The latter interpretation is supported by
the tale that Isis placed the severed limbs of Osiris on a
corn-sieve. Or more probably the legend may be a reminiscence of a
custom of slaying a human victim, perhaps a representative of the
corn-spirit, and distributing his flesh or scattering his ashes over
the fields to fertilise them. In modern Europe the figure of Death
is sometimes torn in pieces, and the fragments are then buried in
the ground to make the crops grow well, and in other parts of the
world human victims are treated in the same way. With regard to the
ancient Egyptians we have it on the authority of Manetho that they
used to burn red-haired men and scatter their ashes with winnowing
fans, and it is highly significant that this barbarous sacrifice was
offered by the kings at the grave of Osiris. We may conjecture that
the victims represented Osiris himself, who was annually slain,
dismembered, and buried in their persons that he might quicken the
seed in the earth.
Possibly in prehistoric times the kings themselves played the part
of the god and were slain and dismembered in that character.
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