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| Isis in a scorpion form |
Afterwards the death of
Osiris,
Isis was confronted with many hard knocks. Her evil brother
Set held Isis and the infant Horus captive in a house (See [
Conflict between Horus and Set (Mythology)]). Thoth, the great god of wisdom and
magic, came to Isis and pepped up her to escape from Set and to hide her child in a papyrus brushwood in the fens of the Delta. Seven scorpions, who were a demonstration of Selket the scorpion goddess, guided Isis as she fled her vicious brother Set. As she traveled to the Delta, Isis sought shelter one night with the wife of the township official, but when the woman saw the seven scorpions accompanying Isis, she shut her door and rejected them refuge. Angered because Isis had been treated so badly, six scorpions abandoned their poison on the tip of the tail of the seventh scorpion, and the seventh entered the house of the inhospitable woman and burned her son. The excited woman ran through the town crying and bitter, for she did not know if her child would live or die. Upon hearing the screams of the mother, Isis felt sad, for the child had done nothing wrong, and she visited to the woman, Come to me, for my speech has the power to pro-tect, and it has life. Isis settled her hand upon the child and radius, O poison of Tefen, come forth, and come out on the ground! For I am Isis the goddess, and I am the lady of language of power, and I know how to work with words of power, and strong are my words! The poison left the child and he lived.
Then Isis said to the seven scorpions, I speak to you, for I am unique and my regret is greater than that of anyone in all the Nomes of Egypt. . . . Turn your faces down to the ground and lead me to the swamps and the occult places.
