It was a fact, that the ancient Egyptian corpus of images needed an iconography for expressing the union of Re and Osiris. And little by little in this iconography Isis and Nephthys, the two mourners of Osiris, became essential.
In the XIX Dynasty the ancient Egyptian artists conceived some of the most famous images of this conception combining same as ever iconography.
Isis and Nephthys flanking the corpse. Tomb of Nefertari. XIX Dynasty.
For instance in the tomb of Nefertari, wife of Ramses II, the chapter 17 of the Book of the Dead was illustrated with the typical image of the corpse with the two mourners Isis and Nephtys, not as women, but as kites.
In this same tomb it was included the Litany of Re; it was an ancient Egyptian religious text, which was inscribed in all Ramesside tombs. It described different forms of the sun god and it stressed specially the symbolic union of Re and Osiris and the identification of the dead king with this dual god.
Ram-Headed mummy (Re-Osiris) with Isis and Nephthys. Tomb of Nefertari. XIX Dynasty.
In this context the ancient Egyptian artist adapted the typical scene mentioned above and represented Isis and Nephthys adoring the image of Re-Osiris, as a hybrid figure with three main features: the body of a mummy evoking Osiris and the ram head with a solar disk recalling Re. The corpse of Re-Osiris could not skip the figures of Isis and Nephthys. As the professional mourners of the mummy, the total resurrection of this god, even being solar and Osirian, depended on them.
But the importance of Isis and Nephthys was so big, that…
HAIR AND DEATH IN ANCIENT EGYPT 