Input: What pantheon is the God of the underworld in ancient Egypt a part of?

Context:
Passage 1:
Plagues of Egypt
The Plagues of Egypt, in the account of the book of Exodus, are ten disasters inflicted on Biblical Egypt by the God of Israel in order to convince the Pharaoh to emancipate the enslaved Israelites, each of them confronting Pharaoh and one of his Egyptian gods; they serve as "signs and marvels" given by God to answer Pharaoh's taunt that he does not know Yahweh: "The Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD".: 117

Plagues
1. Turning water to blood: Ex. 7:14–24
This is what the LORD says: By this you will know that I am the LORD: With the staff that is in my hands I will strike the water of the Nile, and it will be changed into blood. The fish in the Nile will die, and the river will stink and the Egyptians will not be able to drink its water.

2. Frogs: Ex. 7:25–8:11/15
This is what the great LORD says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me. If you refuse to let them go, I will plague your whole country with frogs. The Nile will teem with frogs. They will come up into your palace and your bedroom and onto your bed, into the houses of your officials and on your people, and into your ovens and kneading troughs. The frogs will go up on you and your people and all your officials.

3. Lice or gnats: Ex. 8:12–15/8:16–19
"And the LORD said [...] Stretch out thy rod, and smite the dust of the land, that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt." […] When Aaron stretched out his hand with the rod and struck the dust of the ground, lice came upon men and animals. All the dust throughout the land of Egypt became lice.

4. Wild animals or flies: Ex. 8:16–28/8:20–32
The fourth plague of Egypt was of creatures capable of harming people and livestock. The Bible tells us that the plagues only came against the Egyptians and did not affect the Israelites. Pharaoh asked Moses to remove this plague and promised to grant the Israelites their freedom. However, after the plague was gone, Pharaoh hardened his heart  and he refused to keep his promise.
Various sources use either "wild animals" or "flies".

5. Pestilence of livestock: Ex. 9:1–7
This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me. If you refuse to let them go and continue to hold them back, the hand of the LORD will bring a terrible plague on your livestock in the field—on your horses and donkeys and camels and on your cattle and sheep and goats.

6. Boils: Ex. 9:8-12
Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Take handfuls of soot from a furnace and have Moses toss it into the air in the presence of Pharaoh. It will become fine dust over the whole land of Egypt, and festering boils will break out on men and animals throughout the land."

7. Thunderstorm of hail and fire: Ex. 9:13–35
This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me, or this time I will send the full force of my plagues against you and against your officials and your people, so you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth. For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth. But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. You still set yourself against my people and will not let them go. Therefore, at this time tomorrow I will send the worst hailstorm that has ever fallen on Egypt, from the day it was founded till now. Give an order now to bring your livestock and everything you have in the field to a place of shelter, because the hail will fall on every man and animal that has not been brought in and is still out in the field, and they will die. […] The LORD sent thunder and hail, and lightning flashed down to the ground. So the LORD rained hail on the land of Egypt; hail fell and lightning flashed back and forth. It was the worst storm in all the land of Egypt since it had become a nation.

8. Locusts: Ex. 10:1–20
This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: 'How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, so that they may worship me. If you refuse to let them go, I will bring locusts into your country tomorrow. They will cover the face of the ground so that it cannot be seen. They will devour what little you have left after the hail, including every tree that is growing in your fields. They will fill your houses and those of all your officials and all the Egyptians—something neither your fathers nor your forefathers have ever seen from the day they settled in this land till now.

9. Three days of darkness: Ex. 10:21–29
Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that darkness will spread over Egypt—darkness that can be felt." So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and total darkness covered all Egypt for three days. No one could see anyone else or leave his place for three days.

10. Death of firstborn son: Ex. 11:1–12:36
This is what the LORD says: "About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt—worse than there has ever been or ever will be again."
Before this final plague, God commands Moses to tell the Israelites to mark a lamb's blood above their doors in order that the Angel of Death will pass over them (i.e., that they will not be touched by the death of the firstborn). Pharaoh orders the Israelites to leave, taking whatever they want, and asks Moses to bless him in the name of the Lord. The passage goes on to state that the passover sacrifice recalls the time when the LORD "passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt".

Composition and theology
Scholars are in broad agreement that the publication of the Torah took place in the mid-Persian period (the 5th century BCE). The Book of Deuteronomy, composed in stages between the 7th and 6th centuries, mentions the "diseases of Egypt" (Deuteronomy 7:15 and 28:60) but refers to something that afflicted the Israelites, not the Egyptians, and never specifies the plagues.The traditional number of ten plagues is not actually mentioned in Exodus, and other sources differ; Psalms 78 and 105 seem to list only seven or eight plagues and order them differently. It appears that originally there were only seven, to which were added the third, sixth, and ninth, bringing the count to ten.: 83–84 In this final version, the first nine plagues form three triads, each of which God introduces by informing Moses of the main lesson it will teach.: 117  In the first triad, the Egyptians begin to experience the power of God;: 118  in the second, God demonstrates that he is directing events;: 119  and in the third, the incomparability of Yahweh is displayed.: 117  Overall, the plagues are "signs and marvels" given by the God of Israel to answer Pharaoh's taunt that he does not know Yahweh: "The Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD".: 117

Historicity
Scholars broadly agree that the Exodus is not a historical account, that the Israelites originated in Canaan and from the Canaanites and that, while a small group of proto-Israelites probably did originate from Egypt, it did not happen in the massive way the Bible describes.: 81 : 6–7  The Ipuwer Papyrus, written probably in the late Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt (c. 1991–1803 BCE), has been put forward in popular literature as confirmation of the biblical account, most notably because of its statement that "the river is blood" and its frequent references to servants running away; however, these arguments ignore the many points on which Ipuwer contradicts Exodus, such as Asiatics arriving in Egypt rather than leaving and the fact that the "river is blood" phrase probably refers to the red sediment colouring the Nile during disastrous floods, or is simply a poetic image of turmoil. Attempts to find natural explanations for the plagues (e.g., a volcanic eruption to explain the "darkness" plague) have been dismissed by biblical scholars on the grounds that their pattern, timing, rapid succession, and above all, control by Moses mark them as supernatural.: 90 : 117–118

Artistic representation
Visual art
In visual art, the plagues have generally been reserved for works in series, especially engravings. Still, relatively few depictions in art emerged compared to other religious themes until the 19th century, when the plagues became more common subjects, with John Martin and Joseph Turner producing notable canvases. This trend probably reflected a Romantic attraction to landscape and nature painting, for which the plagues were suited, a Gothic attraction to morbid stories, and a rise in Orientalism, wherein exotic Egyptian themes found currency. Given the importance of noble patronage throughout Western art history, the plagues may have found consistent disfavor because the stories emphasize the limits of a monarch's power, and images of lice, locusts, darkness, and boils were ill-suited for decoration in palaces and churches.

Music
Perhaps the most successful artistic representation of the plagues is Handel's oratorio Israel in Egypt, which, like his perennial favorite, "Messiah", takes a libretto entirely from scripture. The work was especially popular in the 19th century because of its numerous choruses, generally one for each plague, and its playful musical depiction of the plagues. For example, the plague of frogs is performed as a light aria for alto, depicting frogs jumping in the violins, and the plague of flies and lice is a light chorus with fast scurrying runs in the violins.

