This
tree with its sacred deposit was shortly after felled, and erected
as a column in the palace of the king of Phoenicia. But at length
by the aid of Anubis and the sacred birds, Isis ascertained these
facts, and then went to the royal city. There she offered herself
at the palace as a servant, and being admitted, threw off her
disguise and appeared as a goddess, surrounded with thunder and
lightning. Striking the column with her wand she caused it to
split open and give up the sacred coffin. This she seized and
returned with it, and concealed it in the depth of a forest, but
Typhon discovered it, and cutting the body into fourteen pieces
scattered them hither and thither. After a tedious search, Isis
found thirteen pieces, the fishes of the Nile having eaten the
other. This she replaced by an imitation of sycamore wood, and
buried the body at Philae, which became ever after the great
burying place of the nation, and the spot to which pilgrimages
were made from all parts of the country. A temple of surpassing
magnificence was also erected there in honor of the god, and at
every place where one of his limbs had been found minor temples
and tombs were built to commemorate the event. Osiris became after
that the tutelar deity of the Egyptians. His soul was supposed
always to inhabit the body of the bull Apis, and at his death to
transfer itself to his successor.
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