Ancient Evenings (9 page)

Hovering in place, She succeeded in putting Abtu and Ant into shadow. Deprived of the light of Ra, their ability to reason was confused, and so they quit the shore for the water, but the shadow of a serpent now flickered on the surface. They were not aware it was the feather twisting its supple spine above the river to cast patches of shade below. So, they chased the shadow of that serpent down the current until Maat led them to the pelvis of Osiris stuffed in the stump of an uprooted palm, a place that Maat knew well. (She had been present as the spirit of balance when Set on the last stroke cut off His own thumb instead.) Now, Abtu leaped on the phallus of Osiris, bit it off, choked it down, and danced in frenzy through the water. His skin was luminous; he felt composed of light. A terror! Where to hide? In panic, both fish rushed to the shore to reassume their existence as pieces of dull hemp, yet when Abtu turned back into a rope, he was whiter than the moon, and Ant had to cover him with mud until it was time to swim off to the Duad once more. In the dark, however, he gleamed. He would call attention to them all. In fury, Ra lifted him from the water and swallowed him. Ant was left to serve as the pilot, but since he could not keep the boat off the rocks on his blind side, the bark shuddered and scraped from every blow, and, the phallus of Osiris sticking in His stomach, Ra soon grew ill.

The balance shifted. Since the God’s member proved indigestible, Ra began to feel most uncomfortable, and allowed the sky to cloud. Isis stirred in Her bed and listened to the gulls. Their cawing went on through gray and hazy days. Other birds came to tell how the noble horse on which Set hunted in the swamp had shied from a fallen tree, and broke his leg. The good luck of Set might have shattered.

Isis dared to remember the hour when She and Osiris gave conception to Horus. Even as the Prince of Byblos fell backward once more into the sea, so did a message come from the Ka of Osiris. Isis must arm Herself with the Secret Name of Ra. She began to listen to the gossip of the Gods.

Now, She heard that Ra was old and His bones had changed from gold to silver as His limbs grew stiff. He dribbled when He spoke. His seven emissions fell constantly to the earth, and the paths were covered with His earwax and His sweat, His urine, His turd, His snot, His semen and saliva.

Isis contemplated how to use these leavings. The full bowel of the sun certainly reeked of wealth. Yet, how could She know which monsters of the sulphurous night might also be set free? That was power too much. Isis needed the Secret Name, no more. Why conclude that Ra excreted His Secret Name each day?

So, too, did She avoid sweat. In His perspiration might be the honor of His name, but such sweat also gave off the odor of every animal He became while making love. And
their
Secret Names. An abundance and a confusion.

Nor did She think to look for His seed. The Secret Names of future sons and daughters would be in that seed, but not His own. So did She also pass over the snot and the earwax. Ra hardly listened to what others said, so in His earwax was much stupidity, while the nose was a poor place to conceal the Name when every wind would sniff it out. Only urine and saliva were left: a choice of the sour waters of His blood, or the well of His mouth. Each had a clear attachment to the Name. Like a great river (that carries off many a secret from the land) was Ra’s urine. But those waters went back to the Celestial Waters. Nu would certainly be displeased if Isis tried to steal a Secret Name from Her. Therefore, Isis chose saliva. It was the spirit of Ra’s speech. At the center of His speech must be the Name. Therefore, She took up moist dust near a spot where the old God, walking on His path, had drooled, and She worked this moist dust into clay, and added to it an old powder made of the semen of Set (which She had kept from the skirt of the handmaiden Set had raped). There could be no better way to fortify a poison than to mix the leavings of one’s enemies. So Isis shaped this mortar from the spit of Ra and the semen of Set and molded it into the form of a snake, and anointed its fangs (which came from the cuttings of Her fingernails) with the poison of scorpions. Then Isis said to these fangs, “Go out. Discover in your enemy what is most different from yourself. Attack Him there. Loose your sting!” The venom of Isis’ heart flowed from Her eye, and every carnal memory of Ra was in it. For with no innocence had She studied the seven varieties of His emission. His scent had been left on Her. Despite Her adoration of Osiris, which was like the tenderness of the sky as evening fell on the oasis and animals stood next to one another, Isis could never prevent one outrageous desire. It was the thrill to Her belly at the sight of Ra. So She had indulged one secret hour with Her father. How the death of Osiris brought back the burden of Her old deception. She had never told Her husband, and Osiris, therefore, had believed Himself too well beloved. Knowing too little of the powers of other Gods, He had entered Set’s coffin too carelessly. To Her own rage at Ra was added, therefore, the turmoil of Her own deception. With what a spell did Isis leave the serpent on the path!

