The Murder and Resurrection of Osiris

Osiris, firstborn son of Geb and Nut, inherited the throne of Egypt and became its first pharaoh. Under his rule, Egypt entered a golden age. He taught the people the arts of agriculture, showing them how to cultivate wheat and barley along the fertile banks of the Nile. He gave them laws, established temples for the worship of the gods, and brought civilization to a people who had lived as scattered, wandering tribes.

His sister-wife Isis ruled beside him with equal wisdom, teaching the women to grind corn, spin flax, and weave cloth. Together they were beloved by all their subjects, and the land flourished under their care.

But Set, brother of Osiris, burned with envy. Where Osiris was fair and gentle, Set was fierce and red-haired, associated with the barren desert and violent storms. He could not bear to see his brother's success, and he plotted murder.

Set had a magnificent chest constructed, ornately decorated and crafted to the exact measurements of Osiris's body. At a great feast, Set presented the chest and declared that whoever fit inside it perfectly could keep it as a gift. Guest after guest tried, but none fit. When Osiris lay down inside, Set and his seventy-two conspirators slammed the lid shut, sealed it with molten lead, and cast it into the Nile.

The waters of the Nile carried the chest out to sea, and Isis, when she heard, cut off a lock of her hair, put on garments of mourning, and wandered everywhere in search of her husband.

Isis, wild with grief, searched the length of Egypt and beyond. She learned that the chest had washed ashore at Byblos in Phoenicia, where a great tamarisk tree had grown around it, enclosing it within its trunk. The local king, impressed by the tree's beauty, had cut it down and used it as a pillar in his palace.

Isis traveled to Byblos, revealed herself, and recovered the chest containing her husband's body. She brought it back to Egypt and hid it in the marshes of the Delta. But Set, hunting by moonlight, discovered the chest. In his fury, he tore Osiris's body into fourteen pieces and scattered them across the land of Egypt.

Undaunted, Isis began a second search, sailing the marshes in a papyrus boat, recovering each piece one by one. Everywhere she found a piece, she erected a shrine, which is why there are so many tombs of Osiris throughout Egypt.

With the help of her sister Nephthys, the jackal-headed god Anubis, and the wisdom of Thoth, Isis reassembled Osiris's body and wrapped it in linen bandages, performing the first mummification. Through her powerful magic, she breathed life into him long enough to conceive their son Horus.

Osiris could not return to the world of the living. Instead, he descended to the underworld, where he became its king and judge. He sits upon his throne in the Hall of Two Truths, presiding over the weighing of hearts, determining the fate of every soul that passes from the world above. In death, Osiris became more powerful than he had been in life, for he offered something no living pharaoh could: the promise of eternal life for all who lived justly.