WEBVTT - From the Vault: The Cult of Osiris, Part 1 0:00:06.200 --> 0:00:08.440 Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My name 0:00:08.520 --> 0:00:09.640 is Robert Lamb. 0:00:09.440 --> 0:00:12.040 And I am Joe McCormick. And it's Saturday, so we 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:14.680 are heading into the vault for an older episode of 0:00:14.680 --> 0:00:17.079 Stuff to Blow Your Mind. This is part one of 0:00:17.120 --> 0:00:20.920 our series on Osiris and the Cult of Osiris, originally 0:00:20.920 --> 0:00:23.320 published on April second, twenty twenty four. 0:00:23.920 --> 0:00:26.360 That's right, let's geek out on some Egyptomania. 0:00:29.920 --> 0:00:33.680 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:39.880 --> 0:00:42.239 Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My 0:00:42.360 --> 0:00:43.240 name is Robert. 0:00:43.000 --> 0:00:45.120 Lamb and I am Joe McCormick. 0:00:45.520 --> 0:00:47.920 And in this episode, we're going to be diving into 0:00:48.159 --> 0:00:52.920 ancient Egyptian mythology once more to discuss an important deity 0:00:53.440 --> 0:00:57.040 connected to the topic of resurrection, which I think was 0:00:57.080 --> 0:00:59.960 probably on my mind over the weekend due to first five. 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:04.320 It was the Easter holiday. Also on Weird House Cinema, 0:01:04.400 --> 0:01:06.920 which is of our Friday episode in the Stuffed Blue 0:01:07.080 --> 0:01:11.360 Mind podcast feed, we talked about doctor FIBs rises. Again, 0:01:11.959 --> 0:01:14.600 I did not think about this in terms of the 0:01:14.640 --> 0:01:16.560 holiday at all. I didn't think, oh, this is our 0:01:16.600 --> 0:01:20.679 Easter selection. But then I noticed our social media posts 0:01:20.720 --> 0:01:24.280 about it on Easter Sunday, and it's like, you know, 0:01:24.319 --> 0:01:26.840 talking about the rise of doctor Fibb's He's rising again. 0:01:26.880 --> 0:01:29.080 I was like, oh, wow, we sort of accidentally nailed 0:01:29.120 --> 0:01:29.400 it there. 0:01:29.920 --> 0:01:32.840 It's a movie that has so many resurrections. It has 0:01:33.319 --> 0:01:37.440 Doctor Fhibes himself coming out of a sort of a 0:01:37.760 --> 0:01:41.000 chemically induced slumber where at the end of the first 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:44.040 movie he replaces his blood with embalming fluid and then 0:01:44.120 --> 0:01:47.119 goes to sleep in a giant glass contraption under the floor. 0:01:47.800 --> 0:01:49.559 At the beginning of this movie he wakes up again. 0:01:49.640 --> 0:01:51.920 So that's one sense of rising, though I guess it's 0:01:52.000 --> 0:01:55.640 questionable whether he technically died or not there, so he 0:01:55.760 --> 0:01:57.920 rises at the beginning of the movie. There. The rest 0:01:57.920 --> 0:02:00.440 of the movie is about him trying to live, literally 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:05.160 resurrect his wife Victoria played by Carolyn Monroe from the dead. 0:02:05.400 --> 0:02:07.279 She sort of spins the whole movie in a glass 0:02:07.280 --> 0:02:09.560 display case, and he is going to take her to 0:02:09.639 --> 0:02:13.040 a temple in ancient Egypt under which lies the secret 0:02:13.080 --> 0:02:16.560 to resurrection and eternal life. And he departs the end 0:02:16.600 --> 0:02:19.480 of the movie on a barge, singing somewhere over the 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:22.560 rainbow to take Carolyn and row down there and bring 0:02:22.600 --> 0:02:25.320 her back to life. And I would mention a third 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:29.639 resurrection in the film, which is that the character Vulnavia, 0:02:29.840 --> 0:02:33.520 which is melted like sort of a robot clockwork organism. 0:02:33.560 --> 0:02:36.320 We're not exactly sure. From the first movie, it's Doctor 0:02:36.320 --> 0:02:40.600 Fibes's hinchwoman who helps him commit his quote amazing murders. 