Ra passed through the cool fields of heaven pouting and dribbling as He took His short walk in the dawn. On this route had Isis set Her snake. As the old God approached (His belly still churning on the indigestible phallus) the snake leaped through the distance within itself from the inert clay to the vital curse, and lanced its fang into the God. And the poison said: “Burn, Ra, as flame licks at Your loins. Freeze in the chill of Your golden eye as the light leaves. A poison has been made that will find Your last extremity!”

And the Sun-God felt the presence of all He was not. It crept across Him and His limbs began to struggle, and heat became His torture. He staggered and His will had fear of all that was strange in His flesh. His skin lost its hue and He was pale as platinum, pale as the silver of His bones. The old age of Ra turned in His mouth, and His lips made Him spit on the earth. The poison came into His flesh even as the Nile spreads over the fields. “What has stung Me?” He cried out. “It is something I do not know and have never made.” And He gave the great cry of bewilderment all men have since uttered to themselves at the moment death is on them. “Come here, Gods and Goddesses,” He cried out, “all You Who were formed from Me!”

The air altered. Light and dark flowed, colors engulfed other colors. Gods and Goddesses manifested Themselves from the four pillars of the sky, up from the river, and across from the winds of the desert. The waters of the Duad boiled.

Ra said: “At dawn, I was passing through the kingdom of Egypt for I wanted to see what I had made, and a serpent bit me. I feel colder than water and more inflamed than the fire. My legs sweat, My body shakes, My eyes are weak. Water pours from My face as in the time of flood. Agonies have entered.”

In the pall that followed, dark as the blood that dries on sand after a war has passed, Isis spoke. For that first instant, the Gods snickered: They all knew of Isis’ humiliation by Set. There was, however, no uncertainty in Her tone. “Great Ra,” She said, “You have been poisoned by an art devoted to Your death.”

“I cannot die,” said Ra. “I am the First, and the Son of the First.”

“You will die,” said Isis, “unless You reveal Your Secret Name. He who is able to reveal His Name will live.”

“I will not tell My Secret Name,” said Ra. “If I am gone, the earth bursts, and the heavens are lost with the earth. For I have created the heavens and the secret of the horizon.”

She came forward. Step by step, She entered the aura of Ra. Now, She whispered into His ear. Her voice quivered through His flesh.

He tried to stand to His full height, but was bent over in wretchedness.

“I cannot die,” said Ra. “My Father gave a Secret Name in fire, My Mother annealed It in the waters. They hid My Name when I was born. No word can have power over Me so long as My Name remains unknown.”

“The poison,” said Isis, “will reach to the last corner of Your flesh. The semen of Set is in that poison and He knows no fear at searching You.”

“I will reveal My Secret Name to
all
,” said Ra. A cry came up from the Gods, then a silence. But Isis knew that Ra would lie. In the past, His eyes would always show His earnest heart when He spoke with no truth.

“My names,” said Ra, His mouth so tight with pain that His jaw could hardly move, “My names are without end. My forms are the form of all things. Every God has His existence in Me.”

“Do not die, Great Ra,” cried the Gods. But They did not know if They wished for His life or His death. They did not know what They desired—a fearful day for the Gods.

“My name,” shouted Ra, “is Maker-of-Heaven-and-Earth.

“I am He-Who-links-the-mountains-together.

“I am He-Who-caused-the-great-flood.

“I am He-Who-made-the-joys-of-love.

“I am He-Who-made-the-horizon.

“I am the Being-Who-opens-His-eyes-and-light-comes.

“I am the Being-Who-closes-His-eyes-and-it-is-dark.

“I am He-Whom-the-Gods-know-not.”

He stumbled and almost fell. Isis said: “There is no mention of the Secret Name. Soon You will be consumed by the poison. Declare the Name.” As She spoke, the Gods gave a murmur. She was more splendid than Ra. Side By side, They stood together, and She was more splendid.

