The story of the Egyptian creation - Osiris, Isis and Set.

Osiris and Isis were central to the ancient Egyptian’s religion. They believed the coming of these gods, thousands of years before the beginning of history, heralded the birth of Egypt.

The Egyptians called this, the beginning of time; when the gods shaped the river, and the land, and brought civilization and prosperity to the Nile valley.

But then, Osiris was killed by his brother Set, and the land was plunged into terror and violence.

Isis gathered her husband’s dismembered body and bound it in linen. Then, she changed into a bird, transporting the resurrected Osiris into a new life among the stars.

Together, they ruled over the night skies for eternity: Isis and Osiris, the god of resurrection.

THE COMING= when a verb plays the part of a noun in a sentence (by being the subject, object or complement), it is used in the -ING form.

TO HERALD= a herald is the person who comes to announce something. To herald is to announce something, to be a sign for something coming.

TO SHAPE= to give form, to make.
OSIRIS WAS KILLED BY HIS BROTHER SET= This is a passive construction. The active construction would be: "Set killed Osiris", but in this sentence we’re talking about Set (the subject), and we don’t want to talk about Set, but about Osiris, so we make Osiris the subject of the sentence. Osiris didn’t do the action of killing, but received it. We show this by using a "passive verb", which is make by using the verb TO BE followed by the past participle of the main verb (kill → killed), and the person who does the action is now "the complement", introduced by the preposition BY: Set killed Osiris → Osiris was killed by Set.

PLUNGED = submerged, filled with something.

TO GATHER= to collect, to take all the pieces.

DISMEMBERED BODY= a body which has been broken into different pieces.

BOUND= wrap, cover with a string or a band of cloth which goes round and round it.

LINEN= a vegetable material from which cloth is made. Some pieces of clothes are made with linen. Linen is a natural fabric which is very cool in summer.

SHE CHANGED INTO A BIRD= she was transformed into a bird (notice the preposition INTO)

AMONG= we use BETWEEN when something is between two things, and AMONG if it’s more than two things (pronounced /əmʌŋ/ )

TO RULE OVER A PLACE= to govern or manage a place.

RESURRECTION= the act of coming back to life after being dead.