The cult of Osiris is one of the most interesting Egyptian cults, in fact, still not fully revealed and analyzed. The complexity of the image of Osiris was felt by the Egyptians themselves, and it is not by chance that the following remarkable characteristic of this image was preserved in one of the hymns: Your essence, Osiris, is darker (than all other gods - M.
M.), You are the moon in the sky, You become young when you desire, You become young when you want, And you are the great Nile on the banks at the beginning of the new year; People and gods live with moisture that pours out of you, And I also found that your majesty is the king of the underworld.
Combining in itself at different times, for various reasons, the cults of the king, the dying and resurrecting god of the producing forces of nature, the Nile, the bull, the moon, the afterlife judge at the terrible trial, the myth of Osiris absorbed the reflection of the religious ideas of a number of successive stages in the development of Egyptian society …
An analysis of its numerous variants shows how, merging with it, various legends continued to live, initially not associated with it, and we find traces of it in folklore, in ritual chants, in literature. Let us briefly recall the general content of the myth. Osiris, the eldest son of the earth god Hebe and the sky goddess Nut, is, according to the Heliopolitan legend, a representative of the fourth generation of gods.
Reigning over Egypt, Osiris taught people agriculture, gardening and winemaking, but was killed by his brother, the god Set, who wanted to rule in his place. Osiris's wife, his sister Isis, found his corpse and began to mourn him along with her sister Nephthys (see the translations of the texts: "Isis and Nephthys find the body of Osiris" and "Lamentations of Isis and Nephthys").
Ra, taking pity, sends the jackal-headed god Anubis, who collected the scattered (or, according to another version, cut by Set) members of Osiris, embalmed the body and swaddled it. Isis, in the form of a falcon, sank onto the corpse of Osiris and, miraculously conceiving from him, gave birth to a son, Horus. Horus was both conceived and born to act as a natural avenger for his father's death. At the same time, he considers himself the only legal heir to the latter.
Secretly fed and raised by his mother in the swamps of the Delta, Horus goes, “shod in white sandals,” to a duel with Set, demanding before the judgment of the gods the condemnation of the offender and the return of the inheritance of Osiris to him, the only son of the deceased king. After a long litigation, which lasted eighty years according to one version of the myth, Horus is recognized as the eligible (in Egyptian "right-wing") heir of Osiris and receives the kingdom; god Thoth records the judgment of the gods.
After this Horus resurrects his father Osiris, allowing him to swallow his eye. However, Osiris does not return to earth and remains the king of the dead, leaving Horus to rule the kingdom of the living. This is, in its most concise form, the content of the legend of Osiris in its late form.
Promotional video:
The myth of Osiris is deeply rooted in the era of tribal society, from the ideas and rituals of which subsequently, in connection with the change in social relations in Egypt, the most characteristic features of the cult of Osiris are developed: the cult of the king and the cult of the god of the productive forces of nature. The features of the cult of the god of the productive forces of nature appear very clearly in the myth of Osiris.
Already the very moment of the death and resurrection of God, illuminated in detail by the legend and annually reproduced in the ritual, puts Osiris on a par with the dying and resurrecting gods of nature of other religions, and iconography, texts and rituals confirm this with the richest material. So, the very color of Osiris's skin is characteristic - green.
The crown worn by Osiris is made of papyrus stalks, his sacred boat is also made of this plant, and his "Jed" fetish consists of several bundles of reeds inserted one into the other. Further, Osiris is always depicted with one or another plant: from the pond in front of his throne, either a lotus or a row of trees and a vine grows; sometimes it is entwined with bunches of grapes and the entire canopy, under which Osiris sits; sometimes he is entwined with vines.
