An Egyptian papyrus says the gods argued for 80 years over whether the dead king Osiris's throne went to his son Horus or his brother Seth

The Contendings of Horus and Seth is a myth, not a record of events. It fills the first sixteen pages of Papyrus Chester Beatty I, copied around 1147 BC in the reign of Ramesses V and found in 1931. The scholar Marcelo Campagno places it in the archive of a family of scribes at Deir el-Medina. In the story the king Osiris is already dead, killed by his brother Seth. The Ennead, presided over by Atum-Re, must decide whether the royal office goes to Osiris's young son Horus or to Seth, whose main claim is his strength. The case runs for eighty years, and the presiding god favours Seth. Seth rejects every attempt to rule for Horus. The rivals race boats and fight as hippopotami. Isis, Horus's mother, aims a harpoon at Seth and hits her son; Horus cuts off her head. In one trick Isis, disguised as a young woman, tells Seth that a wicked man has wronged her family and threatens her son. Seth says such a man must be punished, and so condemns himself. In one version the goddess Neith rules for Horus and gives Seth the deserts and two foreign goddesses. At last Osiris writes from the underworld demanding that his son succeed him. The Ennead rules for Horus, he is crowned, and the presiding god orders Seth taken prisoner. The papyrus is in the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin.