The Lord of the Universe agreed with Seth's demand and ordered the Nine Gods to swim across the Nile and continue the proceedings on one of the islands. Isis had to stay on the shore. When the gods arrived on the island, they said to the ferryman Anti:
- Do not transport any woman who looks like Isis to the island, otherwise we will punish you severely!
After this, the gods retired to a palm grove and indulged in a feast. Meanwhile, Isis took the form of an old woman, put a small gold ring on her finger and, limping, hunched over, approached the crossing, where Anti was dozing in his boat while waiting for travelers.
“Take me to the island,” Isis asked him. — I bring food to the young man who looks after the cattle. He had been there for five days and was very hungry.
“I have orders not to transport any women,” Anti answered gloomily.
“But this order concerns only Isis, and I am an old woman.” Just look at me! Anti thought and asked:
- What will you give me if I fulfill your request and transport you? - I'll give you this bread.
- What do I need your bread for? — the boatman winced contemptuously. “I will risk my neck and violate the command of the Nine Gods for the sake of some pathetic bread!”
- well, okay, what if I give you the gold ring that’s on my finger? - Isis asked and showed the boatman the ring.
Anti's eyes flashed with a greedy gleam. - Give me the ring! — he agreed almost immediately. Having crossed to the island, Isis hid in the acacia thickets and began to watch the feasting Nine. Among the gods she saw the hated Set. She cast a witchcraft spell, turned into a young girl, so beautiful that none among people, or even among goddesses, and left her hiding place.
Seth, as soon as he saw her, immediately became inflamed with passion for her. Leaving the gods, he approached Isis and said: “I am here with you, O beautiful girl!” “Oh no, my great lord,” Isis replied meekly. “As for me, I was the wife of a shepherd of flocks and gave birth to a son, and the young man took his father’s cattle. But one day a stranger came and said to my son: “I will beat you, and take your father’s cattle from you, and I will drive you out!” So he told him. But I want you to be his protector.
Wanting to earn the girl’s favor, Seth made an indignant face, raised his hands and exclaimed in a voice full of indignation:
“Will the cattle really be given to a stranger if the owner’s son is present?”
At that same moment, Isis took the form of a female kite and flew up from the ground with joyful exclamations. Sitting on the top of an acacia tree, she shouted to Seth:
- Cry for yourself! For behold, your own mouth has spoken this, and your own mind has condemned you! What else do you need now?!
Seth wept bitterly and, sobbing, went to Ra-Horakhta. “This evil woman deceived me,” he said and told the sun god about what had happened. Ra-Horakhte said with concern:
- What should you do now? After all, you condemned yourself! “Let them bring the ferryman Anti and punish him severely,” said Seth.
Nine agreed. They brought Anti and beat him painfully with a stick on the soles of his feet. Since then, Anti cursed gold, and since then, in the villages where Anti is revered, there has been a taboo on gold.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru