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121 NUDIMMUD, meant "The Artful Creator") and Ra as _ his Firstborn son Marduk. Ra was followed on the divine throne of Egypt by four brother-sister couples: first his own children Shu ("Dryness") and Tefnut ("Moisture"), and then by their children Geb ("Who Piles Up the Earth") and Nut ("The Stretched-out Firmament of the Sky"). Geb and Nut then had four children: Asar ("The All-Seeing") whom the Greeks called Osiris, who married his sister Ast, whom we know as Isis; and Seth ("The Southerner") who married his sister Nebt-hat, alias Nephtys. To keep the peace, Egypt was divided between Osiris (who was given Lower Egypt in the north) and Seth (who was assigned Upper Egypt in the south). But Seth deemed himself entitled to all of Egypt, and never accepted the division. Using subterfuge, he managed to seize Osiris, cut up his body into fourteen pieces, and dispersed the pieces all over Egypt. But Isis managed to retrieve the pieces (all except for the phallus) and put together the mutilated body, thereby resurrecting the dead Osiris to life in the Other World. Of him the sacred writings said: He entered the secret gates, the glory of the Lord of Eternity, in step with him who shines in the horizon, on the path of Ra. s b Figures 34a and 34b The Gates of Heaven