Pyramid Scheme by Dave Freer and Eric Flint

Isis:

Moon goddess, sorceress, sister-wife of Osiris. It was she who gathered up the pieces of the dismembered Osiris (except for his phallus—which had been eaten by the crabs) and sewed him back together again.

Min:

An ancient god, always represented with his phallus erect. The protector of travelers and fertility.

Nephthys:

The personification of the desert margin, arid but sometimes fertile. Sister to Isis, married to her brother Set, by whom she had no children. She got Osiris (also her brother, and husband to her sister Isis) drunk, and took advantage of him to conceive Anubis. She abandoned the child at birth. She helped with the embalming of Osiris, despite the fact that he was murdered by her husband. It’s all very complicated. . . .

Osiris:

A vegetation god, personifying harvest and rebirth of seedlings (perhaps this explained his greenish skin). He was married to Isis. Osiris was the enemy of violence and the bringer of civilization. He was murdered and later dismembered by Set. Sewed together and reanimated by Isis, he then went on to become ruler of the kingdom of the dead. He presided over the weighing of souls.

Sebek:

A crocodile-headed divinity, who shared Set’s evil reputation. His principal sanctuary had a lake with a real crocodile, Petesuchos.

Sekhmet:

The lioness-headed goddess of war. Bloodthirsty and merciless.

Set:

Red-haired and pale-skinned, rough and rude, with the head of the typhonean beast (a curved snout with square-cut ears). Set is the eternal adversary, the destroyer, the desert.

Sphinx:

Egyptian. A lion-bodied, human-headed creature. Some authorities think they may have had their origins as protective desert genii. The sphinxes from Egypt, Asia Minor and Greece share common origins.

Tauret:

Hippopotamus goddess. Childbirth and protection.

Thoth:

Ibis-headed Thoth (also sometimes represented as the dog-headed ape). The herald and scribe of the gods, the keeper of records, and the first magician. A pedant of note.

THE END