Chapter 28

1. Chapter 28 Isis and Osiris

2. The Spread of the Influence of the Myth of Isis • The myth of Isis and Osiris originated in Egypt. • Egyptian businessmen in some cases carried their religion with them, but up to classical times (fifth century B.C.E.), there was not much attempt to make converts in the rest of the world. • The establishment of the Serapeum (temple of Serapis) in Alexandria in the fourth century B.C.E. extended Egyptian influence on religion in the Greco-Roman world. • With the rise of Rome, some stories about Isis became well known throughout the empire. • The worship of Isis became the basis of an important personal religion that, like the cult of Demeter, involved an elaborate initiation ceremony into secret mysteries. • It persisted in the Roman Empire at least until 394 C.E. Some emperors erected temples in honor of the goddess in the center of Rome; at other times, her worship was persecuted by the Romans and eventually by the Christians.

3. History of Egypt • Early Dynastic period, 3100–2686 B.C.E. • Old Kingdom, 2686–2181 B.C.E. The great pyramids were built in this era. • First Intermediate period, 2181–2040 B.C.E. • Middle Kingdom, 2040–1650 B.C.E. • Second Intermediate period, 1750–1550 B.C.E. • New Kingdom, 1550–ca. 1069 B.C.E. • Third Intermediate period, ca. 1069–656 B.C.E. • Late Period, ca. 664–343 B.C.E. • Greco-Roman period, 332 B.C.E.–642 C.E.

4. Main Religious and Cultural Centers • Each era and location had its version of a creation story. • Memphis. At the beginning of Egypt’s history, Menes, the king of Upper Egypt (the southern part), unified the country by conquering Lower Egypt (the northern part) and establishing a capital at Memphis, near modern-day Cairo, where he founded a temple to the creator god Ptah. • Heliopolis, near Memphis, the dominant city of the Old Kingdom. The priests of Heliopolis formulated a creation story that incorporated a previously existing cycle of myths about Osiris into a story featuring Atum the sun god. • Hermopolis, in Middle Egypt, was an administrative center of the Middle Kingdom. According to the creation story based there, which may have been a scientific account, there were eight gods (an Ogdoad) consisting of four male–female pairs representing the primeval forces of nature. • Thebes, in the south, became the capital after Memphis. At the end of the First Intermediate period, Theban prince Mentuhotep reunited Egypt and initiated the Middle Kingdom, though later kings returned the capital to the north. Amun was the predominant god of Thebes. Theologians there maintained that all significant gods are simply projections of Amun.

5. Best-Known Egyptian Deities • Atum – Sun god of Heliopolis in Lower Egypt. • Re – A Sun god whose cult was centered in Heliopolis. Later Re became merged with Amun into a deity known as Amun Re. • Amun (“the hidden one”) – A god whose worship originated in Thebes, but who was also worshipped in Hermopolis. Amun caused the ram-headed Khnum to create human beings as a potter who moulds clay on a potter’s wheel.

6. Best-Known Egyptian Deities, 2 • Hathor (“the mansion of Horus”) – Perhaps the first great mother goddess; represented with the attributes of a cow; a goddess of love and joy. • Horus (“the one who is above”) – A sky god with a falcon shape, he represented the living, reigning, king of Egypt, and his name was used for the king. • Osiris (“the Seat of the Eye”: the place where the sun goes) – A deity associated with earth; thought by some scholars to represent a pre-dynastic king of Egypt. Osiris’ return from the dead provides the rationale for perhaps the best-known aspect of ancient Egyptian culture, the mummification practices intended to allow the survival of the body and accord eternal life to the deceased. • Anubis – A deity represented as a jackal or a jackal-headed human. He conducts the final judgment before Osiris.

7. The Creation Story from Heliopolis This story resulted in the development of the Ennead or group of nine gods. Return to Plutarch Adapted from G. Hart, Egyptian Myths, p. 15.

8. Sources for Egyptian Myth • Pyramid Texts – The oldest texts available as sources for Egyptian mythology. They were inscribed by Pharaohs, starting with Unas (2375–2345 B.C.E.) on the Pyramid at Saqqara. • Coffin Texts – Most are later than the Pyramid Texts and were written on the insides of the coffins of private individuals, not kings. • Both Pyramid and Coffin Texts are for the most part “working texts,” which referred to stories familiar to everyone, but put those texts to work to accomplish a ritual result.

