Editing Osiris myth (section)

==Influence==
The effect of the Osiris myth on Egyptian culture was greater and more widespread than that of any other myth.{{sfn|Assmann|2001|p=124}} In literature, the myth was not only the basis for a retelling such as "Contendings"; it also provided the basis for more distantly related stories. "[[The Tale of Two Brothers]]", a folk tale with human protagonists, includes elements similar to the myth of Osiris.{{sfn|Baines|1996|pp=372–374}} One character's penis is eaten by a fish, and he later dies and is resurrected.{{sfn|Lichtheim|2006b|pp=206–209}} Another story, "[[The Tale of Truth and Falsehood]]", adapts the conflict of Horus and Set into an [[allegory]], in which the characters are direct [[personification]]s of truth and lies rather than deities associated with those concepts.{{sfn|Baines|1996|pp=372–374}}

===Osiris and funerary ritual===
[[File:Opening of the Mouth - Tutankhamun and Aja.jpg|thumb|right|alt=Fresco of a crowned man holding a curved stick-like implement in front of a man in mummy wrappings|The [[opening of the mouth ceremony]], a key funerary ritual, performed for [[Tutankhamun]] by his successor [[Ay (pharaoh)|Ay]]. The deceased king takes on the role of Osiris, upon whom Horus was supposed to have performed the ceremony.{{sfn|Roth|2001|pp=605–608}}]]
From at least the time of the ''Pyramid Texts'', kings hoped that after their deaths they could emulate Osiris's restoration to life and his rule over the realm of the dead. By the early Middle Kingdom (c. 2055–1650 BCE), non-royal Egyptians believed that they, too, could overcome death as Osiris had, by worshipping him and receiving the [[Ancient Egyptian burial customs|funerary rites]] that were partly based on his myth. Osiris thus became Egypt's most important afterlife deity.{{sfn|David|2002|pp=154, 158}} The myth also influenced the notion, which grew prominent in the New Kingdom, that only virtuous people could reach the [[Ancient Egyptian afterlife beliefs|afterlife]]. As the assembled deities judged Osiris and Horus to be in the right, undoing the injustice of Osiris's death, so a deceased soul had to be judged righteous in order for his or her death to be undone.{{sfn|Smith|2008|p=3}} As ruler of the land of the dead and as a god connected with ''maat'', Osiris became the judge in this posthumous trial, offering life after death to those who followed his example.{{sfn|Griffiths|1980|pp=181–184, 234–235}} New Kingdom funerary texts such as the ''[[Amduat]]'' and the ''[[Book of Gates]]'' liken Ra himself to a deceased soul. In them, he travels through the Duat and unites with Osiris to be reborn at dawn.{{sfn|Griffiths|1975|pp=303–304}} Thus, Osiris was not only believed to enable rebirth for the dead; he renewed the sun, the source of life and ''maat'', and thus renewed the world itself.{{sfn|Assmann|2001|pp=77–80}}

As the importance of Osiris grew, so did his popularity. By late in the Middle Kingdom, the centuries-old tomb of the First Dynasty ruler [[Djer]], near Osiris's main center of worship in the city of [[Abydos, Egypt|Abydos]], was seen as Osiris's tomb. Accordingly, it became a major focus of Osiris worship. For the next 1,500 years, an annual festival procession traveled from Osiris's main temple to the tomb site.{{sfn|O'Connor|2009|pp=90–91, 114, 122}} Kings and commoners from across Egypt built chapels, which served as [[cenotaph]]s, near the processional route. In doing so they sought to strengthen their connection with Osiris in the afterlife.{{sfn|O'Connor|2009|pp=92–96}}

Another major funerary festival, a national event spread over several days in the month of Khoiak in the [[Egyptian calendar]], became linked with Osiris during the Middle Kingdom.{{sfn|Graindorge|2001|loc=vol. III|pp=305–307}} During Khoiak the ''[[djed]]'' pillar, an emblem of Osiris, was ritually raised into an upright position, symbolizing Osiris's restoration. By Ptolemaic times (305–30 BCE), Khoiak also included the planting of seeds in an "Osiris bed", a mummy-shaped bed of soil, connecting the resurrection of Osiris with the seasonal growth of plants.{{sfn|Mettinger|2001|pp=169–171}}

===Horus, the Eye of Horus, and kingship===
The myth's religious importance extended beyond the funerary sphere. Mortuary offerings, in which family members or hired priests presented food to the deceased, were logically linked with the mythological offering of the Eye of Horus to Osiris. By analogy, this episode of the myth was eventually equated with other interactions between a human and a being in the divine realm. In temple offering rituals, the officiating priest took on the role of Horus, the gifts to the deity became the Eye of Horus, and whichever deity received these gifts was momentarily equated with Osiris.{{sfn|Assmann|2001|pp=49–50}}

The myth influenced popular religion as well. One example is the magical healing spells based on Horus's childhood. Another is the use of the Eye of Horus as a protective emblem in personal [[apotropaic]] [[amulets]]. Its mythological restoration made it appropriate for this purpose, as a general symbol of well-being.{{sfn|Meltzer|2001|p=122}}

