In this last category of myths we explore some of the crucial events in human life that are accompanied by rites of passage from one state of being to another. Our focus will be on the death and resurrection of Osiris.
The soul of Osiris had to wait in the underworld until his son Horus was old enough to become king and could successfully wrench the power from evil Seth’s hands. After years of struggle, Ra finally judged that Horus was to be made king of Egypt; Osiris was to rule the land of the dead and Seth was to live in the sky with him and be the god of storms. It is at this juncture that our last myth, “The King of the Dead,” begins. I will use a recounting of this part of the Osiris story adapted by Geraldine Harris in her above-mentioned book. I plan to read it aloud to the class.
This myth begins with Horus being crowned king of Egypt. He then follows Seth, forced to carry Osiris’s body, to the holy city of Abydos. Horus ensures that his father is given a proper burial. While Anubis holds the coffin upright, Horus opens the lid and touches the mummy of Osiris on the nose, mouth, eyes and ears. The magic words he speaks let the spirit of Osiris breathe, speak, see and hear once again. Then the mummy is put into its tomb and Osiris is given a new life in the underworld. Horus sets up a column (djed column) to symbolize Osiris’s resurrection and effectively rules the land of the living while his father reigns in the land of the dead.
The symbols to be included in the presentation of this myth are the eye of Horus (udjat), the jackal (symbol of Anubis), the cane (symbol of eternity), the encircled star (symbol of the underworld), raised arms (symbol of the soul) and the djed column (symbol of Osiris’s backbone and of resurrection).
To extend this myth and learn more about the dangerous journey the ancient Egyptians believed all souls made into the Hall of Double Truth, I plan to use the wonderful book by Deborah Nourse Lattimore, The Winged Cat. In this story, Merit and the evil high priest, Waha, are sent by the pharaoh to the underworld to be judged by the gods. We travel with Merit and Waha through the twelve gates and into the Hall of Judgment where Thoth weighs their hearts against the feather of Truth (Maat). Waha, who has lied, fails the test and is eaten by the monster, Ammit, while Merit passes the test and is taken by Horus’s gold boat back to the land of the living.
The symbols very prominent to this story are the jackal, the ibis, the feather of truth and the encircled star.
Because the story-line of this book is a bit complex for young readers, it may benefit them to begin with a review of the story events. This can be done through a spontaneous retelling where students, sitting in a circle, one by one retell a portion of the story in their own words before passing it on. As Bob Barton and David Booth in Stories in the Classroom tell us, “retelling a story in one’s own words is one of the most effective ways to achieve a reflective response” (p. 12).
A variation of this activity would involve having the students create a new myth that is ‘made up as they go’ with each student adding a new part until the story ends with the last contributor. The teacher’s role in the activity is to record the ‘communal composition’ as it is told. Lesson Plan Two in this unit offers another approach to creating a group story using the story line of an already familiar myth.
A second writing activity that would encourage creative expression would be to invite students to write a letter to one of the story characters in The Winged Cat where they ask questions, offer advice, share similar experiences or give opinions. These letters could later be exchanged by classmates, read, and responded to by them as if they were that story character.
At this point, after being immersed in the lives and symbolism of many ancient Egyptian gods and goddesses, my students will be ready to create, write and illustrate myths of their own using the deities they have learned about or creating some of their own. A simple story-map with three categories: characters, problem, solution, will serve to help them to organize a story-line. Following individual conferences, a more detailed story-map, listing events leading up to and including the solving of the problem and a conclusion, will be used. Students will proceed to write the first drafts of their stories using their story maps as a guide. They will then read this draft to a classmate, at which point they may add or delete parts of their story. A second conference with the teacher will serve the purpose of helping to refine their story. As ‘sloppy copy’ (first draft) is made into a ‘neat sheet’ (second draft), students then begin the process of making their books, copying text on pages and illustrating each page. They will be encouraged to spend time on these illustrations, perhaps incorporating some of the symbols they learned in their drawings. When their book is finished, each student will have the opportunity to sit in the ‘Author’s Chair’ and proudly read it to the class.
This curriculum unit would not be complete without the introduction of hieroglyphics, especially as an appreciation of picture-writing has already been cultivated through the presentation of symbols with each myth. Lorraine Conway in Ancient Egypt: Treasures, Tombs and Tutankhamen, introduces hieroglyphs very simply. She describes three stages that the early Egyptian writing system underwent. In the first stage, a simple drawing called an ideogram stood for the object. In the second stage, the writing became syllabic and pictures began to represent words or syllables that sounded like the picture but whose meanings might be completely different. In the last stage, the symbols came to represent different sounds of the Egyptian language similar to our alphabet. The Egyptian alphabet consisted of 25 sounds. There were no vowels used, only consonants and so ideograms were often added after the word to provide further clarity.
I plan to use the chart on page 29 of this book, which assigns a hieroglyphic to each of the 25 sounds. Using this chart, students will be asked to write their name in hieroglyphics (perhaps later even carving it in playdough). Lesson Plan Three shows in detail how this lesson could be structured. Further experimentation will ensue as they are encouraged to write brief messages to each other to decode.
It is through this highly appealing medium, mythology, that my African-American students can be encouraged to read and to write and, at the same time, learn about a very interesting and highly refined ancient African culture.