22 Facts About Osiris

1.

Osiris is the god of fertility, agriculture, the afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion.

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2.

Osiris was classically depicted as a green-skinned deity with a pharaoh's beard, partially mummy-wrapped at the legs, wearing a distinctive atef crown, and holding a symbolic crook and flail.

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3.

Osiris was one of the first to be associated with the mummy wrap.

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4.

Osiris was widely worshipped until the decline of ancient Egyptian religion during the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire.

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5.

Osiris was at times considered the eldest son of the earth god Geb and the sky goddess Nut, as well as being brother and husband of Isis, and brother of Set, Nephthys, and Horus the Elder, with Horus the Younger being considered his posthumously begotten son.

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6.

Osiris was the judge and lord of the dead and the underworld, the "Lord of Silence" and Khenti-Amentiu, meaning "Foremost of the Westerners".

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7.

Osiris became the sovereign that granted all life, "Osiris Who is Permanently Benign and Youthful".

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8.

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.

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9.

Osiris was commonly depicted as a pharaoh with a complexion of either green or black in mummiform.

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10.

Osiris is the mythological father of the god Horus, whose conception is described in the Osiris myth.

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11.

The myth describes Osiris as having been killed by his brother Set, who wanted Osiris' throne.

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12.

Nile supplying water, and Osiris who died only to be resurrected, represented continuity and stability.

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13.

Osiris managed to remove the coffin and retrieve her husband's body.

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14.

Diodorus Siculus gives another version of the myth in which Osiris was described as an ancient king who taught the Egyptians the arts of civilization, including agriculture, then travelled the world with his sister Isis, the satyrs, and the nine muses, before finally returning to Egypt.

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15.

Osiris was then murdered by his evil brother Typhon, who was identified with Set.

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16.

Osiris made replicas of them and distributed them to several locations, which then became centres of Osiris worship.

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17.

The annual festival involved the construction of "Osiris Beds" formed in shape of Osiris, filled with soil and sown with seed.

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18.

Much of the extant information about the rites of Osiris can be found on the Ikhernofret Stela at Abydos erected in the Twelfth Dynasty by Ikhernofret, possibly a priest of Osiris or other official during the reign of Senwosret III.

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19.

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.

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20.

Osiris's councillors identified the statue as the Greek god Pluto and said that the Egyptian name for Pluto was Serapis.

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21.

Osiris-Apis was a patron deity of the Memphite Necropolis and the father of the Apis bull who was worshipped there, and texts from Ptolemaic times treat "Serapis" as the Greek translation of "Osiris-Apis".

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22.

Cult of Isis and Osiris continued at Philae until at least the 450s CE, long after the imperial decrees of the late 4th century that ordered the closing of temples to "pagan" gods.

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