Documentaries
The Exodus Decoded (2006)

Films
The Ten Commandments (1923)
The Moon of Israel (1924)
The Ten Commandments (1956)
The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)
The Seventh Sign (1988)
Moses (1995)
The Prince of Egypt (1998)
Magnolia (1999)
The Mummy (1999)
The Reaping (2007)
Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014)
Seder-Masochism (2018)

Image gallery
See also
Aaron's rod
Jochebed
Miriam
Passage 2:
Osiris
Osiris (, from Egyptian wsjr) is the god of fertility, agriculture, the afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion. He was classically depicted as a green-skinned deity with a pharaoh's beard, partially mummy-wrapped at the legs, wearing a distinctive atef crown, and holding a symbolic crook and flail. He was one of the first to be associated with the mummy wrap. When his brother Set cut him up into pieces after killing him, Osiris' wife Isis found all the pieces and wrapped his body up, enabling him to return to life. Osiris was widely worshipped until the decline of ancient Egyptian religion during the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire.Osiris was at times considered the eldest son of the earth god Geb and the sky goddess Nut, as well as being brother and husband of Isis, and brother of Set, Nephthys, and Horus the Elder, with Horus the Younger being considered his posthumously begotten son. Through syncretism with Iah, he was also a god of the Moon.Osiris was the judge and lord of the dead and the underworld, the "Lord of Silence" and Khenti-Amentiu, meaning "Foremost of the Westerners". In the Old Kingdom (2686–2181 BC) the pharaoh was considered a son of the sun god Ra who, after his death, ascended to join Ra in the sky. After the spread of the Osiris cult, however, the kings of Egypt were associated with Osiris in death – as Osiris rose from the dead, they would unite with him and inherit eternal life through imitative magic.Through the hope of new life after death, Osiris began to be associated with the cycles in nature, in particular the sprouting of vegetation and the annual flooding of the Nile River, as well as the heliacal rising of Orion and Sirius at the start of the new year. He became the sovereign that granted all life, "He Who is Permanently Benign and Youthful".The first evidence of the worship of Osiris is from the middle of the Fifth Dynasty of Egypt (25th century BC), although it is likely that he was worshiped much earlier; the Khenti-Amentiu epithet dates to at least the First Dynasty, and was also used as a pharaonic title. Most information available on the Osiris myth is derived from allusions in the Pyramid Texts at the end of the Fifth Dynasty, later New Kingdom source documents such as the Shabaka Stone and "The Contendings of Horus and Seth", and much later, in the narratives of Greek authors including Plutarch and Diodorus Siculus.Some Egyptologists believe the Osiris mythos may have originated in a former living ruler – possibly a shepherd who lived in Predynastic times (5500–3100 BC) in the Nile Delta, whose beneficial rule led to him being revered as a god. The accoutrements of the shepherd, the crook and the flail – once insignia of the Delta god Andjety, with whom Osiris was associated – support this theory.

Etymology of the name
Osiris is a Latin transliteration of the Ancient Greek Ὄσιρις IPA: [ó.siː.ris], which in turn is the Greek adaptation of the original name in the Egyptian language. In Egyptian hieroglyphs the name appears as wsjr, which some Egyptologists instead choose to transliterate as ꜣsjr or jsjrj. Since hieroglyphic writing lacks vowels, Egyptologists have vocalized the name in various ways, such as Asar, Ausar, Ausir, Wesir, Usir, or Usire.
Several proposals have been made for the etymology and meaning of the original name; as Egyptologist Mark J. Smith notes, none are fully convincing. Most take wsjr as the accepted transliteration, following Adolf Erman:

John Gwyn Griffiths (1980), "bearing in mind Erman's emphasis on the fact that the name must begin with an [sic] w", proposes a derivation from wsr with an original meaning of "The Mighty One".
Kurt Sethe (1930) proposes a compound st-jrt, meaning "seat of the eye", in a hypothetical earlier form *wst-jrt; this is rejected by Griffiths on phonetic grounds.
David Lorton (1985) takes up this same compound but explains st-jrt as signifying "product, something made", Osiris representing the product of the ritual mummification process.
Wolfhart Westendorf (1987) proposes an etymology from wꜣst-jrt "she who bears the eye".
Mark J. Smith (2017) makes no definitive proposals but asserts that the second element must be a form of jrj ("to do, make") (rather than jrt ("eye")).However, recently alternative transliterations have been proposed:

Yoshi Muchiki (1990) reexamines Erman's evidence that the throne hieroglyph in the word is to be read ws and finds it unconvincing, suggesting instead that the name should be read ꜣsjr on the basis of Aramaic, Phoenician, and Old South Arabian transcriptions, readings of the throne sign in other words, and comparison with ꜣst ("Isis").
James P. Allen (2000) reads the word as jsjrt  but revises the reading (2013) to jsjrj and derives it from js-jrj, meaning "engendering (male) principle".

Appearance
Osiris is represented in his most developed form of iconography wearing the Atef crown, which is similar to the White crown of Upper Egypt, but with the addition of two curling ostrich feathers at each side. He also carries the crook and flail. The crook is thought to represent Osiris as a shepherd god. The symbolism of the flail is more uncertain with shepherds whip, fly-whisk, or association with the god Andjety of the ninth nome of Lower Egypt proposed.He was commonly depicted as a pharaoh with a complexion of either green (the color of rebirth) or black (alluding to the fertility of the Nile floodplain) in mummiform (wearing the trappings of mummification from chest downward).

Early mythology
The Pyramid Texts describe early conceptions of an afterlife in terms of eternal travelling with the sun god amongst the stars. Amongst these mortuary texts, at the beginning of the Fourth Dynasty, is found: "An offering the king gives and Anubis". By the end of the Fifth Dynasty, the formula in all tombs becomes "An offering the king gives and Osiris".

Father of Horus
Osiris is the mythological father of the god Horus, whose conception is described in the Osiris myth (a central myth in ancient Egyptian belief). The myth describes Osiris as having been killed by his brother Set, who wanted Osiris' throne. His wife, Isis, finds the body of Osiris and hides it in the reeds where it is found and dismembered by Set. Isis retrieves and joins the fragmented pieces of Osiris, then briefly revives him by use of magic. This spell gives her time to become pregnant by Osiris. Isis later gives birth to Horus. Since Horus was born after Osiris' resurrection, Horus became thought of as a representation of new beginnings and the vanquisher of the usurper Set.
Ptah-Seker (who resulted from the identification of the creator god Ptah with Seker) thus gradually became identified with Osiris, the two becoming Ptah-Seker-Osiris. As the sun was thought to spend the night in the underworld, and was subsequently "reborn" every morning, Ptah-Seker-Osiris was identified as king of the underworld, god of the afterlife, life, death, and regeneration. Osiris also has the aspect and form of Seker-Osiris.

Ram god
Osiris' soul, or rather his ba, was occasionally worshipped in its own right, almost as if it were a distinct god, especially in the Delta city of Mendes. This aspect of Osiris was referred to as Banebdjedet, which is grammatically feminine (also spelt "Banebded" or "Banebdjed"), literally "the ba of the lord of the djed, which roughly means The soul of the lord of the pillar of continuity. The djed, a type of pillar, was usually understood as the backbone of Osiris.
The Nile supplying water, and Osiris (strongly connected to the vegetable regeneration) who died only to be resurrected, represented continuity and stability. As Banebdjed, Osiris was given epithets such as Lord of the Sky and Life of the (sun god) Ra. Ba does not mean "soul" in the western sense, and has to do with power, reputation, force of character, especially in the case of a god.
Since the ba was associated with power, and also happened to be a word for ram in Egyptian, Banebdjed was depicted as a ram, or as Ram-headed. A living, sacred ram was kept at Mendes and worshipped as the incarnation of the god, and upon death, the rams were mummified and buried in a ram-specific necropolis. Banebdjed was consequently said to be Horus' father, as Banebdjed was an aspect of Osiris.
Regarding the association of Osiris with the ram, the god's traditional crook and flail are the instruments of the shepherd, which has suggested to some scholars also an origin for Osiris in herding tribes of the upper Nile.

