The Afterlife

Osiris

he was the ancient Egyptian god of the after life.

Expansion on answer

True. There was also Hades, the Greek god of the underworld, which bore his name. It depends on which ancient culture you look at.

Judaism doesn't spend a lot of time discussing what will happen when we die, since the focus is on this life. There is also little mention of what happens after death in the Tanakh (Jewish Bible). There are some loose ideas of what may happen when we die:

* When we die, our souls are cleansed. To accomplish this, we must account for all our actions in life, both good and bad. It's believed that this process doesn't take more than 12 months but few people do enough bad in life to warrant it taking the full 12 months.

* Some souls may return to God to wait for the world to come.

* Some souls may be reincarnated as another person to have to opportunity to do more good in the world to become closer to God.

* Some people are so evil in life that their souls cannot survive the cleansing process and cease to exist.

Answer:
One of the central beliefs of Judaism, as codified by Rambam (Maimonides), is that the soul continues to exist and is treated in accordance with the person's actions while he/she was alive. All outstanding accounts are settled after this life. Some cases illustrate this point, since this entire world wouldn't be enough to reward a Moses or punish a Hitler.
The afterlife is detailed at length in the Talmud. A full 20 pages of Talmud (Sanhedrin 90-110) are given to this subject. The afterlife is also referred to briefly in Torah (Bible) verses such as Genesis 15:15, which states that "You (Abraham) will come to your fathers in peace and will be buried in good (ripe; full) old age." This does not mean merely to be buried withone's forefathers, since Abraham was not buried with them. Such verses are stated many times.
The prophets are more explicit with such references (such as Isaiah 26:19, Daniel 12:13).
The Tanakh does not delve into detail of the rewards of the righteous, because other religions could compete with even more poetic promises. Also because belief in the afterlife was shared by all ancient societies and needed little reiteration. See the Kli Yakar commentary to Leviticus ch.26 for a fuller discussion.

7 Then the dust will return to the earth as it was,

And the spirit will return to God who gave it.

taken from http://www.nemo.nu/ibisportal/0egyptintro/1egypt/index.htm

The Court in the Underworld

When a person had died he was taken to Underworld where his deeds in life were taken to the Court of Osiris for the final judgement. Since this place also was called "The Island of Fire" it's quite obvious that the Egyptians had knowledge about the burning interior of the Earth though they had no volcanoes in their own country. Before coming there the dead person had to pass a labyrinth of gates and doors and answer questions correctly to pass through. The lion-god Aker let him through the last gate and he was facing the fourteen members of the jury in the Tribunal Hall. There he was allowed to speak about his behavior on Earth. (Shown in the upper left in the picture below).

Then god Anubis took him into the courtroom presenting him the scale where his heart would be put in balance with the feather of the goddess Máat, patroness of truth and harmony. The procedure was recorded by Thoth - the god of writing and wisdom. Sometimes Thot's animal (a baboon) was sitting on top of the scale ready to adjust the result using a sliding weight.

The deceased enters from the left guided by Anubis. His heart is placed on the scales and the result is recorded by Thoth. Then Horus takes him in front of the judge Osiris for the final verdict. Behind the throne stand Isis and Nephtys.

If the heart of the deceased wasn't too heavy with sins from his life on Earth, he went through and could continue his voyage to the afterlife and was granted a plot of land in the "Field of the Reeds". This was the paradise for the ancient Egyptians - to grow crops for eternity in a land that was the very image of the Nile Valley they just had left.

If he failed the test on the other hand - his heart was immediately devoured by the beast Ammut sitting under the scale ready to have a good blow-out. In that case the dead faced the most horrible future imaginable for the Egyptians - he was denied an eternal life in the land in the West and his soul would be restless forever.

The seven steps to Paradise

1. Crossing the celestial river by Nemty to the "Land in the West".

2. Passing through gates and labyrinths by answering questions.

3. Being let into the great Court of the Underworld by the god Aker.

4. Addressing a jury of 14 judges about the deeds during life on Earth.

5. Taken by Anubis to "Balance of Truth" to weigh his heart for sins.

6. If the heart wasn't heavy, brought by Horus to Chief Judge Osiris.

7. Entering the "Fields of the Reed" (Paradise) and get eternal life.