Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Seth, an evil and jealous brother, murders Osiris, castrates him, and scatters his body
parts to the most distant parts of the world. But the loving Isis finds the body parts and sews
them together, thus restoring Osiris to life. But even before restoration is accomplished,
Isis impregnates herself with Osiris's seed, and a son, Horus, is born. Horus pursues Seth
and banishes him to the awful chaos of the wasteland, west of the Nile River (the west-
ern desert: the metaphor and venue of death). The family is once again complete: the wise
ruler, the loving wife, the son waiting to become ruler if and when his father should return
to the realm of the dead. When Osiris dies, his burial place becomes sacred ground. Horus
succeeds his father as pharaoh, and so unto the generations: each prince-in-waiting is Hor-
us, each queen is Isis, and each pharaoh embodies the numinous powers of Osiris and the
ancient gods.
Osiris is the sacred thread that binds Egyptian history from the first historic pharaohs
to the last. When Caesar Augustus added Egypt to Rome's empire in 30 BCE, the Roman
legions embraced the religion of Osiris and Isis and carried it to the far reaches of the em-
pire. Isis was a comforting mother-god, and Osiris, the father, promised eternal existence
through resurrection. The early Christians were discomfited by what they derogated as the
“cult” of Osiris. It was a cult of broken parallels to Christianity: an immortal family, a mira-
culous birth, a father god, a mother goddess, and a son who carried within him the divinity
of his father, and through the son and father, the promise of eternal afterlife.
WHAT OTHER GODS DID THE EGYPTIANS WORSHIP?
Unlike the great monotheisms, the religion of Osiris was a generous religion. It welcomed
dozens of gods to the pantheon. Owing to its (almost always) annual flooding, the lower
reaches of the Nile River, known as the Delta, was an untamed place, home to dangerous
animals: lions, hippopotami, crocodiles, and poisonous snakes. What men fear, they often
attempt to placate by supplication. So, the animals of Egypt became gods, represented by
statues housed in temples, tended by priests who paid homage through prayers and offer-
ings. Wild animals engender fear, but heavenly bodies inspire awe, especially the sun and
the moon, whose predictable passage across the sky reassures us of order and continuity in
the cosmos and, by implication, order and continuity in human affairs. Sun and moon both
provide a temporal calendar of events, but life depends on the sun. So, we may pay homage
to the moon, whose calendric cycles give instructions for planting and harvesting. And we
must also respect the river god Nile, whose waters irrigate the desert. But overall, it is the
life-giving sun that stands as the predominant god of ancient Egypt.
Initially the gods of Egypt were portrayed as animals. Over time, human heads re-
placed animal heads. And at various times, human-headed animal gods were surmounted
by a symbol appropriate to that god. So, Hathor the cow was goddess of fertility and plenty;
her head was woman, often surmounted by horns. A golden disc easily and understandably
Search WWH ::
Custom Search