Mythology
Plutarch recounts one version of the Osiris myth in which Set (Osiris' brother), along with the Queen of Ethiopia, conspired with 72 accomplices to plot the assassination of Osiris. Set fooled Osiris into getting into a box, which Set then shut, sealed with lead, and threw into the Nile. Osiris' wife, Isis, searched for his remains until she finally found him embedded in a tamarisk tree trunk, which was holding up the roof of a palace in Byblos on the Phoenician coast. She managed to remove the coffin and retrieve her husband's body.
In one version of the myth, Isis used a spell to briefly revive Osiris so he could impregnate her. After embalming and burying Osiris, Isis conceived and gave birth to their son, Horus. Thereafter Osiris lived on as the god of the underworld. Because of his death and resurrection, Osiris was associated with the flooding and retreating of the Nile and thus with the yearly growth and death of crops along the Nile valley.
Diodorus Siculus gives another version of the myth in which Osiris was described as an ancient king who taught the Egyptians the arts of civilization, including agriculture, then travelled the world with his sister Isis, the satyrs, and the nine muses, before finally returning to Egypt. Osiris was then murdered by his evil brother Typhon, who was identified with Set. Typhon divided the body into twenty-six pieces, which he distributed amongst his fellow conspirators in order to implicate them in the murder. Isis and Hercules (Horus) avenged the death of Osiris and slew Typhon. Isis recovered all the parts of Osiris' body, except the phallus, and secretly buried them. She made replicas of them and distributed them to several locations, which then became centres of Osiris worship.

Worship
Annual ceremonies were performed in honor of Osiris in various places across Egypt. Evidences of which were discovered during underwater archaeological excavations of Franck Goddio and his team in the sunken city of Thonis-Heracleion. These ceremonies were fertility rites which symbolised the resurrection of Osiris. Recent scholars emphasize "the androgynous character of [Osiris'] fertility" clear from surviving material. For instance, Osiris' fertility has to come both from being castrated/cut-into-pieces and the reassembly by female Isis, whose embrace of her reassembled Osiris produces the perfect king, Horus. Further, as attested by tomb-inscriptions, both women and men could syncretize (identify) with Osiris at their death, another set of evidence that underlines Osiris' androgynous nature.

Death or transition and institution as god of the afterlife
Plutarch and others have noted that the sacrifices to Osiris were "gloomy, solemn, and mournful..." (Isis and Osiris, 69) and that the great mystery festival, celebrated in two phases, began at Abydos commemorating the death of the god, on the same day that grain was planted in the ground (Isis and Osiris, 13). The annual festival involved the construction of "Osiris Beds" formed in shape of Osiris, filled with soil and sown with seed. The germinating seed symbolized Osiris rising from the dead. An almost pristine example was found in the tomb of Tutankhamun. The imiut emblem- an image of a stuffed, headless skin of an animal tied to a pole mounting a pot, was a symbol associated both with Osiris as god of the underworld and with Anubis, god of mummification, was sometimes included among a deceased person's funerary equipment.The first phase of the festival was a public drama depicting the murder and dismemberment of Osiris, the search for his body by Isis, his triumphal return as the resurrected god, and the battle in which Horus defeated Set.
According to Julius Firmicus Maternus of the fourth century, this play was re-enacted each year by worshippers who "beat their breasts and gashed their shoulders.... When they pretend that the mutilated remains of the god have been found and rejoined...they turn from mourning to rejoicing." (De Errore Profanarum Religionum).
The passion of Osiris was reflected in his name 'Wenennefer" ("the one who continues to be perfect"), which also alludes to his post mortem power.

Ikhernofret Stela
Much of the extant information about the rites of Osiris can be found on the Ikhernofret Stela at Abydos erected in the Twelfth Dynasty by Ikhernofret, possibly a priest of Osiris or other official (the titles of Ikhernofret are described in his stela from Abydos) during the reign of Senwosret III (Pharaoh Sesostris, about 1875 BC). The ritual reenactment of Osiris's funeral rites were held in the last month of the inundation (the annual Nile flood), coinciding with Spring, and held at Abydos which was the traditional place where the body of Osiris drifted ashore after having been drowned in the Nile.The part of the myth recounting the chopping up of the body into 14 pieces by Set is not recounted in this particular stela. Although it is attested to be a part of the rituals by a version of the Papyrus Jumilhac, in which it took Isis 12 days to reassemble the pieces, coinciding with the festival of ploughing. Some elements of the ceremony were held in the temple, while others involved public participation in a form of theatre. The Stela of Ikhernofret recounts the programme of events of the public elements over the five days of the Festival:

The First Day, The Procession of Wepwawet: A mock battle was enacted during which the enemies of Osiris are defeated. A procession was led by the god Wepwawet ("opener of the way").
The Second Day, The Great Procession of Osiris: The body of Osiris was taken from his temple to his tomb. The boat he was transported in, the "Neshmet" bark, had to be defended against his enemies.
The Third Day: Osiris is mourned and the enemies of the land are destroyed.
The Fourth Day, Night Vigil: Prayers and recitations are made and funeral rites performed.
The Fifth Day, Osiris is Reborn: Osiris is reborn at dawn and crowned with the crown of Ma'at. The statue of Osiris is brought back to the temple.

Wheat and clay rituals
Contrasting with the public "theatrical" ceremonies sourced from the Middle Kingdom Ikhernofret Stele, more esoteric ceremonies were performed inside the temples by priests. Plutarch mentions that (for much later period) two days after the beginning of the festival "the priests bring forth a sacred chest containing a small golden coffer, into which they pour some potable water...and a great shout arises from the company for joy that Osiris is found (or resurrected). Then they knead some fertile soil with the water...and fashion therefrom a crescent-shaped figure, which they cloth and adorn, this indicating that they regard these gods as the substance of Earth and Water." (Isis and Osiris, 39). Yet his accounts were still obscure, for he also wrote, "I pass over the cutting of the wood" – opting not to describe it, since he considered it as a most sacred ritual (Ibid. 21).
In the Osirian temple at Denderah, an inscription (translated by Budge, Chapter XV, Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection) describes in detail the making of wheat paste models of each dismembered piece of Osiris to be sent out to the town where each piece is discovered by Isis. At the temple of Mendes, figures of Osiris were made from wheat and paste placed in a trough on the day of the murder, then water was added for several days, until finally the mixture was kneaded into a mold of Osiris and taken to the temple to be buried (the sacred grain for these cakes were grown only in the temple fields). Molds were made from the wood of a red tree in the forms of the sixteen dismembered parts of Osiris, the cakes of "divine" bread were made from each mold, placed in a silver chest and set near the head of the god with the inward parts of Osiris as described in the Book of the Dead (XVII).

