Referring to Osiris, Richard W. Wilkinson says, "Both the meaning of the God's name and his exact origins are enigmatic." (The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt, 118)
Similarly, there is no agreement about the meaning and origin of the name of Dionysos. It seems not to be a personal name at all, but rather a title - and the ancients offered numerous speculative interpretations. Some suggested that it meant 'The God from Nysa', (Diodorus Siculus I.15) or 'The Limp of Zeus' (from an obscure Thracian word and on account of the fact that the child had been sewn into Zeus' thigh) or even 'The Divine Intelligence' (from Dios nous Macrobius, Saturnalia 1:18) - and almost 2,000 years later, we are no closer to understanding the meaning of this most enigmatic of God's names.
Etymologically, Osiris's name may be derived from the Egyptian word useru meaning "Mighty One" (Wilkinson, 118) which suggests a connection to Dionysos' Eleusinian epithet Brimos also meaning "Strong or Mighty One". As we shall see, this was not the only epithet or cult-title that the two seemed to share.
"Hail to you Osiris of many names," - The Great Hymn to Osiris
"Come, blessed Dionysos, many-named master of all." - Orphic Hymn 45
"... of holy forms, of secret rites in temples." - The Great Hymn to Osiris
"... ineffable, secretive, and two-formed ... Lord of triennial feasts." - Orphic Hymn 30
"O thou great one of two-fold strength," - The Great Hymn to Osiris
"Mighty and many-shaped God," - Orphic Hymn 50
"The two lands with one consent cry out unto thee with cries of joy." - The Great Hymn to Osiris
"You are honored by all the Gods and by all the men who dwell upon the earth. Come, blessed and leaping God, and bring much joy to all." - Orphic Hymn 45
"First-born son" - The Book of the Dead Chap. Cxxviii
"O firstborn, thrice begotten," - Orphic Hymn 30
"Lord of the two horns" - The Book of the Dead Chap. Clxxxi
"Bacchic lord, two-horned and two-shaped." - Orphic Hymn 30
"Thou art gentler than the Gods." - The Lamentations of Isis and Nephthys
Euripides calls Dionysos the "most gentle" of Gods (Bacchae, 860) and at Naxos he was invoked as Meilichios, "the Gentle".
"Thou who art of terrible majesty," - The Lamentations of Isis and Nephthys Additionially, in the Middle Kingdom, there exist in the Coffin Texts descriptions of Osiris that conjure up a picture of a threatening demon. He glories in slaughter, utters malignant spells against a dead person, and runs a 'mafia' consisting of executioners called 'Osiris's butcherers painful of fingers' or 'Osiris’s fishermen'" (George Hart, A Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, pg. 155).
Euripides calls Dionysos "most terrible" (Bacchae, 860) and he had numerous horrific and frightening epithets, including Agrios "The Wild One", Anthroporraistes "The Render of Humans", Nyktipolos "The Night-Stalker", Omadios "He of the Raw Feast", and Omestes "Eater of Raw Flesh".
"Thou Babe of beautiful appearance, come thou to us in peace." - The Lamentations of Isis and Nephthys
Dionysos was the Divine Child of Eleusis, the beautiful child in the Liknon who was cared for, and later Awakened, by his Nurses.
"O lover of women," - Lamentations of Isis and Nephthys
Dionysos is often described as a woman's God. He is contantly surrounded by women - Goddesses, Nymphs, Muses, Mainades, Thyiades, etc. Two of his most important myths revolve around his love for women and their love for him - his marriage to Ariadne and the raising of his mother from the land of the dead to the realm of the Gods. He was a missionary in the cult of Meter Kybele, and even had many feminine epithets, including Gynis "The Womanly" and Arsenothelys "The Bisexual". In Southern Italy, women saw death as an erotic adventure, in which they would be united forever in loving embrace with their God.
Osiris was called Neb Ankh, "Lord of Life", while Dionysos was understood to be Zoe "Indestructable Life" itself.
