Editing Osiris myth (section)

===Death and resurrection of Osiris===
At the start of the story, Osiris rules Egypt, having inherited the kingship from his ancestors in a lineage stretching back to the creator of the world, Ra or [[Atum]]. His queen is [[Isis]], who, along with Osiris and his murderer, [[Set (deity)|Set]], is one of the children of the earth god [[Geb]] and the sky goddess [[Nut (goddess)|Nut]]. Little information about the reign of Osiris appears in Egyptian sources; the focus is on his death and the events that follow.{{sfn|Pinch|2004|pp=75–78}} Osiris is connected with life-giving power, righteous kingship, and the rule of ''[[maat]]'', the ideal natural order whose maintenance was a fundamental goal in ancient Egyptian culture.{{sfn|Pinch|2004|pp=159–160, 178–179}} Set is closely associated with violence and chaos. Therefore, the slaying of Osiris symbolizes the struggle between order and disorder, and the disruption of life by death.{{sfn|te Velde|1967|pp=81–83}}

Some versions of the myth provide Set's motive for killing Osiris. According to a spell in the ''[[Pyramid Texts]]'', Set is taking revenge for a kick Osiris gave him,{{sfn|Pinch|2004|p=78}} whereas in a Late Period text, Set's grievance is that Osiris had sex with [[Nephthys]], who is Set's consort and the fourth child of Geb and Nut.{{sfn|Smith|2008|p=2}} The murder itself is frequently alluded to, but never clearly described. The Egyptians believed that written words had the power to affect reality, so they avoided writing directly about profoundly negative events such as Osiris's death.{{sfn|Pinch|2004|pp=6, 78}} Sometimes they denied his death altogether, even though the bulk of the traditions about him make it clear that he has been murdered.{{sfn|Griffiths|1960|p=6}} In some cases the texts suggest that Set takes the form of a wild animal, such as a crocodile or bull, to slay Osiris; in others they imply that Osiris's corpse is thrown in the water or that he is drowned. This latter tradition is the origin of the Egyptian belief that people who had drowned in the [[Nile]] were sacred.{{sfn|Griffiths|2001|pp=615–619}} Even the identity of the victim can vary, as it is sometimes the god Haroeris, an elder form of Horus, who is murdered by Set and then avenged by another form of Horus, who is Haroeris's son by Isis.{{sfn|Meltzer|2001|p=120}}

By the end of the New Kingdom, a tradition had developed that Set had cut Osiris's body into pieces and scattered them across Egypt. Cult centers of Osiris all over the country claimed that the corpse, or particular pieces of it, were found near them. The dismembered parts could be said to number as many as forty-two, each piece being equated with one of the forty-two [[nome (Egypt)|nome]]s, or provinces, in Egypt.{{sfn|Pinch|2004|pp=79–80}} Thus the god of kingship becomes the embodiment of his kingdom.{{sfn|Griffiths|2001|pp=615–619}}

