The very earliest of the ancient Egyptians believed that when the pharaoh died, he became a star in a constellation that represented Osiris. Osiris, a mythological character both man and god, was the great hero of Egyptian mythology, and beloved husband of Isis. The Egyptians are one of five ancient cultures that independently and exhaustively carpeted their sky with constellations. This is an important fact to keep in mind when attempting to identify Egypt’s Osiris constellation. There are countless websites stating that the Egyptian constellation of Osiris was the constellation we know today as Orion. This is incorrect. Orion is a Greek constellation, not Egyptian.
We know of Egyptian constellations from artwork on coffin lids and tomb walls. Osiris has been clearly identified, and while this constellation shares some stars with Orion, the two are not identical. From data published by Kurt Locher (New Arguments for the Celestial Location of the Decanal Belt and for the Origins of the S3h-Hieroglyph. Sesto Congresso Internazionale di Egittologia vol. II. Zaccone, Gian Maria & Tomaso Ricardi Netro, eds. Societa Italiana per il Gas p.a. Torino, 1993.), and using the sliced bread that is Google Earth, we see Osiris to be:
Orion’s belt is Osiris’s crown, and Osiris is facing east, towards stars (including Sirius) that make up Isis, his love. This makes all the sense in the world. Egypt is further south than Greece, and this more southerly constellation is easy to see from the lattitude of the Nile valley. Orion’s belt, the most arresting asterism in the sky, is the only fitting crown for the god-pharaoh Osiris. The constellation is very reminiscent of certain hieroglyphics, some versions of which indicated a king. Here are two similar ones from the Rosetta Stone:
And perhaps most compelling– if we count the actual number of stars in this constellation, 14 of them go to make up Osiris’s body, the others forming his crown and staff. According to myth, Osiris was killed when his evil brother Set chopped him into 14 pieces and threw him in the river. Isis had to recover these pieces to restore her husband and return him to life. Our sources for this story are largely fragmentary, but the Greek historian Plutarch attempted a comprehensive rendition. This is an edited excerpt:
Osiris had a bitter enemy in his brother Set. During the absence of Osiris his wife Isis ruled the country so well that the schemes of the wicked Set to take a share in its government were not allowed to mature. But on the king’s return Set fixed on a plan whereby to rid himself altogether of the king, his brother. For the accomplishment of his ends he leagued himself with Aso, the queen of Ethiopia, and seventy-two other conspirators. Then, after secretly measuring the king’s body, he caused to be made a marvellous chest, richly fashioned and adorned, which would contain exactly the body of Osiris. This done, he invited his fellow-plotters and his brother the king to a great feast. Now Osiris had frequently been warned by the queen to beware of Set, but, having no evil in himself, the king feared it not in others, so he betook himself to the banquet.
When the feast was over Set had the beautiful chest brought into the banquet-hall, and said, as though in jest, that it should belong to him whom it would fit. One after another the guests lay down in the chest, but it fitted none of them till the turn of Osiris came. Quite unsuspicious of treachery, the king laid himself down in the great receptacle. In a moment the conspirators had nailed down the lid, pouring boiling lead over it lest there should be any aperature. Then they set the coffin adrift on the Nile, at its Tanaitic mouth. These things befell, say some, in the twenty-eighth year of Osiris’ life; others say in the twenty-eighth year of his reign.
When news reached the ears of Isis she was sore stricken, and cut off a lock of her hair and put on mourning apparel. Knowing well that the dead cannot rest till their bodies have been buried with funeral rites, she set out to find the corpse of her husband…
…Arrived in Egypt, Isis opened the chest and wept long and sorely over the remains of her royal husband. But now she bethought herself of her son Horus, whom she had left in Buto, and leaving the chest in a secret place, she set off to search for him. Meanwhile Set, while hunting by the light of the moon, discovered the richly adorned coffin and in his rage rent the body into fourteen pieces, which he scattered here and there throughout the country.
Upon learning of this fresh outrage on the body of the god, Isis took a boat of papyrus-reeds and journeyed forth once more in search of her husband’s remains…
Why 14? This is pure speculation on my part, but I notice that 14 = 7 x 2, and that 7 is a holy number. Osiris was holy, but he was not just one man, he was also one god; he was double. Hence, 14. Your own thoughts on this are welcome.
