“Why a horse?” Osiris asked.

Horus stood before his father with the answer still fresh in his mouth. Osiris had come from the world of the dead to train him. Day after day, the son had prepared himself for the struggle with Seth, the uncle who had murdered his father and scattered his body.

Now Osiris was questioning him.

He had asked what deed Horus considered noblest. Horus had answered that it was to avenge the wrong done to one’s father and mother. Then came the question of which animal would help most in battle.

“A horse,” Horus repeated.

“Why not a lion?”

Horus looked towards the open ground where he had been practising. A lion could strike down a man who came against him. He pictured the enemy turning, the widening distance after a battle seemed to be won.

“A lion would help if I were hard pressed,” he said. “But a horse could carry me after a fleeing enemy.”

Osiris watched him.

“I would have to finish it,” Horus said.

His father was pleased. The training had made him ready.

The Chains

Men began leaving Seth to join Horus.

They came singly and in groups, bringing the strength they had once lent his uncle. Horus received them. When at last they went to battle, the fighting lasted many days.

He learned how long a day could be when every gain had to be held. Dust dried upon his lips. A man who had stood beside him in the morning was carried away before evening, and another took his place. Still Horus pressed forward.

At last Seth was overcome.

They brought him in chains to Isis.

Horus followed close behind. He had thought of his mother through the fighting: how she had crossed the sea to find Osiris, how she had searched again when Seth tore the body apart. Now Seth stood before her and could go nowhere unless she allowed it.

His wrists were bound. The chain hung between them.

Isis looked at him.

Horus waited for her judgment.

“Release him,” she said.

The men holding Seth looked towards Horus. He stepped nearer.

“Mother.”

Isis did not withdraw the order.

The first fastening came loose.

“He killed your husband.”

Her eyes met his. Behind him the men had gone still, but the chain was moving, link after link slipping free.

Horus caught his mother’s diadem and tore it from her head.

For an instant his fist remained raised, holding the royal ornament above the place it had adorned. Isis stood bareheaded. Seth’s hands were free.

Horus looked at the diadem in his own hand.

He had brought his mother a prisoner. Now his uncle could walk away, and she was facing her son as though he too were someone against whom she must stand firm.

Thoth came to Isis. He placed upon her a helmet shaped like a cow’s head, covering the place from which Horus had torn her crown.

Horus lowered his arm.

Seth left them.

The Name Before the Gods

The next time his uncle challenged him, there were no chains.

Seth stood before the gods and denied that Horus was the legitimate son of Osiris.

Horus heard his father’s name spoken as though it might be taken away from him. He had trained under that father’s eyes. He had won the battle Osiris had prepared him to fight. Yet here was Seth, asking the assembly to deny the bond upon which his inheritance rested.

Horus moved to answer.

Thoth stood beside him.

“Let the claim be heard,” he said.

“He has made it.”

“And it must be answered here.”

Horus stayed where he was.

Seth repeated his charge. Thoth spoke for Horus, setting his parentage before the gods. His words carried through the place of judgment without the force of a shout. Horus listened while another defended what he had thought he must win with his own hands.

“Isis is his mother,” Thoth said. “Osiris is his father. Judge him as their son.”

There was nothing for Horus to strike. He could see his uncle. He could cross the space between them in a few steps. Instead he stood while the gods considered the plea.

His hands opened at his sides.

At last the decision came: Horus was legitimate.

He turned towards Thoth, but the god was still facing the assembly, receiving its judgment. Horus looked back at Seth.

His uncle had failed to separate his name from his father’s.

Yet Seth did not submit. Twice more he fought Horus, and twice more Horus overcame him. The judgment was tested in the field; it held through both victories.

After the last battle, Horus stood among those who had fought beside him. He heard his own name called from farther down the line. Another voice took it up, then another.

He lifted his head.

This time he held no chain and no torn crown. The men were coming towards him, and he went to meet them as the acknowledged son of Osiris.