and this, although “the god” had “addressed him mildly.”  Another courtier attributes his long life to the king’s favour.  Ambassadors, when presented to the king, “raised their arms in adoration of the good god,” and declared to him—­“Thou art like the Sun in all that thou doest:  thy heart realizes all its wishes; shouldest thou wish to make it day during the night, it is so forthwith....  If thou sayest to the water, ’Come from the rock,’ it will come in a torrent suddenly at the words of thy mouth.  The god Ra is like thee in his limbs, the god Khepra in creative force.  Truly thou art the living image of thy father, Tum....  All thy words are accomplished daily.”  Some of the kings set up their statues in the temples by the side of the greatest of the national deities, to be the objects of a similar worship.

Amid this wealth of gods, earthly and heavenly, human, animal, and divine, an Egyptian might well feel puzzled to make a choice.  In his hesitation he was apt to turn to that only portion of his religion which had the attraction that myth possesses—–­ the introduction into a supramundane and superhuman world of a quasi-human element.  The chief Egyptian myth was the Osirid saga, which ran somewhat as follows:  “Once upon a time the gods were tired of ruling in the upper sphere, and resolved to take it in turns to reign over Egypt in the likeness of men.  So, after four of them had in succession been kings, each for a long term of years, it happened that Osiris, the son of Seb and Nut, took the throne, and became monarch of the two regions, the Upper and the Lower.  Osiris was of a good and bountiful nature, beneficent in will and words:  he set himself to civilize the Egyptians, taught them to till the fields and cultivate the vine, gave them law and religion, and instructed them in various useful arts.  Unfortunately, he had a wicked brother, called Set or Sutekh, who hated him for his goodness, and resolved to compass his death.  This he effected after a while, and, having placed the body in a coffin, he threw it into the Nile, whence it floated down to the sea.  Isis, the sister and widow of Osiris, together with her sister Nephthys, vainly sought for a long time her lord’s remains, but at last found them on the Syrian shore at Byblus, where they had been cast up by the waves.  She was conveying the corpse for embalmment and interment to Memphis, when Set stole it from her, and cut it up into fourteen pieces, which he concealed in various places.  The unhappy queen set forth in a light boat made of the papyrus plant, and searched Egypt from end to end, until she had found all the fragments, and buried them with due honours.  She then called on her son, Horus, to avenge his father, and Horus engaged him in a long war, wherein he was at last victorious and took Set prisoner.  Isis now relented, and released Set, who be it remembered, was her brother; which so enraged Horus that he tore off her crown, or (according to some) struck off her head, which injury Thoth repaired