Divinity Atlas

Sacred Correspondences
Deities

Osiris

oh-SY-ris
Egyptian Deities

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As the Egyptian face of Pluto, Osiris embodies death, resurrection, and rebirth. Osiris is the Egyptian god of the dead, of resurrection, and of the fertile life of the Nile, once a good king who was murdered and dismembered by his jealous brother Set. His wife Isis gathered his scattered body and revived him by her magic, and he became the ruler and judge of the underworld, before whom the hearts of the dead are weighed against the feather of truth. His death and rising mirror the yearly flooding of the Nile and the sprouting of the grain, so that he is the promise of life beyond death. Shown green-skinned and mummiform, holding the crook and flail, he embodies death, resurrection, and the rebirth of life from the earth.

Facts
Function
Domain / Function
Spring and renewal 1
Domain / Function
Agriculture and harvest 1
Domain / Function
Kingship and sovereignty 1
Domain / Function
Death 1
Domain / Function
The underworld 1
Origins
Origin of the Name
Osiris is the Greek rendering of the Egyptian name Wsjr, whose original pronunciation is uncertain because Egyptian writing does not record vowels. 2
Attestation
Era of Attestation
2400 BCE to 400 CE 1
Veneration Today
Historically attested; no continuous cult 1
Historicity
Legendary: known from narrative tradition, not the historical record 2
Belief
Theology
Polytheistic: many gods 2
Practice
Lineage
Egyptian genealogy places Osiris among the children of Geb, the earth, and Nut, the sky, alongside his siblings Isis, Set and Nephthys, making him both husband and brother to Isis in a divine family structure central to the Ennead of Heliopolis. 1
Attributions
Mythic Association
Osiris was murdered and dismembered by his brother Set, then reassembled and revived by his wife Isis, after which he became ruler and judge of the dead rather than returning to rule the living. 2
Identity
Gender
Male 1
Cult
Principal Cult Centre
Abydos, and Busiris in the Delta 1
Attributes and Iconography
Mummiform with green or black skin 1
Attributes and Iconography
The atef crown, the crook and the flail, and the djed pillar 1
Learn More
The Murdered King Who Rules the Dead

Osiris (Egyptian Wsir) is the god at the centre of the Egyptian understanding of death. The myth holds that he once ruled Egypt as a good king, was murdered and dismembered by his jealous brother Seth, was restored by his wife Isis, and passed not back to the throne of the living but to the rule of the Duat, the realm of the dead. He does not return to life as he was; he becomes the king of a different country, the guarantor that the dead, too, can live.

This gave every Egyptian a share in a god's fate. Through the proper rites the deceased was identified with Osiris, called the Osiris [name] in funerary texts, and hoped, like him, to be vindicated and to live on. The story explained, in mythic terms, the promise the whole funerary apparatus was built to secure: that death, correctly met, need not be the end.

His conflict with Seth also gave Egyptian kingship its charter. The living pharaoh was Horus, the son who avenges the father and inherits the throne; the dead pharaoh became Osiris. Each royal succession re-enacted the myth, and the legitimacy of the reigning king rested on being Horus to his predecessor's Osiris.

The Weighing of the Heart, and Abydos

In the developed funerary religion the dead came before Osiris for judgement. The scene, illustrated again and again in the Book of the Dead, shows the heart of the deceased weighed against the feather of Maat, truth and right order. The dead person recites a declaration of innocence, denying a list of specific wrongs; if the heart balances the feather, he is declared true of voice and admitted to Osiris's realm. If it fails, the monster Ammit devours it, and the person simply ceases. Osiris presides over this weighing as the enthroned judge.

His holiest cult centre was Abydos, believed to hold the god's tomb, and Egyptians who could not be buried there sought at least to have a stela or a symbolic pilgrimage connect them to it. Annual festival dramas at Abydos re-enacted the god's death and vindication before crowds.

Osiris was also, in an older layer, a god of vegetation and the fertile flood, the grain that is buried and rises, the black silt the Nile leaves. Egyptians made Osiris beds, trays of soil planted with seed in his shape, so that the sprouting grain enacted his return to life. The two meanings, agricultural renewal and human afterlife, were held together rather than kept apart.

In the Texts
Book of the Dead, Spell 125, the Negative Confession, declarations 1-5 (Budge)The Book of the Dead: the Papyrus of Anijudgment of the dead

Ani saith: "Hail, thou whose strides are long, who comest forth from Annu, I have not done iniquity." "Hail, thou who art embraced by flame, who comest forth from Kheraba, I have not robbed with violence." "Hail, Fentiu, who comest forth from Khemennu, I have not stolen." "Hail, Devourer of the Shade, who comest forth from Qernet, I have done no murder; I have done no harm." "Hail, Nehau, who comest forth from Re-stau, I have not defrauded offerings."

