“Although we do not know their names, the god Seth enlisted seventy-three accomplices when he tricked his brother-god Osiris. He enticed Osiris into coming to a feast, then, as an after-dinner game, the seventy-three joyfully took their turn in trying to fit into a cedar box. They all failed, for it had been manufactured to fit exactly the frame of Osiris, who—once he had entered—was held fast in a vice that allowed his brother to slam down the lid, seal the box and throw him into the Nile. There, he sailed out into the wide sea and was eventually washed ashore on the coast of Lebanon at Beirut.”
Excerpted from: Rogerson, Barnaby. Rogerson’s Book of Numbers: The Culture of Numbers–from 1,001 Nights to the Seven Wonders of the World. New York: Picador, 2013.
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