Page 261 - Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock

Graham Hancock – FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS

visualize the great changes precession of the equinoxes periodically
effects in all the coordinates of the sphere. Finally, after allowing the dog
Sirius to open the way for us, we were given the figures to calculate
precession more or less exactly.
Nor is Sirius, in his eternal station at Orion’s heel, the only doggish
character around Osiris. We saw in Chapter Eleven how Isis (who was both
the wife and sister of Osiris ) searched for her dead husband’s body after
32
he had been murdered by Set (who, incidentally, was also her brother,
and the brother of Osiris). In this search, according to ancient tradition,
she was assisted by dogs (jackals in some versions). Likewise,
33
mythological and religious texts from all periods of Egyptian history
assert that the jackal-god Anubis ministered to the spirit of Osiris after
his death and acted as his guide through the underworld. (Surviving
34
vignettes depict Anubis as virtually identical in appearance to Upuaut, the
Opener of the Ways.)
Last but not least, Osiris himself was believed to have taken the form of
a wolf when he returned from the underworld to assist his son Horus in
the final battle against Set.
35
Investigating this kind of material, one sometimes has the spooky sense
of being manipulated by an ancient intelligence which has found a way to
reach out to us across vast epochs of time, and for some reason has set
us a puzzle to solve in the language of myth.
If it were just dogs that kept cropping up again and again, it would be
easy to brush off such weird intuitions. The dog phenomenon seems
more likely to be coincidence than anything else. But it isn’t just dogs.
The ways between the two very different myths of Osiris and Amlodhi’s
Mill (which nonetheless both seem to contain accurate scientific data
about precession of the equinoxes) are kept open by another strange
common factor. Family relationships are involved.
Amlodhi/Amleth/Hamlet is always a son who revenges the murder of his
father by entrapping and killing the murderer. The murderer,
furthermore, is always the father’s own brother, i.e., Hamlet’s uncle.
36
This is precisely the scenario of the Osiris myth. Osiris and Seth are
brothers. Seth murders Osiris. Horus, the son of Osiris, then takes
37
revenge upon his uncle.
38
Another twist is that the Hamlet character often has some sort of
incestuous relationship with his sister. In the case of Kullervo, the
39

32 For details of these complicated family relationships, see Egyptian Book of the Dead,
Introduction, p. XLVIIIff.
33 The Gods of the Egyptians, volume II, p. 366.
34 The Traveller’s Key to Ancient Egypt, p. 71.
35 Gods of the Egyptians, II, p. 367.
36 Hamlet’s Mill, p. 2.
Egyptian Book of the Dead, Introduction, p. XLIX-LI.
37
38 Ibid.
39 Hamlet’s Mill, pp. 32-4.

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