Egyptian God Osiris, god of the Underworld
Like in many other ancient cultures, the concept of the Underworld is very present in the minds of the people.
Egyptians were no exception to this and the Egyptian god Osiris is the representation of that thought.
What role did the god Osiris play in Egyptian religious belief?
In ancient Egypt, god Osiris is one of the main deities in ancient religion. He was the god who presided over agriculture, fertility, and, notably, anything relating to the Afterlife.
Since the Middle Kingdom (a period which goes from 2055 to 1650 BC, approximately) the Egyptian god Osiris had almost completely replaced the god Anubis as lord of the Underworld.
His classical iconography clearly underlines his role in the reign of the dead: he was in fact usually represented with his legs wrapped in bends, like a mummy.
Other distinctive features often found in his representations are the green skin, the Atef crown, and the crook and flail.
Osiris meaning: Origin of the Name
The name of the Egyptian god “Osiris” comes from the Latin and ancient Greek version of a name which, in Egyptian hieroglyphs, appeared as “wsjr”.
Its meaning is quite obscure: according to some scholars it could stand for “the Mighty One”, but others think it could mean “something that is made; a product”.
This last interpretation could be explained by the god Osiris myth, according to which the body of Osiris, after having been dismembered, would have been restored by the goddess of magical healing, Isis thanks to the technique of mummification.
History of Osiris god of the Underworld
The most ancient documents mentioning the Egyptian god Osiris date back to the Fifth Dynasty (about the 25th century BC), but it is believed that his cult is actually older.
He is tightly joined to many of the other principal Egyptian deities: he is the brother of Set, Nephthys, and Isis, who he also married and with whom he generated the god of war and hunt, Horus.
The Egyptian god Osiris is the main character in the most important myth of the ancient Egyptian religion, which is in fact called before his name.
A representation of the Goddess Isis, the Ancient Egypt God Osiris, and the God Horus
The Osiris Myth
The Osiris myth is a highly symbolic tale. Its subject is the struggle between order and chaos, with the former prevailing over the latter.
At the beginning of the story, Osiris rules Egypt.
He is the legitimate king, being the heir of the dynasty originated with the creator of the Universe himself, the god Ra (or, according to other myths, the god Atum).
At a certain point during his reign, Osiris is killed by his brother Set.
The reasons for the killing change from one version to another, and are often left quite indefinite.
Some say that Set wanted revenge for a kick Osiris had given to him, some others that Set was jealous of Osiris because of a relationship he had had with his wife, Nephthys.
It is not easy to know which one of them was the most accurate. In any case, the importance of the Osiris myth lies not in the reason, but in the consequences of the assassination.
The killing of the Egyptian god Osiris is described in different manners by different authors.
The version of the story most popular since the end of the New Kingdom tells that Set cut the body of Osiris into many pieces and then scattered them across Egypt.
After a long search, the goddess Isis and the god Nephthys managed to find the pieces anyway and, with the help of other deities as the Egyptian god of wisdom Thoth, to whom healing powers are often attributed, and Anubis, the god of embalming, they were able to resuscitate Osiris’s body. However, after that moment, the god Osiris changed and he was not the same.
According to the myth, therefore, Osiris was the first mummy, i.e. the first entity who could come back from death, his body having been restored and preserved from decay thanks to the help of his brothers and the gods Thoth and Anubis.
A representation of Osiris god of the Underworld mummified
This status of resurrection was not permanent anyway: for the rest of the story, Osiris is bound to live in the mysterious world of the dead, the Duat.
Fortunately, during his brief return on earth, Osiris was able to impregnate her sister and wife, the goddess Isis with their son, Horus, who would finally defeat Set restoring order in the world.
The Egyptian god Osiris’s powers
We have said that Osiris was the god of rebirth and regeneration.
For this reason, he was thought to possess the power to sustain life, causing the vegetation to sprout and the Nile to flood and make its banks fertile. Also, sometimes this god is known as Osiris god of the Nile.
By extension, he was considered the granter of all the periodic cycles observed in Nature, such as the heliacal rising of Sirius and Orion every year.
Osiris symbols and Their Meanings
In the introduction, we have mentioned some symbols traditionally associated with Osiris. Let’s see in detail what are their meanings.
Osiris god symbol: the Skin Colour
The green complexion often attributed to the Egyptian god Osiris represents his regenerating powers. Sometimes he was instead depicted with dark skin, which remembered the dark land of the fertile banks of the Nile.
Pictures of Osiris the Egyptian god represented with the green skin
Osiris symbol: the Atef Crown
The Atef crown had the form of a white tall bulb with two ostrich feathers at its sides.
The white bulb was the ancient crown of the Egyptian pharaohs, while the feathers were symbols of truth and justice.
This symbol is typically associated with Osiris god of the underworld.
Osiris god symbol: The Mummified Legs
The lower part of Osiris’s body was typically represented wrapped in bends, a reference to the fact that the Egyptian god Osiris was the first mummy.
In other words, he was the first being whose life was preserved after death thanks to mummification.
Osiris symbol: The Crook and the Flail
The Egyptian god Osiris was often portrayed carrying in one hand a shepherd’s crook, probably a symbol of the ruling power, and in the other a flail, which has been seen as a symbol of the restricting power he exerted upon his subjects.
Estatue of Osiris god of the Underworld
Additional Osiris Egyptian god facts
It is interesting to note that not only Osiris himself, but also a portion of his soul, precisely the part that ancient Egyptians called Ba, was worshipped.
The Ba was intended to be the entity that made a person (or, in this case, a deity) unique.
As such, it was something similar to what we call personality. Both because of its association with power, both because the word “Ba” also meant “ram” in the ancient Egyptian language, Osiris’s Ba was often represented as a ram, or with the head of a ram.
The place where the cult of Osiris’s Ba was stronger was the city of Mendes, where a living ram, considered as an incarnation of the god Osiris, was kept. After death, the ram was embalmed and buried in a specific necropolis.
Some scholars think that this link between the Egyptian god Osiris and rams can explain two of the most important among Osiris’s attributes, i.e. the crook and the flail.
Also, it could suggest that the figure of Osiris god of the Underworld was actually born among some herding tribes, like those who inhabited the upper part of the Nile.
