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| Isis and Osiris |
The myth of
Osiris and
Isis a tale of death and resurrection, was serious to Egyptian sacred beliefs and material all the crucial components of Egyptian funerary rites. No complete Egyptian simulate of the myth of Isis and Osiris exists, but the greatest ancient interpretation comes from Plutarch, a Greek priest at Delphi, who wrote De Iside Et Osiride about a.d. 100. The two principal gods, Isis and Osiris, were brother and sister and husband and wife. Their brother,
Set, and their sister, Nephthys, were as well husband and wife. Osiris brought civilization to Egypt by presenting raising and cattle raising to the early habitant of the Nile Valley, and Isis taught the people the art of whirling and weaving. So prosperous was Osiris in his charge that he set out to bring growing and cattle producing to neighboring countries. He left Isis, the goddess of
magic, to watch over the people of Egypt and to keep their bad brother Set in check. While her conserve was gone, Isis ruled the land wisely and controlled Set, who was secretly platting against his brother.
When Osiris returned to Egypt, Set, by trickery, held the exact body measurements of his brother Osiris and established a enjoyable wooden chest to his proportions. Set then invited Osiris to a lavish banquet and offered the beautiful chest to any guest who could fit inside. Guest after guest tried and failed. Osiris climbed into the bureau that fit him utterly. Set immediately sealed it shut, swarmed molten lead over it, and made the chest into the River Nile. When Isis heard of her husbands death, she wept and began searching for the chest that held Osiriss body. During a bad storm at sea, the chest sticky up on the shores of Byblos in Phoenicia (modern Lebanon) and came to rest in the limbs of a tamarisk tree. In time the tree grew to unique size, and the trunk encompassed the chest with the dead Osiris inside. While she was smart for Osiris, Isis had a vision and saw the chest in Byblos.
