Osiris - God of the Dead

"There is some evidence that in Egypt the slain corn-spirit - the dead Osiris - was represented by a human victim, whom the reapers slew on the harvest-field, mourning his death in a dirge..."
     - Sir James George Frazer, The Illustrated Golden Bough

"...Effigies made of vegetable mould and stuffed with corn were buried in graves or placed between the legs of mummies. In a representation at Philae we see the dead body of Osiris with stalks of corn springing from it, watered by a priest. There is an inscription: 'This is the form of him whom one may not name, Osiris of the mysteries, who springs from the returning waters.' A religion then of the earth and its fertility; but at the same time, a promise of resurrection for the dead."
     - John Ferguson, An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Mysticism and the Mystery Religions"Not only the Nile, but every form of moisture they call simply the effusion of Osiris; and in their holy rites the water jar in honor of the god heads the procession. And by the picture of a rush they represent a king and the southern region of the world, and the rush is interpreted to mean the watering and fructifying of all things, and in its nature it seems to bear some resemblance to the generative member. Moreover, when they celebrate the festival of the Pamylia which, as had been said, is of a phallic nature, they expose and carry about a statue of which the male member is triple; for the god is the Source, and every source, by it fecundity, multiplies what proceeds from it; and for 'many times' we have a habit of saying 'thrice', as, for example, 'thrice happy'...unless, indeed, the word 'triple' is used by the early writers in its strict meaning; for the nature of moisture, being the source and origin of all things, created out of itself three primal material substances, Earth, Air, and Fire."
     - Plutarch of Chaeronea, On Isis and Osiris Osiris "was the subject of what was known as the Abydos passion play, a yearly ritual performed during the period of the Old Kingdom and until about AD 400. The Abydos passion play depicts the slaying of Osiris and his followers by his brother Seth, the enactment of which apparently resulted in many real deaths. The figure of Osiris, symbolically represented in the play, is then torn to pieces by Seth, after which his remains are gathered by his wife Isis and son Horus, who subsequently restore him to life. The play thus follows the pattern of birth, death, and resurrection, and it also echoes the cycle of the seasons."
     - Encyclopaedia Britannica"Unas hath weighted his words with the hidden god who hath no name, on the day of hacking in pieces the firstborn. Unas is the lord of offerings, the untier of the knot, and he himself maketh abundant the offerings of meat and drink. Unas devoureth men and liveth upon the gods, he is the lord of envoys, whom he sendeth forth on his missions. He who cuteth off hairy scalp, who dwelleth in the fields, tieth the gods with ropes..."
     - Inscription on the Pyramid of Unas (Vth dynasty) "Here all creation is represented as being in terror when they see the deceased king rise up as a soul in the form of a god who devours 'his fathers and mothers'; he feeds upon men and also upon gods. He hunts the gods in the fields and snares them; and when they are tied up for slaughter he cuts their throats and disembowels them. He roasts and eats the best of them, but the old gods and goddesses are used for fuel. By eating them he imbibes both their magical powers, and their Spirit-souls. He becomes the 'Great Power, the Power of Powers, and the god of all the great gods who exist in Spirit-bodies in heaven. He carries off the hearts of the gods, and devours the wisdom of every god; therefore the duration of his life is everlasting and he lives to all eternity, for the Heart-souls of the gods and their Spirit-souls are in him."
     - E. A. Wallis Budge, The Book of the Dead

"Mummification was not practiced in pre-dynastic times. In fact, it was the done thing to cut up the bodies of the dead. This custom is echoed in the story of the body of Osiris which was supposedly severed into fourteen pieces and re-assembled by his wife/sister, Isis, who spoke magical words (as instructed by Thoth) over it, thus making it immortal."
     - Murray Hope, Practical Egyptian Magic

"From the representations we have of the more public Mysteries, it can be concluded that their fundamental theme is that of the permanence of life, even in face of the death inherent in every creature: there is no ultimate death, but only changes of state throughout an ever-renewing genesis from seed to the fruit which is the new seed. When the king himself cut the sheaves with his golden sickle in the harvest season it represented the death of Osiris. The threshing evokes his dismemberment by Seth, while the sowing is his entombment, and at the same time the posthumous fecundation of Isis (the earth) by Osiris (the grain)."

