This statuette represents Osiris, the god of the dead. He is immediately recognizable by the mummy wrappings that envelop his body, exposing only his head and hands; the tall crown with uraeus; the long, curved, plaited false beard; and the crook and flail.^[1]1

Although images of Osiris are characterized by these elements, there are many variations in the representation of the god. Here, the seated deity wears the White Crown that is the emblem of the god’s legendary rule of Upper Egypt and his burial at Abydos in the south. A uraeus, curled into a figure eight behind its flared hood, has a slender tail that winds sinuously up the crown. The plaits of the god’s false beard are clearly indicated, as is the strap that attaches it to his chin. He has a narrow face with a pointed chin, pursed lips, and small eyes with long cosmetic lines below curved brows. A line, running from shoulder to shoulder across his chest and around the base of his neck, delineates his broad collar that is otherwise without detail. His shroud fits closely around the back of his shoulders. The curves of the god’s collarbone and the swelling mounds of his knees and calves are elegantly suggested in the stone. His arms are crossed at the wrists. He holds a crook in his right hand and the flail with its three strands of beaded tails in his left, the scepters resting on his shoulders. A tall, tapering back pillar extends from the back of the throne to the top of the White Crown. The block throne, which here is undecorated, is associated with royalty (see cat. 1 for a similar throne), as is the White Crown, both being allusions to Osiris as the legendary first king of Egypt. The statue is carved from a block of very fine-grained, brown steatite (also called soapstone) that has a velvety finish. The lower part of the statue is darkened, perhaps from heat.^[2]2

Stone statues of Osiris were made in great numbers in Dynasty 26. This example has been assigned to that period based on its similarity to others from that era.^[3]3

Use of Osiris Figurines in Cult Devotions

Countless numbers of figurines of Osiris in bronze, stone, wood, baked and unbaked clay, and other materials were produced during the first millennium BCE because the worship of the god involved the deposition of figures of him in cult places (see About Copper Alloy Statuettes for the role of statuettes in the divine cult). The ‘Ayn Manâwir cache in Kharga Oasis contained 370 figurines of Osiris; the Sacred Animal Necropolis at Saqqara yielded 486 Osiris figurines; and at Medinet Habu in Western Thebes, a hole in the ground near the Eastern High Gate, dubbed the “Osiris Grave” by the excavator, and another nearby deposit held more than two hundred statues, almost all of which represent Osiris.^[4]4

Osiris in Egyptian Religion

Although Osiris is not attested until Dynasty 5, thereafter he became central to Egyptian theology because of his association with the most fundamental aspect of Egyptian theology—the idea of life after death. Osiris was closely tied to nature and its cyclical rebirth, expressed by the daily rising and setting of the sun, the waxing and waning of the moon, and the agricultural cycles of sowing, growing, and harvesting. The relationship of Osiris to agriculture is further expressed by images of the god shown with a green face, since green is the color of plants and regeneration. Trays in the form of the god’s silhouette—called “Osiris Beds” by modern scholars—were filled with earth and grain and left in tombs to germinate, thereby producing visible evidence of the god’s power of regeneration after death.^[5] In a similar concept, small mummiform figures in the shape of Osiris were made of soil mixed with grain. These “corn mummies” were deposited in temples during the annual festival of Khoiak that honored the god.^[6] Some of these small figurines were stored in wood statues of Osiris that were placed in private tombs (see cat. 36).5

The life story of Osiris is recorded in a complex web of myths. The primary tale, most fully preserved in Plutarch’s De Iside et Osiride written some 2,500 years after the appearance of the god, says that Osiris was murdered by his evil brother Seth. The myth has many colorful variations, but they all culminate in Seth dismembering Osiris and scattering the pieces of his body throughout Egypt. Osiris’s faithful wife and sister Isis gathered the pieces of his body and bound them in linen wrappings, thereby creating the prototype for a mummy. Then, in an act of magic, Isis stimulated Osiris to impregnate her. She later gave birth to their son Horus, the original proof that from death may come renewed life.6

The Osiris myth also underlies the conception of the state. According to Egyptian beliefs, Osiris was the first king of Egypt. He was succeeded by his son Horus. Every king after Horus was considered to be the “Horus on Earth,” and the former king was identified with Osiris. Following this pattern, the kings of Egypt were regarded as an unbroken line of father and son, each Osiris followed by his son Horus, whether the kings were biologically related or not.7

Additional Views of Cat. 18

Provenance

The Art Institute of Chicago, acquired in 1910.8

Publication History

Art Institute of Chicago, Thirty-Second Annual Report: June 1, 1910–June 1, 1911 (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1911), 19, 62.9

Thomas George Allen, A Handbook of the Egyptian Collection (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1923), 60 (ill.).
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