Judgement
The idea of divine justice being exercised after death for wrongdoing during life is first encountered during the Old Kingdom in a Sixth Dynasty tomb containing fragments of what would be described later as the Negative Confessions performed in front of the 42 Assessors of Ma'at.At death a person faced judgment by a tribunal of forty-two divine judges. If they led a life in conformance with the precepts of the goddess Ma'at, who represented truth and right living, the person was welcomed into the kingdom of Osiris. If found guilty, the person was thrown to the soul-eating demon Ammit and did not share in eternal life. The person who is taken by the devourer is subject first to terrifying punishment and then annihilated. These depictions of punishment may have influenced medieval perceptions of the inferno in hell via early Christian and Coptic texts. Purification for those who are considered justified may be found in the descriptions of "Flame Island", where they experience the triumph over evil and rebirth. For the damned, complete destruction into a state of non-being awaits, but there is no suggestion of eternal torture.During the reign of Seti I, Osiris was also invoked in royal decrees to pursue the living when wrongdoing was observed but kept secret and not reported.

Greco-Roman era
Hellenization
The early Ptolemaic kings promoted a new god, Serapis, who combined traits of Osiris with those of various Greek gods and was portrayed in a Hellenistic form. Serapis was often treated as the consort of Isis and became the patron deity of the Ptolemies' capital, Alexandria. Serapis's origins are not known. Some ancient authors claim the cult of Serapis was established at Alexandria by Alexander the Great himself, but most who discuss the subject of Serapis's origins give a story similar to that by Plutarch. Writing about 400 years after the fact, Plutarch claimed that Ptolemy I established the cult after dreaming of a colossal statue at Sinope in Anatolia. His councillors identified the statue as the Greek god Pluto and said that the Egyptian name for Pluto was Serapis. This name may have been a Hellenization of "Osiris-Apis". Osiris-Apis was a patron deity of the Memphite Necropolis and the father of the Apis bull who was worshipped there, and texts from Ptolemaic times treat "Serapis" as the Greek translation of "Osiris-Apis". But little of the early evidence for Serapis's cult comes from Memphis, and much of it comes from the Mediterranean world with no reference to an Egyptian origin for Serapis, so Mark Smith expresses doubt that Serapis originated as a Greek form of Osiris-Apis's name and leaves open the possibility that Serapis originated outside Egypt.

Destruction of cult
The cult of Isis and Osiris continued at Philae until at least the 450s CE, long after the imperial decrees of the late 4th century that ordered the closing of temples to "pagan" gods. Philae was the last major ancient Egyptian temple to be closed.

See also
Aaru
Ancient Egyptian concept of the soulKhenti-Amentiu

Notes
Passage 3:
Greek underworld
In Greek mythology, the Greek underworld, or Hades, is a distinct realm (one of the three realms that make up the cosmos) where an individual goes after death. The earliest idea of afterlife in Greek myth is that, at the moment of death, an individual's essence (psyche) is separated from the corpse and transported to the underworld. In early mythology (e.g., Homer's Iliad and Odyssey) the dead were indiscriminately grouped together and led a shadowy post-existence; however, in later mythology (e.g., Platonic philosophy) elements of post-mortem judgment began to emerge with good and bad people being separated (both spatially and with regards to treatment). The underworld itself— commonly referred to as Hades, after its patron god, but also known by various metonyms—is described as being located at the periphery of the earth, either associated with the outer limits of the ocean (i.e., Oceanus, again also a god) or beneath the earth. Darkness and a lack of sunlight are common features associated with the underworld and, in this way, provide a direct contrast to both the 'normality' of the land of the living (where the sun shines) and also with the brightness associated with Mount Olympus (the realm of the gods). The underworld is also considered to be an invisible realm, which is understood both in relation to the permanent state of darkness but also a potential etymological link with Hades as the 'unseen place'. The underworld is made solely for the dead and so mortals do not enter it – with only a few heroic exceptions (who undertook a mythical catabasis: Heracles, Theseus, Orpheus, possibly also Odysseus, and in later Roman depictions Aeneas).

Geography
Rivers
Rivers are a fundamental part of the topography of the underworld and are found in the earliest source materials: In Homer's Iliad, the "ghost" of Patroclus makes specific mention of gates and a river (unnamed) in Hades; in Homer's Odyssey, the "ghost" of Odysseus's mother, Anticlea, describes there being many "great rivers and appalling streams", and reference is made to at least four specific rivers. H. A. Guerber assumed that the rivers where Charon sailed mirrored the sky in Greco-Roman thought. In the wider mythological tradition, however, there are multiple bodies of water that are associated with the underworld (varying in number and combination depending on the source), the names of which can be understood to reflect specific associations with death.
The Styx can be considered the most prominent and familiar of the underworld rivers. It is the only named underworld river mentioned in Homer's Iliad – our earliest mythological text – and three of the Homeric Hymns. Not only is it an underworld river but is also, more generally, the inviolable waters upon which the gods swear oaths and a goddess in her own right (the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys). In later traditions it often serves as the entrance to the underworld over which Charon (the ferryman of the dead) rows the deceased in order for them to enter the underworld. It is also known as the river of hatred. There are several Styx-es in the real world: according to Herodotus, Strabo, and Pliny it was in Arcadia; while Pausanias locates one in Nonacris.
The Acheron is the river of misery or river of woe. It is mentioned in many early sources of archaic poetry but is less prominent and early than the Styx. In some mythological accounts, Charon rows the dead over the Acheron rather than the Styx. In some alternative sources Acheron is a lake (rather than/as well as the river) and also functions as a synonym for the underworld. Pausanias describes a river named Acheron in Epirus, Thesprotia, which flows into a swampy-lake and converges with a river Cocytus (like its Homeric counterpart) which Pausanias attributes as the inspiration for Homer's description of the underworld. This site is also associated with specific instances of necromantic ritual and/or catabases from the mythic-past. Likewise, later traditions note a Acheron river in Cumae, Italy, which was also identified specifically with Odysseus' necromantic/catabatic activity.
The Pyriphlegethon/Phlegethon is the river of blazing-fire (Pyriphlegéthōn being from the phrase puri phlegethonti, 'blazing like fire'). It has a single mention in Homer's Odyssey (Pyriphlegéthōn) where it is described as flowing into the river Acheron, and then does not appear again in sources until Plato. According to Plato, this river leads to the depths of Tartarus and is associated with punishment (in particular, people who hit their fathers and mothers). There was a river/field of this name near Cumae – maintaining its association with 'burning' due to the local hot springs – which Strabo explicitly associated with the Homeric underworld.
The Cocytus is the river of wailing (from kōkuein, 'to weep, lament'). It too has only a single mention in Homer's Odyssey where it is described as a branch of the Styx that flows into the Acheron. According to Plato, the Cocytus is circular and empties into  Tartarus and is associated with the punishment of murderers. It is also the name of a river in Thesprotia and Cumae which merges with the Acheron (see above).
The Lethe is the river of forgetfulness, taking its name from Lethe, the goddess of forgetfulness and oblivion. In later accounts, a poplar branch dripping with water of the Lethe became the symbol of Hypnos, the god of sleep. Some sources reference a plain of Lethe, rather than a river. Souls undergoing reincarnation were forced to drink from the river in order to forget their past life and the underworld. Only after drinking could a soul be reborn in the living world.
Oceanus is the river that encircles the world, and it marks the border of the land of the living and the underworld.

