In time, as in the universal saga of the hero, the company becomes more select. The Supreme Power, the great sun-god absorbs the attributes of the lesser gods. He is the one great god, the god of might. He is Marduk of Babylon, the Mysterious One, the "lord of many existences," he who is unknown to mankind and who died to give birth to human life; he is Ashur of Assyria, the God of Gods, the embodiment of the genius of Assyria; he is Ra of Egypt, "the ONE god who came into being in the beginning of time" g,nd in whose worship even that of the powerful mother goddess is merged.
And now at last flashing on the horizon come the immortal pair-the pair that touch the imagination. Known in Egypt as Isis and Osiris, in Babylonia as Ishtar and Tammuz, in Phrygia as Attis and Cybele and in Greece Adonis and Aphrodite, for the first time you feel the closer relationship, feel that each is essential to the other. For the first time you are given a glimpse of love. When Osiris is killed by the treachery of his brother Set, it is Isis who searches everywhere over the length and breadth of Egypt until she finds her husband's body and restores it to life. Ishtar, mourning and inconsolable, descends to the nether regions searching for her lover, the youthful sun-god Tammuz, and all vegetation dies during her absence. Cybele mourns for the slain Attis.
