Rising and Setting Symbolised
The Egyptian Horus, the hawk-headed son of Osiris and Isis, symbolised the sun’s path, or the rising sun; Ra the noon-day and Osiris the setting.
Osiris, the husband of Isis, is represented by the moon, and by an eye at the top of fourteen steps and symbolises any waning luminary, as the setting sun or waning moon. Isis, to whose worship the sacred cow was dedicated, symbolises rising, becoming visible, and is represented with two horns on a stem rising from her head.
The ancient Egyptian indulged in the supposition that the swelling of the Nile at the annual innundation occurred on the anniversary of the death of Osiris, and was due to the tears of the lamenting Isis.
Endymion in the Greek tradition is the setting sun, with whom the moon is in love. He was visited and kissed every night by Selene on the Latmian Hills, where he was condemned to sleep, and eternal youth.