Another One

another one

Just me rambling about the husbands of Nephthys

The belief that Nephthys was the wife of Set largely comes from the writings of the Greek author Plutarch. Plutarch was a prolific writer and a priest at Delphi who likely obtained his information about Egypt during his travels to Alexandria. Although he accurately recounts much of Egyptian mythology, his writings are influenced by his philosophical views. By the time Plutarch wrote in the 2nd century CE, religious traditions had begun to merge, especially in Alexandria, where the cult of Isis was extremely popular.

Plutarch recounts a story in which Osiris unknowingly fathers a child with Nephthys, believing she was his wife, Isis. Nephthys, afraid of her husband Set's reaction, abandons the child, and Isis later finds and raises him as Anubis, who becomes her guardian. Interestingly, Plutarch also refers to a tradition where Nut’s children have different fathers: Horus and Osiris are Ra's sons, Isis is Thoth's daughter, and Nephthys and Set are the only children born in wedlock with Geb. Wikipedia states that Horus the Elder is a form of Horus that is the son of Geb and Nut, but this is only partly true: This claim comes from Plutarch, but Plutarch also claims that Horus the Elder is a son of Osiris and Isis, conceived by Isis and Osiris in the womb of Nut, and then born alongside the other children. Essentially, Plutarch tried to explain the multiple origin stories of Horus by stating that Osiris and Isis had supposedly three sons, all named Horus, and early Egyptologists somehow accepted this explanation. According to Plutarch, the three half-brothers also have different hair colors: Osiris has black hair, Horus white, and Set red. Additionally, Plutarch recalls a festival where Egyptians insulted red-haired people to mock Set's power on Earth. This has nothing to do with Nephthys’ marriages, but it's too amusing not to mention.

Overall, Plutarch paints a rather negative picture of Nephthys: Not only is she an adulterous wife who cheats on her husband, but she also has nonconsensual sex with Osiris, abandons her child in the desert, and even betrays Isis by revealing where she is hiding with her dead husband and child to Set. Plutarch also refers to Nephthys as Aphrodite throughout the text.

While many early sources link Nephthys and Set as a couple, there is little concrete evidence from ancient Egyptian texts directly confirming their marriage. Osiris, Nephthys, Set, Horus, and Isis are the core figures in the Osiris myth, and they all interact with one another inside th myths, except for Nephthys and Set. However, they are paired in other contexts, such as in descriptions of the Ennead. For example, in the Pyramid Texts, Nephthys and Set are paired together for specific roles, but they are not explicitly called a married couple. Some texts from later periods refer to Nephthys as Set’s wife, or mention Set having a wife, though these accounts are often times ambiguous and don't firmly establish this as a widespread early tradition. Therefore the tradition reported by Plutarch, in which Nephthys is the mother of Anubis by Osiris, finds little support in indigenous Egyptian sources, though it was likely not entirely invented by him.

As far as I can tell, we currently have no Ancient Egyptian texts that name Nephthys as Anubis’ mother, either by Set or Osiris. I know Wikipedia lists Anubis and Wepwawet as sons of Nephthys and Set, but no actual source is given for this information. Anubis is sometimes regarded as the son of Nephthys and Ra, though. The only real Egyptian source for Nephthys abandoning Anubis that I could find is in the Papyrus Jumilhac (“Nephthys, her bravery existed with him [Horus]. She had him [Horus] hidden as a small child in papyrus. His name is Anubis and his image is as Mehit-imyut.”). However, we should note that it is unclear whether Nephthys hid her son Horus-Anubis as Isis hid her child, or if she helps Isis hide the baby Horus-Anubis. In this text, Nephthys hiding her child is framed positively, not as the action of an adulterous woman abandoning her illegitimate child for selfish reasons.

Nephthys was sometimes regarded as Osiris’ wife in the underworld, just as Isis was on earth. Osiris and Nephthys are depicted as a couple in some contexts, as seen in the statue of Ramose from the Louvre (E 16378). Nephthys is sometimes given the title Onnophret, the feminine form of the Osirian epithet Onnophris or wn.nfr, meaning "the beautiful existent."

Interestingly, an erotic spell from the 4th century, mostly written in Greek with some Old Coptic passages, tells the story of how Isis goes to Thoth (specifically identified as her father in this version) and tells him about Osiris sleeping with Nephthys. Thoth then gives her a love spell to win Osiris back. However, it is unclear whether Isis is upset about Osiris taking a lover or a second wife. Alternatively, Nephthys could even be Osiris' first wife in this scenario, with Isis as the jealous sister.

There is one text I found that names Nephthys and Set as a married couple within the context of the Osiris myth. It's called the Ptolemaic Berlin Papyrus 8278, and it contains a story that goes as follows:

The first nine lines of Pap. Berlin P. 8278 are quite damaged. However, the main topic is the expulsion of Set from Egypt. The first readable paragraph tells how Set will be kept away from Egypt for the rest of his life. The text refers to him as a donkey, which is a very late interpretation of the Set animal. Then, there is a dialogue between the men of Horus and the men of Set. They discuss the punishment inflicted on Set. The men of Set would like the men of Horus to set him free. Set is described as copulating, drunk, and dead of thirst. From an explanatory gloss, we learn that Set went to an oasis with the Eye of Horus and swallowed it, leading to his drunkenness. Then, an unidentified speaker states that he has shown the way to Horus. After this, the god Thoth insists that Set is drunk and accuses him of harming Osiris. It is mentioned that Set "has been seized" and "has failed." All the gods start speaking to him, pointing out his failure. Finally, it is Isis’ turn to insult Set. She accuses him of taking water "in his own hand" (an explanatory gloss equates water with Osiris). Set is called "camel, pig, hippopotamus," and "the Failed One." Set speaks for the first time but avoids the accusations, instead lamenting his failed attempt to have anal sex with Nephthys, likely due to his drunken state. He recalls grabbing Nephthys' tail and trying to copulate with her ("Voice of Set: [The] female donkey was taken when I was seizing her tail. I was given deceit… Nephthys was taken when I was on her anus… although she belongs to me as a wife").

Nephthys was also sometimes regarded as Horus' wife, as seen in the magical stela of Nesamun ("All fertile lands, all deserts, all mountains, and all waters and what is in them are united under the feet of Horus, son of Osiris, with whom Isis was pregnant and with whom Nephthys is married. May they dispel your feverish heat, may they remove your inner restlessness."). Papyrus Ramesseum IV even speaks of an unnamed daughter of Horus and Nephthys ("Hemen slept with his mother Isis after he had impregnated his aunt Nephthys with a daughter").

73 notes View Post

rhincodon-cynocephalus

3 years ago