Circassian games, which were sacred to the Sun. (See F. Nork, Der
Mystagog, Leipzig.)

[2] This at any rate was reported by his later disciples (see
Robertson's Pagan Christs, p. 338).


Osiris was born (Plutarch tells us) on the 361st day of
the year, say the 27th December. He too, like Mithra and
Dionysus, was a great traveler. As King of Egypt he
taught men civil arts, and "tamed them by music and
gentleness, not by force of arms";[1] he was the discoverer
of corn and wine. But he was betrayed by Typhon, the
power of darkness, and slain and dismembered. "This happened,"
says Plutarch, "on the 17th of the month Athyr,
when the sun enters into the Scorpion" (the sign of the
Zodiac which indicates the oncoming of Winter). His body
was placed in a box, but afterwards, on the 19th, came again
to life, and, as in the cults of Mithra, Dionysus, Adonis and
others, so in the cult of Osiris, an image placed in a coffin
was brought out before the worshipers and saluted with
glad cries of "Osiris is risen."[1] "His sufferings, his death
and his resurrection were enacted year by year in a great
mystery-play at Abydos."[2]

[1] See Plutarch on Isis and Osiris.

[2] Ancient Art and Ritual, by Jane E. Harrison, chap. i.