Isis and Nephthys mourned over the dead body of their brother and Ra took pity on them. The missing part was his penis (poor guy) which was apparently swallowed by a fish sacred to Set. Isis was distraught, and enlisted the help of her sister (and Set’s wife) Nephthys. Set cut the corpse of Osiris into fourteen (or sixteen) parts and distributed them around Egypt. However, Set found Osiris’s body unattended while Isis took the infant Horus to be cared for by Wadjet (or Udjat, “she who is green”, the cobra goddess of Lower Egypt). She took her husband’s corpse back to Egypt and used magic to conceive his child, Horus (other accounts suggest she was already pregnant when he died). Isis tracked the body of Osiris to Byblos and persuaded the king to give it to her (by saving a child from a snake bite – easy for the “queen of heaven”). The tree grew so large that the king of Byblos trimmed it and set it up as a pillar in his palace. The instant it touched the land, a huge Tamarisk tree sprouted up to protect it. The chest was swept out to sea and landed on the coast near Byblos. He sealed it with molten led and threw it in the Nile. When he lay down in the chest (which had been made to fit him), Set slammed on the lid and nailed it down. Just as Set planned, none of the other guests fitted the chest perfectly, the only person left to try was Osiris. He offered the chest to anyone who could fit into it. Set invited Osiris to a banquet and had a beautiful cedar wood and ebony chest made just for the occasion. Set was strong and brave (he was not two-dimensionally “evil”) but he had a terrible temper and he vowed to kill his brother and take the power he considered to be rightfully his. When Osiris decided to travel the world to bring civilisation to its people, he made Isis Regent of Egypt instead of Set. Set had been jealous of his brother Osiris’ power and popularity for some time, and he lusted after his brother’s wife, Isis (Aset). The many festivals are recorded on a stele established by Ikhernofret (a prince who acted as Senusert III’s chief treasurer). Spectators took part in the “passion plays” and everyone seems to have had a great time. Some fine examples made of barley and emmer were found in Tutankhamen’s tomb.ĭuring the fourth month of the season of Akhet (emergence) a number of festivals were celebrated at all the chief sanctuaries of Osiris in Egypt, to commemorate the events of Osiris’ life, death, and rebirth. They would germinate in the darkness of the tomb and illustrate the concept of life from death. “Corn mummies” made of seeded dirt were molded to represent Osiris and interred with the deceased.

In fact, Osiris represented the Egyptian belief in rebirth and their feeling that order and justice persevered beyond the grave. His kind smile confirms that he is not a deity to be feared. There is no evidence that the ancient peoples were in fact cannibals, but the myth underlined the notion that Osiris brought order from chaos and established the culture which formed the basis of their successful and durable civilisation. Legend held that the ancient Egyptians had been cannibals until Osiris developed agriculture and he and Isis persuaded them to cease that unpleasant habit. Every harvest, the god was symbolically killed and his body broken on the threshing room floor, but after the inundation life would return to the land and the crops would grow again. However, it actually makes a lot of sense when you consider the death and rebirth inherent in the agricultural cycle of planting and harvesting grain. This may seem rather strange as he was dead, and technically infertile.

A decent burial combined with these spells pretty much guaranteed you would be welcomed into a blissful existence which bore a striking similarity to the ancient Egyptian’s everyday life (shorn of any problems). The spells needed to pass through Duat (the underworld) were described in great detail in the pyramid and coffin texts, “the book of coming forth by day” (also known as “the book of the dead”) and the “ book of gates“. Furthermore, the only barriers to entrance were those relating to the journey to the hall of judgment and the preservation of the body (in which the Ba resided) and your name. As Osiris had been a good and beneficent ruler during his lifetime, his presence in the underworld no doubt gave the people great comfort.

Egyptian god osiris