Osiris: Death and Afterlife of a God

Osiris, ruler of the netherworld, played a central part in the religious life of the ancient Egyptians, and his cult grew in popularity down the ages, resonating in all the cultures of the ancient Mediterranean. This is the first book to tell the story of the cult of Osiris from beginning to end. Drawing together the numerous records about Osiris from the third millennium BC to the Roman conquest of Egypt, Bojana Mojsov sketches the development of the cult throughout 3,000 years of Egyptian history. The author proves that the cult of Osiris was the most popular and enduring in any ancient religion. She shows how it provided direct antecedents for many ideas, traits, and customs in Christianity, including the resurrection after three days, the concept of god as trinity, baptism in the sacred river, and the sacrament of the Eucharist. She also reveals the cult’s influence on other Western mystical traditions and groups, such as the Alchemists, Rosicrucians, and Freemasons.

List of Plates. List of Figures. Maps. Acknowledgments. Introduction. Egyptian Gods and Goddesses. Prologue: The Myth. 1. The Myth Makers. 2. Enter the Divine King. 3. Abydos. 4. Pyramid Builders. 5. The Mysteries. 6. Rise of the Empire. 7. Golden Pharaohs. 8. Books of the Afterlife. 9. Toward the Sunset. 10. Greeks in Egypt. 11. The Roman Legacy. Epilogue. Notes. Glossary. Egyptian Chronology. Bibliography. Index

Bojana Mojsov was born in Skopje, Macedonia. She is a celebrated Egyptologist and has worked in the Egyptology Departments of both the Metropolitan and Brooklyn Museums in New York. She has also acted as an advisor to the American Research Center in Cairo on restoring the tomb of Sety I in the Valley of the Kings, and as an advisor on the new collections at the National Museum in Khartoum, Sudan.