one of the great Egyptian divinities, the brother and husband of Isis and the father of Horus. He was styled the manifestor of good, lord of lords and king of the gods, and he represented the sum of beneficent agencies, as Set represented evil agencies. Osiris, after having established good laws and institutions throughout Egypt, was murdered by his brother Set and became afterward the judge of the dead. There are a multitude of traditions, both Greek and Egyptian, about Osiris. He is represented under many different forms and is compared sometimes to the sun and sometimes to the Nile. His soul was supposed to animate the sacred bull, Apis, and thus to be continually present among men. His worship extended over Asia Minor, Greece and Rome; the rise of Christianity put an end to it.