Ono of the chief Egyptian gods,whose cult became important from the end of the old Kingdom onwards ( C.2100 B.C. ).The oldest texts mention Osiris  as ajust and wise King, teaching men to cultivate the land , to respect the laws, and to honour the gods. But his jealous brother Set prepared a trap for him by inviting him to a banquet, where he offered to give a treasure box that he had made to the guest who could fit inside it. All the guests tried, but only Osiris fitted it exactly. Scarcely had he laid down than Set closed and nailed down the lid and threw the box into the Nile . When Isis, his sister, heard of the crime she set out in search of the body of Osiris and finally discovered the box enclosed in the trunk of a sycamore tree in Byblos, where it had been washed ashore. The trunk had been made into a pillar by order of the king of  Byblos, and placed in the royal palace. Isis by magic powers persuaded the king to part with box, which she took back to Egypt, hiding it in the marshes of the Delta. Set, however, found the hiding-place, tore the body into 14 pieces and threw them into the river. Isis resumed her sorrowful search and found all the pieces of the corpse, burying each where she discovered it. Oiris was avenged by his son, Horus, who then ascended the throne of Egypt. Mean while Osiris had become king of the land of the dead, and it was in his capacity as a funerary deity that his cult became so popular. The site of the original cult was Busiris in the Delta, but from the end of the old kingdom on wards a chief centre of his cult was at abydos. As a king of the dead Osiris was represented as a mummy, seated on a throne, with a sceptre and a flail in his hands and wearing the crown  on his head. He judged the dead by weighing the soul of each individual against the feather of truth, and thus measured out punishment to every one. Besides his chief funerary role, Osiris was also the god of vegetation. This agrarian aspect of his nature was prominent in various cults, one of the most common rites in honour of Osiris consisted of moulding in earth a figure representing the god laid on his funeral bed and burying corn seed in it; this later germinated and covered the body of the god. Many examples of these effigies,called “beds of Osiris“, have been found.