The tale begins in the First Time, during the legendary reign of Osiris over the land of Egypt. Osiris was a king of peace and wisdom, credited with teaching humanity the arts of agriculture, the making of wine, and the establishment of laws. Alongside him ruled his sister-wife Isis, a goddess of immense magical power and deep compassion. However, their harmony was envied by their brother Set, the god of storms, desert, and chaos. Set’s jealousy was a festering wound, and he conspired with seventy-two accomplices to overthrow the king. He secretly obtained the measurements of Osiris’s body and commissioned a magnificent chest of rare wood, adorned with gold and lapis lazuli, built to fit only the king. During a grand banquet, Set declared that he would gift the chest to whoever could lie within it perfectly. When Osiris stepped into the box, the conspirators slammed the lid shut, nailed it down, and sealed the seams with molten lead. The chest was cast into the Nile, where it was carried by the current toward the Great Green Sea.
Isis, upon hearing of the tragedy, was struck with a grief that shook the heavens. She donned the robes of a mourner and cut her hair, setting out on a journey to find the body of her beloved husband. Without proper burial and the performance of sacred rites, Osiris’s spirit would wander restlessly, and the natural order of the world—Ma'at—would remain shattered. The chest, meanwhile, had floated across the Mediterranean, eventually washing ashore at the ancient Phoenician city of Byblos. It came to rest against a young tamarisk tree. In response to the divine presence within the chest, the tree grew at a miraculous rate, its trunk expanding until it completely enveloped the container. The tree became a wonder of the world, emitting a fragrance so sweet and potent that it reached the palace of King Malcander and Queen Astarte. Impressed by the tree’s beauty and its supernatural aroma, the king ordered it to be cut down to serve as the central pillar for the roof of his great hall.
Guided by her intuition and the whispers of the gods, Isis arrived at the shores of Byblos. She did not reveal her divine nature but sat quietly by a public fountain. When the Queen's handmaidens came to draw water, Isis spoke to them with great kindness. She braided their hair and breathed into them a scent so celestial that when they returned to the palace, the Queen immediately sensed the change. Astarte sent for the mysterious stranger, and Isis was brought into the royal household. Because of her gentle manner and wisdom, she was appointed as the nurse for the Queen’s infant son. Isis grew fond of the child and decided to bestow upon him the gift of immortality. Each night, she would place the child in a sacred fire to burn away his mortal parts. While the child lay unharmed in the flames, Isis would transform herself into a swallow and fly around the tamarisk pillar that held Osiris, crying out in a high, mournful voice.
One evening, Queen Astarte, curious about the strange nurse's nightly activities, hid behind a curtain and watched. When she saw her child engulfed in flames, she screamed in terror and rushed forward to pluck him from the hearth. In that instant, the spell of immortality was broken. Isis resumed her true, towering form, her radiance filling the hall with a light that blinded the mortal onlookers. She rebuked the Queen, explaining that she had intended to make the boy an immortal god, but the Queen's fear had rendered him forever subject to death. Humbled and terrified, the King and Queen offered the goddess any treasure in their kingdom. Isis looked toward the central pillar of the hall. She requested the wood of the tamarisk tree. With a touch of her hand, the pillar split open, revealing the chest hidden within the heartwood. The wood of the tree was so saturated with the essence of Osiris that it remained a holy relic in Byblos for centuries, wrapped in linen and anointed with oils.