Who is Osiris? Guide to the Egyptian God of the Dead

Osiris is the god who died, and the god the dead hoped to become. He was the first king of Egypt, murdered by his brother, resurrected by his wife, and installed as the ruler and judge of the underworld. His story is the founding narrative of Egyptian religion. Every Egyptian who prepared for the afterlife hoped to identify with him after death - to become, in some sense, another Osiris, brought through death and into a life beyond it.

Key Takeaways

Osiris is the Egyptian god of the underworld, resurrection, and the afterlife, and the mythological first king of Egypt.
He is one of the five children of the earth-god Geb and the sky-goddess Nut, and brother-husband to Isis.
He was murdered by his brother Set, resurrected by Isis, and became the ruler and judge of the dead in the underworld realm called the Duat.
His son Horus, born after his death, eventually reclaims the throne of Egypt from Set in the long contendings.
He is typically depicted as a mummified king with green or black skin (colours of vegetation and the fertile Nile soil), wearing the atef crown and holding the crook and flail.
His worship centered on the city of Abydos in Upper Egypt, where his mythological tomb was located and where an annual passion play reenacted his death and resurrection.
His name in Egyptian is Wesir or Asar; the form “Osiris” comes from the Greek transliteration.

Who is Osiris?

Osiris is the Egyptian god of the underworld, the afterlife, resurrection, and, in a related sense, the annual flooding of the Nile that made Egyptian agriculture possible. He is one of the most consequential figures in the Egyptian pantheon, and the myth that centers on him is the founding drama of Egyptian religion.

Definition - Osiris

The Egyptian god of the underworld, resurrection, and the fertile Nile. Osiris was the first mythological king of Egypt, murdered by his brother Set, resurrected by his wife-sister Isis, and installed as ruler and judge of the dead. His Egyptian name is Wesir or Asar; “Osiris” is the Greek form.

His iconography is unusual for an Egyptian god. He is typically shown as a mummified king, his body bound in white cloth, his skin painted green (the colour of new vegetation) or black (the colour of the fertile Nile silt). In his hands he holds the crook and the flail - the shepherd’s staff and the grain-flail, symbols of both kingship and agricultural fertility. On his head sits the atef crown, a tall white crown flanked by ostrich feathers. He is a dead god, but his death has been made into rule.

The birth of Osiris and the Ennead

Osiris belongs to the third generation of the Egyptian creator gods, the Ennead of Heliopolis. Atum, the self-created, produced Shu (air) and Tefnut (moisture). Shu and Tefnut produced Geb (earth) and Nut (sky). Geb and Nut, in turn, produced five children on the five epagomenal days at the end of the Egyptian year: Osiris, Horus the Elder, Set, Isis, and Nephthys.

Osiris was born on the first of these days, and the tradition holds that a voice cried out at his birth announcing that “the lord of all is come into the world.” He was the eldest and the destined king. Read the story of the birth of the five gods.

The first king of Egypt

Osiris became the first king of Egypt. The tradition treats his reign as the founding era of Egyptian civilisation. He taught the Egyptians agriculture, particularly the cultivation of grain and grapes. He established laws. He built temples. He and his sister-wife Isis ruled together, and Egypt prospered.

Osiris then traveled beyond Egypt, teaching the same arts of civilisation to other peoples. In some versions of the story, he traveled as far as India. When he returned, he found his kingdom well-managed by Isis. His brother Set, however, had spent the years of his absence in resentment. Set was jealous of Osiris’s popularity, his marriage to Isis (whom Set also desired in some tellings), and his rule.

Set’s response was murder.

The murder of Osiris

Set devised a trap that plays on Osiris’s vanity and his generosity in equal measure. He commissioned a magnificent carved chest, made to Osiris’s exact measurements. At a banquet, he displayed the chest and offered it as a gift to whichever guest fit inside it perfectly. Guests tried and failed. Osiris tried, lay down, and the chest fit him. Set slammed the lid, sealed it with molten lead, and threw the chest into the Nile. Read the murder of Osiris by Set.

The chest was carried by the river out to the Mediterranean, drifted north, and eventually washed ashore at Byblos in what is now Lebanon. A tree grew around it. Isis, following divine signs, traveled to Byblos and recovered the chest, and brought Osiris’s body back to Egypt. Read Isis’s search for Osiris.

Set, discovering the recovery, hunted down Osiris’s body and dismembered it into fourteen pieces, scattering them across the country. Isis, with the help of her sister Nephthys and the jackal-headed god Anubis, gathered thirteen of the pieces. The missing piece - the phallus - had been eaten by a fish in the Nile. Isis fashioned a replacement, reassembled Osiris, and used her magic to reanimate him long enough to conceive their son Horus. Read the myth of Anubis and the chest of Osiris.

After this, Osiris did not return to rule Egypt. He descended into the underworld and became its king.

Osiris in the underworld: judge of the dead

Osiris’s rule in the underworld is not administrative. It is judicial.

Every Egyptian soul, at death, was believed to descend to the Hall of Two Truths (or Hall of Maat), where its heart was weighed on a scale against the feather of Maat, goddess of truth and cosmic order. The god Anubis conducted the weighing. The god Thoth recorded the result. Osiris sat enthroned as the presiding judge. Read the weighing of the heart ceremony.

