Osiris

Every aspect of a pharaoh’s life was designed to be an allegory, an imitation, of celestial things. When he wedded his queen, he was not just a temporal ruler entering into a social institution so as to produce the heir to the throne – he was Osiris incarnate and she was his beloved Isis, the one who would ensure his resurrection. 

Even in the last days of the pharaonic rule's decline, Cleopatra stylized herself as Isis and her ill-fated lover, Mark Anthony, as Bacchus in the flesh (Bacchus being a god who shared many common attributes with Osiris, especially the motif of violent death and ressurrection). 

The Egyptians understood, perhaps better than anyone else, the true meaning of “as above, so below”. For, what we do in this world, ripples across all other worlds as well. 

OSIRIS

I could have been Osiris

And you would have been my Isis;

But the Barge of the Sun

Has left ‘ere I could make it to dock

And I’m left stranded on Nile’s black shore…

I could have been Osiris,

And you would have been my Isis;

But this age has no place for Gods –

Cruel Augustus rules my land

And foreign names have perverted its native soil…

I could have been Osiris,

And you would have been my Isis;

But the tears you shed over my death

Have long since dried –

And who, now, will look for the missing parts of my mutilated form?

I could have been Osiris,

And you would have been my Isis;

Your one tear would have swelled the serpentine Hapi

And, for us, the fields of Aaru would have been made fertile:

But I would rather die, and rule the dead forevermore,

Than see you cry one more night.