1 5. Reconstructed pyramid-topped tomb chapel at Deir el-Medinah. 



^ Margaret Sears 



that was the most grievious loss for average Egyptians. 

 After Akhenaton died, there was a rapid return to 

 orthodox worship, and special emphasis was laid on the 

 power of Osiris. Both Sety I (reigned 1291-1279 B.C.) 

 and Ramesses II (reigned 1279-1212 B.C.) built im- 

 pressive temples to Osiris at Abydos. Merenptah 

 (reigned 1212-1202 B.C.) added to Sety I's Osireion, 

 the access corridor with scenes from the Book of Am- 

 Duat (see fig. 11). The Osireion itself (fig. 14) recre- 

 ated the tomb of Osiris. In private tombs, scenes and 

 texts from the Afterlife cycle largely replaced the daily 

 life scenes that had been popular in pre-Akhenaton 

 Dynasty XVIII private tombs. 



The Osiride Religious System 



Osiris now began to acquire aspects of the solar deity 

 Re. In Egyptian belief, Re sailed over the sky in a boat, 

 as already noted. He rose daily as Khepri (the scarab 

 beetle) in the morning; at midday, he appeared as the 

 solar disk, the Aton; in the evening he appeared as the 

 ram-headed Atum. As Re-Atum, the sun-god passed in 

 his divine barque into the Afterlife realms after setting 



in the western horizon. There, Re-Atum illuminated 

 the faces of the deceased with the light of life. Thus, 

 the reason for giving mummies gold or gilded face 

 masks — to reflect this light of life and associate them- 

 selves with Re-Atum. In the doorways of many Rames- 

 side period tombs the owner is shown adoring Re and 

 praying to him. On the pyramid that capped many New 

 Kingdom chapels, one niche was cut on the eastern 

 face and another on the western face (fig. 15). Small 

 statues of the tomb owner, often holding a stela with a 

 prayer to Khepri or Re-Atum, were placed in these 

 niches (fig. 16). 



By Dynasty XIX, such belief in the aspects of 

 divinity led to a remarkable trinitarian statement of 

 theology: all gods and goddesses were but aspects of 

 Amun, Re, or Ptah, and these three were themselves 

 aspects of Amun, or of each other; Amun could be one 

 of them or all three. In solar belief, a similar trinity was 

 depicted in royal tombs at Thebes in the relief work 

 (fig. 17), in which Khepri and Re-Atum stand inside 

 the solar disk, Aton. The solar deity likewise became a 

 powerful resurrection symbol, for as he journeyed 

 through the fourth and fifth hours (the darkest) of the 

 night, he was transformed from Re-Horakhty, the dy- 

 ing sun, to Khepri, the resurrected sun that rose trium- 

 phantly each morning. This explains the popularity of 

 scarab beetles or winged scarab beetles as amulets in 

 mummy wrappings. The assimilation of Osiris to Re 

 and other deities is illustrated by the Ptah-Sokar-Osiris 

 figures popular in the Late Period (664-30 B.C.). These 

 often have gilded faces and wear the horns, sundisk, 

 and plumes of the solar deity, figure 18. 



Similarly, in this Late Period, especially 332 B.C.- 

 A.D. 300, the belief in Osiris and Isis spread beyond the 

 borders of Egypt, at first through the political empire of 

 the Ptolemaic rulers (323-30 B.C.). Later, the belief 

 moved on to Rome. Here, despite legal restrictions and 

 bans under Augustus and the early Julio-Claudian 

 emperors, by the reign of Claudius (A.D. 41-54) the 

 Osiris-lsis cult was granted legal status. Belief in Osiris 

 and Isis offered three major tenets that had great appeal 

 in the Graeco-Roman cultural milieu. Isis offered 

 women equality with men, just as she had done in 

 Egyptian society. Through Isis, the believer could 

 undergo the Osiride mysteries, involving resurrection 

 and eternal life. Further, Isis had power over destiny 

 and fate, and could undo the curses of witches. In 

 Apuleius's The Golden Ass (2nd cent. A.D.), the pro- 

 tagonist angers a witch, who then turns him into an 

 ass. In this form he wanders the Roman Mediterranean 

 world until he is sold to an arena. This means almost 27 



