The Egyptian God Osiris
Both god and man, Osiris suffered a terrible death, but his subsequent resurrection held the promise of eternal life for the ordinary Egyptian, a reward previously thought to be out of the reach of all except the rich and powerful.
The Myth of Osiris
According to the myth, Osiris was a much-loved Egyptian king who urged his countrymen to give up their barbarous ways and live good lives in accordance with the laws of the land and of the gods. Yet, he had a great enemy in the person of his jealous brother Seth, who set about plotting his destruction.
Seth secretly had a beautiful golden chest made to fit the exact specifications of Osiris's body and then organized a banquet to which he invited the unsuspecting king. There, he asked his guests to try the chest out for size, offering to give it to whomever it fit. One by one the guests climbed in, but predictably it matched no one. Until Osiris's turn, that is. Seth's men immediately sealed the chest and threw it in the Nile, where it was carried off downstream.
Grief-stricken, his wife and sister, Isis, went in search of her unfortunate husband's body, which she eventually found and hid. But Seth soon discovered it and tore it into 14 pieces, scattering them in different parts of the country. Isis once again embarked on a journey to find the fragments. Having successfully gathered them together, she miraculously turned into a kite, and using the wind in her wings, breathed life back into the body of her husband.
Isis subsequently gave birth to a son, Horus, who would avenge his father's death by defeating Seth and seizing the Egyptian throne for himself. Isis was worshipped as the most important ancient Egyptian goddess and venerated as the ideal mother. For his part, Osiris remained in the land of the spirits where he became the much revered and powerful god of the underworld.
The Trial and the Last Judgment
It was the Egyptian god Osiris who presided over the momentous Trial and Last Judgment, upon which the eternal survival of the soul depended. Summoned before him, seated at his throne, a dead person would undergo the rigors of an intense examination, declaring that he had led a good life and abstained from wrongdoings.
The dramatic moment came as the deceased's heart was weighed against the Feather of Truth by the jackal-headed god of the dead Anubis. If the deceased was found to be free of guilt and to have lived an exemplary life, he would be permitted safe passage to the afterlife.
However, those who were deemed to have lived dishonest lives would suffer the fate of being devoured by Amenti, a terrifying god with a crocodile head and a half-lion, half-hippopotamus body.
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