9. Coffin Texts, Spell 76 • One of the Shu Texts designed to show the multiplicity and timelessness of the god Shu. • Shu has already been created by Atum, the sun god. The first stage of Creation is Shu and Tefnut (or Tefenet), the combination of Air and Moisture. • Then comes the separation of Sky (Nut) from Shu. • After raising up the sky, Shu sets Geb (Earth) under his feet. • The excerpt (pp. 408–409) portrays the act of creation as tantamount to the act of unifying Egypt from “the Two Lands,” the Upper and Lower Kingdoms.

10. Hymn from Pyramid Texts • Prayer, spoken first to Osiris and then to Nut, calls upon them to take the deceased king into their protection and assure him everlasting life. • The hymn speaks to the dead king under the name of Osiris. • The hymn is based on a ritual in which the coffin lid, symbolizing Nut, is lowered on the base, symbolizing Geb. Nut is the mother of Osiris.

11. Coffin Texts, Spell 74 • This text is thought to be related to an eight-day ritual performed in the Middle Kingdom at the temple of Osiris in Abydos. • The ritual was performed to call forth the rising waters of the Nile to flood the dead land, represented as Osiris. • It is Isis who gives Osiris new life. With her sister Nephthys, she ministers to the unconscious god and gets him to rise on one side: the flood waters were believed to pour from the thigh of Osiris to revitalize the land.

12. Isis in the Early Roman Empire • In the early Roman empire (27 B.C.E.–200 C.E.), Isis became well established in the Greek centers of Eleusis and Delphi. • Her worship grew in northern Greece and Athens. Harbors were dedicated to her in the Arabian Gulf and the Black Sea. • As her cult spread, the role of Isis became broadened and universalized. She became the queen of heaven and the mother goddess par excellence, the healer and the sorceress above all others. • As the cult of Isis spread, she became identified with a variety of gods and goddesses through syncretism: • Demeter • Aesclepias, the Greek god of medicine and healing • Aphrodite, the goddess of love • Tyche, the goddess of fortune • Artemis, goddess of the hunt • Cybele, the Great Mother and Astarte

13. Syncretism • Syncretism means that the names and attributes of various gods are mingled, and the rituals and beliefs of different regions become intertwined. • This concept is also discussed in Chapter 31 as relating to the worship of Heracles (p. 447). • (Back)

14. Plutarch as a Transmitter of Egyptian Myth • Plutarch was a Greek who lived from 40 to 120 C.E. • He wrote the story of Isis and Osiris. We have no other complete account of the story of Isis, and none from an Egyptian source. • His primary concern was to show the superiority of Greek philosophy to Egyptian cult, which he regarded as atheistic and barbaric. • His account is confusing because of his assimilations, as explained in the next slide. • However, several ancient Egyptian sources corroborate his story of a battle between Typhon (Seth) and Horus (Apollo) for the kingship of Egypt.

15. Assimilation Plutarch created a confusing account by assimilating the Egyptian deities into what he regards as their Greek equivalents: • Cronus and Rhea are the equivalents of Nut and Geb, gods of heaven and earth. • Plutarch’s Rhea (=Nut) is represented as bearing children from Helius (=Re), Geb, and Hermes (=Thoth). • He represents Hermes (Thoth) as playing draughts with the Moon. This opponent seems to represent darkness, and so is likely to have been the Egyptian god Seth, whom Plutarch later represents as Typhon. • He distorts the Ennead (“group of nine gods”) of Heliopolis by inserting into it the elder Horus as a sibling of Isis and Osiris. The order of the children of Geb and Nut is Osiris, Aroueris or Apollo (elder Horus), Typhon (Seth), Isis, Nephthys.

16. The Birth of Osiris and Isis, with Plutarch’s Assimilations in Brackets. Compare with the version from Heliopolis by clicking here. • Rhea [Nut] secretly has intercourse with Cronus [Geb]. Helius comes to know about it and sets on her a curse that she should not give birth in any month or year. Then Hermes [Thoth], falling in love with the goddess, becomes intimate with her, and then plays draughts against the Moon. • On the first day, Osiris is born. On the second day, it is said, Aroueris is born, whom some call Apollo and the elder Horus. On the third Typhon [Seth] is born. On the fourth day Isis is born, near very moist places, and on the fifth Nephthys, whom some call Teleutê (End) and Aphrodite, and some call Nikê (Victory), is born. • Osiris and Aroueris are the offspring of Helius, Isis of Hermes [Thoth], and Typhon [Seth] and Nephthys of Cronus [Geb]. • Nephthys marries Typhon, and Isis marries Osiris.

