Following the Clue

[sdi]

Some say that when Osiris died at the hands of Typhon [(e.g. Set)], Isis collected the members of his body and put them in an ox [bous, "cow"], made of wood covered over with fine linen, and because of this the city was called Bousiris [bous-Osiris, "cow-Osiris"].

[Diodorus Siculus, Library of History I §85.]

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Bousiris was the cult center for the Isis mysteries, and is actually Egyptian for "house of Osiris," but I can't help notice that a cow made of wood figures prominently in another underworld mystery...

Comments

[jprussell]

Well, and given what use the false cow is put to in both myths, that's another point of similarity.

[sdi]

Exactly.

See also the Egyptian Tale of Two Brothers (which retells the Osiris myth except the Osiris character literally reincarnates as a bull) and the myth of Attis and Cybele and the story of Stratonike and Combabus (in Pseudo-Lucian's On the Syrian Goddess), both of which are very similar to it and are known to be mystery teachings of various temples as far away as the Black Sea, and I think it's very likely that this story got around.