Anubis Speaks!: A Guide to the Afterlife by the Egyptian God of the Dead (26 page)

Meanwhile, twelve gods and twelve goddesses

appear, each pair representing the hours of the night.

Horus leads them in procession. Their star crowns shine and twinkle in this dark cave and look quite beautiful.

We think we’re safe, but stay on your guard. We are never really free from Apophis. He has not finished with us yet.

You may have noticed that Isis was the first god to attack Apophis. That’s because she rocked. Isis has always been fearless and strong. She was smart, fierce, and stubborn, as well as powerful. She also tricked Ra into promising that her son Horus could rule Egypt when he grew to be a man. And she did it all with cleverness and magic. Here’s how Isis tricked Ra.

Ra’s Secret Name

ISIS KNEW EVERYTHING in heaven and earth except one thing: Ra’s secret name. Knowledge of this name, she knew, would transfer his power to her. So, of course, Ra refused to share it.

Isis came up with a plan to make Ra reveal his secret name. Ra, who had grown old, sometimes drooled. Isis collected the god’s spit and mixed it with the earth. Using her magic, she fashioned a snake out of the moist dirt and made it come alive. She left the snake at the crossroads where the great god passed during his 72

daily tour of Egypt.

As Ra passed, the snake sprung out and struck the god, then disappeared. Ra’s cry of pain and surprise thundered throughout the heavens and earth.

“What is it?” cried the gods who had accompanied Ra on his walk.

But Ra could not answer as the poison roiled through him. He trembled violently and soon lost his sight.

He called out to his companions, “Come to me, all you gods who came into being in my body, who came forth from me. Something painful has stabbed me. My heart does not recognize it, my eyes have not seen it, my hand did not make it, and I cannot identify it in all that I have made. I have never felt pain like this. Let the children of the gods, those who know their magic spells, be brought to me.”

The children of Ra gathered around him. All were at a loss—except, of course, Isis. She stepped forward and explained that she created the serpent that bit him.

And only she could use her magic to cure him. But in order for the spell to work, she needed his true name.

“I am he who made heaven and earth, who knotted together the mountains and created the waters.” Ra said. “I am he who made two horizons of east and west, and set the gods in glory in them. I am he who opened his eyes so that light might come into being; he who closed his eyes, so that darkness might descend. The 73

Nile flows at my command. My name the gods do not know. I am Khepri in the morning, Ra at noon, and Atum in the evening.” The poison continued to course through his body and Ra’s agony only increased.

“Nice try,” Isis responded. “But you still have not given me your true name. Without it, I can’t free you from the poison. Oh, and by the way, before I free you from the poison, I need you to promise that Horus will take the throne of Egypt when he comes of age.”

Ra agreed. He whispered his secret name to her.

Isis uttered the spell that cured Ra. The sun god fully recovered.

You could say that Isis was the world’s first stage mom. She did whatever she needed to do to make sure her kid ended up as star of the show.

Magic as Medicine

Egyptian doctors wanted a piece of Isis’s magic, so they recited the story of Ra’s secret name aloud to patients who had been bitten by snakes or stung by scorpions. The story itself, they hoped, was a kind of magic.

Snakebites, scorpion stings, crocodile maulings, hippopotami attacks—all these contributed to the early deaths of my people. That was the risk of the land. In the desert, you had scorpions and snakes, and on the Nile, you had crocodiles, hippos, and more 74

snakes. It was not an easy life.

Still, Egyptian doctors had a great deal of

knowledge—thanks to me and my lessons in

mummification. My priests learned to “read” the internal organs when they emptied the body, which sometimes helped them identify the cause of death as well as diagnose the living. Egyptian doctors also knew how to set broken bones, perform some types of surgery, and provide dental care.

Speaking of beautiful teeth, I notice you have been admiring my exceedingly sharp and shining canines. I cleaned my teeth the same way most of my people did. I brushed them with a frayed twig, and rubbed my teeth with a mix of natron, the salt used for mummification, and cleansing herbs such as nettle, mint, pepper, and dried iris flowers. At least I didn’t stoop to what some ancient Romans did to keep their choppers pearly white. It’s so gross, I can’t even bring myself to write it. But I will give you a hint: did you know that human urine has bleaching properties?

Shudder
.

My people also believed that knowledge of the body was only one part of healing. The rest came from Magic with a capital “M”—magic that the gods controlled, and the priest-healers tapped. Many medical papyri include magic spells and incantations for healing. Here’s one for dealing with snakebites and scorpion stings.

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The Priest’s Spell for Healing Bites and Stings
Fail, poison. Go out from Ra,

Come forth from the burning god at my spell!

It is I who acts; it is I who have the power.