BUSIRIS

in Greek mythology, Egyptian king, son of Poseidon (the god of the sea) and Lyssianassa (daughter of Epaphus, a legendary king of Egypt). After Egypt had been afflicted for nine years with famine, Phrasius, a seer of Cyprus, arrived in Egypt and announced that the famine would not end until an annual sacrifice of a foreigner to Zeus was instituted. Later Heracles, who had arrived in Egypt from Libya, was seized and brought to the altar. Heracles, however, burst his bonds and slew Busiris and his son Amphidamas. Although some of the Greek writers made Busiris an Egyptian king and successor of Menes (traditionally the first king of a united Egypt), those better informed by the Egyptians rejected him altogether. The name Busiris is probably an earlier and less accurate Grecism than Osiris for the name of the Egyptian god Usire. All shrines of Osiris were called P-usiri (Busiris), but the principal city of the name was in the centre of the Delta, capital of the ninth (Busirite) nome, or district, of Lower Egypt.