Egypt's Light

EGYPT'S LIGHT

  Alfred D. Byrd

  Copyright 2011 Alfred D. Byrd

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

  Chapter 1: MYTHOLOGY

  OF THE LAND of Ancient Egypt,

  Legend tells of a beginning

  In which order was established

  By a process of creation

  That began in lightless ocean.

  Here appears a single story

  Of the many taught Egyptians

  To explain the world's unfolding.

  From the vast primeval waters

  Filled with darkness born of chaos,

  Life emerged, and land to bear it.

  Light arose and from the heavens

  Shone on humans looking upwards

  At the sun, the god that ruled them,

  And the moon, which marked out seasons

  For the planting and the harvest.

  Law was spoken and then written

  To ensure that life continued

  In an ever-turning circle

  Born again each day at sunrise.

  In the vision of Egyptians,

  Gods and goddesses abounded.

  Over all was Ra, the sun-god,

  Maker of both earth and heaven

  In his early name of Atum.

  Gods made he from his own body,

  Which gave birth as well to humans;

  All else spoke he into being.

  Ra, each day, would sail in glory

  In his boat across the heavens

  To give light to lands below him,

  But each night would sail through darkness

  Where the demon Apep waited

  To consume his light forever.

  Only if the sun-god conquered,

  Slaying Apep before morning,

  Could the day come back to Egypt.

  Ruler and his priests with prayers,

  And with endless rites of magic,

  Aided Ra in his dire combat

  And ensured each new day's dawning.

  Gods and goddesses could marry

  And give birth just like us mortals.

  Geb, the god of earth below us,

  Wedding Nut, the cow of heaven,

  Fathered four outstanding children —

  Seth, Osiris, Nepthys, Isis —

  Who determined Egypt's future.

  Like the kings whom Egypt honored

  In the days when mortals ruled there,

  Brother took as wife his sister:

  Nephthys lived with Seth as husband;

  Isis wedded with Osiris.

  Seth was dark, a lord of Chaos,

  Kin to pigs and males of hippos,

  And to crocodiles and serpents.

  Light, though, shimmered on Osiris,

  Teacher of the arts of living

  In communities of justice.

  In a time set down in legend,

  Egypt's ruler was Osiris,

  Bringing order out of conflict.

  Godhood, though, was not perfection.

  Sometimes, even judges stumble,

  Doing what they hate in others.

  When Osiris slept with Nepthys,

  Sister-wife of Seth, his brother,

  She conceived a son, Anubis,

  Who became the god of mummies.

  Jealous of his brother's glory

  And enraged at Nepthys' treason,

  Seth, in vengeance, asked Osiris

  To attend a splendid banquet

  Where Seth sealed his hated brother

  In a chest and cast him in it

  To be drowned in Egypt's river.

  Isis, grieving, claimed the body,

  But, in fear of her reviving

  Dead Osiris through her magic,

  Seth took back his brother's body,

  Cut the body into pieces,

  And dispersed them through all countries.

  Isis, mourning murdered husband,

  Vowed to make him ever living.

  Nepthys and Anubis helped her

  Seek Osiris' scattered organs.

  Isis found what Seth had hidden,

  Put her husband back together,

  And conceived by him a man-child

  Who would win his father justice.

  Still, her triumph was not total.

  Isis won no life in Egypt

  For her resurrected husband.

  He must travel to Amentet,

  Land beyond the dusk's horizon,

  Where he ruled the dead in judgment,

  Giving or denying mortals

  Life eternal by a river

  Bearing Egypt's light and pleasure.

  When the son of lost Osiris

  Came of age, he wanted vengeance

  On the killer of his father.

  Eighty years did Seth and Horus

  Fight each other in dark battles

  In which Horus nearly perished

  Many times before his triumph.

  In one battle born of vengeance,

  Seth put out the eyes of Horus,

  But the goddess Hathor healed them,

  And Osiris' son kept fighting.

  Eye of Ra who worked his vengeance,

  Hathor was a cow-horned goddess

  Watching over love and music,

  Making beauty last, and giving

  Children to a childless woman.

  Hathor, for her role in saving

  Egypt's king from loss of eyesight,

  Would gain honor in the future

  As the mother of each ruler

  Who would reign in place of Horus.

  One day, Horus gave his kingship

  To his sons, Egyptian Pharaohs,

  Mortals to mere human vision,

  But the blood of gods within them

  Set them far above their subjects.

  As a god among his people,

  Pharaoh took his throne in glory;

  Son of Ra and living Horus,

  Pharaoh was a god made human.