son of the adulterous union of Osiris with his sister
Nephthys, found the phallus of Osiris, dismembered by Typhon with 27
assistants, which Isis had hidden in the coffin. Only in this manner could
the phallus from which the new age originated, escape from Typhon. If this
version clearly shows that Isis originally had preserved in the casket the
actual phallus of her husband and brother which had been made
incorruptible and not merely a wooden one, then on the other hand the
probability increases that the story originally concerns emasculation
alone because of the various weakening and motivating attempts that meet
us in the motive of the dismemberment."

In the form of the Osiris saga the dismemberment appears, however, not
merely as emasculation. More clearly recognizable is also the separation
of the primal parents, the dying out of the primal being resulting in a
release of the primal procreative power for a fresh world creation. It is
a very interesting point that in one of the versions a mighty tree grows
out of the corpse of Osiris. Later on we become acquainted for the first
time with the potent motive of the restoration of the dismembered one, the
revivification of the dead.

For example, in the Finnish epic, Kalevala, Nasshut throws the
Lemminkainen into the waters of the river of the dead. Lemminkainen was
dismembered, but his mother fished out the pieces, one of which was
missing, put them together and brought them to life in her womb. According
to Stucken's explanation we recognize in Nasshut a father image, in
Lemminkainen a son image. In the tradition no relationship between them is
mentioned. That is, however, a "Differentiation and attenuation of traits,
which is common in every myth-maker." (S. A. M., p. 107.)

In the Edda it is recounted "that Thor fared forth with his chariot and
his goats and with him the Ase, called Loki. They came at evening to a
peasant and found shelter with him. At night Thor took his goats and slew
them; thereupon they were skinned and put into a kettle. And when they
were boiled Thor sat down with his fellow travelers to supper. Thor
invited the peasant and his wife and two children to eat with him. The
peasant's son was called Thialfi and the daughter Roskwa. Then Thor laid
the goats' skins near the hearth and said that the peasant and his family
should throw the bones onto the skins. Thialfi, the peasant's son, had the
thigh bone of one goat and cut it in two with his kni