Which god was the king of the underworld and judge of the dead? Osiris held that role in ancient Egyptian religion. He was the ruler of the dead, a god of resurrection, and the central figure in Egyptian hopes for a blessed afterlife.
According to the Osiris myth, his brother Set murdered and dismembered him. Isis, Osiris’s wife and sister, recovered and restored his body through magic. Osiris returned to life in the realm of the dead, while their son Horus later challenged Set and reclaimed the earthly kingship. This made Osiris both a divine king and a model for resurrection.
Osiris was also associated with the judgment of the deceased. In the afterlife, the dead faced a tribunal and the weighing of the heart against the feather of Ma’at. Osiris presided over the judgment, while Anubis assisted with the scales. A common mix-up is to name Anubis as ruler of the underworld: Anubis was chiefly the embalmer, tomb protector, and guide of the dead.