June 13, 2025 • 33 mins
Slip beneath the sands of ancient Egypt and follow the mournful path of Osiris—the king who fell, and the god who rose to rule beyond the veil. In this third chapter of our Myths of Egypt series, witness the betrayal, the search, and the timeless judgment that shaped Egyptian visions of life after death. So snuggle up in your blankets and have sweet dreams.
The music in this episode is Over the Dunes by Jon Sumner.
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Dreamful is produced and hosted by Jordan Blair. Edited by Katie Sokolovska. Theme song by Joshua Snodgrass. Cover art by Jordan Blair. ©️ Dreamful LLC
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Welcome to Dreamful Podcast Bedtime stories for
slumber.
I would like to start thisepisode by thanking our newest
supporter, megan Thomas.
Thank you so much, megan, and Ihope you have the sweetest of
dreams.
If you'd like to be just likeMegan and gain access to
subscriber-only episodes whilereceiving a shout-out, visit
(00:44):
dreamfulstoriescom and, on thesupport page, find a link to
become a Buzzsprout supporter orsubscribe via Supercast.
If you listen on Spotify, youcan also subscribe on Apple
Podcasts, but I can't see yourname, so I'm unfortunately
unable to do a shout out.
Sorry about that, but yourdonations go toward things like
music, licensing equipment and,of course, paying my beautiful,
(01:07):
amazing editor, katie.
This is the third episode in theMyths of Egypt series, where we
meet the god who shaped theEgyptian vision of life beyond
death, the one who crossed intothe shadow realm, who weighs the
hearts of the dead and offersthe promise of renewal.
This is the story of Osiris,fallen king, judge of souls.
(01:34):
So snuggle up in your blanketsand have sweet dreams.
In the hush of ancient temples,beneath columns carved with
(02:21):
spells and stars, one name isspoken with a different kind of
breath A breath of mourning, abreath of hope Osiris.
He is the green-skinned god oflife and death, the one who
(02:42):
ruled with wisdom and kindness,the one who was betrayed.
It is a tale of love thatendures, of a body torn and made
whole again, of a king whopassed beneath the earth and
(03:03):
from the shadows became immortal.
Through Osiris, the Egyptianslearned that death was not the
end but a doorway, that lifecould return, that order could
rise from the grasp of chaos.
His was the first mummy, thefirst to pass into the
(03:23):
underworld and reign there inlight, and in every heart
weighed, in the hall of judgment, in every tomb built with care
and reverence, his presencelingers.
This is the story of Osiris.
Before he ruled the underworld,before the shadow of betrayal
(03:58):
fell across his path, osiriswalked beneath the sun, a king
among mortals.
Under his reign, the Nileswelled and flowed in steady
rhythm, grains rose golden inthe fields, orchards bowed heavy
(04:20):
with fruit and the ways ofharmony.
Osiris taught them to till thesoil, to shape stone, to speak
to one another with justice andkindness.
Where once there waslawlessness, once there was
(04:51):
lawlessness, now there was ma'at, balance, order, rightness.
He ruled by wisdom, by thegentle weight of his presence.
It was said that wherever hepassed, life itself quickened,
(05:11):
the river shimmered, birds tookflight, papyrus whispered at his
feet.
His queen Isis stood at hisside.
Brilliant of mind and fierce ofheart.
Together they formed a sacredpair, king and queen.
(05:33):
Earth and sky, order andrenewal, and the people
prospered.
Yet beneath this golden age,shadows stirred, for in the
court of Osiris was his brotherSet, lord of storms and deserts,
(05:56):
whose heart burned with envy asthe kingdom bloomed.
So too did Set's bitterness.
Burned with envy.
As the kingdom bloomed, so toodid Seth's bitterness.
For how could one who ruledwith gentleness be so beloved?
And as the fields grew ripewith grain, so too did a plan,
(06:22):
one that would tear the body ofEgypt itself apart.
Set watched his brother with agaze sharp as flint.
Each smile, each cheer of thepeople, a stone laid upon the
(06:43):
altar of his rage.
And in that bitterness, a planwas born, a trap woven of
flattery and deceit.
Set crafted a chest, a thing ofbeauty and wonder, carved of
(07:03):
cedar, inlaid with gold andlapis lazuli, a gift, he said,
for any among them whom it fitperfectly.
The court gathered, laughterrose.
One by one, the nobles climbedinto the chest.
(07:28):
Too short, too long, too wide.
And then came Osiris, tall andnoble, with eyes as clear as the
river.
