THE LION KING AND

ITS EGYPTIAN ROOTS

The Lion King was released by Walt Disney Pictures on June 24, 1994. The majority of
Disney movies are based on European mythology and fairy tales. The Lion King is one of the few
Disney movies with most of its parallels being rooted in Egyptian mythology. In fact, one could
actually compare it almost directly to the myth of the death of Osiris.
In order to start the comparison between this Egyptian myth and The Lion King, you must
start with the matching of characters. Osiris was an Egyptian god and a great king. His greatness
is shown by him being able to unite Upper and Lower Egypt. It is easy to see the relation
between Osiris and Mufasa, the king in The Lion King. Mufasa was also considered to be a great
king in the film, able to keep the circle of life flowing through Pride Rock. Osiris had a brother
named Seth. Seths Lion King counter-part is Scar, the antagonist of the film. Both are depicted
as evil very early on. Osiris eventually had a son, Horus. Horuss parallel can be seen in the
young lion Simba. Osiriss wife, Isis, was the Egyptian mother goddess. While she is a big part
of the death of Osiris, she is unfortunately not very present in The Lion King. Mufasa does have a
wife, the lioness Sarabi. But she does not have a large role in the film, only appearing a couple of
times at the beginning and end of the film.
In the ancient myth, Osiriss brother Seth is exceptionally jealous of his reign over Egypt.
He believes he should rule over Egypt instead. This is depicted early on in The Lion King. In the
film, Scar did not attend the ceremony for the birth of Simba to show his displeasure for the birth
of the new future king. Before Simbas birth, Scar was next in line for the throne after Mufasa. In
this scene, he says he had simply forgotten about the ceremony. His attitude toward Mufasa and
Simba continues on throughout the film.
Unlike most of the Greek and Roman myths, Egyptian gods can die. The jealous brother
Seth decided that in order to get what he wanted, he would have to kill his brother and king

Osiris. Scar also makes this decision very early on in the film. However, the methods in which
they decide to kill the king are very different. Seth hosts a party in which there is a party game
where everyone lays in a sarcophagus and the person who fits best, wins the sarcophagus. What
Osiris does not realize is that Seth has planned this, taking measurements of his brother in order
to make sure that the sarcophagus fits him specifically. Once Osiris got into the coffin, Seth and
his seventy-two coconspirators nailed the coffin shut before throwing the coffin into the Nile.
The sarcophagus flows down the river to Byblos and is enveloped by a growing heather plant.
The king of Byblos finds the large heather plant and decides to cut it down and make it a pillar,
not realizing it contains the sarcophagus. In The Lion King, Scar, however, uses Simba as a pawn
in order to draw Mufasa in. Scar made sure that Simba was in the middle of the gorge before
leaving. Once Scar left, he signaled to his three coconspirators, the hyenas, to chase the herd of
wildebeest into the gorge. Scar goes to Mufasa and pretends to be concerned for young Simbas
safety, even though he was the one to put him there in the first place. Mufasa runs to save his son
and actually succeeds, getting him to a rock high above the stampeding wildebeest. However,
Mufasa falls back into the stampede for a few moments. When he gets back up to the rocks, he is
by his brother Scar. He asks for help and instead of raising him up, Scar grabs his paws and
throws him down into the stampede, killing him. After the stampede clears the gorge, Simba
finds his fathers body and mourns. Both kings were killed by their brother. Both were thrown
into a river. Both Seth and Scar had coconspirators. The differences lie in where the king was
killed, how, how many coconspirators assisted in the killing, and who found the body.
In the film, the young lion prince Simba was involved well before Mufasas death. The
film literally starts out with the presentation of Simba to Pride Rock. He was even used in the
death of his father. This is very different from the involvement of Osiriss son, Horus. After

Osiriss sarcophagus landed in Byblos, Isis went to retrieve it. After some time as the king and
queen of Bybloss nurse, Isis received the sarcophagus and went away with it. In one version,
once she was alone, she mated with the body becoming pregnant with the hawk god, Horus. She
then moved to a marsh where she gave birth to Horus. In another version, Isis hid the body but it
was discovered by Seth who dismembered it and scattered the pieces. Isis eventually collects
thirteen of the fourteen pieces. The one missing piece was his penis which was eaten by a fish.
Isis crafts him a new penis out of gold and reassembles him. After reassembling him, it is then
that Isis mates with him to give birth to Horus. In this version, Isis mummifies Osiris. Rather
than this being the end of Osiris, it actually resurrects him as god of the Underworld.
After Osiriss resurrection, Horus takes over as ruler of the Upper World while his father
is god of the Underworld. However, Horus knows that he must avenge the murder of his father.
Horus has a long drawn out battle with Seth lasting eighty years. They fight as hippopotami,
dismembering each other. Horus loses an eye to Seth and Horus tears off one of Seths testicles,
continuing the castration theme present with Osiriss lost penis. After this portion of the battle,
they move to a boat race where Horus wins by painting his boat to appear as stone. The next
battle includes them trying to get their semen in their adversary. Horus is able to avoid eating
Seths semen by catching it in his hand and throwing it away. He wins this round as well by
tricking Seth to eat his semen in a piece of lettuce. In the end, they ask the courts to make the
final decision. They rule that Horus has indeed won over the evil Seth. Seth is then banished but
still problematic. In The Lion King, after Mufasas death, young Simba runs off into the dessert
to escape the threat of his uncle, Scar. He spends his time until his adulthood in the jungle. His
childhood friend and a friend of his fathers find Simba and persuade him that he must go back to
Pride Rock, where the film is set, and avenge his father to take back reign of Pride Rock. After

Scar admits to murdering Mufasa, a battle ensues between, not only Scar and Simba but also, the
lionesses and hyenas. It is not a very lengthy battle. Simba banishes Scar from Pride Rock but
before Scar leaves, he is attacked by the hyenas who overheard Scar betraying them in an
attempt to save himself. While it does not show the actual result of this attack, it is insinuated
that Scar is killed by the hyenas. Simba is then able to take reign over Pride Rock. Both of these
works have a battle between uncle and nephew. Both result in the nephew winning. However,
Horus fights Seth after he has begun his reign whereas Simba rules after the death of Scar. The
length of the battle also differs. Horus and Seth fight for eighty years while Scar and Simba fight
for maybe five to ten minutes of screen time.
So far I have discussed the main points of the myth and film. Now I want to focus on
some of the finer details. Both the myth and the film are set in Africa. However, the myth is set
in Egypt while The Lion King is set in the African savannah. Isis is a very prominent figure in the
death of Osiris myth, actually resurrecting him. Unfortunately, Sarabi is only shown as an idle
character. Fortunately, as the main lioness of the pride, she does represent the mother goddess
figure. In the movie, Simba has a love interest, the lioness Nala. The myth does not include a
love interest or spouse for Horus.
As is evidenced, the parallels between the death of Osiris and The Lion King are
unmistakable. Both works include a great king, a jealous brother, and avenging by the kings son.
While there are many overlapping themes, there are some differences. This includes the way the
brother killed the king, the length of the battle, and what eventually happened to the evil brother.
Even with these differences, there is no doubting that the Disney Pictures film The Lion King has
its roots in Egyptian mythology.

I pledge that I had no assistance in writing this paper and all content is my own.
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Word Count (not including title page or pledge): 1,516