Moral Code

Osiris’s story holds multiple morals for example given that Osiris was once a king of the living and now a king of the dead justifies the notion that death is not the end. This part of the story correlates to the notion that living a good life will lead to life after death. Through research of Osiris we learn that he is ultimately a god figure holding multiple virtues such as fertility, kingship and justice. It seems that his death does not diminish any of these aspects that he embodied, but it seems to increase the values that he upheld before his death. When Osiris was king humanity prospered living in harmony with thriving civilizations, but when Set took over as king the land was filled with chaos, storms and violence leading to declining civilizations leaving humanity in a state of nostalgia for when the land was peaceful. Even through betrayal and death Osiris still remained good in nature. When faced with those odds it can be challenging to remain steadfast because most become vengeful in some manner when wronged. Even though Osiris faced these egregious actions caused by his own brother who he loved and treated fairly his morality did not waiver, but why? The myths never speak of Osiris’s feelings toward Set after the betrayal, but we can read between the lines and see that since Osiris is a god that embodies such principles as the ultimate judge, it would be contradictory for him to be vengeful in any type of way. Instead it seems that Osiris recognizes the true nature of Set seeing that chaos is needed for the cosmos to maintain balance and accepts his new role gracefully as the king of the underworld. 

The moral code for the myth of Osiris to my understanding is that sometimes order will outweigh chaos and sometimes chaos will outweigh order. The death of Osiris was a great tragedy in the eyes of the gods and ancient Egyptian people because it gave way for chaos to take control, but in the midst of the chaos much was learned. Humanity learned not to take the lessons that Osiris taught them for granted also that there was life after death if one lived within the balance of Ma’at. Since Osiris was the first god to actually die the gods also learned how fragile order can be. Before Set turned on Osiris the cosmos was stable but when Set killed Osiris there became rift not only on earth but also among the gods showing that death and betrayal could also come from within divinity. It seems that Osiris also learned something himself through his resurrection and renewal. After Osiris was resurrected he decided to stay in the underworld and rule there, this can be an example of embracing your new role through change rather than clinging to the old you. This showed that the new version of yourself can be much more powerful than the old one. Throughout the myth the point of focus is primarily balance. Without order there would only be chaos and without chaos there would be no meaning to order, like Osiris we must dig deep and embrace the positive side of matters and situations rather than give in to the negative side being that the positive aspect is so fragile. If there is not anything else to learn from this myth we should be able to see that the lessons teaches us that chaos and order are not enemies, but twins of the same nature. If chaos or order only existed alone both would bring destruction. Harmony is not in the absence of chaos, harmony is just the forming of chaos into order.

“Your heart is weighed, your soul measured, your life judged. Truth is your path; falsehood is your destruction.”

-Jameek Braggs