The Coffin That Fit Too Well
Part of Rubedo, an ongoing project on philosophy, psychology, and symbolism.
In the rich mythology of Ancient Egypt there is a myth that, at first glance, looks like a classic story of betrayal: the death of Osiris and his resurrection as king of the underworld. Briefly summarized, in this myth the spirit of the Nile, the embodiment of fertility and order, the just King Osiris, is deceived by his brother Set, god of the desert, of disorder and storms. Set traps him inside a coffin and casts it into the Nile.
The coffin eventually reaches the Phoenician city of Byblos, where a tamarisk tree grows up around it. The king of the city has the tree felled and uses it as a pillar in his palace. Osiris's wife and sister, the masterful sorceress goddess Isis, manages through her skill to retrieve Osiris's coffin and bring it back to Egypt. When Set learns of this, he cuts Osiris's body into fourteen pieces. Isis sets out with her sister Nephthys, who represents the night, to search for the pieces of Osiris's body. Though they manage to find most of them, one is missing: the phallus, that is, the generative power, has been swallowed by fish.
Using her power of magic, Isis brings Osiris back to life, but because one piece is missing, his return is only temporary. In this brief span Isis conceives Horus, and Horus, embodying the rising sun, defeats his uncle, avenges his father, and restores order. In a world seized by chaos under Set's darkness, order, that is "Ma'at," is reestablished under Horus's rule. Osiris, meanwhile, continues to live on in the realm of the dead as king of the underworld called "Du'at."
Looking more closely at the story, the coffin in which Osiris is shut turns out to be an interesting motif. At a feast he arranges, Set displays a magnificent coffin and announces that whoever fits it exactly will receive it as a gift. But in truth the coffin has been built precisely to Osiris's measurements. Once Osiris lies down inside it, Set, with the help of his men, shuts the lid, seals it with lead, and throws the coffin into the Nile.
As the symbol of chaos and disorder, Set stands for our own ambitions, for what remains "in shadow," that is, for the destructive tendencies we carry without being aware of them. It is no accident, either, that Set is Osiris's brother: what unfolds here is essentially playing out on the stage of our own selfhood. Given this, what should we make of the ornate coffin that Osiris climbs into so willingly?
This coffin, fitted exactly to Osiris's body and leading him to his ruin, can be read as the "persona," as Carl G. Jung described it. The persona is the cloak we identify ourselves with in the outer world, in social life, on the stage of the world. The more we identify ourselves with this cloak, the more our relationship with our being as a whole loses its balance in equal measure: we become fragmented among our roles, our desires, our responsibilities.
The titles, professions, or achievements we cling to and identify ourselves with can be an ornate coffin that our own ambitions, the very thing Set symbolizes, invite us into. Put differently, the story of Osiris is, in truth, the story of all of us.
In the end, Osiris is delivered from the disaster that has befallen him with Isis's help: his limbs come together through the unifying power of the life principle. This is eros, the encompassing, unifying, healing principle set against logos, that is, against reason, analysis, the principle that separates and divides.
Finally, in Ancient Egypt's Book of the Dead, those who die in this world and open their eyes in the new one are likewise called Osiris. Many magical words and charms were placed in tombs so that, after the fragmentation death brings, the deceased could become whole again in their new life. So, to underline it once more, the story of Osiris is, in truth, the story of all of us.
In hopes that you will remember.
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