28 JANUARY 2006, Page 20

Isis, Osiris and Jesus

From Helen Style

Sir: Bruce Anderson says that the religion of the ancient Egyptians was ‘barbarous’ (Travel, 21 January). Its features include a god who created the world out of primaeval chaos, a miraculous birth to a mother goddess, moral dictates such as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, protecting the widow and refraining from oppression, and a Day of Judgment at which the spirit would either be judged worthy to enter a new life or, if not, be gobbled up by a terrifying monster, with the results of the judgment meticulously entered in a divine record.

How barbarous is that, exactly?

Helen Style

Richmond, Surrey