| Osiris
Egyptian
The god of fertility and the ruler over the Underworld where seeds germinated and the dead lived. He was the first Pharoah, who became the god of death when he quarreled with his brother, Seth, the god of chaos and storms. Seth desired Osiris's throne. It did not help Seth's envy when Osiris mated with Seth's wife, Nephthys, and produced Anubis. By one account, Seth asked Osiris to try the fit of a coffin he had built. Osiris obliged him and set himself snugly in the box. Seth slapped on the lid and threw the coffin into the sea, where Osiris drowned. In a different version of the story, Seth hacked Osiris into fourteen pieces and scattered them over the land of Egypt. Isis, Osiris's wife and sister, gathered the pieces for embalming and burial. She reserved one special piece so she could conceive the god Horus, who would later avenge Osiris by overthrowing Seth and becoming King of Egypt. Osiris descended into the Underworld and became the principal judge of the dead. He represents the Nile, which floods and fertilizes the plains of Egypt every year before flowing into the sea, beyond usefulness to farmers. Like Jesus and Dumuzi, he is both a god of life and of death. (See Neith, Harandotes.)
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