Entrance of the underworld
The deceased could enter the underworld through various routes, but perhaps the most common depiction is that of the ferryman  Charon to take them across the river. This was a particularly common motif on Athenian white ground lekythoi (funerary vases) of fifth century BCE and it is difficult to date this figure much earlier than the 6th century BCE (perhaps the latest of Hades' inhabitants to 'appear'). While Charon doesn't feature in the earliest mythical sources, there was still a superstition that the unburied couldn't cross over until they receive a proper burial (the most famous examples being Patroclus and Hector in the Iliad). Alternatively, Hermes Psychopompos could also be relied upon to lead the deceased to the underworld and appears first in Homer's Odyssey book 24 (also a common motif on white ground lekythoi). Hades was well-known for its gates (the πύλαι Ἀίδαο: Hom. Il. 5.646, 9.312, 23.71, Od. 14.156), with one of Hades's (the god) epithets being the "gate fastener" (πυλάρτης: Hom. Il. 8.367, 13.415, Od. 11.277).

Tartarus
In some Greek sources Tartarus is another name for the underworld (serving as a metonym for Hades), while in others it is a completely distinct realm separate from the underworld. Hesiod most famously describes Tartarus as being as far beneath the underworld as the earth is beneath the sky. Like Hades, it too is so dark that the "night is poured around it in three rows like a collar round the neck, while above it grows the roots of the earth and of the unharvested sea." The most famous inhabitants of Tartarus are the Titans; Zeus cast the Titans along with his father Cronus into Tartarus after defeating them. Homer wrote that Cronus then became the king of Tartarus. According to Plato's Gorgias (c. 400 BC), souls are judged after death and Tartarus is where the wicked received divine punishment. Tartarus is also considered to be a primordial force or deity alongside entities such as the Earth, Night, and Time.

Asphodel Meadows
The Asphodel Meadows is the location in the underworld where the majority of the deceased dwell. The name appears as far back as Homer's Odyssey (11.359), where it features in Odysseus’ survey of the underworld (technically referred to here as the field of asphodel: ἀσφοδελὸς λειμών). It is unclear exactly what the ancients understood this "field" to be with scholars divided between associating it with flower asphodel (genus, Asphodelus L.) or a field of ash (basing this on the etymological construction of σφοδελὸς > σποδός, "ash").

Elysium/Elysian Fields
The Elysium (also referred to as the Elysian Fields) was a utopian, paradisiacal afterlife reserved for specially distinguished individuals. The Elysian Fields are first referenced in Homer's Odyssey Book 4 where Menelaus is promised that he will go there instead of dying (and so distinguishing it from the afterlife proper): it is described as being located at the edges of the earth (the peirata) and is where life is "easiest for men". However, Menelaus does not achieve this fate not due to anything he has done during his lifetime but rather because he is Zeus' son-in-law (being married to Helen). In Hesiod's Work and Days, however, this is a paradise that heroes could attain. Eventually, as concepts of the afterlife broadened and became more "democratic", the generally righteous could be sent to the Elysian Fields after being judged by the underworld judges, Rhadamanthus and Minos.

Isles of the Blessed
By Hesiod's time, the Elysium would also be known as the Fortunate Isles or the Isles of the Blessed. The isles, which were sometimes treated as a geographical location on Earth, would become known as a place of reward in the underworld for those who were judged exceptionally pure.

Known inhabitants
Hades
Hades (Aides, Aidoneus, or Haidês), the eldest son of the Titans Cronus and Rhea; brother of Zeus, Poseidon, Hera, Demeter, and Hestia, is the Greek god of the underworld. When the three brothers divided the world between themselves, Zeus received the heavens, Poseidon the sea, and Hades the underworld; the earth itself was divided between the three. Therefore, while Hades' responsibility was in the underworld, he was allowed to have power on earth as well. However, Hades himself is rarely seen outside his domain, and to those on earth his intentions and personality are a mystery. In art and literature Hades is depicted as stern and dignified, but not as a fierce torturer or devil-like. However, Hades was considered the enemy to all life and was hated by both the gods and men; sacrifices and prayers did not appease him so mortals rarely tried. He was also not a tormenter of the dead, and sometimes considered the "Zeus of the dead" because he was hospitable to them. Due to his role as lord of the underworld and ruler of the dead, he was also known as Zeus Khthonios ("the infernal Zeus" or "Zeus of the lower world"). Those who received punishment in Tartarus were assigned by the other gods seeking vengeance. In Greek society, many viewed Hades as the least liked god and many gods even had an aversion towards him, and when people would sacrifice to Hades, it would be if they wanted revenge on an enemy or something terrible to happen to them.Hades was sometimes referred to as Pluton and was represented in a lighter way – here, he was considered the giver of wealth, since the crops and the blessing of the harvest come from below the earth.

Persephone
Persephone (also known as Kore) was the daughter of Demeter, the goddess of the harvest, and Zeus. Persephone was abducted by Hades, who desired a wife. When Persephone was gathering flowers, she was entranced by a narcissus flower planted by Gaia (to lure her to the underworld as a favor to Hades), and when she picked it the earth suddenly opened up. Hades, appearing in a golden chariot, seduced and carried Persephone into the underworld. When Demeter found out that Zeus had given Hades permission to abduct Persephone and take her as a wife, Demeter became enraged at Zeus and stopped growing harvests for the earth. To soothe her, Zeus sent Hermes to the underworld to return Persephone to her mother. However, she had eaten six pomegranate seeds in the underworld and was thus eternally tied to the underworld, since the pomegranate seed was sacred there.Persephone could then only leave the underworld when the earth was blooming, or every season except the winter. The Homeric Hymns describes the abduction of Persephone by Hades:

Persephone herself is considered a fitting other half to Hades because of the meaning of her name which bears the Greek root for "killing" and the -phone in her name means "putting to death".

Hecate
Hecate was variously associated with crossroads, entrance-ways, dogs, light, the Moon, magic, witchcraft, knowledge of herbs and poisonous plants, necromancy, and sorcery. Hecate is often shown as a tripartite goddess, which allows her to look in multiple directions at once. This emphasizes her role as a protector of the in betweens.

The Erinyes
The Erinyes (also known as the Furies) were the three goddesses associated with the souls of the dead and the avenged crimes against the natural order of the world. They consist of Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone.
They were particularly concerned with crimes done by children against their parents such as matricide, patricide, and unfilial conduct. They would inflict madness upon the living murderer, or if a nation was harboring such a criminal, the Erinyes would cause starvation and disease to the nation. The Erinyes were dreaded by the living since they embodied the vengeance of the person who was wronged against the wrongdoer. Often the Greeks made "soothing libations" to the Erinyes to appease them so as to not invoke their wrath, and overall the Erinyes received many more libations and sacrifices than other gods of the underworld. The Erinyes were depicted as ugly and winged women with their bodies intertwined with serpents.

Hermes
While Hermes did not primarily reside in the underworld and is not usually associated with the underworld, he was the one who led the souls of the dead to the underworld. In this sense, he was known as Hermes Psychopompos and with his fair golden wand he was able to lead the dead to their new home. He was also called upon by the dying to assist in their passing – some called upon him to have painless deaths or be able to die when and where they believed they were meant to die.

Judges of the underworld
Minos, Rhadamanthus, and Aeacus are the judges of the dead. They judged the deeds of the deceased and created the laws that governed the underworld.Aeacus was the guardian of the Keys of the underworld and the judge of the men of Europe. Rhadamanthus was Lord of Elysium and judge of the men of Asia. Minos was the judge of the final vote.

