[MUSIC] Within this mythology is the story of the god, Osiris. Perhaps at one time he was a legitimate ruler or simply a legendary one. But in any case the issue of royal succession is the focus and the level is on that of the divine, therefore, this legendary historical king or god is tricked by his brother Set. He then dismembers him. In the story the Egyptians are very clear about the word they use to describe this action, they avoid the words to kill or die, and employ euphemisms for this evil action in the earlier versions, but eventually later ones do use the term. Undoubtedly, some decorum existed, perhaps one prohibiting descriptions of the deities as anything but immortal. In any case, the story continues with two of Osiris' sisters, Isis, who was also the wife of Osiris, and Nephthys. They take on the responsibility of finding all of the parts of the former king, their brother. They assemble them and revivify him so that he can impregnate Isis and bear the legitimate next king, Horus, his son. The idea of mummification is incorporated in this story, and you can see from the imagery in the temple chapels that Isis sews Osiris's body parts together and then the two sisters wrap the limbs with linen. Each king who takes over the throne is Horus, and when he dies he is Osiris, and the cycle continues. The transference from royalty to the private sector can be seen through the references to private people as Osiris. A usage that had been, through most of the old kingdom at least, a royal privilege. After that time, the private sector takes it over as well. Hermopolis is a site in middle Egypt, and it is the center of another version of creation. In this one, the god Thoth who was linked to wisdom, writing and the moon, led an Ogdoad, a group of eight deities divided into four sets of couples. This account focuses on making order out of a chaotic universe at the point when creation began. Amun and his female counterpart, Amunet, are one of the pair. They refer to hiddenness and represent the source of the other gods in the early texts. They are paired with primeval waters called Nun and Naunet and also Kuk and Kauket that represent the darkness. And then Heh and Hehet, endlessness. These deities in turn generate others. Already in the Coffin Text of the Middle Kingdom, there are passages that relate the deities of this cosmogony with creation stories of Heliopolis that we've already talked about. Another important religious site is Memphis in the north. And it retains an important part and role throughout most of Egyptian history. It's story of creation derives from an inscription that was recorded on a stone in the 8th century BCE under the reign of the Nubian King Shabaka. It purports to be a copy of a much earlier original on papyrus. Recent scholarship, however, disputes the account that appears in the text and dates the document rather to the late period. If this idea is correct, then The Heliopolitan Cosmogony is in fact not the earliest but the latest of the creation myths. In this one, Ptah, a deity associated with the city of Memphis from early times, is the primary focus. He is a god who is capable of creating with his heart and tongue, and this ability refers to the concepts of intellectual activity. Ptah is also associated with artistic creativity, but this concept was not deified like that of Hu and Sia. It may have been incorporated into the idea of creativity, since Ptah is also the patron god of craftsmen. In fact, the title of this god's high priest is chief controller of craftsmen. In this myth, Ptah also creates Atum and through this action the Memphite theology becomes linked to that from Heliopolis. Many of the deities involved in these ideologies were of national repute during historic times but their associations with a particular area may reflect their role as local deities at an earlier period.