MissTick
Thingish Things

If you know the story of Prince Hamlet, then you know the myth of Osiris. A version of the Osiris myth exists in almost every culture: the just king murdered by his cruel brother, only to be avenged by the prince who follows in his father's footsteps…

Originally Osiris has been god of vegetation, especially of the plants that grew on the rich land along the Nile. The goddess Isis represented female fertility. Seth was god of the desert, where vegetation withers and dies from lack of water. Remember the legend of Isis? When jealous Seth killed Osiris and Isis resuscitated him again? She bandaged the body together. This was the first mummy. Then Osiris travelled to the underworld to become king over and judge of the dead. I think, the Egyptians made Osiris the king in Afterlife because he was a good kind ruler in his “normal” life and they obviously prefer to have the same after they dead…(hmmm…do we really worry about who is going to rule us after we dead?!)

Anyway, that’s the story of Osiris and that’s who’s temple we visited in Abydos.Abydos is located West of the Nile, on the border between the valley and the desert, some 40 miles west of Dendarra. The temple was built by Seti I, the father of the famous builder- Ramses II

It has seven sanctuaries, dedicated to Seti himself, Ptah, Ra-Harakhte, Amun-Ra, Osiris, Isis and Horus. The paintings preserved in very good condition. There is also something called “Osirion” – a small temple, that is literally sunken into the ground. In ancient times during the festivals of Osiris this little temple got flooded and as the waters receded, temple would re-emerge as if a mount in Creation Myth. Now it is just some ruins and a big green pond on the bottom of the ditch.It is said that at night you can hear the spirits congregating to pay homage to Osiris. All spirits must travel to Abydos as part of their journey in the afterlife.

What was the most memorable in our trip to Abydos? Firstly, impressed by the effort of Egyptian government to ”protect” visitors – we travelled there in convoy and even when we stoped on a little square in front of the temple and when few local kids tried to talk to us, a soldier came closer to us, chased away the children and stayed there not far to “guard”. Something disturbing was in the first sight of a temple when we approached it: a temple was surrounded by a mound and first thing we’ve noticed – the silhouette of an armed policemen on his camel, proudly observing the area from the top of this mound. The feeling of somewhat being a prisoner…

But of course it all was good in the end. And I must say – this was the only temple, that we felt we did have enough time to explore, even considering that we’ve been taken there in convoy with dozens of other tourists. My feelings inside the Osiris Temple were – calm and conciliation. This temple was pierced with the sun rays coming out through the small holes in the ceiling – this created the impression of the weaving device with all the strands coming off the clew of the sun…