Osiris

o-si'ris, in Egyptian mythology, the Lord of Lords, or King of the Gods. He seems to have represented the sum of all good, as Set represented the sum of all evil. Osiris is said to have been the son of Isis. In other and perhaps more numerous accounts he is represented as the brother and husband of Isis. According to the legend Osiris and Isis assumed human form and descended to earth that they might aid and instruct mankind. After good laws and institutions had been established in Egypt he wandered away to extend the arts of civilization. Set, the Typhon of the Greeks and of Ovid's account, who had striven continually to slay Osiris, laid a plan to entrap him on his return which proved successful. He constructed a beautiful carved box just large enough to hold Osiris. When Osiris returned Set persuaded him by a stratagem to lie down in the box, when he immediately closed it, nailed it up, and threw it away. Isis wandered over the earth seeking for her husband. At last she found the box, but Osiris was dead. Not yet satisfied, Set seized the body and cut it in pieces, scattering the parts in all directions. These Isis gathered and buried. A temple was erected at every place where a part of the body of Osiris had been found. The soul of Osiris passed into the body of the bull Apis. At the death of the bull it was supposed to pass into the body of another bull. Osiris was regarded also as the judge of the dead. He is represented in Egyptian art as of human form, wrapped like a mummy, crowned with a mitre, and holding a flail and a crook. See Mythology; Egyptian; Set; Apis