Was King Tut Mummified to Look Like Osiris?

News January 3, 2014

(By Steve Evans (Flickr), via Wikimedia Commons)
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512px-King Tut Ankh Amun Golden Mask
(By Steve Evans (Flickr), via Wikimedia Commons)

CAIRO, EGYPT—The style of burial that King Tutankhamun received upon his death might have been intended to help reverse a religious shift brought on by his father, Akhenaten, says Salima Ikram of the American University in Cairo. King Tut was entombed with his heart removed, covered in a viscous black liquid, and with his penis erect. Ikram hypothesizes that the presentation may have been intended to evoke the god of the underworld, Osiris. The missing heart would have symbolized the burial of Osiris's heart after he'd been attacked by his brother Seth. The black liquid would have darkened Tut's skin, making him the same color as Osiris. And, as for the pharaoh's penis, its erect status might symbolize Osiris's powers of regeneration. Making King Tut appear as Osiris could have been an attempt to counteract his father's elevation of the sun disk Aten to the most important god in the Egyptian pantheon.

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