The particular stars, with their right ascension, declination, and distance from Earth are listed below. I have also converted these into spherical coordinates, and rectangular (Cartesian) coordinates.
| R.A. | DEC | DISTANCE | θ | φ | ρ | X | Y | Z | |
| β ORI | 5:14:32.2 | -8º 12′ 06″ | 910 | 78.6342 | 98.2017 | 910 | 177.5014 | 883.0290 | -129.8191 |
| δ ORI | 5:32:00.3 | -0º 17′ 57″ | 2300 | 83.0013 | 90.2992 | 2300 | 280.2439 | 2282.8314 | -12.0106 |
| ε ORI | 5:36:12.7 | -1º 12′ 07″ | 1200 | 84.0529 | 91.2019 | 1200 | 124.3049 | 1193.2790 | -25.1707 |
| ζ ORI | 5:40:45.5 | -1º 56′ 34″ | 1300 | 85.1896 | 91.9428 | 1300 | 108.9537 | 1294.6763 | -44.0723 |
| η ORI | 5:24:28.6 | -2º 23′ 49″ | 770 | 81.1192 | 92.3969 | 770 | 118.7681 | 760.1034 | -32.2026 |
| ι ORI | 5:35:25.9 | -5º 54′ 36″ | 1900 | 83.8579 | 95.9100 | 1900 | 202.2094 | 1879.0524 | -195.6357 |
| κ ORI | 5:47:45.3 | -9º 40′ 11″ | 2100 | 86.9388 | 99.6697 | 2100 | 110.5522 | 2067.2101 | -352.7330 |
| σ ORI | 5:38:44.7 | -2º 36′ 00″ | 1400 | 84.6825 | 92.6000 | 1400 | 129.6110 | 1392.5400 | -63.5082 |
| θ ORI | 5:35:16.4 | -5º 23′ 23″ | 1600 | 83.8183 | 95.3897 | 1600 | 171.5292 | 1583.6640 | -150.2869 |
| α LEP | 5:32:43.7 | -17º 49′ 20″ | 930 | 83.1821 | 107.8222 | 930 | 105.1060 | 879.1092 | -284.6397 |
| β LEP | 5:28:14.7 | -20º 45′ 34″ | 320 | 82.0613 | 110.7594 | 320 | 41.3270 | 296.3570 | -113.4222 |
| γ LEP | 5:44:27.8 | -22º 26′ 54″ | 26.5 | 86.1158 | 112.4483 | 26.5 | 1.6591 | 24.4357 | -10.1190 |
| ε LEP | 5:05:27.6 | -22º 22′ 16″ | 300 | 76.365 | 112.3711 | 300 | 65.3982 | 269.6029 | -114.1812 |
| ι LEP | 5:12:17.8 | -11º 52′ 09″ | 275 | 78.0742 | 101.8692 | 275 | 55.6123 | 263.3117 | -56.5615 |
| κ LEP | 5:13:13.8 | -12º 56′ 30″ | 96 | 78.3075 | 102.9417 | 96 | 18.9611 | 91.6200 | -21.5001 |
| μ LEP | 5:12:55.8 | -16º 12′ 20″ | 180 | 78.2325 | 106.2056 | 180 | 35.2507 | 169.2152 | -50.2353 |
| ς LEP | 5:46:57.3 | -14º 49′ 19″ | 72 | 86.7388 | 104.8219 | 72 | 3.9596 | 69.4915 | -18.4187 |
| β ERI | 5:07:50.9 | -5º 05′ 11″ | 65 | 76.9621 | 95.0864 | 65 | 14.6060 | 63.0750 | -5.7628 |
| α COL | 5:39:38.9 | -34º 04′ 27″ | 120 | 84.9121 | 124.0742 | 120 | 8.8150 | 99.0059 | -67.2319 |
| X | Y | Z | |
| β ORI | 177.5 | 883.03 | -129.8 |
| δ ORI | 280.24 | 2282.8 | -12.01 |
| ε ORI | 124.3 | 1193.3 | -25.17 |
| ζ ORI | 108.95 | 1294.7 | -44.07 |
| η ORI | 118.77 | 760.1 | -32.2 |
| ι ORI | 202.21 | 1879.1 | -195.6 |
| κ ORI | 110.55 | 2067.2 | -352.7 |
| σ ORI | 129.61 | 1392.5 | -63.51 |
| θ ORI | 171.53 | 1583.7 | -150.3 |
| α LEP | 105.11 | 879.11 | -284.6 |
| β LEP | 41.327 | 296.36 | -113.4 |
| γ LEP | 1.6591 | 24.436 | -10.12 |
| ε LEP | 65.398 | 269.6 | -114.2 |
| ι LEP | 55.612 | 263.31 | -56.56 |
| κ LEP | 18.961 | 91.62 | -21.5 |
| μ LEP | 35.251 | 169.22 | -50.24 |
| ς LEP | 3.9596 | 69.492 | -18.42 |
| β ERI | 14.606 | 63.075 | -5.763 |
| α COL | 8.815 | 99.006 | -67.23 |
I list all this because once, many years back, I wanted to know what heaven looked like from a dead pharaoh’s point of view. So I built a 3D model of the constellation in my living room with candles as stars. If you would like to do the same, I have spared you the trouble of coming up with the appropriate coordinates.
