Osiris, the Egyptian lord of the dead, held a particular place in the sacred landscape of Philae through the Abaton, the 'pure mound' on the neighbouring island of Biga that was honoured as his tomb. There Isis was believed to have gathered and revived her murdered husband, and the inviolable shrine received regular libations. Because the Blemmyes and other Nubians of the frontier were the enduring patrons of the Philae cult, the Osirian mysteries of death and resurrection formed part of the religious world the Beja's ancestors sustained until the sanctuaries were closed. His figure represents the Osirian, mortuary dimension of that late frontier religion, complementary to the solar cult of Mandulis and the great-goddess cult of Isis.