It was probably the ritual counterpart of the mythical
discovery of the body of Osiris enclosed in the _erica_-tree. In the
hall of Osiris at Denderah the coffin containing the hawk-headed
mummy of the god is clearly depicted as enclosed within a tree,
apparently a conifer, the trunk and branches of which are seen above
and below the coffin. The scene thus corresponds closely both to the
myth and to the ceremony described by Firmicus Maternus.
It accords with the character of Osiris as a tree-spirit that his
worshippers were forbidden to injure fruit-trees, and with his
character as a god of vegetation in general that they were not
allowed to stop up wells of water, which are so important for the
irrigation of hot southern lands. According to one legend, he taught
men to train the vine to poles, to prune its superfluous foliage,
and to extract the juice of the grape. In the papyrus of Nebseni,
written about 1550 B.C., Osiris is depicted sitting in a shrine,
from the roof of which hang clusters of grapes; and in the papyrus
of the royal scribe Nekht we see the god enthroned in front of a
pool, from the banks of which a luxuriant vine, with many bunches of
grapes, grows towards the green face of the seated deity.
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