I have a theory that the whole story/myth about the osiris and set deal ….isn’t right as they say. There are other things that have been thought upon and it seems more metaphorical than I think it is made out to be. Or is that a question up in the air. 72 number is also mean 72 names of God. In ancient text. Also if osiris was cut up into 14 pieces, could that possibly mean that he really wasn’t cut up into literal pieces….moreso 1 individual personalities descending from the 1 into 7 and then 7 more into 14. If you tend to think about it….i’ve kinda looked upon it as there are 7 colors of the rainbow, and each color has it’s own twin. For instance….you have male red/female red….and so forth. Just one way I could understand it. I may not be right, yet that is how i have come to think of it. I would greatly appreciate your help if you could also. I am a bit eerie on some issues that revolve around older scriptures and ancient text due to them being rewritten so many times and so forth and distorted to fit/accomadate whoever is trying to hide what of all things shouldn’t be hidden. Maybe hidden from the very hands that would use it in the wrong manner. I can understand that point of view. Anyways…good day and hope to talk with you soon
Lola,
Thanks for weighing in. This is the most popular post on my site, and it’s good to finally hear somebody chirp up about it.
I want to reply with something a bit roundabout.
If we want to get the most out of mythology, I think it is important that we look at it with the right set of eyes. Different cultures have had different ideas about what is “true” and have placed different values on truth. If we come at something like the Osiris myth with, say, the skepticism of a modern-day scientist, then we’re going to miss the point and not gain anything from the myth. The Egyptians didn’t know anything about that kind of rigor, and they didn’t write their literature in a way that is compatible with it.
The Greek historian Thucydides was possibly the first person anywhere who made a serious attempt to be objective and factual in everything he reported. He wrote “The History of the Peloponnesian War” which is a good book and his technique was a great literary breakthrough. Kudos to Thucydides.
Frequently I see people try to approach something like the Osiris myth, or the Bible, or some other older work with the kind of scutiny appropriate for analyzing Thucydides. Was Osiris ~really~ cut into 14 pieces? The question isn’t meaningful.
We may as well ask whether Paul Bunyan was really tall enough to cast a shadow from Pennsylvania to Illinois. Paul Bunyan didn’t actually exist, but except for that minor detail, yes, he was that tall. The mess hall at his logging camp was so long, that by the time they finished serving breakfast at one end, it was already dinner time at the other end. Then there was the winter of the blue snow, in which it was so cold, words froze as people spoke them. They had to put their breath on the stove to let it thaw out in order to have a conversation.
We don’t look to the Paul Bunyan stories for literal truth, but those stories do contain a great deal of symbolic truth about the American enterprise and the push into the west. Those stories tell us something about the spirit of the American pioneers that a Thucydides-style history could never hope to capture. We would be mad fools if we were to reject Paul Bunyan stories because of their disregard for facts.
In the Osiris myth, too, there is stuff of value. Did the Egyptians intend for the story to be believed literally? Perhaps. But perhaps not. The details of Egyptian theology varied over time and also over place. People in one village would believe such-and-such about a cocodle god, while people the next village over believed something contradictory. They had to be conscious of these contradictions, and yet over 3,000 years of history, their theology never got straightened out. They weren’t interested in hashing out, once and for all, what they believed.
Such a disregard for religious truth may seem bewildering, but here’s the secret: they weren’t monotheists. Monotheists believe in one god, and hence one truth. Polytheism allows there to be more than one truth at a time, and this results in a remarkable permissiveness of opposing viewpoints. If we want to speak kindly, we could say polytheists are tolerant. If we want to be less kind, we could say polytheists lack conviction.
Anyway, the upshot of all this is that we need to try to understand the Osiris myth from the Egyptian mindset. They didn’t think they way that we do, or look at the world the way that we do. I do believe, though, that if we read enough of their literature and meditate on what they say, we can train our thinking to mimic theirs. Then if we go read the Osiris myth, the message it offers might make more sense. When reading about Osiris, we have to think like an Egyptian.
Anyway, as for your thoughts on the 14 pieces– the male/female dichotomy is interesting, and one I hadn’t thought of before. I don’t recall Osiris exhibiting much of a feminine side, though– Isis is always around for that role. I don’t know, Lola, I just don’t know.
Maybe I’m a bit of a paranoid… but, although you’ve written this a long time ago, I need to say somethin about mithology and this theory.
As we can see in the evolution of mithology, in the beggining it represents nature and gods, and later on people need to identify themselfs with gods and they claim to be gods, demi gods and that stuff. What I mean is that in the beggining osiris was just osiris, and later on with the time and the tongues that have told de story until it was finally written , obvoiusly it had evolved and had been “corrupt” in some ways…
So, I’ll put it simply:
This are Osiris, Isis and Horus http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archivo:Egypte_louvre_066.jpg
This are the oriinal ancient constellations:
http://members.westnet.com.au/Gary-David-Thompson/egypt-const-seti.gif
Can you find any similarities in this two pictures?
Can you put the second one over the google earth star map and find wich constallations is equivalent to the other?
So, I’ll leave it there, so you can find it by yourself!
^.^ If you want to tell me something about, just email me ^.^