Osiris

So they begin to light candles.

And the lighting of candles they would put in the window for Osiris, or for Tammuz, which is the same name, to remember that he was dead.

And the candles would always go out.

But they would put the candle in the window or on a table overnight.

they give out these treats so the treats is part of the fall festival stuff that's brought into or amalgamated into the halloween stuff

right

the whole idea behind it is you got to think about it the whole idea about it is taking a dismembered body dismembered in 14 pieces rotting brought back put back together re-mummified buried and having a conversation with it at this time that Osiris or Isis talking to Osiris that's what this is about and by you taking part in this festivity you know it's it's a harmless little tradition it's not harmless That's what everybody says.

Oh, you know, what's the

The ancients would have tackled this using spells, rituals.

They would also have made extra offerings to specific deities, most notably Osiris's brother, the god Seth, the god of turbulence, the god of storms, the god of red-headed individuals who were seen as somewhat turbulent too.

Can't imagine why.

I'm seeking shelter in this shrine cut into the mountain by Pai's son Taharqa, which is currently undergoing major restoration by an Italian mission.

And so there's a real progression.

The cult of the Apis bull dates right back to the beginning of Egyptian history, and it's closely linked to the Pharaoh.

It was believed that when the sacred bull died, it became one with Osiris, the god of the afterlife, and so became an Osiris Apis, or Serapis for short.

And these sacred bulls became hugely important under the Saites.

Just like real-life crocodiles, Sobek would eat nearly anything he could get a hold of.

In the story of the murder of Osiris, the trickster god Seth cut up his brother's body and scattered the pieces throughout Egypt.

Always hungry for anything edible that might float by, Sobek ate a piece of Osiris's body.

He was punished for the crime by having his tongue cut out.

The story serves as an etiology, or mythical explanation, for the fact that crocodiles don't seem to have tongues.

Even after he became connected with the king and the royal court, Sobek remained accessible to people from all walks of life.

Texts from the Middle Kingdom throughout Egypt reveal that common people prayed to Sobek for aid and protection.

One prayer from the late period has fishermen calling out to Sobek for protection from crocodiles, saying, The prayer is a clear reference to the story of Sobek eating part of Osiris, warning him of the punishment that awaits him if a crocodile eats the speaker of the spell, who has identified himself as Osiris.

which I do I

had one certainly you would think after she passed on she would be your kind of conduit so why worship a kind of impersonal great god like the god Osiris or the god Amun and Who haven't appeared on the scene yet in the pre-dynastic period, I should say.

Why do that when you could actually have a relationship with your deceased great aunt who could, as you said, lobby the other divine beings and who could do things of benefit to you?

So the dead are, you're laying them at rest, hoping to ease their journey into this afterlife.

Yeah, where do we get the word? So the term mumia is this Persian Arabic word for the black substance, which occurs naturally in the area of modern Iran.

but which dead actually, tests have shown, form part of the black goo that was applied to the mummified dead as a means of turning them into gods.

So sometimes you'll see the god Osiris has this jet black skin, a sign of his power and his rejuvenation, and so all the mummified dead want to look like Osiris.

So this becomes very fashionable.