Osiris's Biography

There are many different versions of myths throughout the centuries of the stories told from the past. We seek to give you a mix of different versions of stories combined to give a clear, interesting and exciting understanding of mythology

 

Osiris is the Egyptian god of the duat (underworld), the dead, resurrection, kingship and fertility. Osiris is often depicted as a mummy with green or black skin wearing a crown with two ostrich feathers sticking out of it holding a shepherd's crook in one hand and a flail in the other crossing the two objects along his chest. Sometimes Osiris is also depicted holding the ankh. Before becoming the god of the duat or afterlife Osiris was the first king of Egypt who taught and gave humanity agriculture, laws, justice and civilization. 

 

Osiris’s Parents and Siblings

Horus the younger is the son of Osiris and Isis in some myths and Horus the elder is the brother of them in some myths.

Osiris is the son of Geb and Nut. His siblings are Isis, Nephthys, Set and sometimes Horus the elder.

Osiris The First King Of Egypt

Osiris was the first born son of Geb and Nut and this gave him dominion to be king over his other siblings once his father stepped aside. Once Osiris became king he united upper and lower Egypt by bringing agriculture, law, religious practice and morality to humans ridding the land of barbarity. After his work was done in Egypt he traveled the rest of the world teaching humanity the gifts he had brought to Egypt.

Isis Finds out about Osiris and Nephthys

There are a couple different versions of this myth as to why Nephthys slept with Osiris but I will try my best to interpret this myth with understandable reasoning through research from different sources.

Nephthys, realizing that she would not be able to have children with her husband Set due to a curse that had been placed on him by Ra or simply because of the jealousy she had for her sister, disguised herself as her sister Isis and slept with an ignorant Osiris. Nephthys became pregnant soon and bore Anubis who she decided to abandon in the wilderness either because she feared Set’s wrath or because of the shame she had felt. There isn’t much known about how Isis figured out about this infidelity, but we can assume that Isis found out when Anubis was born or she uncovered the truth through her magical insight. There is no indication that Osiris acted against Nephthys in any way.

Set Kills Osiris

Their is not any widely agreed upon reason for Set killing Osiris, but the assumptions all have to do with either jealousy or greed.

Set the younger brother of Osiris was jealous and plotted to kill him. Set secretly measured Osiris while he was sleeping one night and built a coffin that would only fit Osiris perfectly. Set then hosted a gathering and invited Osiris as the guest of honor and during the party he introduced a game where anyone who could fit perfectly into the chest, which was actually a coffin that he had created, could have it as their own. The other guests of the party were followers of Set and they each knowingly lied in the coffin knowing that they would not fit. Osiris who felt no ill will against him then took his turn to lay in the coffin and when he did Set and his followers slammed the lid shut sealing Osiris inside. They then took the coffin and tossed it into the Nile River where Osiris drowned. The chest drifted off to Byblos where it lodged in a tree. After Set killed Osiris he discovered his body again and this time Set chopped Osiris’s body up into 14 to 16 pieces and spread his body parts throughout Egypt, but threw his phallus into the Nile where it was eaten by a fish leaving it unable to be recovered if his body was every reassembled.

Isis’s Journey of Pain 

Byblos was a city in Phoenicia they did not worship the same gods as Egyptians or Greeks. The name Byblos was given by the Greeks.

After Set cast Osiris’s coffin into the Nile it floated all the way to Byblos or Kepen in Phoenicia and washed ashore. The divinity of Osiris led to a great and beautiful Tamarisk tree growing around the casket. The king of Byblos Melenkander was taken away in awe by the great tree and made it into a pillar for his castle where Osiris’s casket remained hidden inside. A mourning Isis roamed around in search of her lost husband asking every being and god for any news of Osiris. Eventually her search led her to Byblos where she disguised herself as a modest woman sitting by a well weeping until the queen’s maidens approached her asking why she was weeping. Isis persuaded the maidens to take her to their queen, the wife of Melekander sometimes going by the name Astarte, by braiding their hair and spraying them with her sweet divine fragrance. Once Isis made it to the palace she either cast a spell over the queen or the queen was taken with the beauty of her maidens and Isis still in disguise was appointed to her court as a nurse and teacher for the queen’s son. At night Isis would turn into a swallow bird mourning in search of the pillar containing her lost husband Osiris. Meanwhile while in search of Osiris she tried to make the prince immortal by burning his mortal parts away with her divine fire but one night the queen was woken from her sleep and discovered her son in flames during the ritual and pulled him out of the flames which broke the ritual. Isis was angered by the queen and revealed her true identity scolding the queen for breaking the ritual. The king and queen begged Isis for forgiveness offering her whatever she wished to have. Isis asked for the pillar containing Osiris’s casket and left Byblos leaving the young prince to remain mortal. She returned to Egypt with the casket and hid it in the tall grass along the Nile, but soon Set came across the casket and became enraged leading him to dismember Osiris’s body and spread his body parts throughout Egypt making sure to toss his phallus into the Nile where it was eaten by a fish. Once again Isis had to set out in search of Osiris to make him whole again. Her sister Nephthys offered to help her and when they came across a body part of Osiris they created a shrine in honor of him. Once they collected all of the body parts they reassembled Osiris with the help of Anubis and Thoth. This was the first process of mummification taking place. Isis breathed life into Osiris once more and they had sexual intercourse with the phallus Isis had fashioned for him resulting in the birth of Horus who would eventually avenge his father Osiris.

 

Osiris God of the Dead

Osiris was resurrected but could not return to the land of the living because he was still incomplete due to his missing phallus.

Once Osiris and Isis were finished reconciling. Osiris descended back into the duat or land of the dead where he would remain and become king. In the land of the dead Osiris presides over the weighing of the heart. After death the soul or the ka travels through the underworld guided by Anubis until they reach the hall of Ma’at or truth. The heart of the dead is placed on one side of a balance scale and the feather of Ma’at is placed on the other side. Anubis oversees the weighing to ensure justice while Thoth records the results. Forty two lesser gods and Osiris hear the negative confessions or the declaration of innocence from the dead soul which is a ritual speech where the dead souls proclaim their innocence of sin or wrongdoing. Examples of the sins include “I have not stolen”, “I have not lied”, “I have not killed” and “I have not eaten the heart”. Each of the 42 lesser gods represented a specific principle or region of Egypt and asked the dead soul if they had committed a particular sin in which the dead soul had to deny. If the heart is lighter or equal to the feather it means that the soul is pure and if the heart is heavier it means that the soul did not live within the balance of Ma’at. If the heart is lighter or in balance the soul is welcomed by Osiris and joins him in the field of reeds, but if the heart is heavier it is cast to Ammit to suffer a second death with no hope of being born again. Osiris does not directly operate the scale or ask questions but he is the ultimate judge in maintaining Ma’at in the duat.

Research by Jameek Braggs