Statue of Osiris
Unknown · Ptolemaic period, 332-30 BC
Osiris stands almost life size, wrapped tightly in his shroud with only the hands emerging to grip the crook and the flail, the two emblems of kingship over the dead. On his head sits the atef crown, a tall white cone flanked by two ostrich plumes, with a cobra rearing at the brow. Traces of gold leaf still cling to the face and crown. Come close to the eyes: they are inlaid with white Egyptian alabaster and black glass, and their fixed gaze gives the figure its quiet authority.
The style points to the Ptolemaic period, the three centuries when Greek kings ruled Egypt but temples went on honouring the old gods in the old manner. Osiris, murdered by his brother Seth and brought back to life by Isis, was the god every Egyptian hoped to become after death, which is why the Louvre gathers his images in this crypt. The statue came to Paris in 1852 with the collection of Antoine Clot, the French doctor known in Egypt as Clot Bey. One detail is modern: the false beard was fitted in 1979, when the crypt was first installed.
Did You Know? The beard is not ancient at all: it was added in 1979 when the crypt was arranged so that the god would look complete to visitors.
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