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===Father of Horus===
===Father of Horus===
[[Image:La Tombe de Horemheb cropped.jpg|thumb|200px|The gods Osiris, [[Anubis]], and [[Horus]], from a tomb painting.]]
[[Image:La Tombe de Horemheb cropped.jpg|thumb|200px|The gods Osiris, [[Anubis]], and [[Horus]], from a tomb painting.]]
Osiris is the mythological father of the god [[Horus]], whose conception is described in the [[Osiris myth]], a central myth in [[Ancient Egyptian religion|ancient Egyptian belief]]. The myth described Osiris as having been killed by his brother Set, who wanted Osiris' throne. Isis joined the fragmented pieces of Osiris, but the only body part missing was the phallus. Isis fashioned a golden phallus, and briefly brought Osiris back to life by use of a spell that she learned from [[Geb|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 a representation of new beginnings and the vanquisher of the evil Set. Right after his resurrection, Osiris gave Isis that '''HOT GOLD PHALLUS LONG PHALLUS STYLE'''.
Osiris is the mythological father of the god [[Horus]], whose conception is described in the [[Osiris myth]], a central myth in [[Ancient Egyptian religion|ancient Egyptian belief]]. The myth described Osiris as having been killed by his brother Set, who wanted Osiris' throne. Isis joined the fragmented pieces of Osiris, but the only body part missing was the phallus. Isis fashioned a golden phallus, and briefly brought Osiris back to life by use of a spell that she learned from [[Geb|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 a representation of new beginnings and the vanquisher of the evil Set. Right after his resurrection, Osiris gave Isis that '''HOT GOLD PHALLUS'''.


''Ptah-Seker'' (who resulted from the identification of Creator god [[Ptah]] with [[Seker]]), god of [[reincarnation]], thus gradually became identified with Osiris, the two becoming '''Ptah-Seker-Osiris'''. As the sun was thought to spend the night in the underworld, and was subsequently ''reincarnated'' every morning, Ptah-Seker-Osiris was identified as both [[Creator god]], king of the [[underworld]], god of the [[afterlife]], reincarnation, life, death, and [[resurrection]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.crystalinks.com/ptah.html|title=Ptah - Crystalinks|publisher=}}</ref>
''Ptah-Seker'' (who resulted from the identification of Creator god [[Ptah]] with [[Seker]]), god of [[reincarnation]], thus gradually became identified with Osiris, the two becoming '''Ptah-Seker-Osiris'''. As the sun was thought to spend the night in the underworld, and was subsequently ''reincarnated'' every morning, Ptah-Seker-Osiris was identified as both [[Creator god]], king of the [[underworld]], god of the [[afterlife]], reincarnation, life, death, and [[resurrection]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.crystalinks.com/ptah.html|title=Ptah - Crystalinks|publisher=}}</ref>

Revision as of 04:14, 10 May 2016

For Osiris Boat Club, see Oxford University Boat Club and Oxford University Women's Boat Club. For other uses, see Osiris (disambiguation).
"Usire" redirects here. For the 2001 film, see Usire (film).
"Aser" redirects here. Not to be confused with Acer.
Osiris
god of the afterlife, death, life, and resurrection
Osiris, lord of the dead. His black-green skin symbolizes re-birth.
Name in hieroglyphs
Q1
D4		 A40
Major cult centerAbydos
SymbolCrook and flail, Atef crown, ostrich feathers, fish, mummy gauze
Genealogy
ParentsGeb and Nut
SiblingsIsis, Set, Nephthys, Haroeris
ConsortIsis
OffspringHorus and sometimes Anubis
Head of the God Osiris, ca. 595-525 B.C.E. Brooklyn Museum

