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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/12255-0.txt b/12255-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..67db998 --- /dev/null +++ b/12255-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1190 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12255 *** + +Formatting notes: Footnotes are in [square brackets] and embedded in the + e-text at the location of the superscript number in + the original text. Words and phrases in italics are + surrounded with _underlines_. Everything that appears + in all-caps in this e-text was in all-caps in the + original text. + + + + + +THE EGYPTIAN CONCEPTION OF IMMORTALITY + +The Ingersoll Lecture, 1911 + +by + +GEORGE ANDREW REISNER + + + + + + + +THE INGERSOLL LECTURESHIP + + +Extract from the will of Miss Caroline Haskell Ingersoll, who +died in Keene, County of Cheshire, New Hampshire, Jan. 26, 1893. + +First. In carrying out the wishes of my late beloved father, +George Goldthwait Ingersoll, as declared by him in his last will +and testament, I give and bequeath to Harvard University in +Cambridge, Mass., where my late father was graduated, and which +he always held in love and honor, the sum of Five thousand +dollars ($5,000) as a fund for the establishment of a Lectureship +on a plan somewhat similar to that of the Dudleian lecture, that +is--one lecture to be delivered each year, on any convenient +day between the last of May and the first day of December, on +this subject, "the Immortality of Man," said lecture not to form +a part of the usual college course, nor to be delivered by any +Professor or Tutor as part of his usual routine of instruction, +though any such Professor or Tutor may be appointed to such +service. The choice of said lecturer is not to be limited to any +one religious denomination, nor to any one profession, but may be +that of either clergyman or layman, the appointment to take place +at least six months before the delivery of said lecture. The +above sum to be safely invested and three fourths of the annual +interest thereof to be paid to the lecturer for his services and +the remaining fourth to be expended in the publishment and +gratuitous distribution of the lecture, a copy of which is always +to be furnished by the lecturer for such purpose. The same +lecture to be named and known as the "the Ingersoll lecture on +the Immortality of Man." + + + + +CONTENTS + + + I. Introduction + II. Sources of the Material + III. The Ideas of the Primitive Race + IV. The Early Dynastic Period + V. The Old Empire + VI. The Middle Empire + VII. The New Empire + VIII. The Ptolemaic-Roman Period + IX. Summary + + + + +I. INTRODUCTION + + + +Of the nations which have contributed to the direct stream of +civilization, Egypt and Mesopotamia are at present believed to be +the oldest. The chronological dispute as to the relative +antiquity of the two countries is of minor importance; for while +in Babylonia the historical material is almost entirely +inscriptional, in Egypt we know the handicrafts, the weapons, the +arts, and, to a certain extent, the religious beliefs of the race +up to a period when it was just emerging from the Stone Age. In a +word, Egypt presents the most ancient race whose manner of life +is known to man. From the beginning of its history--that is, +from about 4500 B.C.--we can trace the development of a +religion one of whose most prominent elements was a promise of a +life after death. It was still a great religion when the +Christian doctrine of immortality was enunciated. In the early +centuries of the Christian era, it seemed almost possible that +the worship of Osiris and Isis might become the religion of the +classical world; and the last stand made by civilized paganism +against Christianity was in the temple of Isis at Philae in the +sixth century after Christ. + +It is clear that a religion of such duration must have offered +some of those consolations to man that have marked all great +religions, chief of which is the faith in a spirit, in something +that preserves the personality of the man and does not perish +with the body. This faith was, in fact, one of the chief elements +in the Egyptian religion--the element best known to us through +the endless cemeteries which fill the desert from one end of +Egypt to the other, and through the funerary inscriptions. + +It is necessary, however, to correct the prevailing impression +that religion played the greatest part in Egyptian life or even a +greater part than it does in Moslem Egypt. The mistaken belief +that death and the well-being of the dead overshadowed the +existence of the living, is due to the fact that the physical +character of the country has preserved for us the cemeteries and +the funerary temples better than all the other monuments. The +narrow strip of fat black land along the Nile produces generally +its three crops a year. It is much too valuable to use as a +cemetery. But more than that, it is subject to periodic +saturation with water during the inundation, and is, therefore, +unsuitable for the burials of a nation which wished to preserve +the contents of the graves. On the other hand, the desert, which +bounds this fertile strip so closely that a dozen steps will +usually carry one from the black land to the gray,--the desert +offers a dry preserving soil with absolutely no value to the +living. Thus all the funerary monuments were erected on the +desert, and except where intentionally destroyed they are +preserved to the present day. The palaces, the towns, the farms, +and many of the great temples which were erected on the black +soil, have been pulled down for building material or buried deep +under the steadily rising deposits of the Nile. The tombs of six +thousand years of dead have accumulated on the desert edge. + +Moreover, our impression of these tombs has been formed from the +monuments erected by kings, princes, priests, and the great and +wealthy men of the kingdom. The multitude of plain unadorned +burial-places which the scientific excavator records by the +thousands have escaped the attention of scholars interested in +Egypt from the point of view of a comparison of religions. It has +also been overlooked that the strikingly colored mummies and the +glaring burial apparatus of the late period cost very little to +prepare. The manufacture of mummies was a regular trade in the +Ptolemaic period at least. Mummy cases were prepared in advance +with blank spaces for the names. I do not think that any more +expense was incurred in Egyptian funerals in the dynastic period +than is the case among the modern Egyptians. The importance of +the funerary rites to the living must, therefore, not be +exaggerated. + + + + +II. SOURCES OF THE MATERIAL + + +With the exception of certain mythological explanations supplied +by the inscriptions and reliefs in the temples, our knowledge of +Egyptian ideas in regard to the future life is based on funerary +customs as revealed by excavations and on the funerary texts +found in the tombs. These tombs always show the same essential +functions through all changes of form,--the protection of the +burial against decay and spoliation, and the provision of a +meeting-place where the living may bring offerings to the dead. +Correspondingly, there are two sets of customs,--burial customs +and offering customs. The texts follow the same division. For the +offering place, the texts are magical formulas which, properly +recited by the living, provide material benefit for the dead. For +the burial place, the texts are magical formulas to be used by +the spirit for its own benefit in the difficulties of the spirit +life. These texts from the burial chambers are found in only a +few graves,--those of the very great,--and their contents +show us that they were intended only for people whose earthly +position was exceptional. + +From the funerary customs and the offering texts, a clear view is +obtained of the general conception, the ordinary practice. We see +what was regarded as absolutely essential to the belief of the +common man. From the texts found in the burial chambers we get +the point of view of the educated or powerful man, the things +that might be done to gain for him an exceptional place in the +other world. Both of these classes of material must be +considered, in order to gain a true idea of the practical +beliefs. For it must be emphasized from the beginning that we +have in Egypt several apparently conflicting conceptions of +immortality. Nor are we anywhere near obtaining in the case of +the texts the clearness necessary to understand fully all the +differing views held by the priestly classes during a period of +over two thousand years. + + + + +III. THE IDEAS OF THE PRIMITIVE RACE + + +The earliest belief in immortality is that which is shown to us +by the burial customs of the primitive race,--the prehistoric +Egyptian race. + +About 4500 B.C. we find the Egyptian race was just emerging from +the Stone Age. All the implements and weapons found are of flint +or other stone. The men of that time were ignorant of writing, +but show a certain facility in line drawings of men, plants, and +animals. We have found thousands of their graves which all show +the same idea of death. Each person was buried with implements, +weapons, ornaments,--no doubt those actually used in life,-- +with a full outfit of household pots and pans, and with a supply +of food. The man was dead, but he still needed the same things he +used in ordinary life. By a fortunate chance we have even +recovered bodies accidentally desiccated and preserved intact in +the dry soil. These bodies do not show any trace of mutilation, +mummification, or any other preparation for the grave except +probably washing. The dead body was simply laid on a mat in the +grave, covered with a cloth and a mat or a skin, and then with +clean gravel. But with it was placed all those things which the +man might need if his life were to go on in some mysterious, +unseen way, as life went on among those on earth. Possibly his +relations as in later times brought offerings of food to the +grave, but here even the dry soil of Egypt fails to furnish +positive evidence. All this shows a plain simple belief in the +persistence of the life of a man as distinguished from the body +--a belief widely prevalent among primitive people. It contains +nothing unusual, and is probably perfectly explicable psychologically +by means of dreams. + +There is little or no change in this underlying belief to be +observed in the burial customs of the Egyptians during the late +predynastic period. Copper weapons and implements succeed stone +in the graves. All those objects in whose manufacture the new +tools are used show changes of technique and form. It is even +curious to note that some of the older stone and flint objects, +some of the older pots and pans, are still made as a matter of +tradition. The importance of this is not to be overlooked. For +centuries men had used flint knives and they had baked their +bread in flat mud saucers set in the ashes. For the centuries +these flint knives and these cakes with their saucers had been +placed in the graves. Gradually metal knives and better bread +pans displaced these more primitive objects in daily life; but +the older primitive objects were still placed in the graves as a +matter of tradition. + +It must be remembered, of course, that these traditional objects +were also in use in ancient traditional ceremonies on earth. The +sacrificial animals were still slaughtered with flint knives. The +old-style cakes were still offered in the holy places. In other +words, life on earth now consisted of ordinary material life and +a traditional life--a life that clung to the forms of a more +primitive