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90-538: The earliest recorded form of Horus is the tutelary deity of Nekhen in Upper Egypt , who is the first known national god, specifically related to the ruling pharaoh who in time came to be regarded as a manifestation of Horus in life and Osiris in death. The most commonly encountered family relationship describes Horus as the son of Isis and Osiris, and he plays a key role in the Osiris myth as Osiris's heir and

180-459: A crab , and according to Plutarch 's account used her magic powers to resurrect Osiris and fashion a phallus to conceive her son (older Egyptian accounts have the penis of Osiris surviving). After becoming pregnant with Horus, Isis fled to the Nile Delta marshlands to hide from her brother Set , who jealously killed Osiris and who she knew would want to kill their son. There Isis bore

270-448: A child-god figure for the funerary gods Osiris and Isis. Unlike Horus, who was traditionally depicted as an adult, Khonsu, the lunar god, was inherently associated with youth. The cults of Harpocrates and Khonsu originally merged in a sanctuary within the Mut enclosure at Karnak. This sanctuary, later transformed into a mammisi (birth house) under the 21st Dynasty, celebrated the divine birth of

360-512: A divine son, Horus. As birth, death and rebirth are recurrent themes in Egyptian lore and cosmology, it is not particularly strange that Horus also is the brother of Osiris and Isis , by Nut and Geb , together with Nephthys and Set . This elder Horus is called Hrw-wr - Hourou'Ur - as opposed to Hrw-P-Khrd - the child Horus, at some point adopted by the Greeks as Harpocrates . Since Horus

450-442: A finger in his mouth sitting on a lotus with his mother. In the form of a youth, Horus was referred to as nfr ḥr.w "Good Horus", transliterated Neferhor, Nephoros or Nopheros (reconstructed as naːfiru ħaːruw ). The Eye of Horus is an ancient Egyptian symbol of protection and royal power from deities, in this case from Horus or Ra . The symbol is seen on images of Horus' mother, Isis, and on other deities associated with her. In

540-422: A historical perspective, Harpocrates is an artificial creation, originating from the priesthood of Thebes and later gaining popularity in the cults of other cities. His first known depiction dates to a stele from Mendes, erected during the reign of Sheshonq III (22nd Libyan Dynasty), commemorating a donation by the flutist Ânkhhorpakhered. Initially, Harpocrates originated as a duplicate of Khonsu-pa-khered, providing

630-469: A pole mounting a pot, was a symbol associated both with Osiris as god of the underworld and with Anubis , god of mummification, was sometimes included among a deceased person's funerary equipment. The first phase of the festival was a public drama depicting the murder and dismemberment of Osiris, the search for his body by Isis, his triumphal return as the resurrected god, and the battle in which Horus defeated Set. According to Julius Firmicus Maternus of

720-499: A ram-specific necropolis . Banebdjed was consequently said to be Horus' father, as Banebdjed was an aspect of Osiris. Regarding the association of Osiris with the ram, the god's traditional crook and flail are the instruments of the shepherd, which has suggested to some scholars also an origin for Osiris in herding tribes of the upper Nile. Plutarch recounts one version of the Osiris myth in which Set (Osiris' brother), along with

810-633: A red tree in the forms of the sixteen dismembered parts of Osiris, the cakes of "divine" bread were made from each mold, placed in a silver chest and set near the head of the god with the inward parts of Osiris as described in the Book of the Dead (XVII). The idea of divine justice being exercised after death for wrongdoing during life is first encountered during the Old Kingdom in a Sixth Dynasty tomb containing fragments of what would be described later as

900-562: A shepherd god. The symbolism of the flail is more uncertain with shepherd's whip, fly-whisk, or association with the god Andjety of the ninth nome of Lower Egypt proposed. He was commonly depicted as a pharaoh with a complexion of either green (the color of rebirth) or black (alluding to the fertility of the Nile floodplain) in mummiform (wearing the trappings of mummification from chest downward). The Pyramid Texts describe early conceptions of an afterlife in terms of eternal travelling with

990-401: A variant tradition that assigns different fathers to Nut's children: Osiris and Horus-Wer are attributed to Nut and Ra, Isis to Nut and Thoth, while Nephthys and Set are said to be the children of Nut and Geb. Additionally, similar to other manifestations of Horus, Horus-Wer is sometimes regarded as the child of Isis and Osiris, conceived by the pair while still within the womb of Nut. Horus-Wer

