by Bob Curran
According to the tradition, Osiris was one of the sons of Geb, an old earth god who mated with Nut, the sky goddess; he was considered to be the god of fertility. In legend, Osiris was tricked by his brother Set (considered to be an evil spirit) to climb into a coffin, which Set then immediately sealed and threw into the River Nile. This casket was subsequently found, trapped in some reeds, by the goddess Isis, who was Osiris’s sister and wife. By this time Osiris was already dead, but Isis was not undaunted, for she knew a spell that would surely bring Osiris back to life, if only briefly. This she did, with one specific purpose: so that he might impregnate her. In other variants of the story—thought to be even older—Set tore up Osiris’s body and scattered it across Egypt. Isis patiently sought after the fragments and placed them together, except for the genitals, which she could not find (Set dumped them in the River Nile). Isis therefore fashioned herself a penis out of clay, which she attached to the body before reviving it, allowing Osiris to impregnate her. She would later give birth to their son Horus, the Egyptian sun god. (In a conflicting and perhaps much later myth, Horus is identified as the sun of Hathor or Nut and brother of Isis.) After this act, Osiris returned once again to the grave. In drawings contained within the Pyramid Texts, Osiris is portrayed as a green-skinned ruler or Pharaoh, with a crook and a flail, which were the symbols of office, suggesting that Egyptian Pharaohs were descended from him, and that they, too, might have the power to return from the dead (the land in the West) if they so chose. This conferred a kind of immortality concerning the Egyptian kings, who were considered to be the embodiment of Osiris, or his counterparts Horus or Ra (another manifestation of the sun god), and therefore had power over life and death.
Frankenstein
As a passing issue, it is also interesting to note that the story concerning Isis, in which she hunts for the pieces of Osiris’s body and assembles them into a whole, has resonance in the story of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Here the dubious protagonist, Victor Frankenstein, searches around for the remnants of dead corpses in order to return them into a form of life by way of his completed “monster” using elemental power (in this case electricity from lightning). It has been argued that Mary Shelley based her central character on the enigmatic and mysterious theologian and alchemist Johann Konrad Dippel (1673–1734), who was said to have inhabited Castle Frankenstein (the name Frankenstein simply means “Rock of the Franks”) near Darmstadt in Hesse, Germany. Dippel was supposed to have engaged in macabre experiments within the fortress—including the creation of “Dippel’s Oil,” which was supposed to be a constituent of the elixir vitae, or the oil of immortality, the Elixir of Life). Similar to Isis and Frankenstein, he was supposed to gather up fragments of corpses to create life using his elixir, and was reputedly driven from his castle by angry and terrified locals. Although many have argued that Dippel is the original template for Frankenstein through his creation of an animated “monster” from the remnants of the dead, the idea is much older—perhaps stretching back as far as Isis’s assemblage and reanimation of Osiris.
Frankenstein
Of course, the Egyptian idea of the death and resurrection of Osiris may have had its origins in the death and reflowering of the vegetation along the Nile, coupled with the river’s flooding and subsequent recession. The notion of returning from the grave in both visible and corporeal form was not a new one, even in ancient Egypt, and was closely linked into the cycle of the year and with dying and returning growth. Nor were the Egyptians the only ancient culture to believe that their deities returned from the Underworld.
Babylonian Myth
In Babylonian and northern Semitic mythology, there were similar associations with the god Tammuz. In his original incarnation, Tammuz may well have been little more than a localized Assyrian fertility god who disappeared into the Underworld for part of the year (the onset of winter), to return in the spring. This journey was probably nothing more than a symbol of the turning year. Gradually, however, a more complex mythology built up around him, connecting him with other deities, most notably the goddess Inanna (Sumerian texts) or Ishtar (Akkadian texts). In latter texts, Tammuz also changes his name to the Sumerian Dumuzid, the shepherd-king. However, much of his tale concerns the goddess Inanna, and appears in both Sumerian and Akkadian mythology, albeit in slightly different versions. The oldest version may originate from around 2500 BCE.
