ing who "giveth birth unto men and
women a second time," [Footnote: The words are _mes tememu em nem_.]
_i.e._, "who maketh mortals to be born again." As the whole paragraph
refers to Osiris "renewing himself," and to his making himself "young
like unto R[=a] each and every day," there can be no doubt that the
resurrection of the dead, that is to say, their birth into a new life,
is what the writer means by the second birth of men and women. From this
passage also we may see that Osiris has become the equal of R[=a], and
that he has passed from being the god of the dead to being the god of
the living. Moreover, at the time when the above extracts were copied
Osiris was not only assumed to have occupied the position which R[=a]
formerly held, but his son Horus, who was begotten after his death, was,
by virtue of his victory over Set, admitted to be the heir and successor
of Osiris. And he not only succeeded to the "rank and dignity" of his
father Osiris, but in his aspect of "avenger of his father," he
gradually acquired the peculiar position of intermediary and intercessor
on behalf of the children of men. Thus in the Judgment Scene he leads
the deceased into the presence of Osiris and makes an appeal to his
father that the deceased may be allowed to enjoy the benefits enjoyed by
all those who are "true of voice" and justified in the judgment. Such an
appeal, addressed to Osiris in the presence of Isis, from the son born
under such remarkable circumstances was, the Egyptian thought, certain
of acceptance; and the offspring of a father, after the death of whose
body he was begotten, was naturally the best advocate for the deceased.

But although such exalted ideas of Osiris and his position among the
gods obtained generally in Egypt during the XVIIIth dynasty (about B.C.
1600) there is evidence that some believed that in spite of every
precaution the body might decay, and that it was necessary to make a
special appeal unto Osiris if this dire result was to be avoided. The
following remarkable prayer was first found inscribed upon a linen
swathing which had enveloped the mummy of Thothmes III., but since that
time the text, written in hieroglyphics, has been found inscribed upon
the _Papyrus of Nu_, [Footnote: Brit. Mus., No. 10,477, sheet 18. I have
published the text in my _Chapters of Coming Forth by Day_, pp.
398-402.] and it is, of course, to be found also in the late papyrus
preserved at Turin, which the late Dr. Lep