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:42.840 She is melted by acid at the end of the 0:02:42.880 --> 0:02:46.360 first movie, and then just inexplicably comes back in the 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:51.280 second movie. Also, they resurrect Terry Thomas, remember he bites 0:02:51.320 --> 0:02:53.000 it in the first movie, and then he just comes 0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:55.960 back playing a totally separate character in the second movie. 0:02:56.000 --> 0:03:00.680 And I think that motif of coming back in bodily 0:03:00.760 --> 0:03:04.080 form but playing a different character, maybe maybe may it 0:03:04.120 --> 0:03:06.760 may have some thematic resonance. That's right. 0:03:07.919 --> 0:03:11.920 So what we're gonna be We're gonna be talking about Osiris. Uh. 0:03:12.040 --> 0:03:15.720 I don't think Osiris came up in Doctor five Rises again, 0:03:15.720 --> 0:03:18.200 maybe they made passing reference to him. I think I 0:03:18.320 --> 0:03:21.280 made passing reference to Osiris when we were talking about 0:03:21.280 --> 0:03:25.920 the film. But this is a deity best known for 0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:31.239 his connections to fertility, to the ancient Egyptian underworld, and 0:03:31.400 --> 0:03:33.160 to rights of mummification. 0:03:33.720 --> 0:03:35.680 So, you know, I've seen lots of depictions of the 0:03:35.680 --> 0:03:38.560 god o Cyrus before I was familiar with the imagery 0:03:38.680 --> 0:03:42.240 associated with him. But something I had never noticed until 0:03:42.240 --> 0:03:45.360 I was reading up in preparation for this episode is 0:03:45.440 --> 0:03:48.480 that while on the top half of his body, he 0:03:48.600 --> 0:03:51.240 is often depicted, you know, looking kind of like a 0:03:51.360 --> 0:03:53.560 like a king or a pharaoh, you know, very stately 0:03:53.640 --> 0:03:56.080 with a beard, with his with his face exposed under 0:03:56.080 --> 0:03:58.040 the crown and all that, if you looked down at 0:03:58.080 --> 0:04:01.520 the lower part of his body, apparently his legs are 0:04:01.600 --> 0:04:06.280 depicted wrapped together in the in the wrappings of mummification, 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:09.360 so it's like the bottom half of his body is 0:04:09.400 --> 0:04:11.480 already mummified. That's right. 0:04:11.600 --> 0:04:14.440 Yeah, And I invite listeners who are in a position 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:16.719 to do so safely to go ahead and look up 0:04:16.760 --> 0:04:21.040 some images of of of historical depictions of Osiris from 0:04:21.080 --> 0:04:24.360 ancient Egypt. Yeah, he's generally depicted as a mummified king, 0:04:25.200 --> 0:04:29.320 you know, bounds as in the wrappings of mummification. His 0:04:29.440 --> 0:04:32.919 skin as is exposed, you know, in his face and 0:04:33.040 --> 0:04:36.960 neck and hands, is apparently either black or green. I 0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:39.920 tend to find more images of green color choices, though 0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:43.880 that may have at one point signified putrification and death, 0:04:44.279 --> 0:04:47.600 but came to symbolize his connection to the cycle of 0:04:47.680 --> 0:04:52.800 death and life, of resurrection and rebirth, particularly resurrection and 0:04:52.839 --> 0:04:56.320 rebirth linked to that of plant life. On top of this, 0:04:56.400 --> 0:04:59.120 he is generally depicted as wearing a crown and he 0:04:59.200 --> 0:05:05.479 brandishes a crook and a flail, so strong agricultural vibes already. 0:05:05.200 --> 0:05:07.440 But also with power and authority. You know, it's the 0:05:07.760 --> 0:05:10.880 crook and the flail and the autaf crown, the crown 0:05:10.920 --> 0:05:12.880 I think of Upper Egypt. This is the imagery of 0:05:12.880 --> 0:05:13.240 a king. 