OSIRIS, a famous God of the Egyptians, which was said to be the Son, the Brother, and the Husband of the Goddess Isis. The Name Osiris is not read in the sacred Scriptures, but we can hardly be excused from taking notice of it here, that it may not be confounded with the Persons that are mentioned in Holy Writ; and besides there is Reason to believe, that the Hebrews paid divine Worship to this Deity in the Wilderness. Now this is what is said of Osiris. He was Son of Jupiter and of Niobe, the Daughter of Phoroneus. He reigned at first in Argos, but being discontented with his Subjects, he left his Crown with his Son Ægialeus, and pass’d into Egypt. There he reigned with great Equity and Mildness, and compiled very good Laws for his Subjects. He married Io, whom the Egyptians call Isis. ‘Tis said he was pull’d in pieces by his Enemies, and that his Wife Isis gathered all his Parts together, buried them honorably, and procured divine Honours to be paid to her Husband. ‘Tis pretended he was transformed by the Gods into an Ox, according to the Principles of the Metempsychosis; and that it is he whom the Egyptians adored under the Name of Apis and Serapis. Hence proceeds the great Veneration that the Egyptians testified for a Bull, and the Worship of the Golden Calf by the Israelites in the Desart, and by the Subjects of Jeroboam in the Kingdom of the Ten Tribes. Hence the Images of Osiris with Horns, or with the Head of an Hawk, or of a Wolf, or of a Serpent, because it is pretended he was the Sun. There are Authors that believe the Worship of Cows, still common in the Indies, and in some other Places of the East, is derived from the Honours paid by the Egyptians to Osiris and Isis.
They gave the Name of Osiris to the Nile, and paid divine Honours to it, as being the Author of all the Fertility of Egypt. ‘Tis said Osiris taught the Egyptians Agriculture, and many other useful Arts, which made him so much honoured by them. Hellanicus says, that the proper Name of this God was Arsaphes, and that the Priests gave him that of Osiris. Pliny confounds Osiris, Pan, Serapis, and Ammon. Sir John Marsham thinks, that Osiris is Menes or Ham. Vossius takes him for Mizraim the Son of Ham, and Father of the Egyptians. He has been taken for the Sun, for the Planet Jupiter, for Apis, for Athys, for Adonis, for Pluto, for Titan, for Apollo, for Mithras, for Typhon, for the Ocean, &c.
The Egyptians admitted of two Principles in the World, one good, and the other bad. In the good Principle they acknowledg’d three things, one of which had the Quality and Office of Father, the other of Mother, and the third that of Son. The Father was called Osiris, the Mother Isis, and the Son Orus. These three Deities were acknowledged in the good Principle. The bad Principle was Typhon. Osiris was in the World what in Man is called Reason and Thinking. Typhon was in the Place of those Passions which are contrary to Reason. In the human Body the good Temperament proceeded from Osiris, but Diseases and Indispositions proceeded from Typhon as their Cause. In Heaven and in the Elements, good Order and Regularity of Motion represented Osiris; and whatever was contrary to this good Order was the Image of Typhon. This, according to Plutarch, was the Notion that the Egyptians had of the Deity. Perhaps all this may be a new Invention; but however that is, ‘tis probably according to this Notion, that Osiris and Isis were the Father and Mother of all Things, that the Heathen ascribed to Osiris the Properties of almost all the Gods, and to Isis those of all the Goddesses.
It is very probable that the Deities which the Children of Israel carried along with them in the Wilderness, and which Amos reproaches them with, were Isis and Osiris. But ye have born the Tabernacle of your Moloch; according to the Letter of your King, and Chiun your Images, the Star of your God, which ye made to yourselves. The King of Heaven was the Sun, or Osiris; the Star which the Egyptians and almost all the Eastern People adored, was the Moon. The Sun and Moon were the Gods of Happiness and good Fortune. They were good Principles, the chief Objects of the Worship of the Orientals, as Vossius imagines. Osiris and Isis were the same thing as Gad and Meni, to whom the Hebrews paid an idolatrous Worship, as to the two Principles of Good. See their Articles.