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Osiris
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Osiris
also called Usir
one of the most important gods of ancient Egypt. The
origin of Osiris is obscure; he was a local god of Busiris,
in Lower Egypt, and may have been a personification of
chthonic (underworld) fertility. By about 2400 bce, however,
Osiris clearly played a double role: he was both a god of
fertility and the embodiment of the dead and resurrected
king. This dual role was in turn combined with the Egyptian
concept of divine kingship: the king at death became Osiris,
god of the underworld; and the dead king’s son, the living
king, was identified with Horus, a god of the sky. Osiris
and Horus were thus father and son. The goddess Isis was the
mother of the king and was thus the mother of Horus and
consort of Osiris. The god Seth was considered the murderer
of Osiris and adversary of Horus.
According to the form of the myth reported by the Greek
author Plutarch, Osiris was slain or drowned by Seth, who
tore the corpse into 14 pieces and flung them over Egypt.
Eventually, Isis and her sister Nephthys found and buried
all the pieces, except the phallus, thereby giving new life
to Osiris, who thenceforth remained in the underworld as
ruler and judge. His son Horus successfully fought against
Seth, avenging Osiris and becoming the new king of Egypt.
Osiris was not only ruler of the dead but also the power
that granted all life from the underworld, from sprouting
vegetation to the annual flood of the Nile River. From about
2000 bce onward it was believed that every man, not just the
deceased kings, became associated with Osiris at death. This
identification with Osiris, however, did not imply
resurrection, for even Osiris did not rise from the dead.
Instead, it signified the renewal of life both in the next
world and through one’s descendants on Earth. In this
universalized form Osiris’s cult spread throughout Egypt,
often joining with the cults of local fertility and
underworld deities.
The idea that rebirth in the next life could be gained by
following Osiris was maintained through certain cult forms.
In the Middle Kingdom (1938–c. 1630 bce) the god’s festivals
consisted of processions and nocturnal rites and were
celebrated at the temple of Abydos, where Osiris had
assimilated the very ancient god of the dead, Khenty-Imentiu.
This name, meaning “Foremost of the Westerners,” was adopted
by Osiris as an epithet. Because the festivals took place in
the open, public participation was permitted, and by the
early 2nd millennium bce it had become fashionable to be
buried along the processional road at Abydos or to erect a
cenotaph there as a representative of the dead.
Osiris festivals symbolically reenacting the god’s fate
were celebrated annually in various towns throughout Egypt.
A central feature of the festivals during the late period
was the construction of the “Osiris garden,” a mold in the
shape of Osiris, filled with soil. The mold was moistened
with the water of the Nile and sown with grain. Later, the
sprouting grain symbolized the vital strength of Osiris.
At Memphis the holy bull, Apis, was linked with Osiris,
becoming Osiris-Apis, which eventually became the name of
the Hellenistic god Serapis. Greco-Roman authors connected
Osiris with the god Dionysus. Osiris was also identified
with Soker, an ancient Memphite god of the dead.
The oldest known depiction of Osiris dates to about 2300
bce, but representations of him are rare before the New
Kingdom (1539–1075 bce), when he was shown in an archaizing
form as a mummy with his arms crossed on his breast, one
hand holding a crook, the other a flail. On his head was the
atef-crown, composed of the white crown of Upper Egypt and
two ostrich feathers.
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The Goddess Isis, wall painting, c.
1360 B.C.
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Isis
Egyptian Aset or Eset
one of the most important goddesses of ancient
Egypt. Her name is the Greek form of an ancient Egyptian
word for “throne.”
Isis was initially an obscure goddess who lacked her own
dedicated temples, but she grew in importance as the
dynastic age progressed, until she became one of the most
important deities of ancient Egypt. Her cult subsequently
spread throughout the Roman Empire, and Isis was worshipped
from England to Afghanistan. She is still revered by pagans
today. As mourner, she was a principal deity in rites
connected with the dead; as magical healer, she cured the
sick and brought the deceased to life; and as mother, she
was a role model for all women.
Isis had strong links with Egyptian kingship, and she was
most often represented as a beautiful woman wearing a sheath
dress and either the hieroglyphic sign of the throne or a
solar disk and cow’s horns on her head. Occasionally she was
represented as a scorpion, a bird, a sow, or a cow. There
are no references to Isis before the 5th dynasty (2465–2325
bce), but she is mentioned many times in the Pyramid Texts
(c. 2350–c. 2100 bce), in which she offers assistance to the
dead king. Later, as ideas of the afterlife became more
democratic, Isis was able to extend her help to all dead
Egyptians.
The priests of Heliopolis, followers of the sun god Re,
developed the myth of Isis. This told that Isis was the
daughter of the earth god Geb and the sky goddess Nut and
the sister of the deities Osiris, Seth, and Nephthys.
