But Osiris was not the only child of
his mother. On the second of the supplementary days she gave birth
to the elder Horus, on the third to the god Set, whom the Greeks
called Typhon, on the fourth to the goddess Isis, and on the fifth
to the goddess Nephthys. Afterwards Set married his sister Nephthys,
and Osiris married his sister Isis.
Reigning as a king on earth, Osiris reclaimed the Egyptians from
savagery, gave them laws, and taught them to worship the gods.
Before his time the Egyptians had been cannibals. But Isis, the
sister and wife of Osiris, discovered wheat and barley growing wild,
and Osiris introduced the cultivation of these grains amongst his
people, who forthwith abandoned cannibalism and took kindly to a
corn diet. Moreover, Osiris is said to have been the first to gather
fruit from trees, to train the vine to poles, and to tread the
grapes. Eager to communicate these beneficent discoveries to all
mankind, he committed the whole government of Egypt to his wife
Isis, and travelled over the world, diffusing the blessings of
civilisation and agriculture wherever he went.
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