A god of obscure origin who rose to prominence throughout antiquity to become one of the most lasting deities of all time.

Osiris is first noted in the PyramidTexts as a shadowy figure. In these Old Kingdom times, the kings were promised that they would not be abandoned to Osiris, since he and his "spirits" dwelt in a dark, airless and undesirable underworld.

In later times, Osiris absorbed the forms and functions of nearly all other gods associated with the process of death and afterlife. He became the "Foremost of Westerners", "Judge of the Dead", and "Overseer of the Blessed Spirits" (those who had died and been judged truthful in the Hall of the Double Truth).

The story of Osiris's tragic death, from which re-birth and life came nonetheless, was borrowed and retold in the Greek mysteries at Eleusis and other mystery cults across the ancient world (and later elsewhere . . . ) Eventually in the popular religion of the people Osiris became the final arbiter of destiny after death.

In a fit of envy, the dark god Set murdered his brother Osiris. To prevent the return of his powerful sibling after killing him, Set cut his brother's body into pieces and scattered them throughout the land. Isis, wife of Osiris, followed the trail of body parts and put her husband together, bringing him back to life. The head, which was buried in Abydos, was the final piece she recovered and thus it was that Osiris rose here, to become the judge of the dead and lord of the underworld.

In addition to His associations with death and afterlife, Osiris is the firstborn son of Geb and Nut and embodies the Black Land of the Egypt itself, the fertile soil which yearly is "murdered" by the encroachment of the Red Land (Set's desert), yet returns to growth at the rising of the Sothis-star Sirius (Isis, Osiris's sister-wife).

"Grain mummies" of seeded dirt formed in the shape of Osiris were placed in tombs to germinate in the darkness, demonstrating Osiris's
power; such a grain-mummy in Tutankhamen's tomb was carried into the light by Carter's team to reveal sprouts of barley and wheat, frozen forever in time.