civilization as somehow more effective with the divine +powers. This view is closely reflected in the grave furniture; +here, too, were the practical objects and the traditional +ceremonial objects. Life after death is still always the same as +life on earth--with the same physical needs, with the same need +of help from supernatural powers or against supernatural powers. +The spirit of the man needed the spirit of the copper axe to +swing in battle; but just as much he needed the spirit of the +flint knife to make the first cut across the throat of the spirit +bull of sacrifice. Remember this--the other world, in which +lived the spirit of the dead, was filled with the spirits or +ghosts of all things and animals. The other, the unseen, was a +duplicate of this world; all things which have shape were there +--even to the black fields and the broad river of Egypt. This is +the foundation of the Egyptian conception of immortality. Through +all the modifications and accretions of the following three +thousand years, this foundation idea is always clearly visible. +All the statues, the carved and painted tombs, all the curious +little model boats and workshops, all the painted mummies, all +the amulets, the scarabs, the little funerary statuettes,--all +this mummery which seems to be so characteristic and so +essential, is only the means to an end, and an ever changing +means to secure a successful comfortable existence of the spirit +in the life after death,--in the ghostly duplicate of life on +earth. + + + + +IV. THE EARLY DYNASTIC PERIOD + + +It is clear that the effort to attain an immortality which is +merely a ghostly continuation of life on earth must reflect the +general development of Egyptian culture,--especially the +advance in arts and crafts. One of the most striking examples of +this fact is the introduction of metal working mentioned above +and the consequent placing of both flint and copper in the grave, +--the division of grave furniture into practical objects and +ceremonial objects, which is the foundation for the use of +symbolic objects in later times. + +The advance in arts and crafts not only suggests new ideas of the +necessities of the spirit, but it provides the necessary +technical skill for the more effective satisfaction of all the +needs of the dead. This takes, first of all, the form of +supplying a place for the burial, which furnishes greater +security to the body and a better communication between the +living and the dead. + +From the First Dynasty, say from 3300 B.C. down, as soon as the +Egyptian had mastered the use of mud-brick and wood, we gain the +certainty of an idea which could only be guessed at in the +primitive period. A place is provided above the grave at which +the living could meet the spirit of the dead with _periodical_ +offerings of food and other necessities. In the life after death, +spirit food and drink, once used, ceased to be, just as in life +on earth, and had to be renewed from day to day, lest the spirit +of the dead suffer from hunger and thirst. One of the great +developments of the first six dynasties looked to the provision +of these daily necessities. + +The invention of writing was immediately utilized. About the +beginning of the First Dynasty writing was invented for +administrative and other practical purposes. Gravestones, bearing +in relief the name of the dead, were set up in the offering +places of the kings and court people. These were probably +reminders for use in some simple formula recited in presenting +the periodical offerings. As the Egyptians became more familiar +with the use of writing, the offering formula was written out in +full, enlarged and modified. + +Sculptures, both relief and statuary, in every stage of their +development, were used as magical accessories to the offering +rites. + +So, also, the whole history of Egyptian architecture was +reflected in the tomb; for every advance brought about some +change in the form or structure. In fact, the whole development +of the form of the Egyptian tomb depended on the development of +technical skill. The same funerary functions are served +throughout. As all the great artisans were at the command of the +king, all the great technical discoveries and inventions were +first made in his service. But every permanent gain in knowledge +was a benefit to the race and utilized by the common people. So, +for example, the skill acquired in stone-cutting, during the +construction of the great pyramids, was utilized a little later +in producing rock-cut tombs from one end of Egypt to the other. + +The functions of the grave remained the same. Yet with the +changes in form resulting from the growth of skill, modifications +in the funerary customs crept in. + +The mud-brick tombs of the early part of the First Dynasty, like +the pre-dynastic graves, had only one chamber, limited in size by +the length of logs obtainable to form the roof. The growing +desire for ostentation found a way to enlarge the tombs by +building them with a number of chambers. The burial was placed in +the central chamber and the burial furniture in the additional +chambers. In this way the separation of the furniture and the +actual burial was brought about. + + + + +V. THE OLD EMPIRE + + +Another change comes in the Fourth Dynasty, and is to be noted +first in the royal tombs, as is always the case. The Egyptians +had now learned to cut stone and build with it. The burial +chambers hollowed in the solid rock were necessarily smaller than +the old chambers dug in the gravel and no longer sufficient to +contain the great mass of furniture gathered by a king for his +grave. On the other hand, the chapels with the increase in +architectural skill could be build of great size. Corresponding +to these technical conditions we find a great increase in the +importance of the chapel. It becomes a great temple, whose +magazines were filled with all those objects which had formerly +been placed in the burial chamber and were so necessary to the +life of the spirit. The temples of the third pyramid, for +example, contained nearly two thousand stone vessels. Great +estates were set aside by will, and the income appointed to the +support of certain persons who on their side were obliged to keep +up the temple, to make the offerings and to recite the magical +formulas which would provide the spirit with all its necessities. + +Following closely the growth in importance of the royal chapels, +the private offering places assumed a greater importance. The +custom of periodic offerings and the use of magical texts grew +until it reached its highest point in the Fifth Dynasty. At this +time there is a burial chamber deep underground where the dead +was laid securely in ancient traditional attitude, with his +clothing and a few personal ornaments. As a rule, it is only the +women, always conservative, that have anything more. Above this +grave, there is a solid rectangular structure, with a chapel or +offering place on the side towards the valley. The offering place +is always there, no matter how poor or small the tomb. But to +understand just what the Egyptian thought, we must turn to the +better tombs. The walls are of limestone carved with reliefs +representing the important processes of daily life,--sowing, +reaping, cattle-herding, hunting, pot-making, weaving,--all +those actions which furnish the daily supplies. The dead man is +represented overseeing all this. Finally, near the offering +niche, he is represented seated, usually with his wife at a table +bearing loaves of the traditional _ta_ bread. Beside him are +represented heaps of provisions--meat, cakes, vegetables, wine +and beer. A list of objects is never missing, marked with +numbers,--a thousand loaves of bread, a thousand head of +cattle, a thousand jars of wine, a thousand garments, and so on. +We know from latter inscriptions that these words, properly +recited, created for the spirit a store of spirit objects in +equal numbers. Below the niche is an altar for receiving actual +offerings of food and drink. It is clear that the living, coming +to this offering place with or without material offerings, could, +by proper recitation, secure to the spirit of the dead all its +daily needs. This offering niche is the door of the other world +--symbolically and actually. In many graves the niche is carved +to represent a door--sometimes opening in, and sometimes +opening out. Moreover, in several cases the figure of the dead is +carved half emerging from the opening door--a figure in all +ways like the figure of the dead as he is represented in the +scenes from life. Beyond this door lives the spirit of the dead. + +In many offering chambers there is a small hole in the wall, +either in the offering niche or in another place. If this hole be +properly lighted and the space beyond has not been changed by +decay or violation, the light falls on the face of a statue of +the dead looking forth to the world of the living. For behind the +wall is another chamber, closed except for this small hole. This +hidden chamber contains statues of the dead often accompanied by +statues of his family and his servants. These statues of the dead +are labeled with his name, and are said to be the abode of his +spirit, his _ka_, as the Egyptians called it. Moreover, all the +offering formulas named the _ka_ as the recipient of the food and +drink. The duplicate spirit of the man is his _ka_. In these +statues we have, then, a simulacrum of the man provided for use +of his _ka_--perhaps to assist the _ka_ to the persistence of +his earthly form, and to the remembrance of his name. But what +were the uses of the subsidiary statues? What spirit resided in +them? The man's son in his turn died, and a similar room was made +for him with his statue and his subsidiary statues. Did his _ka_ +live both in the statue placed with his father's statue and also +in the statue in his own grave? We have no answer. Probably the +Egyptian mind never formulated the difficulty. + +But the new idea is clearly expressed. It is no longer necessary +to fill the burial chamber with a mass of household furniture for +the use of the dead. All these things can be carved on the wall +of the burial chamber and so made effective for his use. It was +in any case necessary to supply his food by means of the +offerings, and it was quite as easy to supply all his other +necessities in the same way. In other words, there is a distinct +growth in the use of magic to benefit the dead. At the same time, +we find the growth of the custom of supplying a special abode for +the _ka_--a simulacrum of the man, which assisted the _ka_ to +retain the form of the living man and to remember his identity. + +The tendency of this period is then to place a greater dependence +on magic than on food, drink, and grave furniture. It is, +therefore, not surprising to find introduced, for the first time, +the use of magical texts in the burial chamber,--the so-called +Pyramid Texts. In the burial chamber in the pyramid of Unas, last +king of the Fifth Dynasty, and in the pyramids of the kings of +the Sixth Dynasty, the walls are covered with long magical texts +or chapters--the oldest form of the so-called book of the dead +or "book of the going forth by day." The texts were probably +somewhat older, but are now used for the first time in this +manner, no doubt owing to the increased facility in carving +stone. In these the various powers of the other world are invoked +by the incidents of the Osiris-Isis legend, to preserve the dead +body, to feed the _ka_, and to assist the other spirit, the _ba_, +in its struggles with supernatural powers. + +The pyramid texts introduce us to three important ideas,--(1) a +curious plurality of the spirit existence, (2) a condition of +immortality