He was represented with the head of a jackal or dog-ape.

The fortunes of Osiris were celebrated in magnificent annual festivals connected with mourning ceremonies, in which the Egyptians, as is observed by the ancients, lamented in Osiris the subsidence of the Nile, the cessation of the cool north wind (whose place was taken for a time by the hot wind Typhon), the decay of vegetation, and the shortening of the length of the day.Īn Egyptian god, son of Osiris, conductor and watcher of the dead, whose deeds he and HORUS ( q.v.) were supposed to weigh in the balance in presence of their father Osiris. In this incarnation he is called Osarhapi (Osiris-Apis), the origin of the Greek Serapis ( q.v.) or Sarapis. Osiris, by his ever-renewed incarnation in the form of the black bull Apis, the symbol of generative power, assures for the Egyptians the endurance of his favour, and the consequent continuance of their life in this world and the next. His hue as ruler of the lower world is black, his robes white, his symbol an eye opened wide as a sign of his restoration to the light of day. In the upper world he continues to live and work by the fresh power of his youthful son Horus, and in the lower world, of which he is king, the spirits of those who are found to te just are awakened by him to new life. Although Osiris lived no longer upon the earth, he was ever regarded as the source of life. When Horus, the son of Osiris and Isis, grew up, he took vengeance upon Typhon when, after a most obstinate struggle, he had defeated him in battle.

Isis, however, collected them again, and buried them in Phil' or Abydus, in Upper Egypt. Nevertheless Typhon discovered it in the night, and cut the corpse up into fourteen pieces, which he scattered in all directions. After long search the mourning Isis found the chest on the coast of Phoenicia, at Byblus, and carefully concealed it. The murderer cast the chest into the Nile, which carried it into the sea. Originally he ruled as king over Egypt, where he introduced agriculture, morality, and the worship of the gods, until his brother Typhon (Set) contrived by deceit to shut him up in a chest and put him to death by pouring in molten lead.

His hue, as that of a god who bestows life, is green his sacred tree is the ever-green tamarisk. He is always represented in human shape and with a human head ( see cut). From him comes every blessing and all life he gives light and health he causes the Nile to overflow with its fertilizing waters, and all things to continue in their established order. He is the male god of the fructification of the land. Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /( See OSIRIS and TYPHON.)Īn Egyptian god, who, with his sister and wife Isis ( q.v.), enjoyed in Egypt the most general worship of all the gods.

Age of mythology isis