Whenever Isis left Horus, while they were in hiding in the papyrus swamps, to travel to town for supplies, she was accompanied by seven scorpions. Three of the scorpions preceded her. They were Petet, Tjetet, and Matet and made sure that the path ahead was safe. At her side were the scorpions, Mesetet and Mesetetef. Bringing up the rear were Tefen and Befen. One night, when Isis reached the town, a wealthy noblewoman saw the strange party arriving and quickly shut the door to her house.

The scorpions were enraged at her rude behavior and decide to teach the woman a lesson. In preparation, six of the scorpions gave their individual poisons to Tefen who loaded his stinger with it. Meanwhile, a humble peasant girl had offered her simple home as a refuge to Isis. The scorpions anger was not ameliorated by the young girl's kindness toward their mistress, and Tefen snuck out of the house. He crawled under the door of the noblewoman's house and stung her son. Distraught, the woman wandered through the town seeking help for her child who was on the verge of death. Isis heard the woman's cries for help. Although the woman was unkind to her, Isis could not bear the thought of the death of an innocent child and went to the woman to help her son.

Isis held the boy in her arms and spoke words of great magic. She named each of the scorpions and thereby dominated them; rendering their combined poison to be harmless in the child. The noblewoman was humbled by Isis' unconditional kindness and offered all of her worldly wealth to Isis, and to the peasant girl who had shown hospitality to a stranger.

Ra was the sun-god, king of the gods and creator of all things, including mankind. Long ago, Ra lived on the earth and ruled a glorious kingdom. For a long while this kingdom thrived and men gave Ra the respect due him, but Ra began to grow old, and the people began to mock him. Ra was very angry when he heard the blasphemy of mankind. He gathered the gods to him, to hear their counsel, in a secret meeting.

The company of gods gathered around Ra as he told the story of mankind's insolence. Ra spoke first to his father, "Nu, you are the first of the gods, I ask your advice. The men that I have created, mock me and deride me. They anger me greatly, but I will not destroy them unless you agree that it is necessary." At length Nun answered, saying; "You are a great god, you are greater than I. You are the son who is mightier than his father. If you turn your eye upon the men who blaspheme you they shall perish from the earth." Doing as Nun had suggested Ra turned his terrible gaze upon the men of the earth and slew them where they stood. They ran in panic from his gaze, hiding in the shadows where the eye of Ra could not harm them.

Again the gods met to give counsel to Ra and they agreed that he should send his eye down among the men so they could not hide. So the eye of Ra, in the form of the goddess Hathor, went into the hiding places, slaying more, and striking fear in the hearts of men. Much of mankind was slain. Hathor returned to Ra after the first day. Taking the form of Sekhmet, she declared, "I have been mighty among mankind. It is pleasing to me." But having tasted blood, Sekhmet would not be appeased. Ra now feared that Hathor/Sekhmet would destroy the human race completely. He wished to rule mankind, not see it destroyed.

There was only one way to stop Hathor-Sekhmet, he had to trick her. He ordered his attendants to brew seven thousand jars of beer and color it red using mandrakes and the blood of those who had been slain. In the morning Ra had his servants take the beer to the place where Hathor would appear to slaughter the remnant of mankind. Ra's servants poured the beer mixture on the fields. And so, Hathor/Sekhmet came to this place where the beer flooded the fields. Looking down, her gaze was caught by her own reflection, and it pleased her. She drank deeply of the beer, became drunk and abandoned her blood-thirsty quest.