The main elements of the Osiris legend with reference to Plutarch and certain folk-tales

Abstract

The significance of the figure of Osiris cannot be overemphasized. Architectural remains witness to his importance in the past, and stories about him to the interest he has aroused throughout the Ages. Calris was a historical personage, a king who defied after his death. Osiris, the creator sun-god rules supreme. is a god, Osiris took over the functions of the other created gods of nature. He was water, the 'life of the Soul', or Nun; and earth, the nourieher of the body, or the Primaval Hill. Both created by the Sun ‘at the first time’. With Osiris, Nun became the inuniation or his exudations, and the Hill the land of Egypt or his burial-place. His death was a violent one: by murder and dismemberment, but followed by resurrection, which gave hope to every Osirlan believer. Water was used, which could ritually rejoin the scattered limbs of the deceased, and provide him with the efflux to live again. In the case of be water led sorely to rebirth. Osiris’ death and resurrection are reformed to in the such Osirian narratives as the tale of the two brothers and the story of the blinding of truth, which were in vogue in Pharaonic times. In course of time Osiris won a prominent place in the Egyptian pantheon. When finally Christianity vanquished the ancient religion, certain observances of the Osirian cult were still practices by some Christians in Egypt. The Osiris legend was also interpreted anew by the all-pervading philosophy of Plato. Features of the legend can be traced in certain folk-tales all over the world. These contain the moral: good remains, while evil vanishes. To the Egyptians, Osiris’ death meant Nature’s death, and his revival her revival, and these two vicissitudes were mythopocically understood as the struggle between Osiris and Seth. The conflict was enacted in myster-plays and ritual in ancient and modern Egypt and Greece, and even in Great Britain. If such folk-tales and customs are carefully scrutinized, their patterns reveal the main Osirian elements of death by mutilation, retreat in vegetation and final resurrection by water.