For some unspecified reason Inanna made a descent into the Babylonian Underworld. This is a lightless and cheerless place known as Kur, which was inhabited by heroes, nobles, and commoners alike. According to tradition, the nobles and heroes sat in dark and gloomy caves where common people waited on them. Why Inanna should have wished to venture there is unclear; in some variations, she had been summoned there by a consortium of Underworld gods called the Anunnaki (meaning “a host of demons”), who were associated with magic and sorcery—although what their purpose was in doing so is mysterious.
There is a suggestion that they intended to take her prisoner as soon as she appeared before them, and hold her in the Underworld forever. Fearful and suspicious, Inanna instructed her servant to petition some of the other gods for their help and support. This her servant did, but only one god named Enka (also known as Ea) responded. Here the Sumerian and Akkadian texts vary slightly. However, through the magic of Enka, Inanna was restored to life with the understanding that she would find someone to take her place in Kur.
When she returned to her own country, accompanied by the servants of the Anunnaki, she found Tammuz occupying her throne and ruling as the monarch. It was Tammuz that she attacked and eventually consigned to Kur, although later he would rise again in some form, which is not specified. In an apparently older version of the tale (perhaps even pre-dating 2500 BCE) Inanna journeyed to Kur in order to retrieve Tammuz, who had been killed. To obtain his return to the world of the living, she had to stand before the Anunnaki—who in this version appear in the role of Underworld judges or assessors—to plead for his release from the world of the dead. Aided by the magic of Ea, she succeeded and returned with Tammuz to the living world, where he reigned as Dumuzid, the shepherd-king. He was equated with a couple of legendary kings: Dumuzid of Bad-Tibera (a Sumerian city-state), who was the fifth king who ruled before the Great Flood; and Dumuzid the Fisherman, who was counted as the third king during the first dynasty of Uruk. Both of these men, according to legend, were said to be extremely powerful prehistoric kings with supernatural connotations, which, perhaps, included returning from the dead. There is also a king by the name of Dumuzid mentioned in the ancient Sangam literature of the Tamils as ruling Pandan, one of three Tamil kingdoms that existed on the southern coast of India from prehistoric times until the end of the 15th century. According to tradition, around 1750 BCE, part of the kingdom was destroyed by a great flood, and at this time Dumuzid (Tammuz) seems to have been king. It is the Sumerian king, however, who seems to have been most important, and who may have conquered death.
Indeed so important was Tammuz in the early Middle Eastern consciousness that a certain time of year was named after him, celebrating his descent into Kur. This period was not only observed by the Babylonians, but also by some of the northern Semites as well. Beginning at the start of the summer solstice, when the fierce heat began to decline and the days grew shorter, the festival of mourning the death of Tammuz lasted for approximately six days and was something of a spectacular event.
Such ritual mourning was even practiced by the strict Hebrews at the gate to the temple in Jerusalem, much to the horrified outrage of the prophet Ezekiel: “Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord’s house which was towards the north and behold there were women weeping for Tammuz. Then he said to me ‘Hast thou seen this O son of man? Turn thee yet again and thou shalt see greater abominations than these.” (Ezekiel 8:14–15)
This, along with a number of other accounts, seems to suggest that the cult of Tammuz was quite widespread amongst the early Semitic peoples. It was prob
ably a resurrection cult because the return of Tammuz from Kur, following his victory over death, was also a cause for celebration, signaling new growth and new life. The story of Tammuz was translated from the original Babylonian by scholars Noah Kraimer and Diane Wolkstein in 1983, and may be one of a number of early resurrection texts that showed a belief in the returning and corporeal dead in ancient cultures.
The story of Tammuz/Dumuzid’s resurrection has an almost exact parallel in the ancient Chola culture, which is even further East. Indeed, the returning figure that vanquishes death is also known as Dumuzid, and is named as a Chola king.
