Osiris (deity)

Symbol: crook and flail; atef (crown) with ostrich feathers

Culture: Ancient Egypt

Mother: Nut

Father: Geb

Siblings: Isis; Seth; Nephthys

Children: Horus

Osiris was worshiped as the god of the underworld in ancient Egyptian culture. His worship had long-lasting importance in Egyptian religious doctrine because of his association with concepts such as death and resurrection. Osiris enjoyed a very prominent place in the Egyptian pantheon. Religious beliefs surrounding his origins led to the Egyptian tradition of mummification. The myths surrounding the origin of Osiris held great significance for ancient Egyptians. Osiris was also one of the very few gods in Egyptian religion believed to have been a mortal.

Osiris was a very important Egyptian god even before the founding of Egypt as a unified state around 3000 BCE. His role as the eternal judge of the underworld who determined whether a soul’s mortal actions were worthy of attaining everlasting life was held in much veneration by the masses. He was called "king of those who are not" because of this particular link to the dead. The city of Abydos was the cult center of Osiris. Numerous religious festivals such as the Mysteries of Osiris and Isis, the Fall of Nile, and the Gardens of Osiris were celebrated in Abydos seasonally as part of the ritualistic worship of Osiris. The enduring popularity Osiris enjoyed for well over a span of 4,000 years of Egyptian history hints at the emphatic importance Egyptians laid on the concept of the afterlife.

In Mythology

The dead pharaohs of Egypt were seen as embodiments of Osiris and represented qualities that were equated with justice and truth. These qualities also embodied Osiris in his role as the judge of dead Egyptians’ worthiness in attaining eternal afterlife. These aspects that ascertain the ideal nature of a true king of Egypt often comes at odds with a much darker version of Osiris that have been mythicized as well. A funeral inscription found in the tomb of royalty that ruled Egypt as part of the middle kingdom (2055–1773 BCE) portrays Osiris as a vengeful and threatening deity who menaces the dead. However, this attribution of Osiris in a negative light was not only rare but was never a prominent part of the religious discourse.

The Greek historian Plutarch (40–120 AD) documented a legend that placed Osiris as a king who ruled Egypt during its prehistory. The myth paints him to be a just king who introduced culture and farming techniques to a country of ignorant people who were living in poverty and starvation. Further, Osiris gets betrayed and murdered by his brother Seth, who secretly plotted to assume the throne. Eventually, his faithful sister-wife Isis resurrects Osiris through the use of magic. The resurrected Osiris decides to return to the underworld and take his place among the gods as the judge of the dead. The god Horus was also believed to have been the child of Isis and Osiris and eventually slayed Seth and avenged his father’s murder. This apotheosis of a mortal man attaining the status of a god held much importance for the Egyptian masses. The concept of mummification also shares its origins from this particular myth, as the resurrection rites Isis performed to bring Osiris back to life was deemed to have been the very first mummification process.

Linking Osiris with the solar deity Ra and describing them as twin souls constructed a storyline that connected the lands of the living and the dead. The respective funeral cults of both Osiris and Ra emphasized the superiority of one over the other during different and intertwined timelines. Some texts point out that Osiris was simply one of the many manifestations of Ra himself while others try to establish Osiris as the ultimate ruler of the living and the equal of Ra.

Origin and Cults

Osiris, Seth, Isis, and Nephthys were believed to be divine siblings born to Nut and Geb who were the gods of the sky and Earth. Geb and Nut were grandchildren of the primary sun god Ra; therefore, Osiris’s origin could be traced back from the most prominent Heliopolis god himself. Osiris functioned as the ideal king of Egypt who reigned over a point of time that was meant to be a perfect model of an ideal kingdom. The religious origins of Osiris predate the dynastic rule of Egypt (3000 BCE) and it has been speculated that the widely accepted form of Osiris that was worshiped throughout Egypt emerged from a localized mother goddess who might have represented agriculture.

There were multiple religious festivals associated with Osiris. The funeral cults that worshiped Osiris were centered in the city of Abydos that saw a very high attendance during these festivals. Prominent among these festivals was the Mysteries of Osiris and Isis, which was annually held in November; according to the modern calendar. This festival was held to celebrate and worship the beauty of Osiris and the enduring love Isis had for him. The Fall of the Nile, however, was a different kind of festival that tried to depict the annual recession of the Nile River, representing the fading power of Osiris. This festival was a time of ritualistic mourning when Egyptians associated the receding waters with the failing power of Osiris to revitalize the dying land.

There are no known time periods in Egyptian history where a decrease in the popularity of Osiris was witnessed. The true decline of Osiris can only be traced back from 1CE when Christian influence began to permeate throughout Egypt under Roman occupation. This led to the decline of Osiris because Christianity offered eternal life after death without the complex mummification processes that were an essential part of the religious framework of the funeral cults that propagated Osiris. The ancient Egyptians gave Osiris a special place in their divine hierarchy simply because he represented the journey of a mortal, who despite being subjected to unnatural cruelty succeeded in attaining everlasting life with the help of the gods. Osiris was so widely worshiped and revered because ancient Egyptians did not believe death to symbolize finality at all. The worship of Osiris in this context manifested itself through ancient Egyptian history by accumulating several divine identities that made him a protector of the dead, the punisher of the wicked and most importantly, the guide to eternal life after death.

Bibliography

Budge, E. A. Wallis. Egyptian Ideas of the Future Life. 3rd ed. London: Kegan Paul, 1908. Print.

Bunson, R. Margeret. Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt. Rev. ed. New York: Facts On File, 2002. Print.

Hart, George. The Routledge Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, 2005. Print.

"Osiris." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2015. Web. 18 Nov. 2015 <http://www.britannica.com/topic/Osiris-Egyptian-god>.

Pinch, Geraldine. Magic in Ancient Egypt. London: British Museum, 1994. Print.