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:17.359 Yeah, absolutely so. He is very much like an embodimentimum 0:05:17.520 --> 0:05:20.960 of a mummified king. So let's get a little bit 0:05:21.000 --> 0:05:24.760 into the myth of Osiris. Now standard caveat with mythology, 0:05:25.000 --> 0:05:27.599 you know, as usually as the case, we're not dealing 0:05:27.640 --> 0:05:30.799 with a singular idea from a singular time and place, 0:05:30.839 --> 0:05:35.120 but rather a figure and associated narratives that stirred in 0:05:35.160 --> 0:05:38.440 the minds of ancient peoples for thousands of years. We 0:05:38.480 --> 0:05:41.279 have various accounts of Osiris to go off of, but 0:05:41.600 --> 0:05:45.400 our understanding of Osiris is also incomplete, and indeed we 0:05:45.640 --> 0:05:48.159 don't know with one hundred percent certainty what his name 0:05:48.240 --> 0:05:52.880 even means. It might well mean the Mighty One, but 0:05:53.040 --> 0:05:55.320 I think there are some other ideas out there. There's 0:05:55.360 --> 0:05:59.960 plenty that experts have had to piece together about Osiris 0:06:00.160 --> 0:06:05.280 that is not explicitly, you know, obvious in the source material. Now, 0:06:05.279 --> 0:06:07.719 one of the books that I that I turned to 0:06:07.839 --> 0:06:09.760 for this episode is the two thousand and two book 0:06:09.800 --> 0:06:14.120 Egyptian Mythology by Geraldine Pinch. Pinch also points out that 0:06:14.320 --> 0:06:18.520 we don't know when, how and where Osiris was first worshiped. 0:06:19.080 --> 0:06:21.719 He might have kicked things off as kind of a 0:06:21.800 --> 0:06:25.280 deified pre dynastic king. He might have been an old 0:06:25.360 --> 0:06:28.960 vegetation spirit, a jackal god, or even a mother goddess. 0:06:29.920 --> 0:06:32.320 And I'm also assuming based on this that you know, 0:06:32.320 --> 0:06:35.520 there might have been some interplay between these concepts, you know, 0:06:35.640 --> 0:06:40.040 various varied possible origins, gods that are combined into new 0:06:40.040 --> 0:06:44.599 gods and so forth. Now, Pinch summarizes the sort of 0:06:44.640 --> 0:06:47.960 the what you might think of as the canonical rise 0:06:47.960 --> 0:06:53.240 and fall and resurrection of Osiris, pointing out that first 0:06:53.279 --> 0:06:56.599 of all, he's generally thought to have been born with 0:06:56.680 --> 0:06:59.640 a crown on his head. So taking that concept of 0:06:59.680 --> 0:07:03.479 born king that is theay referenced in Christian hymns, sometimes 0:07:03.480 --> 0:07:06.520 referring to Jesus, but taking it to a literal degree. 0:07:06.960 --> 0:07:10.440 Ah. So, whereas a lot of kings, say, might be 0:07:10.520 --> 0:07:13.040 born with a right to the throne that has then 0:07:13.160 --> 0:07:17.280 recognized in a coronation by placing the crown upon their head, 0:07:16.880 --> 0:07:20.720 that this king is born with the crown already there, like, 0:07:20.760 --> 0:07:23.240 it doesn't need to be recognized. 0:07:22.800 --> 0:07:25.800 Exactly king at his birth literally because he's look, he's 0:07:25.840 --> 0:07:27.720 wearing a little crown, and I guess maybe the crown 0:07:27.760 --> 0:07:29.480 grows with him. I mean, he's a god. He can 0:07:29.520 --> 0:07:34.040 do these things. And fortunately his mother was also a god, 0:07:34.560 --> 0:07:36.760 so he was the eldest son. It is that of 0:07:36.840 --> 0:07:39.720 the earth god Geb and the sky god as Newt. 0:07:40.400 --> 0:07:43.280 So in many respects, he is the place where earth 0:07:43.320 --> 0:07:48.440 and sky converge. He's the very horizon now. Pinch shares 0:07:48.480 --> 0:07:51.760 that some accounts allude to him overcoming his father in 0:07:51.800 --> 0:07:56.400 a vicious dynastic struggle for rule, and one late text 0:07:56.840 --> 0:08:01.239 claims that he died for the first time during this struggle. However, 0:08:01.320 --> 0:08:04.200 she stresses that no accounts of Osiris's rule and his 0:08:04.280 --> 0:08:08.680 death survive from before the Greco Roman period concerning this issue. 