better than that of the old underworld or Earu, and +(3) most important of all, the identification of the king with +Osiris according to the terms of the Osiris-Isis legend. + +In all the older offering formulas it is only the _ka_ spirit +which is mentioned. Here is the body perishable and destructible; +here is the life, the _ka_ which fills every limb and vessel of +the body and must, therefore, have the same form. When death +comes, the _ka_ spirit, the image of the man, remains near the +body, and this spirit it was which was the object of the rites +and offerings in the funerary chapel. But besides this _ka_, it +appears for the first time that the king at any rate possesses +also a soul called a _ba_. In later times we see that every man +possessed a _ba_, and we learn that each god possessed several +_ba's_. But it is in the pyramid texts that we learn for the +first time of the _ba_ of a man, and that man is a king. When +death comes, the _ba_ takes flight in the form of a bird or +whatever form it wills. All seems confused. The _ka_ was near the +body, the _ka_ was in the field of Earu, under the earth +ploughing and sowing; the _ba_ is fluttering on the branches of +the tree on earth, the _ba_ has fled like a falcon to the +heavens, and has been set as a star among the stars. The dead +king lives with the gods and is fed by them. The goddesses give +him the breast. He lives in the Island of Food. He lives in Earu, +the Underworld, a land like Egypt, with fields and canals and +flood and harvest. He shares with the gods in the offerings made +in the great temples on earth. + +It is quite clear that all this is an expression of +dissatisfaction with the old belief in the simple duplicate +world, the world of Earu under the earth. It is noteworthy that +this first appears in royal tombs. These texts are written for +kings alone. It is only many centuries later that the texts of +the book of the dead showed similar possibilities open to the +common man. This is the usual course of all advances in Egypt,-- +architecture, sculpture, writing, whatever gain in skill or +knowledge there is, appears first in the service of the royal +family. Thus, even in the conception of immortality, the new +ideas, the better immortality was first thought out for the +benefit of the king. The basis for this lay simply in the life on +earth. The king had come early to have a sort of divinity +ascribed to him. His chief name was the Horus name. Menes was the +Horus Aha; Cheops was the Horus Mejeru; Pepy II was the Horus +Netery-khau. But he was also the son of Ra, the sun-god, endued +with life forever. The king was a god, and it could only be that +in his future life he shared the life of the gods. Thus, all is +no more confused or mysterious than is the conception of the life +of the gods themselves. + +But the texts go even further than this and identify the dead +god-man, who as Horus was king on earth, with the father of +Horus, the dead god of the earth, Osiris. This identification of +the dead man with the dead god Osiris was later enlarged to +include all men, and became in the Ptolemaic period the most +characteristic feature of the Egyptian conception of life after +death. + +The Osiris story as it can be pieced together from the pyramid +texts [See A. Erman: _Die Aegyptische Religion_, p. 38 ff.] was +briefly thus: Keb, the earth-god, and Nut, the goddess of the +sky, had four children,--Osiris and Isis, Seth and Nephthys,-- +who were thus paired in marriage. Keb gave Osiris his dominion, +the earth, and made him the god of the earth, and he ruled justly +and powerfully. Seth, his brother, was jealous, and by treachery +enticed Osiris into a box, which he closed and threw into the +water. Isis sought for the body of her husband until she found it, +and Isis and Nephthys, her sister, sat at his head and feet and +bewailed him. Re, the greatest of the gods, heard Isis's +complaint; his heart was touched, and he sent Anubis to bury +Osiris. Anubis re-joined his separated bones, bound him with +cloths, and prepared him for burial,--that is, mummified him. +This is the form in which Osiris is represented,--as a mummy. +Isis then fanned her wings, and the air from her wings caused the +mummy to live. His life on earth, however, was over, could not be +recalled, so that his new life could only be passed in the other +world, the world of the dead. Here Osiris became king, as he had +been king on earth. But Isis conceived from the dead-living +Osiris, bore a child in secret, and suckled him, hidden in a +swamp. When the child, the sun-god Horus, grew up, he fought +against Seth to recover his father's kingdom, and to avenge his +death. Both gods were injured in the fight. Horus lost an eye. +But Thoth intervened, separated the fighters, and healed their +wounds. Thoth spat upon the eye of Horus and it became whole. +Horus, however, gave his eye to Osiris to eat, and thereby Osiris +became endowed with life, soul, and power (i.e. in the underworld). +But Seth disputed the legitimacy of the birth of Horus, and the +great gods held a court in the house of Keb. In this court, +justice was done, the truth of Horus's claims was established, +and he was placed on the throne of his father. Osiris became +the ruler in the land of the dead, Horus in the land of the +living. + +The kernel of the story appears to be this: Osiris is the god of +the earth, and his life is the life of the vegetation, dying and +reviving with the course of the seasons, mourned by his wife Isis +and succeeded by his son Horus, the sun-god. It is apparently a +form of the common Tammuz or Adonis story of the Semites. This +fact brings with it a suggestion which requires consideration. + +The racial connection of the Egyptians may seem to have little to +do with immortality. But I beg a moment's consideration. The two +great dominating ideas of immortality are those held by the +Christians and by the Mohammedans, and these are essentially the +same idea. Both these religions are creations of the Semitic +race. It is, therefore, decidedly of importance to find that the +Egyptian race, the creator of a third great religion, has also a +large Semitic strain. In fact, the investigations of the last ten +years appear to show that this Semitic strain it was which gave +the Egyptian race its creative power and made possible the +development of the Egyptian civilization. + +The Egyptian language furnishes us with indisputable proof of the +Semitic affinity, as Professor Adolf Erman showed years ago. The +anatomical examination by Professor Elliot Smith of a large +number of skeletons, dated by careful excavations, has given us a +further clue. There is a prehistoric race found in the earliest +cemeteries--neither Negroid nor Asiatic in characteristics. In +the late predynastic and the early dynastic periods, when the +great development began, this primitive race had become modified +by an infiltration of broad-headed people from the north. In the +Old Empire, this broad-headed people had become predominant, and +remain so throughout all Lower and Middle Egypt until the present +day. This intruding race, whose advent marks the beginning of +Egyptian civilization, I believe to have been Semitic. + +Remember this--the texts show clearly older ideas in conflict +with the Osiris belief. The primitive race was not, I believe, a +race of Osiris followers. Professor Erman has stated that the +Osiris belief is as early as 4200 B.C. That I am certain is +absolutely untenable. It is a question of Egyptian chronology in +which I beg to differ radically both from Eduard Meyer and +Professor Erman. In the formal calendar year of three hundred and +sixty-five days, there are twelve months of thirty days and five +intercalary days. These intercalary days are called the birthdays +of Osiris, Horus, Seth, Isis, and Nephthys--the five most +important figures in the Osiris myth. According to Professor +Meyer and Professor Erman, this formal calendar was introduced in +4200 B.C., one of the occasions when the heliacal rising of the +star Sothis fell on the first of the month Thoth of the calendar. +However, if we accept with them the date 3300 B.C. as the date of +the First dynasty, then in 4200 B.C. the Egyptians were just +emerging from a neolithic state. They were culturally incapable +of making a formal calendar and could have no possible use for +one. Either the calendar did not originate in Egypt, or it was +introduced in 2780 B.C., when again the heliacal rising Sothis +fell on the first of Thoth. At this time the Osiris story was +dominant, in the religion. We have a race almost certainly +Semitic, fusing the primitive race during the period 3500-3000, +and a few centuries later we have a new religious idea dominating +the fused race. When we examine this new idea, the Osiris belief, +we find its earliest form nothing more nor less than the common +tammuz or Adonis story of the Semites. The conclusion lies very +near at hand, that the Osiris story is in fact the Tammuz story, +brought into Egypt by the earliest Semitic tribes. In any case it +was a race with a large Semitic mixture which utilized this story +in working out a theory of immortality; and in all probability we +have in the Osiris-Isis religion a third great religion due to +the Semitic race. + +However this may be, it is clear that the craving of the king for +a special immortality, for an exalted future life, found its +justification through the Osiris-Isis myth. Horus was the +successor of Osiris as lord of the earth and the living. The +kings of Egypt were the successors of Horus. The chief name of +the king was his Horus name; Menes was the Horus Aha, Cheops the +Horus Mejeru. When the king died, he became Osiris, and passed to +the kingdom of Osiris. He passed through the underworld with the +sun-god, abode there as Osiris, the god-king, or sped to the +heavens to the celestial gods. Thus comes the entering wedge +of a great change in the conception of immortality--an ordinary +immortality for the common man, a special divine immortality +for the divine man, the king. [It appears probable that the +deification of the king and the assumption of a divine immortality +for him was prior in time to the statement of these beliefs in +the terms of the Osiris story.] Even at this early age, it +was, of course, clearly stated that the king must be righteous, +morally satisfactory in the eyes of the world and of the gods. +The gods, as always, were on the side of the moral code, and +especially on the side of the organized religion. It is +perhaps significant that the chief sins of the kings of the +Fourth dynasty, so execrated by the Egyptian priests in the +Ptolemaic period, were sins against the great gods. The other +charges are for the most part plainly slanders. In practice every +king whose family remained in power was justified before gods and +men, and took his place among the gods in the islands of the +blessed in the northern part of the heavens. + +The dead body was laid in the grave, supplied with all these +magic texts which were to restore and revive the soul and guide +it across waters and through dangers to the place of Osiris. But +the chapel was not wanting, the cult of the _ka_ was maintained, +the statues were placed in the hidden room, the food and drink +were brought daily to the door of the grave. Thus, while a +special immortality was evolved for the king, the funeral customs +continue to show the same service of the _ka_ as in the earlier +period. + +In the Sixth Dynasty, there is a return to the older practice of +placing objects in the grave itself. At present we are unable to +point out the reasons for this. Possibly experience had taught +men that endowments and craved walls left to the care of +descendants were insecure