d side by side is the more conceivable because
Genesis itself is welded together from heterogeneous parts and different
elaborations of the primal pair motive. Displacements, inversions, and
therefore apparent contradictions must naturally lie in such a material.
Moreover, the interpretation depends not so much on the narrative of the
discovered motives as on the motives themselves. [On the interpretation of
the mythological motives cf. Lessmann, Aufg. u. Ziele, p. 12.]

Let us return now to the motive of dismemberment. One of the best known
examples of dismemberment in mythology is that of Osiris. Osiris and Isis,
the brother and sister, already violently in love with each other in their
mother's womb, as the myth recounts, copulated with the result that
Arueris was born of the unborn. So the two gods came into the world as
already married brother and sister. Osiris traversed the earth, bestowing
benefits on mankind. But he had a bad brother, full of jealousy and envy,
Typhon (Set), who would gladly have taken advantage of the absence of his
brother to place himself on his throne. Isis, who ruled during the absence
of Osiris, acted so vigorously and resolutely that all his evil designs
were frustrated. Finally Osiris returned and Typhon, with a number of
confederates (the number varies) and with the Ethiopian queen Aso, formed
a conspiracy against the life of Osiris, and in feigned friendship
arranged a banquet. He had, however, caused a splendid coffin to be made,
and as they sat gayly at the feast, Typhon had it brought in, and offered
to give it to the person whose body would fit it. He had secretly taken
the measure of Osiris and had prepared the coffin accordingly. All tried
it in turn. None fitted. Finally Osiris lay in it. Then Typhon and his
confederates rushed up, closed it and threw it into the river, which
carried it to the sea. (Creuzer, L., p. 259 ff.) For the killing of his
brother Set, which happened according to the original version on account
of desire for power, later tradition substitutes an unconscious incest
which Osiris committed with his second sister, Nephthys, the wife of Set,
a union from which sprang Anubis (the dog-headed god). Set and Nephthys
are, according to H. Schneider, apparently no originally married brother
and sister like Osiris and Isis, but may have been introduced by way of
duplication, in order to account for the war between Osiris and his
brother. With the help of Anubis, Isis f