![isis and osiris isis and osiris](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-L739IQnQy5I/UnhXpk0_LNI/AAAAAAAAAcg/QahRO_odce0/s1600/EPM+Isis+&+Osiris.jpg)
Many centuries later this led to interest in the Egyptian cult by the Greeks, including Plato.
![isis and osiris isis and osiris](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1347432149l/2521087.jpg)
In Greece, the Demeter- Persephone death-resurrection cult at Eleusis, had a similar nature, and began at approximately the same time. The legend's ventures into both life and afterlife meant that religious rites associated with the legend eventually began to take on aspects of a mystery religion, where initiates were said to be able to partake in Horus/Osiris' resurrection, purging themselves of past ills, and entering a new life.
![isis and osiris isis and osiris](https://cdn.w600.comps.canstockphoto.com/illustrations-of-the-gods-of-ancient-eps-vector_csp80770447.jpg)
Being simultaneously alive and dead, Osiris became the god and king of the afterlife.Īs a life-death-rebirth deity, Horus/ Osiris became a reflection of the annual cycle of crop harvesting as well as reflecting people's desires for a successful afterlife, and so the legend became extremely important, outstripping all others. She breathes life into him in order to revive him and conceive Horus. In other tellings of the story, Isis grows wings and hovers over Osiris. She then took the form of a kite and flew around his body in order to conceive Horus. In some versions, Isis sang a song around Osiris until he came back to life. So Isis created a phallus for him, and then attempted to revive him. The original form of Set's murder of Osiris was incorporated into this later version, though it was said that the attempt had failed when Isis and Nepthys found the coffin and rescued it.Ĭonsequently, the story became that before resurrecting Osiris, Isis put together thirteen of the fourteen parts, but was unable to find the fourteenth, his penis, which was eaten by the oxyrhynchus fish (a fish with an unusual curved snout resembling depictions of Set). Another interpretation is that the pieces were fourteen (they number up to sixteen in some versions) were the phases of a single moon's cycle (one sliver cut off each night for fourteen days, then reassembled over the next fourteen days-see Janet McCrickard, Eclipse of the Sun, 1990).
ISIS AND OSIRIS FULL
Thus it later became said that Osiris had been killed by being dismembered into thirteen parts, each part representing one of the thirteen full moons seen each year (there are roughly thirteen lunar months per year). Īs a death and resurrection legend, in which evil seeks to destroy a deity, thus bringing darkness, it thus developed an association with the lunar cycle, in which the moon appears to be destroyed by darkness, and is then brought back to life. In late Egyptian thought, the righteous dead were sometimes said to become the stars, and thus the moon was occasionally seen as having a connection to Osiris, lord of the dead. He could have proper ceremonies and burial.ĭue to this experience, Osiris became Lord of the Dead, and the Afterlife. Instead, she fashioned a phallus out of gold and sang a song around Osiris until he came back to life. Once again Isis set out to look for the pieces and she was able to find thirteen of the fourteen parts, with the help of Nephthys, Set's sister-wife, but was unable to find the fourteenth. Each part represented one of the fourteen full moons (each year has twelve to fourteen full moons ). She also learned that the cedar tree had been taken and used as a pillar to support a palace for the king of Byblos.Īgain, Set found Osiris' coffin, took his body out, and dismembered him into fourteen parts, scattering them across the land of Egypt. She later learned that the coffin had floated down the Nile river up to the coast of Byblos (now in modern-day Lebanon) and got embedded in the trunk of a cedar tree. She was afraid without proper ceremonies and burial Osiris would not be able to go to the place of the dead.
![isis and osiris isis and osiris](https://i.etsystatic.com/23371315/r/il/f16e25/2716222038/il_340x270.2716222038_t66j.jpg)
Upon hearing that Osiris was gone, Isis set out to look for him. It was then sealed with lead and thrown into the Nile. Osiris was encouraged to try, but as soon as he lay back, the lid slammed on him and was locked. A few people tried to fit in, but to no avail. A party had been held where the coffin was offered to whoever could fit inside. The original form of the myth states that Osiris was killed by a wooden sarcophagus secretly being made to his measurements by Set, who was jealous of Osiris's position as king, and so plotted to kill him and take his place.