Osiris was called Lord of Wholeness, while Dionysos is sought to "come in wholeness to noble Tmolus". (
Osiris was the "Lord of All" while Dionysos' worship was open to everyone, from all ranks of society (Euripides' Bacchae 205) and he was called Aisumnetes "impartial power over all" (Pausanias 7.19.21).
Osiris was called "The Begetter", while Dionysos was called Auxites, "Giver of Increase".
Osiris was hailed as "Osiris in Battle" while Dionysos was called Areion "War-like" and said to "delight in bloody swords". (Orphic Hymn 45)
Osiris was called Neb "Lord", and Ser, Prince, while Dionysos was called Anax "Lord", and was the earthly child of princess Semele, the daughter of the Theban King Kadmos.
Osiris was called "The One in the Tree" just as Dionysos was called Endendrites "He in the Tree".
Osiris is called p3wty n t3wy tm df3 k3w "Primeval god of the two lands, perfect of nourishment and sustenance", while Dionysos is called, "Primeval ... wrapt in foliage, decked with grape-clusters." - Orphic Hymn 30
Osiris is hailed as Neb Neheh djet "Lord of Eternity" while Dionysos is said to "stride the earth forever" (Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonnus)
Osiris is the Nisut Netjeru or King of the Gods, just as Dionysos, briefly, sat upon the throne of Zeus and ruled over all the Gods and men. (Nonnos' Dionysiaca, 6.155)
Osiris is called Neb-er-tcher "Lord of the Outermost Limit", just as Arrian speaks of Dionysos having traveled to the "furthest reaches of the earth," (Anabasis 5.1.1)
Osiris was called Sa Nut "Child of Heaven" and Sa Geb "Child of Earth", just as the Bacchic initiate was to instruct the Guardians in the underworld that after having become identified with Dionysos he was to be known as a "child of Earth and of starry Heaven".
Osiris is called Hr st=f m t3 dsr "Who is upon his throne in the sacred land" just as the Orphics celebrated Thronismoi Bakchika, the "Rite of the Enthronement of Bacchus".
Many of Osiris's epithets link him to various cities. For instance, he is called Khenti Abdju "Foremost of Abydos", Khenti Djedu "Foremost of Busiris", "He Who Dwells in Iunu", and so forth. Similarly, many of Dionysos' epithets were linked to various cult centers belonging to him: Eleuthereus "Of Eleutherai", Kalydonion, "Of Calydon", Kresios "The Cretan", and so forth. And of course, both Osiris and Dionysos were connected with Thebes - the one in Boiotia, the other in Egypt.
Utterance 419 speaks of, "the Imperishable Stars, the followers of Osiris," while Sophocles hails Dionysos as, "thou leader of the choral dance of the fire-breathing stars." (Antigone 1146)
There is an interesting parallel in the following paradoxical lines. Clement of Alexandria gives the symbolon of Dionysos thusly: tauros drakontos kai pater taurou drakon, "The bull is father of the serpent, and the serpent father of the bull." In the Pyramid texts we find, "To say the words : "The bull falls because of the sDH-snake, the sDH-snake falls because of the bull. Fall, roll together" (Utt. 289 430)
And that concludes the evidence I've gathered linking these two Gods. It is certainly a considerable amount of material, and suggests more than a casual similarity between them. However, as you will see in a forthcoming article, there are also a number of areas where these two Gods diverge - and at times quite profoundly.
Copyright 2005 Sannion
All rights reserved
Posted with permission
The Mighty Bull of Two Lands Index
Warning: include() [function.include]: URL file-access is disabled in the server configuration in /home/wargod/public_html/greek/rel/diosiris/shared.php on line 211
Warning: include(http://www.wargoddess.net/includes/back.php) [function.include]: failed to open stream: no suitable wrapper could be found in /home/wargod/public_html/greek/rel/diosiris/shared.php on line 211
Warning: include() [function.include]: Failed opening 'http://www.wargoddess.net/includes/back.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/wargod/public_html/greek/rel/diosiris/shared.php on line 211
