Story: Iset and the Secret Name of Ra. Once upon a time, Ra ruled the earth directly. But the great goddess Iset/Isis desired to know his private name, the one hidden from all outsiders. A name that, if known, would grant the knower magical power over the sun god. To gain the knowledge she desired, Iset concocted a daring plan…
The Story of Iset and the Secret Name of Ra
Borghouts, J. F. (1978). Ancient Egyptian Magical Texts, pp. 51—55.
Hieroglyph version: Museo Egizio Turin. Papyrus Turin 1993. https://collezionepapiri.museoegizio.it/en-GB/document/185/ (recto).
Ritner, R. K. (2003). The Legend of Isis and the Name of Re (P. Turin 1993). In W. W. Hallo & K. L. Younger (Eds.), The Context of Scripture (pp. 33–34).
Rowe, A. (1996). The Secret Name of Ra.
University College London. Isis and the Name of Ra. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-static/digitalegypt//literature/isisandra.html
Translation of the text below.
The Tale of Isis (Iset) and the Secret Name of Ra
“Words spoken by Serqet/Selket (the scorpion).
Formula of the supreme god, who came into being of himself, the maker of the sky and earth, of water, the breath of life, gods and humans; (the maker of) flocks and herds, serpents, birds, and fish.
The kingship of humans and gods was a single thing, for a duration of years. Of numerous names, this name, and that name unknown.
Now, Iset/Isis was a wise woman, more rebellious in her heart than a million men, more selected than millions of gods, shrewder than millions of Effective Spirits. She was ignorant of nothing, in sky and earth, just like Ra the maker of what is within the earth.
The goddess plotted in her heart to know the name of the noble god.
Now, Ra went every day before the crew (m HAt ist), being established on the Double Throne of the Dual Horizon.
But… the divine old man bowed down his mouth, and his saliva dribbled to earth. His spit had been dropped upon the ground. Iset scooped it up within her hand, along with the earth that was touching it. (She) formed it into a noble snake, making it with a tail shape… alive in front of her. She left (the snake) at the junction of a road, which was crossed by the great god, as he went at his heart’s desire upon his Two Lands.
The noble god arose outside… and he wandered, as (he did) every day.
The snake bit him, living fire that had come from he himself, and it raged through him…
The great opened his mouth, the cry of His Person being ankh, wedja seneb (life, prosperity, health)!. It reached the sky.
(The god’s) Ennead/Council said “What is it? What is it?!”
(Ra) could not find his mouth to answer about it; his lips shaking, all his limbs trembling, the poison had taken hold of him completely, like the Nile Flood sweeping all before it.
The great god summoned up his courage and called to those in his following. (He said) ‘Come to me, you who exist from my body, gods who came forth from me, let me tell you its form. Pain has struck, my heart knows it, but my eyes cannot see it, nor my hands make it; nor do I recognise it from all I have made. I have not tasted illness like it; nothing could hurt more than this! I am the eldest son of the eldest, the divine seed who came into being out of a god; I am the great one, son of the great one. The father devised the name. I have many names, many forms, he whose form is in every god; the one who is called Atum-Horus-Hekenu. My father and my mother told me my name, and I hid it from my children, in my body, to prevent it happening that a male or female magician strike against me. I went outside to see that which I had made (the world), and wander in the Two Lands that I created, when something I do not recognise struck (me). Have the children of the gods brought to me, effective in words, expert in their speaking, whose wisdom reaches the sky.’
The children of the great god came then, each of them under his confusion (that is, ignorant of how to help).
Iset came with her powers, her speech as the breath of life, her utterances able to repel pain, her words that bring to life anyone with choked throat. She said, ‘What, divine father, what, what? Is this a snake that has bitten you, one of your children that raised his head against you? Then they can be felled with effective words of power, I can cause it to retreat from seeing your rays.’
The sacred god opened his mouth (saying) ‘It was when I was walking upon the road, going forth over the Two Lands and the hill countries, because my heart desired to see that which I created; and I was bitten by a snake, unseen. It is not fire, nor water, though I feel colder than water and hotter than fire. All my limbs are in sweat. I am shaking; my eye cannot hold steady; I cannot see. Rain pours down upon me, in the season of summer.”
Then Iset said to Ra, ‘Tell me your name, my divine father. A man lives when he is called by his name.
(Ra replied) ‘I am the maker of water, for the Great Ocean to take form; the maker of the Bull for the Cow, for their rutting/mating to take place; the maker of the secret sky of the horizon, the one who placed the souls of the gods within it. I am he who opens his eyes and there is light; who shuts his eyes and there is darkness; he at whose command the Nile Flood strikes, whose name the gods cannot know. I am the maker of hours, for day to exist. I am the separator of the year, the one who creates the seasons. I am the maker of the fire of life to enable the work of the house to take place. I am Khepri in the morning, Ra at noon, Atum who is in the dusk.’
The poison was not dislodged from its course; the great god was not soothed.
Then Iset said to Ra, ‘Your name is not among those you have told me. Tell it to me. The poison will leave a man when his name is pronounced.’
The poison bit in with its bite, more powerful than the burn of fire.
Then the Person of Ra said ‘Give me your ears, my daughter Iset, for the emergence of the name, from my innards to your innards; for the most divine among the gods hid it… in the sacred boat of millions. If it happens as the time of desire going out to you, tell it to the son, Horus, when you have bound him by a divine oath, the granting of the god his two eyes.’
The great god raised up in his name to Iset-Great-of-Magic.
(She said/Incantation goes) ‘Fail, scorpion, go out from the god. Burning of the mouth, I am the one who made you; I am the one who sent you. Fall to the ground, poison, for I have power; behold, the great god has raised up in his name. Ra lives, the poison has died. So-and-so born-of-so-and-so is alive, the poison has died. From when Ra said his own name to Iset the great mistress of the gods.
Concluding instructions for recitation: “Words spoken over an image of Atum-Horus-Hekenu; an image of Iset; an image of Horus; written on the hand of the bitten patient, to be licked off by the man, and drawn likewise on a strip of finest linen, placed at the neck of the bitten patient. The herbal remedy is the scorpion-herb, ground into beer or wine, to be drunk by the patient (that was) bitten by the scorpion. An item effective a million times.
Bibliography
The Story of Iset and the Secret Name of Ra
Borghouts, J. F. (1978). Ancient Egyptian Magical Texts, 51—55.
Hieroglyph version: Museo Egizio Turin. Papyrus Turin 1993. https://collezionepapiri.museoegizio.it/en-GB/document/185/ (recto).
Ritner, R. K. (2003). The Legend of Isis and the Name of Re (P. Turin 1993). In W. W. Hallo & K. L. Younger (Eds.), The Context of Scripture (pp. 33–34).
Rowe, A. (1996). The Secret Name of Ra.
University College London. Isis and the Name of Ra. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-static/digitalegypt//literature/isisandra.html
Ancient Egyptian Religion & Magical Medicine
Borghouts, J. F. (1978). Ancient Egyptian Magical Texts.
Museo Egizio Turin. Papyrus Turin 1993. https://collezionepapiri.museoegizio.it/en-GB/document/185/
Ritner, R. K. (2003). The Legend of Isis and the Name of Re (P. Turin 1993). In W. W. Hallo & K. L. Younger (Eds.), The Context of Scripture (pp. 33–34).
Siuda, T. L. (2024). The Complete Encyclopedia of Egyptian Deities.
Veiga, P. A. da S. (2009). Health and Medicine in Ancient Egypt: Magic and Science.
Wilkinson, R. H. (2003). The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt.
