as these were not
included in the ordinary calendar, Nuit could then bring forth her five
children, one after another: Osiris, Haroeris, Sit, Isis, and Nephthys.
Osiris was beautiful of face, but with a dull and black complexion; his
height exceeded five and a half yards.[*]

* As a matter of fact, Osiris is often represented with
black or green hands and face, as is customary for gods of
the dead; it was probably this peculiarity which suggested
the popular idea of his black complexion. A magic papyrus of
Ramesside times fixes the stature of the god at seven
cubits, and a phrase in a Ptolemaic inscription places it at
eight cubits, six palms, three fingers.

He was born at Thebes, in the first of the additional days,
and straightway a mysterious voice announced that the lord of
all--_nibu-r-zaru_--had appeared. The good news was hailed with shouts
of joy, followed by tears and lamentations when it became known with
what evils he was menaced.[*] The echo reached Ra in his far-off
dwelling, and his heart rejoiced, notwithstanding the curse which he
had laid upon Nuit. He commanded the presence of his great-grandchild
in Xois, and unhesitatingly acknowledged him as the heir to his throne.
Osiris had married his sister Isis, even, so it was said, while both of
them were still within their mother's womb;[**] and when he became king
he made her queen regent and the partner of all his undertakings.

* One variant of the legend told that a certain Pamylis of
Thebes having gone to draw water had heard a voice
proceeding from the temple of Zeus, which ordered him to
proclaim aloud to the world the birth of the great king, the
beneficent Osiris. He had received the child from the hands
of Kronos, brought it up to youth, and to him the Egyptians
had consecrated the feast of Pamylies, which resembled the
Phallophoros festival of the Greeks.

** _De Iside et Osiride_, Leemans' edition, Sec. 12, pp. 20,
21. Haroeris, the Apollo of the Greeks, was supposed to be
the issue of a marriage consummated before the birth of his
parents while they were still within the womb of their
mother Rhea-Nuit. This was a way of connecting the personage
of Haroeris with the Osirian myths by confounding him with
the homonymous Harsiesis, the son of Isis, who became the
son of Osiris through his mother's marriage with that god.

The Eg