Week Five Story: Isis and the Secret Name

Update:

Hello, and thanks for reading my story! This story can now be found in my portfolio at https://sites.google.com/view/sarahsportfolio/isis-and-the-secret-name.

Isis and the Secret Name

Our story began long ago, when the earth was still young and humanity was but a child. For years I watched through the heavens as the world of men fought starvation and disease, and for years the Gods did nothing. One day though, something was different. As I looked onto the the Earth I saw a God among men. Osiris was helping the men work the soil for food and build sturdy houses for shelter. My heart began to flutter, as I had long admired Osiris and his physical beauty but I was surprised to see him be so compassionate. I knew I had to go confess my admiration to him.

As soon as I stepped foot in Egypt the God immediately turned around and began to defend his work, as many God's did not believe it was their duty to help men. "I do not care what you say! I will not come back. The men need my help and....." Osiris fell silent as he saw me, curious thing about a man (even a god), they only shut up when they see something beautiful. 

"Hello, Osiris." I said "I have watched your good work and I wish to work alongside you to help these men." Osiris accepted my offer and over the years we established the great kingdom of Egypt. In this time Osiris and I fell deeply in love, and we were also awarded the love of the people.

This happy time went on for years, and my love for Osiris only grew. I admired that he was a kind and gentle leader, and the people of Egypt praised his good works. One dark day, this all changed. Osiris had a brother named Set, who was known for his destruction and violence. When he approached our door  I warned Osiris to be cautious, but in his kindness Osiris offered a home to Set in our kingdom. I immediately saw the jealousy on Set's face when he observed the love that Osiris had acquired from his people, so I went to the heavens to warn Ra of Set's violent tendency. Ra quickly sent me away, claiming that a Set had no foul intentions. 

By the time I arrived back in Egypt it was too late, Set had poisoned my one true love and had taken the throne for himself. I was immediately overcome with anger, but before I could attack the God of Destruction, one of my hand maidens pulled me back. "Wait!" she exclaimed. "Set is the master of destruction, and would surely defeat you in battle. You must find a better way to defeat him."  Even in my anger I understood that the maiden was correct, and began to devise a plan to defeat Set and save my people.

For days I found refuge in the desert, attempting to devise a plan to defeat the powerful Set. One day I was beginning to get discouraged. How could I possibly save my people when Set is so much stronger than I am? At that moment I saw a small desert viper bite a much larger fox, and I watched as the viper's poison slowly killed the larger animal. This gave me an idea! I caught the viper and enchanted it to be invisible, and gave it a magical venom that could only be cured by Ra himself. If I could get the viper to bite Ra, he would be too weak to heal himself and would have to tell me his all-powerful secret name so that I could heal him. 

The next day I traveled to the heavens to unleash my plan. I had put the viper in a decorative box and offered it to Ra in exchange for entrance back into the heavens. As soon as he open the box, the invisible viper bit the God and the God began to scream in agony. "Save me, Isis! Save me from this miserable end!" he yelled. Calmly I replied that in order to save him I needed his secret name, as only his power was strong enough to save him from the magic venom. In his agony, Ra agreed and whispered the secret name to me. With Ra's power I saved Ra and immediately flew back to Egypt to confront Set.

When I arrived, Set was sitting on my husband's throne. "This is your warning, Set. You have killed my love and abused my people. Leave this land or be destroyed!" Set laughed in my face and stood to me, clearly much larger and stronger. "Oh, Isis, you poor little bird. Without Osiris you are nothing, and without your people you have no purpose. Leave me or be killed like your weak husband."

Without a word I summoned the power of Ra and sent Set flying through the air. When he hit the ground, I used the power of the sun to burn Set until all that remained of him was dust. Although sad over the death of Osiris, my people were overjoyed to be free of the evil God.

With Set dead and my people saved, I then began to plan a way to bring Osiris back to life. But that, my friend,  is another story entirely. 

(Isis, photo at Wikipedia Commons)

Author's Note:

When doing the reading for this week, I really enjoyed both The Secret Name of Ra and The Death of Osiris. In the Secret Name of Ra, Isis is determined to find out the secret and all-powerful name of Ra in order to posses the power that accompanies it. She creates an invisible snake to bite Ra and as he is dying she convinces him that she can save him, but only if he shares with her the secret name. In sharing the name, Isis did save Ra and was able to possess the power that accompanies the name. In the Death of Osiris, Osiris (Isis' husband) was killed by his jealous brother Set. When Set begins to rule Egypt, Isis is forced to flee and finds shelter with a poor woman.  When I read these two stories I immediately thought that the death of Osiris could be the perfect motivation behind why Isis wants the powerful name. In combining these two stories I was hoping to make Isis a stronger and more dynamic character, being motivated out of love and compassion for her people as well as anger over the death of her husband.

Bibliography:

Egyptian Myth and Legend, Donald Mackenzie, link.