Osiris
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Osiris
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Osiris (Greek language, also Usiris; the Egyptian language name is variously transliterated Asar, Aser, Ausar, Ausir, Wesir,
or Ausare) is the Egyptian god of life, death, and fertility. Osiris is one of the oldest gods for whom records have been found and first appears in the Pyramid Texts around 2400 BC, when his cult is already well established. He was widely worshipped until the forcible suppression of paganism in the Christian era. The information we have on the myths of Osiris is derived from allusions contained in the pyramid texts, and, much later, in narrative style from the writings of Plutarch and Diodorus Siculus. Osiris was not only the redeemer and merciful judge of the dead in the afterlife, but also the underworld agency that granted all life, including sprouting vegetation and the fertile flooding of the Nile River.
The Kings of Egypt were associated with Osiris in death such that as Osiris rose from the dead so would they, in union with
him, inherit eternal life through a process of imitative magic. By the New Kingdom all people, not just pharaohs, were believed to be associated with Osiris at death if they incurred the
costs of the assimilation rituals. Osiris is the oldest son of the Earth god, Geb, and the sky goddess, Nut as well as being brother and husband of Isis, with Horus being considered his posthumously begotten son. He is usually depicted as a green-skinned pharaoh wearing the Atef crown, a form of the white crown of upper Egypt with a plume of feathers to either side. Typically he is also depicted holding the crook and flail which signify divine authority in Egyptian pharaohs, but which were originally unique to Osiris and his
own origin-gods (see below), and his feet and lower body are wrapped, as though already partly mummified. Osiris is later associated with the name Khenti-Amentiu, which means 'Foremost of the Westerners' a reference to his kingship in the land of the dead. When the Ennead and Ogdoad cosmogenies became merged, with the identification of Ra as Atum (Atum-Ra), gradually Anubis (Ogdoad system) was replaced by Osiris, whose cult had become more significant, Anubis was said to have
given way to Osiris out of respect, and, as an underworld deity. Anubis was Set's son in some versions, but because Set became god of evil, he was subsequently identified as being Osiris'
son. Abydos, which had been a strong centre of the cult of Anubis, became a centre of the cult of Osiris. However, Isis, Osiris' wife, represented life in the Ennead, it was considered somewhat inappropriate for her to be
the mother of a god associated with death such as Anubis, and so instead, it was usually said that Nephthys, the other of the two female children of Geb and Nut, was his mother. Later, when Hathor's identity (from the Ogdoad) was assimilated into that of Isis, Horus, who had been Isis' husband (in the Ogdoad), became considered her son, and thus, since Osiris was Isis'
husband (in the Ennead), Osiris also became considered Horus' father. Attempts to explain how Osiris, a god of the dead, could
give rise to someone so definitely alive as Horus, lead to the development of the Legend of Osiris and Isis, which became the greatest myth in Egyptian mythology. The myth described Osiris as having been killed by his brother Seth who wanted Osiris' throne. Isis
briefly brought Osiris back to life by use of a spell that she learned from her father. This spell gave her time to become
pregnant by Osiris before he again died. Isis later gave birth to Horus. As such, since Horus was born after Osiris' resurrection,
Horus became thought of as representing new beginnings and killed Seth. This combination, Osiris-Horus, was therefore
a life-death-rebirth deity, and thus associated with the new harvest each year. Afterward, Osiris became known as the egyptian god of the dead, Isis became known as the egyptian
goddess of the children, and Horus became known as the egyptian god of the sky. Ptah-Seker (who resulted from the identification of Ptah as Seker), who was god of re-incarnation, thus gradually became identified with Osiris, the two becoming Ptah-Seker-Osiris
(rarely known as Ptah-Seker-Atum, although this was just the name, and involved Osiris rather than Atum). As the sun
was thought to spend the night in the underworld, and subsequently be re-incarnated, as both king of the underworld,
