Osiris Beliefs

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Historically known, Egypt is recognized for its vast desert environment and for being home to the Nile, the world’s longest river. Also playing an important role in Egyptian society, was their obsession with immortality and having a blessed after life. Ancient Egyptians did not believe in being deceased in the after life but that life would be everlasting in the underworld with Osiris. Egypt had multiple gods and goddesses that influence the stories told and the Osiris, Isis, and Horus myth (ca. 2972-2647 BCE) is one of a mother and son trying to avenge Osiris’ death. Another impressive feature of Egypt is the construction of the Step Pyramid at Saqqara (ca. 2650 BCE) and how Pharaoh Djoser was able to have this wonderful structure built. Lastly…show more content…
Osiris, the king of both Upper and Lower Egypt and the god if the dead, was married to Isis, the goddess of fertility, and together had a child named Horus (Sayre 69). Egyptian citizens idolized Osiris’ actions as king and during his reign he was very influential, whether it was his teachings of agriculture, informing others how to worship the gods above, or even creating a structured system to ensure everyone lived peacefully, he always seemed to make and impact on others (PDF 16). However, his brother Set was jealous of all the power he had acquired and tricked Osiris into his own death. Set had a beautiful wooden box built that would fit Osiris perfectly and at a feast one night he presented this box, which everyone admired and stated that whoever this box properly fits will be able to keep it. Everyone began to test out if they fit in the box and when Osiris got in the box, Set and his men nailed the lid shut trapping Osiris and poured melted lead into the box to suffocate him, they then threw the box into the Nile River. When Isis learned of the death of her husband, she searched all along the river until she finally found Osiris, where she temporarily revived him back to life and buried him safely. Isis then raised Horus in seclusion fearing he was in danger but he grew up to be skilled and wise. One night when Set was hunting, he stumbled across the wooden box of…show more content…
The ideas of after life, worshipping the gods, and maintaining a good should was the inspiration for many artists, resulting in spiritual paintings. Scrolls were composed of papyrus, an important writing material used to display art, including the Last Judgement piece. In this scroll one can see the god Anubis leading Hunefer to his final judgement after he died. Then one will notice that there is a scale weighing his heart in the sense of his actions versus the feather of Ma’at which was the concept of truth, balance, morality, justice, law, and order (Sayre 89). Hunefers’ heart weighed lighter than the feather, meaning he lead an ethical, moral life and can proceed on to his after life of peace. However if his heart weighed more than the feather he would have been eaten by Ammit, the eater of the dead. The end of this scroll shows Horus, with the head of a hawk, guiding Hunefer to Osiris, king of the dead, to his eternity (Harris & Zucker 1). This painted scroll is widely known and had a considerable effect on how the Egyptians looked forward to the after life and demonstrated the importance that this final judgment would have on their lives in the

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