Charon
Charon is the ferryman who, after receiving a soul from Hermes, would guide them across the rivers Styx and/or Acheron to the underworld. At funerals, the deceased traditionally had an obol placed over their eye or under their tongue, so they could pay Charon to take them across. If not, they were said to fly at the shores for one hundred years, until they were allowed to cross the river. To the Etruscans, Charon was considered a fearsome being – he wielded a hammer and was hook-nosed, bearded, and had animalistic ears with teeth. In other early Greek depictions, Charon was considered merely an ugly bearded man with a conical hat and tunic. Later on, in more modern Greek folklore, he was considered more angelic, like the Archangel Michael. Nevertheless, Charon was considered a terrifying being since his duty was to bring these souls to the underworld and no one would persuade him to do otherwise.

Cerberus
Cerberus (Kerberos), or the "Hell-Hound", is Hades' massive multi-headed (usually three-headed) dog with some descriptions stating that it also has a snake-headed tail and snake heads on its back and as its mane. Born from Echidna and Typhon, Cerberus guards the gate that serves as the entrance of the underworld. Cerberus' duty is to prevent dead people from leaving the underworld.
Heracles once borrowed Cerberus as the final part of the Labours of Heracles. Orpheus once soothed it to sleep with his music.
According to the Suda, the ancient Greeks placed a honeycake (μελιτοῦττα) with the dead in order (for the dead) to give it to Cerberus.

Thanatos
Thanatos is the personification of death. Specifically, he represented non-violent death as contrasted with his sisters the Keres, the spirits of diseases and slaughter.

Hypnos
Hypnos is the personification of sleep and twin brother of Thanatos. His cave was described as impenetrable by the light of sun and moon alike; it was surrounded by poppies and other soporific plants. The river Lethe also flowed through the cave, and here its murmuring would induce drowsiness.

Melinoë
Melinoe is a chthonic nymph, daughter of Persephone, invoked in one of the Orphic Hymns and propitiated as a bringer of nightmares and madness. She may also be the figure named in a few inscriptions from Anatolia, and she appears on a bronze tablet in association with Persephone. The hymns, of uncertain date but probably composed in the 2nd or 3rd century AD, are liturgical texts for the mystery religion known as Orphism. In the hymn, Melinoë has characteristics that seem similar to Hecate and the Erinyes, and the name is sometimes thought to be an epithet of Hecate. The terms in which Melinoë is described are typical of moon goddesses in Greek poetry.

Nyx
Nyx is the goddess of the Night.  Nyx is the daughter of Chaos.

Tartarus
A deep abyss used as a dungeon of torment and suffering for the wicked and as the prison for the Titans, Tartarus was also considered to be a primordial deity.

Achlys
Achlys is the personification of misery and sadness.

Styx
Styx is the goddess of the river with the same name. Not much is known about her, but she is an ally of Zeus and lives in the underworld.

Eurynomos
Eurynomos is one of the daemons of the underworld, who eats off all the flesh of the corpses, leaving only their bones.

Zagreus
Zagreus was considered by some ancient authors as an underworld god.

The dead
In the Greek underworld, the souls of the dead still existed, but they are insubstantial, and flitted around the underworld with no sense of purpose. The dead within the Homeric underworld lack menos, or strength, and therefore they cannot influence those on earth. They also lack phrenes, or wit, and are heedless of what goes on around them and on the earth above them. Their lives in the underworld were very neutral, so all social statuses and political positions were eliminated and no one was able to use their previous lives to their advantage in the underworld.The idea of progress did not exist in the Greek underworld – at the moment of death, the psyche was frozen, in experience and appearance. The souls in the underworld did not age or really change in any sense. They did not lead any sort of active life in the underworld – they were exactly the same as they were in life. Therefore, those who had died in battle were eternally blood-spattered in the underworld and those who had died peacefully were able to remain that way.Overall, the Greek dead were considered to be irritable and unpleasant, but not dangerous or malevolent. They grew angry if they felt a hostile presence near their graves and drink offerings were given in order to appease them so as not to anger the dead. Mostly, blood offerings were given, because they needed the essence of life to become communicative and conscious again. This is shown in Homer's Odyssey, where Odysseus had to offer blood of sheep in order for the souls to interact with him. While in the underworld, the dead passed the time through simple pastimes such as playing games, as shown from objects found in tombs such as dice and game-boards. Grave gifts such as clothing, jewelry, and food were left by the living for use in the underworld as well, since many viewed these gifts to carry over into the underworld. There was not a general consensus as to whether the dead were able to consume food or not. Homer depicted the dead as unable to eat or drink unless they had been summoned; however, some reliefs portray the underworld as having many elaborate feasts. While not completely clear, it is implied that the dead could still have sexual intimacy with another, although no children were produced. The Greeks also showed belief in the possibility of marriage in the underworld, which in a sense implies the Greek underworld was little different from the world of the living.Lucian described the people of the underworld as simple skeletons. They are indistinguishable from each other, and it is impossible to tell who was wealthy or important in the living world. However, this view of the underworld was not universal – Homer depicts the dead keeping their familiar faces.
Hades itself was free from the concept of time. The dead are aware of both the past and the future, and in poems describing Greek heroes, the dead helped move the plot of the story by prophesying and telling truths unknown to the hero. The only way for humans to communicate with the dead was to suspend time and their normal life to reach Hades, the place beyond immediate perception and human time.

Greek attitudes
The Greeks had a definite belief that there was a journey to the afterlife or another world. They believed that death was not a complete end to life or human existence. The Greeks accepted the existence of the soul after death, but saw this afterlife as meaningless. In the underworld, the identity of a dead person still existed, but it had no strength or true influence. Rather, the continuation of the existence of the soul in the underworld was considered a remembrance of the fact that the dead person had existed, yet while the soul still existed, it was inactive. However, the price of death was considered a great one. Homer believed that the best possible existence for humans was to never be born at all, or die soon after birth, because the greatness of life could never balance the price of death. The Greek gods only rewarded heroes who were still living; heroes that died were ignored in the afterlife. However, it was considered very important to the Greeks to honor the dead and was seen as a type of piety. Those who did not respect the dead opened themselves to the punishment of the gods – for example, Odysseus ensured Ajax's burial, or the gods would be angered.

Myths and stories
Orpheus
Orpheus, a poet and musician that had almost supernatural abilities to move anyone to his music, descended to the underworld as a living mortal to retrieve his dead wife Eurydice after she was bitten by a poisonous snake on their wedding day. With his lyre-playing skills, he was able to put a spell on the guardians of the underworld and move them with his music. With his beautiful voice he was able to convince Hades and Persephone to allow him and his wife to return to the living. The rulers of the underworld agreed, but under one condition – Eurydice would have to follow behind Orpheus and he could not turn around to look at her. Once Orpheus reached the entrance, he turned around, longing to look at his beautiful wife, only to watch as his wife faded back into the underworld. He was forbidden to return to the underworld a second time and he spent his life playing his music to the birds and the mountains.