Spoken before Osiris, who presides at the weighing.

The Book of the Dead: the Papyrus of Ani. translated by E. A. Wallis Budge.

About This Passage

Book of the Dead, Spell 125, the Negative Confession, declarations 6-11 (Budge)The Book of the Dead: the Papyrus of Anijudgment of the dead

"Hail, god in the form of two lions, who comest forth from heaven, I have not minished oblations." "Hail, thou whose eyes are of fire, who comest forth from Saut, I have not plundered the god." "Hail, thou Flame, which comest and goest, I have spoken no lies." "Hail, Crusher of bones, who comest forth from Suten-henen, I have not snatched away food." "Hail, thou who shootest forth the Flame, who comest forth from Het-Ptah-ka, I have not caused pain." "Hail, Qerer, who comest forth from Amentet, I have not committed fornication."

The Book of the Dead: the Papyrus of Ani. translated by E. A. Wallis Budge.

About This Passage

Correspondences & Relations

Archetypes

Pantheons

Planetary Faces

Osiris rules the Egyptian realm of the dead and is the obvious candidate, but the Greeks themselves equated Osiris with Dionysus and reserved the Plouton identification for Serapis. The planetary pairing is modern in any case.

Cross-Tradition Connections

Addressed By

The Great Hymn to Osiris recounts the myth of Osiris' death and resurrection and his role as ruler of the afterlife.

Addressed to Osiris, presiding judge of the Hall of Two Truths, alongside the forty-two assessor deities.

Associated With

Aaru, Realms
Source The Ancient Egyptian Book of the DeadRaymond O. Faulkner (translator); Carol Andrews (editor)

This source names Osiris directly: "Abusir: Realm of Osiris, Miroslav Verner's 2002 monograph from the American University in Cairo Press, is written by the Czech Egyptologist who led decades of excavation at Abusir itself."

Source Abusir: Realm of OsirisMiroslav Verner

Abydos was held to be the burial place of Osiris and was the destination of the mysteries performed there.

Source The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient EgyptDonald B. Redford (ed.)

This source names Osiris directly: "the Great Hymn to the Aten, the Osiris hymn on the stela of Amenmose and the Leiden hymns to Amun, each with her own commentary on date and provenance drawn directly from the hieroglyphic sources."

Anubis, Figures

This source names Osiris directly: "In the Osiris myth he assists Isis and Nephthys in embalming Osiris's body after Set's murder, becoming the model and patron for every mummification that follows."

Source The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient EgyptDonald B. Redford (ed.)

This source names Osiris directly: "Set left out as the murderer of Osiris and Osiris himself absent because he appears enthroned as judge on the plate immediately following."

This source names Osiris directly: "A bronze statuette of Osiris, Egyptian, Late Dynastic to Hellenistic period, 664 to 31 BCE, from the Cesnola Collection."

This source names Osiris directly: "API record for a bronze statuette of Osiris, Egyptian, Late Dynastic to Hellenistic period, 664 to 31 BCE."

This source names Osiris directly: "The vessel carries figures of Osiris, Isis, Nephthys, and Harsiese alongside the sky goddess Nut, shown in her form as a tree-goddess."

This source names Osiris directly: "shown as a tree-goddess, alongside Osiris, Isis, Nephthys, and Harsiese."

Duat, Realms

Ruler of the Duat, with whom the dead are identified in the funerary texts.

Geb, Figures

This source names Osiris directly: "As father of Osiris, Isis, Set and Nephthys, Geb stands at the head of the succession myth running through his children: later tradition holds he himself relinquished the throne of Egypt to Osiris..."

Source The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient EgyptDonald B. Redford (ed.)
Horus, Figures

This source names Osiris directly: "is the falcon-headed son of Isis and Osiris."

Source Moralia, Volume V: Isis and Osiris (De Iside et Osiride)Plutarch; Frank Cole Babbitt (translator)
Isis, Figures

This source names Osiris directly: "of Geb and Nut and the sister-wife of Osiris, whose murder and dismemberment by their brother Set she answers by searching out and reassembling his scattered body."

Source Moralia, Volume V: Isis and Osiris (De Iside et Osiride)Plutarch; Frank Cole Babbitt (translator)

The Middle Kingdom saw the cult of Osiris, centered at Abydos, rise to national prominence alongside the wider availability of funerary texts.