and god of reincarnation, Ptah-Seker-Osiris was identified. Since Osiris was considered dead, as God of the dead, Osiris' soul, or rather his Ba, was occasionally worshipped in its own right, almost as if it were a distinct god, especially so in the Delta city of Mendes. This aspect of Osiris was referred to as Banebdjed (also spelt Banebded or Banebdjedet,
which is technically feminine) which literally means The ba of the lord of the djed, which roughly means The soul of the lord of the pillar of stability. The djed, a type of pillar, was usually
understood as the backbone of Osiris, and, at the same time, as the Nile, the backbone of Egypt. The Nile, supplying water, and
Osiris (strongly connected to the vegetation) who died only to be resurrected represented continuity and therefore stability. As Banebdjed, Osiris was given epithets such as Lord of the Sky and Life of the (sun god) Ra, since Ra, when he had become identified with Atum, was considered Osiris' ancestor, from whom his regal authority was inherited. Ba does not, however, quite mean soul in the western sense, and also has to do with power,
reputation, force of character, especially in the case of a god. Since the ba was associated with power, and also happened
to be a word for ram in Egyptian, Banebdjed was depicted as a ram, or as Ram-headed. A living, sacred ram, was even kept at Mendes and
worshipped as the incarnation of the god, and upon death, the rams were mummified and buried in a ram-specific necropolis. As regards the association of Osiris with the ram, the god's traditional crook and flail are of course the instruments of the shepherd, which has suggested to some scholars also an Osiris' origin
in herding tribes of the upper Nile. The crook and flail were originally symbols of the minor agricultural deity Anedijti, and passed to Osiris later. From Osiris they eventually passed to Egyptian kings in general as symbols
of divine authority. In Mendes, they had considered Hatmehit, a local fish-goddess, as the most important god/goddess, and so when the cult of Osiris became more significant, Banebdjed was identified in Mendes as deriving
his authority from being married to Hatmehit. Later, when Horus became identified as the child of Osiris (in this form Horus is known as Harpocrates in Greek and Har-pa-khered in Egyptian), Banebdjed was consequently said to be Horus' father, as Banebdjed
is an aspect of Osiris. In occult writings, Banebdjed is often called the goat of Mendes, and identified with Baphomet; the fact that Banebdjed was a ram (sheep), not a goat, is apparently overlooked. The cult of Osiris had a particularly strong interest towards the concept of immortality. Plutarch
recounts one version of the myth surrounding the cult in which Set (Osiris's brother) fooled Osiris into getting into a coffin, which he then shut, had sealed with lead
and threw into the Nile. Osiris's wife, Isis, searched for his remains until she finally found him embedded in a tree trunk, which was holding up
the roof of a palace in Byblos on the Phoenician coast. She managed to remove the coffin and open it, but Osiris was already
dead. She used a spell she had learned from her father and brought him back to life so he could impregnate her. After they
finished, he died again, so she hid his body in the desert. Months later, she gave birth to Horus. While she was off raising him, Set had been out hunting one night and he came across the body of Osiris.
Enraged, he tore the body into fourteen pieces and scattered them throughout the land. Isis gathered up all the parts of the
body, less the phallus which was eaten by a fish thereafter considered taboo by the Egyptians, and bandaged them together
for a proper burial. The gods were impressed by the devotion of Isis and thus restored Osiris to life in the form of a different
kind of existence as the god of the underworld. Because of his death and resurrection, Osiris is associated with the flooding
and retreating of the Nile and thus with the crops along the Nile valley. Diodorus Siculus gives another version of the myth in which Osiris is described as an ancient king
who taught the Egyptians the arts of civilization, including agriculture. Osiris is murdered by his evil brother Set, whom
Diodorus associates with the evil Typhon ("Typhonian Beast") of Greek mythology. Typhon divides the body into twenty
six pieces which he distributes amongst his fellow conspirators in order to implicate them in the murder. Isis and Horus avenge
the death of Osiris and slay Typhon. Isis recovers all the parts of Osiris body, less the phallus, and secretly buries them.