At dawn, he lay within thechest and it closed around him
(07:53):
as if made for his form.
In that moment the laughterceased.
Seth's men sprang forward.
They sealed the chest withmolten lead, locked the king
within darkness and, with ashout, set hurled the chest into
(08:19):
the Nile.
The water swallowed it, thegreen land fell silent and
Osiris was gone.
Set claimed the throne.
Storms lashed, the river Cropswithered beneath an unkind sun,
(08:43):
the land mourned.
But far from Set's gaze,beneath the veil of grief, one
heart burned bright with purposeIsis, queen, sister, sorceress.
She would not rest, she wouldnot yield, for love remembers
(09:17):
when all else forgets.
And so began a search thatwould span land and sea, wind
and shadow, to find the brokenbody of the king and to weave
the thread of life anew.
Isis wandered the river's edge,her tears falling like pearls
(09:41):
upon the earth, falling likepearls upon the earth.
Where others saw only grief,isis saw a path, a path through
shadow, a path toward love thatcould not be silenced, with
words older than stone, withspells shaped in the breath
(10:04):
between worlds, she sought herbeloved.
The chest of Osiris had driftedbeyond the land of Egypt,
carried by the current todistant shores, where it came to
rest within the heart of agreat tamarisk tree.
(10:28):
The tree grew round the chest,enfolding it in trunk and branch
, until it stood tall in thepalace of a foreign king, a
knowing guardian of a fallen god.
Disguised and undaunted, isistraveled to that distant court
(10:57):
With song and wisdom, with gracethat stilled the hearts of
mortals, she revealed her truth.
The chest was given to her andwith trembling hands, isis
opened it beneath the gaze ofthe stars.
(11:17):
There lay Osiris, pale as a newmoon.
She wept, her voice rose in akeening song, a sound that
stirred the river.
That reached the ears of hersister, nephthys, who came swift
(11:40):
as shadow to her side.
Together, they called uponAnubis, lord of embalming,
guardian of the dead.
With sacred oils, with linenwrapped in spells, they tended
to the broken king.
(12:00):
Piece by piece, they made himwhole.
Breath by breath, they wove themagic of life.
And in that moment, beneath theveil of night, osiris stirred
(12:30):
no longer of the mortal realm,yet not lost to the void.
From this act, the rites ofmummification were born, and
from Isis' love the seed of thefuture took root.
For in that union of life anddeath, she conceived a son,
horus, heir to a shatteredthrone.
(12:54):
But the work was not done.
Forset still ruled above, andOsiris, though restored, would
take a different path, one thatwould shape the destiny of all
who would follow him In theworld.
(13:30):
Above the river mourned, thewind moved through barren fields
, but beneath the veil of earth,in the deep halls of Duat,
osiris awoke.
No longer did he wear thesimple robes of a living king.
Now he was clothed in linen,kissed with sacred oils, wrapped
(13:52):
in the white folds of eternity.
His skin was now a strangeshade of green, the color of the
firsthoot rising from fertilesoil.
Upon his brow sat the atefcrown, flanked by ostrich
feathers tall as the pillars ofthe sky.
(14:12):
In his hands he held the croakand flail, symbols not of
dominion through force, but ofguidance, of care of the eternal
harvest.
(14:39):
Throne of obsidian and gold,carved with the stars of the
hidden sky.
Around him stood the gods ofthe underworld Anubis, toth,
ma'at, witnesses to a reignbeyond death, for Osiris had
crossed the final threshold.
In doing so, he became thefirst of the sky.
(15:05):
The scales awaited Upon them.
(15:26):
The heart of each soul wasplaced, balanced against the
feather of Maat, the light ofcosmic order.
Osiris watched from his throneas a sovereign of justice.
His gaze was steady as stone,his breath the hush of the earth
(15:51):
.
If the heart was true, if itcarried no weight of falsehood
or cruelty, the soul would bewelcomed into the fields of
reeds, a land of gentle riversand endless green.
(16:12):
If the heart was found wanting,it would be devoured by Amit,
the eater of souls, cast intosilence.
Through this rite, osiris gavethe people hope.
(16:32):
To live rightly was to preparethe soul for this journey.
To live rightly was to preparethe soul for this journey.
And so in every tomb his imagewas painted Green skin, eyes,
calm as the Nile at dawn, armscrossed upon his chest, crowned
(16:58):
and eternal.
In every burial rite, his namewas whispered Osiris, who was
slain, who rose, who reignsforever.
For through this fall, theEgyptians saw that death was not
(17:19):
an end but a gateway.
