there existed from the beginning a seri- ous rivalry for the highest place in religion; and this con- tinued throughout the many centuries of Egypt's history
until after the Christian era.
The Osirian myth. According to the myth, which has many variations, Osiris had incurred the enmity of his brother, Sêth," who murdered him and threw his body into the Nile, where it was found by Isis and, by the aid of Thoth, was tempo- rarily restored to life. His posthumous son, the child Horus, seeking justice for his father, introduced him into the Great Hall at Heliopolis for justification from the charges brought by Sêth before the tribunal of the gods; and at the trial the accuser was defeated by Horus, with the moon-god Thoth as the ally and advocate of Osiris, or as "Judge of the Rivals who reconciled the gods,"* while Osiris was vindicated ('justified') by the gods and was made Lord of the Underworld and Judge of the Dead, superseding Anubis (Anupu), the old Lord of the Sepul- chre. According to another form of the myth, the body of Osiris, dismembered and scattered by Sêth, was diligently
sought and gathered up by the faithful Isis, put together
Abydos (Abotu), of which he became lord, whence that
made his moral justification before his judges, being
89 Müller, op. cit., pp. 72-73. 40 Müller, ib., pp. 117-118; also Boylan, Thoth, the Hermes of Egypt,
p. 42.
11 Ha'pi, represented as a fat man, was also a Nile-god.
Digitized