Osiris (/oʊˈsaɪər[invalid input: 'ɨ']s/, alternatively Ausir, Asiri or Ausar, among other spellings), was an Egyptian god, usually identified as the god of the afterlife, the underworld, and the dead, but more appropriately as the god of transition, resurrection, and regeneration. He was classically depicted as a green-skinned man with a pharaoh's beard, partially mummy-wrapped at the legs, wearing a distinctive crown with two large ostrich feathers at either side, and holding a symbolic crook and flail. Osiris was at times considered the oldest son of the earth god Geb, though other sources state his father is the sun-god Ra[1] and the sky goddess Nut, as well as being brother and husband of Isis, with Horus being considered his posthumously begotten son.[1] He was also associated with the epithet Khenti-Amentiu, meaning "Foremost of the Westerners", a reference to his kingship in the land of the dead.[2] As ruler of the dead, Osiris was also sometimes called "king of the living": ancient Egyptians considered the blessed dead "the living ones".[3] Osiris was considered the brother of Isis, Set, Nephthys, and Horus the Elder, and father of Horus the younger.[4] Osiris is first attested in the middle of the Fifth dynasty of Egypt, although it is likely that he was worshipped much earlier;[5] the Khenti-Amentiu epithet dates to at least the first dynasty, also as a pharaonic title. Most information available on the myths of Osiris is derived from allusions contained in the Pyramid Texts at the end of the Fifth Dynasty, later New Kingdom source documents such as the Shabaka Stone and the Contending of Horus and Seth, and much later, in narrative style from the writings of Greek authors including Plutarch[6] and Diodorus Siculus.[7]

Osiris was considered not only a 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. He was described as the "Lord of love",[8] "He Who is Permanently Benign and Youthful"[9] and the "Lord of Silence".[10] The Kings of Egypt were associated with Osiris in death – as Osiris rose from the dead they would, 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.[11]

Through the hope of new life after death, Osiris began to be associated with the cycles observed in nature, in particular vegetation and the annual flooding of the Nile, through his links with the heliacal rising of Orion and Sirius at the start of the new year.[9] Osiris was widely worshipped as Lord of the Dead until the suppression of the Egyptian religion during the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire.[12][13]

Etymology of the name

Osiris is a Latin transliteration of the Ancient Greek Ὄσιρις IPA: [ó.siː.ris], which in turn is the Greek adaptation of the original theonym in the Egyptian language. In Egyptian hieroglyphs the name is written Wsjr, as the hieroglyphic writing does not restitute all the vowels, and Egyptologists transliterate the name variously as Asar, Yasar, Aser, Asaru, Ausar, Ausir, Wesir, Usir, Usire or Ausare.

Several proposals have been made for the etymology and meaning of the original name Wsjr. John Gwyn Griffiths (1980) proposed a derivation from wser signifying "the powerful". Moreover, one of the oldest attestations of the god Osiris appears in the mastaba of the deceased Netjer-wser (God Almighty).

David Lorton (1985) proposed that Wsjr is composed by the morphemes set-jret signifying "ritual activity", Osiris being the one who receives it. Wolfhart Westendorf (1987) proposed an etymology from Waset-jret "she who bears the eye".[14]

Appearance

Osiris with an Atef-crown made of bronze in the Naturhistorisches Museum (Vienna)

Osiris is represented in his most developed form of iconography wearing the Atef crown, which is similar to the White crown of Upper Egypt, but with the addition of two curling ostrich feathers at each side (see also Atef crown (hieroglyph)). He also carries the crook and flail. The crook is thought to represent Osiris as a shepherd god. The symbolism of the flail is more uncertain with shepherds whip, fly-whisk, or association with the god Andjety of the ninth nome of Lower Egypt proposed.[9]

He was commonly depicted 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 chest downward).[15]

Early mythology

The Pyramid Texts describe early conceptions of an afterlife in terms of eternal travelling with the sun god amongst the stars. Amongst these mortuary texts, at the beginning of the 4th dynasty, is found: "An offering the king gives and Anubis". By the end of the 5th dynasty, the formula in all tombs becomes "An offering the king gives and Osiris".[16]

Father of Horus

The gods Osiris, Anubis, and Horus, from a tomb painting.

Osiris is the mythological father of the god Horus, whose conception is described in the Osiris myth, a central myth in ancient Egyptian belief. The myth described Osiris as having been killed by his brother Set, who wanted Osiris' throne. Isis joined the fragmented pieces of Osiris, but the only body part missing was the phallus. Isis fashioned a golden phallus, and 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 a representation of new beginnings and the vanquisher of the evil Set. Right after his resurrection, Osiris gave Isis that HOT GOLD PHALLUS.