And through his rule beneaththe earth, they found a promise
that all who lived with truth intheir hearts might walk once
more beneath the stars.
(17:41):
The name Osiris held profoundmeaning in ancient Egypt.
In his royal tombs, his sacredtexts and quiet prayers for the
dead.
His story shaped how Egyptiansunderstood life, death and what
(18:06):
might lie beyond.
In the earliest religiouswritings, the Pyramid Texts,
kings sought to follow the pathof Osiris to rise again after
death and join the eternal cycle.
Over time this vision extendedto all people Through the
(18:29):
Osirian rites.
Egyptians believed the soulcould be made whole again, that
the dead could live.
In the blessed fields of reeds,mummification became the sacred
preparation for this journey.
The body was preserved so thespirit could recognize and
(18:52):
return to it, so the spiritcould recognize and return to it
.
In funerary texts, the Book ofthe Dead, the Coffin Texts,
osiris presided over theweighing of the heart, where
truth determined one's fatebeyond the tomb.
(19:14):
The image of Osiris, armscrossed, adorned countless tomb
walls in papyri, a symbol ofhope in the face of mortality.
The annual flooding of the Nile, which renewed the land and
ensured life's return, became anatural echo of his myth.
(19:41):
The rhythm of death and rebirthreflected in the land itself.
Through this cycle, osirisbecame more than a figure of
myth.
He became a symbol ofcontinuity, that life moves
forward even through loss, thatrenewal is woven into the fabric
(20:08):
of existence.
In this way, the legacy ofOsiris endured, written in
prayers, painted in sacredspaces, carried in the hearts of
those who look beyond thesetting sun.
In the story of Osiris, theancient Egyptians found
(20:31):
something enduring, a way toface death with understanding, a
vision of life that couldcontinue beyond the tomb.
They prepared their dead withcare, with words, with ritual
and with hope, and throughgenerations the image of Osiris
(20:55):
remained, a king seated in thehall of judgment, a figure of
balance and renewal.
His story reminded them, andperhaps reminds us still, that
every ending holds the shape ofa beginning, that beyond what we
(21:21):
can see, life may yet stir inunseen ways.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
And so the cycle turns, and so Osiris endures ¶¶,
¶¶, ¶¶, ¶¶, ¶¶, ¶¶, ¶¶, ¶¶, ¶¶,¶¶, ¶¶, ¶¶, ¶¶ ¶¶.
(30:38):
© BF-WATCH TV 2021.
¶¶, ¶¶, ¶¶, ¶¶, ¶¶ ©.
(33:29):
Transcript Emily Beynon.
Welcome to Dreamful Podcast Bedtime stories for
slumber.
I would like to start thisepisode by thanking our newest
supporter, megan Thomas.
Thank you so much, megan, and Ihope you have the sweetest of
dreams.
If you'd like to be just likeMegan and gain access to
subscriber-only episodes whilereceiving a shout-out, visit
(00:44):
dreamfulstoriescom and, on thesupport page, find a link to
become a Buzzsprout supporter orsubscribe via Supercast.
If you listen on Spotify, youcan also subscribe on Apple
Podcasts, but I can't see yourname, so I'm unfortunately
unable to do a shout out.
Sorry about that, but yourdonations go toward things like
music, licensing equipment and,of course, paying my beautiful,
(01:07):
amazing editor, katie.
This is the third episode in theMyths of Egypt series, where we
meet the god who shaped theEgyptian vision of life beyond
death, the one who crossed intothe shadow realm, who weighs the
hearts of the dead and offersthe promise of renewal.
This is the story of Osiris,fallen king, judge of souls.
(01:34):
So snuggle up in your blanketsand have sweet dreams.
In the hush of ancient temples,beneath columns carved with
(02:21):
spells and stars, one name isspoken with a different kind of
breath A breath of mourning, abreath of hope Osiris.
He is the green-skinned god oflife and death, the one who
(02:42):
ruled with wisdom and kindness,the one who was betrayed.
It is a tale of love thatendures, of a body torn and made
whole again, of a king whopassed beneath the earth and
(03:03):
from the shadows became immortal.
Through Osiris, the Egyptianslearned that death was not the
end but a doorway, that lifecould return, that order could
rise from the grasp of chaos.
His was the first mummy, thefirst to pass into the
(03:23):
underworld and reign there inlight, and in every heart
weighed, in the hall of judgment, in every tomb built with care
and reverence, his presencelingers.
This is the story of Osiris.
