Much of the legend of Osiris – his murder by his brother Seth, and how his consort Isis used her power to revive his phallus to allow Isis to become pregnant, with a son who would eventually avenge him – was derived largely by the Heliopolitan high priesthood.

Traces of Heliopolitan legend can be found in the Pyramid Texts, hieroglyphic writings on the walls of pyrmaids of Unas (the last king of the 5th dynasty) and some of kings of the 6th dynasty (Old Kingdom).

These mythological writings on the walls of pyramids, however are scattered, so the legends were never told in full, and worse, without proper order of the myth. This is because these writings were used as magic to assist the king to reach the afterlife, are not narratives like the Akkadian-Babylonian epic of Gilgamesh or like that of Greek Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.

The myth that tell of Osiris' murder and Isis' conception of Horus in one continuous tale, actually appeared in the writing of the Greek biographer of the 2nd century AD, Plutarch. However, there are some considerable differences between his version and that of the Egyptian versions. Not to mention that it can be confusing when Plutarch mixed the names of Greek gods with that of the Egyptian. I will retell Plutarch's version in the next article, but for now we will continue with Egyptian legend.

The conception of Horus through the seed of Osiris’ dead phallus can be found in the Pyramid Texts, Utterance 366:

The Coffin Texts written in part of the 1st Intermediate Period (sort of like the Dark Ages) and in the Middle Kingdom dynasties, were no better at providing a continuous narrative of the events of the legend.

In E.A. Wallis Budge’s translation of A Hymn To Osiris And A Legend Of The Origin Of Horus, it doesn’t mention how Osiris died.

The hieroglyphic texts were carved into the stone stele, probably in the 18th Dynasty. The stele is now preserved in Paris.

Much of the text contains a hymn to Osiris, lauding him as being the most powerful of the gods, who ruled heaven, earth and the netherworld. It also says how he was partly responsible for the creation.

Before the text ended, we are given a brief description about Isis, who was not only his sister and wife, but she was his most powerful protectress. Isis was responsible for keeping him safe from other creatures, using her magic spells.

The myth go on how Isis upon hearing of his death, went in search of his body in the form of a bird. As she flew, she wailed in grief. When she found his body, she used her wings to fan wind into his lifeless body, at least long enough for her to draw the essence or seed from his phallus, in which she became pregnant.

Their child would be Osiris’ heir, whose name is Horus. Then there is a very short praise to Horus being his father’s son, the young god grew into a mighty one, but it provide no account about how Horus achieve avenging his father’s death.

In the Pyramid Texts and the Coffin Texts, but these references to Osiris and Isis are scattered, and never told in full, or in prooper order.

Plutarch, the 2nd century AD Greek biographer, tells quite a different myth of Osiris and Isis. For this reason, I will retell the Greek version in full.

Please notes, however, that Plutarch often mixed the names of Greek deities with that of the Egyptian deities, so here are a list of names,

Egyptian	Greek
Re	Helios
Thoth	Hermes
Geb	Kronos
Nut	Rhea
Osiris	Bacchus/Dionysus
Horus the Elder?
Seth	Typhon
Isis
Nephthys	Aphrodite

When Helios (Re) found Rhea (Nut) with Kronos (Geb), he jealously cursed Rhea, so that she could not give birth to child on any given day of the calendar year. At first, the Egyptian calendar year had only 360 days, divided by 12 months of 30 days. But Hermes (Thoth) was also in love with the goddess, found a way around this curse, in return for the goddess' favour. At a game of dice with Selene (Aah), Hermes won one-seventieth of each day from Selene. By adding these altogether, he managed to five extra days, which was added to calendar year.

Since Rhea (Nut) can't give birth on the original calendar days, she could do so on these extra days (known as Epagomenae). With these extra days, a child was born from that day. Osiris was firstborn, followed by Horus the Elder (not Isis' son), Typhon (Seth), Isis and Nephthys (Aphrodite, or Teleute or Nike). The first two sons, Osiris and Horus the Elder belonged to Helios (Re) were born respectively on day one and two. Hermes was Isis' father, and she was born on the third day. Typhon (Seth) and Nephthys were children of Kronos, on day four and five.

Before Osiris and Isis were born they were already husband and wife in their mother's womb. But Plutarch went on to say that Osiris and Isis had actually mated in their mother's womb, to create Horus the Elder, so Horus the Elder was born twice; this sort of contradict Plutarch earlier reference to Horus being the son of Helios (Re) and Rhea (Nut). Nephthys became Typhon's wife (Seth's).

Osiris as oldest child became the king of Egypt. It was he who was responsible from civilising the primitive people in Egypt: teaching them how to cultivate crops, build cities and establish the worship of gods.

Typhon (Seth), however, was jealous that his brother was revered, and conspired with 72 of his followers, to rid of Osiris. Typhon had a large beautiful box constructed, fit to size for Osiris. One day, on the 28th year of Osiris' reign (dated to the 17th day of the month on Hathor, when the sun was located on the constellation of Scorpio), Typhon arranged a banquet, where the guests (mostly Seth's conspirators) played a game of lying in the box, to see who would fit best in the box. Osiris was the last of the guests to lay in the box, unaware of the trap. Typhon's followers immediately closed the chest; nailed it shut, before sealing or covering it with lead. Now it was a sepulchre for Osiris. They then carried the chest to the coast, where they threw in the Nile Delta, which flowed out to the sea.