supports for a life after death which +was to last forever. At any rate, the custom arose of making +small models in wood or stone or metal of those scenes and +objects which were carved in relief on the walls of the chapel, +--models of houses, granaries, of kitchens, of brickyards; +models of herds and servants and soldiers; models of boats and +ships; models of dance-halls with the man seated drinking wine, +around him musicians, before him dancing girls; models of swords, +of vessels, of implements. Poorer people must be contented with +poorer things, down to the peasant who is buried with the few +little necessary pots and pans of his daily life. But always, in +every grave, the chapel, small or great, is there. The endowment +of funerary priests continues. Every man, I suppose, however +poor, had some one to make at least one offering at his grave. +And so it was down to the New Empire. + + + + +VI. THE MIDDLE EMPIRE + + +During the Middle Empire, the burial and offering customs show +the persistence of the old belief in life after death as on +earth. Pots, vessels, tools, weapons, ornaments, clothing, and +models of scenes from life, continue to be placed in the burial +chamber. The walls of the offering chambers of the nobles, at +this time cut in the rock, still bear representations from life +carved in relief. The symbolical doors and the offering formulas +still mark the spot where the dead receive the necessities of +life from the living. All graves of every class testify to the +faith in a life after death similar to life on earth. Yet certain +modifications are apparent which are significant for the future +development of the conception of immortality: (1) the pyramid +texts are used by the provincial nobles for their own benefit; +(2) Abydos assumes a great importance as the burial place of +Osiris; (3) the swathed mummy comes into general use in burials. + +The first identification of the king with Osiris in the pyramid +texts marks the conception of a better immortality for him. So, +as the possibility of a better immortality was claimed by wider +and wider circles of men, the use of the pyramid texts, or +similar texts, also became wider. In the Middle Empire, texts +practically identical with the pyramid texts, but furnished with +illustrations somewhat like those of the later books of the dead, +are found in the coffins of provincial nobles. + +The power of the monarchy had been weakening during the Fifth and +Sixth Dynasties, partly owing to the dissipation of national +resources by royal extravagance, partly owing to other causes. +After the Sixth Dynasty, the country was clearly in a period of +economic depression; and the government was broken up into a +series of nearly independent baronies corresponding roughly to +the later division into provinces or nomes. Our material is +scanty. The tombs of very few great men have been found. But when +in the Twelfth Dynasty an abundance of material is at hand, we +see, alongside the old forms of the burial customs, the use of +the pyramid texts on the inside walls of the coffins of the great +man. It was now possible for the _ba_ of the great landed noble +to seek refuge with the gods in the northwest heavens and share +their life. + +The increasing importance of Abydos as the burial place of Osiris +is of still greater significance. The tomb of a king of the First +Dynasty was identified by the priests as the actual burial place +of Osiris. Many great people made graves for themselves in the +same field; or, if they lived at a distance, built empty +cenotaphs there. A great temple of Osiris stood near by, and +became the centre of the celebration of mysteries illustrating +the death and revival of Osiris. Fortunately, a certain high +official named I-kher-nofret has left us an account of the Osiris +passion-play as performed under his oversight in the nineteenth +year of Sesostris III, nearly two thousand years before Christ +[See Schafer's article, "Die Osiris-mysterien," in Sethe's +_Untersuchungen zur Geshichte Aegyptens_, IV, 2, pp 1-42.]. The +play began by the procession of the statue of the jackal-god +Wep-wawet (the road-opener) going forth to help his father +Osiris. Then the statue of Osiris himself in the Neshemet boat +came forth as triumphant king of the earth. Sham battles took +place referring to the conquest of the earth by Osiris. These +processions were only introductory. The principal procession took +place on the following day (or days), when Osiris went forth to +his death at Nedit. The actual death scene certainly took place +in secret. But when the dead body was found, the multitude joined +in the wailing and the lamentations. The god Thoth went forth in +a boat and brought back the body of Osiris. The body was prepared +for burial and taken in funeral procession to the grave at Peker. +Osiris was avenged on his enemies in a great battle on the water +at Nedit. Finally, the god, his life revived, comes from Peker in +triumphant procession and enters his temple at Abydos. + +Osiris mysteries were celebrated at other places, at least in +later times and perhaps even in the Middle Empire; but it is not +easy to discern the part these mysteries played in the Middle +Empire in the beliefs of the common people regarding their +immortality. The Osiris story was one of the most widespread in +Egypt, and, powerful in its effect on the feelings of all +classes, was certain, sooner or later, to prepare the way for a +general belief in a better immortality; but if we may judge from +the burial customs, the great mass of the people still believed +merely in an underworld, Earu, a duplicate of the earthly life, +but with greater possibilities of danger and evil. + +During the course of Egyptian history the position in which the +body is buried undergoes a series of remarkable changes. During +the early pre-dynastic period, the body, loosely enfolded in +cloths and skins, is laid in the grave double up on the left +side, _usually_ with the head south (i.e. upstream). This +position becomes the custom, with very few exceptions, during the +late predynastic period and the first three dynasties. Throughout +the Fourth to Sixth Dynasties, the body was in the same position, +but with the head north, loosely covered with shawls and +garments. The crouching position, with some slight modifications, +continues to be used for the poorest class down to the New +Empire. Among the Nubians, it is universal to the New Empire and +customary even later in unmixed Nubian communities. The swathed +extended burials begin in Egypt in the Fourth Dynasty, so far as +remains are preserved. Some members of the royal family of Cheops +were buried in swathed wrapping, lying extended on the left side +with the knees bent. During the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties this +extended position on the side becomes customary for the better +classes; and during the Middle Empire it becomes almost +universal. + +The final burial position, the swathed mummy lying extended on +the back, does not become general until the New Empire, about +1600 B.C. although it is the position hitherto regarded as the +characteristic Egyptian burial position. A few isolated cases, +some of them perhaps accidental, occur as early as the Old +Empire; but in the New Empire the extended burial on the back is +practically the only one to be observed. In other words, +beginning in the predynastic period with a burial position which +may be called natural and primitive, the Egyptian gradually +adopted a position which imitated the form of the dead Osiris, +the god of the dead. Each new change is first adopted by the +royal family, and is taken up by the other classes in turn until +it becomes universal. In the final form, the mummy was a +simulacrum of the dead as Osiris. + +Alongside these changes in the burial position progressed the art +of preserving the body. The earliest attempts were made on the +body of the king; and the knowledge of embalming gained in +preserving his body was gradually utilized for the higher classes +and finally for all but the poorest. It seems indisputable that +the royal personages of the Fourth and Sixth Dynasties were +mummified--i.e., the entrails were drawn, the body prepared +with spices and resins and wrapped tightly in cloths smeared with +resin. But the mummies of the nobles, even of this period, show +no trace of such treatment. The receptacles for the viscera are +sometimes found in their graves in the Sixth Dynasty, but are, as +a rule, empty, being mere dummy vases. Even in the Middle Empire, +the preservation of the bodies of the better classes was +extremely imperfect. The bundles of wrappings have kept their +form to the present day and it seems as if the mummy were still +intact; but an examination of the interior shows only loose +bones. Successful mummification appears among better-class people +in the New Empire for the first time and becomes a general custom +in the Late Period. The processes of successful mummification +necessitated the practical destruction of the body. + +In the Middle Empire, which is the period under discussion, the +process of mummification had reached a middle stage, and, while +we are unable to explain exactly the causal relationship, it is +clear that this advance in the treatment of the body accompanied +a spread of the belief in the Osirian immortality. + + + + +VII. THE NEW EMPIRE + + +The New Empire (1600-1200 B.C.) was the great period of foreign +conquest. The Hyksos, Asiatic invaders, had held Egypt for a +century or more. The Theban princes who drove them out became +kings of Egypt, and followed them into Asia. With an army trained +in war by the long struggle with the Hyksos, the Egyptian kings, +having tasted the sweetness of the spoils of war, entered on the +conquest of western Asia and the Sudan. The plunder of both these +regions poured into Egypt. Under Thothmes III an annual campaign +was conducted into Syria to bring back the spoils and the +tribute. Foreign slaves and the products of foreign handicraft +were for sale in every market-place. The treasury was filled to +overflowing. A large share was assigned to Amon, the god of the +Theban family. Temples were built for him; estates established +for the maintenance of his rites; thousands of priests enrolled +for the service of his properties. The god became, in a material +sense, the greatest god of Egypt, the national god; and his +priesthood became the most powerful organization in the kingdom. +The high priest of Amon usurped the power of the king and finally +supplanted him. Such was the period in which the next great +development of the Egyptian idea of immortality is to be noted-- +a period of priestly activity in the beginning and of priestly +domination in the end. + +The priests are the scribes, the men of learning. They have the +lore of all magic, medicine, rules of conduct, religious rites. +It is not mere chance, therefore, that the New Empire was marked +by a great increase of magic in all its forms--texts and +symbolic objects--and by a great development in the knowledge +of the other world. In some of the texts the geography of the +underworld, in which Osiris is king, is worked out in great +detail. When the sun sets in the west, Ra in his boat enters the +underworld and passes through it during the twelve hours of the +night, bringing light and happiness to those who are in the +underworld. In the effort to secure the tomb against plundering, +the royal graves had been cut in the solid rock,--long and +complicated passages with false leads and deceptive turns and the +burial chamber in an unexpected place. The long walls of these +rooms presented a great surface suitable to decoration, and they +were utilized to depict scenes from the underworld