Just before Isis and the little chick arrived, Horus came a bit earlier to ease in the presence of his new sibling. As one of the leading figures of the Egyptain gods, he must familiarize himself with Just before Isis and the little chick arrived, Horus came a bit earlier to ease in the presence of his new sibling. As one of the leading figures of the Egyptain gods, he must familiarize himself with others and make conversation.
While chatting with some random gods, Horus spots his cousin. He was Anubis, the god of death, mummification, embalming, the afterlife, cemeteries, tombs, and all things dead! He had a jackal head and sleek black fur.
They have a complicated relationship as their fathers were mortal enemies but his mother, Nephthys was one who helped her sister, Isis hide Osiris and help raise Horus. She was even willing to defy her husband and brother. (I know that sounds hilariously confusing, but remember how I said that the 4 gods are siblings but paired up with each other? Also there were lots of myths interpretations of why Set revolted and one interpretation was that Osirus cheated with nephthys and gave birth to anubis, but I'm not going to use that.)
Set was a bad father and was a pretty ugly guy so their family was not a harmonious one, compared to how closely knit Horus's was. Anubis was assistant to his father so as cousins they were close in age and were friendly with one another. After how his wife betrayed him they were on bad terms.
"It's chaos! As always the other lords of the underworld are having trouble keeping up with the dead souls that keep coming through the gates of the underworld. Our Duat is no different." (Duat is name of egytian underworld)
"The greek realm is especially having trouble with their runaways. Sisyphus and Tantalus have already escaped! Hades already sent the hounds of Tartarus to hunt them down, but it's going to be tuff ever since Cerberous disappeared a few decades back…." (Hint, Hint, wink) (Also remember the legend of Tantalus in my previous chapter?)
Some mortals just can't move on to the afterlife, usually the one they punish is the one who managed to cheat death and their fabel spreads far and wide. They become harder for them to move on as they receive faith as well. They can be regarded as a pseudo god and the real gods have no choice, but to trap them and punish them for all eternity.
"Many other clever mortals are already using the chaos as a cover to get away."
"HAHA I quite liked that Sisyphus, he cheated death so many times!!! He made a fool of Hades and Thanatos", laughed Horus
"Yes… it was quite a feat for a mortal."
"It was big news across all the realms. Hades didn't dare trespass onto other underworlds back then, in recent events of his embarrassment.", mused Anudis.
"And olympus dared not make a peep for a few hundred years, HAHA", laughed Horus
Legend has it that king Sisyphus cheated death and fooled the gods! It all started when Zeus the rapist god kidnaps a river god's daughter. Seeing the events he tells the river god where Zeus headed in return for a spring in his city. A heroic act, no? Well don't feel too good about him as he was known to be a tyrant of a ruler.
Outraged Zeus commanded Thanos, death, to chain him. A mortal cant possibly escape a god right? Wrong, the god Thanos was tricked! The tricky mortal showered him with compliments and asked how the chains would work. The overconfident narcissist saw no harm doing so and compiled. As you would know it Sisyphus learned how the chains worked and tied up death himself!
The gods were outraged and chaos broke out, nobody can die! What really alarmed gods was that there was less faith since mortals no longer have to pray to them for their protection! They had to find him or else the mortals will grow complacent and no longer receive faith, the source of their powers. They had to put the fear of death back into them.
Eventually Aries the god of war frees Thanos from his chains. Quite the hero wasn't he? Nope! He found that in a war with no one dying, it was no longer fun! You see the pattern? It seems like everyone had bad intentions doing good deeds.
Well the gods were really going to get him now right? NOPE! The crafty king had another plan where he asked his wife to not give him a proper burial. A proper burial is what gives a mortal safe passage in the after life. Of course it was as complicated as the Egyptain mummification where they had to wrap everything in bandages and take out all their organs, and ect, nonetheless it was an important ritual.
Well anyway he started to complain about how he was a great king (he wasn't really) and how he didnt get a proper burial and asked for permission to return back to the living. The gods agreed and the gullible dummies actually believed him.
Well he still got caught, I mean it was an inevitable situation as he can't avoid it. Welp eventually was caught and was forced to push a rock up a mountain for all eternity…. sometimes. It wasn't the first time he escaped his punishment, it just wasn't told in the myths.
"Anyways how is father?", asked Horus
"Oh, he-"
VROOOM!
A sound of space tearing apart sounds. Startled, many gods stared at the opening. Horus's expression turns livid and he takes out a curved blade, his Khopesh, while Anubis evades his gaze from his father.
It was Set! His family's mortal enemy! The dreaded creature donned red clothing as the color was his symbolic color. In the egytain relme red was the color of evil and no mortal dared to wear the color. His canine head (anybody remember the gods skyping each other?) showed his slanted eyes, that shined with mischief.
"ENOUGH!", boomed a wise voice.
Along with Horus, Bastet was ready to attack, when a scorching heat evaded the room. The heat was not lethal, but it served as a warning. Horus was a leading figure in the Egyptian relm, but even he had to head the orders of that being. Bastet puts away her claws obediently and awaits further orders.
"What are you here for Set?", sighed a calm voice.