32 MYTHOLOGY AND RELIGIOUS RITES. 
following manner: After having organized a conspiracy of seventy-two 
members, he joined with them the feast which was being celebrated in 
honor of the king’s return; he then caused a box or chest to be brought in, 
which had been made to fit exactly the size of Osiris, and declared that he 
would give that chest of precious wood to whosoever could get into it. The 
rest tried in vain; but no sooner was Osiris in it, than Typhon and his 
companions closed the lid, and flung it into the Nile. When Isis heard 
of the cruel murder, she wept and mourned, and then, with her hair 
shorn, clothed in black, and beating her breast, she sought diligently for 
the body of her husband. In this search she was materially assisted by 
Anubis, the son of Osiris and Vephthys (wife of Typhon), who was the fruit 
rather of a mistake than an infidelity. He was represented with a dog’s 
head (pl. 9, jigs. 6, 7, 8), and as having a dog’s nature; but he was wise 
and good like his father. They sought in vain for some time; for when the 
chest carried by the waves to the shores of Byblos had become entangled 
in the reeds that grew at the edge of the water, the divine power that 
dwelt in the body of Osiris imparted such strength to the shrub, that. it 
grew into a mighty tree, inclosing in its trunk the coffin of the god. This 
tree, with its sacred deposit, was shortly after felled, and erected as a 
column in the palace of the King of Pheenicia. But, at length, by the aid 
of Anubis and the sacred birds, Isis ascertained these facts, and then went 
to the city of Byblos. Arrived there, she seated herself before its walls as 
a servant seeking a place. The queen, who had just presented her lord 
with an heir, sent her servants out to procure a nurse, and they engaged 
Isis. The goddess, however, instead of feeding the child from her breast, 
put frequently her finger into its mouth, and then laid him during the 
night in the fire, in order to cleanse him from all earthly dross. One night 
she was watched by the queen, who, when she saw what the supposed 
nurse did to her child, shrieked aloud in despair; upon this, Isis imme- 
diately abandoned her disguise, and appeared as the goddess surrounded 
with thunder and lightning; striking the column with her wand, she caused 
it to split, and give up the sacred coffin. This she seized, and return- 
ing with it, afterwards concealed it im the depth of a forest, but Typhon 
finding it there, cut the body into fourteen pieces, and scattered them 
hither and thither. After a tedious search, in which she was not quite so 
fortunate as in the last, Isis found thirteen pieces, the fishes of the Nile 
having eaten the other. This she replaced by an imitation made of 
syeamore wood, and buried the body at Phile, which became after that 
the great burying-place, and the spot to which pilgrimages were made 
from all parts of the country. A temple of surpassing magnificence was 
also erected there in honor of the god ; and at every place where one of the 
limbs had been found, minor temples and tombs were built to commemorate 
the event. 
But the story has also a sequel. As soon as the body of Osiris had been 
consigned to a suitable sepulchre, his spirit appeared to his son Horus 
(pl. 8, fig 19), and exhorted him to revenge against Typhon. The youthful 
god therefore proclaimed war against the fratricide, whom he vanquished 
252 