The Cholas
The Cholas, a Tamil civilization, were one (and probably one of the most influential) of a number of cultures that characterized the southern part of the Indian subcontinent and display a striking similarity with the ancient cultures of the Middle East—particularly Babylonian and Sumerian. This was probably because of trading links between the Chola and Pandan empires in Sri Lanka, southern India, and the Middle East. The legend of Tammuz is almost identical to the story told in the Middle East. Here Tammuz/Dumuzid also descends into the Underworld at the command of the gods, but he is rescued and returns to the world of the living as “a whole man” to reign for many years. He is thought to have been one of the earliest kings who ruled after a great flood (comparable to that mentioned in the Bible) had also devastated the greater part of the Chola Empire. This corresponds roughly to the Sumerian belief that Tammuz/Dumuzid was the “fifth king to rule after the Great Flood had destroyed the world.”
The Middle East
Tammuz/Dumuzid was not the only ancient figure to come back from the dead in Middle Eastern belief; there was also the cult of the resurrected Ba’al. The name Ba’al is a complex one in ancient Middle Eastern religious examination, as the figure takes on a number of guises and is found in a number of different cultures. In each culture, the name Ba’al seems to have revealed a slightly different aspect. The name itself seems to be of northwest Semitic origin and simply means “lord” or “master.” It could therefore have been applied to any god or supernatural being, or even to human officials. Indeed, it was interchangeable with the names of other gods from the Semitic areas such as Hadad, a northwestern Semitic storm god. Hadad was also the god of rain, fertility, and growing crops, and at one period, the two names were practically interchangeable, thus making Ba’al a fertility god. It was believed that the name Hadad could only be spoken by the temple priests, so the common populace therefore used the name Ba’al to describe their god or to invoke him.
To complicate matters even further, Ba’al was also a figure in the Phoenician trinity in the city of Tyre, where the name was sometimes transposed for Melqart, the son of El. Confusingly, it is thought that the name Melqart was a variation of the god Mot (an early Semitic god—also a son of El) who was the brother of Ba’al and the god of the Underworld and death. Conversely, he was also a god of vegetation and a protector of the city of Tyre itself. The Phoenicians were sea-going traders who came from a thin strip of land bordered by the Mediterranean Sea and Lebanon. They seem to have adopted some of the beliefs of other cultures, presumably to help them in their mercantile ventures, and Ba’al may have been one of them. Thus, Ba’al appears in many forms throughout the Phoenician influenced world and may have actually begun as a localized god worshipped by people with whom they traded. The Ba’al of Lebanon, for instance, may also be Cid, “the hunter” worshipped by tribes in the north of Lebanon; Ba’al also appears as a moon god, which may be Hannon, a Semite god. One of these incarnations, however, involved resurrection and bodily return from the dead.
Ugartic Legend
Ugartic was a type of literature that emerged from the Mediterranean region, and it had roots in Sumerian and Akadian texts. In an ancient Ugardic legend, Ba’al was lured into a trap, consumed by his brother Mot, and consigned to the Underworld. Mot scattered his remains across the Middle Eastern world—a similar fate to that of Osiris in early Egyptian myth. Ba’al’s sister and wife, Anat, however, ventured across the ancient world with the aid of the sun-goddess Shapesh (“the torch of the gods”) gathering up the pieces and putting them together again for burial. However, she missed Ba’al and pleaded with Mot to relinquish his hold on her beloved and restore him to life, a plea that the god refused. Even El, Ba’al’s father, mourned the loss of his son and “turned his face away”; as a consequence, the earth was cracked with a mighty drought. In the end, Anat lost her temper with Mot and attacked him, cleaving him in two with a sword and burning his remains. Ba’al was restored to life and continued to rule as a fertility deity. Because the account is extremely fragmentary and conflicting, it is not certain how this was done. In some versions it was the tears of Anat that brought him back from the beyond; in other accounts it was the intervention of Shapesh; in others still it was the “breath of El” himself, which could be interpreted to mean the wind. In some ancient cultures, the wind was often considered to be the breath of the gods, and as such was deemed to have supernatural powers. In other accounts, Ba’al does not return from death at all—although these tales probably refer to other incarnations of the god. It is possible that this resurrection myth—that of Ba’al-Hadad—was adopted in part by the Canaanites, and may have influenced early Semitic thinking as well.