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1080-399: Is "the central element" of seven " gold , faience , carnelian and lapis lazuli " bracelets found on the mummy of Shoshenq II . The Wedjat "was intended to protect the king [here] in the afterlife" and to ward off evil. Egyptian and Near Eastern sailors would frequently paint the symbol on the bow of their vessel to ensure safe sea travel. Horus was also thought to protect the sky. Horus

1170-669: Is Permanently Benign and Youthful". The first evidence of the worship of Osiris is from the middle of the Fifth Dynasty of Egypt (25th century BC), although it is likely that he was worshiped much earlier; the Khenti-Amentiu epithet dates to at least the First Dynasty , and was also used as a pharaonic title. Most information available on the Osiris myth is derived from allusions in the Pyramid Texts at

1260-453: Is a deity or a spirit who is a guardian, patron, or protector of a particular place, geographic feature, person, lineage, nation, culture, or occupation. The etymology of "tutelary" expresses the concept of safety and thus of guardianship. In late Greek and Roman religion , one type of tutelary deity, the genius , functions as the personal deity or daimon of an individual from birth to death. Another form of personal tutelary spirit

1350-536: Is above, over". As the language changed over time, it appeared in Coptic varieties variously as /hɔr/ or /ħoːɾ/ (Ϩⲱⲣ) and was adopted into ancient Greek as Ὧρος Hō̂ros (pronounced at the time as /hɔ̂ːros/ ). It also survives in Late Egyptian and Coptic theophoric name forms such as Siese "son of Isis" and Harsiese "Horus, Son of Isis". The pharaoh was associated with many specific deities. He

1440-500: Is patron of yogis and renunciants. City gods and goddesses include: Influenced by the religion of Islam , Indonesian people believe in jinn , particularly on the island of Java. Those jinn who adhere to the religion of Islam are generally benevolent, however, non-Muslim jinn are considered to be mischievous. Some of them guard graves. If a pilgrim approaching the grave has evil intentions, they would cause severe illness or even death. Spirits called shedim are mentioned twice in

1530-431: Is taken by the devourer is subject first to terrifying punishment and then annihilated. These depictions of punishment may have influenced medieval perceptions of the inferno in hell via early Christian and Coptic texts. Purification for those who are considered justified may be found in the descriptions of "Flame Island", where they experience the triumph over evil and rebirth. For the damned, complete destruction into

1620-407: Is the familiar spirit of European folklore. Socrates spoke of hearing the voice of his personal spirit or daimonion : You have often heard me speak of an oracle or sign which comes to me … . This sign I have had ever since I was a child. The sign is a voice which comes to me and always forbids me to do something which I am going to do, but never commands me to do anything, and this

1710-565: Is the patron of military personnel and police, while Mazu is the patron of fishermen and sailors. A similar concept in Christianity would be the patron saint example of archangels "Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, etc." or to a lesser extent, the guardian angel . In Hinduism , personal tutelary deities are known as ishta-devata , while family tutelary deities are known as Kuladevata . Gramadevata are guardian deities of villages or regions. Devas can also be seen as tutelary. Shiva

1800-508: Is what stands in the way of my being a politician. The Greeks also thought deities guarded specific places: for instance, Athena was the patron goddess of the city of Athens . Tutelary deities who guard and preserve a place or a person are fundamental to ancient Roman religion . The tutelary deity of a man was his Genius , that of a woman her Juno . In the Imperial era , the Genius of

1890-612: The civitas of the Remi in Gaul adopted Apollo as its tutelary, and at the capital of the Remi (present-day Rheims ), the tutelary was Mars Camulus . Tutelary deities were also attached to sites of a much smaller scale, such as storerooms, crossroads, and granaries. Each Roman home had a set of protective deities: the Lar or Lares of the household or familia , whose shrine was a lararium ;

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1980-1006: The genius loci or guardian spirit of the site, Hercules , Silvanus , Fortuna Conservatrix ("Fortuna the Preserver") and in the Greek East Aphrodite and Agathe Tyche . The Lares Compitales were the tutelary gods of a neighborhood ( vicus ) , each of which had a compitum (shrine) devoted to these. Their annual public festival was the Compitalia . During the Republic, the cult of local or neighborhood tutelaries sometimes became rallying points for political and social unrest. Chinese folk religion , both past and present, includes myriad tutelary deities. Exceptional individuals, highly cultivated sages, and prominent ancestors can be deified and honored after death. Lord Guan

