Editing Osiris myth (section)

==Sources==
The myth of Osiris was deeply influential in [[ancient Egyptian religion]] and was popular among ordinary people.{{sfn|Assmann|2001|p=124}} One reason for this popularity is the myth's primary religious meaning, which implies that any dead person can reach a pleasant afterlife.{{sfn|Smith|2008|p=2}} Another reason is that the characters and their emotions are more reminiscent of the lives of real people than those in most Egyptian myths, making the story more appealing to the general populace.{{sfn|O'Connor|2009|pp=37–40}} In particular, the myth conveys a "strong sense of family loyalty and devotion", as the Egyptologist [[J. Gwyn Griffiths]] puts it, in the relationships between Osiris, Isis, and Horus.{{sfn|Griffiths|1970|pp=344–345}}

With this widespread appeal, the myth appears in more ancient texts than any other myth and in an exceptionally broad range of [[Ancient Egyptian literature|Egyptian literary styles]].{{sfn|Assmann|2001|p=124}} These sources also provide an unusual amount of detail.{{sfn|Smith|2008|p=2}} Ancient Egyptian myths are fragmentary and vague; the religious metaphors contained within the myths were more important than coherent narration.{{sfn|Tobin|1989|pp=21–25}} Each text that contains a myth, or a fragment of one, may adapt the myth to suit its particular purposes, so different texts can contain contradictory versions of events.{{sfn|Goebs|2002|pp=38–45}} Because the Osiris myth was used in such a variety of ways, versions often conflict with each other. Nevertheless, the fragmentary versions, taken together, give it a greater resemblance to a cohesive story than most Egyptian myths.{{sfn|Tobin|1989|pp=22–23, 104}}

[[File:Pyramid text Teti.jpg|thumb|right|300px|alt=Wall covered with columns of carved hieroglyphic text|The Pyramid Texts in the [[Pyramid of Teti]]]]
The earliest mentions of the Osiris myth are in the [[Pyramid Texts]], the first [[ancient Egyptian funerary texts|Egyptian funerary texts]], which appeared on the walls of burial chambers in [[Egyptian pyramids|pyramids]] at the end of the [[Fifth Dynasty of Egypt|Fifth Dynasty]], during the 24th century BCE. These texts, made up of disparate [[Spell (paranormal)|spells]] or "utterances", contain ideas that are presumed to date from still earlier times.{{sfn|David|2002|pp=92–94}} The texts are concerned with the afterlife of the [[pharaoh|king]] buried in the pyramid, so they frequently refer to the Osiris myth, which is deeply involved with kingship and the afterlife.{{sfn|Griffiths|1980|pp=7–8, 41}} Major elements of the story, such as the death and restoration of [[Osiris]] and the strife between [[Horus]] and [[Set (mythology)|Set]], appear in the utterances of the Pyramid Texts.{{sfn|Griffiths|1960|pp=1, 4–7}} Funerary texts written in later times, such as the [[Coffin Texts]] from the [[Middle Kingdom of Egypt|Middle Kingdom]] (c. 2055–1650 BCE) and the ''[[Book of the Dead]]'' from the [[New Kingdom of Egypt|New Kingdom]] (c. 1550–1070 BCE), also contain elements of the myth.{{sfn|Pinch|2004|pp=15, 78}}

Other types of religious texts give evidence for the myth, such as two Middle Kingdom texts: the [[Dramatic Ramesseum Papyrus]] and the [[Ikhernofret Stela]]. The papyrus describes the coronation of [[Senusret I]], whereas the stela alludes to events in the annual festival of Khoiak. Rituals in both these festivals reenacted elements of the Osiris myth.{{sfn|Griffiths|1980|pp=107, 233–234}} The most complete ancient Egyptian account of the myth is the Great Hymn to Osiris, an inscription from the [[Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt|Eighteenth Dynasty]] (c. 1550–1292 BCE) that gives the general outline of the entire story but includes little detail.{{sfn|Lichtheim|2006b|pp=81–85}} Another important source is the [[Memphite Theology]], a religious narrative that includes an account of Osiris's death as well as the resolution of the dispute between Horus and Set. This narrative associates the kingship that Osiris and Horus represent with [[Ptah]], the [[creator deity]] of [[Memphis, Egypt|Memphis]].{{sfn|Lichtheim|2006a|pp=51–57}} The text was long thought to date back to the [[Old Kingdom]] (c. 2686–2181 BCE) and was treated as a source for information about the early stages in the development of the myth. Since the 1970s, however, Egyptologists have concluded that the text dates to the New Kingdom at the earliest.{{sfn|David|2002|p=86}}

