In some versions of the story, Osiris is murdered by Set and 72 accomplices while in others he alone is responsible. Set then slammed the lid on and threw the casket into the Nile River. He lay down in the casket and found, of course, that it fit him perfectly. One by one the guests climbed into the casket but could not fit until Osiris' turn came.
He revealed the chest and said that whoever could fit most perfectly inside could take it home. He threw a grand party, to which Osiris was invited, and after the banquet told the guests he had a special surprise. Set decided to remove his brother and had a magnificent casket created, the most beautiful chest ever made, tailored to Osiris' exact measurements. His resentment grew more bitter after his wife Nephthys, attracted by Osiris' beauty, disguised herself as Isis and seduced the great king, becoming pregnant with the god Anubis. Set grew jealous of Osiris' power and resented his success. Set grew jealous of Osiris' power, resented his success, and decided to remove his brother. The world was a paradise where everyone, man and woman, was equal under the reign of the royal couple, food was abundant, and no one suffered any want. Osiris took his sister Isis as his wife, and she bestowed on humans her gifts of compassion and equality for all. Osiris found the newly-created people to be barbarous and uncivilized and so gave them culture, taught them agriculture, provided them with laws, and instructed them in the proper ways to worship the gods. As first-born, Osiris was elevated as ruler of the world which, to the Egyptians, meant the land of Egypt. Osiris was the first-born, then Isis, Set, Nephthys and Horus (known as Horus the Elder). The first five gods of Egypt were born of the union of the brother and sister gods Geb (earth) and Nut (sky) after the creation of the world by Atum. It is thought that he represented the dry and barren desert lands and distant territories outside of Egypt as contrasted with Osiris and Horus who symbolized the fertility of the Nile River Valley. He was still invoked by common people and pharaohs for assistance, however, and his name is evident of that of rulers such as Seti I, Sethnakhte, and Seti II.Īlthough his wife was his sister Nepthys, he was associated with foreign goddesses such as the warrior-goddess Anat from Ugarit in Syria, and Astarte, the Queen of Heaven, from Phoenicia. Precisely why Set's attributes and image changed from a hero-god to the enemy of order and justice is unknown, but by the time the Osiris myth became popular during the New Kingdom, Set's transformation was complete. To the Greeks, he was associated with Typhon, the god-monster who challenged the might of Zeus and was hurled into Tartarus. 1069 BCE) he came to be best known as the first murderer, who killed his older brother Osiris to reign over the world and then tried to murder Osiris' son Horus. Set was also seen as a benefactor who helped the people in life and provided for them after death, but by the time of the New Kingdom (c. In doing so, Set assured that the sun would rise the next morning. It was said that each night Apophis hypnotized Ra and the entourage who sail with him except for the god Seth who resisted the serpent's deadly stare and repulsed him with the thrust of a great spear. Wilkinson comments on this myth and Set's role as hero, writing: He was also the deity who saved the sun god Ra from the serpent Apophis, an evil creature who tried to stop the sun god's journey through the night sky toward dawn. 2613 BCE) he was an important - and benevolent - god of Upper Egypt whose name was invoked for love spells and inscribed on amulets which served as love charms. In the Early Dynastic Period of Egypt (c. His epithets include "Lord of the Desert" and "Ruler of the South" as he was originally a god of Upper Egypt (the south) and the barren lands beyond Egypt's borders. He is sometimes depicted as a red-haired beast with a forked tail and cloven hooves or a shaggy red dog-like beast known as a sha (or, to modern-day scholars, as the Set Animal) which some scholars claim was modeled on the Saluki breed while others maintain was a purely mythological creature imagined specifically to represent Set whose other symbols were the griffin, hippopotamus, crocodile, and tortoise (though he was primarily associated with the serpent).