The Emergence of the Osiris Cult in the Italian Peninsula and Its Main Features: A Reassessment

Abstract

In the Roman period, the cult of Osiris, together with other Egyptian deities, reached the Italian peninsula through the sea trade. Here, his watery nature was especially stressed. Following ancient Egyptian beliefs, Osiris was identified with the yearly flooding of the Nile, which renewed nature and fertilized the fields, and was used in lustration rituals to bring the dead to life as well as to satiate the deceased’s thirst. Since Osiris was embodied in this vital fluid, he was perceived as a bearer of life. Far from aiming to collect all the evidence of the cult of Osiris found in the Italian peninsula, the goal of this work is to provide an overview of which forms of Osiris were mainly worshipped there, and what role he held in funerary contexts and beyond, through the analysis of some of the most relevant sources related to his cult and the examinations of the contexts in which he was worshipped.