Rituals in honor of Osiris are another major source of information. Some of these texts are found on the walls of [[Egyptian temple|temples]] that date from the New Kingdom, the [[Ptolemaic Kingdom|Ptolemaic]] era (323–30 BCE), or the Roman era (30 BCE to the fourth century CE).{{sfn|David|2002|p=156}} Some of these late ritual texts, in which Isis and Nephthys lament their brother's death, were adapted into funerary texts. In these texts, the goddesses' pleas were meant to rouse Osiris—and thus the deceased person—to live again.{{sfn|Smith|2009|pp=54–55, 61–62}}

Magical healing spells, which were used by Egyptians of all classes, are the source for an important portion of the myth, in which Horus is poisoned or otherwise sickened, and Isis heals him. The spells identify a sick person with Horus so that he or she can benefit from the goddess's efforts. The spells are known from papyrus copies, which serve as instructions for healing rituals, and from a specialized type of inscribed stone [[stela]] called a ''[[cippus]]''. People seeking healing poured water over these cippi, an act that was believed to imbue the water with the healing power contained in the text, and then drank the water in hope of curing their ailments. The theme of an endangered child protected by magic also appears on inscribed ritual wands from the Middle Kingdom, which were made centuries before the more detailed healing spells that specifically connect this theme with the Osiris myth.{{sfn|Pinch|2004|pp=18, 29, 39}}

Episodes from the myth were also recorded in writings that may have been intended as entertainment. Prominent among these texts is "[[The Contendings of Horus and Set]]", a humorous retelling of several episodes of the struggle between the two deities, which dates to the [[Twentieth dynasty of Egypt|Twentieth Dynasty]] (c. 1190–1070 BCE).{{sfn|Lichtheim|2006b|pp=197, 214}} It vividly characterizes the deities involved; as the Egyptologist [[Donald B. Redford]] says, "Horus appears as a physically weak but clever Puck-like figure, Seth [Set] as a strong-man buffoon of limited intelligence, Re-Horakhty <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[Ra]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> as a prejudiced, sulky judge, and Osiris as an articulate curmudgeon with an acid tongue."{{sfn|Redford|2001|p=294}} Despite its atypical nature, "Contendings" includes many of the oldest episodes in the divine conflict, and many events appear in the same order as in much later accounts, suggesting that a traditional sequence of events was forming at the time that the story was written.{{sfn|Redford|2001|pp=294–295}}

Ancient [[Ancient Greece|Greek]] and [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] writers, who described Egyptian religion late in its history, recorded much of the Osiris myth. [[Herodotus]], in the 5th century BCE, mentioned parts of the myth in his description of Egypt in the ''[[Histories (Herodotus)|Histories]]'', and four centuries later, [[Diodorus Siculus]] provided a summary of the myth in his ''[[Bibliotheca historica]]''.{{sfn|Pinch|2004|pp=34–35, 39–40}} In the early 2nd century CE,{{sfn|Griffiths|1970|pp=16–17}} [[Plutarch]] wrote the most complete ancient account of the myth in ''[[On Isis and Osiris]]'', an analysis of Egyptian religious beliefs.{{sfn|Tobin|1989|p=22}} Plutarch's account of the myth is the version that modern popular writings most frequently retell.{{sfn|Pinch|2004|p=41}} The writings of these classical authors may give a distorted view of Egyptian beliefs.{{sfn|Tobin|1989|p=22}} For instance, ''On Isis and Osiris'' includes many interpretations of Egyptian belief that are influenced by various [[Greek philosophy|Greek philosophies]], and its account of the myth contains portions with no known parallel in Egyptian tradition. Griffiths concluded that several elements of this account were taken from [[Greek mythology]], and that the work as a whole was not based directly on Egyptian sources.{{sfn|Griffiths|1970|pp=51–52, 98}} His colleague [[John Baines (Egyptologist)|John Baines]], on the other hand, says that temples may have kept written accounts of myths that were later lost, and that Plutarch could have drawn on such sources to write his narrative.{{sfn|Baines|1996|p=370}}