2070-539: The Egyptian language . In Egyptian hieroglyphs the name appears as wsjr , which some Egyptologists instead choose to transliterate as ꜣsjr or jsjrj . Since hieroglyphic writing lacks vowels , Egyptologists have vocalized the name in various ways, such as Asar, Ausar, Ausir, Wesir, Usir, or Usire. Several proposals have been made for the etymology and meaning of the original name; as Egyptologist Mark J. Smith notes, none are fully convincing. Most take wsjr as

2160-635: The Emperor was a focus of Imperial cult . An emperor might also adopt a major deity as his personal patron or tutelary, as Augustus did Apollo . Precedents for claiming the personal protection of a deity were established in the Republican era , when for instance the Roman dictator Sulla advertised the goddess Victory as his tutelary by holding public games ( ludi ) in her honor. Each town or city had one or more tutelary deities, whose protection

2250-455: The Etruscan city of Veii , and was often housed in an especially grand temple on the arx (citadel) or other prominent or central location. The tutelary deity of Praeneste was Fortuna , whose oracle was renowned. The Roman ritual of evocatio was premised on the belief that a town could be made vulnerable to military defeat if the power of its tutelary deity were diverted outside

2340-516: The Hebrew Bible . In both of these instances ( Psalm 106 :37 and Deuteronomy 32:17) the shedim are associated with child sacrifice or animal sacrifice . The term " shedim " is believed by some to be a loan-word from the Akkadian shedu , which referred to a spirit which could be either protective or malevolent. In Korean shamanism , jangseung and sotdae were placed at

2430-517: The Negative Confessions performed in front of the 42 Assessors of Ma'at . At death a person faced judgment by a tribunal of forty-two divine judges. If they led a life in conformance with the precepts of the goddess Ma'at , who represented truth and right living, the person was welcomed into the kingdom of Osiris. If found guilty, the person was thrown to the soul-eating demon Ammit and did not share in eternal life. The person who

2520-569: The Nile Delta , whose beneficial rule led to him being revered as a god. The accoutrements of the shepherd, the crook and the flail – once insignia of the Delta god Andjety , with whom Osiris was associated – support this theory. Osiris is a Latin transliteration of the Ancient Greek Ὄσιρις IPA: [ó.siː.ris] , which in turn is the Greek adaptation of the original name in

2610-470: The Penates who guarded the storeroom (penus) of the innermost part of the house; Vesta , whose sacred site in each house was the hearth; and the Genius of the paterfamilias , the head of household. The poet Martial lists the tutelary deities who watch over various aspects of his farm. The architecture of a granary ( horreum ) featured niches for images of the tutelary deities, who might include

2700-571: The Set animal to write his serekh name in place of the falcon hieroglyph representing Horus. His successor Khasekhemwy used both Horus and Set in the writing of his serekh. This evidence has prompted conjecture that the Second Dynasty saw a clash between the followers of the Horus king and the worshippers of Set led by Seth-Peribsen. Khasekhemwy's use of the two animal symbols would then represent

2790-477: The Egyptian language, the word for this symbol was "wedjat" ( wɟt ). It was the eye of one of the earliest Egyptian deities, Wadjet , who later became associated with Bastet , Mut , and Hathor as well. Wadjet was a solar deity and this symbol began as her all-seeing eye. In early artwork, Hathor is also depicted with this eye. Funerary amulets were often made in the shape of the Eye of Horus. The Wedjat or Eye of Horus

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2880-578: The Elder’), was the mature representation of the god Horus. This manifestation of Horus was especially worshipped at Letopolis in Lower Egypt. The Greeks identified him with the Greek god Apollo. His titles include: 'foremost of the two eyes', 'great god', 'lord of Ombos', 'possessor of the ijt-knife, who resides in Letopolis', 'Shu, son of Ra', 'Horus, strong of arm', 'great of power' and 'lord of

2970-469: The Festival of Victory included the performance of a sacred drama which commemorated the victory of Horus over Set. The main actor in this drama was the king of Egypt himself, who played the role of Horus. His adversary was a hippopotamus, who played the role of Set. In the course of the ritual, the king would strike the hippopotamus with a harpoon. The destruction of the hippopotamus by the king commemorated

3060-555: The Osirian family. The winged sun of Horus of Edfu is a symbol in associated with divinity , royalty , and power in ancient Egypt. The winged sun is symbolic also of the eternal soul. When placed above the temple doors it served as a reminder to the people of their eternal nature. The winged sun was depicted on the top of pylons in the ancient temples throughout Egypt. Her-em-akhet (or Horemakhet), ( Harmakhis in Greek), represented

