In accordance with the Heliopolis creation myth, Atum was the first god to exist. The god, lonely, then decided to create the god Shu and the goddess Tefnut. The union of these two gods resulted in the birth of gods Geb and Nut. Finally, the children of Geb and Nut were Osiris, Set, Isis, and Nephthys.1
Osiris was the first ruler in Egyptian history, and he brought civilization to the land. Because of Osiris, agriculture, laws, religious institutions, and culture were given to the people of Egypt. During his reign was a time of prosperity for the ancient Egyptians. People were happy and so were the gods, except his brother Set. Set grew jealous, and resentful of Osiris’ success. Soon he began to plot his brother’s demise.2
Set threw a lavish and delicious banquet for his brother and his constituents. During the party, Set stood up and brought out a beautiful coffin, and announced a game. He told everyone at the feast that the person who could fit in the coffin could keep it. Unknown to the party attendees, Set had the coffin made to his brother’s exact measurements. One by one each of the guests attempted to fit into the coffin but were unsuccessful. Many tried to squeeze and shove themselves inside the carved box, but no one could fit comfortably inside the coffin. Finally, Osiris stood up to take his turn. As Osiris climbed into the box, Set seized the opportunity he had been plotting for. He shut and sealed the coffin with Osiris inside, and threw it into the Nile River. The river waters rushed Osiris’ living body out to sea, before finally resting in a tamarisk tree that was growing on the banks near Byblos in Phoenicia. Osiris, unable to break the seal on the coffin, struggled and fought for his life before dying in the very device intended to bury him.3
Isis, his wife and sister, was distraught by the events that transpired at Set’s feast. She decided that she would not rest until her husband’s body was found. Eventually, Isis succeeded in finding and retrieving Osiris’ body, and brought it back to Egypt. Once Isis and Osiris’ body were safely back in their homeland, the goddess then looked for a way to resurrect her beloved husband. As Isis searched for a solution, Set heard about his brother’s return. Set knew he had to act quickly, in order to make sure his plan for Osiris’ demise remained successful. Set found his brother’s body and cut it up into many pieces, and scattered them all over Egypt. Isis, upset about Set’s jealousy and interference, went on an expedition to find her husband, every piece of him. The goddess managed to retrieve all of Osiris’ body parts, except for one, to continue with her plan of revival. Isis was unable to find her husband’s penis, because it had been eaten by an oxyrhyncus fish. Regardless, Isis still managed to bring her husband back to life. During the resurrection, despite Osiris missing his genitalia, the god Horus was conceived during this time. Although Osiris was now alive and had co-created a son with his wife, he was still incomplete. Because of his missing body part he was unable to rule the land of the living. So Osiris was crowned the ruler of the Underworld.4
The word Osiris comes from the Egyptian word “Wsir.” This word can be translated to ‘powerful’ or ‘mighty’ in English.5 His job as ruler of the Underworld is to judge each Egyptian soul to determine their eligibility for the afterlife. In Egyptian art, the ruler of the Underworld is shown as being wrapped up from the chest downwards in mummy bandages. Another important feature of Osiris’ is his skin color, which is either green or black. He is typically these colors because green represents the color of rebirth and black symbolizes the color of fertility of the Nile Valley.6
Osiris judges the dead by weighing their hearts against a feather. If your heart is light, then you are allowed to pass into the Land of Two Fields. There are three requirements for entering the afterlife. First, your name had to be written down. Second, you had to have a preserved body and a tomb. Lastly, during your life you had to perform good deeds so your heart would be light enough to pass the weighing test when you met Anubis or Osiris in the underworld. The first two criteria were to insure that Ba and Ka, the two parts of ones soul, would be able to find its body each night to rest. The Ba was ones personality, and each day it would go and watch over ones family members in the land of the living. While ones Ka was a life force, it was unique to each person, and it would go each day to indulge in the Land of the Two Fields. If one lacked a written name on ones tomb or a preserved body then ones Ba and Ka would get lost and have no place to rest each night.7
- Don Nardo, Egyptian mythology (Detroit: Lucent Books an imprint of Gale, Cengage Learning, 2013), 48. ↵
- Don Nardo, Egyptian mythology (Detroit: Lucent Books an imprint of Gale, Cengage Learning, 2013), 49. ↵
- Don Nardo, Egyptian mythology (Detroit: Lucent Books an imprint of Gale, Cengage Learning, 2013), 50. ↵
- Don Nardo, Egyptian mythology (Detroit: Lucent Books an imprint of Gale, Cengage Learning, 2013), 52-53. ↵
- Salem Press Encyclopedia, January 2016, s.v. “Egyptian mythology,” by Shari P. Miller. ↵
- Robert A. Armour, Gods and Myths of Ancient Egypt (New York: American University in Cairo Press, 2001), 73, 141, 177. ↵
- Anthony Spalinger, “The Limitations of Formal Ancient Egyptian Religion,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies, no. 4 (1998): 241. ↵
94 comments
Azucena Cuevas
I have never read Egyptian mythology, but this story of Osiris and his brother is similar to many other common ones. Jealousy and hatred are quite a common theme in mythology stories, but the writing of this particular article kept me intrigued. I really enjoyed the read because just as I thought his cut up body was the last of him, it was humorous to know his wife found him once again. When reading any mythology it is engaging what outrages acts they do for vengeance or out of hate.