The ideology surrounding the living king was also affected by the Osiris myth. The Egyptians envisioned the events of the Osiris myth as taking place sometime in Egypt's dim prehistory, and Osiris, Horus, and their divine predecessors were included in Egyptian lists of past kings such as the [[Turin Royal Canon]].{{sfn|Meeks|Favard-Meeks|1996|pp=29–32}} Horus, as a primeval king and as the personification of kingship, was regarded as the predecessor and exemplar for all Egyptian rulers. His assumption of his father's throne and pious actions to sustain his spirit in the afterlife were the model for all pharaonic successions to emulate.{{sfn|Pinch|2004|pp=84–87, 143}} Each new king was believed to renew ''maat'' after the death of the preceding king, just as Horus had done. In [[coronation of the pharaoh|royal coronations]], rituals alluded to Osiris's burial, and hymns celebrated the new king's accession as the equivalent of Horus's own.{{sfn|Assmann|2001|pp=141–144}}

===Set===
The Osiris myth contributed to the frequent characterization of Set as a disruptive, harmful god. Although other elements of Egyptian tradition credit Set with positive traits, in the Osiris myth the sinister aspects of his character predominate.{{sfn|te Velde|1967|pp=137–142}} He and Horus were often juxtaposed in art to represent opposite principles, such as good and evil, intellect and instinct, and the different regions of the world that they rule in the myth. [[sebayt|Egyptian wisdom texts]] contrast the character of the ideal person with the opposite type—the calm and sensible "Silent One" and the impulsive, disruptive "Hothead"—and one description of these two characters calls them the Horus-type and the Set-type. Yet the two gods were often treated as part of a harmonious whole. In some local cults they were worshipped together; in art they were often shown tying together the emblems of Upper and Lower Egypt to symbolize the unity of the nation; and in funerary texts they appear as a single deity with the heads of Horus and Set, apparently representing the mysterious, all-encompassing nature of the Duat.{{sfn|Englund|1989|pp=77–79, 81–83}}

Overall Set was viewed with ambivalence, until during the first millennium BCE he came to be seen as a totally malevolent deity. This transformation was prompted more by his association with foreign lands than by the Osiris myth.{{sfn|te Velde|1967|pp=137–142}} Nevertheless, in these late times, the widespread temple rituals involving the ceremonial annihilation of Set were often connected with the myth.{{sfn|Pinch|2004|pp=193–194}}

===Isis, Nephthys, and the Greco-Roman world===
Both Isis and Nephthys were seen as protectors of the dead in the afterlife because of their protection and restoration of Osiris's body.{{sfn|Pinch|2004|p=171}} The motif of Isis and Nephthys protecting Osiris or the mummy of the deceased person was very common in funerary art.{{sfn|Wilkinson|2003|p=160}}  Khoiak celebrations made reference to, and may have ritually reenacted, Isis's and Nephthys's mourning, restoration, and revival of their murdered brother.{{sfn|Smith|2009|pp=96–99}} As Horus's mother, Isis was also the mother of every king according to royal ideology, and kings were said to have nursed at her breast as a symbol of their divine legitimacy.{{sfn|Assmann|2001|p=134}} Her appeal to the general populace was based in her protective character, as exemplified by the magical healing spells. In the Late Period, she was credited with ever greater magical power, and her maternal devotion was believed to extend to everyone. By Roman times she had become the most important goddess in Egypt.{{sfn|Wilkinson|2003|p=146}} The image of the goddess holding her child was used prominently in her worship—for example, in [[panel painting]]s that were used in household shrines dedicated to her. Isis's [[iconography]] in these paintings closely resembles and may have influenced the earliest [[Christianity|Christian]] [[icon]]s of [[Mary, mother of Jesus|Mary]] holding [[Jesus]].{{sfn|Mathews|Muller|2005|pp=5–9}}

In the late centuries BCE, the worship of Isis spread from Egypt across the Mediterranean world, and she became one of the most popular deities in the region. Although this new, multicultural form of Isis absorbed characteristics from many other deities, her original mythological nature as a wife and mother was key to her appeal. Horus and Osiris, being central figures in her story, spread along with her.{{sfn|David|2002|pp=326–327}} The Greek and Roman cult of Isis developed a series of [[mysteries of Isis|initiation rites dedicated to Isis and Osiris]], based on earlier [[Greco-Roman mysteries|Greco-Roman mystery rites]] but colored by Egyptian afterlife beliefs.{{sfn|Bremmer|2014|pp=116, 123}} The initiate went through an experience that simulated descent into the underworld. Elements of this ritual resemble Osiris's merging with the sun in Egyptian funerary texts.{{sfn|Griffiths|1975|pp=296–298, 303–306}} Isis's Greek and Roman devotees, like the Egyptians, believed that she protected the dead in the afterlife as she had done for Osiris,{{sfn|Brenk|2009|pp=228–229}} and they said that undergoing the initiation guaranteed to them a blessed afterlife.{{sfn|Bremmer|2014|pp=121–122}} It was to a Greek priestess of Isis that Plutarch wrote his account of the myth of Osiris.{{sfn|Griffiths|1970|pp=16, 45}}

Through the work of classical writers such as Plutarch, knowledge of the Osiris myth was preserved even after the middle of the first millennium AD, when Egyptian religion ceased to exist and knowledge of the [[Writing in Ancient Egypt|writing systems]] that were originally used to record the myth were lost. The myth remained a major part of [[Ancient Egypt in the Western imagination|Western impressions of ancient Egypt]]. In modern times, when understanding of Egyptian beliefs is informed by the original Egyptian sources, the story continues to influence and inspire new ideas, from works of fiction to scholarly speculation and [[new religious movement]]s.{{sfn|Pinch|2004|pp=45–47}}