0:08:08.800 --> 0:08:11.880 So but one way or another he comes to reign 0:08:11.960 --> 0:08:15.600 over Egypt with his sister consort Isis at his side. 0:08:15.840 --> 0:08:18.400 But of course this rule does not last according to 0:08:18.440 --> 0:08:21.640 the pyramid texts of the Late Old Kingdom, so these 0:08:21.640 --> 0:08:24.720 are for more than four thousand years ago. Osiris was 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:27.920 murdered by his brother Seth or set who we've talked 0:08:27.920 --> 0:08:30.200 about on the show before, in part because there is 0:08:30.240 --> 0:08:33.560 some mystery and disagreement on what the set animal or 0:08:33.600 --> 0:08:39.240 Seth animal is that his iconography is based upon. But anyway, 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:42.560 we have this. Yeah, this brother Seth strikes his brother 0:08:42.679 --> 0:08:46.080 down and tramples him and or drowns him in the 0:08:46.160 --> 0:08:49.680 Nile River, and Pinch writes that a double death may 0:08:49.720 --> 0:08:51.880 have been deemed necessary to kill a god. 0:08:52.160 --> 0:08:54.720 Okay, So, one way or another, either drowned in the 0:08:54.760 --> 0:08:58.360 water or trampled or both, Osiris is dead. 0:08:58.640 --> 0:09:02.079 That's right, He's overthrown. He's been murdered. And one way 0:09:02.120 --> 0:09:06.520 or another, Osiris's dead body becomes fragmented, either via a 0:09:06.600 --> 0:09:10.560 deliberate chopping up of his corpse by Seth or possibly 0:09:10.640 --> 0:09:14.240 due to decomposition. In either event, the dead body of 0:09:14.240 --> 0:09:18.520 Osiris becomes divided. Into in some cases fourteen pieces, though 0:09:18.559 --> 0:09:22.319 sometimes it's like forty two pieces. A certain number of 0:09:22.400 --> 0:09:28.480 pieces of the Dead God come into circulation here, and 0:09:28.920 --> 0:09:32.800 I think this varies from something that happens right away again, 0:09:32.960 --> 0:09:34.439 like I've killed you and now I'm going to chop 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:39.040 you up, to something that Seth does later comes and 0:09:39.200 --> 0:09:44.280 despoils the corpse of Osiris, or something that happens naturally 0:09:44.360 --> 0:09:48.160 later on. In any case, the pieces are either scattered 0:09:48.240 --> 0:09:49.240 or become scattered. 0:09:49.600 --> 0:09:52.360 Okay, So yeah, that's something I don't know if I 0:09:52.400 --> 0:09:56.040 ever understood before. Do the pieces come apart as something 0:09:56.120 --> 0:09:58.160 that his enemy does to him? Is it kind of 0:09:58.200 --> 0:10:02.280 a William Wallace situation or is it more kind of 0:10:02.280 --> 0:10:04.600 a some kind of magical principle at work. 0:10:04.960 --> 0:10:08.240 Yeah. Based on my understanding of the different accounts that 0:10:08.280 --> 0:10:10.079 are looking at here, it looks like it does vary. 0:10:11.280 --> 0:10:14.840 And it also seems to vary whether those pieces stays 0:10:15.000 --> 0:10:19.320 to some degree scattered or are truly brought together. Again, 0:10:19.400 --> 0:10:21.280 I guess it kind of depends on what sort of 0:10:21.360 --> 0:10:26.160 concepts are important to the story. That may make more 0:10:26.200 --> 0:10:28.840 sense when I start talking about specifics here in a minute, 0:10:29.280 --> 0:10:31.880 But in any event, it falls to Isis to gather 0:10:32.040 --> 0:10:35.480 the pieces of the fallen Osiris and seek his resurrection 0:10:35.720 --> 0:10:39.559 via powerful magic, with the aid of Annibus, an underworld 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:42.520 deity and thought a god of magic who we've also 0:10:42.600 --> 0:10:46.400 talked about on the show before. Now Isis herself was 0:10:46.480 --> 0:10:50.360 the mother and throne goddess, so each Egyptian king is 0:10:50.440 --> 0:10:53.160 her child. It falls to her to find and gather 0:10:53.320 --> 0:10:56.960 the pieces of slain Osiris, to assemble him and hold 0:10:57.000 --> 0:11:00.880 a long vigil over the corpse along with their sister Nephthus, 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:04.439 and they use a spoken magic, Pinch says, to drive 0:11:04.520 --> 0:11:07.200 away Seth the disturber. So I guess there's this idea 0:11:07.240 --> 0:11:09.280 that even as they are trying to bring him back, 0:11:09.640 --> 0:11:12.480 Seth is trying to disrupt their attempt. 