“I am He-Who-creates-the-fire-of-life,” said Ra.

“I am He-Who-is-Khepera-in-the-morning, Ra-at noon, and Temu-in-the-evening.”

“I am He-Who …” His voice failed. Poison was climbing the cataracts of His blood, and the seas were His mind on fire. The glare of heat was in all of existence. Consumed by heat, He tore off His clothing.

“Search Me,” Ra cried out.

In view of the Gods, Isis came forward, took off Her robes and lay upon Him. From within His belly, the phallus of Osiris gave life to the stick of His old loins and He came forth into Isis with the Secret Name (and all of the semen of Set that He had swallowed with the poison, and this act loosed the most terrible lightning ever seen in the skies of Egypt—thus was Set first made lord of lightning and thunder) and so did Ra pass His Secret Name over into the belly of Isis. It entered on a quiet voice that told Her: “Temu is One, the Celestial Waters are Two, and Ra, child of Temu and Nu, is Three. So His Secret Name is Three. Roar, Isis, like a lion that we may hear the sound of ‘
r
’ in all the tongues. For the roar of the sun is the light of earth. And the heir of Ra shall be as the light of the mind, which is death. Hail, Osiris, Lord of the Land of the Dead. Rise, Isis, who holds the Secret Name of Ra. You are all that is and has been, and all that will be and is.”

THREE

Isis rose, and the foam of the old man drained from Her legs. She said, “Spew, poison, spew! Out of Me! Out of Ra! Ra lives, and the poison dies.” Then She put on the great golden robe Ra had left on the floor. The robe was filthy, but sediments and waters washed from it as if by rain, and Isis stood in glory. The Gods applauded. They were terrified. Some remembered old calumnies upon Isis. (Still the prettiest of Them was already trying to capture Her eye.) But a stranger came forward from the back of Their ranks holding a robe to cover Ra. The stranger’s hair was white, yet His face was young and more beautiful than any other. It was the Ka of Osiris.

He stood beside Isis and held Her hand. At that instant, His body became lost in Hers. His flesh was so transparent that Osiris disappeared into Her. To Ra, She said, in the voice of Osiris, “Old God, when there is need for gentle days, You may bring sugar to the fruit trees, and encouragement to the crops of the fields. But when You enter the Duad by night, You will wear My winding sheet. Now will My son, Horus, be the golden eye of the day, and the silver eye of the moon. In the Duad will I rule over the dead, and through My wife, Isis, will I rule over the crops of the Nile. Go forth, to perform Your duties.” As He separated from Isis, Osiris became visible again. Holding His body but the width of a finger apart from Her body (for whenever They touched, His presence flowed forth into Her again) He ordered the Gods to return to Their places, and dream of no new power. The master of the future was here, and Osiris opened His loincloth to reveal that if His phallus had been devoured by Abtu, and the fish in turn swallowed by Ra, now He, Osiris, had become the devourer of He who devoured Him. In consequence, His phallus had three limbs. One for Ptah, the master builder, stood forth like a post and glowed hot as metal in the forge. Another was massive, motionless, and dark as Seker, knobbed like a root from the depths of the earth. Last, all but transparent, was the phallus of Osiris Himself, and it arched like a rainbow after His wanderings through the air, the surf, and the mist, a luminous phallus for the Lord of the Mind, Osiris, God of the Resurrection.

At this sight, Ra vomited. Yet nothing came out of His belly. The once indigestible phallus was certainly gone, and He could only slink away.

When Isis and Osiris were alone, however, Their conversation was less majestic. “It is part,” said Osiris, “of the difficulties of Our position that We cannot even touch each other, or I will disappear again. So We won’t touch. For then We cannot talk, and there is much to tell You. I know more about the Duad than You would care to hear.” He gave a tender smile, and added in His lightest, most agreeable voice, “As a young Prince, I could never listen to any wretch whose tale would bore Me. Now I spend My years taking account of the endless justifications of the dead. Their piety is insatiable. ‘Was it your fault, or the fault of your wife?’ I ask some absolute wretch, and his answer invariably is that ‘It would take the Lord Osiris to know.’ ”