According to the Pyramid Texts (Utterance 535), Seth's followers were captured, then dismembered, disemboweled, beheaded, hearts removed, and drank their blood. Plutarch makes no mention of this punishment for Seth's (Typhon's) conspirators.

Eventually the chest found its way to the kingdom of Byblos, where it became lodged into a bush of tamarisk, which grew into an enormous tree. The chest was now trapped inside the tree trunk.

Isis had to search for a long while before she discovered the whereabouts of her brother-husband. Her first clue was revealed to her when she came across Pan and some satyrs at Chemmis. So she went to the mouth of Nile and searched for her brother.

Isis had also learnt that her sister, Nephthys, had secretly slept with her husband, because Nephthys was also in love with Osiris, despite her being married to her other brother. Osiris never knew that he had slept with Nephthys by mistake. Nephthys, however, feared that Typhon (Seth) would find out about Osiris' son, so she exposed the infant immediately after he was born. Isis went to find her husband's child with some dogs. When she found her nephew, Isis named him Anubis, raising the infant as foster mother, who became Isis' attendant and guard.

After a long search, she found out the king of Byblos, named Melkander, admiring the tree, had cut it and use the wood as a pillar to support the roof of his house. Isis went to Byblos in the form of an old woman, and sat by a fountain. Isis refused to talk to anyone, until she met some handmaidens of the queen of Byblos, whose name was Astarte, Saosis or Nemanoun. She would plait their hair in style not seen in Byblos, as well as perfuming their body with the exotic smell from her body. The Queen admiring her women's new hair style and perfume, had the old woman (Isis) brought to her, to serve as nurse to one of her sons.

The following scene reminded me of the Greek myth of the corn goddess Demeter at Eleusis. Isis would let the Queen's son suck on one of her finger, instead of her breast, at night, she would secretly perform a ritual of burning the infant's mortal part away in holy flame, but the child was unharmed by the fire. Each night, when she performed this rite, she would transform herself into a swallow and fly around the pillar that hid the chest of her brother's body, singing mournfully at the loss of her husband. One night, the Queen followed the old woman, because she was curious about the new nurse, but shrieked at seeing her baby surrounded by fire, interrupting the rite.

The goddess revealed herself in her true form. Because of the Queen's interruption, the child would remain mortal, instead of becoming immortal. The king didn't stop the goddess, when she took the section of the pillar that hid the chest of her husband. When cut opened the tamarisk pillar and took out the chest, she gave the out part of the pillar to the king, wrapped in fine linen and oint it with perfume oil; the people of Byblos hold this tamarisk wood in reverence in their temple.

Isis threw herself upon the chest, where her cry and lament frightened one of the Melkander's younger sons to death.

Isis took the chest with her to Egypt in a ship, but she took Melkander's eldest son with her; his name was Maneros. When the ship stopped at one place along the coast, she had opened the chest, weeping over her husband, when she thought no one was looking at her. Maneros however curiously moved closer to see what was in the chest. The sight of sorrow and anger in her face, however, frightened the boy that in one version, he died of fright, but another version says that he fell overboard, and drowned at sea. In yet another version, Plutarch says that the boy was named Palestinus or Pelusius, where a city was named after him. Whatever his name was and whatever the circumstance that he died; he was honoured in Egyptian banquets.

Isis returned to Horus, who was kept in Buto, but she placed the chest remote place; its name is not discloses here, but her other brother, Typhon (Seth) discovered the chest. Typhon mutilated the body, by cutting Osiris into fourteen pieces before scattering in various places. So Isis set about searching for her husband's body parts. She travelled through the marshy land of the Nile Delta in a boat made out of papyrus plant.

Plutarch says that in one version, Isis placed or buried each of Osiris' parts in the sepulchres of where she searches for them, in various cities of Egypt. But Plutarch also recorded that these different sepulchres were in fact decoy. She secretly gathers all the parts together in one true sepulchre, in the hope that Typhon would not find Osiris again.

The only part the goddess failed to find was Osiris' phallus, which Typhon threw into the Nile, and it was devoured by three different fishes: the Lepidotus, the Phagrus and the Oxyrhynchus. Thus the Egyptians would never eat any of these three fishes. To make up for the loss of her husband's phallus, she made one imitation of Osiris; this so-called Osiris' phallus became the symbol of one of the festivals.

When Horus grew old enough to confront his uncle (Typhon/Seth), to avenge Osiris' murder, Osiris actually appeared before his son, leaving his domain (ie Netherworld). Osiris saw that his son was ready, Osiris offered his son a choice of animal, and Horus answered his father that he prefers a horse than a lion in battle, because the horse was swifter than lion, allowing him to chase his enemies.

In the battle that lasted many days between Horus and Typhon (Seth), the younger god emerged triumphantly, capturing his uncle, and had him bound in fetters. Horus brought his father's murderer before his mother, to allow her to decide his fate. Isis, however, decided to release her brother. This action angered her son, who violently removed the royal crown from her head. This is different in the Contending of Horus and Seth (see Lost of the Eyes), where Horus actually beheaded his own mother. However, Hermes (Thoth) intervened, and set the crown back on Isis' head with the ox's head.

Typhon (Seth) accused Horus of being illegitimate, and they fought twice more in battles, but each time, Typhon was defeated. No details about any of the battle were given in Plutarch's account.

After this, Plutarch went on to write about how widespread the worship of Osiris (because his sepulchres were located in many different cities), but his two main cult centres were at Memphis and Abydos (actually the cult centre is Burisis).