Isis and the Seven Scorpions

The Flight

After the murder of Osiris, Isis fled into the marshes of the Delta with her infant son Horus, seeking to hide the child from Set, who would surely kill the boy if he found him. Thoth, the god of wisdom, came to her and warned her of the danger. He assigned seven scorpions as her bodyguard: Tefen, Befen, Mestet, Mestetef, Petet, Thetet, and Matet. Three walked before her, two flanked her, and two guarded the rear. Thoth charged the scorpions with a solemn command: keep their tails low, their stingers sheathed, and speak to no one, for the journey required absolute secrecy. They were to protect the goddess and her child, not to draw attention.

The Refusal

As evening fell, Isis and her escort arrived at the town of the Two Sisters in the Delta. She was exhausted, dusty from the road, her divine splendor hidden beneath the rags of a common woman. She knocked at the door of a wealthy noblewoman and asked for shelter for the night. The woman took one look at the ragged figure flanked by scorpions and slammed the door in her face. She barred the bolts and shuttered the windows. Isis stood in the street with her child, refused by the very mortals she had labored to protect. A poor marsh girl, seeing the goddess's distress, opened her own humble door and welcomed Isis inside without question or hesitation.

The Sting

The seven scorpions were furious. They pooled their venom, concentrating all seven doses into the tail of Tefen, the largest among them. While Isis rested in the marsh girl's house, Tefen crept beneath the door of the noblewoman's mansion and stung her young son. The child collapsed, burning with a fever that no physician could break. The noblewoman ran through the streets screaming, carrying her dying boy, but no one came to help her. She who had closed her door now found every door closed against her. The town that had watched her refuse a stranger now watched her suffer the consequences.

"The heart of the humble is worth more than the mansion of the proud. The door that opens to a stranger opens to the gods."

Isis's Healing

But Isis, hearing the woman's cries, could not bear the suffering of an innocent child, regardless of the mother's cruelty. She emerged from the marsh girl's house and laid her hands upon the boy, speaking words of power that named each of the seven scorpions and commanded their venom to withdraw. She recited the spells that bound poison to her will, for she was the great enchantress, the goddess whose magic surpassed that of all other gods. The venom retreated, the fever broke, and the child breathed freely. The noblewoman, overcome with shame, gave all her wealth to the marsh girl who had shown the kindness she herself had refused. From that day forward, the spells of Isis against scorpion venom were inscribed on cippi and stelae throughout Egypt, and anyone stung by a scorpion could recite them and be healed.