See also
Hades in Christianity
Passage 4:
Mark Lehner
Mark Lehner is an American archaeologist with more than 30 years of experience excavating in Egypt. He was born in North Dakota in 1950. His approach, as director of Ancient Egypt Research Associates (AERA), is to conduct interdisciplinary archaeological investigation. Every excavated object is examined by specialists to create an overall picture of an archaeological site—from the buildings down to the pollen spores. His international team currently runs the Giza Plateau Mapping Project, excavating and mapping the ancient city of the builders of the Giza pyramid complex, which dates to the fourth dynasty of Egypt. He discovered that Pyramid G1-a, one of the subsidiary pyramids of the Great Pyramid, belonged to Hetepheres I; it was originally thought to belong to Queen Meritites I.

Education and career
Lehner first went to Egypt as a student in the 1970s. Intrigued by the mysteries of the "Sleeping Prophet", Edgar Cayce, Lehner "found that [my] initial notions about the ancient civilization along the Nile could not stand up to the bedrock reality of the Giza Plateau". He turned to the scientific method of discovery in order to understand the culture better, returning some years later to complete a doctoral degree at Yale University. Lehner's 1991 dissertation was titled Archaeology of an image: The Great Sphinx of Giza.
Lehner's team has more recently included parts of Menkaure's valley temple and the town attached to the monument of Queen Khentkawes in their excavations. AERA's 2009 field season was recorded in a blog. AERA has conducted a number of archaeological field schools for Egyptian antiquities inspectors under the auspices of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. The AERA team has run basic and advanced courses at Giza, as well as courses in salvage archaeology along the Avenue of Sphinxes north of Luxor Temple in the city of Luxor.
Among his other work in Egypt, Lehner has produced the only known scale maps of the Giza Sphinx.
Lehner's book, "The Complete Pyramids" (1997), is an exhaustive catalogue of Egypt's many pyramid sites. He has appeared in many television programs about Ancient Egypt.  He is a visiting assistant professor of Egyptian archaeology at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.
Lehner took part in an American Association for the Advancement of Science debate centered around controversy surrounding the age of the Sphinx at Giza. [1]
Lehner has also starred and aided in the production of several documentaries about the pyramids which are regularly aired on the National Geographic Channel.
He has argued that the Giza Necropolis was built in a span of 85 years between 2589 and 2504 BC.

Television credits
Crew
Into the Great Pyramid (2002) (TV) (consultant: archaeology)
Mysteries of Egypt (1998) (scientific consultant)
Saving the Sphinx (1998) (TV) (historical consultant)

Appearances
Pyramides: Les Mystères Révélés (2019) (TV)
Secret History Of The Sphinx (2017) (TV)
Riddles of the Sphinx [2] (2010) (TV)
Heritage Key: Pyramid Builders (2009) (TV)
Into the Great Pyramid (2002) (TV)
Secrets of the Pharaohs: Lost City of the Pyramids (2001) (TV)
Saving the Sphinx (1998) (TV)
Egypt: Secrets of the Pharaohs (1997) (TV)
Mummies: Tales from the Egyptian Crypts (1996) (TV)
The Mystery of the Sphinx (1993) (TV)
This Old Pyramid (1992) (TV)
Mysteries of the Pyramids, LIVE (1988) (TV)

Books
The Egyptian Heritage: Based on the Edgar Cayce Readings, Virginia Beach: A.R.E. Press (1974). ISBN 0-87604-071-7
The Complete Pyramids, Slovenia: Thames and Hudson (1997). ISBN 0-500-05084-8
Passage 5:
Hapi (Son of Horus)
The four sons of Horus were a group of four deities in ancient Egyptian religion who were believed to protect deceased people in the afterlife. Beginning in the First Intermediate Period of Egyptian history (c. 2181–2055 BC), Imsety, Hapy, Duamutef, and Qebehsenuef were especially connected with the four canopic jars that housed the internal organs that were removed from the body of the deceased during the process of mummification. Most commonly, Imsety protected the liver, Hapy the lungs, Duamutef the stomach, and Qebehsenuef the intestines, but this pattern often varied. The canopic jars were given lids that represented the heads of the sons of Horus. Although they were originally portrayed as humans, in the latter part of the New Kingdom (c. 1550–1070 BC), they took on their most distinctive iconography, in which Imsety is portrayed as a human, Hapy as a baboon, Duamutef as a jackal, and Qebehsenuef as a falcon. The four sons were also linked with stars in the sky, with regions of Egypt, and with the cardinal directions.
The worship of the sons of Horus was almost entirely restricted to the funerary sphere. They were first mentioned late in the Old Kingdom (c. 2686–2181 BC) in the Pyramid Texts and continued to be invoked in funerary texts throughout ancient Egyptian history. Their connection with the canopic jars was established in the First Intermediate Period, and afterward they became ubiquitous in the decoration of canopic chests, coffins, and sarcophagi. Although they were increasingly closely associated with the internal organs, they continued to appear in burial equipment even after the use of canopic jars was abandoned in the Ptolemaic Period (303–30 BC), disappearing only in the fourth century AD with the extinction of the ancient Egyptian funerary tradition.

Names and origins
Imsety (jmstj), Hapy (ḥpy), Duamutef (dwꜣ-mwt.f), and Qebehsenuef (qbḥ-snw.f) are first mentioned in the Pyramid Texts, the earliest ancient Egyptian funerary texts, in the late Old Kingdom (24th and 23rd centuries BC). In numerous sources, such as Spell 541 of the Pyramid Texts, they are stated to be the children of Horus, one of the major deities of the Egyptian pantheon. In a few of these texts they are instead called the children of the god Atum, the god Geb, or the goddess Nut. A passage in the Coffin Texts from the Middle Kingdom (c. 2055–1650 BC) says they are the offspring of the goddess Isis and a form of Horus known as Horus the Elder.In the Pyramid Texts, the sons of Horus are said to assist the deceased king in the afterlife. In Spell 688, for example, they "make firm a ladder" for the king to ascend into the sky, while in Spell 338 they protect him from hunger and thirst. Egyptologists often treat the protection of the deceased as their primary role, though Maarten Raven argues that the four sons originated as celestial deities, given that the Pyramid Texts frequently connect them with the sky and that Horus himself was a sky deity.The name of Duamutef means "He who praises his mother", while Qebehsenuef means "He who purifies his brother by means of libation". The Egyptologist James P. Allen translates Hapy's name as "He of Haste" and Imsety as "He of the Dill"; another Egyptologist, Joshua Roberson, believes Imsety originated as a personification of this herb. Imsety's name also resembled the Egyptian word for "liver" (mjst), which may be the reason why he became specifically linked with the liver.The name of Imsety incorporates the Egyptian grammatical dual ending (-ty or -wy), and the name of Hapy may have originally done so as well, incorporating a w that was later lost. For this reason, the Egyptologist John Taylor argues that these two sons were originally two male and female pairs of deities.