and the +passage of Ra through it, so that the tombs became in fact +representations of the land of the dead, and were so considered. +These royal tombs were at a distance from the cultivated land, +hidden in valleys in the desert. Their funerary temples were +built on the edge of the desert beside the temples of the gods of +the place. + +Such fantastical reconstructions of the other world, however, +never found general favor and are confined to a few royal tombs. +The priests and other prominent people have rolls of papyrus +buried with them, bearing copies of books of the dead. These +books of the dead are made up of a series of chapters, each +complete in itself and each dealing with some phase of the future +life. There is no set order of chapters. There is no fixed number +of chapters. Each scribe seems to have selected the chapters +which he considered useful. The general title is: Chapters of the +going forth by day. The general character may be given by a +paragraph attached to one of the chapters in the Book of Ani the +Scribe [Edited by E. A. W. Budge, p. 26]: "If this book be known +on earth and written on the coffin, it is my mouth. He shall come +forth by day in any form he desires and he shall go into his +place without being prevented. There shall be given to him bread +and beer and meat upon the altar of Osiris. He shall enter in, in +peace, to the field of Earu according to this decree of the one +who is in the City of Dedu. There shall be given to him wheat and +barley there. He shall flourish as he did upon earth. He shall do +his desires like these nine Gods who are in the underworld, as +found true millions of times. He is the Osiris: the Scribe Ani." + +There are chapters to overcome all the evil which a soul may +encounter; there are words to greet all the gods whom the soul +desires to visit. The Scribe Ani had an exceptional position on +earth; he desires to do his desire in the other world; and in the +names of Osiris he recites the magic words that bring him the +power. He is Ani, but he calls himself Osiris; just as the +priestly doctor mixes his dose of medicine and calls it "the eye +of Horus tested and found true." + +In addition to magical texts, there are also magical, or +symbolic, objects placed in the graves,--amulets of various +kinds which were to be used in the other world. Some of these +were simply the amulets used in daily life to guard against +sickness, bite of snake, and other earthly evils which were also +incident to the life after death. Other amulets, like the +so-called _Ushabtiu_, were to meet special conditions of the +other world. These _Ushabtiu_, or "answerers," were little images +of workmen bearing agricultural implements whose duty it was to +take the place of the dead in the fields of Earu when Osiris as +king called him to do his share of the field work. Even the king +appears liable to this service, and for him thousands of these +figures were made,--sometimes labeled each with the day of the +year. In a few cases there was even a charm written on the figure +to prevent it hearing the command of any one but its master. + +Alongside these manifold manifestations of the belief in magic, +other furniture--implements, weapons, and utensils--are still +placed in the grave. The offering places are still maintained. +All burials are now extended on the back and wrapped in bandages. +Yet the common graves lack the receptacles for the viscera, lack +magical texts, lack ushabtiu, and--in a word--lack all those +things which are typical of the better-class graves of the +period. The conception of the future life among the common people +is apparently not essentially different from that of the Old +Empire. But the books of the dead and the offering formulas show +that the priests and high officials at death were called Osiris. + +By the end of the Late Period the Osiris cult of the dead had +come to be universal. No doubt political events had much to do +with this. The absorption of the powers of the king by the +priesthood of the national god Amon-Ra, the crushing of the +nobility by a succession of foreign invaders, and the general +uncertainty of life, had disturbed the old fixed relations. The +hope of every Egyptian turned to a glorified future life as +Osiris. + +The tendency to use magical texts and symbolic objects reached +its height. About 700 B.C. a revival of national life, brought +about by the establishment of the Egyptian kings of Sais as kings +of Egypt, led to a renaissance of Egyptian art. The old monuments +were copied and imitated, the old funerary texts and offering +formulas were sought out in the older graves. Even the pyramid +texts reappear after one thousand years of practical oblivion. +The value of master words was so firmly fixed in the Egyptian +mind that misunderstood texts of all sorts were copied out and +placed in the graves to secure to the dead some vague benefit in +the other world. + +The process of mummification was at its height. The bodies were +no longer preserved. The process was merely the creation of a +simulacrum of the dead Osiris So-and-So. All the perishable parts +of the body were removed or destroyed by chemicals. Only the +skin, bones, hair, and teeth remained to be padded with mud and +resin, wrapped in cloths, covered with a painted and gilded +_cartonnage_ to represent the glorified Osiris mummy. + + + + +VIII. THE PTOLEMAIC-ROMAN PERIOD + + +In the Ptolemaic-Roman period we see the final stage of the +Osiris cult. Every dead man is laid in his grave without +furniture, prepared as a simulacrum of Osiris. The wealthiest +people have gilded and painted mummy cases with amulets and +funerary papyrus. The poorer are merely bundles of wrappings. +Every dead man is Osiris, and no doubt carried with him words +learned on earth to gain his way to a place in the kingdom of +Osiris. The offering places above the grave are still made and +offerings are still brought. + +To gain some idea of the way in which these two conceptions of +the living dead were worked out in actual life, one has only to +turn to the funerary customs of the modern Egyptians. In the case +of both Christians and Moslems, the grave rites are similar; but +with those of the Moslems I am more familiar. The grave consists +still of the two parts, the burying place and the offering place. +The swathed body is laid on the right side, with the right hand +under the cheek and the face towards Mecca. At the burial the +confession of the faith is recited over and over, lest the dead +forget it. + +Korans are sometimes placed in the graves; and I have even seen a +confession of the faith written on paper and placed on a twig +before the face of the dead. At the appointed seasons-- +especially at the great Feast of Sacrifice--offerings are +brought to the grave. The family party passes through the +cemetery, the women bearing baskets of bread and bottles of +water, the men turning the head to the right and to the left and +reciting the _fatha_ in propitiation of the spirits. The party +enters the offering inclosure of the grave of their relative. The +wives greet the dead--"Peace unto thee, oh, my husband, oh, my +father, we have wept until we have watered the earth with our +tears on thy account." The offerings are laid before the tomb. A +scribe is called and recites or reads some chapter of the Koran +over and over, one hundred, one hundred and fifty, five hundred, +one thousand times, and concludes: "I have read this for thee, +oh, such and such a one." Or, "I have transferred the merit of +this to thee." When you question these people as to the +particulars of their belief, you find their ideas vague and +indefinite. Among the men a dispute quickly starts,--the people +who have been found good by the examining angels on the night of +the burial are there, but the bad are somewhere else. No, says +another, they are all in their graves, but the bad suffer +torment. Still another maintains that the good have already +passed to the lowest heaven. These are all mere remnants of +theological discussions caught from the sheikhs. The women +stolidly maintain that the dead are in their tombs and the +offerings must be brought. When you inquire which are the good +and which are the bad, there is again a great divergence of +opinion; but it is clear that every man believes in his heart +that a knowledge of the prayers and forms of the Moslem religion +is absolutely essential and entirely sufficient to gain a +desirable future life. The great master word is the confession of +faith--there is no god but Allah and Mohammed is his prophet. + +So it must have been in the last stage of the Osiris cult. +Immortality, a glorified future existence as an Osiris in the +kingdom of Osiris, with all the pleasures and comforts of life, +was secured to him who was buried with the proper rites and knew +the magic words. And yet the old feeling was never lost that the +dead was somehow in the grave and might suffer hunger and thirst. + +When Christianity came into Egypt, all the gaudy apparatus of the +Osiris religion was swept out of existence. The body was to rise +again and might not be mutilated. Mummification, which destroyed +the body in order to preserve a conventional simulacrum, ceased +abruptly. Grave furniture was of course unthinkable. But the use +of charms did not cease. Crosses were embroidered in the +gravecloths; or small crosses of metal or wood placed on the +breast or arm; the gravestone bore a simple prayer to the Holy +Spirit for the peaceful rest of the soul. But the offering place +was still maintained; prayers were recited on the feast days; +lamps were allowed to remain at the grave; food was brought, but +given to the poor. + +In all periods there are thousands of graves of poor people +without a single thing to secure their future life,--people who +were probably content simply to lay down the burdens of life. In +the Christian period these thousands of unnamed dead all have one +mark. They are laid with their feet to the east. Each one was a +Christian and secure in his future life, according to his faith +and his life on earth. + + + + +IX. SUMMARY + + +To sum up, the essential idea of the Egyptian conception of +immortality was that the ghost or spirit of the man preserved the +personality and the form of the man in the existence after death; +that this spirit had the same desires, the same pleasures, the +same necessities, and the same fears as on earth. Life after +death was a duplicate of life on earth. On earth life depended on +work, on getting food from the fields and the herds, on forming +stone and metal, hide and vegetable fibre, into useful objects. +In other words, life depended on human power over the natural +materials of the earth. At the same time there were many things +which could not be controlled by power over the earth and its +elements,--the sting of the scorpion, the bite of the adder, +the rise of the Nile, sickness, the sudden onslaught of the +enemy, the straying of cattle, the disfavor of the god. For these +evils man's only hope was magic,--the set words spoken in the +proper manner which have power over all unseen influence. So in +the case of life after death, all which human strength can +provide of stores of grain and drink and garments must be secured +for his use; but he must also be provided with the magic words to +meet the chance evils of the future life. + +It is not surprising that the unknown future presented to the +imagination many evils unknown on earth. The spirit might forget +its name, it might lose its heart, it might be bound fast by evil +powers in the grave and unable to come forth by day. The mummy +might decay; the spirit might forget its form. So, as time went +on, the use of magic words became of greater and greater +importance, until, to modern eyes, it seemed to overshadow all +else in the Egyptian conception of life after death. + +As a part of the magical provisions of the dead, the Osiris myth, +probably built up in explanation of old rites, was drawn into the +belief in a future life, and apparently at the beginning _solely +for the benefit of the king_, for the benefit of those who +claimed a certain divinity on earth. The earth-god Osiris, god of +the living, had died and had been brought to life as god of the +dead. So, also, the earth-king, the Horus, the son of Ra, must +die, but he also would live again in the other world and share +the throne of Osiris. More than this even, he became Osiris. He +was admitted to the life of the gods. Of course the ideas of the +existence of the gods were never clear and consistent. They lived +in secret places, their whole life was mysterious as well as +powerful. These are the field of knowledge which the Egyptian +mind could not oversee with any satisfaction to itself. The most +it could do was to formulate the magic words, invoking the names +of the gods and conjuring them by the events in the Osiris myth +to accept this king as Osiris. The exceptional man, the +super-man, must have an exceptional future life; but to obtain +it, he must have the knowledge of the names and words necessary +to force the powers of the other world. + +Thus the idea of an exceptional future life, a heaven, was +brought into the Egyptian conception of life after death. +Admission to it depended on the exceptional position on earth of +those admitted. As even this exceptional position was only of +avail when combined with the knowledge of certain formulas, it is +not difficult to see how the knowledge of these formulas might be +considered sufficient to obtain the better future life, even for +others than the king. When in the depression that followed the +extravagance of the pyramid age the central monarchy lost its +power, Egypt broke up into a series of tribal baronies (nomes). +In each was a ruler almost independent of the king, a man who +might presume with the proper knowledge to claim a glorified +future life similar to that of the king. And, indeed, we find +from the burial inscriptions of the Middle Empire that such was +the result. Feudalism extended the possibilities of heaven to the +great nobles. In the New Empire, the royal power was gradually +absorbed by the priestly organization of the national religion-- +the religion of Amon-Ra; and the principle comes into practice +that any priest having the necessary knowledge could obtain for +himself an exceptional place in the future life. The Osirian +burial customs spread even among the people. The swathed body +extended on the back becomes universal, even though true +mummification was still only for the rich. + +In the Ptolemaic period, the preparation of all the apparatus of +the Osiris burial was divided up into trades. Factories, one may +say, turned out mummy cases of various kinds, with a scale of +prices to fit every purse. Other factories turned out amulets and +charms. Magical texts, the preparation of the body, the +construction of the grave--all things were done by regular +crafts. The cheapening of the apparatus is most striking. At the +same time all but the poorest burials bear direct evidence of +their character as Osiris burials. + +On the side of the moral requirement we must not look too +closely. There were powerful words which could compel even the +great judges of the dead to return a favorable verdict. There +were magic hearts of stone which might be worn in place of the +heart, and, laid in the scales by Anubis, weigh heavier than the +truth. One might by words compel Anubis to accept this stone +heart instead of the real heart. + +In general, one may say that the hope of immortality had little +influence on the moral life of the ordinary Egyptian. The moral +code was simple and sound and not greatly different from other +primitive codes,--forbidding all those things which the body of +men regard as unpleasant in others, commanding the plain virtues +which were found pleasant in others. Here, again, I think we may +well look to modern Egypt for a picture of ancient Egypt. We must +not exaggerate the influence of the belief in immortality on +general morality. We must not think too well of the life of the +people--nor, on the other hand, too evil. They had their sins +and their virtues. The common herd was driven by necessity and +lived as it could. They clung to the belief in a life in the +grave. The greater people had leisure to learn and to provide the +magic necessary to secure a comfortable future life. They loved +life and hated death. + +Thus it was when the priests of the Osiris-Isis religion made +their bid to the classical world. They offered immortality by +initiation. Learn the proper rites, learn the master words, and +secure eternal life among the great gods. It was a religion for +the exceptional man down to the last; it required training and +knowledge. Even in its most popular form in the Ptolemaic period, +a specially instructed class was required, who sold for money the +benefits of their knowledge, and men took rank in their security +of future life according to their means. + +Not until Christianity came, offering eternal life free and +without price, did the common people find at last a road open to +equal immortality with the great men of the earth. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12255 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6379885 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #12255 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12255) diff --git a/old/12255.txt b/old/12255.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c2cec2a --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12255.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1617 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Egyptian Conception of Immortality
, by +George Andrew Reisner + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Egyptian Conception of Immortality
+ +Author: George Andrew Reisner + +Release Date: May 4, 2004 [eBook #12255] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EGYPTIAN CONCEPTION OF +IMMORTALITY
*** + + +E-text prepared by Aaron G. Wells + + + +Formatting notes: Footnotes are in [square brackets] and embedded in the + e-text at the location of the superscript number in + the original text. Words and phrases in italics are + surrounded with _underlines_. Everything that appears + in all-caps in this e-text was in all-caps in the + original text. + + + + + +THE EGYPTIAN CONCEPTION OF IMMORTALITY + +The Ingersoll Lecture, 1911 + +by + +GEORGE ANDREW REISNER + + + + + + + +THE INGERSOLL LECTURESHIP + + +Extract from the will of Miss Caroline Haskell Ingersoll, who +died in Keene, County of Cheshire, New Hampshire, Jan. 26, 1893. + +First. In carrying out the wishes of my late beloved father, +George Goldthwait Ingersoll, as declared by him in his last will +and testament, I give and bequeath to Harvard University in +Cambridge, Mass., where my late father was graduated, and which +he always held in love and honor, the sum of Five thousand +dollars ($5,000) as a fund for the establishment of a Lectureship +on a plan somewhat similar to that of the Dudleian lecture, that +is--one lecture to be delivered each year, on any convenient +day between the last of May and the first day of December, on +this subject, "the Immortality of Man," said lecture not to form +a part of the usual college course, nor to be delivered by any +Professor or Tutor as part of his usual routine of instruction, +though any such Professor or Tutor may be appointed to such +service. The choice of said lecturer is not to be limited to any +one religious denomination, nor to any one profession, but may be +that of either clergyman or layman, the appointment to take place +at least six months before the delivery of said lecture. The +above sum to be safely invested and three fourths of the annual +interest thereof to be paid to the lecturer for his services and +the remaining fourth to be expended in the publishment and +gratuitous distribution of the lecture, a copy of which is always +to be furnished by the lecturer for such purpose. The same +lecture to be named and known as the "the Ingersoll lecture on +the Immortality of Man." + + + + +CONTENTS + + + I. Introduction + II. Sources of the Material + III. The Ideas of the Primitive Race + IV. The Early Dynastic Period + V. The Old Empire + VI. The Middle Empire + VII. The New Empire + VIII. The Ptolemaic-Roman Period + IX. Summary + + + + +I. INTRODUCTION + + + +Of the nations which have contributed to the direct stream of +civilization, Egypt and Mesopotamia are at present believed to be +the oldest. The chronological dispute as to the relative +antiquity of the two countries is of minor importance; for while +in Babylonia the historical material is almost entirely +inscriptional, in Egypt we know the handicrafts, the weapons, the +arts, and, to a certain extent, the religious beliefs of the race +up to a period when it was just emerging from the Stone Age. In a +word, Egypt presents the most ancient race whose manner of life +is known to man. From the beginning of its history--that is, +from about 4500 B.C.--we can trace the development of a +religion one of whose most prominent elements was a promise of a +life after death. It was still a great religion when the +Christian doctrine of immortality was enunciated. In the early +centuries of the Christian era, it seemed almost possible that +the worship of Osiris and Isis might become the religion of the +classical world; and the last stand made by civilized paganism +against Christianity was in the temple of Isis at Philae in the +sixth century after Christ. + +It is clear that a religion of such duration must have offered +some of those consolations to man that have marked all great +religions, chief of which is the faith in a spirit, in something +that preserves the personality of the man and does not perish +with the body. This faith was, in fact, one of the chief elements +in the Egyptian religion--the element best known to us through +the endless cemeteries which fill the desert from one end of +Egypt to the other, and through the funerary inscriptions. + +It is necessary, however, to correct the prevailing impression +that religion played the greatest part in Egyptian life or even a +greater part than it does in Moslem Egypt. The mistaken belief +that death and the well-being of the dead overshadowed the +existence of the living, is due to the fact that the physical +character of the country has preserved for us the cemeteries and +the funerary temples better than all the other monuments. The +narrow strip of fat black land along the Nile produces generally +its three crops a year. It is much too valuable to use as a +cemetery. But more than that, it is subject to periodic +saturation with water during the inundation, and is, therefore, +unsuitable for the burials of a nation which wished to preserve +the contents of the graves. On the other hand, the desert, which +bounds this fertile strip so closely that a dozen steps will +usually carry one from the black land to the gray,--the desert +offers a dry preserving soil with absolutely no value to the +living. Thus all the funerary monuments were erected on the +desert, and except where intentionally destroyed they are +preserved to the present day. The palaces, the towns, the farms, +and many of the great temples which were erected on the black +soil, have been pulled down for building material or buried deep +under the steadily rising deposits of the Nile. The tombs of six +thousand years of dead have accumulated on the desert edge. + +Moreover, our