Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today’s video, we’ll be discussing Osiris, the lord of the underworld in Egyptian Mythology.

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Osiris’s defining accessories were the Atef crown that surmounted his head and the crook and flail that he, respectively, held in his right and left hand. The Atef crown is tall and conical, flanked by two ostrich feathers on either side. The crook was a shepherds crook, symbolizing his role as the shepherd of souls, presiding over the underworld and the transcendence of the dead; and the flail was a threshing flail, used to separate wheat from chaff, symbolizing his role as god of fertility and agriculture. Another defining feature is his mummified body. This, like the crook, conveys his connection to the underworld, but also, in a more direct sense, harkens back to his resurrection, brought back to life by Isis and Anubis after Set murdered him, something we’ll come back to later on. His skin was either green or black - perhaps originally depicting putrescence - symbolizing his connection to the cyclical nature of life and death and the cyclical reaping and regeneration tied to the seasons.

Osiris was the chief underworld god, all other chthonic deities subordinate to him. The Weighing of the Heart ceremony was an integral part of the Ancient Egyptian belief in the afterlife, where the deceased's heart was weighed against the feather of Maat, the goddess of truth, justice, and balance. This ritual took place in the Hall of the Two Truths and was presided over by Osiris himself. Anubis, the god of mummification, managed the scales, while Thoth, the god of wisdom, recorded the results.

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