Roles
Protectors of the deceased
Texts from later periods continue to invoke the sons of Horus for protection in the afterlife as the Pyramid Texts do. In many texts they were said to protect Osiris, the funerary deity whose mythological death and resurrection served as the template for ancient Egyptian funerary practices. Some texts even refer to them as the sons of Osiris rather than Horus. In a Middle Kingdom ritual, recorded in the Dramatic Ramesseum Papyrus, the sons of Horus aid Osiris in his rejuvenation after death, fight the followers of his enemy Set, and restore the lost Eye of Horus to their father. Spell 137 of the Book of the Dead from the New Kingdom (c. 1550–1070 BC) says to them, "as you spread your protection over your father Osiris-Khentiamentiu, so spread your protection over [the deceased person]". In the tenth section of the New Kingdom Book of Gates, a funerary text that depicts the underworld in detail, the four sons are portrayed holding chains that bind the malign beings called "wmmtj-snakes".The four sons developed a specialized connection with the internal organs of the deceased. During the mummification process, four internal organs—the lungs, liver, stomach, and intestines—were removed from the body and dried before being placed in the burial, usually separately from the body. In the late Old Kingdom, these organs began to be placed in a set of jars known as canopic jars, and during the First Intermediate Period (c. 2181–2055 BC), the jars began to be inscribed with texts invoking the sons of Horus. No text specifies which of the sons protect which organ. Burials in which the jars and organs survive show that the most common arrangement was for Imsety to guard the liver, Hapy the lungs, Duamutef the stomach, and Qebehsenuef the intestines, but many variations are known. For instance, in some cases Hapy protected the stomach and Duamutef the lungs.The sons of Horus themselves were thought to be under the protection of four goddesses, usually Isis for Imsety, Nephthys for Hapy, Neith for Duamutef, and Serqet for Qebehsenuef. In the Middle Kingdom, this scheme could vary and sometimes included different goddesses, so that Sendjet guarded Duamutef and Renenutet guarded Qebehsenuef. In some inscriptions from Middle Kingdom coffins, the goddesses are invoked to protect the son of Horus "who is in you [the deceased]", suggesting that the sons were equated with the internal organs as well as being their protectors.

Directions and regions of the cosmos
The sons of Horus were also connected with the sky or parts of the cosmos as the Egyptians envisioned it. In the New Kingdom, they were sometimes thought of as stars in the northern sky or as birds flying to the four corners of the world. Bernard Mathieu suggests that they were equated with the four stars at the corners of the constellation Orion (Saiph, Betelgeuse, Bellatrix, and Rigel) and with four of the stars in Ursa Major (Megrez, Phecda, Merak, and Dubhe).Several Egyptologists have suggested that the four sons were equated with the four pillars that supported the vault of the sky in Egyptian cosmology. They were also connected with regions of Egypt: they were sometimes equated with the Souls of Nekhen and Pe, a set of deities that represented the Predynastic rulers of Upper in the south and Lower Egypt in the north. Hapy and Duamutef were linked with the Lower Egyptian city of Buto, and Imsety and Qebehsenuef with the Upper Egyptian city of Nekhen.Egyptian beliefs drew analogies between the human body and the cosmos, and these analogies were particularly visible in burial customs. In Middle Kingdom burials, bodies were laid out with the head to the north and the feet to the south. The texts that decorated coffins in this period placed some deities in consistent locations, thus linking them with particular directions. Imsety and Hapy were invoked at the head of the coffin, with Imsety on the left and Hapy on the right, thus placing Imsety in the northeast and Hapy in the northwest. Duamutef and Qebehsenuef were invoked at the foot of the coffin, with Duamutef on the left and Qebehsenuef on the right, thus placing Duamutef in the southeast and Qebehsenuef in the southwest. Canopic chests of the time placed each deity in equivalent positions. These orientations suggest that the sons of Horus were linked with the four corners of the Egyptian cosmos. Their orientation may be related to the positions of each organ: the lungs and liver sit higher in the body, thus fitting the northerly position of Imsety and Hapy, while the stomach and intestines are lower down, matching the southerly position of Duamutef and Qebehsenuef.The sons' positions shifted in the New Kingdom, when burials came to be laid out with the head to the west and the feet in the east. On some coffins, Imsety and Hapy remained at the head and Duamutef and Qebehsenuef at the foot, but in each pair, the deity who had been on the left side was moved to the right, and vice versa. In other cases, each of the sons of Horus appeared on a side wall of the coffin or canopic chest: Imsety in the south, Hapy in the north, Duamutef in the east, and Qebehsenuef in the west. The latter placement, with the sons of Horus on four sides rather than four corners, links the four deities with the cardinal directions rather than the corners of the cosmos. The coexistence of the two systems of orientation suggests that the Egyptians did not sharply distinguish the four corners from the four directions.

Iconography
The lids of canopic jars began to be sculpted in the shape of heads at the end of the First Intermediate Period, at the same time that the jars' inscriptions began to invoke the sons of Horus. These lids are therefore probably meant to represent the four sons rather than the organs' deceased owner. In some of the earliest examples, the lids have falcon heads, but in the Middle Kingdom, human heads became the norm. In some of these cases, Imsety, unlike the others, is portrayed as a woman.In the Eighteenth Dynasty (c. 1550–1292 BC), a few canopic jars were given varying heads: Imsety was portrayed as a man, Hapy as a baboon, Duamutef as a jackal and Qebehsenuef as a falcon. This iconography became standard during the reign of Ramesses II in the thirteenth century BC and remained so for the rest of ancient Egyptian history, although in the Third Intermediate Period the animal forms were frequently confused. For instance, Duamutef was often portrayed as a falcon and Qebehsenuef as a jackal.
In addition to the jars themselves, the four sons were often portrayed on the canopic chests that housed the jars, as well as on coffins and other burial equipment. In the vignette that accompanies Spell 125 of the Book of the Dead, they appear as small figures standing on a lotus flower in front of the throne of Osiris. In an exceptional portrayal, in the wall decoration in WV23 the tomb of Ay from the late Eighteenth Dynasty, the four sons are portrayed as fully human, with Imsety and Hapy wearing the red crown of Lower Egypt and Duamutef and Qebehsenuef wearing the white crown of Upper Egypt.

Worship
The four sons did not receive the regular cultic worship that major Egyptian deities did, and they appeared exclusively in funerary contexts.  They play a minor role in the ritual from the Dramatic Ramesseum Papyrus, whose purpose is uncertain but has commonalities with funerary rites, but they were found most commonly in the tomb itself. From the Middle Kingdom onward, they were almost always portrayed or invoked in the decoration of coffins, sarcophagi, and canopic equipment. During the late New Kingdom, jars that contained shabtis, a common type of funerary figurine, were given lids shaped like the heads of the sons of Horus, similar to the lids of canopic jars.In the Twentieth Dynasty of the New Kingdom (1189–1077 BC), embalmers began placing wax figurines of the sons of Horus inside the body cavity. Soon afterward, at the beginning of the Third Intermediate Period, Egyptians ceased to store organs in canopic jars and instead embalmed each organ separately, wrapping them together with the corresponding wax figurines and returning them to the body cavity. Wealthy burials continued to include canopic jars with no organs inside. Toward the end of this period, the four sons were also portrayed in faience amulets attached to the exterior wrappings of the mummy. During this period, the decoration of human-shaped coffins placed the four sons near the abdomen of the mummy rather than distributing them around the coffin, a sign that their connection with the internal organs was overshadowing their other roles.The use of canopic jars ceased in the early Ptolemaic Period (303–30 BC), and the use of canopic chests died out in the middle of that period. Yet in Ptolemaic and Roman times, the sons of Horus continued to appear on other burial goods, such as decorated stucco casings on wrapped mummies. A set of instructions for the embalming process, dating to the first or second century AD, calls for four officiants to take on the role of the sons of Horus as the deceased person's hand is wrapped. The last references to the sons of Horus in burial goods date to the fourth century AD, near the end of the ancient Egyptian funerary tradition.

Citations
Works cited
External links
 Media related to Four sons of Horus at Wikimedia Commons

Answer: ancient Egyptian religion