[[File:Abydos Tempelrelief Sethos I. 36.JPG|thumb|right|300px|alt=Relief of a man wearing a tall crown lying on a bier as a bird hovers over his phallus. A falcon-headed man stands at the foot of the bier and a woman with a headdress like a tall chair stands at the head.|Isis, in the form of a bird, copulates with the deceased Osiris. At either side are Horus, although he is as yet unborn, and Isis in human form.{{sfn|Meeks|Favard-Meeks|1996|p=37}}]]
Osiris's death is followed either by an [[interregnum]] or by a period in which Set assumes the kingship. Meanwhile, Isis searches for her husband's body with the aid of Nephthys.{{sfn|Pinch|2004|pp=79–80}} When searching for or mourning Osiris, the two goddesses are often likened to [[falcon]]s or [[kite (bird)|kites]],{{sfn|Griffiths|1980|pp=49–50}} possibly because kites travel far in search of carrion,{{sfn|Wilkinson|2003|pp=147–148}} because the Egyptians associated their plaintive calls with cries of grief, or because of the goddesses' connection with Horus, who is often represented as a falcon.{{sfn|Griffiths|1980|pp=49–50}} In the New Kingdom, when Osiris's death and renewal came to be associated with the annual [[flooding of the Nile]] that fertilized Egypt, the waters of the Nile were equated with Isis's tears of mourning{{sfn|Tobin|2001|p=466}} or with Osiris's bodily fluids.{{sfn|Pinch|2004|pp=178–179}} Osiris thus represented the life-giving divine power that was present in the river's water and in the plants that grew after the flood.{{sfn|Tobin|1989|pp=110–112}}
[[File:La_Tombe_de_Horemheb_cropped.jpg|alt=Painted relief of a seated man with green skin and tight garments, a man with the head of a jackal, and a man with the head of a falcon|thumb|297x297px|The gods Osiris, Anubis, and Horus depicted together in the Tomb of Horemheb ([[KV57]]) in the Valley of the Kings.]]
The goddesses find and restore Osiris's body, often with the help of other deities, including [[Thoth]], a deity credited with great magical and healing powers, and [[Anubis]], the god of embalming and [[Ancient Egyptian burial customs|funerary rites]]. Osiris becomes the first [[mummy]], and the gods' efforts to restore his body are the mythological basis for Egyptian embalming practices, which sought to prevent and reverse the decay that follows death. This part of the story is often extended with episodes in which Set or his followers try to damage the corpse, and Isis and her allies must protect it. Once Osiris is made whole, Isis conceives his son and rightful heir, Horus.{{sfn|Pinch|2004|pp=80–81, 178–179}} One ambiguous spell in the [[Coffin Texts]] may indicate that Isis is impregnated by a flash of lightning,{{sfn|Faulkner|1973|pp=218–219}} while in other sources, Isis, still in bird form, fans breath and life into Osiris's body with her wings and copulates with him.{{sfn|Pinch|2004|pp=79–80}} Osiris's revival is apparently not permanent, and after this point in the story he is only mentioned as the ruler of the [[Duat]], the distant and mysterious realm of the dead. Although he lives on only in the Duat, he and the kingship he stands for will, in a sense, be reborn in his son.{{sfn|Assmann|2001|pp=129–130}}

The cohesive account by Plutarch, which deals mainly with this portion of the myth, differs in many respects from the known Egyptian sources. Set—whom Plutarch, using Greek names for many of the Egyptian deities, refers to as "[[Typhon]]"—conspires against Osiris with seventy-two unspecified accomplices, as well as a queen from ancient [[Aethiopia]] ([[Nubia]]). Set has an elaborate chest made to fit Osiris's exact measurements and then, at a banquet, declares that he will give the chest as a gift to whoever fits inside it. The guests, in turn, lie inside the coffin, but none fit inside except Osiris. When he lies down in the chest, Set and his accomplices slam the cover shut, seal it, and throw it into the Nile. With Osiris's corpse inside, the chest floats out into the sea, arriving at the city of [[Byblos]], where a tree grows around it. The king of Byblos has the tree cut down and made into a pillar for his palace, still with the chest inside. Isis must remove the chest from within the tree in order to retrieve her husband's body. Having taken the chest, she leaves the tree in Byblos, where it becomes an object of worship for the locals. This episode, which is not known from Egyptian sources, gives an [[etiology|etiological]] explanation for a [[Cult (religious practice)|cult]] of Isis and Osiris that existed in Byblos in Plutarch's time and possibly as early as the New Kingdom.{{sfn|Griffiths|1970|pp=137–143, 319–322}}

Plutarch also states that Set steals and dismembers the corpse only after Isis has retrieved it. Isis then finds and buries each piece of her husband's body, with the exception of the penis, which she has to reconstruct with magic, because the original was eaten by fish in the river. According to Plutarch, this is the reason the Egyptians had a [[taboo]] against eating fish. In Egyptian accounts, however, the penis of Osiris is found intact, and the only close parallel with this part of Plutarch's story is in "[[The Tale of Two Brothers]]", a folk tale from the New Kingdom with similarities to the Osiris myth.{{sfn|Griffiths|1970|pp=145, 342–343}}

A final difference in Plutarch's account is Horus's birth. The form of Horus that avenges his father has been conceived and born before Osiris's death. It is a premature and weak second child, [[Harpocrates]], who is born from Osiris's posthumous union with Isis. Here, two of the separate forms of Horus that exist in Egyptian tradition have been given distinct positions within Plutarch's version of the myth.{{sfn|Griffiths|1970|pp=147, 337–338}}