0:11:12.600 --> 0:11:17.120 Almost like a scavenger or predatory animal circling. Yeah. 0:11:17.360 --> 0:11:22.000 Now, during this reassembly Osiris is he's described by Pinch 0:11:22.040 --> 0:11:25.400 as the inert one. So all of the pieces of 0:11:25.440 --> 0:11:28.920 Osiris are either in teared together or assembled into a 0:11:28.960 --> 0:11:33.880 hole except for his fallas. And remember again that Osiris 0:11:33.960 --> 0:11:37.560 is also a god of fertility, and by this fallus 0:11:37.679 --> 0:11:40.440 or depending on the story, by a flash of divine fire, 0:11:41.679 --> 0:11:45.920 whatever the case isis becomes pregnant with the Sun by 0:11:46.000 --> 0:11:50.320 the deceased God, and this Sun is going to be Horace, 0:11:51.080 --> 0:11:55.080 the Sun destined to overcome Seth. So she raises Horace 0:11:55.120 --> 0:11:57.360 in the marshes. She has to raise him in safety 0:11:57.400 --> 0:12:00.160 and secrecy until he is old enough to challenge his 0:12:00.200 --> 0:12:04.520 father's usurper, which he does. He defeats Seth and he 0:12:04.559 --> 0:12:05.760 becomes the new ruler. 0:12:06.160 --> 0:12:07.840 Now, I think you're going to get into this in 0:12:07.880 --> 0:12:10.200 a minute, but that part of the myth is important 0:12:10.200 --> 0:12:14.120 because this will come to have a great significance for 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:17.960 the succession in the real world of divine kingship as 0:12:18.000 --> 0:12:19.160 a concept in Egypt. 0:12:19.679 --> 0:12:24.679 Right now, Another interesting part here is that despite Osiris's 0:12:24.679 --> 0:12:29.839 connection with the concept of resurrection by many definitions or 0:12:29.880 --> 0:12:32.760 in certainly sort of modern interpretations and I guess like 0:12:32.840 --> 0:12:36.560 dungeons and dragons to interpretations, he is not truly resurrected 0:12:36.600 --> 0:12:39.720 at this point. He does not become a living flesh again. 0:12:39.840 --> 0:12:42.679 He is not resurrected into this world. 0:12:42.800 --> 0:12:44.959 Right and this will be an important point of contention 0:12:45.160 --> 0:12:47.120 for a question that I think we're going to get 0:12:47.120 --> 0:12:51.400 into in part two of this series about the concept 0:12:51.440 --> 0:12:55.560 of resurrection in ancient religions. But yeah, Osiris is not 0:12:55.760 --> 0:12:59.120 thought to be raised back to the form and the 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:03.000 place where he originally lived. There is a instead, he 0:13:03.120 --> 0:13:05.760 goes on living, but it is in a new form 0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:07.920 in a new world. There is in a sense a 0:13:08.000 --> 0:13:09.079 new Osiris. 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:12.760 That's right. So basically, the higher powers and other powers 0:13:12.800 --> 0:13:15.960 of note here decide that okay, Osiris, you were just, 0:13:16.360 --> 0:13:20.280 but your death was not just. So therefore he's permitted 0:13:20.280 --> 0:13:23.280 to leave his now mummified body and become the Lord 0:13:23.280 --> 0:13:26.240 of the dead in the afterlife, the judge and ruler 0:13:26.520 --> 0:13:28.720 of the kingdom of the dead. And it seems like 0:13:28.760 --> 0:13:32.360 a pretty cool gig to have a Pinch points out that. 0:13:33.800 --> 0:13:34.120 Quote. 0:13:34.120 --> 0:13:36.520 At all periods. There are a few texts that describe 0:13:36.559 --> 0:13:40.720 Osiris as a terrifying figure who dispatches demon messengers to 0:13:40.800 --> 0:13:43.520 drag the living into the gloomy realm of the dead. 0:13:44.120 --> 0:13:47.840 So inert but not powerless by any means, and he 0:13:47.960 --> 0:13:50.800 is just. He is an appropriate judge. He said to 0:13:50.880 --> 0:13:54.320 rule over the dead as when enifer, which either means 0:13:54.400 --> 0:13:57.640 the one whose body did not decay, and we see 0:13:57.640 --> 0:14:01.160 that again his connection to mummification and rites vocation, though 0:14:01.200 --> 0:14:03.560 I think it's also according to Pinch, sometimes translated as 0:14:03.600 --> 0:14:07.400 the beneficent one. Uh. This was also apparently the title 0:14:07.760 --> 0:14:11.800 for the high priest of Osiris in you know, religious traditions. 