She made replicas of them and distributed them to several locations which then became centres of Osiris worship. The tale of Osiris losing his manhood to fish (becoming fish like) is cognate with the story the Greek
shepherd god Pan becoming fish like from the waist down in the same river Nile after being attacked by Typhon (see Capricornus). This attack was part of a generational feud in which both Zeus and Dionysus were dismembered by Typhon, in a similar manner as Osiris was by Set in Egypt. Plutarch and others have noted that the sacrifices to Osiris were “gloomy, solemn, and mournful…”
(Isis and Osiris, 69) and that the great mystery festival, celebrated in two phases, began at Abydos on the 17th of Athyr (Nov. 13th) commemorating the death of the god, which is also the same day that
grain was planted in the ground. “The death of the grain and the death of the god were one and the same: the cereal
was identified with the god who came from heaven; he was the bread by which man lives. The resurrection of the God symbolized
the rebirth of the grain.” (Larson 17) The annual festival involved the construction of “Osiris Beds” formed
in shape of Osiris, filled with soil and sown with seed. The germinating seed symbolized Osiris rising from the dead. An almost
pristine example was found in the tomb of Tutankhamun by Howard Carter. The first phase of the festival was a public drama depicting the murder and dismemberment of Osiris,
the search of his body by Isis, his triumphal return as the resurrected god, and the battle in which Horus defeated Set. This
was all presented by skilled actors as a literary history, and was the main method of recruiting cult membership. According
to Julius Firmicus Maternus of the fourth century, this play was re-enacted each year by worshippers who “beat their breasts
and gashed their shoulders…. When they pretend that the mutilated remains of the god have been found and rejoined…they
turn from mourning to rejoicing.” (De Errore Profanorum). I-Kher-Nefert stele Much of the extant information about the Passion of Osiris can be found on a stele at Abydos erected in the 12th Dynasty by I-Kher-Nefert (also Ikhernefert), possibly a priest of Osiris
or other official during the reign of Senwosret III (Pharaoh Sesostris, about 1875 BC). The Passion Plays were held in the last month of the inundation (the annual Nile flood), coinciding with Spring, and held
at Abydos/Abedjou which was the traditional place where the body of Osiris/Wesir drifted ashore after having been drowned
in the Nile. The part of the myth recounting the chopping up of the body into 14 pieces by Set is not recorded until later
by Plutarch. Some elements of the ceremony were held in the temple, while others involved public participation in
a form of theatre. The Stela of I-Kher-Nefert recounts the programme of events of the public elements over the five days of
the Festival: Contrasting with the public "theatrical" ceremonies sourced from the I-Kher-Nefert stele, more esoteric
ceremonies were performed inside the temples by priests witnessed only by initiates. Plutarch mentions that two days after
the beginning of the festival “the priests bring forth sacred chest containing a small golden coffer, into which they
pour some potable water…and a great shout arises from the company for joy that Osiris is found (or resurrected). Then
they knead some fertile soil with the water…and fashion therefrom a crescent-shaped figure, which they cloth and adorn,
this indicating that they regard these gods as the substance of Earth and Water.” (Isis and Osiris, 39). Yet
even he was obscure, for he also wrote, “I pass over the cutting of the wood” opting to not describe it since
he considered it most sacred (Ibid. 21). In the Osirian temple at Denderah, an inscription (translated by Budge, Chapter XV, Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection) describes in
detail the making of wheat paste models of each dismembered piece of Osiris to be sent out to the town where each piece was
discovered by Isis. At the temple of Mendes, figures of Osiris are made from wheat and paste placed in a trough on the day
of the murder, then water added for several days, when finally the mixture was kneaded into a mold of Osiris and taken to
the temple and buried (the sacred grain for these cakes only grown in the temple fields). Molds are made from wood of a red
tree in the forms of the sixteen dismembered parts of Osiris, cakes of divine bread made from each mold, placed in a silver
chest and set near the head of the god, the inward parts of Osiris as described in the Book of the Dead (XVII). On
the first day of the Festival of Ploughing, where the goddess Isis appears in her shrine where she is stripped naked, Paste
made from the grain is placed in her bed and moistened with water, representing the fecund earth. All of these sacred rituals
were climaxed by the eating of sacramental god, the eucharist by which the celebrants were transformed, in their persuasion,
into replicas of their god-man (Larson 20). Although there were ethical and ceremonial considerations none of these could compare to the power
of the divine eucharist, since it was literally believed to be the body (bread) and blood (ale) of the god. Since the ancient
Nilotics believed that humans were whatever they eat, this sacrament was, by extension, able to make them celestial
and immortal. The doctrine of the eucharist ultimately has its roots in prehistoric (symbolic) cannibalism, whose practitioners
believed that the virtues and powers of the eaten would thus be absorbed by the eater. This phenomenon has been described
throughout the world. One of the oldest of the Pyramid Texts is the Unas from the 6th Dynasty (circa 2500 BC). It shows that the original ideology of Egypt commingled with Osirian
concepts. Although ultimately given a high place in heaven by order of Osiris, Unas is at first an enemy of the gods and his
ancestors, whom he hunts, lassoes, kills, cooks, and eats so that their powers may become his own. This was written at a time
when the eating of parents and gods was a laudable ceremony, and this emphasizes how hard it must have been to stamp out the
older order of cannibalism. “He eats men, he feeds on the gods…he cooks them in his fiery cauldrons. He eats their
words of power, he swallows their spirits…. He eats the wisdom of every god, his period of life is eternity….
