John asked
> Has anybody done any work on the parallels with the Osiris myth?
Here
> we have another fellow getting bumped off by his brother, a fellow
> quintuplet in this case, and becoming ruler of the
dead/underworld. I
> have been wondering for some time if this might point to a
fundamental
> ur-myth from way back in the dim and misty. In fact this was one
major
> avenue of research I was planning for this winter. If I had to
make a
> guess at this point I'd suggest that the PIE version is more true
to the
> original because, for want of a better word, it is
more 'cosmological.'
> Others might see it the other way around.
Although Osiris probably existed from very early pre-Dynastic times
as the God of the necropolis at Abydos (The Djed pillar of Osiris is
found in royal names from Dynasty 1), it seems that the full myth of
the Osiris-Set rivalry only occurred in the first intermediary period
at the end of the Old Kingdom. The rivalry originally occurred
between Horus the falcon and Set, a strange totemic beast, and it was
only at the end of the Old Kingdom under the development of the
Memphite Ennead that Horus was accepted as the son of Osiris and
Isis. It is interesting that from Dynastic times onwards there was a
confusion of King Djed's tomb at Abydos wit the tomb of the supposed
god Osiris.
The struggle between Horus and Set came as a result of religious wars
at the end of Dynasty II, in which pharaohs who had, since late pre-
dynastic times, given pre-eminence to Horus (from Upper Egypt), were
displaced by pharaohs who worshipped Set (from Lower Egypt) as the
principle divinity of the Egyptian pantheon. Whilst an eventual
compromise was reached it seems that we see here a very early
conflict between Egyptians of the Nile with people from the delta,
which had a much more Asiatic influence.
There is in fact an etymological connection between Set (Greek Seth)
Au-sar (Greek Osiris) and Isis (Au-set). It seems to be the result
of early Semitic influence in the Nile, of the consort-goddess-slain
tanist pattern, derived ultimately from Sumeria. It seems reflected
also in the much later Canaanite division between consort (Baal) -
goddess (Astarte/Anat) - slain tanist (Mot). Although etymologically
there seems to be a connection between Au-set and Astarte, this may
be more coincidental than real, as Isis was originally seen as
the "throne" personified, in whose "lap" the pharaoh sat. It would
seem that we have disparate elements drawn together into a consistent
whole only at the beginning of the Middle Kingdom, where the emphasis
on Osiris as "the Good Shepherd" was added to the epithets often used
by the pharaoh.
It is a mistake to think that Egyptian religious forms were
unchanging. There were trends and an evolution just as much as there
was anywhere else, even amongst the Indo-Europeans.
Regards
John