Ptah-Seker (who resulted from the identification of Creator god Ptah with Seker), god of reincarnation, thus gradually became identified with Osiris, the two becoming Ptah-Seker-Osiris. As the sun was thought to spend the night in the underworld, and was subsequently reincarnated every morning, Ptah-Seker-Osiris was identified as both Creator god, king of the underworld, god of the afterlife, reincarnation, life, death, and resurrection.[17]

Ram god

E10nbDdniwtDd
Banebdjed
(b3-nb-ḏd)
in hieroglyphs

Osiris' soul, or rather his Ba, was occasionally worshipped in its own right, almost as if it were a distinct god, especially in the Delta city of Mendes. This aspect of Osiris was referred to as Banebdjedet, which is grammatically feminine (also spelt "Banebded" or "Banebdjed"), literally "the ba of the lord of the djed, which roughly means The soul of the lord of the pillar of continuity. 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 vegetable regeneration) who died only to be resurrected, represented continuity and 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 is inherited. Ba does not mean "soul" in the western sense, and 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 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. Banebdjed was consequently said to be Horus' father, as Banebdjed was an aspect of Osiris.

Regarding the association of Osiris with the ram, the god's traditional crook and flail are the instruments of the shepherd, which has suggested to some scholars also an origin for Osiris in herding tribes of the upper Nile. The crook and flail were originally symbols of the minor agricultural deity Andjety, and passed to Osiris later. From Osiris, they eventually passed to Egyptian kings in general as symbols of divine authority.


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 is discovered by Isis. At the temple of Mendes, figures of Osiris were made from wheat and paste placed in a trough on the day of the murder, then water was added for several days, until finally the mixture was kneaded into a mold of Osiris and taken to the temple to be buried (the sacred grain for these cakes were grown only in the temple fields). Molds were made from the wood of a red tree in the forms of the sixteen dismembered parts of Osiris, the cakes of 'divine' bread were made from each mold, placed in a silver chest and set near the head of the god with 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 appeared in her shrine where she was stripped naked, paste made from the grain were 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).[unreliable source?]

Judgment

The idea of divine justice being exercised after death for wrongdoing during life is first encountered during the Old Kingdom, in a 6th dynasty tomb containing fragments of what would be described later as the Negative Confessions.[18] ormance with the precepts of the goddess Ma'at, who represented truth and right living, the person was welcomed into the kingdom of Osiris. If found guilty, the person was thrown to a "devourer" and didn't share in eternal life.[19]

The person who is taken by the devourer is subject first to terrifying punishment and then annihilated. These depictions of punishment may have influenced medieval perceptions of the inferno in hell via early Christian and Coptic texts.[20]

Purification for those who are considered justified may be found in the descriptions of "Flame Island", where they experience the triumph over evil and rebirth. For the damned, complete destruction into a state of non-being awaits, but there is no suggestion of eternal torture.[21][22]

Divine pardon at judgement was always a central concern for the Ancient Egyptians.[23]

During the reign of Seti I, Osiris was also invoked in royal decrees to pursue the living when wrongdoing was observed, but kept secret and not reported.[24]

Greco-Roman era

Hellenization

Bust of Serapis.

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, while 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.[25]

Destruction of cult

Philae Island.

