In the Egyptian myth of resurrection of the god Osiris, his body after having been cut into pieces by the usurper Seth was reconstituted by his mother-wife Isis with the help of the Jackal headed god Anubis who embalmed the body. Osiris' afterlife in the embalmed state was in the underworld of the dead where he presided as judge over the dead. Isis, however, bore him a posthumous son Horus, by magical impregnation. She hid the boy from the usurper Seth who took over the throne of Egypt at Osiris' death. Isis hid her son Horus in the marches of the Delta with the help of the cow-goddess Hathor as wet nurse. When Horus grew up, he reclaimed his father's throne from Seth after a violent contest in which Seth plucked out one of Horus' eyes and Horus Seth's genitals.
The myth of the struggle between Horus and Seth is the Egyptian version of a common Afro-Asiatic apocalyptic theme of cosmic struggle between an infant-messiah(as "avenger of blood") and an evil cosmic serpent often pictured as dwelling in the deep. We find this apocalyptic messianic theme in the liturgical hymns of the Davidic cult of YHWH in Psalm 74: 12-14: "God is from old working salvation in the midst of the earth. Thou didst divide the sea by thy might. Thou didst break the head of the dragon in the water. Thou didst crush the head of Leviathan, thou didst give him as food for the creatures of the wilderness..."
We find a similar reference to the Devil-Dragon-Serpent of the apocalyptic battle also in Isaiah 27: 1: "In that day YHWH with his hard and great and strong sword shall punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea."
Isaiah associates his vision of God's apocalyptic endtime(mythical time) victory over the Dragon-Serpent of the deep with the vision of a new age: "..in that day Jacob shall take root, Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots and fill the whole world with fruit."
YHWH's victory over Leviathan is associated with reign of a messianic "son of David," a "Shoot from the stump of Jesse," who will shall, as YHWH's agent in the execution of judgment, "...smite the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips slay the wicked."
The figure of the apocalyptic endtime(mythical time) messiah as "Son of David" is equivalent to that of the Egyptian Horus as "Avenger of his Father." In the Egyptian legend the infant Horus is represented with a finger on his lower lip, a symbolic representation of his identity as a messianic child-deity sucking at a finger like an infant. The ancient Greeks named the common Afro-Asiatic messianic child-deity Harpokrates. Dragon slaying deities were almost universal in the ancient Near East: The Hittite Sutekh was a dragon slayer. The Greek Heracles fought and killed the monster Hydra. The Norse Thor(son of Odin) at Ragnarok killed the Midgrad serpent. Serpent slayer heroes were pictured in myths as finger or thumb sucking infants. Sigurd, Siegfried and the Celtic Finn mac Coul all sucked at a finger or thumb after slaying the Dragon-Serpent. In the Ancient Egyptian story of the cosmic struggle between Horus and Seth, Seth(as Apep) is represented as a "roaring serpent" and Seth was said to have been confined, after defeat by the sun god Ra, in a cave or hole. In Hittite mythology, we have the monster Typhoon, a half-human, half reptile dragon who dwelt in the subterranean caves and warred against the gods. He was a fire breathing dragon with lightening and flames flashing from his eyes and tempests issuing with his breath. Typhoon was slain in the Hittite myth by Tarku(a form of Sutekh who is a "good" god in Hittite mythology). Tarku is depicted by the Hittites as armed with a hammer(like Thor of the midgrad legend) and with three wriggling flashes of lightening. He is also sometimes shown with a mace and trident or a double axe(like the Yoruba Sango).
Historians detect a fusion of the Horus-as-Seth-slayer identity with the dragon slaying deities of Asia Minor who, in Greek tradition, becomes Harpokrates the child-god sucking at a finger or thumb. The Asiatic deities are associated in mythology with the Norse Thor who slew the Midgard Serpent at the battle of the "Dusk of the Gods"(i.e apocalyptic end or mythical time). Seth is identified with the Apep serpent who lived in the depth of the celestial Nile and was the mythical enemy of Ra in the mythical apocalyptic battle.
Behind the image of the child-messiah sucking stupidly at a finger after slaying the Leviathan dragon is the motif of his acquisition of secret knowledge. He is said to have acquired mastery of the languages of animals(birds, fish and four-footed beasts) after slaying the dragon. In the European story of the mythical hero Siegfried, he roasted the heart of the dragon and after eating it acquired the language of the birds. Sigurd, after slaying fafner thrust his thumb in his mouth.
In Egyptian folktale popular in the nineteenth dynasty, Ahura, after slaying the dragon received the a book of arcane secrets containing spells and enchantments. He learned the language of birds, fishes and animals and could, by spells, enchant the heavens, the earth, mountains and seas. The thumb sucking juvenile imbecility of the child-messiah-hero is therefore only seeming and he maintains a juvenile silence for the good reasons: to conceal his knowledge. The Greeks, therefore, referred to the figure of Horus as Harpokrates "god of eternal silence."
In the Christian tradition Jesus is the child-Messiah hero(the image of the nativity dominates his Horus-Harpokrates identity). The apocalyptic Book of Revelations is replete with references to the Devil as Dragon-serpent and to Jesus as the the Dragon-Serpent Slayer(Revelations 12:9).
The writer JohnThomas Didymus is the author of "Confessions of God: The Gospel According to St. JohnThomas Didymus."( http://www.resurrectionconspiracy.com/ ). If you have found this article interesting please read the related article: OSIRIAN MYSTERIES, DAVIDIC CULT OF YHWH AND THE LITURGICAL BOOK OF PSALMS on his blog: http://johnthomasdidymus.blogspot.com/2010/10/osirian-mysteries-davidic-cult-of-yhwh.html
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