Ancient Egyptian god Osiris, Late Antique, 664-323 BC.
Bronze.
Provenance: Private collection, Toulouse, France, 1950-1960.
In good state of preservation.
Measurements: 16 cm high; 17 cm high with stand.
Round statuette representing the God Osiris carrying the Heka and the Nekhakha. The god is standing, with his arms crossed over his chest and a series of characteristic elements, such as the Atef crown (a more complex type of the white crown, which is composed of two ostrich feathers, sometimes with two horns at their base, uraeus and a solar disc). It is depicted in yellow and was thought to help the deceased to be reborn, an attribute for which it is carried by the god Osiris). The piece also has his arms crossed over his chest, with which he holds the whip and the callado, which are two of his main iconographic symbols. Osiris is the Egyptian god of resurrection, associated with the fertility and regeneration of the Nile, protector of vegetation and agriculture. He also presides over the court of judgement of the dead, and is in fact closely associated with the Afterlife. He was considered the first-born son of Geb, divinity of the earth, and the goddess Nut, representation of the sky. He was therefore the brother and husband of Isis, with whom he had a posthumous son, Horus. We find him for the first time in the sources of the 5th Dynasty, although it is most likely that he was worshipped much earlier. In fact, we find the epithet Khenti-Amentiu ("leader of the Orientals", alluding to his role as king of the Beyond) already used in the 1st Dynasty, both in relation to divinity and as a pharaonic title. The most valuable information about Osiris is found in the Pyramid Texts of the late 5th Dynasty, the Shabaka Stone of the New Empire and, much later, in the texts of Greek writers such as Plutarch and Diodorus.