Before he ruled the underworld,before the shadow of betrayal
(03:58):
fell across his path, osiriswalked beneath the sun, a king
among mortals.
Under his reign, the Nileswelled and flowed in steady
rhythm, grains rose golden inthe fields, orchards bowed heavy
(04:20):
with fruit and the ways ofharmony.
Osiris taught them to till thesoil, to shape stone, to speak
to one another with justice andkindness.
Where once there waslawlessness, once there was
(04:51):
lawlessness, now there was ma'at, balance, order, rightness.
He ruled by wisdom, by thegentle weight of his presence.
It was said that wherever hepassed, life itself quickened,
(05:11):
the river shimmered, birds tookflight, papyrus whispered at his
feet.
His queen Isis stood at hisside.
Brilliant of mind and fierce ofheart.
Together they formed a sacredpair, king and queen.
(05:33):
Earth and sky, order andrenewal, and the people
prospered.
Yet beneath this golden age,shadows stirred, for in the
court of Osiris was his brotherSet, lord of storms and deserts,
(05:56):
whose heart burned with envy asthe kingdom bloomed.
So too did Set's bitterness.
Burned with envy.
As the kingdom bloomed, so toodid Seth's bitterness.
For how could one who ruledwith gentleness be so beloved?
And as the fields grew ripewith grain, so too did a plan,
(06:22):
one that would tear the body ofEgypt itself apart.
Set watched his brother with agaze sharp as flint.
Each smile, each cheer of thepeople, a stone laid upon the
(06:43):
altar of his rage.
And in that bitterness, a planwas born, a trap woven of
flattery and deceit.
Set crafted a chest, a thing ofbeauty and wonder, carved of
(07:03):
cedar, inlaid with gold andlapis lazuli, a gift, he said,
for any among them whom it fitperfectly.
The court gathered, laughterrose.
One by one, the nobles climbedinto the chest.
(07:28):
Too short, too long, too wide.
And then came Osiris, tall andnoble, with eyes as clear as the
river.
At dawn, he lay within thechest and it closed around him
(07:53):
as if made for his form.
In that moment the laughterceased.
Seth's men sprang forward.
They sealed the chest withmolten lead, locked the king
within darkness and, with ashout, set hurled the chest into
(08:19):
the Nile.
The water swallowed it, thegreen land fell silent and
Osiris was gone.
Set claimed the throne.
Storms lashed, the river Cropswithered beneath an unkind sun,
(08:43):
the land mourned.
But far from Set's gaze,beneath the veil of grief, one
heart burned bright with purposeIsis, queen, sister, sorceress.
She would not rest, she wouldnot yield, for love remembers
(09:17):
when all else forgets.
And so began a search thatwould span land and sea, wind
and shadow, to find the brokenbody of the king and to weave
the thread of life anew.
Isis wandered the river's edge,her tears falling like pearls
(09:41):
upon the earth, falling likepearls upon the earth.
Where others saw only grief,isis saw a path, a path through
shadow, a path toward love thatcould not be silenced, with
words older than stone, withspells shaped in the breath
(10:04):
between worlds, she sought herbeloved.
The chest of Osiris had driftedbeyond the land of Egypt,
carried by the current todistant shores, where it came to
rest within the heart of agreat tamarisk tree.
(10:28):
The tree grew round the chest,enfolding it in trunk and branch
, until it stood tall in thepalace of a foreign king, a
knowing guardian of a fallen god.
Disguised and undaunted, isistraveled to that distant court
(10:57):
With song and wisdom, with gracethat stilled the hearts of
mortals, she revealed her truth.
The chest was given to her andwith trembling hands, isis
opened it beneath the gaze ofthe stars.
(11:17):
There lay Osiris, pale as a newmoon.
She wept, her voice rose in akeening song, a sound that
stirred the river.
That reached the ears of hersister, nephthys, who came swift
(11:40):
as shadow to her side.
Together, they called uponAnubis, lord of embalming,
guardian of the dead.
With sacred oils, with linenwrapped in spells, they tended
to the broken king.
(12:00):
Piece by piece, they made himwhole.
Breath by breath, they wove themagic of life.
And in that moment, beneath theveil of night, osiris stirred
(12:30):
no longer of the mortal realm,yet not lost to the void.
From this act, the rites ofmummification were born, and
from Isis' love the seed of thefuture took root.
For in that union of life anddeath, she conceived a son,
horus, heir to a shatteredthrone.
(12:54):
But the work was not done.
Forset still ruled above, andOsiris, though restored, would
take a different path, one thatwould shape the destiny of all
who would follow him In theworld.