The cult of Osiris continued until the 6th century AD on the island of Philae in Upper Nile. The Theodosian decrees of the 390s, to destroy all pagan temples, were not enforced there. The worship of Isis and Osiris was allowed to continue at Philae until the time of Justinian I, by treaty between the Blemmyes-Nobadae and Diocletian. Every year they visited Elephantine, and at certain intervals took the image of Isis up river to the land of the Blemmyes for oracular purposes. The practices ended when Justinian sent Narses to destroy sanctuaries, arrest priests, and seize divine images, which were taken to Constantinople.[26]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b Wilkinson, Richard H. (2003). The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt. London: Thames & Hudson. p. 105. ISBN 0-500-05120-8.
  2. ^ "How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs", Mark Collier & Bill Manley, British Museum Press, p. 41, 1998, ISBN 0-7141-1910-5
  3. ^ "Conceptions of God In Ancient Egypt: The One and the Many", Erik Hornung (translated by John Baines), p. 233, Cornell University Press, 1996, ISBN 0-8014-1223-4
  4. ^ Kane Chronicles
  5. ^ Griffiths, John Gwyn (1980). The Origins of Osiris and His Cult. Brill. p. 44
  6. ^ "Isis and Osiris", Plutarch, translated by Frank Cole Babbitt, 1936, vol. 5 Loeb Classical Library. Penelope.uchicago.edu
  7. ^ "The Historical Library of Diodorus Siculus", vol. 1, translated by G. Booth, 1814. Google Books
  8. ^ "The Gods of the Egyptians", E. A. Wallis Budge, p. 259, Dover 1969, org. pub. 1904, ISBN 0-486-22056-7
  9. ^ a b c The Oxford Guide: Essential Guide to Egyptian Mythology, Edited by Donald B. Redford, pp. 302–307, Berkley, 2003, ISBN 0-425-19096-X
  10. ^ "The Burden of Egypt", J. A. Wilson, p. 302, University of Chicago Press, 4th imp 1963
  11. ^ "Man, Myth and Magic", Osiris, vol. 5, pp. 2087–2088, S.G.F. Brandon, BPC Publishing, 1971.
  12. ^ "Catholic Encyclopedia: Theodosius I". Newadvent.org. 1912-07-01. Retrieved 2012-05-01.
  13. ^ "History of the Later Roman Empire from the Death of Theodosius I. to the Death of Justinian", The Suppression of Paganism – ch22, p. 371, John Bagnell Bury, Courier Dover Publications, 1958, ISBN 0-486-20399-9
  14. ^ Mathieu 2010, p. 79 : Les origines d'Osiris
  15. ^ "How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs", Mark Collier & Bill Manley, British Museum Press, p. 42, 1998, ISBN 0-7141-1910-5
  16. ^ "Architecture of the Afterlife: Understanding Egypt's pyramid tombs", Ann Macy Roth, Archaeology Odyssey, Spring 1998
  17. ^ "Ptah - Crystalinks".
  18. ^ "Studies in Comparative Religion", General editor, E. C Messenger, Essay by A. Mallon S. J, vol 2/5, p. 23, Catholic Truth Society, 1934
  19. ^ Religion and Magic in Ancient Egypt, Rosalie David, pp. 158–159, Penguin, 2002, ISBN 0-14-026252-0
  20. ^ "The Essential Guide to Egyptian Mythology: The Oxford Guide", "Hell", pp. 161–162, Jacobus Van Dijk, Berkley Reference, 2003, ISBN 0-425-19096-X
  21. ^ "The Divine Verdict", John Gwyn Griffiths, p. 233, Brill Publications, 1991, ISBN 90-04-09231-5
  22. ^ "Letter: Hell in the ancient world. Letter by Professor J. Gwyn Griffiths". The Independent. December 31, 1993.
  23. ^ "Egyptian Religion", Jan Assman, The Encyclopedia of Christianity, p. 77, vol2, Wm. B Eerdmans Publishing, 1999, ISBN 90-04-11695-8
  24. ^ "The Burden of Egypt", J.A Wilson, p. 243, University of Chicago Press, 4th imp 1963; The INSCRIPTIONS OF REDESIYEH from the reign of Seti I include "As for anyone who shall avert the face from the command of Osiris, Osiris shall pursue him, Isis shall pursue his wife, Horus shall pursue his children, among all the princes of the necropolis, and they shall execute their judgment with him." (Breasted Ancient Egyptian Records, Vol 3, p. 86)
  25. ^ "Osiris".
  26. ^ "History of the Later Roman Empire from the Death of Theodosius I. to the Death of Justinian", The Suppression of Paganism – ch. 22, p. 371, John Bagnell Bury, Courier Dover Publications, 1958, ISBN 0-486-20399-9
  • Freemasonry and its Ancient Mystic Rites. pp. 35–36, by C. W. Leadbeater, Gramercy, 1998 ISBN 0-517-20267-0

References

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