The Osirian mysteries consisted in a scenic representation of the murder of Osiris by Typhon the subsequent recovery of his mutilated body by Isis, and his deification, or restoration to immortal life. Julius Firmicus, in his treaties On the Falsity of the Pagan Religions, thus describes the object of the Osirian mysteries: "But i those funerals and lamentations which are annually celebrated in honor of Osiris, the defenders of the Pagan rites pretend a physical reason. They call the seeds of fruit, Osiris; the earth, Isis; the natural heat, Typhon; and because the fruits are ripened by the natural heat and collected for the life of man, and are separated from their natural tie to earth, and are sown again when winter approaches, this they consider the death of Osiris; but when the fruits, by the genial fostering of the earth, begin again to be generated by a new procreation, this is the is the finding of Osiris." This explanation does not essentially differ from that already given in the article Egyptian Mysteries. The symbolism is indeed precisely the same - that of restoration or resurrection from death to life. See Egyptian Mysteries.