0:14:22.040 --> 0:14:26.400 These are like the basic core myths concerning Osiris to consider, 0:14:26.840 --> 0:14:29.200 but you know, we always go deeper than that, Like 0:14:29.240 --> 0:14:30.880 what are we to make of these myths? What do 0:14:30.920 --> 0:14:34.040 people think they meant? What did they signify? Why did 0:14:34.040 --> 0:14:39.200 they have such you know, cultural significance. And again we 0:14:39.280 --> 0:14:43.480 have to realize that understandings and interpretations change over time. 0:14:44.400 --> 0:14:47.680 Middle Kingdom rituals seem to associate the body of Osiris 0:14:47.720 --> 0:14:52.000 with barley and the trampling seth. Again, remember the trampling 0:14:52.080 --> 0:14:56.160 being part of the murder of Osiris. Uh, there seems 0:14:56.200 --> 0:14:59.040 to be a strong case for associating that trampling with 0:14:59.120 --> 0:15:04.200 the donkeys that would thresh the grain via trampling, thus 0:15:04.320 --> 0:15:08.160 linking his death and resurrection in this earliest known example 0:15:08.360 --> 0:15:10.720 to the cyclical reaping and sowing of crops. 0:15:11.080 --> 0:15:15.080 Yes, and again asterisk on the word resurrection there. But 0:15:15.360 --> 0:15:18.520 you know, it's an interesting thing how people often do 0:15:18.640 --> 0:15:24.120 associate religious ideas of resurrection with the cycles of life, 0:15:24.320 --> 0:15:26.920 in the cycles of plant life in the seasons. But 0:15:27.000 --> 0:15:29.680 when you were talking about donkeys threshing grain. You know, 0:15:29.760 --> 0:15:33.120 I made another kind of association there, which is that 0:15:33.200 --> 0:15:36.440 the grain begins as something that is from the living plant, 0:15:36.800 --> 0:15:40.880 but then when it is is put through agricultural processing, 0:15:41.320 --> 0:15:43.560 it is in a way reborn, and it doesn't go 0:15:43.640 --> 0:15:46.360 on to live again as a plant, but instead it 0:15:46.520 --> 0:15:49.440 goes on to live in a different way. It becomes 0:15:49.440 --> 0:15:52.400 something else, which is grain and ultimately food. 0:15:53.040 --> 0:15:57.560 Yeah, these different sort of phase changes occur. It has 0:15:57.600 --> 0:16:00.280 also pointed out that you would have these i the 0:16:00.360 --> 0:16:04.080 phallic figures of Osiris that would would be planted with crops, 0:16:04.600 --> 0:16:08.440 so they would have like a representation of the god 0:16:08.640 --> 0:16:12.320 planted with the the grains planted with the seeds that 0:16:12.600 --> 0:16:14.560 you know, that would that would help enable everything to 0:16:14.640 --> 0:16:16.080 grow into its next form. 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:19.360 If if phallic, does that mean that's a representation of 0:16:19.400 --> 0:16:20.400 the God with an erection? 0:16:22.000 --> 0:16:26.040 Yes, that's the literal. Different definition though. I was looking 0:16:26.040 --> 0:16:28.040 at an image of one of these figures in the 0:16:28.080 --> 0:16:31.960 British Museum's website and and I'm not sure that that's 0:16:32.000 --> 0:16:36.400 really as pronounced in this image, but but that is 0:16:36.480 --> 0:16:38.040 that is all. That's how it's classified. 0:16:38.360 --> 0:16:39.560 Oh wait, I see it. 0:16:40.640 --> 0:16:45.120 Well, it's well compared to it's not as it's not 0:16:45.240 --> 0:16:47.880 as as obvious as one might expect. 0:16:48.280 --> 0:16:50.600 Yeah, it's certainly not as obvious as you might see. 0:16:50.600 --> 0:16:54.920 And like some other statuary from the ancient world. 0:16:54.680 --> 0:16:57.880 Well, I assume the thing is Osiris is wrapped in bandages, 0:16:57.960 --> 0:16:59.960 so it's like it's he's not naked. 