The best-known Egyptian myth tells of the family you met in Divine Families: Osiris, his wife Isis, their son Horus, and Osiris’s brother Seth. It explains why the dead could live again and why each king could claim the throne.
The story
- Osiris ruled Egypt as a good king.
- His brother Seth killed him out of jealousy. In some versions he scattered the body.
- Isis, helped by her sister Nephthys and by Anubis, searched for Osiris, gathered him and restored him to life long enough to conceive a son.
- Isis raised Horus in hiding in the marshes of the Delta.
- Grown up, Horus fought Seth. He lost an eye, which was healed. The gods judged in his favor, and Horus became king.
- Osiris did not return to rule the living. He became king of the dead.
Key idea
Why it works
Where the story comes from
No Egyptian text tells the whole myth from start to finish. The Pyramid Texts, hymns and spells refer to its parts. A New Kingdom papyrus, the Contendings of Horus and Seth, tells the trial between the two gods with much humor. The fullest single telling is in Greek, in the essay On Isis and Osiris by Plutarch, written about AD 100. Plutarch adds details, like a chest in which Seth trapped Osiris, that we cannot always trace in Egyptian sources.
Worked example: Using the myth
- Osiris died and was restored, then ruled the dead.
- Calling the dead man an Osiris joins him with that hope.
- It is a statement of belief about his new life, not his job.
Answer: Egyptians hoped each justified dead person would live again, like Osiris.
Worked example: Weighing a source
- Where does the number come from?
- The number fourteen comes from Plutarch, a Greek writer of about AD 100.
- Egyptian sources tell the story in pieces, and the details vary.
Answer: It is one version, told late, by a Greek author.
Common mistake