In the same way, the tomb of Osiris is not depicted without greenery: then a tree grows next to it, on which the soul of Osiris sits in the form of a phoenix; that tree sprouted through the tomb, twining its branches and roots around it; then from the tomb itself four trees grow. …
The cult of Osiris is one of the most interesting Egyptian cults, in fact, still not fully revealed and analyzed. The complexity of the image of Osiris was felt by the Egyptians themselves, and it is not by chance that the following remarkable characteristic of this image was preserved in one of the hymns: Your essence, Osiris, is darker (than all other gods - M.
M.), You are the moon in the sky, You become young when you desire, You become young when you want, And you are the great Nile on the banks at the beginning of the new year; People and gods live with moisture that pours out of you, And I also found that your majesty is the king of the underworld.
Combining in itself at different times, for various reasons, the cults of the king, the dying and resurrecting god of the producing forces of nature, the Nile, the bull, the moon, the afterlife judge at the terrible trial, the myth of Osiris absorbed the reflection of the religious ideas of a number of successive stages in the development of Egyptian society …
An analysis of its numerous variants shows how, merging with it, various legends continued to live, initially not associated with it, and we find traces of it in folklore, in ritual chants, in literature. Let us briefly recall the general content of the myth. Osiris, the eldest son of the earth god Hebe and the sky goddess Nut, is, according to the Heliopolitan legend, a representative of the fourth generation of gods.
Reigning over Egypt, Osiris taught people agriculture, gardening and winemaking, but was killed by his brother, the god Set, who wanted to rule in his place. Osiris's wife, his sister Isis, found his corpse and began to mourn him along with her sister Nephthys (see the translations of the texts: "Isis and Nephthys find the body of Osiris" and "Lamentations of Isis and Nephthys").
Ra, taking pity, sends the jackal-headed god Anubis, who collected the scattered (or, according to another version, cut by Set) members of Osiris, embalmed the body and swaddled it. Isis, in the form of a falcon, sank onto the corpse of Osiris and, miraculously conceiving from him, gave birth to a son, Horus. Horus was both conceived and born to act as a natural avenger for his father's death. At the same time, he considers himself the only legal heir to the latter.
Secretly fed and raised by his mother in the swamps of the Delta, Horus goes, “shod in white sandals,” to a duel with Set, demanding before the judgment of the gods the condemnation of the offender and the return of the inheritance of Osiris to him, the only son of the deceased king. After a long litigation, which lasted eighty years according to one version of the myth, Horus is recognized as the eligible (in Egyptian "right-wing") heir of Osiris and receives the kingdom; god Thoth records the judgment of the gods.
After this Horus resurrects his father Osiris, allowing him to swallow his eye. However, Osiris does not return to earth and remains the king of the dead, leaving Horus to rule the kingdom of the living. This is, in its most concise form, the content of the legend of Osiris in its late form.
The myth of Osiris is deeply rooted in the era of tribal society, from the ideas and rituals of which subsequently, in connection with the change in social relations in Egypt, the most characteristic features of the cult of Osiris are developed: the cult of the king and the cult of the god of the productive forces of nature. The features of the cult of the god of the productive forces of nature appear very clearly in the myth of Osiris.
Already the very moment of the death and resurrection of God, illuminated in detail by the legend and annually reproduced in the ritual, puts Osiris on a par with the dying and resurrecting gods of nature of other religions, and iconography, texts and rituals confirm this with the richest material. So, the very color of Osiris's skin is characteristic - green.
The crown worn by Osiris is made of papyrus stalks, his sacred boat is also made of this plant, and his "Jed" fetish consists of several bundles of reeds inserted one into the other. Further, Osiris is always depicted with one or another plant: from the pond in front of his throne, either a lotus or a row of trees and a vine grows; sometimes it is entwined with bunches of grapes and the entire canopy, under which Osiris sits; sometimes he is entwined with vines.
In the same way, the tomb of Osiris is not depicted without greenery: then a tree grows next to it, on which the soul of Osiris sits in the form of a phoenix; that tree sprouted through the tomb, twining its branches and roots around it; then from the tomb itself four trees grow. …