Our Relationship as Iranians with Our Cultural Past and Historical Civilisation — Part Five / Final
(With a Look at the Myth of Osiris and Horus in Ancient Egypt)

Up to this point, the myth of Osiris and Horus can be reread and deciphered in the following way: love of culture and civilisation—“Isis”—can recover the scattered pieces of the lifeless body of a nation’s past civilisation and culture—“Osiris”—which has been killed and dismembered by the forces of decay—“Set”—and by its own old age and blindness. Once this culture has been rediscovered and reintegrated, that love can give birth from its essence to a young and conscious generation—“Horus”—which not only knows its roots, but through its consciousness and awareness can recognise, within the darkness and corruption governing its society, the forces that have historically brought decay and chaos, and can rise in victorious struggle against the demon of corruption to liberate its people and its world from the forces of darkness.

The decisive weapon of this young generation in that struggle is awareness and sight: knowledge of its past history joined to modern vision—the keen eyes of falcon-headed Horus—which will ultimately bring it victory. In the final, magnificent and meaningful step of this hero’s journey, this young generation travels into the heart of its own past, returns to the roots of its civilisation and culture, and rediscovers the “father/Osiris.” By giving its modern eyes to this ancient culture, it grants it a new and modern vision, bringing about the rebirth of this ancient culture—the “resurrection of Osiris.”

10) The myth of Osiris and the epic of Horus, which for thousands of years was regarded as the most important and sacred story of the people of ancient Egypt, conceals within itself the secret of the life and rebirth of every nation. For a period “more than twice as long as the entire history of Christianity” and “older than the entire history of Judaism,” this myth was preserved across generations among these people as one of their most sacred stories.

At the end of the story, Osiris restores the rule of the world to Horus and relinquishes it. He ascends to the heavens as both protector and judge of the souls of the dead. This final part of the story can be interpreted to mean that, after its ultimate resurrection, the final place of an ancient national culture is not earthly government or rule over the present world. Such earthly rule, as the first part of the Osiris story makes clear, ultimately produces nothing but the ageing and blindness of culture and leads to its inevitable decay. In its final resurrection, the ancient culture—“Osiris”—armed with a modern vision capable of seeing and recognising the demonic—“the left eye of Horus, given to Osiris”—liberates itself from earthly rule and raises itself to a higher position. Future generations can rely upon it, its power to protect, and its capacity to judge, and thereby become more resistant to defeat by darkness and decay. This resurrection and liberation of a civilisation capable of continually renewing its youth from the cycle of earthly power gives that culture the moral force of a reference point that can remain guide, protector, and judge for the past and future generations of a nation.

The story of Pinocchio and his final journey into the belly of the whale to save his father is another version of the archetype of the hero rescuing the father as the final step of the hero’s journey. I will leave that story for another occasion.

Aydin Areta