My Myth

Dear Diary,

     Today started out like any other, the sun rose in the sky and Egypt was pleasantly warm. I passed by the river Nile and stopped for a minute to watch the water reflect the sun's dazzling light back into the heavens. It was beautiful to behold. After a few minutes of watching the glistening river, I headed towards the fields. My people were happy and joyous as they tended their crops. I walked among them, stopping to talk with a few. They all greeted me with warm smiles or the wave of a hand which I willingly returned. I love my people; their devotion to my wife and I is unparalleled. There has never been a more devout people in all of Egypt during my reign. They shall be uncommonly blessed for their piety in the Afterworld. I am indeed fortunate to have such loyal subjects.
  
  

    I stopped by a house on the edge of the fields owned by a blind, elderly woman. Her name is Aziza and I find her company rather pleasant. She made the most delicious baklava today; the honey was rich and silky as it danced across my tongue. How she can cook and bake without her sight is beyond me. It really is such a shame that she has no relatives to pass on her recipes to. Perhaps I will send someone to learn from her so that the talent will be preserved. After eating, we traded riddles and stories back and forth until the sun was directly above us. Noticing the time, I excused myself and took my leave.
  
 

     I passed through the local market on my way back to the palace. As I meandered my way through the booths, a silk rug caught my eye. I turned to find a girl of no more then 15 sitting on a stool by the booth; I inquired after the maker of the rug. She responded saying that it was her own work. We chatted for a bit about rugs and her life. I discovered that her name was Bahiti and she lived with her elder brother and his wife because her parents had both passed away while she was still young. Now she made rugs to help pay for food for their family. I told her I was impressed with her work, and that if she wanted she could come work in my palace as a decorator, then I paid for my rug and left. I picked up a few more items from some other vendors on my way out such as, a purple scarf and some jewelry for my darling wife, Isis.
  
 

     When I finally reached the palace I was delighted to find that my brother Set had just arrived back from one of his travels across Egypt. Upon seeing him I exclaimed "we must celebrate brother, for it has been too long since we have been together"! So together, we ate and drank as he told me of the wonders of his journey. He told me of a chest he'd bought that was hand carved; he said it was mine, if i could fit inside. Of course I could fit inside a chest, so I told the servants to bring it to me. Little did I know, I was about to make a mistake that would cost me my life. When the servants set the chest down I opened the lid and foolishly climbed inside; before I could boast that I fit, the lid slammed closed. Set sealed the lid shut and ordered the servants to bring the chest and follow him.
  

     Once Set reached the river Nile, he ordered the servants to set the chest on the bank of the river and return to the palace. As soon as they were gone, he shoved the chest into the river where it was washed away. Meanwhile I was still locked inside with no way out. Suddenly water began to seep through the crevices in the chest, I knew that this would be the end to my story on Earth. I drowned in there; betrayed and murdered by my own brother. Soon enough however, I passed into the next life to start a new reign as Lord of the Underworld.
  

     It did not take long for Isis to notice my absence. After talking with several servants she began to search up and down the Nile for the chest containing my corpse. The chest had finally washed ashore near the palace of King Byblos; King Byblos took a fancy to it and had it placed in his palace not knowing of its contents. When Set learned that my wife was looking for my body he started his own search. Through random rumors he heard that King Byblos had acquired a beautiful new hand carved chest. Isis also heard the rumor, but by the time she made it to King Byblos's kingdom our evil brother had already passed through. Apparently drowning me was not enough to extinguish Set's hatred for me, because he took my body from the chest and chopped it into millions of pieces. Then taking the pieces he scattered them throughout Egypt. Isis was greatly saddened by my passing for we had no heir to reign in my stead, so she continued her search for my body. After learning what Set had done, she set out collecting all the pieces of my body. Slowly but surely she pieced me back together until I was whole once more. Well, I should say 'almost' whole. There was one piece of my body that she was unable to recover as it had been thrown into the Nile and swallowed by a great fish. My wife desired to resurrect me back to life so we could produce an heir to the throne, but with that particular piece missing the task was impossible. Calling upon her great powers she forged the missing piece out of gold and then attached it to my body. Calling upon her powers once more she resurrected my body just long enough for her to get pregnant with our son Horus.

  

     By now I was pretty worn out, dying twice in one day will do that to you. So here I am now sitting on my throne in the Underworld writing in my diary. This is my life now, living on as a God in another world, while back on Earth Isis mummified my body and had it buried properly. She got remarried to our son and he's taken up my throne now. I'm not exactly thrilled about their marriage but at least my people will have decent rulers. Oh well I've got to run, looks like someone just died and I have to go pass judgement on their soul. I will try and write again later but this place is surprisingly busy and there's lots of work to be done. Overall not one of my best days but I'm sure it could have still been worse. Goodbye.