OSIRIS

Osiris is one of the great gods but a relatively late arrival in the Egyptian pantheon. Although he is mentioned in the Pyramid Texts he came to prominence only in the late Old Kingdom when he replaced the ancient canine divinity, Khentiamentiu, whose equally ancient temple he inherited; he is invariably shown in human form, ‘sorrowful of face’ (which is often painted green) and wrapped in the cerements of a mummy. He was the most beloved of all the gods and was thought of as a kingly and just divinity, merciful and comforting, who would reward the justified after death. The legend of his dismemberment by Set is sometimes cited as evidence of his original role as a fertility king who was sacrificed and the various parts of his body ploughed into the ground to ensure its fruitfulness. It once was thought that this discouraging African custom was the fate of kings of Egypt in predynastic times but the legends of Osiris’ dismemberment, given his late appearance in Egypt, can hardly be taken as evidence of this practice in Egypt, in the absence of any more substantial testimony of which, indeed, there is none whatsoever.

Some authorities have proposed that Osiris originated in western Asia and entered Egypt from the same Red Sea entry as those who brought the Mesopotamian and Elamite influences into Egypt, until he reached his eventual cult centre, at Abydos in northern Upper Egypt. If the theory of Osiris’ western Asiatic origins is at all feasible then Osiris might be identified with that god who was eventually best known as Dumuzi (or, in the Semitic form, Tammuz), the Sumerian divinity who brought the arts of husbandry and agriculture to the black-headed folk and then was killed and descended to the underworld. The parallels between the two gods include Isis searching for her husband Osiris after his murder, like the goddess Innana who descended to the Sumerian underworld seeking the dead Dumuzi. Osiris is to be identified with the western Asiatic divinity, Asar,32 and that his worship may be more evidence of western Asiatic penetration into Egypt; Asar is his name in Egyptian, Osiris being the Greek form of it. However, chronology would appear to be against this suggestion, for Osiris’ comparatively late achievement of prominence in Egypt is long after the stream of western Asiatic influences seems to have dried up.