Nile naturally occupies a large place in the mythology of Egypt. Mortuary rituals and myths of the Osiris cult, as well as the cult of Re are bound up with the myths connected to the Nile. The river was worshipped as a god under the name of Hapi. There is a famous statue of the Nile-god in the Vatican Museum which represents the god reclining, holding ears of corn and a cornucopia, and surrounded by sixteen children, each a cubit high.
This symbolizes the fact that if the Nile flood fell below sixteen cubits there would be famine. On a tomb at Abydos we have a representation of the two Niles bringing papyrus, lotus and various kinds of food and drink. The myth of the two Niles is contained in Akh-en-aton's famous hymn to the Aton/Aten, or Sun-disc. In this myth Aton creates two Niles, one in the underworld and another in the heavens above. Aton brings forth the underworld Nile to sustain the people of Egypt.
The purpose of the heavenly Nile is to provide water to the foreign peoples. But the most important and significant aspect of the myths related to the river Nile is the one associated with the Osiris myth. In a hymn to Osiris Rameses IV says "You are the Nile, gods and men live from your outflow." One of the elements in the Osiris myth is the drowning of Osiris and his recovery by Isis. Plutarch tells us that in the month of Athyr the priests used to go down to the river by night and fill a golden vessel with sweet water.
As they did so, the people present in the ceremony cried 'Osiris is found'. Both the drowning and the finding of Osiris in the Nile play an important part in the seasonal rituals of Egypt.
