Osiris

Egyptian dying-and-rising god; brother-husband of Isis, father of Horus, brother and victim of Set. Original mythological narrative: Set traps him in a coffin and drowns him in the Nile; Isis recovers the body from Byblos; Set re-finds and dismembers him into fourteen parts scattered across Egypt; Isis reassembles all but the phallus (eaten by Nile fish), conceives Horus posthumously, and resurrects Osiris into the underworld kingship. The original "dying-and-rising god" archetype identified by comparative mythology. Every dead pharaoh became Osiris from the Old Kingdom onward.

Children

• Anubis
• Horus

Domains

• underworld judge
• resurrection and vegetation
• royal ancestor

Powers

• Embodying the regeneration of grain
• Grant rebirth to the justified
• Judge the dead

Epithets

• wn-nfr
• ḫnty-jmntyw
• nb ḏt
• nb ꜣbḏw
• wsjr mꜣꜥ-ḫrw

Relations

• spouse: Isis
• equated with: Dionysus
• interpretatio: Dionysus

Sources

• Pyramid Texts §218-219, §1685-1686; Coffin Texts; Book of the Dead 125, 154; Plut. De Iside et Osiride; Diod. 1.13-27
• Plut. De Iside 13-19 (Set tricks Osiris into the chest, drowns him in the Nile, body washed to Byblos; Isis recovers it; Set re-finds and dismembers into 14 parts; Isis reassembles all but the phallus)