Egyptian mythology · 3 chapters

Horus and the Scorpions

The infant god is stung, the sun stops, and Thoth descends to heal him

Isis is hiding in the papyrus swamps of Chemmis, nursing the infant Horus in secret, trying to protect him from Set. One day she must leave to find food. When she returns, Horus is dying, stung by a scorpion. Isis wails so loudly that Ra stops the solar barque in the sky. Thoth descends and, using the power of sacred words, heals Horus with a great recitation of spells. The story then gives voice to Isis's grief, her anger, her exhaustion as a refugee mother. It became the liturgical basis for healing scorpion-sting victims in Egyptian medicine, as priests would recite the same words Thoth used to heal the god.