Osiris

• He was the God of the Afterlife, the Tuat or Underworld, God of the Dead, in the Ancient Egyptian Religion.
• Osiris was the posthumous Father of Horus and the brother and husband of Isis.

Portrayal

• Osiris is portrayed as carrying the Crook and the Flail, and his skin was either shown as green, the colour of rebirth, or black. the colour of the fertile soil of the Nile.
• In one hand he is shown as holding the Djed, a kind of pillar, and in the other, the Ankh, the symbol of Life and of Isis.
• Osiris was identified with the Constellation Orion and his wife Isis was identified with the star Sirius.

The Osiris Myth

• The Deception and murder of Osiris by his brother Set:
  • Osiris was killed by his brother Set, who wanted his Throne, and deceived Osiris into entering a coffin. This was then thrown into the Nile, and it floated out to the Sea, where it was washed up on the shores of the city of Byblos in Syria.
  • A sacred Tree then grew at a remarkable speed around the coffin and enclosed it inside its trunk. Unaware of the coffin inside the tree, the local King, impressed by the tree’s rapid growth, had it chopped down and its trunk turned into a wooden pillar in his palace.
• The Search for Osiris by Isis and Nephthys
  • Isis with the help of Anubis, located the coffin inside the pillar. She befriended the King and was granted the pillar as a gift. Isis removed the coffin from the pillar, but consecrated the wooden pillar which subsequently was named the Djed. The Djed is the symbol that Osiris is always shown holding in one hand, with the Ankh (symbol of life) in the other. The Djed came to represent his backbone, and symbolised the annual rebirth of the Nile.
• The Mummification, Funeral and Resurrection of Osiris:
  • Isis then restored the Body of Osiris using a spell, brought him briefly back to life, during which period she became pregnant with Horus. Osiris then died again and became the God of the Afterlife, the Underworld and the Dead as well as the God of Reincarnation.

Abydos

• Abydos was the Cult centre of Osiris.
  • The Tomb of Djer, the third Pharaoh of the First Dynasty (c.3000 BCE), was perceived as the Tomb of Osiris.
  • At the Osiris Temple in Abydos, an annual re-enactment of the Osiris Myth took place with hundreds of Priests and Priestesses playing the roles of all the Gods. It took place during the fourth month, the month of Chioak, after the Annual Rise of the Nile, which was the beginning of the Agricultural season when the farmers started planting. The Procession then travelled from the Temple of Osiris to the Tomb of Djer.

Raising of the Djed

• During the Pharaoh’s Jubilee year, a ceremony called ‘Raising the Djed’ occurred, where a wooden Djed Pillar would be hauled upright by ropes during the same month of Chiok. Raising the Djed Pillar symbolised the rebirth of Osiris.