THE OSIRIS MYTH...DOWN THROUGH
THE AGES
Osiris, in Egyptian mythology, one of the
principal deities. Originally the local god of Abydos and Busiris,
Osiris, who represented the
male productive force in nature, became identified with the setting sun.
Thus he was regarded as the ruler of the realm of the dead in the
mysterious region below the western horizon (remember the Sun set in the
West and sinks below the horizon...to the Egyptians a symbol of the
netherworld). Osiris was the brother and husband of Isis,
goddess of the earth and moon, who represented the female productive force
in nature. According to legend, Osiris, as king of
Egypt, found his people plunged in barbarism and taught them law,
agriculture, religion, and other blessings of civilization. He was
murdered by his evil brother, Set, who tore the body to pieces and
scattered the fragments. Set
is best understood as personified "darkness."
Here we find the first "spiritual
warfare": the light of the Sun vs the darkness.
Isis found and buried his scattered remains, however, and each burial
place was thereafter revered as sacred ground. Their son Horus, sired by a
temporarily regenerated Osiris, avenged his father's death by killing Set
and then ascended the throne. Osiris lived on in the underworld as the
ruler of the dead, but
Osiris was also, through Horus, regarded as the source of renewed life.
The
cult of Isis spread from Alexandria throughout the Hellenistic world after
the 4th century BC. It is here that we find the Essenes of Alexandria,
Egypt, heavily influenced by the Isis cult and this is reflected in their
corruption of the Hebrew Scriptures when translated by them into the Greek
known today as the Septuagint.
The
cult of Isis appeared in Greece in combination with the cults of Horus,
her son, and Serapis, the Greek name for Osiris. The
Greek historian Herodotus identified Isis with Demeter, the Greek goddess
of earth, agriculture, and fertility. The
tripartite cult of Isis, Horus, and Serapis (the Trinity) was later
introduced (86 BC) into Rome in the consulship of Lucius Cornelius Sulla
and became one of the most popular branches of Roman religion.
It later received a bad reputation through the licentiousness of some of
its priestly rites, and subsequent consuls made efforts to suppress or
limit Isis worship. The cult died out in Rome after the institution of
Christianity, and the last remaining Egyptian temples to Isis were closed
in the middle of the 6th century AD. Simply said the cult of Isis died out
because it was transformed into Gentile Christianity through religious
synthesis and survives as such today yet unrecognized by most.
He carries the flagellum and crook,
connecting this most ancient god of rebirth to the Neolithic arts of
agriculture and herding. The bringer of vegetative growth, Osiris annually
was resurrected by Isis. Many
elements of his cult influenced later Hebrew and Christian ritual.
His animal surrogate is the bull Apis.