17. The Rivalry of Seth and Horus for the Kingship • Typhon [Seth] devises a plot against Osiris. He tricks him into a coffin, nails it shut, takes it out to the river, and lets it go to the sea.

18. The Wanderings of Isis • When Isis hears of what Seth has done, she cuts off a lock of hair and puts on a mourning garment. • Isis learns that Osiris loved and was intimate with her sister while mistaking her for herself. She finds the child of this union with the help of dogs, and it becomes her guard and attendant, called Anubis. • As a result of this, Isis learns that Osiris’ chest was cast up by the sea in the land of Byblos and that the surf brought it gently to rest in a heath-tree. • Later (p. 414) we are told that Isis has sex with Osiris after his death, and from this union bears Harpocrates, prematurely delivered and weak in his lower limbs.

19. Isis Finds the Coffin of Osiris • Through the divine breath of rumor, Isis hears of Osiris’ fate and comes to Byblos, where she sits down near a fountain, dejected and tearful. • Isis becomes friendly with the queen of Byblos and is made the nurse of her child. • In the night she burns the mortal parts of the child’s body. • The queen, who has been watching her, shrieks when she sees her child on fire,and so deprives it of immortality. • The goddess then reveals herself and demands the pillar under the roof. She then covers it with linen and pours sweet oil on it, after which she gives it into the keeping of the king and queen. To this day the people of Byblos venerate the wood, which is in the temple of Isis.

20. Isis Finds the Coffin of Osiris, 2 • The goddess then falls upon the coffin, and placing it in a boat, she sets sail. As soon as she happens on a deserted spot, she opens the chest and, pressing her face to that of Osiris, she embraces him and begins to cry. • Having journeyed to her son Horus, who was being brought up in Buto, Isis puts the box aside, and Typhon, when he was hunting by night in the moonlight, comes upon it. He recognizes the body, cuts it into fourteen parts, and scatters them. • When she hears of this, Isis searches for them in a papyrus boat, sailing through the marshes. As she comes upon each part, she holds a burial ceremony. • The only part of Osiris that Isis does not find is his male member. In its place Isis fashions a likeness of it and consecrates the phallus, in honor of which the Egyptians even today hold a festival.

21. Osiris Acknowledges Horus • Osiris comes to test Horus (p. 414), asking him: • What does he consider the finest action? Horus responds, “To succor one’s father and mother when they have suffered wrong.” • What does he consider the most useful animal for battle? Horus replies, “The horse.” • Why did he not name the lion? Horus answers that the lion is helpful, but the horse routs the fugitive and so destroys his forces completely. • Osiris is pleased and feels that Horus has adequately prepared himself for battle.

22. Apuleius, The Golden Ass • The worship of Isis persisted in the Roman Empire at least until 394 C.E. As we have already seen, Isis comes to be identified with a variety of other goddesses from throughout the Roman Empire. • Apuleius lived from 125 to ca.170 C.E. The protagonist of the story, Lucius, is accidentally turned into an ass by dabbling in ill-understood magic, and has a wide range of adventures while in that form. • At the end of the novel, he sees a vision of Isis, who calls upon him to become her follower, and the next day Lucius regains his human form upon seeing a procession of Isis, which is described in detail, and munching on a garland of roses, which were sacred to the goddess. • The ritual that Lucius happens upon is the one called the ploiaphesia, a springtime blessing of ships that celebrated the opening of the year’s navigation after the dangers of winter storms were past.

23. A Ritual of Isis • Soldier, woman, magistrate, Ganymede, Pegasus, Bellerophon – Comic figures at the beginning of the procession poked fun at persons of authority and even the gods themselves. • Women in white scattering flowers, polished mirrors, ivory combs – These elements prepared the way for the goddess. • Lanterns, torches, wax tapers, every other kind of illumination – These were the symbols of Isis’ birth from Geb and Nut. • Initiates, priests – These were the earthly devotees of the mystery religion associated with Isis. • The gods themselves – Now we see a more serious rendition of divinity than the figures at the beginning of the procession. • The Secret Things, the Supreme Deity, which showed no likeness to any bird or beast (wild or tame) or even to man – These seem to have been objects associated with the mysteries of Isis.