Considerable diversity of opinion existed among the ancients themselves as to the meaning of the myth of Osiris. He represented, according to Plutarch, the in- undation of the Nile; Isis, the irrigated land; Horus, the vapors; Buto, the marshes; Nephthys, the edge of the desert; Anubis, the barren soil; Typhon was the sea ; the consjiirators, the drought ; the chest, the river's banks. The Tanaitic branch was the one which over- flowed unprofitably; the twenty-eight years, the num- ber of cubits which the Nile rose at Elephantine ; Har- pocrates, the first shootings of the corn. Such are the naturalistic interpretations of Plutarch ; but there ap- pears in tlie myth the dualistic principle of good and evil, represented by Osiris and Set or Typhon, or again paralleled by the contest of Ra or the Sun. and Apophis or Darkness. The difliculty of interpretation was in- creased from the form of Osiris having become blended or identified with that of other deifies, especially Ptah- Socharis, the pigmy of JFemphis, and the bull Hapis or Apis, the avatar of I'tah. Osiris was the head of a
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tetrad of deities, whose local worship was at Abydos, but who were the last repetition of the gods of the other nomes of Egypt, and who had assumed a heroic or mortal type. In form, Osiris is alwaj-s represented swathed or mummied, in allusion to his embalmment ; a net- work, suggestive of tlie net by which his remains were fished out of the Nile, covers this dress; on his head he Avears the cap <itf, having at each side the feather of truth, of which he was the lord. This is placed on the horns of a goat. His hands hold the crook and whip, to indicate his governing and directing power; and his feet are based on the cubit of truth; a panther's skin on a pole is often placed before him, and festoons of grapes hang over his shrine, connecting him with Dionysus. As the "good being," or Oiniophris the meek-hearted, the celestial or king of heaven, he wears the white or u|iper crown. Anotiier and rarer tj^pe of him represents him as the Tat, or emblem of stabilitj', wearing the crown of the two Truths upon his head. His worship, at a later time, was extended over Asia Minor, Greece, and liome, and at an early age had penetrated into Phoenicia, traces of it being found on the coins of Malta and other places. He became introduced along with the Isiac worship into Eome, and had votaries under the Roman empire. But the attacks of the philosophers, and the rise of Christianity, overthrew these exotic dei- ties, who v/ere never popular with the more cultivated portion of the Roman world. See Prichard, Mytholor/y, p. 208; Wilkinson, Man. and Cast, iv, 314; Bunsen, E(/i/pCs Place, i, 414.
Oski, Reuben (also called Iluschke), a rabbi at Prague, where he died in 1G73, is the author of w^p?|^ ''SniXI, a manual for preachers, containing in alpha- betical order certain loci communes, compiled from dif- ferent authors, of which only the first part has been published (Prague, IGOO; Hamburg, ITTi), while the second part is yet in MS. in the Oppenheimeriana : — binsr; "^laiX") Ulp^^ a Cabalistic Alidrash on the Pentateuch, with large extracts from the Mekiltha, Pesikta, Zohar, and other Cabalistic works (Wilmers- dorf, 1G81; Amsterd. 1700; Lemberg, 18G0; Amsterd. 1870, fol.) ; which however must be distinguished from the a^ipb^ of R.Simeon Cara (q.v.):— il'^npn';; -I3'l, an introduction to the subject of asceticism (Sulzbach, 1G84) : — and nS",^ 53S', Cabalistic observations on the ritual for the Sabbath. See Fiirst, Bibl. Jud. i, 412 sq. ; De Rossi, Dizionctrio storico degli aulori Ebrei, p. 254 (Germ, transl. by Hamburger) ; Etheridge, Inti-o- duction to Heb. Literature, p. 419 ; Zunz, Zur Geschichte u. Literatur, p. 402 ; Steinschneider, Jewish Literature, p. 223. (B. P.)
Osmond or Osmund, St., an English prelate of the 11th century, was son of the count of Seez, in Nor- mandy. He succeeded his father, and gave most of his goods to the clergy. In 10G6 he followed William the Conqueror to England, and received from him the county of Dorset antl the charge of lord chancellor. The king, judging him better fitted for the Church than for the management of temporal affairs, made him bishop of Salisbury about 1078. He died Dec. 3, 1099, and was canonized by pope Calixtus III in 1458. In order to render the manner in which divine service was conducted more uniform, he wrote a treatise of ecclesiastical forms, named sometimes Liber ordinalis, sometimes Consuetudinarium ecclesim, or again Horarim preces. This work, with some slight alterations, re- mained in use until the time of Henry VIII; was one of the most popular manuals for public devotion with the English clergy, and has principally contributed to hand down Osmond's name to posterity. See tlist. litter, de la France; Butler, Lives of the Saints; Inett, /list. Kn;/l. Ch. I, xv, 4, n. 4 ; Churton, Earhj Engl. Ch. p. 291 ; Iloefer, Nouv. Biof). Gmercde, xxxviii, 907; Hook, Kccles. Biogr. s. v. ; Wright, Biog. Brit. Lit. (Anglo- Norman period) ; Collier, Eccles. Hist, (see Index in
vol. viii); Allibone, Diet, of Brit, and Amer, Authors, s. v.
Osorio, Francisco Meneees, a Spanish painter, was born at Seville in the latter part of the 17th cen- tury. He studied under Murillo, and became one of tlie most successful imitators of that artist. In concert with Juan Garzon, one of his fellow-disciples, he paint- ed several pictures in the churches and convents of Seville. In 1G88 Osorio was chosen major-domo of the academy of that city, to which he presented his picture of the Conception, which was greatly admired. At the death of Murillo, in 1G85, he was employed to finish the works at Cadiz left incomplete by that mas- ter. He copied the works of Murillo to perfection, particularly his pictures of children. Among his own works are, Elijah Fed in the Desert, in the church of San Martino at Madrid, and the picture of St. Catha- rine, in the Capuchin monastery at Cadiz — his finest production. Osorio died at Seville about 1700. See Spooner, Biog. IJist. of the, Fine A 7-ts, vol. ii, s. v.