0:17:00.400 --> 0:17:01.600 I get you. Now. 0:17:01.640 --> 0:17:04.200 There were also New Kingdom period traditions that link o 0:17:04.320 --> 0:17:08.600 Cyrus to water, with all the liquids of his putrefying 0:17:08.640 --> 0:17:11.840 body being linked to the annual inundation of the Nile, 0:17:12.560 --> 0:17:15.639 and not necessarily just putrefying liquids, like you know, just 0:17:15.760 --> 0:17:19.160 the various liquids of the body, but also like putrification 0:17:19.320 --> 0:17:21.439 liquids thrown in there. So I don't want to make 0:17:21.480 --> 0:17:24.320 it sound like it's all gross or anything. And at 0:17:24.400 --> 0:17:27.120 least one tradition holding that his body parts are buried 0:17:27.160 --> 0:17:29.840 at scattered sites throughout Egypt and the tomb of the 0:17:29.920 --> 0:17:33.040 left Leg on the Nile island of Baiga. I've also 0:17:33.080 --> 0:17:37.240 seen this place referred to simply as the tomb of Osyrius. Anyway, 0:17:37.280 --> 0:17:39.960 different traditions hold that this is the source of the inundation. 0:17:40.600 --> 0:17:43.439 Now I'm thinking about the underworld and the cosmos of 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:45.719 the ancient Egyptians, which I think on one hand it's 0:17:45.760 --> 0:17:48.119 easy to think of that, Okay, these are the worlds 0:17:48.119 --> 0:17:52.879 beyond our world, but also they're kind of tied to 0:17:52.880 --> 0:17:55.720 to what is seen and what is not seen but 0:17:56.000 --> 0:18:01.160 kind of implied, and they The one area I want 0:18:01.160 --> 0:18:03.400 to touch on here is the idea of the sun barge, 0:18:03.520 --> 0:18:07.840 the manget, the boat of millions of years that travels 0:18:07.840 --> 0:18:11.120 through the sky with the sun and then down each 0:18:11.320 --> 0:18:15.159 night over the horizon and then through the underworld to 0:18:15.280 --> 0:18:17.120 emerge once more on the other side. And of course 0:18:17.160 --> 0:18:19.760 there's there's fighting that takes place. It is like a 0:18:19.840 --> 0:18:22.119 kind of a it's a perilous journey for the sun 0:18:22.600 --> 0:18:26.720 through the underworld to come back again when the sun rises. 0:18:26.920 --> 0:18:29.840 Yeah, it's a whole quest. It's a whole quest line. 0:18:29.640 --> 0:18:32.159 Yeah, which is which is at once again very epic 0:18:32.200 --> 0:18:36.000 and otherworldly, but also tied directly to what we observe 0:18:36.560 --> 0:18:38.840 occurring with the sun. Like the sun goes here and 0:18:38.880 --> 0:18:42.200 then it goes under seemingly and comes back. What's going 0:18:42.240 --> 0:18:44.399 on there? And then we have this mythic extrapolation of that. 0:18:45.080 --> 0:18:46.960 But according to Pinch. 0:18:47.119 --> 0:18:48.920 It's singing somewhere over the rainbow. 0:18:50.000 --> 0:18:53.040 According to Pinch, the New Kingdom under and the New 0:18:53.119 --> 0:18:56.600 Kingdom Underworld books specify that during the darkest hour of 0:18:56.640 --> 0:19:01.200 the night, the god that is is driving the sun 0:19:01.280 --> 0:19:06.760 barge ray or raw passes through the underworld chamber where 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:10.400 the body of Osiris rests, and in this moment may 0:19:10.440 --> 0:19:14.040 become one soul, and this allows Osyrus and all the 0:19:14.119 --> 0:19:17.679 dead to live again. So, now that we've established some 0:19:17.720 --> 0:19:22.400 of the basics about this underworld fertility god, I wanted 0:19:22.400 --> 0:19:25.320 to get into the cult of Osiris a bit more. Again, 0:19:25.400 --> 0:19:28.320 we don't know exactly when, where or how Osiris was 0:19:28.359 --> 0:19:31.720 first worshiped, or indeed the earliest form or forms that 0:19:31.760 --> 0:19:35.720 he took in these ancient Egyptian belief systems, but over 0:19:35.800 --> 0:19:38.520 time he becomes vitally linked with the cycle of life 0:19:38.600 --> 0:19:42.960 and death, with crops, with the inundation, with mummification, and 0:19:43.040 --> 0:19:44.320 the promise of resurrection. 