3150-576: The Queen of Ethiopia , conspired with 72 accomplices to plot the assassination of Osiris. Set fooled Osiris into getting into a box, which Set then shut, sealed with lead, and threw into the Nile. Osiris' wife, Isis , searched for his remains until she finally found him embedded in a tamarisk tree trunk, which was holding up the roof of a palace in Byblos on the Phoenician coast . She managed to remove

3240-524: The accepted transliteration, following Adolf Erman : However, recently alternative transliterations have been proposed: Osiris is represented in his most developed form of iconography wearing the Atef crown, which is similar to the White crown of Upper Egypt , but with the addition of two curling ostrich feathers at each side. He also carries the crook and flail . The crook is thought to represent Osiris as

3330-518: The afterlife. After the New Kingdom, Set was still considered the lord of the desert and its oases. In many versions of the story, Horus and Set divide the realm between them. This division can be equated with any of several fundamental dualities that the Egyptians saw in their world. Horus may receive the fertile lands around the Nile, the core of Egyptian civilization, in which case Set takes

3420-470: The aspect and form of Seker-Osiris. Osiris' soul, or rather his ba , was occasionally worshipped in its own right, almost as if it were a distinct god, especially in the Delta city of Mendes . This aspect of Osiris was referred to as Banebdjedet , which is grammatically feminine (also spelt " Banebded " or " Banebdjed "), literally "the ba of the lord of the djed , which roughly means The soul of

3510-561: The barren desert or the foreign lands that are associated with it; Horus may rule the earth while Set dwells in the sky; and each god may take one of the two traditional halves of the country, Upper and Lower Egypt, in which case either god may be connected with either region. Yet in the Memphite Theology , Geb , as judge, first apportions the realm between the claimants and then reverses himself, awarding sole control to Horus. In this peaceable union, Horus and Set are reconciled, and

3600-408: The body of Osiris and hides it in the reeds where it is found and dismembered by Set. Isis retrieves and joins the fragmented pieces of Osiris, then briefly revives him by use of magic. This spell gives her time to become pregnant by Osiris. Isis later gives birth to Horus. Since Horus was born after Osiris' resurrection, Horus became thought of as a representation of new beginnings and the vanquisher of

3690-474: The child god Panebtawy. In his Moralia, the Greek philosopher Plutarch mentions three additional parentage traditions that supposedly existed for Horus-Wer during the Ptolemaic period. According to Plutarch's account, Horus-Wer was believed to be the son of Geb and Nut, born on the second of the five intercalary days at the end of the year, after Osiris and before Set, Isis, and Nephthys. Plutarch also records

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3780-515: The city, perhaps by the offer of superior cult at Rome. The depiction of some goddesses such as the Magna Mater (Great Mother, or Cybele ) as " tower-crowned " represents their capacity to preserve the city. A town in the provinces might adopt a deity from within the Roman religious sphere to serve as its guardian, or syncretize its own tutelary with such; for instance, a community within

3870-410: The coffin and retrieve her husband's body. In one version of the myth, Isis used a spell to briefly revive Osiris so he could impregnate her. After embalming and burying Osiris, Isis conceived and gave birth to their son, Horus. Thereafter Osiris lived on as the god of the underworld. Because of his death and resurrection, Osiris was associated with the flooding and retreating of the Nile and thus with

3960-479: The dawn and the early morning sun. He was often depicted as a sphinx with the head of a man (like the Great Sphinx of Giza ), or as a hieracosphinx , a creature with a lion's body and a falcon's head and wings, sometimes with the head of a lion or ram (the latter providing a link to the god Khepri , the rising sun). It was believed that he was the inspiration for the Great Sphinx of Giza , constructed under

4050-478: The dead, they would unite with him and inherit eternal life through imitative magic. Through the hope of new life after death , Osiris began to be associated with the cycles in nature, in particular the sprouting of vegetation and the annual flooding of the Nile River , as well as the heliacal rising of Orion and Sirius at the start of the new year. He became the sovereign that granted all life, "He Who

4140-432: The death of the god, on the same day that grain was planted in the ground (Isis and Osiris, 13). The annual festival involved the construction of "Osiris Beds" formed in shape of Osiris, filled with soil and sown with seed. The germinating seed symbolized Osiris rising from the dead. An almost pristine example was found in the tomb of Tutankhamun . The imiut emblem- an image of a stuffed, headless skin of an animal tied to

