Isis and the Search for Osiris (Egyptian myth)

Author: Traditional

Time Period: 5000 BCE–2500 BCE

Country or Culture: Egypt

Genre: Myth

Overview

One of the most important myths of ancient Egypt, Isis and her search for Osiris is a story of death, rebirth, and the search for peace that defines so much of human life. The primary characters of the myth are >Osiris, the Egyptian god of the dead and the afterlife, and >Isis, Osiris’s wife and sister and a goddess of magic and motherhood. The story also concerns Ra, the god of the sun and the most powerful Egyptian god; Horus, the child of Isis and Osiris and a god of new beginnings; and Set, a sibling to Osiris and Isis and the primary villain of the myth.

The myth details the rise of Isis and Osiris to power and the death of Osiris at the hands of the jealous Set. Osiris is trapped in a wooden chest and cast into the Nile River to die, and Isis is left to track down his body and perform a ritual of death so that his spirit can pass into the afterlife. Set continues to trick, manipulate, and scheme, but eventually Isis manages to perform the death rituals and release Osiris’s soul. Through the narrative, the story offers an explanation for a number of historical and natural phenomena, including the waxing and waning of the moon and the rising and falling of the Nile. It became a popular myth in ancient Greece and was a favorite of Greek writer Plutarch, who valued it both for its metaphors and narrative and as an explanation of some Egyptian religious customs, such as the placement of various temples. The myth became so popular, in fact, that Isis was worshipped throughout the Greek and Roman empires and is considered by some to be a Roman goddess as well as an Egyptian deity.

At its heart, however, the real value of the myth of Isis and Osiris is not in its historical information or allegorical qualities but in its lasting story of the search for peace and love in a world of betrayal, lies, and death. Osiris came to represent the yearly death and “rebirth” of grains as well as the yearly flooding and retreat of the Nile. These cornerstones of life and health in ancient Egypt were immensely important as the foundation of the culture itself. In the myth, death and life are treated as intertwined and necessary components of each other. Isis must perform the ritual and acknowledge the importance of death in order for Osiris to “live” again in the afterlife, just as the crops must die and the Nile must flood for there to be food and life in the next season. The death of Osiris and search of Isis, then, are not occasions to mourn but examples of the commitment to and necessity of rebirth, reincarnation, and the cycle of life that both embraces and transfigures death.

When the fire was burning fiercely, Isis made a glowing red space between the logs, took the baby Diktys and placed him in it. And immediately she herself turned into a swallow and flew round and round the pillar which held the body of Osiris, twittering mournfully.

“Isis and Osiris”

Summary

As with many myths, the story of Isis and Osiris begins with the births of the two central characters. Ra, the god of the sun and the first pharaoh of Egypt, learns of a prophecy claiming that any son born to the sky god Nut will one day rule Egypt. Enraged, Ra uses his power to command that Nut cannot bear children on any day or any night of the year. However, >Thoth, the god of magic, does not intend to see a prophecy go unfulfilled; he immediately challenges the moon god Khonsu to a game of checkers. Slowly, Thoth wins five days worth of the moon’s light, in the process providing a reason for the moon’s phase cycle. From this light, Thoth makes five additional days in the year, and on those days, Nut is able to bear her five children.

When Osiris is born to Nut, people across Egypt prophesy that their king has been born. He and his sister Isis are given a blessed childhood, and Thoth takes it upon himself to teach them the ways of the universe, while Isis seeks Khonsu to teach her all the magic of the world. When they grow older and marry, however, Ra still holds his position of power as pharaoh, even though he is so old he can barely rule. Isis knows that she must use her magic and wisdom to end Ra’s reign if Osiris is ever to take power. She forms a snake out of clay, places within that snake the magic of poison, and hides it in a path she knows Ra will walk down. When Ra’s eyes fall upon the clay snake, his power gives the clay creature life, and it bites him and slithers away. Because Ra has created every living creature, he is shocked at this strange discovery and has no idea how to heal himself. In a fever, he calls for the children of the gods to come before him, and Isis has her opportunity. She tells Ra that she can heal him, but only if he tells her his secret name. Ra tries to protest, but the poison is “more powerful than the hottest flame of fire” (Green 15), and he finally relents and whispers his secret name to her. Isis uses this name in her spell, and Ra is released from his body and from the poison, taking his place in the sky as the sun.

Osiris and Iris have a happy reign, teaching the people of Egypt how to be civilized and artful. However, their brother >Set, born also on those five extra days, lusts after the throne. Set has a gorgeous chest made of cedar and jewels and invites some people over for dinner, among them Osiris. After dinner, he offers the chest to whoever best fits inside of it, knowing that it is made to fit Osiris’s body exactly. When Osiris lies in the chest, Set slams the top down, and “with feverish haste he and his evil companions” nail it shut (19). They throw it into the Nile, where Osiris drowns, and the chest eventually lands in a tamarisk tree. The tree grows to be the most beautiful and fragrant in the land, and it is cut down after some years to be made into a pillar for King Malcander and Queen Astarte of Syria.

Isis, however, has heard of her husband’s death and knows that if she does not perform the proper funeral rites he will never be able to enter the land of the dead, the Duat. She cuts her hair “in a token of mourning” (20) and searches all over for the chest. Her magic eventually leads her to Byblos, where Malcander is king, and she transforms herself into an old woman. In this form, she teaches some maids a new way of braiding hair, and they invite her to the palace. Isis so impresses the queen while there that she is taken into the palace and charged with caring for the young prince, a baby who is in poor health. She uses her wisdom to nurse him back to health, and Astarte, curious of how this is possible, hides in the nursery one night to see for herself. She witnesses firsthand as Isis places the baby in the fire and turns herself into a swallow to fly around the room. Astarte hurries to retrieve her baby from the fire, only to see that he is in fact happy and unharmed.

At that moment, Isis fully reveals herself as a goddess, and the king and queen cower before her. She tells them that she had intended to make their son into a god as well but will no longer do so. As they beg her forgiveness, she offers them her blessing in exchange for the pillar that contains Osiris. Isis immediately opens the pillar to reveal the coffin of Osiris and departs, calming the sea with her magic and leaving the remnants of the pillar to be the holy item at the center of a temple. Although Isis is powerful enough to kill humans with her gaze, when Set stumbles upon her, she is forced to hide as he takes the body of Osiris, shatters it into fourteen pieces, and scatters it randomly across the land.

Isis, however, is not so easily thwarted. She travels up and down the Nile, unbothered even by the crocodiles, who are sympathetic to her quest. She finds thirteen of the fourteen pieces of Osiris, the final having been eaten by fish. She then performs the funeral rituals in every location, burying the thirteen body parts and creating thirteen magical spots. Some also believe that she used her magic to re-create his entire body, giving him a proper burial where Set cannot find him. Finally free, Osiris goes on to the Duat and becomes the king of the dead.

Bibliography

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