Todd Brauckmiller
This is the first Egyptian mythology story I have ever read and to be honest I like it just as much as the other mythologies. Names like Anubis and Osiris I have herd multiple times but I never really paid any attention to their myths/stories. What I love about this story is the determination his wife had to search for his missing body, not once but twice she did this. Though it is kind of sad that his own brother killed him just out of jealousy, breaks my heart. Everything else was interesting and I’m really excited to read the other Egyptian myths, hopefully there not as dark as this one.
Amelia Hew
Egyptian mythology has always been one of my favorites and the jealousy and sibling rivalry between Set and Osiris makes is one of the more popular story in Egypt. This makes me wonder that gods or not has similar emotions to us humans such as love, loyalty, hate, jealousy and so on. To me, even if Osiris got killed by his brother more than once and can’t remain in the land of the living, he still continued to be a fair ruler of the underworld, putting souls to the peaceful ending their deserves. It is certainly a fascinating story to read.
Octaviano Huron
The tale of Osiris and Isis is one of many fascinating aspects of Egyptian mythology. His story as a god incorporates many themes: judgment, hatred, love, and resurrection of life, just to name a few. I would like to know exactly how Osiris became the god to judge who would enter the afterlife in peace, but nevertheless, I found the article very intriguing with great storytelling.
Emily Velazquez
I have always found mythology and ancient beliefs very interesting.To some point in time I even find myself asking if these instances or events that ancient civilizations told even happened at all? This article really intrigued me in which there are many parallels between Greek and Egyptian mythology. This one being the story of two brothers against each other. There always seems to be a rivalry between siblings in mythology.
Hali Garcia
I love learning about Mythology because it helps me understand how different cultures work, and what they believe in. I am starting to see similarities between different cultures after reading other articles on mythology and this one. I do not know a lot about Egyptian Mythology and this article really helped me learn about Osiris and how he became the Ruler of the Underworld. It also surprised me how sibling rivalry also played a role.
Yazmin Garza
I have always loved ancient Egypt and recently I have been becoming more and more interested in their mythology, and I have noticed that is somewhat similar to Greek mythology. The conflict between Osiris and his brother Set is reminiscent of the arguments Zeus and his brothers would get into, although I can’t recall a story in Greek mythology that involved a fish eating the severed member of a god. I don’t think the ancient Egyptians intended for that part of the story to be funny, but it did get a small chuckle out of me.
Lilliana Canales
This story was very interesting and kept me reading the whole time. I enjoyed learning more about Osiris prior to his days as the ruler of the underworld. The ironic thing is, Osiris will be waiting for his brother and get to deny him afterlife.
Belene Cuellar
I always love reading about mythology and the sibling rivalry that always ends up with one of them dead and the other one struggling to live up to their expectations. Osiris himself was very powerful and fair in whatever he was in charge of. It is a shame that his wife was not able to put all of his body parts together to bring him back. I do believe that he rules the underworld with a good heart and with no anger. I wonder what happened to his brother Set when he found out that Osiris is now the ruler of the underworld?
Maggie Amador
I love reading about different cultures and this article describes the story of Osiris very well. What intrigued me the most about this story is the idea of “Ba” and “Ka” and the requirements to get into the underworld. Reading about the underworld as being a place where one would like to go after death was interesting because, as a believer in heaven and hell, I quickly assumed the underworld was associated with hell. This was a very well written and informative article and I would love to learn more about Egyptian beliefs.