Osiris (/oʊˈsaɪrɪs/, from Egyptian wsjr, Coptic ⲟⲩⲥⲓⲣⲉ)[1][2] is the god of fertility, alcohol, agriculture,

the afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion. He was
classically depicted as a green-skinned deity with a pharaoh's beard, partially mummy-wrapped at
the legs, wearing a distinctive atef crown, and holding a symbolic crook and flail.[3] He was one of the
first to be associated with the mummy wrap. When his brother, Set, cut him up into pieces after
killing him, Isis, his wife, found all the pieces and wrapped his body up. Osiris was at times
considered the eldest son of the god Geb[4] and the sky goddess Nut, as well as being brother and
husband of Isis, with Horus being considered his posthumously begotten son.[4] He was also
associated with the epithet Khenti-Amentiu, meaning "Foremost of the Westerners", a reference to
his kingship in the land of the dead.[5] As ruler of the dead, Osiris was also sometimes called "king of
the living" as he is the first god-king of Earth in ancient Egypt, therefore considered the blessed dead
"the living ones".[6] Through syncretism with Iah, he is also the god of the Moon.[7]
Osiris was considered the brother of Isis, Set, Nephthys, and Horus the Elder, and father of Horus
the Younger.[8] The first evidence of the worship of Osiris was found in the middle of the Fifth dynasty
of Egypt (25th century BC), although it is likely that he was worshiped much earlier;[9] the Khenti-
Amentiu epithet dates to at least the first dynasty, and was also used as a pharaonic title. Most
information available on the myths of Osiris is derived from allusions contained in the Pyramid
Texts at the end of the Fifth Dynasty, later New Kingdom source documents such as the Shabaka
Stone and the Contending of Horus and Seth, and much later, in narrative style from the writings of
Greek authors including Plutarch[10] and Diodorus Siculus.[11]
Osiris was the judge of the dead and the underworld agency that granted all life, including sprouting
vegetation and the fertile flooding of the Nile River. He was described as "He Who is Permanently
Benign and Youthful"[12] and the "Lord of Silence".[13] The Kings of Egypt were associated with Osiris
in death – as Osiris rose from the dead so they would be in union with him, and inherit eternal life
through a process of imitative magic.[14]
Through the hope of new life after death, Osiris began to be associated with the cycles observed in
nature, in particular vegetation and the annual flooding of the Nile, through his links with the heliacal
rising of Orion and Sirius at the start of the new year.[12] Osiris was widely worshipped until
the decline of ancient Egyptian religion during the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire.
Osiris is a Latin transliteration of the Ancient Greek Ὄσιρις IPA: [ó.siː.ris], which in turn is the Greek
adaptation of the original name in the Egyptian language. In Egyptian hieroglyphs the name appears
as wsjr, which some Egyptologists instead choose to transliterate ꜣ sjr or jsjrj. Since hieroglyphic
writing lacks vowels, Egyptologists have vocalized the name in various ways, such as Asar, Ausar,
Ausir, Wesir, Usir, or Usire.
Several proposals have been made for the etymology and meaning of the original name; as
Egyptologist Mark J. Smith notes, none are fully convincing.[17] Most take wsjr as the accepted
transliteration, following Adolf Erman:

 John Gwyn Griffiths (1980), "bearing in mind Erman's emphasis on the fact that the name must
begin with an [sic] w", proposes a derivation from wsr with an original meaning of "The Mighty
One".[18] Moreover, one of the oldest attestations of the god Osiris appears in the mastaba of the
deceased Netjer-wser (from nṯr-wsr "Powerful God").[citation needed]
 Kurt Sethe (1930) proposes a compound st-jrt, meaning "seat of the eye", in a hypothetical
earlier form *wst-jrt; this is rejected by Griffiths on phonetic grounds.[18]
 David Lorton (1985) takes up this same compound but explains st-jrt as signifying "product,
something made", Osiris representing the product of the ritual mummification process.[17]
 Wolfhart Westendorf (1987) proposes an etymology from wꜣ st-jrt "she who bears the eye".[19][20]
 Mark J. Smith (2017) makes no definitive proposals but asserts that the second element must be
a form of jrj ("to do, make") (rather than jrt ("eye")).[17]
However, recently alternative transliterations have been proposed:

 Yoshi Muchiki (1990) reexamines Erman's evidence that the throne hieroglyph in the word is to
be read ws and finds it unconvincing, suggesting instead that the name should be read ꜣ sjr on
the basis of Aramaic, Phoenician, and Old South Arabian transcriptions, readings of the throne
sign in other words, and comparison with ꜣ st ("Isis").[21]
 James P. Allen (2000) reads the word as jsjrt [22] but revises the reading (2013) to jsjrj and
derives it from js-jrj, meaning "engendering (male) principle".[23]