The God Who Was Cut Into Fourteen Pieces
A jealous brother, a lead-sealed coffin, a tree grown around a god's corpse — this is how Egypt's lord of the dead came to reign over eternity.
Long before pyramids rose over the Nile, the Egyptians told of a king named Osiris, at times considered the eldest son of the earth god Geb and the sky goddess Nut, who ruled over gods, men, and all living things. He was married to his sister Isis, and together with their siblings Set and Nephthys they formed a family whose rivalries would shape the Egyptian understanding of death itself. Osiris was remembered as a green- or black-skinned pharaoh, wrapped from the chest down in mummy bandages, crowned with the Atef — a white crown flanked by two curling ostrich feathers — and holding the shepherd's crook and the flail.
According to the myth, Osiris came to the throne after Isis tricked the aging sun god Ra. While Ra slept, Isis mixed his spittle with clay to fashion a venomous snake; its bite so tormented Ra that only Isis, who alone knew his secret name, could cure him. In exchange she gained power over Ra and forced him to yield the throne to Osiris, who became ruler of gods, men and all creation.
Set, Osiris's brother, had been Ra's loyal aide and burned with resentment at being passed over. Knowing he could never defeat Osiris by force — for every creature loved Osiris and his rule — Set devised a trick instead. He had a coffin built to Osiris's exact measurements, decorated with the finest jewels, and enchanted so that only Osiris could fit inside. At a great banquet, Set offered the coffin as a gift to whoever could lie in it perfectly. Every god tried and failed. Despite Isis's warnings, Osiris finally lay down — and fit. Set slammed the lid shut, sealed it with molten lead, and cast the coffin into the Nile.
The coffin drifted to Byblos, where a tree grew rapidly around it, enclosing it within its trunk. King Malkandros, admiring the tree, had it cut down and made into a pillar for his palace — and when it was felled, it gave off a wondrous fragrance. Isis, hearing of this, traveled to Byblos and became nursemaid to the queen's child, even attempting to make the infant immortal by placing it in magical flame, until the horrified queen intervened and Isis revealed her true identity.
With the king's permission, Isis opened the pillar and recovered Osiris's coffin. Just as she prepared to revive him with her magic, Set attacked again. This time he cut Osiris's body into fourteen pieces and scattered them across Egypt. Isis and her sister Nephthys, Set's own wife, searched the length of the land to gather every fragment, building a shrine wherever a piece was found — which is why so many places in Egypt claimed to hold part of Osiris's body. Only his genitals were never recovered.
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