This story is set in Egyptian mythology where gods walked among men and kings ruled under the watchful eyes of the supernatural. These gods created, deceived, and destroyed at will. They had families, rivalries, desires and tempers. They loved, quarreled, plotted, fought and took sides. Some even appeared in human form, and sometimes lived as ordinary men, touching the fate of the world itself. Others revealed themselves through animals, forces of nature or manifestations that wrapped their personalities in mystery and inspired both reverence and fear. In this world, spirits moved between worlds, the dead entered the realm of the gods, and rituals served as a gateway to gain favours and powers from gods.
From this world emerged the tale of Osiris, a king of his time, under whom Egypt flourished. The story of Osiris, like many tales passed down generation through the centuries, is one often retold with many alterations and in many variations. Our account, however, evolves from two vital sources. The first — what may be described as the oldest eyewitness account of the story — is from Ikhernofret, a high-ranking Egyptian official who served Pharaoh Senwosret III during Egypt's 12th dynasty, just around the 19th century BCE. Our second source is Plutarch, who lived roughly 1,700 years after Ikhernofret. He was an ancient Greek writer, philosopher and priest from Chaerona in Boeotia, Greece.
The tale goes thus: Around 1870 BCE, Ikhernofret travelled south to the town of Abydos on the orders of his king, Senusret III. He had a simple task: to restore the cult of a murdered god, Osiris. Upon getting to Abydos, Ikhernofret set about to restore the splendour of the god's worship. He renewed the shrines of the gods who accompanied Osiris and worked on the Neshmet barque, the sacred vessel used in the god's festival. He adorned Osiris with lapis lazuli, turquoise, electrum and precious stones, dressed the god in his regalia and prepared the barque for its journey. Then he took a role in the cult's festival itself, the annual re-enactment usually staged on the desert edge before crowds of pilgrims, entailing the death of Osiris, the search for his body, the war against his enemies, and his triumphant return in procession to the temple. In the reenactment, Ikhernofret served as a guard, leading the procession of Wepwawet as Osiris went forth to aid his father. He repelled those who attacked the Neshmet barque and struck down the enemies of Osiris, conducted the Great Procession and followed the god on his journey, clearing the path toward the tomb at Peqer.
At the place called Nedit, the struggle reached its great confrontation. Ikhernofret records that he championed Osiris on the day of the Great Battle and overthrew all his enemies. The Neshmet barque continued its journey before eventually returning to Abydos, where the beauty of Osiris was brought back to his palace.
Ikhernofret went ahead to record his deeds on a stone stela that survives to this day. The inscription has since been translated and studied, retelling Osiris' story to many generations after. In it, Ikhernofret describes himself as the beloved son of Osiris and presents his work as service to the god. He was, in the language of a later age, both stage manager and actor in a passion play that Egyptians had already been performing for centuries and would go on performing for a thousand years more.
The story Ikhernofret staged is one of the longest continuously recorded myths in the world, and it is African. It had taken shape in the Nile Valley, in the land its people called Kemet — the Black Land, named for the dark fertile silt the river left behind each year — long before Ikhernofret's lifetime and survives through generations of Egyptian religious tradition. Fragments of it have appeared in different forms. For instance, it was found in the Pyramid Texts carved inside royal tombs before 2300 BCE, in coffin inscriptions, and later, in the Book of the Dead. The story also found expression in temple reliefs and ritual traditions at places including Abydos, Dendera and Philae, where different episodes were preserved and reinterpreted over time.
Centuries after the ancient Egyptian texts had begun recording the Osirian tradition, the Greek philosopher and priest Plutarch gave it one of its fullest surviving narrative forms. Writing in the second century CE, he told of Osiris, Isis, Seth and Horus, weaving together episodes that had circulated in Egyptian religious tradition for centuries. His account is therefore not the beginning of the story, nor simply a continuation of Ikhernofret's inscription. It is one later telling of a much older Egyptian tradition, preserved through changing forms, rituals and interpretations across generations.
It is this same story that Plutarch, the Greek priest, later writes one of the fullest surviving narratives on after hearing it from some Egyptian informants. From Plutarch, we learn of Osiris the king of Egypt himself, Isis, his sister and spouse, Horus, his son, and Seth, his brother, weaving together fragments of a story that had circulated in Egyptian religious tradition for centuries.