4230-423: The defeat of Set by Horus, which also legitimised the king. It is unlikely that the king attended the Festival of Victory every year; in many cases he was probably represented by a priest. It is also unlikely that a real hippopotamus was used in the festival every year; in many cases it was probably represented by a model. Tutelary deity A tutelary ( / ˈ tj uː t ə l ɛ r i / ; also tutelar )

4320-458: The dualities that they represent have been resolved into a united whole. Through this resolution, the order is restored after the tumultuous conflict. Egyptologists have often tried to connect the conflict between the two gods with political events early in Egypt's history or prehistory. The cases in which the combatants divide the kingdom, and the frequent association of the paired Horus and Set with

4410-642: The edge of villages to frighten off demons. They were also worshiped as deities. Seonangshin is the patron deity of the village in Korean tradition and was believed to embody the Seonangdang . In Meitei mythology and religion ( Sanamahism ) of Manipur , there are various types of tutelary deities, among which Lam Lais are the most predominant ones. In Philippine animism , Diwata or Lambana are deities or spirits that inhabit sacred places like mountains and mounds and serve as guardians. In Shinto ,

4500-584: The end of the Fifth Dynasty, later New Kingdom source documents such as the Shabaka Stone and " The Contendings of Horus and Seth ", and much later, in the narratives of Greek authors including Plutarch and Diodorus Siculus . Some Egyptologists believe the Osiris mythos may have originated in a former living ruler — possibly a shepherd who lived in Predynastic times (5500–3100 BC) in

4590-547: The extant information about the rites of Osiris can be found on the Ikhernofret Stela at Abydos erected in the Twelfth Dynasty by Ikhernofret , possibly a priest of Osiris or other official (the titles of Ikhernofret are described in his stela from Abydos) during the reign of Senwosret III (Pharaoh Sesostris, about 1875 BC). The ritual reenactment of Osiris's funeral rites were held in the last month of

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4680-549: The fourth century, this play was re-enacted each year by worshippers who "beat their breasts and gashed their shoulders.... When they pretend that the mutilated remains of the god have been found and rejoined...they turn from mourning to rejoicing." ( De Errore Profanarum Religionum ). The passion of Osiris was reflected in his name 'Wenennefer" ("the one who continues to be perfect"), which also alludes to his post mortem power. B C D F G H I K M N P Q R S T U W Much of

4770-522: The inundation (the annual Nile flood), coinciding with Spring, and held at Abydos which was the traditional place where the body of Osiris drifted ashore after having been drowned in the Nile. The part of the myth recounting the chopping up of the body into 14 pieces by Set is not recounted in this particular stela. Although it is attested to be a part of the rituals by a version of the Papyrus Jumilhac, in which it took Isis 12 days to reassemble

4860-451: The lord of the pillar . The djed , a type of pillar, was usually understood as the backbone of Osiris. The Nile supplying water, and Osiris (strongly connected to the vegetable regeneration) who died only to be resurrected, represented continuity and stability. As Banebdjed , Osiris was given epithets such as Lord of the Sky and Life of the ( sun god ) Ra . Ba does not mean "soul" in

4950-465: The north. The rulers of Nekhen, where Horus was the patron deity, are generally believed to have unified Upper Egypt, including Nagada, under their sway. Set was associated with Nagada, so it is possible that the divine conflict dimly reflects an enmity between the cities in the distant past. Much later, at the end of the Second Dynasty ( c.  2890–2686 BCE ), Pharaoh Seth-Peribsen used

5040-486: The offspring of these forces, then identifying him with Atum himself, and finally identifying the Pharaoh with Horus, the Pharaoh theologically had dominion over all the world. In one tale, Horus is born to the goddess Isis after she retrieved all the dismembered body parts of her murdered husband Osiris, except his penis , which was thrown into the Nile and eaten by a catfish / Medjed , or sometimes depicted as instead by

5130-582: The order of Khafre , whose head it depicts. Other forms of Horus include: The Festival of Victory (Egyptian: Heb Nekhtet) was an annual Egyptian festival dedicated to the god Horus. The Festival of Victory was celebrated at the Temple of Horus at Edfu, and took place during the second month of the Season of the Emergence (or the sixth month of the Egyptian calendar ). The ceremonies which took place during