"According to Plutarch, the Egyptians saw the Nile as an outflow of Osiris and the earth as the body of Isis. Thus, in becoming intermixed with the soil, the Nile-Osiris fecundates the Earth-Isis. The most enlightened among the priests, he says, specify that Osiris is the principle of all that which is humid, the power and cause of all generation, the substance of every seed, the definite symbol of all death and rebirth. 
     - Lucy Lamie, Egyptian Mysteries

"The dead king is...in the Pyramid Texts also identified with the god Osiris. Osiris was originally a chthonic deity. At first, he perhaps assimilated the god Anedjti, and became connected with the town of Djedu (Busiris) in the central Delta, and very early on also Iunu (Heliopolis). His importance grew rapidly, and he may have, as early as the Fourth Dynasty, influenced the changes in the royal pyramid-complexes. In private tombs Osiris began to be mentioned in the Fifth Dynasty, which is also the earliest date at which he was represented in human form. He quickly acquired the status of the universal god of the nether-world, with Djedu (Busiris) and Abdju (Abydos) as his main cult centers. In Abdju, he assimilated the original god Khentiamentiu."
     - Jaromir Malek, In the Shadow of the Pyramids

Osiris "was remembered principally as a benefactor of mankind, as a bringer of enlightenment and as a great civilizing leader. He was credited, for example, with having abolished cannibalism and was said to have introduced the Egyptians to agriculture - in particular to the cultivation of wheat and barley - and to have taught them the art of fashioning agricultural implements. Since he had an especial liking for fine wines...he made a point of 'teaching mankind the culture of the vine, as well as the way to harvest the grape and to store the wine...' [Didorus Siculus]"
"When he had set everything in order, he handed over the control of the kingdom to Isis, quit Egypt for many years, and roamed about the world..."
     Graham Hancock, Fingerprints of the GodsOsiris had the sole intention "of visiting all the inhabited earth and teaching the race of men how to cultivate the vine and sow wheat and barley; for he supposed that if he made men give up their savagery and adopt a gentle manner of life he would receive immortal honors because of the magnitude of his benefactions..."
     - Diodorus Siculus "Throughout the Old Kingdom only the king was identified after death with the god Osiris."
"While ordinary spirits continued to exist in the realm of the god of the local necropolis, the king was originally thought to depart after his death to the polar star in the sky, the celestial region of the goddess Nut, and the abode of gods whom he joined there. He could adopt various forms and use various means to reach the sky, where he accompanied the sun-god in his barque in order to traverse the sky with him. The beliefs concerning this form of afterlife, probably closely related to the sky and solar concepts of Iunu (Heliopolis), are known to us from the Pyramid Texts."
     - Jaromir Malek, In the Shadow of the Pyramids

"Abut, the Abydos of the Greeks and the Ebot of the Coptics, was the capital of the eighth Nome of Upper Egypt. It was the seat of the worship of Osiris in Upper Egypt, and the god was believed to have been buried there. For many centuries its priests boasted the possession of the head of Osiris, and the great annual miracle-play, in which the sufferings, death, and resurrection of Osiris were acted, drew thousands of people to the festival from every part of Egypt. Local tradition made the sun to end its daily course at Abydos, and to enter into the Tuat at this place through 'gap' in the mountains called in Egyptian peq. These mountains lay near to the town; and in the XIIth dynasty it was believed that the souls of the dead made their way into the Other World by the valley which lead through them to the Great Oasis, where some placed the Elysian Fields."
     - E. A. Wallis Budge, The Book of the DeadOsiris "forces no man to carry out his instructions, but by means of gentle persuasion and an appeal to their reason he succeeded in inducing them to practice what he preached. Many of his wise counsels were imparted to his listeners in hymns and songs, which were sung to the accompaniment of instruments of music."
     - Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection, Vol 1 "Under the New Empire the tomb of King Khent at Abydos was identified by local tradition as the tomb of Osiris, and it became the object of pilgrimages from every part of Egypt. Under the XXIInd dynasty the cult of Osiris declined, and the town never regained the importance which it had enjoyed under the XVIIIth dynasty."
     - E. A. Wallis Budge, The Book of the Dead
 


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