Osiris
He was/is the god of fertility, agriculture, the afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, & vegetation in Ancient Egyptian religion. Osiris was widely worshipped until the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire.
He’s usually shown as a green-skinned deity with a pharaoh’s beard, partially wrapped like a mummy at the legs, holding a symbolic associated with the mummy wrap.
When his brother, Set, cut Osiris literally into pieces, Isis (Osiris’ sister & wife), along with her sister, Nephthys searched Egypt to find all of Osiris’ body parts. She collected all but 1 piece, Osiris’ manhood.
Isis wrapped up Osiris’ body. This let him come back to life.
Osiris was, at times, considered the eldest son of the earth god, Geb, & the sky goddess, Nut. As well as brother & husband of Isis. Horus the Younger being considered his posthumously sired son. Through a mixing of religious ideas, with Iah, he’s also the god of the Moon.
In the Old Kingdom (2686-2181 BC), the Pharaoh was considered a son of the sun god Ra. After his death (the pharaoh’s), would ascend to join Ra in the sky. After the spread of the Osiris cult, the pharaohs of Egypt were linked to Osiris in death.
As Osiris rose from the dead, they’d unite with him & inherit eternal life through imitative magic. Through the hope of new life after death, Osiris began to be linked with the cycles in nature. In particular the sprouting of vegetation & the annual flooding of the Nile River.
As well as the heliacal rising of Orion & Sirius at the start of the new year. Heliacal rising is a star(s) or planet that happens annually, when it becomes visible above the eastern horizon at dawn in the brief moment just before sunrise.
The 1st evidence of the worship of Osiris is from the middle of the 5th Dynasty of Egypt (25th century BC).
Osiris is represented in his developed form of iconography wearing the Atef crown. This is similar to the White Crown of Upper Egypt. But with the addition of 2 curling ostrich feathers at each side.
He also carries the crook & flail. The crook is thought to represent Osiris as a shepherd god. He was usually shown as a pharaoh with a complexion of either green (the color of rebirth) or black (alluding to the fertility of the Nile floodplain) in mummiform (wearing the trappings of mummification from the chest downward).
The mythology depicts Osiris as having been killed by his brother, Set, who wanted Osiris’ throne. Osiris’ wife, & sister, Isis, finds the body of Osiris & hides it in the reeds where it’s found, & dismembered by Set. Isis retrieved & joined the fragmental pieces of Osiris. Then briefly revives him by the use of magic. This spell gave her enough time to become pregnant by Osiris.
Isis then gave birth to Horus. Since Horus was born after Osiris’ resurrection, Horus became thought of as a representation of new beginnings & the vanquisher of the usurper, Set.
Ptah-Seker, who came from the identification of the creator god Ptah with Seker. Seeker is a hawk/falcon god of the Memphite necropolis in the Ancient Egyptian religion. He was the patron of the living & god of the dead. Thus gradually became identified with Osiris, the 2 becoming Ptah-Seker-Osiris were identified as king of the underworld, God of the afterlife, life, death, & regeneration.
Annual ceremonies were performed in honor of Osiris in various places across Egypt. The ceremonies were fertility rites, which symbolized the resurrection of Osiris. The sacrifices to Osiris were gloomy, solemn, & mournful. The Great mystery festival, celebrated in 2 phases, began at Abydos commemorating the death of the god. This was on the same day that grain was planted in the ground.
The annual festival involved the construction of “Osiris Beds” formed in the shape of Osiris, filled with soil & sown with seed.
The germinating seeds symbolizing Osiris rising an almost perfect example was found in the tomb of Tutankhamun. The imiut emblem – an image of a stuffed, headless skin, of an animal tied to a pole mounting a pot, was a symbol associated both with Osiris as a god of the underworld & with Anubis. This includes a deceased person’s funerary equipment.
The 1st phase of the festival was a public drama depicting the murder & dismemberment of Osiris, the search for his body by Isis, his triumphal return as the resurrected god, & the battle in which Horus defeated Set.
Much of the existing information about the rites of Osiris can be found on the Ikhernofret Stela at Abydos erected in the 12th Dynasty by Ikhernofret. Possibly a priest of Osiris or other official (the titles of Ikhernofert are described in his stela from Abydos) during the reign of Senwosert III (Pharaoh Sesostris, about 1875 BC.).
The ritual reenacting the Osiris’s funeral rites was held in the last month of the inundation (the annual Nile flood). This is coinciding with spring. This was held at Abydos which was the additional place where the body of Osiris drifted ashore after having been drowned in the Nile.
The Stela of Ikhernofret tells the timetable of events of the public elements over the 5 days of the Festival:
- First Day; The Procession of Wepwawet: A fake battle was enacted during which the enemies of Osiris are defeated a procession was led by the God Wepwawet (“opener of the way”).
- Second Day; The Great Procession of Osiris: The body of Osiris was taken from his temple to his tomb. The boat he was transported in, the “Neshmet” bank, had to be defended against his enemies.
- Third Day: Osiris is mourned & the enemies of the land are destroyed.
- Fourth Day; Night Vigil: Prayers & recitations are made & funeral rites performed.
- Fifth Day; Osiris is Reborn: Osiris is reborn & crowned with the crown of Ma’at. The statue of Osiris is brought back to the temple.
The cult of Isis & Osiris continued at Philae until the 450s CE. This is long after the imperial decrees of the late 4th century that ordered the closing of temples to “pagan” gods. Philae was the last major ancient Egypt temple to be closed.
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