Osiris

Geb appointed his eldest son, Osiris, to rule humanity. Thoth became his viceroy and lit the sky at night while Ra passed through the underworld. In most tellings, Osiris was born wearing a crown, and the sun god chose him to succeed Geb. Osiris and his sister Isis had fallen in love in the womb. They became consorts and ruled Egypt together. Isis served as his queen and chief protector. Their reign became a golden age, but it did not last long.

Seth grew jealous of his brother’s power and decided to murder him. In one telling, Seth took the form of a bull, a hippopotamus, or a crocodile, attacked Osiris, and threw him into the Nile, where he drowned. In another, Seth struck Osiris down and trampled him. Some later tellings said that Seth tore the body apart. Isis and her sister Nephthys searched for Osiris and gathered his remains. Isis used her magic to reverse the effects of decay. Anubis, the god of embalming, made Osiris into the first mummy.

Osiris died and became the Inert One. The gods later decreed that he should be resurrected as king and judge of the dead. His rule continued in the realm of the dead, while Horus, his posthumous son, became king of the living. Osiris then ruled the underworld. Horus ruled the living, and Seth remained opposed to Osiris’s family.

Seth struck down Osiris, and Osiris died. His death became linked with the dwindling of the Nile and the decline of vegetation. His body was enclosed in a tamarisk tree, which grew to an enormous size and showed his power to bring fertility. Osiris was also linked with Nedit, which was said to be where he was killed or where Isis found his body.

Horus restored Osiris by presenting the power of his Eye to him. This act raised Osiris into renewed divine life. Osiris then became the god of the fertile lands of the Nile valley, floods, and vegetation. His death was identified with the yearly decline of the Nile, and his resurrection with the return of its flood. The floodwaters brought life to parched land. When the waters receded, wheat and barley grew in the fields.

Osiris's body was identified with barley, while Seth was compared with the donkeys that trampled the grain during threshing. Osiris's death and renewal were therefore linked with reaping and sowing. He was also regarded as the source and substance of corn, vines, and trees. He taught people to farm, to grind wheat and barley into flour, and to make bread.

During festivals of Osiris, people made mummies of corn by filling a mummy-shaped linen case with seed, watering it, and allowing seedlings to grow through the linen. These Corn Osirises represented the new life of the dead, as seed corn grew into new plants. People also made similar figures with an erect form. Osiris was shown regenerating inside a tree. His death and renewed life were identified with the annual return of fertility to Egypt.

Seth displayed a beautiful coffin made to Osiris’s exact measurements at a feast. He promised it to whoever fitted inside. His seventy-two followers tried first, but it fitted none of them. Osiris then lay down inside it. The conspirators forced the lid shut, bolted it in place, and sealed it with molten lead. They carried the coffin to the Nile and threw it into a branch of the river. The current carried it into the Mediterranean Sea.

Seth and his followers had plotted against Osiris. One telling placed the plot in the twenty-eighth year of Osiris’s reign. In one telling, Isis had been away in Coptos and heard a lament from the northern deities. In another, she returned to the capital after learning of the murder and began searching for Osiris.

Isis found the coffin at the bottom of the river and hid it in desolate marshes. She hoped that Seth would not discover it. Seth later found it while hunting. He recognised Osiris’s body, opened the coffin, and tore the corpse apart in rage. In one telling, he cut it into thousands of pieces. He then ordered his helpers to scatter the pieces throughout Egypt.

Isis searched for the remains for many years. She found the pieces one by one and preserved them carefully.

Isis used magical spells to restore Osiris after Seth killed him. She transfigured her husband and brought him back to life. They rejoiced when they saw each other again. Soon afterwards, they conceived Horus. Horus was born after Osiris’s death and became his posthumous son.

Osiris did not return to rule Egypt. Ra called on him to leave Egypt and the world of people behind. Osiris taught humans how to maintain their lives on earth, so Ra appointed him ruler of the underworld. The gods also decreed that Osiris should become king and judge of the dead, while Horus became king of the living.

Osiris then faced judgement over the conflict surrounding his death and succession. He was vindicated as ‘one true of voice’, a title that later applied to the virtuous dead. The judgement took different forms. In one telling, Seth and Osiris disputed the succession. In another, Horus and Seth disputed it, while deities presented the case for each side. In some tellings, Osiris sent messages from the underworld to support Horus.

Osiris’s restoration did not return him to earthly life. He entered a separate existence that most beings reached only by dying. He became the enduring ruler of the dead, while his preserved corpse remained in a tomb and continued to be a source of power.

Seth grew jealous of his brother Osiris and plotted to murder him. Osiris ruled Egypt as king, while Isis ruled beside him as queen. The people prospered under them and honoured the divine pair. Seth resented the praise given to Osiris.

In one telling, Isis searched for Osiris after his death. She found his chest at the bottom of the river and hid it in remote marshes. While hunting, Seth discovered the chest. Enraged, he cut Osiris’s body into thousands of pieces and ordered his helpers to scatter them across Egypt, from one end of the land to the other.

Isis searched for many years, both day and night. She found all the pieces of Osiris’s corpse and carefully reassembled them. In another telling, Seth, called Typhon in the Greek account, obtained the exact measurements of Osiris’s body and had a chest made to fit him. At a feast, he promised the chest to whoever could lie inside it. After his followers failed, Osiris entered it. The conspirators shut and sealed the lid, then threw the chest into a branch of the Nile.

In another telling, Seth divided Osiris’s body into twenty-six pieces and gave one to each of his followers. Egyptian tellings also described Osiris being cast down, trampled, or thrown into the Nile. Later tellings said that he died by drowning. His death became permanent, and he became ruler of the underworld and a source of life for others.

Osiris began his rule by turning the people of Egypt away from their former hardship and barbarous way of life. He taught them to cultivate and improve the fruits of the earth. He gave them laws to regulate their conduct and instructed them in the reverence and worship owed to the gods.

Osiris then travelled through the rest of the world. He brought the lands he visited under his discipline and order. His expedition was largely bloodless. He did not compel the people by force of arms. Instead, he persuaded them to accept his rule through the strength of his reasons.

Osiris presented these reasons in an agreeable form. Hymns and songs carried his teaching, accompanied by musical instruments. The people yielded to his discipline and adopted the worship he taught. His campaign therefore extended his laws and religious instruction beyond Egypt without conquest by violence.

The Greeks identified Osiris with Dionysos, or Bacchus. This identification was linked to the musical form of his teaching during his journey. While Osiris was absent from Egypt, Typhon had the opportunity to act in his kingdom.