Osiris is Born
The story begins with Ra, the sun god who had just discovered that Nut, goddess of the sky, had conceived a child with Cronus, the earth god. Furious, Ra placed a curse on her that she would not be able to give birth to a child in any month or year. However, Hermes, who was in love with the goddess, found a way around the curse. Consorting with her, he challenged the moon to a game of draughts and won from her, the seventieth part of each of her periods of illumination. Hermes gathered them and created five extra days and added them to the year. On the first of these days, Osiris was born. As the story goes, at the hour of Osiris' birth, a voice was heard saying, "The Lord of All Advances to the Light." Like many myths, there is a varied account which states that a man by the name Pamyles, while drawing water in Thebes, had heard a voice emanating from Zeus' shrine which commanded him to proclaim that a mighty and beneficent king had been born. The story ultimately concludes that Cronus entrusted the child to Pamyles as a result.
To date, the five extra days Hermes is purportedly known to have added to the year is celebrated among the Egyptians as the birthday of the five gods while a festival known as the festival of Pamylia is celebrated in honour of Pamylia.
On the second of day, Arueris, whom Plutarch identifies with Apollo and whom some Egyptians called the elder Horus, was born. On the third came Typhon, the god Plutarch identifies with Seth. His birth is particularly worth remembering. Seth did not come to the world in the proper manner or even at the proper time. Rather, it is said that he burst through his mother's side and leapt into the world. On the fourth day, Isis, or Aset, was born in the regions that were always moist, and on the fifth came Nephthys, or Nebet-Het, whom Plutarch associates with Finality, Aphrodite and, in another tradition, Victory.
Plutarch, however, provides another account of the parentage of these gods. According to him, Osiris and Arueris were the children of the Sun, Isis was Hermes', while Typhon and Nephthys were from Cronus.
The birth of Osiris, Isis, Set, Arueris and Nephthys set the stage for the relationships that would shape this story. Nephthys became the wife of Typhon, while Isis and Osiris were drawn to one another. Plutarch adds another extraordinary variation: Isis and Osiris conceived Arueris, the elder Horus, while still in the darkness of the womb, before either had been born.
Osiris' Reign and Death
Osiris ruled Egypt in a golden age. Under his rule, Egypt flourished. He taught his people the arts of civilisation, showing them how to cultivate the land, honour the gods and live by laws that held society together. He was, in the fullest sense, a bringer of order. It is said that after establishing a thriving era in Egypt, he travelled round the world, civilising it as needed, without force or warfare. In the places he succeeded, he did it by pure charm, harnessing the power of persuasive conversations and music.
During these purported travels, Isis, his wife, held the reign at home, firmly and decisively, keeping Set, Osiris' rather rebellious brother at bay from the throne. Upon Osiris' return to Egypt, however, the tide turned and Set began to contrive various ploys to get rid of him. Different accounts tell different variations of the events that led to Set's rebellion. Some merely label it jealousy while others tie it back to a series of events which involved Osiris ignorantly consorting with Nephthys, believing her to be his wife, Isis. The child that came of this relationship was called Anubis, a child saved by Isis after his mother, Nephthys had discarded him out of fear for Set. In revenge or out of jealousy, Set plotted to get rid of Osiris through a scheme that would eventually earn him the title, "trickster."
With the help of a team of seventy-two conspirators, and an Ethiopian queen who happened to be in Egypt at the time, Set secretly measured Osiris' body while he was asleep and had a beautiful chest made to his size. During a festival, Set had the chest brought out and promised it to anyone it would perfectly fit. Many people tried it in turn and of course, they all failed. After all, the chest had been perfectly made to Osiris' body dimensions. Osiris watched all these, uninterested in participating even after being asked. Eventually he was prevailed upon to try his luck and upon laying in the box, the conspirators slammed down the lid, and fastened it with nails and molten lead. Then they carried the chest to the river.