A heart heavier than the feather - weighed down by wrongdoing - was devoured by Ammit, a composite monster with the head of a crocodile, the body of a lion, and the hindquarters of a hippopotamus. The soul so devoured ceased to exist. A heart as light as the feather passed the test, and the soul was admitted to the Field of Reeds, the Egyptian paradise - a version of Egypt as the deceased had known it, but perfected.

Osiris himself was the model. Because he had died and been resurrected, he was the god who could authorise the same for others. Egyptian funerary practice was, at its heart, a preparation to become “an Osiris” after death - to travel his path, to face the judgment, and to emerge into the life beyond. The Book of the Dead is filled with spells to help the deceased pass through the trials. Read the book of the dead.

Osiris and the Nile

Osiris’s death was also given a natural interpretation. The annual flooding of the Nile - the event that made Egyptian agriculture possible - was linked to his story. When Osiris was killed and dismembered, the fertile land of Egypt suffered. When Isis resurrected him, the Nile flooded and the land returned to fertility. Each year’s flood was, in some sense, another resurrection of Osiris. Read the myth of Osiris and the Nile flood.

The green skin of Osiris in Egyptian art reflects this association. He is the colour of vegetation that grows from the fertile Nile silt. His death is the withdrawal of that fertility; his return is its restoration.

Osiris compared to other dying-and-rising gods

Osiris is one of the earliest examples of what scholars call the dying-and-rising god pattern. The pattern appears widely in the ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern traditions.

Tradition	God	Death	Return
Egyptian	Osiris	Murdered by brother, dismembered	Resurrected by Isis; rules the dead
Greek	Persephone	Abducted to underworld	Returns for half of each year
Sumerian	Dumuzi (Tammuz)	Descends to underworld	Returns each year with the growing season
Greek	Adonis	Killed by boar	Returns from underworld annually (some traditions)
Norse	Baldur	Killed by mistletoe	Returns after Ragnarok

Each of these gods has some association with agricultural cycles or seasonal renewal. Osiris is the oldest and the best-attested. His pattern of death, dismemberment, and reassembly by a devoted female figure appears in remarkably similar forms across the ancient world.

Read the stories

Osiris appears throughout the Egyptian tradition, at the centre of the founding myth of Egyptian religion. Some entry points:

Osiris is the god of what death was made into, rather than what it took away. The Egyptians understood him as the answer to the problem death posed - the god who had died and returned, and who therefore held the door open for everyone else. Every mummy prepared, every spell recited over a coffin, every offering brought to a tomb, was an appeal to Osiris and an imitation of him. His story is the story Egypt hoped its own would follow.

Frequently Asked Questions

How did Osiris die?

Osiris was murdered by his brother Set, who tricked him into lying down inside a beautifully made chest carved to Osiris’s exact measurements. Once Osiris was inside, Set slammed the lid, sealed it with molten lead, and threw the chest into the Nile. When Isis recovered the body, Set dismembered it into fourteen pieces and scattered them across Egypt. Isis reassembled thirteen of the fourteen pieces and resurrected him through her magic.

What is Osiris the god of?

Osiris is the god of the underworld, the afterlife, resurrection, and the annual flooding of the Nile. He is the judge of the dead in the Hall of Two Truths, where every soul’s heart is weighed against the feather of Maat. He is also associated with vegetation, kingship, and civilised order - the reign he founded on earth before his death is treated as the golden age of Egyptian history.

Who is Osiris’s wife?

Isis, who is also his sister. In Egyptian tradition, sibling marriage among the gods was standard. When Set murdered Osiris, it was Isis who searched the length of Egypt to recover his body and used her magic to resurrect him long enough to conceive their son Horus. After Osiris descended to rule the underworld, Isis raised Horus in secret and championed his eventual claim to the Egyptian throne.

What does Osiris look like?

Osiris is typically depicted as a mummified king. His body is wrapped in white linen. His skin is painted green (the colour of new vegetation) or black (the colour of Nile silt), both signifying fertility and rebirth. He wears the atef crown - a tall white crown flanked by two ostrich feathers - and holds the crook and flail, the twin symbols of kingship and agricultural authority.

What is the weighing of the heart?

The weighing of the heart is the central judgment scene of the Egyptian afterlife. When a soul entered the underworld, its heart was placed on a scale against the feather of Maat, goddess of truth. Osiris presided as judge. Anubis conducted the weighing. Thoth recorded the result. A heart lighter than or equal to the feather passed the test; the soul was admitted to the Field of Reeds. A heart heavier than the feather was devoured by the monster Ammit, and the soul ceased to exist.

What is the Cult of Osiris?

The Cult of Osiris was one of the most widespread religious movements in ancient Egypt, centered on the city of Abydos in Upper Egypt. Abydos was believed to hold Osiris’s tomb, and pilgrims traveled there for centuries to bring offerings and participate in the annual mystery play that reenacted his death and resurrection. Egyptians of all classes hoped to have some connection to Abydos in their own funerary rites, and many stelae were placed there by people who could not be buried there themselves, so that their names might be near Osiris.