Statuette representing Isis and Osiris

A bronze statuette of the goddess Isis with outstretched wings around her husband and brother the god Osiris. In a bloody battle, Seth dismembered Osiris and spread his remains all around Egypt.

Isis searched for the fragments to make a mummy and thus bring her beloved husband to life once again. Nevertheless, certain versions of this myth claim, that the goddess did not find his Penis, as it was devoured by the fish Oxyrhynchus.

These fish, the medjed, a species of elephantfish in the Nile river were believed to have eaten the penis of Osiris after his brother Set had dismembered and scattered the god’s body. A settlement in Upper Egypt, Per-Medjed, was named after the fish and is now better known under its Greek name Oxyrhynchus.

The city, located about 160 km south-southwest of Cairo, is also an archaeological site and is considered one of the most important ever discovered. For the past century, the area around Oxyrhynchus has been continually excavated, yielding an enormous collection of papyrus texts dating from the time of the Ptolemaic and Roman periods of Egyptian history.

Among the texts discovered at Oxyrhynchus are plays of Menander, fragments from the Gospel of Thomas, and fragments from Euclid’s Elements.

Late Period, 26th Dynasty, ca. 664-525 BC. Now in the Egyptian Museum of Barcelona. 01 E 97b