Colour Symbolism. 1 5 5
Osiris was not only " Lord of Green Fields," but also the •" Opener of the ukhikh flower that is on the sycamore" and " Lord of overflowing wine." As " Lord of Life " (not as a " corn god ") he provided life substance to Egypt, to the gods, to living human beings and to the dead. The deceased says of himself :
" I am Osiris, I have come forth as thou (that is ' being thou '), I have entered as thou . . . the gods live as I, I live as the gods, I live as ' Grain,' I grow as ' Grain ' . . . I am barley." ^ Here Osiris enters into the god of grain and into grain itself — that is, the life-substance of Osiris enters into life- sustaining food. Before, however, Osiris, in this sense, became barley, he was the " new water " of the Nile. Rameses IV. recognised the aspect of the life-giving Osiris when he declared :
" Thou art indeed the Nile, great on the fields at the
beginning of the seasons ; gods and men live by the moisture
that is in thee.'" ^
This life-giving " moisture " was the green and red waters
from the Green and Red Niles. In Pyramid Text 589 the
identification of Osiris with the Green Nile is complete. It
reads :
" Horus comes ! He beholds his father in thee, renp-t (Greenness) in thy name oi Murenpu [Water of Greenness)." Osiris is, in other words, the Green One whose life- substance is in the Green Nile. It is the Green Nile which makes vegetation green. Vegetation is green, the Egyptians argued, because the life-substance of Osiris is green. Be- cause the Nile runs green the Mediterranean becomes the •" Green Sea." Thus the god is addressed in Pyramid Texts : " Thou art great, thou art green, in thy name of Great Green (sea) ; lo, thou art round as the Great Circle (Okeanos) ; lo, thou art turned about, thou art round as the circle that encircles the Haunebu (^Egeans)." ^ ^ Breasted, pp. 22-23. ' ^^id. p. 18. * Ibid. p. 20.
