Jan Bergman observed that, "The most decisive divine confrontation encountered in Egyptian religious thought is without doubt that between Ra and Osiris. As the princial representation of sky and earth, life and death, light and darkness, day and night, they constitute one another's necessary compliment. Without some form of union between them, the Egyptian world view would have been hopelessly divided and the rhythm of life broken."
In the Book of the Dead (clxxxi), we find the following lines, "Homage to thee, O Governor of Amentet, Un-Nefer, lord of Ta-tchesert, O thou who art diademed like Re, verily I come to see thee and rejoice at thy beauties. His disk is thy disk; his rays of light are thy rays of light; his Ureret crown is thy Ureret crown; his majesty is thy majesty, his risings are thy risings ..." and continues in that vein for quite some time.
Osiris was considered to be the ba or soul of Ra, as we see from the inscription in the tomb of Nefertari, "Osiris who rests in Ra and Ra that rests in Osiris" and he was also connected with the Sun through its nightly journey in the Duat or Underworld. This was often depicted quite beautifully on coffins. For instance, we frequently find on the bottom of coffins and in the center of the lid pictures of Nut, Goddess of the sky and mother of Osiris. The images of Nut encircled the entire coffin, and the coffin probably represented the womb of the Goddess. Being buried in the womb of the Goddess implied being reborn in the underworld as Osiris. The sun myths also contain the idea that the Sun God's journey through the underworld occurs through the body of Nut. Thus the deceased is identified with the Sun God because both are reborn through Nut. Osiris was also thought to be the mummy of the Sun God. In the same way that the soul of the dead had to return to the body every night to be revived for a new day, the Sun God had to be united with Osiris every night. Thus the deceased, Osiris, and the Sun God merged.
Didorus Siculus said that the sun was often identified with Osiris and the moon with Isis (1.11) and Plutarch observed, "Furthermore they everywhere show an anthropomorphic statue of Osiris with erect phallus because of his procreative and nourishing nature. They adorn his statues with flame-coloured clothes, regarding the sun as the body of the power of good and as the visible light of a substance which can only be spiritually felt." (On Isis and Osiris, 201)
Dionysos has his solar associations as well. The most explicit statement of this comes from the Roman author Macrobius, who outright calls Dionysos-Liber the sun. (Saturnalia, I, 17-23) More subtly, you find Dionysos and his brother Apollon, who from the 5th century B.C.E. had been connected with the sun, linked, and even equated at times. Plutarch said that they had equal shares at Delphi, and Aischylos speaks of "Ivy-Apollo, Bakchios, the sooth-sayer" (Fragment 86) while Euripides in his Lykymnios speaks of "Lord, laurel-loving Bakhios, Paean Apollo, player on the lyre" (Fragment 480). Perhaps the earliest point of contact, however, comes from the Thracian prophet and musician, Orpheus.
The following, which I have always found terribly beautiful, was posted to the Thiasos Dionysos e-list by Lysiodorus, a Dionysian priest:
"The inspired scholar Peter Kingsley, who has traced the idea of the Chthonic Sun among the Greeks as far back as Parmenides, makes the profound suggestion (I scent the trace of a Dionysiac Muse in this inspiration) that when Orpheus, servant of Apollon and Dionysos and Helios-- a triple dedication that has confused many from antiquity to the present day (but which doesn't seem strange or conflicting if They can all be identified as Aspects of each other)-- climbed to the peak of Mount Pangaion every morning to be the first to greet the Sun rising from the Eastern Gates of the Underworld, it was because the Solar shaman-priest wished to be illuminated by hearing His God whisper in the ecstatic beauty of dawn what mysteries He had learned on His nocturnal journey through the Underworld (Mysteries the Sun/ Dionysos/ Apollon could share with the Thracian mystic because it was a Chthonic initiatory journey, let us not forget, that Orpheus himself had made)."
Copyright 2005 Sannion
All rights reserved
Posted with permission
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