Source The Oxford History of Ancient EgyptIan Shaw (ed.)

This source names Osiris directly: "of the Egyptian myth of Isis and Osiris, written in the late first or early second century CE, presented here in the standard Loeb Classical Library edition with Frank Cole Babbitt's translation..."

Source Moralia, Volume V: Isis and Osiris (De Iside et Osiride)Plutarch; Frank Cole Babbitt (translator)

The floodwater was spoken of as the effusion of Osiris, whose death and return the annual cycle of the river repeated.

Source The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient EgyptRichard H. Wilkinson
Nut, Figures

This source names Osiris directly: "to the Egyptian calendar, Nut bore Osiris, Horus the Elder, Set, Isis and Nephthys, one child to a day."

Source Moralia, Volume V: Isis and Osiris (De Iside et Osiride)Plutarch; Frank Cole Babbitt (translator)
Ra, Figures

This source names Osiris directly: "descent that runs through Shu, Geb, Osiris and Horus, so that Ra's reign becomes the first link in a chain every Pharaoh after him claims to inherit."

Source The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid TextsRaymond O. Faulkner

This source names Osiris directly: "were originally attributes of the god Osiris that became the core insignia of pharaonic authority from the Early Dynastic Period onward, crossed over the chest in royal portraiture and funerary..."

Source The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient EgyptDonald B. Redford (ed.)

He presides over the judgment as its judge.

Source Moralia, Volume V: Isis and Osiris (De Iside et Osiride)Plutarch; Frank Cole Babbitt (translator)

Child Of

Geb, Deities

Osiris is one of the four children of Geb and Nut.

Source The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient EgyptRichard H. Wilkinson
Nut, Deities

Osiris is one of the four children of Geb and Nut.

Source The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient EgyptRichard H. Wilkinson

Children

Horus, Deities

Horus is conceived by Isis from the dead Osiris and raised to claim his father's throne.

Source The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient EgyptRichard H. Wilkinson

Depicted In

Confirmed card in the deck's corrected multi-pantheon scope (Egyptian); jrriveracorner.wordpress.com full card list, corroborated independently for this figure.

Source Gods and Titans (official deck site)Stacey Demarco and Jimmy Manton

Osiris presides enthroned over the judgment hall, flanked by Isis and Nephthys, as the authority before whom the outcome of the weighing is brought.

Married To

Isis, Deities

Isis is the sister and wife of Osiris, and gathers his body after Set kills him.

Source The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient EgyptRichard H. Wilkinson

Member Of

The Ennead, Deities

Osiris, son of Geb and Nut.

Passages on This

Sacred to This Deity

Same Figure, Narrative Entry

Osiris, Figures

Sibling Of

Isis, Deities

Isis's own description: "the wife and sister of Osiris."

Source Moralia, Volume V: Isis and Osiris (De Iside et Osiride)Plutarch; Frank Cole Babbitt (translator)
Nephthys, Deities

Nephthys's own description: "daughter of Geb and Nut, sister of Isis, Osiris and Set."

Source The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient EgyptDonald B. Redford (ed.)

Symbolized By

Worshipped In

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

Osiris, murdered and restored, reigns over the dead; every justified soul hoped to become an Osiris.

Source The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient EgyptRichard H. Wilkinson
Sources
1. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt
Donald B. Redford (ed.), Oxford University Press, 2001s.v. OsirisView the Source
2. The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt
Richard H. Wilkinson, Thames & Hudson, 2003The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt, back cover description, Richard H. Wilkinson
Quote, The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt, back cover description, Richard H. Wilkinson
A comprehensive guide to the deities of ancient Egypt: their origins and their central role in the lives of the Egyptian people. Worshipped for over three fifths of recorded history, Egypt's gods and goddesses are among the most fascinating of human civilization.
View the Source
Moralia, Volume V: Isis and Osiris (De Iside et Osiride)
Plutarch; Frank Cole Babbitt (translator), Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, 1936The connected account of the murder by Seth and Osiris's restorationView the Source
The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead
Raymond O. Faulkner (translator); Carol Andrews (editor), British Museum Press, 1985Wellcome Collection catalogue record, item title and description
Quote, Wellcome Collection catalogue record, item title and description
The ancient Egyptian book of the dead, translated by Raymond O. Faulkner, edited by Carol Andrews.
View the Source
Encyclopedia of Religion
Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005s.v. OsirisView the Source

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