A general visual of how, Egyptian mythology, namely: Heliopolis creation myth (2800BC) turned Hermopolis creation myth (2400) turned Theban creation myth (2050BC), became Greek mythology (800BC), wherein Shu, the Egyptian god who separates Geb (earth) from Nut (heaven), becomes the Greek Atlas, who holds up the heavens, Amen-Ra became Zeus, Osiris became Dionysus, and Set became Typhon, to name a few (see: god character equivalences). |
“They say that the sun and moon do not use chariots, but boats in which to sail round in their courses; and by this they intimate that the nourishment and origin of these heavenly bodies is from moisture. They think also that Homer, like Thales, had gained his knowledge from the Egyptians, when he postulated water as the source and origin of all things; for, according to them, Oceanus is Osiris, and Tethys is Isis, since she is the kindly nurse and provider for all things. In fact, the Greeks call emission apousia and coition synousia, and the son (hyios) from water (hydor) and rain (hysai); Dionysus also they call Hyes since he is lord of the nature of moisture; and he is no other than Osiris. In fact, Hellanicus seems to have heard Osiris pronounced ‘Hysiris’ by the priests, for he regularly spells the name in this way, deriving it, in all probability, from the nature of Osiris and the ceremony of finding him.”— Plutarch (100AD), On Isis and Osiris (§34)
“When Orpheus visited Egypt in search of wisdom and knowledge, he was initiated into the mysteries of Osiris/Dionysus, but wanting to make the Thebans of Greece happy, he changed the place of Dionysus’ birth to Hellenic Thebes and then initiate the Thebans in the mysteries.”
“Ethiopians inhabit the country immediately above Elephantine, and one half of the island; the other half is inhabited by Egyptians. Meroe is said to be the capital of all Ethiopia. The inhabitants worship no other gods than Jupiter and Bacchus; but these they honor with great magnificence; they have also an oracle of Jupiter; and they make war, whenever that god bids them by an oracular warning, and against whatever country he bids them. All those who have a temple erected to Theban Jupiter, or belong to the Theban district, abstain from sheep, and sacrifice goats only. For the Egyptians do not all worship the same gods in the same manner, except Isis and Osiris, who, they say, is Bacchus; but these deities they all worship in the same manner.”
“The initiatory rites of Demeter in Eleusis were transferred from Egypt (1.29.2). The rite of Osiris is the same as that of Dionysus and that of Isis very similar to that of Demeter; the names alone having been interchanged, and the punishments in Hades of the unrighteous, the Fields of the Righteous and the fantastic conceptions, current among the many - all these were introduced by Orpheus in imitation of the Egyptian funeral customs. (1.96.4-5). Isis, after having invented the practice of medicine, taught this art to her son Orus [Horus], named also Apollo, who was the last of the gods that reigned in Egypt.”
“The histories on which the most solemn feasts of Bacchus, the Titania and Nuktelia, are founded, exactly correspond with what are related of the cutting to pieces of Osiris, of his rising again, and of his new life.”
“The trumpets they conceal in Bacchic wands (see: Thyrsus), as Socrates has stated in his treatise on The Holy Ones. Furthermore, the tales regarding the Titans and the rites celebrated by night agree with the accounts of the dismemberment of Osiris and his revivification and regenesis.”— Plutarch (100AD), On Isis and Osiris (§35)
“A tradition says Solon (638-558), Thales, and Plato all visited the great college at Heliopolis, and that the last-named actually studied there, and that Manetho (c.300-250BC), the priest of Sebennytus, who wrote a history of Egypt in Greek for Ptolemy II., collected his materials in the library of the priesthood of Ra.”
— Wallis Budge (1904), The Gods of the Egyptians [1]
“Interesting to note the parallels to certain Greek myths. Ra foresees that the children of Nut will overtake him, and taking steps to prevent them from doing so, just as Uranus and Cronus foresaw and attempted to prevent their own overthrow by their own children. Even more strikingly, Isis goes on a search for her lost husband, goes to work for a noble family in disguise, and attempts to make their child immortal by burning their mortal flesh away, before being interrupted by the child's mother, and growing wrathful. This is markedly similar to one version of the myth of Demeter and Persephone, in which Demeter, after searching for her lost daughter for several days, comes across a town, where she takes up a disguise, goes to work for a noble family, grows fond of their child, and tries to make the child immortal by burning away his mortal flesh, before being interrupted by the mother, and placing a curse on the town in vengeance. I wonder... did the Greeks borrow this myth from the Egyptian, do both stem from some older myth, or are the similarities somehow just coincidental?”— Erudito otidurE (2018), thread comment on Osiris Myth Animated [2]