OSI'RIS, one of the principal Egyptian deities, was the brother of Isis and the father of Orus [Isis ; Oxus), and is said by many writers to have been the first king of Egypt. His history is given in the first book of Diodorus, and in the treatise of Plutarch, On Isis and Osiris; but it is probable that the genuine Egyptian traditions respecting this deity had been considerably corrupted at the time of these writers. According to their accounts however, Osiris was the first who reclaimed the Egyptians from a state of barbarism, and taught Chem agriculture and the various arta and sciences. After he had introduced civilisation among his own subjects, he resolved to visit the other nations of the world, and confer on them the same blessing. He accordingly com mitted the administration of his kingdom to Isis, and gave her Hermes to assist her in council and Hercules to command her troops. Having collected a large army himself, he visited in succession Ethiopia, Arabia, and India, and thence marched through central Asia into Europe, instructing the nations in agriculture and the arts and sciences. He left his son Macedon in Thrace and Macedonia, and committed the cultivation of the land of Attica to Triptolemus. After visiting all parts of the inhabited world, he returned to Egypt, where ho was murdered soon after his arrival by his brother Typhon, who cut up his body into twenty-six parts, and divided it among the conspirators who assisted him in the murder of his brother. These parts were after wards, with one exception, discovered by Isis, who enclosed each of them in a statue of wax, made to resemble Osiris, and distributed them through different parts of Egypt. This myth appears to allude to the fact mentioned by Herodotus, that Osiris was the origin of the mummy form. After leaving this world Typhon, or the evil principle, was overcome by his influence. For the various explanations of the myth of Osiris, see Wilkinson, 'Ancient Egyptians,' iv. 333, &c.
Both ancient and modern writers have differed considerably respect. ing the peculiar attributes and powers of this deity. He appears to have been the representative of the supreme beneficence. The worship of Osiris consequently was universal in Egypt—though, says Herodotus, it was not customary for all the Egyptians to worship the same god, every one paid adoration to Osiris and Isis. Wilkinson says that Osiris differed from most of the other Egyptian deities, inasmuch as they were regarded as human beings who were deified after death, whereas Osiris was a manifestation of deity in a human form ; and this was "the profound secret revealed only to some of those who were initiated into the highest order of the mysteries." (` Ancient
Egyptians,' iv. 317.) Many of the ancients believed that ho repre sented the sun or the Nile ; while his discovery of the vine and his expedition to India led others to identify him with Dionysus. (Herod., ii. 144.) Herodotus informs us (ii. 43) that the festival of Osiris was celebrated in almost the same manner as that of Dionysus. It appears however not improbable that the worship of Osiris was introduced into Egypt, in common with the arts and sciences, from the Ethiopian Meroe. We learn from Herodotus (ii. 29) that Zeus (Ammon) and Dionysus (Osiris) were the national deities of Meroe ; and we are told by Diatoms (iii. 3) that Osiris led a colony from Ethiopia into Egypt.
Osiris was venerated under the form of the sacred bulls Apps and Mnevis (Died. i. 21) ; and as it is usual in the Egyptian symbolical language to represent their deities with human forms and with the heads of the animals which were their representatives, we find statues of Osiris represented with the head or the horns of a bull, accompanied with the name Apis-Osiris (Wilkinson, iv. 347).
Osiris, in common with Isis, presided over the world below ; his principal office as an Egyptian deity, was to judge the dead, and he is commonly represented on rolls of papyrus as sitting in judgment on departed spirits. His usual attributes are the high cap, the flail or whip, and the crosier; and he is clothed in white. Sometimes he is figured with a hawk's head. He is also frequently represented with an artificial beard. His titles are very numerous Wilkinson notices some of the principal (iv. 320). By the Greeks he was identified with Dionysus. But Diodorus says that some have supposed him to be Pluto, Pan, and even Zeus. The mysteries of Osiris, with which were conjoined those of Isis, were practised with great secrecy and solemnity. It was from them that the Eleusinian mysteries were derived. (Diodorus, i. 29 ; Herodotus, ii.) The chief seats of his worship were Phan and Abydos ; at the former of which the great mysteries were celebrated.