Coffin of Bak

The myth of Osiris and Isis

This is the simplest coffin in the museum, and it is also the oldest. It is dated to be between 1539 and 1191 BC. At the head and foot and over the chest we see Isis, the compassionate goddness who holds the symbol of life in her hands. Like the first pharaons, every man and woman in the land of the Nile aspired to be like Osiris –in other words, they hoped to die and rise again as he did with the help of his wife Isis. The Egyptians believed that Osiris was murdered by his brother Set, who dismembered his corpse and scattered the pieces along the banks of the Nile. His desperate wife Isis mourned him. Yet she doggedly sailed the river, seeking his remains with love and perseverance and finally rescued them from the waters. Anubis helped her to assemble them with his magic. Finally, the loving Isis breathed the breath of life into him, and Osiris became the god of the dead. Thereafter, Isis would accompany the dead as they waited for life to be restored.