all men were believed to be associated with Osiris at death, providing that they had participated in the appropriate cultic observances.
Finally, the mixture was kneaded into a mold of Osiris and taken to the temple and buried.
Plutarch and others have noted that the sacrifices to Osiris were "gloomy, solemn, and mournful" and that the great mystery festival, celebrated in two phases, began at Abydos on the seventeenth of Athyr (ca.
Osiris's wife, Isis, searched for his remains until she finally found him embedded in a tree trunk, which was holding up the roof of a palace in Byblos on the Phoenician coast.
Abydos, which had been a strong centre of the cult of Anubis, became a centre of the cult of Osiris.
Like the account summarized above, Osiris is murdered by his evil brother Set, who Diodorus associates with the evil Typhon of Greek mythology.
Osiris (whose name is a Greek transliteration of the Egyptian Asar) is the Egyptian god of life, death, fertility, and the underworld.
Diodorus Siculus gives another version of the myth, where Osiris is described as an ancient king who taught the Egyptians the arts of civilization, including agriculture.
Osiris-worship continued up until the sixth century C.E.
At the temple of Mendes, figures of Osiris were made from wheat, paste was placed in a trough on the day of the murder's commemoration, then water added for several days.
Ptah-Seker, a composite deity uniting the creative elements of Ptah and the chthonic elements of Seker, gradually became identified with Osiris (the prototypical rebirth god).
One night, while Set had been out hunting, he inadvertently came across the body of Osiris.
Isis recovers all the parts of Osiris body, less the phallus, and secretly buries them.
To this end, a cult that had originally been dedicated to the deceased Apis Bull (thus, to the Osiris of Apis), came to be re-imagined in a more Hellenic mode.
Given the primacy of Osiris in the development of these religious institutions, scholars of religion often use the term "Osiris-Dionysus" as a general catch-all to describe the syncretic gods that they were centered around.
To explain the apparent infidelity of Osiris, it was said that a sexually frustrated Nephthys had disguised herself as Isis to get more attention from her husband, Set.
One such practice was the creation and seeding of "Osiris beds" (mentioned above).
In brief, this myth described Osiris's death at the hands of his brother Set, who jealously desired his elder sibling's throne.
Within his telling, Set, desiring his brother's throne, convinced Osiris to lay down inside a coffin, which he then nailed shut, sealed with lead and threw into the Nile.