Osiris

Osiris, one of the principal deities in Egyptian mythology. He was originally the local god of Busiris and later of Abydos, which long remained the centre of his cult. He represented the male productive force in nature, and became identified with the setting Sun. Thus he was regarded as the ruler of the realm of the dead in the mysterious region below the western horizon.

Osiris was the son of Geb and Nut, and the brother and husband of Isis, goddess of the Earth and Moon, who represented the female productive force in nature. According to a version of the story recorded around ad 100 by the Greek writer Plutarch, Osiris, as King of Egypt, found his people plunged in barbarism and taught them law, agriculture, religion, and other blessings of civilization. He was murdered by his evil brother, Set, who tore the body to pieces and scattered the fragments. Isis found and buried his scattered remains, however, and each burial place was thereafter revered as sacred ground. Their son Horus, sired by a temporarily regenerated Osiris, avenged his father’s death by killing Set and then ascended the throne. Osiris lived on in the underworld as the ruler of the dead but, through Horus, he was also regarded as the source of renewed life.