impression of these tombs has been formed from the +monuments erected by kings, princes, priests, and the great and +wealthy men of the kingdom. The multitude of plain unadorned +burial-places which the scientific excavator records by the +thousands have escaped the attention of scholars interested in +Egypt from the point of view of a comparison of religions. It has +also been overlooked that the strikingly colored mummies and the +glaring burial apparatus of the late period cost very little to +prepare. The manufacture of mummies was a regular trade in the +Ptolemaic period at least. Mummy cases were prepared in advance +with blank spaces for the names. I do not think that any more +expense was incurred in Egyptian funerals in the dynastic period +than is the case among the modern Egyptians. The importance of +the funerary rites to the living must, therefore, not be +exaggerated. + + + + +II. SOURCES OF THE MATERIAL + + +With the exception of certain mythological explanations supplied +by the inscriptions and reliefs in the temples, our knowledge of +Egyptian ideas in regard to the future life is based on funerary +customs as revealed by excavations and on the funerary texts +found in the tombs. These tombs always show the same essential +functions through all changes of form,--the protection of the +burial against decay and spoliation, and the provision of a +meeting-place where the living may bring offerings to the dead. +Correspondingly, there are two sets of customs,--burial customs +and offering customs. The texts follow the same division. For the +offering place, the texts are magical formulas which, properly +recited by the living, provide material benefit for the dead. For +the burial place, the texts are magical formulas to be used by +the spirit for its own benefit in the difficulties of the spirit +life. These texts from the burial chambers are found in only a +few graves,--those of the very great,--and their contents +show us that they were intended only for people whose earthly +position was exceptional. + +From the funerary customs and the offering texts, a clear view is +obtained of the general conception, the ordinary practice. We see +what was regarded as absolutely essential to the belief of the +common man. From the texts found in the burial chambers we get +the point of view of the educated or powerful man, the things +that might be done to gain for him an exceptional place in the +other world. Both of these classes of material must be +considered, in order to gain a true idea of the practical +beliefs. For it must be emphasized from the beginning that we +have in Egypt several apparently conflicting conceptions of +immortality. Nor are we anywhere near obtaining in the case of +the texts the clearness necessary to understand fully all the +differing views held by the priestly classes during a period of +over two thousand years. + + + + +III. THE IDEAS OF THE PRIMITIVE RACE + + +The earliest belief in immortality is that which is shown to us +by the burial customs of the primitive race,--the prehistoric +Egyptian race. + +About 4500 B.C. we find the Egyptian race was just emerging from +the Stone Age. All the implements and weapons found are of flint +or other stone. The men of that time were ignorant of writing, +but show a certain facility in line drawings of men, plants, and +animals. We have found thousands of their graves which all show +the same idea of death. Each person was buried with implements, +weapons, ornaments,--no doubt those actually used in life,-- +with a full outfit of household pots and pans, and with a supply +of food. The man was dead, but he still needed the same things he +used in ordinary life. By a fortunate chance we have even +recovered bodies accidentally desiccated and preserved intact in +the dry soil. These bodies do not show any trace of mutilation, +mummification, or any other preparation for the grave except +probably washing. The dead body was simply laid on a mat in the +grave, covered with a cloth and a mat or a skin, and then with +clean gravel. But with it was placed all those things which the +man might need if his life were to go on in some mysterious, +unseen way, as life went on among those on earth. Possibly his +relations as in later times brought offerings of food to the +grave, but here even the dry soil of Egypt fails to furnish +positive evidence. All this shows a plain simple belief in the +persistence of the life of a man as distinguished from the body +--a belief widely prevalent among primitive people. It contains +nothing unusual, and is probably perfectly explicable psychologically +by means of dreams. + +There is little or no change in this underlying belief to be +observed in the burial customs of the Egyptians during the late +predynastic period. Copper weapons and implements succeed stone +in the graves. All those objects in whose manufacture the new +tools are used show changes of technique and form. It is even +curious to note that some of the older stone and flint objects, +some of the older pots and pans, are still made as a matter of +tradition. The importance of this is not to be overlooked. For +centuries men had used flint knives and they had baked their +bread in flat mud saucers set in the ashes. For the centuries +these flint knives and these cakes with their saucers had been +placed in the graves. Gradually metal knives and better bread +pans displaced these more primitive objects in daily life; but +the older primitive objects were still placed in the graves as a +matter of tradition. + +It must be remembered, of course, that these traditional objects +were also in use in ancient traditional ceremonies on earth. The +sacrificial animals were still slaughtered with flint knives. The +old-style cakes were still offered in the holy places. In other +words, life on earth now consisted of ordinary material life and +a traditional life--a life that clung to the forms of a more +primitive civilization as somehow more effective with the divine +powers. This view is closely reflected in the grave furniture; +here, too, were the practical objects and the traditional +ceremonial objects. Life after death is still always the same as +life on earth--with the same physical needs, with the same need +of help from supernatural powers or against supernatural powers. +The spirit of the man needed the spirit of the copper axe to +swing in battle; but just as much he needed the spirit of the +flint knife to make the first cut across the throat of the spirit +bull of sacrifice. Remember this--the other world, in which +lived the spirit of the dead, was filled with the spirits or +ghosts of all things and animals. The other, the unseen, was a +duplicate of this world; all things which have shape were there +--even to the black fields and the broad river of Egypt. This is +the foundation of the Egyptian conception of immortality. Through +all the modifications and accretions of the following three +thousand years, this foundation idea is always clearly visible. +All the statues, the carved and painted tombs, all the curious +little model boats and workshops, all the painted mummies, all +the amulets, the scarabs, the little funerary statuettes,--all +this mummery which seems to be so characteristic and so +essential, is only the means to an end, and an ever changing +means to secure a successful comfortable existence of the spirit +in the life after death,--in the ghostly duplicate of life on +earth. + + + + +IV. THE EARLY DYNASTIC PERIOD + + +It is clear that the effort to attain an immortality which is +merely a ghostly continuation of life on earth must reflect the +general development of Egyptian culture,--especially the +advance in arts and crafts. One of the most striking examples of +this fact is the introduction of metal working mentioned above +and the consequent placing of both flint and copper in the grave, +--the division of grave furniture into practical objects and +ceremonial objects, which is the foundation for the use of +symbolic objects in later times. + +The advance in arts and crafts not only suggests new ideas of the +necessities of the spirit, but it provides the necessary +technical skill for the more effective satisfaction of all the +needs of the dead. This takes, first of all, the form of +supplying a place for the burial, which furnishes greater +security to the body and a better communication between the +living and the dead. + +From the First Dynasty, say from 3300 B.C. down, as soon as the +Egyptian had mastered the use of mud-brick and wood, we gain the +certainty of an idea which could only be guessed at in the +primitive period. A place is provided above the grave at which +the living could meet the spirit of the dead with _periodical_ +offerings of food and other necessities. In the life after death, +spirit food and drink, once used, ceased to be, just as in life +on earth, and had to be renewed from day to day, lest the spirit +of the dead suffer from hunger and thirst. One of the great +developments of the first six dynasties looked to the provision +of these daily necessities. + +The invention of writing was immediately utilized. About the +beginning of the First Dynasty writing was invented for +administrative and other practical purposes. Gravestones, bearing +in relief the name of the dead, were set up in the offering +places of the kings and court people. These were probably +reminders for use in some simple formula recited in presenting +the periodical offerings. As the Egyptians became more familiar +with the use of writing, the offering formula was written out in +full, enlarged and modified. + +Sculptures, both relief and statuary, in every stage of their +development, were used as magical accessories to the offering +rites. + +So, also, the whole history of Egyptian architecture was +reflected in the tomb; for every advance brought about some +change in the form or structure. In fact, the whole development +of the form of the Egyptian tomb depended on the development of +technical skill. The same funerary functions are served +throughout. As all the great artisans were at the command of the +king, all the great technical discoveries and inventions were +first made in his service. But every permanent gain in knowledge +was a benefit to the race and utilized by the common people. So, +for example, the skill acquired in stone-cutting, during the +construction of the great pyramids, was utilized a little later +in producing rock-cut tombs from one end of Egypt to the other. + +The functions of the grave remained the same. Yet with the +changes in form resulting from the growth of skill, modifications +in the funerary customs crept in. + +The mud-brick tombs of the early part of the First Dynasty, like +the pre-dynastic graves, had only one chamber, limited in size by +the length of logs obtainable to form the roof. The growing +desire for ostentation found a way to enlarge the tombs by +building them with a number of chambers. The burial was placed in +the central chamber and the burial furniture in the additional +chambers. In this way the separation of the furniture and the +actual burial was brought about. + + + + +V. THE OLD EMPIRE + + +Another change comes in the Fourth Dynasty, and is to be noted +first in the royal tombs, as is always the case. The Egyptians +had now learned to cut stone and build with it. The burial +chambers hollowed in the solid rock were necessarily smaller than +the old chambers dug in the gravel and no longer sufficient to +contain the great mass of furniture gathered by a king for his +grave. On the other hand, the chapels with the increase in +architectural skill could be build of great size. Corresponding +to these technical conditions we find a great increase in the +importance of the