ENCYCLOPAEDIA LONDINENSIS; 
OR, AN 
UNIVERSAL DICTIONARY 
OF 
ARTS, SCIENCES, and LITERATURE. 
o s i 
O SI'RIS, a great deity of the Egyptians, fon of Jupiter 
and Niobe. The ancients greatly differ in their opi¬ 
nions concerning this celebrated god ; but they all agree 
that, as king of Egypt, he took particular care to civilize 
Iris fubje&s, to poliffi their morals, to give them good 
and falutary laws, and to teach them agriculture. After 
he had accomplifhed a reform at home, Ofiris refolved to 
go and fpread civilization in the other parts of the earth. 
He left his kingdom to the care of his wife IHs, and of her 
faithful minifter Hermes or Mercury. The command of 
his troops at home was left to the truft of Hercules, a 
warlike officer. In his expedition, Ofiris was accompa¬ 
nied by his brother Apollo, and by Annbis, Macedo, 
and Pan. His march was through .^Ethiopia, where his 
army was increafed by the addition of the Satyrs, a hairy 
race of monfters, who made dancing and playing on mu- 
fical inftruments their chief ftudy. He afterwards paffed 
through Arabia, and vifited the greateft part of the king¬ 
doms of Afia and of Europe, where he enlightened the 
minds of men by introducing among them the worffiip of 
the gods, and a reverence for the wifdom of a Supreme 
Being. At his return home, Ofiris found the minds of 
his fubjects roufed and agitated. His brother Typhon 
had raifed fediTions, and endeavoured to make liimfelf 
popular. Ofiris, whofe fentiments were always of the 
moft pacific nature, endeavoured to convince his brother 
of his ill conduH ; but be fell a facrifice to the attempt. 
Typhon murdered him in a fecret apartment, and cut his 
body to pieces, which were divided among the affociates 
of his guilt. Typhon, according to Plutarch, Unit up 
his brother in a coffer, and threw him into the Nile. The 
enquiries of Ifis difcovered the body of her hufband on 
the coafts of Phoenicia, where it bad been conveyed by the 
waves ; but Typhon Hole it as it was carrying to Mem¬ 
phis, and be divided it among his companions, as was 
before obferved. This cruelty incenfed Ifis: (lie revenged 
her lm{band’s death ; and, w ith her fon Orus, (fee vol. xvii. 
p. Boo.) defeajtedTyphon and thepartifansofhis confpiracy. 
She recovered the mangled pieces of her hufband’s body, 
(the genirals excepted, which the murderer had throw'n 
into the fea ;) and, to render him all the honour which 
his humanity deferved, ffie made as many ftatues of wax 
as there were mangled pieces of his body. Each ffatue 
contained a piece of the fleffi of the dead monarch ; and 
Ifis, after (lie had fummoned into her prefence, one by one, 
the priefts of all the different deities in her dominions, 
gave them each a ffatue, intimating that, in doing that, 
(lie had preferred them to all the other communities of 
Egypt; and (lie bound them by a folemn oath that they 
would keep fecret that mark of her favour, and endeavour 
Vol. XVIII. No. 1219. 
R IS. 
to (how their fenfe of it by eftablifhinga form of worffiip, 
and paying divine honours to their prince. They were 
further diredted to choofe whatever animals they pleafed, 
to reprefent the perfon and the divinity of Ofiris; and 
they were enjoined to pay the greateft reverence to that 
reprefentative of divinity, and to bury it, when dead, with 
the greateft folemnity. To render their eftabliftiment 
more popular, each facerdotal body had a certain portion 
of land allotted to maintain them, and to defray the 
expenfes which neceffarily attended the facrifices and 
ceremonial rites. As Ofiris had particularly inftrudted 
his fubjefts in cultivating the ground, the priefts chofe 
the ox to reprefent him, and paid the moft fuperftitious 
veneration to that animal. See Apis. 
Ofiris, according to the opinion of fome mythologifts, 
is the fame as the Sun; and the adoration which is paid 
by different nations to Anubis, Bacchus, Dionyfius, 
Jupiter, Pan, &c. is the fame as that which Ofiris received 
in the Egyptian temples. Ifis alfo, after death, received di¬ 
vine honours as well as her huffiand ; and, as the ox was the 
fymbol of the fun, or Ofiris, fo the cow was the emblem 
of the moon, or Ifis. Nothing can give a clearer idea of 
the power and greatnefs of Ofiris than this infcription, 
which has been found on fome ancient monuments: 
“ Saturn, the youngeft of all the gods, was my father. 
I am Ofiris, who conducted a large and numerous army 
as far as the deferts of India, and travelled over the 
greateft part of the world, and vifited the ftreams of the 
liter, and the remote (Lores of the ocean, diffufmg bene¬ 
volence to all the inhabitants of the earth.” 
Some authors have alleged that Ofiris was Jofeph, and 
others maintain that he was Mofes; whilft it is afferted by 
others, that this king of Egypt was more ancient than 
either, and that his worffiip was eftabliffied in their time 
through all Egypt, fince the Ifraelites imitated its cere¬ 
monies in the adoration of the golden calf. Bannier is of 
opinion, that Ofiris is the fame as Mizraim, the fon of 
Ham, who peopled Egypt fome time after the deluge, and 
who, after his death, was deified ; and he is called by the 
ancients the fon of Jupiter, becaufe he was the fon of 
Ham, or Hamraon, whom he liimfelf had acknowledged 
as a god. Marffiam takes Ofiris to have been Ham him- 
felf, known under the name of Menis, at the head of the 
d.ynalties which fucceeded to the gods and demigods. 
Indeed, the learned in general allow, that Ofiris was one 
of the firft defcendants of Noah by Ham, and that he go¬ 
verned Egypt, whither his father had repaired, and there 
founded a fmall kingdom, a few’ years after the difperfion 
which happened in the time of Peleg. Diodorus fays, 
fome think that Ofiris is Serapis; others that he is Dio- 
B nufus j 