Isis, Rumour and King Byblus
According to legend, the Pans and the Satyrs of Chemmis, wild nature spirits, were the first to discover what had happened to Osiris. They carried the news to men until it came to the knowledge of Isis. Upon hearing what had befallen her beloved, Isis is said to have cut off her hair and donned a garment of mourning. From then, began her search, at her wits' end, in an attempt to find Osiris' body. She wandered from place to place, questioning everyone she encountered, even children. Certain children she asked had happened to see the lost chest and told her how the chest had been taken to the mouth of the river and dumped there by Set and his co-conspirators. Unknowingly, the children had just given Isis her very first clue to finding Osiris.
In her search for Osiris, Isis knew she needed the help of the one force that carried news wherever it went, so she turned to Rumour. Through Rumour, she found out that the chest had travelled far from Egypt and had reached Byblos. Still grieving for her dead husband, Isis set out for the distant city. There she found the chest where the waves had gently set it amidst a clump of heather. Cosmic power must have been at play here because as soon as the chest was set in the heather, the latter grew sporadically and concealed the chest.
However, the king of Byblus had been captivated by the enormous size of the tree and ordered the portion containing the hidden chest to be cut down and brought into his house, where it was carved into a pillar to support the roof.
When Isis got to Byblus, overcome by grief, she sat beside a spring and refused to exchange words with anyone, except the queen's maidservants whom she treated with extraordinary kindness, plaiting their hair and imparting a wonderful fragrance from her body to heirs. Curious about the mysterious woman and drawn by the fragrance and the strange beauty of the maidservants' hair, the queen sent for Isis, and soon their relationship blossomed such that the queen entrusted her infant son to Isis' care, making the goddess his nurse. Isis is said to have nursed the little prince by letting it suck on her fingers instead of her breast. At night, she would place him in the fire and burn away the mortal parts of his body, preparing him for immortality. While this happened, Isis herself would transform into a swallow and fly around the pillar that concealed Osiris's coffin, wailing.
But one night, the queen was watching. When she saw her child lying in the fire, she cried out in terror. The interruption broke the ritual, and the child lost the immortality Isis had been preparing him for.
Reunited
Isis could no longer hide her identity and revealed herself, telling the king and queen who she truly was. The mysterious woman who had entered Byblus was none other than Isis, the goddess and wife of Osiris, who had travelled all the way to the city in search of her husband.
She then asked for the pillar which stood in the palace and contained the chest of Osiris. The king granted her request and Isis took the pillar down. She cut away the wood and heather that surrounded it until she was able to retrieve the chest which had been hidden within it. She wrapped the wood that had concealed the chest in fine linen, anointed it with perfume and handed it over to the king and queen. Plutarch says that the people of Byblus continued to honour the piece of wood in a temple made for Isis.
Isis carried Osiris with her until she reached a place where she could find some solitude. There, she opened the chest and finally saw the body of her husband again. She laid her face against his, caressed him and wept over him. This reunion, however, would not last. She travelled to her son Horus, who was being raised at Buto, and hid the chest in a secluded place. For a while, Osiris remained hidden from his enemies. Set, however, was still searching for his brother.
One night, while hunting under the light of the moon, Set came upon the hidden chest. He recognised Osiris' body and, instead of leaving it where it was, tore it into fourteen parts and scattered each in a different place. Once again, Isis lost Osiris. This time, however, she would not be searching for one body. She would have to search for fourteen pieces of it. She went from place to place looking for the remains of her husband. Whenever she found one of his parts, she held a funeral for it and buried it. According to one tradition, this was how the many so-called tombs of Osiris came to exist in different parts of Egypt.
A different account, however, says that Isis had images of Osiris made and distributed them among the different cities, pretending that she was giving each city a part of his body. Through this, Osiris received divine honours in many places at once. It also meant that if Set ever defeated Horus and went looking for Osiris' final resting place, he would be confused by the many tombs bearing his name and never know which one contained the real body.
Of all the parts of Osiris, there was only one that Isis could not find. It was his male member. It had been thrown into the river immediately after the dismemberment, where it was eaten by three kinds of fish, the lepidotus, the sea-bream and the pike. Plutarch says that the Egyptians were particularly careful to avoid these fish because of what they had done to Osiris. Isis, unable to recover the missing part, made a replica of it instead and consecrated it in honour of Osiris.