0:19:45.000 --> 0:19:47.359 And just a note on terminology. When we talk about 0:19:47.359 --> 0:19:50.720 things like the cult of Osiris, cult in that sense 0:19:50.760 --> 0:19:53.359 does not have the negative connotations that cult has in 0:19:53.400 --> 0:19:55.280 the modern world. That's just the term you use for 0:19:55.600 --> 0:19:58.920 any any group in the ancient world that is devoted 0:19:58.960 --> 0:20:00.560 to the care and worship of a god. 0:20:01.600 --> 0:20:03.800 Now, one topic that I was really taken with was 0:20:04.000 --> 0:20:08.200 discussion of the popularity of Osiris, and to a certain extent, 0:20:08.240 --> 0:20:12.000 the overall popularity of the ancient Egyptian religion, because, on 0:20:12.000 --> 0:20:14.679 one hand, I don't remember where I read this, but 0:20:14.720 --> 0:20:19.040 I know I've read commentary that the ancient Egyptian religion 0:20:19.600 --> 0:20:23.119 was something very much all of the desert of this 0:20:23.320 --> 0:20:26.800 nile nourished region and something that just did not travel 0:20:26.840 --> 0:20:29.720 well and was not picked up by other cultures in 0:20:29.760 --> 0:20:33.639 a meaningful deeper way. But on the other hand, the 0:20:33.680 --> 0:20:37.520 trappings of ancient Egypt clearly have fascinated other cultures for 0:20:37.560 --> 0:20:41.720 an exceedingly long period of time, often in these waves 0:20:41.760 --> 0:20:46.000 of Egyptomania, as it's sometimes termed. So I really wanted 0:20:46.000 --> 0:20:48.560 to get into this latter idea a bit more so. 0:20:48.600 --> 0:20:51.720 I turned to various sections dealing with Osiris in the 0:20:51.760 --> 0:20:56.399 excellent twenty sixteen book Egyptomania, A History of Fascination, Obsession, 0:20:56.480 --> 0:20:58.680 and Fantasy by Ronald H. 0:20:59.119 --> 0:20:59.520 Fritz. 0:21:00.080 --> 0:21:05.080 Okay, so Fritz mentions that the aforementioned pyramid texts from 0:21:05.119 --> 0:21:08.320 more than four thousand years ago refer to differing ideas 0:21:08.320 --> 0:21:11.720 about life and death but also they bring up the 0:21:11.840 --> 0:21:16.879 rising popularity of Osiris within the pantheon, and I was 0:21:16.920 --> 0:21:19.159 thinking about this as well. This is I think this 0:21:19.200 --> 0:21:21.920 is something interesting to observe in religion, that it's mostly 0:21:21.960 --> 0:21:25.280 within these polytheistic traditions that you really get to see 0:21:25.840 --> 0:21:27.800 or in the and or imagine this idea of the 0:21:27.880 --> 0:21:32.080 rise and fall of particular gods and goddesses, as well 0:21:32.119 --> 0:21:35.920 as the more like straightforward adoption of foreign originating gods 0:21:36.600 --> 0:21:40.000 into a given pantheon. You know, we've discussed examples of 0:21:40.040 --> 0:21:44.000 this before, but there's not there's either no room for 0:21:44.040 --> 0:21:47.040 this or not as much room for this in monotheistic traditions. 0:21:47.520 --> 0:21:49.920 Yeah, I mean, I guess it depends on the specific 0:21:49.960 --> 0:21:53.240 monotheistic religion, but yes, like growing up a lot of people, 0:21:53.600 --> 0:21:55.720 this is another one of the many ways that if 0:21:55.760 --> 0:21:58.080 you grow up in a certain religious context, you might 0:21:58.200 --> 0:22:01.680 just assume that all religions are similar to your religion. 0:22:01.760 --> 0:22:04.480 So like growing up in a Christian context, I think 0:22:04.520 --> 0:22:08.119 a lot of people think that all religions have a 0:22:08.200 --> 0:22:11.520 quote jealous God, like the like the Abrahamic faiths. Do 0:22:11.720 --> 0:22:13.600 you know a God who says you shall worship me 0:22:13.720 --> 0:22:17.080 and me alone? And there's basically one right way to 0:22:17.160 --> 0:22:19.680 have a religion, and it's it's the one you've got, 0:22:20.160 --> 0:22:23.320 whereas with a lot of polytheistic religions it's it's much 0:22:23.359 --> 0:22:27.160 more free form. You know that you can add gods 0:22:27.200 --> 0:22:29.399 on to the list of gods that you worship, you 0:22:29.440 --> 0:22:31.960 can remove gods, you can sort of like just shift 0:22:32.000 --> 0:22:35.680 your focus wherever you think it is best. And that 0:22:36.000 --> 0:22:38.879 doesn't compute. Like a lot of Christians look back on 0:22:39.320 --> 0:22:42.399 the pagan context of the Roman Empire, say, and they 0:22:42.400 --> 0:22:46.359 don't realize that. Like when you would be preaching about 0:22:46.480 --> 0:22:49.919