Our relationship as Iranians with our cultural and civilisational past — Part Four
(A reading of the myth of Osiris and Horus in ancient Egypt)

6) In this story, the great magic by which a civilisation can overcome inevitable decay and disintegration—the final victory of Horus over Set—is the birth of a young and powerful child, Horus, from the aged and lifeless body of a nation’s culture and civilisation, Osiris. Horus is depicted as the opposite of Osiris. He has the head of a falcon, itself a symbol of precision, sharp vision and attention, because a people that cannot recover attention and awareness will not be able to see Set and the forces of corruption, decay and destruction within its society, just as Osiris failed to see them and was destroyed. In this story, Horus’s right eye is the light of the sun and the capacity to see truth and goodness in the world; his left eye is the light of the moon and the capacity to see evil concealed in darkness.

7) Horus’s greatest weapon, as a symbol of civilisation reborn from its past, is his sharp sight, precision and awareness. In contrast with his aged father, Horus embodies wakefulness. He sees and locates corruption and decay and goes to battle with them using this awareness as his weapon. The next meaningful image in the myth is Horus losing his left eye in the struggle with evil. No matter how alert we may be and how powerful our rebirth, the struggle with destructive forces is never simple. Although the story promises eventual victory, it also reminds us of the price. Every people that has chosen to survive and prevail must be prepared to pay a heavy price in the greatest struggles of its history. The image suggests that one sacrifice in the struggle with darkness is the loss of the very eye that helps us see darkness. We recognise the forces of decay through the left eye, the eye that sees in darkness and embodies moonlight. Yet what finally allows Horus to prevail is the eye that remains: the right eye, symbol of sunlight and the capacity to see truth and goodness. Once Horus has found Set in the darkness, he no longer requires the left eye to know where the enemy is. The wound Set inflicts becomes, in that sense, futile; once Horus has drawn Set out of darkness, he can overcome him even with his eyes closed.

8) At the end, Horus regains his eye through the power of wisdom and is able to rule the world. Yet he chooses to descend underground and give his left eye to his blind father Osiris, restoring him to life and inviting him to return to the surface so that they may rule together. What might this unexpected turn mean? Why should Horus surrender his own eye, restore the blind old man to life, and share rule with him?

We can read the story in this way: the young generation—modern civilisation/Horus—which is itself the child of the lifeless civilisation and culture of the past, Osiris, uses awareness as its greatest weapon. After overcoming the forces of decay, corruption and disintegration surrounding its society and world, it finally returns to its history, culture and roots—its father, Osiris. In that return, the young generation gives its modern awareness and vision, capable of seeing defects and the paths through which corruption enters, to the old and blind culture of the past. The “left eye of Horus” becomes the modern sight given to Osiris, making rebirth possible.

The old and blind culture—Osiris, father and root of the young civilisation—returns to life, but now with new and modern vision. This cultural resurrection is not the simple revival of the old, exhausted and blind corpse of the past. What makes resurrection possible is giving the ancient culture a contemporary way of seeing. And strikingly, the eye modern civilisation gives to ancient culture is Horus’s left eye: the eye capable of seeing corruption in the present world without being defeated by it. With the new vision received from its young and powerful child, culture is no longer blind to the corruption and darkness that seek to destroy it.

Aydin Areta