5220-505: The patron of Lower Egypt , had battled for Egypt brutally, with neither side victorious, until eventually, the gods sided with Horus. As Horus was the ultimate victor he became known as ḥr.w or "Horus the Great", but more usually translated as "Horus the Elder". In the struggle, Set had lost a testicle , and Horus' eye was gouged out. Horus was occasionally shown in art as a naked boy with

5310-435: The perfect king, Horus . Further, as attested by tomb-inscriptions, both women and men could syncretize (identify) with Osiris at their death, another set of evidence that underlines Osiris' androgynous nature. Plutarch and others have noted that the sacrifices to Osiris were "gloomy, solemn, and mournful..." (Isis and Osiris, 69) and that the great mystery festival, celebrated in two phases, began at Abydos commemorating

5400-411: The pharaoh, conecting the queen mother with the mother-goddesses Mut and Isis. The merging of local Theban beliefs with the Osiris cult endowed Harpocrates with dual ancestry, as seen in inscriptions at Wadi Hammamat which name him 'Horus-the-child, son of Osiris and Isis, the Elder, the first-born of Amun.' The Osirian tradition solidified Harpocrates as the archetype of child-gods, firmly integrated into

5490-608: The pieces, coinciding with the festival of ploughing. Some elements of the ceremony were held in the temple , while others involved public participation in a form of theatre. The Stela of Ikhernofret recounts the programme of events of the public elements over the five days of the Festival: Contrasting with the public "theatrical" ceremonies sourced from the Middle Kingdom Ikhernofret Stele, more esoteric ceremonies were performed inside

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5580-403: The race started. But Horus had an edge: his boat was made of wood painted to resemble stone, rather than true stone. Set's boat, being made of heavy stone, sank, but Horus' did not. Horus then won the race, and Set stepped down and officially gave Horus the throne of Egypt. Upon becoming king after Set's defeat, Horus gives offerings to his deceased father Osiris, thus reviving and sustaining him in

5670-498: The reconciliation of the two factions, as does the resolution of the myth. Horus gradually took on the nature as both the son of Osiris and Osiris himself. He was referred to as Golden Horus Osiris. In the temple of Denderah he is given the full royal titulary of both that of Horus and Osiris. He was sometimes believed to be both the father of himself as well as his own son, and some later accounts have Osiris being brought back to life by Isis. Horus-Wer, also known as Haroeris (‘Horus

5760-521: The rival to Set , the murderer and brother of Osiris. In another tradition, Hathor is regarded as his mother and sometimes as his wife. Claudius Aelianus wrote that Egyptians called the god Apollo "Horus" in their own language . However, Plutarch , elaborating further on the same tradition reported by the Greeks , specified that the one "Horus" whom the Egyptians equated with the Greek Apollo

5850-417: The river so that he may not be said to have been inseminated by Set. Horus (or Isis herself in some versions) then deliberately spreads his semen on some lettuce , which was Set's favourite food. After Set had eaten the lettuce, they went to the gods to try to settle the argument over the rule of Egypt. The gods first listened to Set's claim of dominance over Horus, and call his semen forth, but it answered from

5940-412: The river, invalidating his claim. Then, the gods listened to Horus' claim of having dominated Set, and call his semen forth, and it answered from inside Set. However, Set still refused to relent, and the other gods were getting tired from over eighty years of fighting and challenges. Horus and Set challenged each other to a boat race, where they each raced in a boat made of stone. Horus and Set agreed, and

6030-588: The slaughter in the entire land'. 'Foremost of the two eyes' was a common epithet which was referring to the two eyes of the sky god. The two eyes represent the sun and the moon, as well as the Wadjet-eye, and played an important role in the cult of Horus-Wer. His cult center was originally Letopolis; later he was also worshipped in Kom Ombo and Qus. In Kom Ombo, he was worshipped as the son of Ra and Heqet ,the husband of his sister-wife Tasenetnofret and father of

6120-586: The spirits, or kami , which give life to human bodies come from nature and return to it after death. Ancestors are therefore themselves tutelaries to be worshiped. Some tutelary deities are known to exist in Slavic Europe, a more prominent example being that of the Leshy . In Vietnamese folk religion , Thành hoàng are gods who protect and bring good things to the village. Osiris Osiris ( / oʊ ˈ s aɪ r ɪ s / , from Egyptian wsjr )

6210-549: The substance of Earth and Water." ( Isis and Osiris, 39). Yet his accounts were still obscure, for he also wrote, "I pass over the cutting of the wood" – opting not to describe it, since he considered it as a most sacred ritual ( Ibid. 21). In the Osirian temple at Denderah , an inscription (translated by Budge, Chapter XV, Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection) describes in detail the making of wheat paste models of each dismembered piece of Osiris to be sent out to

