Bird Gods in Ancient Euro 



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brother's burial ; she raised the remains of the 

 god of the resting heart : she extracted his 

 essence : she had a child, she suckled the baby 

 in secret ; none knew where that happened. 

 The arm of the child has become strong in the 

 great dwelling of Seb." 



Here Horus is the returning spring, the son 

 of the cuckoo that turns into a hawk, the 

 cuckoo whose death is as mysterious as his 

 birth. 



A very curious story called " The Tale of 

 Setnau " seems to contain the cuckoo myth in 

 secondary form, that of the folk-tale, where 

 the crime of marriage between brother and 

 sister is made to entail disaster. So far as we 

 can see the marriage of Isis and Osiris did not 

 occasion the mutilation of the latter. But the 

 tale of Setnau found in a papyrus begins with 

 an enforced marriage between Ptah-Nefer-Ka 

 and his sister Ahura, although each desires to 

 marry some one else. Soon are developed the 

 avenging fates ! The brother insists on raising 

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