Their soul is in his body, their spirits are within him.” A parallel passage is found in the Pyramid Text of Pepi II, who is said to have “seizeth those who are a follower of Set…he breaketh their heads, he
cutteth off their haunches, he teareth out their intestines, he diggeth out their hearts, he drinketh copiously of their blood!”
(line 531, ff). Although crude, this was a core concept, the conviction that one could receive immortality by eating the flesh
and blood of a god who had died became a dominating obsession in the ancient world. Although the cult of Osiris forbade cannibalism,
it did not outlaw dismemberment and eating of enemies, and practiced the ritual rending and eating of the sacred bull, symbolizing Osiris. Although this sacramental concept only originated once in history, it spread throughout the Mediterranean
area and became the dynamic force in every mystery cult. It was only by this sacerdotal means that the corruptible deceased
could be clothed in incorruption and this idea appears again and again in infinite variety. The scribe Nebseni implores: “And
there in the celestial mansions of heaven which my divine father Tem hath established, let my hands lay hold upon the wheat
and the barley which shall be given unto me therein in abundant measure” (Ibid. LXXII). Nu corroborates that this is
the eucharist by saying: “I am established, and the divine Sekhet-hetep is before me, I have eaten therein, I have become
a spirit therein, I have abundance therein.” (Ibid. LXXVII) Again Nu states: “I am the divine soul of Ra…which
is god…I am the divine food which is not corrupted” (Ibid. LXXXV). The ancientness of the concept is again reaffirmed
in the Pyramid Text of Teta (2600 BC) where the Osiris Teta “receivest thy bread which decayeth not, and thy beer which
perisheth not” In the Text of Pepi I we read: “All the gods give thee their flesh and their blood…. Thou shalt not die.”
In the Text of Pepi II the aspirant prays for “thy bread of eternity, and thy beer of everlastingness” (Line 390). By the Hellenic era, Greek awareness of Osiris had grown, and attempts had been made to merge Greek
philosophy, such as Platonism, and the cult of Osiris (especially the myth of his resurrection), resulting in a new mystery religion. Gradually, this became more popular, and was exported to other parts of the Greek sphere of influence. However, these mystery religions valued the change in wisdom, personality, and knowledge of fundamental
truth, rather than the exact details of the acknowledged myths on which their teachings were superimposed. Thus in each region
that it was exported to, the myth was changed to be about a similar local god, resulting in a series of gods, who had originally
been quite distinct, but who were now syncretisms with Osiris. These gods became known as Osiris-Dionysus. Eventually, in Egypt, the Hellenic pharaohs decided to produce a deity that would be acceptable to both the local Egyptian population, and the influx
of Hellenic visitors, to bring the two groups together, rather than allow a source of rebellion to grow. Thus Osiris was identified
explicitly with Apis, really an aspect of Ptah, who had already been identified as Osiris by this point, and a syncretism of the two was created, known as Serapis, and depicted as a standard Greek god. Osiris-worship continued up until the 6th century AD on the island of Philae in Upper Nile. The Theodosian decree (in about 380 AD) to destroy all pagan temples and force worshippers to accept Christianity was ignored
there. However, Justinian dispatched a General Narses to Philae, who destroyed the Osirian temples and sanctuaries, threw
the priests into prison, and carted the sacred images off to Constantinople. However, by that time, the soteriology of Osiris had assumed various forms which had long spread far and wide in the ancient world.
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