6300-605: The sun god amongst the stars. Amongst these mortuary texts, at the beginning of the Fourth Dynasty , is found: "An offering the king gives and Anubis " . By the end of the Fifth Dynasty, the formula in all tombs becomes " An offering the king gives and Osiris ". Osiris is the mythological father of the god Horus , whose conception is described in the Osiris myth (a central myth in ancient Egyptian belief ). The myth describes Osiris as having been killed by his brother Set , who wanted Osiris' throne. His wife, Isis , finds

6390-404: The sunken city of Thonis-Heracleion . These ceremonies were fertility rites which symbolised the resurrection of Osiris. Recent scholars emphasize "the androgynous character of [Osiris'] fertility" clear from surviving material. For instance, Osiris' fertility has to come both from being castrated/cut-into-pieces and the reassembly by female Isis, whose embrace of her reassembled Osiris produces

6480-494: The temples by priests. Plutarch mentions that (for much later period) two days after the beginning of the festival "the priests bring forth a sacred chest containing a small golden coffer, into which they pour some potable water...and a great shout arises from the company for joy that Osiris is found (or resurrected). Then they knead some fertile soil with the water...and fashion therefrom a crescent-shaped figure, which they cloth and adorn, this indicating that they regard these gods as

6570-409: The town where each piece is discovered by Isis. At the temple of Mendes, figures of Osiris were made from wheat and paste placed in a trough on the day of the murder, then water was added for several days, until finally the mixture was kneaded into a mold of Osiris and taken to the temple to be buried (the sacred grain for these cakes were grown only in the temple fields). Molds were made from the wood of

6660-414: The unified polity and its kings. Yet Horus and Set cannot be easily equated with the two halves of the country. Both deities had several cult centers in each region, and Horus is often associated with Lower Egypt and Set with Upper Egypt. Other events may have also affected the myth. Before even Upper Egypt had a single ruler, two of its major cities were Nekhen , in the far south, and Nagada , many miles to

6750-413: The union of Upper and Lower Egypt, suggest that the two deities represent some kind of division within the country. Egyptian tradition and archaeological evidence indicate that Egypt was united at the beginning of its history when an Upper Egyptian kingdom, in the south, conquered Lower Egypt in the north. The Upper Egyptian rulers called themselves "followers of Horus", and Horus became the tutelary deity of

6840-527: The united crowns of Egypt, the crown of Upper Egypt and the crown of Lower Egypt. He is a form of the rising sun, representing its earliest light. As early as the third millennium BCE, Anicent Egyptian ext like the Pyramid Texts referenced the birth, youth, and adulthood of the god Horus. However, his image as a child deity was not firmly established until the first millennium BCE, when Egyptian theologians began associating childlgods with adult gods. From

6930-432: The usurper Set. Ptah-Seker (who resulted from the identification of the creator god Ptah with Seker ) thus gradually became identified with Osiris, the two becoming Ptah-Seker-Osiris . As the sun was thought to spend the night in the underworld, and was subsequently "reborn" every morning, Ptah-Seker-Osiris was identified as king of the underworld , god of the afterlife , life, death, and regeneration. Osiris also has

7020-400: The western sense, and has to do with power, reputation, force of character, especially in the case of a god. Since the ba was associated with power, and also happened to be a word for ram in Egyptian , Banebdjed was depicted as a ram, or as Ram-headed. A living, sacred ram was kept at Mendes and worshipped as the incarnation of the god, and upon death, the rams were mummified and buried in

7110-414: The yearly growth and death of crops along the Nile valley. Diodorus Siculus gives another version of the myth in which Osiris was described as an ancient king who taught the Egyptians the arts of civilization, including agriculture, then travelled the world with his sister Isis, the satyrs , and the nine muses , before finally returning to Egypt. Osiris was then murdered by his evil brother Typhon , who

7200-605: Was also a god of the Moon . Osiris was the judge and lord of the dead and the underworld , the "Lord of Silence" and Khenti-Amentiu , meaning "Foremost of the Westerners". In the Old Kingdom (2686–2181 BC) the pharaoh was considered a son of the sun god Ra who, after his death, ascended to join Ra in the sky. After the spread of the Osiris cult, however, the kings of Egypt were associated with Osiris in death – as Osiris rose from

