"So the name of the great god was taken from him, and Isis, the great enchantress, said: 'Depart, O poison, leave Ra: let the eye of Horus go forth from the god and shine out of his mouth. I, I have done it; I throw on the earth the victorious poison, for the name of the great god is extracted from him. Let Ra live and the poison die!' So spake Isis, the great one, the regent of the gods, who knows Ra and his true name."
The writer of the papyrus adds that the recital of this legend is an excellent charm against the poison of a snake, especially if it is written and dissolved in water, which is then drunk by the patient; or if it is inscribed on a piece of linen, and hung around his neck.(176)
The contrast is striking between the introduction to the legend and the euhemeristic spirit that elsewhere prevails in it, and can be explained, even in the case of such disregarders of consistency as the Egyptians, only on the supposition that the Ra of folk-lore and the Ra of theology were held to be the same merely in name. Not even a pretence is made of regarding Isis as a goddess; she is simply a common witch, who resorts to magic in order to force Ra to hand over his name and therewith his powers to her son Horus. The virtue of the name, and the power conferred by a knowledge of it, are features common to the folk-lore of most countries. They take us back to that primitive phase of thought which not only identifies the name with the person or thing it represents, but makes it a separate entity with an existence of its own.
The legend of the sun-god of Edfu is equally instructive, though in its present form it is not earlier than the Ptolemaic age. This begins as follows: "In the three hundred and sixty-third year of the reign of Ra-Harmakhis, the ever-living, Ra was in Nubia with his soldiers. Enemies, however, conspired (_uu_) against him; hence the country has ever since borne the name of the land of Conspirators (_Uaua_). Then the god Ra went his way in his bark along with his followers, and landed in the nome of Edfu. Here the god Hor-Behudet (the winged disc) entered the bark of Ra and said to his father: 'O Harmakhis, I see how the enemy have conspired against their lord.' Then said the Majesty of Ra-Harmakhis to the person of Hor-Behudet: 'O son of Ra, exalted one, who hast emanated from me, smite the enemy before thee forthwith.' Hor-Behudet flew up to the sun in the form of a great winged disc; on that account he is ever since called the great god, the lord of heaven. He espied the enemy from the sky, he followed them in the form of a great winged disc. Through the attack which he made upon them in front, their eyes saw no longer, their ears heard no longer, each slew his neighbour forthwith, there remained not one alive. Then Hor-Behudet came in a many-coloured form as a great winged disc into the bark of Ra-Harmakhis. And Thoth said to Ra: 'Lord of the gods, the god of Behudet (Edfu) has come in the form of a great winged disc: from this day forth he shall be called Hor-Behudet (Horus of Edfu).' And he said (again): 'From this day forth the city of Edfu shall be called the city of Hor-Behudet.' Then Ra embraced the form of Hor, and said to Hor-Behudet: 'Thou makest the water of Edfu (red with blood like) grapes, and thy heart is rejoiced thereat.' Hence this water of Edfu is called (the water of grapes).