She reassembled him, bound his body in linen, the first mummy, embalmed by the jackal god Anubis, and by her magic revived him long enough to conceive a son who was named Horus. Osiris, however, did not come back to rule the living. He passed instead into the world below and became its king: lord and judge of the dead.
The Trial
Horus grew in hiding, receiving training that prepared him to press his claim and take back his father's kingdom. Osiris himself, would often come from the underworld to prepare his son for the battle that was waiting for him. And Horus won, not only on the battlefield but before a full court. For his sake, the full assembly of the gods convened as a tribunal to decide who was the rightful heir, the murderer in possession or the son of the murdered king. The god Thoth recorded the proceedings. After a case that the texts say dragged on for eighty years, the tribunal found for Horus. The son was installed as the legitimate king of the living. The father was vindicated as king of the dead, and the murderer was judged.
That courtroom became the organising principle of the entire Egyptian civilisation.
The Egyptian Concept of Order and Chaos: Maat and Isfet
At the centre of Egyptian thought sits a concept the Egyptians called Maat: truth, justice, balance, cosmic order, the right relation of all things, pictured as a goddess wearing a single ostrich feather and set against her opposite, Isfet — chaos, falsehood, and disorder. Maat was what the murder of Osiris had violated and what the judgment of Set restored.
For every living king of Egypt, they had a central duty to uphold Maat and hold back Isfet. The Egyptologist, Jan Assmann, called this Egyptian ideal a form of connective justice, that is, the binding of a society together through reciprocity, memory, and the obligation to answer for what one has done — a world held together not by force, and not merely by results, but by accounts that have to balance.
And accounts, in Kemet, are balanced quite literally. The most famous image Egypt ever produced is a scene of judgment. In the Book of the Dead, every person who dies is brought into the Hall of Two Truths and made to stand trial, exactly as Set once stood trial. The heart of the dead, understood as the seat of character and the record of a life's deeds, is placed on one pan of a great scale. On the other pan sits the single feather of Maat, the feather of truth. Anubis adjusts the balance. Thoth, the same scribe who recorded the contendings of Horus and Set, writes down the result. Forty-two divine assessors hear the dead person declare innocence of a long list of specific wrongs: I have not stolen, I have not killed, I have not made anyone weep, I have not taken the milk from the mouths of children, and so on…
Osiris presides over this court, the murdered king judging the newly dead. If the heart is as light as the feather, the person is pronounced true of voice and passes into a second life. If it is heavy with wrongdoing, a waiting monster called Ammit devours it, and the person is annihilated.
Imprints Left on Egyptian Society
Osiris' story left its fingerprints on almost everything the Nile Valley made. It particularly shaped the throne. Every pharaoh ruled as the living Horus and died to become an Osiris, and the transfer of the crown from a dead king to his living son re-enacted, in each generation — the passage from the murdered father to the vindicated heir.
It also shaped the field. Osiris was, among his other faces, a god of the grain, and Egyptians read the murder and resurrection of their god in the plainest fact of their agricultural year. The Nile flooded, the black silt returned, and barley rose out of what had looked like dead ground. In their tombs they left Osiris beds, wooden frames cut in the silhouette of the god, packed with soil and sown with barley, watered so that the seed sprouted green from the body of the dead god and testified, in a handful of living grass, that what is buried can rise.
The Osiris mythology also influenced the tomb, the linen, the amulet, and the long spells for the safe passage of the dead. From it, an entire technology of resurrection elaborated over millennia rose; all of it in service of getting the individual soul safely through its trial and across into the second life that Osiris's own resurrection had made possible.
And it did one more thing worth naming. Set, the murderer, was not annihilated when the tribunal ruled against him. He was defeated, dispossessed, exiled to the deserts and the storms, but he was kept. In one of the most striking images Egyptian religion ever produced, Set is stationed each night at the prow of the sun god's boat as it travels through the underworld, and there, spear in hand, he is the one who kills the great serpent of chaos that would otherwise swallow the sun. The disorder that murdered the good king is given a permanent job defending the order of the cosmos. A fitting job if we do say so ourselves.