7290-481: Was considered particularly vital in time of war and siege. Rome itself was protected by a goddess whose name was to be kept ritually secret on pain of death (for a supposed case, see Quintus Valerius Soranus ). The Capitoline Triad of Juno , Jupiter , and Minerva were also tutelaries of Rome. The Italic towns had their own tutelary deities. Juno often had this function, as at the Latin town of Lanuvium and

7380-436: Was identified directly with Horus, who represented kingship itself and was seen as a protector of the pharaoh, and he was seen as the son of Ra, who ruled and regulated nature as the pharaoh ruled and regulated society. The Pyramid Texts ( c.  2400–2300 BCE ) describe the nature of the pharaoh in different characters as both Horus and Osiris. The pharaoh as Horus in life became the pharaoh as Osiris in death, where he

7470-651: Was identified with Set. Typhon divided the body into twenty-six pieces, which he distributed amongst his fellow conspirators in order to implicate them in the murder. Isis and Hercules (Horus) avenged the death of Osiris and slew Typhon. Isis recovered all the parts of Osiris' body, except the phallus , and secretly buried them. She made replicas of them and distributed them to several locations, which then became centres of Osiris worship. Annual ceremonies were performed in honor of Osiris in various places across Egypt. Evidences of which were discovered during underwater archaeological excavations of Franck Goddio and his team in

7560-570: Was in fact "Horus the Elder", who is distinct from Horus the son of Osiris and Isis (that would make him "the Younger"). Horus is recorded in Egyptian hieroglyphs as ḥr.w "Falcon", 𓅃; the original pronunciation has been reconstructed as /ˈħaːɾuw/ in Old Egyptian and early Middle Egyptian , /ˈħaːɾəʔ/ in later Middle Egyptian , and /ˈħoːɾ(ə)/ in Late Egyptian . Additional meanings are thought to have been "the distant one" or "one who

7650-525: Was said to be the sky, he was considered to also contain the Sun and Moon. Egyptians believed that the Sun was his right eye and the Moon his left and that they traversed the sky when he, a falcon, flew across it. Later, the reason that the Moon was not as bright as the sun was explained by a tale, known as The Contendings of Horus and Seth . In this tale, it was said that Seth, the patron of Upper Egypt , and Horus,

7740-521: Was sometimes depicted fully as a falcon; he was sometimes given the title Kemwer , meaning "(the) great black (one)". Other variants include Hor Merti 'Horus of the two eyes' and Horkhenti Irti . Heru-pa-khered ( Harpocrates to the Ptolemaic Greeks), also known as Horus the child , is represented in the form of a youth wearing a lock of hair (a sign of youth) on the right of his head while sucking his finger. In addition, he usually wears

7830-676: Was the god of fertility , agriculture, the afterlife , the dead, resurrection , life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion . He was classically depicted as a green-skinned deity with a pharaoh's beard, partially mummy -wrapped at the legs, wearing a distinctive atef crown, and holding a symbolic crook and flail . He was one of the first to be associated with the mummy wrap. When his brother Set cut him up into pieces after killing him, with her sister Nephthys, Osiris' wife, Isis, searched all over Egypt to find each part of Osiris. She collected all but one – Osiris’s manhood. She then wrapped his body up, enabling him to return to life. Osiris

7920-599: Was told by his mother, Isis, to protect the people of Egypt from Set , the god of the desert, who had killed Horus' father, Osiris. Horus had many battles with Set, not only to avenge his father but to choose the rightful ruler of Egypt. In these battles, Horus came to be associated with Lower Egypt and became its patron. According to The Contendings of Horus and Seth , Set is depicted as trying to prove his dominance by seducing Horus and then having sexual intercourse with him. However, Horus places his hand between his thighs and catches Set's semen , then subsequently throws it in

8010-510: Was united with the other gods. New incarnations of Horus succeeded the deceased pharaoh on earth in the form of new pharaohs. B C D F G H I K M N P Q R S T U W The lineage of Horus, the eventual product of unions between the children of Atum , may have been a means to explain and justify pharaonic power. The gods produced by Atum were all representative of cosmic and terrestrial forces in Egyptian life. By identifying Horus as

8100-503: Was widely worshipped until the decline of ancient Egyptian religion during the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire . Osiris was at times considered the eldest son of the earth god Geb and the sky goddess Nut , as well as being brother and husband of Isis , and brother of Set , Nephthys , and Horus the Elder , with Horus the Younger being considered his posthumously begotten son. Through syncretism with Iah , he

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