The infant Horus is often pictured on stelae in the act of trampling two crocodiles and holding dangerous animals in his hands. The water poured on these objects, by flowing across their surface covered with magic spells, gained the power of healing whoever drank it from the stings of scorpions and the bites of snakes. These stelae owed their power to a myth according to which Isis used her magic arts to heal her young son Horus, who had been bitten by poisonous animals. These had been sent by his uncle Seth after killing Horus’s father, Osiris. Raised secretly in the marshes, the child was waiting to come of age to fight Seth, avenge his father, regain the throne of Egypt, and reestablish maat (order).
