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
William Rittenhouse
This was a very informative article for me and all completely new. I never studied Egyptian mythology, so this was all fairly odd to me. I’m still curious who made up this story and why it was made. It all just seems very unrealistic and made-up. Being Christian, this is just nonsense to my ears, but it is still interesting to learn. They sure had an interesting way to depict each one of their Gods, but the Egyptian civilization was still one of the most advanced to ever exist on this world.
Alexandra Rodriguez
At first glance, I assumed that “underworld” would be something more negative than it actually ended up being. In a very westernized world, very influenced by Christianity, I was raised with the belief that the underworld is bad. That all the bad spirits are sent to the underworld, and that is the place you want to avoid after dying. In which case I entered this article with the idea that Osiris had done something horrible to be deemed the “ruler of the underworld”. However after reading it I am very pleased to be enlightened of the story of Osiris’s envious brother, and how that envy allowed for the destruction of an amazing god. How the underworld is believed to be structured in the Egyptian culture compared to Christianity is so interesting and different!
Didier Cadena
This article does a great job of telling me about Osiris. I am not too familiar with any Egyptian mythology, so this article did a great of informing me about it. I found it interesting that he judges souls by putting a feather against their heart. I really enjoyed reading the article because of how informative it was and how funny it was to read.
Rafael Lopez-Rodriguez
I remember learning about Egyptian Gods in my World History class back in high school. But after reading this article I was able to refresh my memory on this topic. It is amazing to learn about how these Gods did their rituals. I think Egyptian history is one of the most interesting histories of all time. One of the most interesting rituals I think is the one of the feather that decided is you go to the after life. Great job on the article!
Maria Mancha
I never really looked into Egyptian mythology so this is especially new to me. But from reading the article I can see the link between Greek and Roman mythology which I do really enjoy. Im a sucker for love and even though its weird Isis was his sister it was still an interesting love story how she never gave up her love for Osiris. Even though Osiris which I learned means mighty was the God of the Underworld. I think the most interesting part however was how he determined who moved on. Which was by the weight of their heart. You never really think about how your heart is or what effects its weights, but to see this is what the Egyptians believed is extremely interesting.
Constancia Tijerina
Ill just get to the point, this article was interesting and had my mind go “what?!”. I find this article to be interesting, especially since I’ve never heard of Osiris, Egyptian God of The Underworld. It’s interesting to find how Set was so jealous that we would really go out if his way to build a coffin and chop up every piece of Osiris’ body (and I mean everything), all this trouble because of jealousy. Overall, this article was such a great and fun read and I congratulate you on all the extensive research you had done to get the story that was so well written.
Elias Garza
I have always been big on family. I believe family should comes first no matter what the situation is and you should never turn your back on them. After hearing what Sets did to his brother just so he can take his spot was cringe to me. But, in my opinion this is probably one of my favorite articles that I have read so far. I was interested the entire time and wanted to read more when I finished.
Luis Morales
I found this article fascinating, since I don’t know much about Egyptian methodology. I had never heard of how Osiris became ruler of the underworld. This article does a great job of describing the story of a brother who becomes jealous. The story is a classic one. It’s interesting to see how the ancient Egyptians saw the afterlife and how ruled the afterlife.
Iris Henderson
I really enjoyed reading this article on Osiris, Egyptian God of the Underworld. I was unaware of the story of how he came to be god of the underworld. It was interesting to learn of Isis love for Osiris and how she searched for him endlessly in order to bring him back. It seems that Osiris won more fame then set, as he is only really mentioned when discussing the story of his brother.
Destiny Renteria
For starters, this article did have a very good ending to it, basically a conclusion. But I did think it was very informative and interesting. I had a class last semester, “Nature”, that discussed this certain topic and I was always intrigued by it and how this worked. It was really well explained, especially how the events were in order and it was easy to read. I was able to understand and I think many others who research this will think the same.