(13:30):
Above the river mourned, thewind moved through barren fields
, but beneath the veil of earth,in the deep halls of Duat,
osiris awoke.
No longer did he wear thesimple robes of a living king.
Now he was clothed in linen,kissed with sacred oils, wrapped
(13:52):
in the white folds of eternity.
His skin was now a strangeshade of green, the color of the
firsthoot rising from fertilesoil.
Upon his brow sat the atefcrown, flanked by ostrich
feathers tall as the pillars ofthe sky.
(14:12):
In his hands he held the croakand flail, symbols not of
dominion through force, but ofguidance, of care of the eternal
harvest.
(14:39):
Throne of obsidian and gold,carved with the stars of the
hidden sky.
Around him stood the gods ofthe underworld Anubis, toth,
ma'at, witnesses to a reignbeyond death, for Osiris had
crossed the final threshold.
In doing so, he became thefirst of the sky.
(15:05):
The scales awaited Upon them.
(15:26):
The heart of each soul wasplaced, balanced against the
feather of Maat, the light ofcosmic order.
Osiris watched from his throneas a sovereign of justice.
His gaze was steady as stone,his breath the hush of the earth
(15:51):
.
If the heart was true, if itcarried no weight of falsehood
or cruelty, the soul would bewelcomed into the fields of
reeds, a land of gentle riversand endless green.
(16:12):
If the heart was found wanting,it would be devoured by Amit,
the eater of souls, cast intosilence.
Through this rite, osiris gavethe people hope.
(16:32):
To live rightly was to preparethe soul for this journey.
To live rightly was to preparethe soul for this journey.
And so in every tomb his imagewas painted Green skin, eyes,
calm as the Nile at dawn, armscrossed upon his chest, crowned
(16:58):
and eternal.
In every burial rite, his namewas whispered Osiris, who was
slain, who rose, who reignsforever.
For through this fall, theEgyptians saw that death was not
(17:19):
an end but a gateway.
And through his rule beneaththe earth, they found a promise
that all who lived with truth intheir hearts might walk once
more beneath the stars.
(17:41):
The name Osiris held profoundmeaning in ancient Egypt.
In his royal tombs, his sacredtexts and quiet prayers for the
dead.
His story shaped how Egyptiansunderstood life, death and what
(18:06):
might lie beyond.
In the earliest religiouswritings, the Pyramid Texts,
kings sought to follow the pathof Osiris to rise again after
death and join the eternal cycle.
Over time this vision extendedto all people Through the
(18:29):
Osirian rites.
Egyptians believed the soulcould be made whole again, that
the dead could live.
In the blessed fields of reeds,mummification became the sacred
preparation for this journey.
The body was preserved so thespirit could recognize and
(18:52):
return to it, so the spiritcould recognize and return to it
.
In funerary texts, the Book ofthe Dead, the Coffin Texts,
osiris presided over theweighing of the heart, where
truth determined one's fatebeyond the tomb.
(19:14):
The image of Osiris, armscrossed, adorned countless tomb
walls in papyri, a symbol ofhope in the face of mortality.
The annual flooding of the Nile, which renewed the land and
ensured life's return, became anatural echo of his myth.
(19:41):
The rhythm of death and rebirthreflected in the land itself.
Through this cycle, osirisbecame more than a figure of
myth.
He became a symbol ofcontinuity, that life moves
forward even through loss, thatrenewal is woven into the fabric
(20:08):
of existence.
In this way, the legacy ofOsiris endured, written in
prayers, painted in sacredspaces, carried in the hearts of
those who look beyond thesetting sun.
In the story of Osiris, theancient Egyptians found
(20:31):
something enduring, a way toface death with understanding, a
vision of life that couldcontinue beyond the tomb.
They prepared their dead withcare, with words, with ritual
and with hope, and throughgenerations the image of Osiris
(20:55):
remained, a king seated in thehall of judgment, a figure of
balance and renewal.
His story reminded them, andperhaps reminds us still, that
every ending holds the shape ofa beginning, that beyond what we
(21:21):
can see, life may yet stir inunseen ways.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
And so the cycle turns, and so Osiris endures ¶¶,
¶¶, ¶¶, ¶¶, ¶¶, ¶¶, ¶¶, ¶¶, ¶¶,¶¶, ¶¶, ¶¶, ¶¶ ¶¶.
(30:38):
© BF-WATCH TV 2021.
¶¶, ¶¶, ¶¶, ¶¶, ¶¶ ©.
(33:29):
Transcript Emily Beynon.
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