The course of the ceremonies is attested by various written sources, but the most important document is the Ritual of the Mysteries of Osiris in the Month of Khoiak, a compilation of Middle Kingdom texts engraved during the Ptolemaic period in an upper chapel of the Temple of Dendera.

Each of the ingredients used to make the figurines (barley, earth, water, dates, minerals, herbs) is highly symbolic, relating to the main cosmic cycles (solar revolution, lunar phases, Nile flood, germination).

In the 1960s, the Egyptology community brought several major texts to the attention of the general public: firstly, Émile Chassinat's translation into French of the Rituel des mystères d'Osiris au mois de Khoiak, a compilation of Tentyrite inscriptions (this work dates back to the 1940s but was only published posthumously in 1966 and 1968, in two volumes, by the Institut français d'archéologie orientale-IFAO);[10] then the major publications of Papyrus N.3176 by Paul Barguet in 1962,[11] Papyrus Salt 825 by Philippe Derchain in 1964-1965[12] and the Cérémonial de glorification (Louvre I.3079) by Jean-Claude Goyon in 1967.

In Alexandria and Greece, in a syncretic interpretation, it is probable that the Osirian rituals merged with the Greek mysteries, such as those of Eleusis where young applicants were psychologically tested during nocturnal ceremonies, before receiving a revelation about the world divine.

Every year, during the month of Khoiak, in the city of Abydos, celebrations were held during which the statue of Osiris was carried in procession, out of his temple, to the Osirisirian tomb of Ro-Peker, probably located in the burial area known by the modern name of Umm El Qa'ab.

[30] From the Middle Kingdom, the idea emerged among the ancient Egyptians that the religious festival was a sacred period during which the ancestors could “return to daylight” ( peret em herou ) from the underground world of the dead in order to participate in the celebrations.

The highlight of this mystical event is the procession of a statue of Osiris in a portable boat from his temple at Abydos to the sacred mound of Ro-Peqer (the mythical tomb of the god), located less than two kilometers to the south of the holy city.

I followed the god into his house, made him purify himself and return to his throne..." —Translation by Claire Lalouette,[34] Stele of Ikhernofret (extract).The festivities take place in the form of a succession of processions, each of them recalling an episode from the Osirian myth.

A high character playing the role of the canine god Wepwawet, the “Opener of Paths”, comes to save his father Osiris by driving away the attackers and performing the rites of mummification on the statue.

[39] At the beginning of the 2nd century, the Greek Plutarch reported an Egyptian tradition which placed the institution of the “Mysteries of Osiris” in the mythical times of the divinities: When [Isis] had stifled the madness of Typhon and put an end to his rage, she did not want so many fights and so many struggles sustained by her, so many wandering races, so many strokes of wisdom and courage remained buried in silence and oblivion.

[45] The Jumilhac Papyrus (Ptolemaic period), which reports traditions limited to the Cynopolitan region (17th and 18th nomes of Upper Egypt), presents two divergent lists of twelve and fourteen relics found across the country thanks to the efforts of Anubis.

Translation of Mario Meunier[48]According to the historian Diodorus Sicily(1st century),[49] the goddess Isis developed a ruse to deceive the priests in order to encourage them to celebrate the memory of Osiris.

Put together, the Seker statuette thus takes the form of a mummy with a human head wearing a nemes, with a uraeus on the forehead, and holding in its two hands the crozier and the whip crossed on the chest (Book III, 32- 33).

[71] In 1952, the German Egyptologist Günther Roeder proposed comparing the garden vat (hezepet), where germination takes place, to the figurines of the “sacred domain” (hezep) of Abydos where flowers, vines and vegetables grew dedicated to Osiris.

[75][76]Located in the ancient 19th century of Upper Egypt, the city of Oxyrhynchus (Oxyrhynchos) (in Egyptian Per-Madjaj, in Coptic Pemdjé, in Arabic El-Bahnasa ) is rich in remains dating from the Pharaonic and Greco-Roman eras .

This chest is transported in a small sacred boat 183 cm long provided with four stretchers to allow it to be carried in the arms of men (Book V, 82-83):[91]“At the Opening of the sanctuary, he goes out with guardian Anubis […] the sixteenth and twenty-fourth Khoiak.

In a room of the temple, the mold of the Seker filled with its sacred paste rests on a golden funeral bed measuring one cubit two palms in length (67 cm ), the head turned towards the north.

The text of the Ritual of the Mysteries does not expressly mention it, but it is possible that this navigation aims to reenact the funeral procession of Osiris through the presence on a boat of the plant figurine of the Khentymentyou; the passage over the water marks the god's entry into the world of the deceased.

She is then placed on sycamore branches in a portable boat where she remains until the thirtieth of the month awaiting her final burial in the sacred necropolis ( Ritual of the Mysteries, Book VI, 128):[106]“Remove the divine effigy from the previous year.

Anubis plays a leading role as a mummifier and Thoth as a ritualistic priest guaranteeing the proper conduct of the ceremonies intended to vivify the soul of Osiris: “[…] when this disaster occurred for the first time, a holy place was built for you in Bousiris for your mummification and to make your smell pleasant.

Until the dawn of the twenty-sixth Khoiak, the living made onion necklaces in the necropolis which they then tied around their necks as well as braids with handles in order to be able to transport them to the sanctuaries dedicated to the god Seker .

[Note 24] Indeed, at Abydos, the decorative program of thefuneral temple of Seti I seems rather to suggest the existence of two independent ceremonies during Khoiak, one dedicated to Seker, the other to Osiris, each comprising its own procession departing from the same religious building, but from different interior chapels.

At dawn on the thirtieth Khoiak, a large Djed pillar is erected on a pedestal by the pharaoh himself, either alone or assisted by priests; the ruler playing the role of Horus, son and heir of Osiris as well as triumphant over Set, the god's murderer.

During the month of Khoiak, when the priests water the barley of the “Osiris-vegants” or when they mix the various ingredients intended to form the dough of the Sokar, a long and complex process takes place, a Great Work,[Note 26] assimilated to the gestation of the god Osiris in the womb of his mother Nut .

Your festivals will last without end and eternally, your rites will be fixed forever, Osiris […] your beautiful face is pleased with your son whom you love, the king of Upper and Lower Egypt, master of the Two lands.

[133]During the rites of the month of Khoiak, the rebirth of Osiris is celebrated through plant growth by germinating barley grains which have previously been mixed with earth placed in a gold mummiform mold (Khentymentyou figurine ) .

According to certain religious monographs, such as the Papyrus Jumilhac, each provincial temple has established close links between its relic and the mythical history of the province concerned (Abydos with the head, Philæ with the left leg, Mendes with the phallus, etc...).

The Egyptians were reluctant to talk about the disappearance of the Moon, but it appears that this phenomenon was perceived, among other things, as an injury inflicted by Seth to one of Horus eyes by throwing garbage in his face ( gloss of chapter 17 of the Book of the Dead ).

[168] Book V of the Ritual of the Mysteries of Dendera indicates that the fourteen utensils represent the head, the feet, the arm, the heart, the chest, the thigh, the eye, the fist, the finger, the phallus, the spine, the two ears, the nape of the neck and the two legs.

After finding the members, the king indicates that he took them to Dendera in order to reconstruct the body in the chapels of Osiréion:[170] "I go south, I go north, I go east, I'm heading west to search for my father's divine relics.