Figure above:

The king Seti I of the XIX dynasty (about 1290-1279 B.C.), presenting incense and a libation to Osiris and Isis, wall painting in the temple complex of Medinet Habu in Upper Egypt.
Osiris was the god of the dead, whose myth was one of the most well-known and whose worship was among the most widespread in ancient Egypt. According to the mythological tradition, recorded in the Pyramid Texts, Osiris was the firstborn child of Geb, the god the Earth. He became ruler of the country, but was deceived and slain by his brother Seth, who cut Osiris’s body in several pieces which were dispersed all through Egypt. Osiris’s sister-wife, Isis, recovered all the pieces together and reconstituted the corpse, making him to live again. Subsequently, Isis had intercourse with her brother-husband and conceived the child Horus. Osiris became the king of the Afterworld, the Land of the Dead. His cult was widely popular because of its connection with kingship: every dead king was identified with Osiris and his successor on the throne was his son, Horus (Lesko-Mastrocinque 2005).

[Image: http://www.artofcounting.com/2010/11/11/investigation-of-the-lappet- wig-as-royal-headgear-in-ancient-egypt-part-2/]


Figure below:

The resurrection of the god was associated with fertility: several representations of Osiris making the wheat grow have been discovered among the funerary furnishings. The link between death and fertility can be observed in the picture, where a lotus flower blossoms from under the Osiris’s throne. From the flower the four sons of Osiris, protectors of the dead, emerge.

[Image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunefer]