One of the classic studies concerning the genesis and development of both the image and the cult of Osiris - one of the most popular gods of Ancient Egypt. The author, John Gwynn Griffiths (1911-2004) asserts, after a variety of speculative constructions, several important points embedded in modern religiology:
- Osiris is purely Egyptian, not a foreign deity imported from outside, and his appearance together with the mythology connected with him are entirely a product of Egyptian culture and worldview.
- Although it is very likely that the worship of Osiris as a deity of vegetation dates back to deep antiquity, as early as Neolithic times, his cult is not attested archaeologically before the time of the V Dynasty;
- Undoubtedly Osiris is a god associated with the dead pharaohs. It is a synthesis of the idea of their resurrection, ascension and reign in the afterlife. This aspect of it is one of the important reasons for the establishment and spread of the cult. Hence the genesis of the idea of Osiris as the judge of the dead in the afterlife.
- The cult of Osiris originated in Upper Egypt, which is reflected in the Upper Egyptian hedjet crown he wore. He is also closely related to the royal necropolis of Abydos.
- The second important aspect determining the popularity and durability of the cult of Osiris is his (probably original) role as a deity of vegetation and the rebirth of vegetation from apparently "dead" seeds - a point subsequently borrowed by other later popular religions, for example Christianity.
- The mythology associated with Osiris is the basis of the construction of the overall royal ideology of Egypt. It is not by chance that Osiris is seen as one of the first pharaohs of the country, the successor of the solar god Ra and the father of Horus, presented as a determinative in the names of the first historical rulers. No less important is his mythological cycle of legitimizing royal incest, interpreted as a repetition of his marriage to Isis.
- The cult of Osiris is essentially perhaps the first, and certainly one of the first  "religions of salvation" (soteriological religions), in which the main element is the hope for the salvation of the individual through a mystical relationship of reunification with the deity. After all, the worshipers of this cult are driven by the expectation that each of them will become Osiris.