Lactantius tells us how on these occasions the priests, with their
shaven bodies, beat their breasts and lamented, imitating the
sorrowful search of Isis for her lost son Osiris, and how afterwards
their sorrow was turned to joy when the jackal-headed god Anubis, or
rather a mummer in his stead, produced a small boy, the living
representative of the god who was lost and was found. Thus
Lactantius regarded Osiris as the son instead of the husband of
Isis, and he makes no mention of the image of vegetable mould. It is
probable that the boy who figured in the sacred drama played the
part, not of Osiris, but of his son Horus; but as the death and
resurrection of the god were celebrated in many cities of Egypt, it
is also possible that in some places the part of the god come to
life was played by a living actor instead of by an image. Another
Christian writer describes how the Egyptians, with shorn heads,
annually lamented over a buried idol of Osiris, smiting their
breasts, slashing their shoulders, ripping open their old wounds,
until, after several days of mourning, they professed to find the
mangled remains of the god, at which they rejoiced.
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