Hebrew Legend
For the early Hebrews, the Afterlife was a dark and ill-defined place known as Sheol, from which none could return. The name itself probably comes from the Assyrian Shu’alu, meaning “a gathering place” (of the dead), or shilu, meaning a chamber (usually underground). It was here that the shades of all the departed—irrespective of whether they had lived an upright life or not—gathered to mill about and eat dirt, which seems to have been the staple diet of the departed, with no real interest in the world that they had left. In this it contained elements of the early Babylonian idea of Kur. Gradually, however, as the Hebrew religion became more sophisticated, new aspects began to creep into the picture, and the idea of an Afterlife began to evolve. Sheol was now comprised of several levels, one of which was a place of punishment and torture for sins that had been committed in the previous existence. This section would later become equated with Gehenna.
Moloch
In reality Gehenna or Gehinnom (Gai-ben-Hinnom—the valley of Hinnom’s son) actually existed, and was well known to the later Jewish people. It was a steep ravine-line valley that lay outside the walls of Jerusalem, stretching between Mount Zion and the Kidron Valley, which acted as a rubbish dump for the city. It was also a place where the bodies of executed criminals and malefactors, who could not be buried within the city limits, were thrown to be eaten by scavenging animals. It was reported that fires burned there day and night, which were either started by the city officials to dispose of refuse, or from spontaneous combustion brought on by the hot weather and the compacted rubbish itself. The ravine also had a darker connotation, for it was supposed to be the site of Moloch’s barbaric worship. Moloch may have been another incarnation of the god Ba’al, because in some texts the deity is rendered as Ba’al-Moloch, a ferocious deity that demanded child sacrifice. This dreadful deity ruled over the valley from an enclosure, which was said to be at its upper end. Small wonder, then, that Gehenna became equated with a place of fire, punishment, and torment into which the wicked and unworthy were cast.
This place served as a forerunner for the Christian notion of Hell; indeed, the later Jews translated the idea of the lower levels of Sheol as Hades in Greek texts. From there there was no return; those who languished there had been cast into the fire to be punished, but there might be some sort of return from the upper levels of Sheol or from “the bosom of Abraham,” to which the exceptionally righteous went after death. Such a return from the Afterlife may well have been a physical one in which the actual cadaver came back in tangible form—although this aspect is left deliberately vague. The notion of returning from the dead—or more specifically, the power to return others from the dea
d—was gradually transferring itself from gods and supernatural figures to the earth-bound heroes of Semitic religion.
King Saul
Although many of the early Hebrew tales concern themselves with the power of the patriarchs there was one rather ambiguous story of a religious figure being summoned back to the mortal world by magic: King Saul’s visit to the famous Witch of Endor. The town of Endor, which allegedly lay on the northern side of the Jezreel Valley in Lower Galilee, had originally been a Canaanite settlement where, according to tradition, Ba’al had been worshipped, but was now under the control of the Semite tribe of Menesseh. Possibly because of its former Canaanite connections, it had a reputation for the occult and for soothsaying. With his kingdom under threat from the advancing Philistines, who had entered the Jezreel Valley and were ready to face the invaders at the Battle of Mount Gilboa (possibly 1006 BCE), King Saul called upon God for an assurance that he would be victorious. However, God’s main spokesperson in Israel, the prophet Samuel, was dead and, because of the monarch’s past sins, God refused to answer by other means. According to the Old Testament (1st Samuel 28:1–25), one of the king’s servants mentioned a woman who “had a familiar spirit” (translated in Latin as a Pythoness—a sorceress or a trafficker with occult arts) who might be able to summon Samuel back from the dead for them. Although Saul himself had outlawed witchcraft in Israel, he agreed, and they visited the alleged witch. In some interpretations the woman possessed a talisman that she used to conjure up the “likeness” of the prophet; in others she may have acted as no more than a conduit through which Samuel returned. But return from the dead he did.