nd with R[=a], and with several other "gods"
known to the Egyptians, but it was in his aspect as god of the
resurrection and of eternal life that he appealed to men in the valley
of the Nile; and for thousands of years men and women died believing
that, inasmuch as all that was done for Osiris would be done for them
symbolically, they like him would rise again, and inherit life
everlasting. However far back we trace religious ideas in Egypt, we
never approach a time when it can be said that there did not exist a
belief in the Resurrection, for everywhere it is assumed that Osiris
rose from the dead; sceptics must have existed, and they probably asked
their priests what the Corinthians asked Saint Paul, "How are the dead
raised up? and with what body do they come?" But beyond doubt the belief
in the Resurrection was accepted by the dominant classes in Egypt. The
ceremonies which the Egyptians performed with the view of assisting the
deceased to pass the ordeal of the judgment, and to overcome his enemies
in the next world, will be described elsewhere, as also will be the form
in which the dead were raised up; we therefore return to the theological
history of Osiris.

The centre and home of the worship of Osiris in Egypt under the early
dynasties was Abydos, where the head of the god was said to be buried.
It spread north and south in the course of time, and several large
cities claimed to possess one or other of the limbs of his body. The
various episodes in the life of the god were made the subject of solemn
representations in the temple, and little by little the performance of
the obligatory and non-obligatory services in connection with them
occupied, in certain temples, the greater part of the time of the
priests. The original ideas concerning the god were forgotten and new
ones grew up; from being the _example_ of a man who had risen from the
dead and had attained unto life everlasting, he became the _cause_ of
the resurrection of the dead; and the power to bestow eternal life upon
mortals was transferred from the gods to him. The alleged dismemberment
of Osiris was forgotten in the fact that he dwelt in a perfect body in
the underworld, and that, whether dismembered or not, he had become
after his death the father of Horus by Isis. As early as the XIIth
dynasty, about B.C. 2500, the worship of this god had become almost
universal, and a thousand years later Osiris had become a sort of
national god. The attributes o