Married to Osiris, king of Egypt, Isis was a good queen who
supported her husband and taught the women of Egypt how to
weave, bake, and brew beer. But Seth was jealous, and he
hatched a plot to kill his brother. Seth trapped Osiris in a
decorated wooden chest, which he coated in lead and threw
into the Nile. The chest had become Osiris’s coffin. With
his brother vanished, Seth became king of Egypt. But Isis
could not forget her husband, and she searched everywhere
for him until she eventually discovered Osiris, still
trapped in his chest, in Byblos. She brought his body back
to Egypt, where Seth discovered the chest and, furious,
hacked his brother into pieces, which he scattered far and
wide. Transforming into a bird, and helped by her sister,
Nephthys, Isis was able to discover and reunite the parts of
her dead husband’s body—only his penis was missing. Using
her magical powers, she was able to make Osiris whole;
bandaged, neither living nor dead, Osiris had become a
mummy. Nine months later Isis bore him a son, Horus. Osiris
was then forced to retreat to the underworld, where he
became king of the dead.
Isis hid with Horus in the marshes of the Nile delta
until her son was fully grown and could avenge his father
and claim his throne. She defended the child against attacks
from snakes and scorpions. But because Isis was also Seth’s
sister, she wavered during the eventual battle between Horus
and Seth. In one episode Isis took pity on Seth and was in
consequence beheaded by Horus (the beheading was reversed by
magic). Eventually she and Horus were reconciled, and Horus
was able to take the throne of Egypt.
Isis was the perfect traditional Egyptian wife and
mother—content to stay in the background while things went
well, but able to use her wits to guard her husband and son
should the need arise. The shelter she afforded her child
gave her the character of a goddess of protection. But her
chief aspect was that of a great magician, whose power
transcended that of all other deities. Several narratives
tell of her magical prowess, far stronger than the powers of
Osiris and Re. She was frequently invoked on behalf of the
sick, and, with the goddesses Nephthys, Neith, and Selket,
she protected the dead. Isis became associated with various
other goddesses, including Bastet, Nut, and Hathor, and thus
her nature and her powers became increasingly diverse. Isis
became known, like other fierce goddesses in the Egyptian
pantheon, as the “Eye of Re” and was equated with the Dog
Star, Sothis (Sirius).
The first major temple dedicated to Isis was built by the
Late Period king Nectanebo II (360–343 bce) at Behbeit
el-Hagar, in the central Nile delta. Other important
temples, including the island temple of Philae, were built
during Greco-Roman times when Isis was dominant among
Egyptian goddesses. Several temples were dedicated to her in
Alexandria, where she became the patroness of seafarers.
From Alexandria her cult spread to Greece and Rome. Images
of Isis nursing the baby Horus may have influenced the early
Christian artists who depicted the Virgin Mary with the baby
Jesus.
Joyce Tyldesley
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The gods Osiris, Anubis, and Horus
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Horus
Egyptian Hor or Har
in ancient Egyptian religion, god in the form of a falcon
whose eyes were the sun and the moon. Falcon cults were
widespread in Egypt. At Nekhen (Greek: Hierakonpolis),
however, the conception arose that the reigning king was a
manifestation of Horus, and, after Egypt had been united by
the kings from Nekhen, this conception became a generally
accepted dogma. The first of the Egyptian king’s five names
was the Horus name—i.e., the name that identified him with
Horus. The hovering form of Horus depicted above a king’s
head, sometimes portrayed as a winged sun disk, is that of
Horus of Behdet, a town in the Nile River delta where the
falcon god enjoyed a cult.
From the 1st dynasty (c. 2925–2775 bce), Horus and the
god Seth were perpetual antagonists who were reconciled in
the harmony of Upper and Lower Egypt. In the myth of Osiris,
who became prominent about 2350 bce, Horus was the son of
Osiris. He was also the opponent of Seth, who murdered
Osiris and contested Horus’s heritage, the royal throne of
Egypt. Horus finally defeated Seth, thus avenging his father
and assuming the rule. In the fight his left eye (i.e., the
moon) was damaged—this being a mythical explanation of the
moon’s phases—and was healed by the god Thoth. The figure of
the restored eye (the wedjat eye) became a powerful amulet.
Horus appeared as a local god in many places and under
different names and epithets; for instance, as Harmakhis (Har-em-akhet,
“Horus in the Horizon”), Harpocrates (Har-pe-khrad, “Horus
the Child”), Harsiesis (Har-si-Ese, “Horus, Son of Isis”),
Harakhte (“Horus of the Horizon,” closely associated with
the sun god Re), and, at Kawm Umbū (Kom Ombo), as Haroeris (Harwer,
“Horus the Elder”). Horus was later identified by the Greeks
with Apollo, and the town of Idfu was called Apollinopolis
(“Apollo’s Town”) in the Greco-Roman period.
