Isis and the Seven Scorpions Whenever Isis left
Horus in the evening while they were in hiding in the papyrus swamps near
Buto, she was accompanied by seven scorpians. Three of the scorpians
preceded her, Petet, Tjetet, and Matet and made sure that the path ahead
was safe. At her side were the scorpians, Mesetet and Mesetetef. Bringing
up the rear were Tefen and Befen.
Every night, Isis warned her companions to be extremely cautious as to
avoid alerting Seth as to where she was. She would remind them not to
speak to anyone they met along the way.
One night, Isis was traveling to the Town of the Two Sisters in the
Nile Delta. A wealthy noblewoman saw the strange party arrive and quickly
shut the door to her house. The scorpions were enraged at her rude
behavior and decide to teach the woman a lesson. In preparation, six of
the scorpions gave their individual poisons to Tefen who loaded his
stinger with it. Meanwhile, a humble peasant girl had offered her simple
home as a refuge to Isis.
The scorpions anger was not ameliorated by the young girl's kindness
toward their mistress, and Tefen snuck out of the house. He crawled under
the door of the noblewoman's house and stung her son. Distraught, the
woman wandered through the town seeking help for her child who was on the
verge of death.
Isis heard the woman's cries for help. Although the woman was unkind to
her, Isis could not bear the thought of the death of an innocent child and
left with the woman to help her son. Isis held the boy in her arms and
spoke words of great magic. She named each of the scorpions and thereby
dominated them; rendering their combined poison to be harmless in the
child.
The noblewoman was humbled by Isis' unconditional kindness and offered
all of her worldly wealth to Isis and the peasant girl who had shown
hospitality to a stranger.
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