Festival of the Dead of Osiris

The festival of the dead Osiris (also Wag Festival ) was in ancient Egypt in honor of the god annually Osiris to his death, the 18 Akhet I celebrated. The Isis- Osiris cult is documented for the first time in the 5th dynasty . Egyptologists date the beginnings at least to the time of the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt .

The festival of the dead of Osiris was originally linked in the Sothis calendar to the heliacal rise of Sirius and the flood of the Nile that followed shortly afterwards . In the Egyptian calendar , the feast of the dead was therefore scheduled for the 18th Achet I.

background

mythology

Osiris was also considered the god of the Nile . His death in the Osiris myth was equated with the drying up of the Nile and began with the appearance of Isis-Sopdet , who determined the time of the Nile flood. The blood of Osiris represented the water of the Nile, which flowed from Osiris into the Mediterranean after the killing by Seth . On the day of the lowest water level on the Nile, the mythological death of Osiris occurred .

In the early Dynastic period of Egypt , Sirius appeared around June 5th. In the Coptic liturgy, this date represents the beginning of the year as the first day of the first month of Acheth. About 18 days later, on the 19th of Achet I at the time of the solstice, the flood of the Nile arrived in the Nile Delta , which was preceded by the lowest water level on 18th Achet I. In the so-called Nutbuch, Osiris is described in his role as the holy water of the Nile:

“ Re usually enters the Duat's land in the evening . It is beautiful in the hand of his father Osiris. This is the water. He (re) purifies himself in it. He purifies himself in it, that is, the water. "

- Text of the groove book

Festive course

The Egyptians carried the vessel of Osiris as the "coffin of Osiris" during the solemn procession . In the vessel was the holy Nile water and thus Osiris himself. The lid of the vessel was decorated in the shape of Osiris, who guarded the Nile water.

The tradition of the festival of the dead of Osiris was kept almost unchanged by the Ptolemies and later upgraded as the cult of the Osiris mysteries .

literature

Hans Förster: The beginnings of Christmas and Epiphany. A request for the origin hypotheses (= studies and texts on antiquity and Christianity. Volume 46). Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-16-149399-7 .

Kathrin Kleibl: The water crypts in the Hellenistic and Roman sanctuaries of the Egyptian gods in the Mediterranean region. Hamburg 2003 (Hamburg, University, Master's thesis, 2003), online (PDF; 6.9 MB) .

Rolf Krauss : Sothis and moon dates. Studies on the astronomical and technical chronology of ancient Egypt (= Hildesheimer Egyptological contributions. Volume 20). Gerstenberg, Hildesheim 1985, ISBN 3-8067-8086-X

Richard A. Parker : The calendars of ancient Egypt (= Studies in ancient Oriental Civilization. Volume 26, ISSN 0081-7554 ). University of Chicago Press, Chicago IL 1950.

Siegfried Schott : Altägyptische Festdaten (= Academy of Sciences and Literature. Treatises of the Humanities and Social Sciences Class 1950, Volume 10, ISSN 0002-2977 ). Publishing house of the Academy of Sciences and Literature and others, Mainz and others 1950.

Alexandra von Lieven : Floor plan of the course of the stars. The so-called Nutbuch (= The Carlsberg Papyri. Volume 8 = CNI Publications. Volume 31). The Carsten Niebuhr Institute of Ancient Eastern Studies et al., Copenhagen 2007, ISBN 978-87-635-0406-5 .

Individual evidence

↑ Alexandra von Lieven: Plan of the course of the stars. Copenhagen 2007, p. 74.

[1] Alexandra von Lieven: Plan of the course of the stars. Copenhagen 2007, p. 74.