Osiris with his wife Isis

Osiris’ brother Seth envied his power and popularity and killed him by luring him into a coffin, which he sealed with lead. Seth set the coffin adrift in the Nile. It washed up in Lebanon and a mighty tree grew around it, which a king felled and put in his palace.

Osiris’ wife, Isis, could not rest until she had buried him properly. She tracked down his coffin and returned it to Egypt. Seth was so angry, he cut the body into pieces and scattered them across Egypt. But Isis found the pieces, made wax copies of them to be worshipped in a temple and, preserving Osiris’ body with linen bandages, she breathed life back into him.

He rose, and ruled as god of the underworld.