In the Ptolemaic period, the vanquishing of Seth became a
symbol of Egypt triumphing over its occupiers. At Idfu,
where rebellions frequently interrupted work on the temple,
a ritual drama depicting Horus as pharaoh spearing Seth in
the guise of a hippopotamus was periodically enacted.
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Egyptian Goddess
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Amun
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Amun
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Amun and Amun-Re
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Amun
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Horus
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Egyptian God Horus and
Queen Nefertari
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Egyptian Gods Horus and Thoth coronate Pharaoh Seti I
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Osiris
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Egyptian God Osiris and Goddesses Isis and Nephtys with Egyptian
Princess
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Egyptian Gods Osiris and
Horus with Pharaoh Seti I
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Hathor
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Egyptian Goddess Hathor
and Queen Nefertari
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Egyptian Goddess Hathor and Queen Nefertari
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Egyptian Goddess Hathor and Pharaoh Ramses II
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Egyptian Goddess Hathor and Pharaoh Ramses II
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Isis
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Egyptian Goddesses Isis and Nephtys with God Osiris and Egyptian
Princess
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Osiris, Isis, and Horus
OSIRIS, THE
RULER OF THE UNDERWORLD,
was originally a king in the upper world where he
taught the Egyptians (and later, the rest of the
world) how to live, worship, and grow corn (when
they had previously been cannibals). He earned the
name Wennefer, "eternally good". He was murdered by
his jealous brother Seth who tricked him into a
wooden chest, which he sealed up, and sent down the
Nile. Osiris' wife Isis rescued the corpse, but when
Seth found it, he cut it up and scattered the pieces
all over Egypt. Sorrowfully, Isis and her sister
Nepthys collected every piece and, with the help of
Anubis, the guide of souls to the underworld, and
Thoth, the gods' scribe, they pieced Osiris back
together, as the first mummy. Isis transformed
herself into a kite and, hovering over the body, she
fanned life into it with her wings; it was at this
moment that she conceived a son, Horus, who would
avenge his father. The revived Osiris went down to
the dark and desolate underuorld, to be the lord and
judge of the dead.
Horus, Osiris and Isis
Isis and the
Scorpions
Pregnant, Isis fled from Seth to the Nile
delta accompanied by seven scorpions. One night, she
begged shelter of a rich lady named Usert, but she
refused her. Furious, the scorpions pooled all their
venom and bit Usert's son. Pitying the dying child,
Isis cured him. She then went to Khemmis and gave
birth to Horus. Desperately poor, Isis often had to
leave die baby alone while she found food. One day,
she returned to find Horus King rigid, bitten by a
scorpion. But Isis could not save him, having used
her power to cure Usert's son. Her anguish halted Re
as he crossed the sky and the world went dark. Re
sent Thoth to cure Horus for until he recovered,
there would be no light, the wells would dry up, and
the crops would wither.
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THE ROYAL FAMILY OF THE GODS
This statuette shows the god Osiris
raised on а plinth, with his loyal wife and son Horus on
each
side. Osiris was believed to have once been a king of Egypt.
His son Horus was the last god to
be king but he sent his spirit into each pharoah who
inherited the earthly throne.
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Horus
After Osiris descended to the
underworld, he could no longer rule his earthly kingdom, so
he
bequeathed it to his son Horus. But his evil brother Seth,
the god of chaos and confusion, laid claim to the throne.
Only after 80 years did Re judge Horus the winner, award him
the kingdom, and banish Seth to the desert.
HORUS first performed the key mummification rite of opening
the mouth on his father Osiris.
With other rites, it ensured that all the bodily functions
could be restored
after death through the spells contained in the Book of
the Dead.
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Horus
Horus is shown here as a falcon-winged wedjat
eye.
His origins lie in the early Egyptian conception of
the sky as the wings of a falcon.
The eyes and speckled belly of the falcon were the
sun, moon, and starry night sky.
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Osiris
To achieve eternal life, the
Egyptians preserved their corpses by mummification,
following as
closely as possible the technique used by the jackal-headed
Anubis, god of mummification, in preparing the body of
Osiris.
Like the Greek Demeter during her search for Persephone,
Isis, in her search for
Osiris, becomes a nursemaid to a prince; both goddesses try
to give
the boys immortality by burning away their mortal parts, but
they
are interrupted. Isis uttered so terrible a cry on seeing
Osiris'
corpse that it killed the baby prince she was caring for.
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Isis
ТНE STORY OF ISIS AND OSIRIS
tells of a death and resurrection that mirrors the
harvesting of corn and its regrowth from seed;
miniature figures of Osiris filled with corn seed were
placed in Egyptian tombs as a promise of rebirth.
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