Osiris
Osiris West AsiaThe Egyptian saviour: the chief deity of death, and the only god to rival the solar cult of Re. Sacred to him was Zedu, a town which took its name from his fetish–several sheaves placed one above the other. There along the luxuriant waterways of the delta Osiris was lord of flood and vegetation as well as the king and judge of the dead. From Anubis, the earlier dog-headed or jackal god of death, he acquired the jackal symbol just as in Upper Egypt the recumbent dog connected with the dead, Khenti-Amentiu, was merged with him at Abydos, where it was believed that Osiris' head had been buried. In Egypt the gods had no special abode such as the Olympus of the Greeks; for the local residences of deities remained the same down the ages, with the exception of those gods absorbed by the greater members of the pantheon.
Osiris was depicted as a bearded man, either green or black in colour, wearing the Crown of Upper Egypt, and swathed like a...
[The entire page is 816 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Oxford University Press Titles