chapel. It becomes a great temple, whose +magazines were filled with all those objects which had formerly +been placed in the burial chamber and were so necessary to the +life of the spirit. The temples of the third pyramid, for +example, contained nearly two thousand stone vessels. Great +estates were set aside by will, and the income appointed to the +support of certain persons who on their side were obliged to keep +up the temple, to make the offerings and to recite the magical +formulas which would provide the spirit with all its necessities. + +Following closely the growth in importance of the royal chapels, +the private offering places assumed a greater importance. The +custom of periodic offerings and the use of magical texts grew +until it reached its highest point in the Fifth Dynasty. At this +time there is a burial chamber deep underground where the dead +was laid securely in ancient traditional attitude, with his +clothing and a few personal ornaments. As a rule, it is only the +women, always conservative, that have anything more. Above this +grave, there is a solid rectangular structure, with a chapel or +offering place on the side towards the valley. The offering place +is always there, no matter how poor or small the tomb. But to +understand just what the Egyptian thought, we must turn to the +better tombs. The walls are of limestone carved with reliefs +representing the important processes of daily life,--sowing, +reaping, cattle-herding, hunting, pot-making, weaving,--all +those actions which furnish the daily supplies. The dead man is +represented overseeing all this. Finally, near the offering +niche, he is represented seated, usually with his wife at a table +bearing loaves of the traditional _ta_ bread. Beside him are +represented heaps of provisions--meat, cakes, vegetables, wine +and beer. A list of objects is never missing, marked with +numbers,--a thousand loaves of bread, a thousand head of +cattle, a thousand jars of wine, a thousand garments, and so on. +We know from latter inscriptions that these words, properly +recited, created for the spirit a store of spirit objects in +equal numbers. Below the niche is an altar for receiving actual +offerings of food and drink. It is clear that the living, coming +to this offering place with or without material offerings, could, +by proper recitation, secure to the spirit of the dead all its +daily needs. This offering niche is the door of the other world +--symbolically and actually. In many graves the niche is carved +to represent a door--sometimes opening in, and sometimes +opening out. Moreover, in several cases the figure of the dead is +carved half emerging from the opening door--a figure in all +ways like the figure of the dead as he is represented in the +scenes from life. Beyond this door lives the spirit of the dead. + +In many offering chambers there is a small hole in the wall, +either in the offering niche or in another place. If this hole be +properly lighted and the space beyond has not been changed by +decay or violation, the light falls on the face of a statue of +the dead looking forth to the world of the living. For behind the +wall is another chamber, closed except for this small hole. This +hidden chamber contains statues of the dead often accompanied by +statues of his family and his servants. These statues of the dead +are labeled with his name, and are said to be the abode of his +spirit, his _ka_, as the Egyptians called it. Moreover, all the +offering formulas named the _ka_ as the recipient of the food and +drink. The duplicate spirit of the man is his _ka_. In these +statues we have, then, a simulacrum of the man provided for use +of his _ka_--perhaps to assist the _ka_ to the persistence of +his earthly form, and to the remembrance of his name. But what +were the uses of the subsidiary statues? What spirit resided in +them? The man's son in his turn died, and a similar room was made +for him with his statue and his subsidiary statues. Did his _ka_ +live both in the statue placed with his father's statue and also +in the statue in his own grave? We have no answer. Probably the +Egyptian mind never formulated the difficulty. + +But the new idea is clearly expressed. It is no longer necessary +to fill the burial chamber with a mass of household furniture for +the use of the dead. All these things can be carved on the wall +of the burial chamber and so made effective for his use. It was +in any case necessary to supply his food by means of the +offerings, and it was quite as easy to supply all his other +necessities in the same way. In other words, there is a distinct +growth in the use of magic to benefit the dead. At the same time, +we find the growth of the custom of supplying a special abode for +the _ka_--a simulacrum of the man, which assisted the _ka_ to +retain the form of the living man and to remember his identity. + +The tendency of this period is then to place a greater dependence +on magic than on food, drink, and grave furniture. It is, +therefore, not surprising to find introduced, for the first time, +the use of magical texts in the burial chamber,--the so-called +Pyramid Texts. In the burial chamber in the pyramid of Unas, last +king of the Fifth Dynasty, and in the pyramids of the kings of +the Sixth Dynasty, the walls are covered with long magical texts +or chapters--the oldest form of the so-called book of the dead +or "book of the going forth by day." The texts were probably +somewhat older, but are now used for the first time in this +manner, no doubt owing to the increased facility in carving +stone. In these the various powers of the other world are invoked +by the incidents of the Osiris-Isis legend, to preserve the dead +body, to feed the _ka_, and to assist the other spirit, the _ba_, +in its struggles with supernatural powers. + +The pyramid texts introduce us to three important ideas,--(1) a +curious plurality of the spirit existence, (2) a condition of +immortality better than that of the old underworld or Earu, and +(3) most important of all, the identification of the king with +Osiris according to the terms of the Osiris-Isis legend. + +In all the older offering formulas it is only the _ka_ spirit +which is mentioned. Here is the body perishable and destructible; +here is the life, the _ka_ which fills every limb and vessel of +the body and must, therefore, have the same form. When death +comes, the _ka_ spirit, the image of the man, remains near the +body, and this spirit it was which was the object of the rites +and offerings in the funerary chapel. But besides this _ka_, it +appears for the first time that the king at any rate possesses +also a soul called a _ba_. In later times we see that every man +possessed a _ba_, and we learn that each god possessed several +_ba's_. But it is in the pyramid texts that we learn for the +first time of the _ba_ of a man, and that man is a king. When +death comes, the _ba_ takes flight in the form of a bird or +whatever form it wills. All seems confused. The _ka_ was near the +body, the _ka_ was in the field of Earu, under the earth +ploughing and sowing; the _ba_ is fluttering on the branches of +the tree on earth, the _ba_ has fled like a falcon to the +heavens, and has been set as a star among the stars. The dead +king lives with the gods and is fed by them. The goddesses give +him the breast. He lives in the Island of Food. He lives in Earu, +the Underworld, a land like Egypt, with fields and canals and +flood and harvest. He shares with the gods in the offerings made +in the great temples on earth. + +It is quite clear that all this is an expression of +dissatisfaction with the old belief in the simple duplicate +world, the world of Earu under the earth. It is noteworthy that +this first appears in royal tombs. These texts are written for +kings alone. It is only many centuries later that the texts of +the book of the dead showed similar possibilities open to the +common man. This is the usual course of all advances in Egypt,-- +architecture, sculpture, writing, whatever gain in skill or +knowledge there is, appears first in the service of the royal +family. Thus, even in the conception of immortality, the new +ideas, the better immortality was first thought out for the +benefit of the king. The basis for this lay simply in the life on +earth. The king had come early to have a sort of divinity +ascribed to him. His chief name was the Horus name. Menes was the +Horus Aha; Cheops was the Horus Mejeru; Pepy II was the Horus +Netery-khau. But he was also the son of Ra, the sun-god, endued +with life forever. The king was a god, and it could only be that +in his future life he shared the life of the gods. Thus, all is +no more confused or mysterious than is the conception of the life +of the gods themselves. + +But the texts go even further than this and identify the dead +god-man, who as Horus was king on earth, with the father of +Horus, the dead god of the earth, Osiris. This identification of +the dead man with the dead god Osiris was later enlarged to +include all men, and became in the Ptolemaic period the most +characteristic feature of the Egyptian conception of life after +death. + +The Osiris story as it can be pieced together from the pyramid +texts [See A. Erman: _Die Aegyptische Religion_, p. 38 ff.] was +briefly thus: Keb, the earth-god, and Nut, the goddess of the +sky, had four children,--Osiris and Isis, Seth and Nephthys,-- +who were thus paired in marriage. Keb gave Osiris his dominion, +the earth, and made him the god of the earth, and he ruled justly +and powerfully. Seth, his brother, was jealous, and by treachery +enticed Osiris into a box, which he closed and threw into the +water. Isis sought for the body of her husband until she found it, +and Isis and Nephthys, her sister, sat at his head and feet and +bewailed him. Re, the greatest of the gods, heard Isis's +complaint; his heart was touched, and he sent Anubis to bury +Osiris. Anubis re-joined his separated bones, bound him with +cloths, and prepared him for burial,--that is, mummified him. +This is the form in which Osiris is represented,--as a mummy. +Isis then fanned her wings, and the air from her wings caused the +mummy to live. His life on earth, however, was over, could not be +recalled, so that his new life could only be passed in the other +world, the world of the dead. Here Osiris became king, as he had +been king on earth. But Isis conceived from the dead-living +Osiris, bore a child in secret, and suckled him, hidden in a +swamp. When the child, the sun-god Horus, grew up, he fought +against Seth to recover his father's kingdom, and to avenge his +death. Both gods were injured in the fight. Horus lost an eye. +But Thoth intervened, separated the fighters, and healed their +wounds. Thoth spat upon the eye of Horus and it became whole. +Horus, however, gave his eye to Osiris to eat, and thereby Osiris +became endowed with life, soul, and power (i.e. in the underworld). +But Seth disputed the legitimacy of the birth of Horus, and the +great gods held a court in the house of Keb. In this court, +justice was done, the truth of Horus's claims was established, +and he was placed on the throne of his father. Osiris became +the ruler in the land of the dead, Horus in the land of the +living. + +The kernel of the story appears to be this: Osiris is the god of +the earth, and his life is the life of the vegetation, dying and +reviving with the course of the seasons, mourned by his wife Isis +and succeeded by his son Horus, the sun-god. It is apparently a +form of the common Tammuz or Adonis story of the Semites. This +fact brings with it a suggestion which requires consideration. + +The racial connection of the Egyptians may seem to have little to +do with immortality. But I beg a moment's consideration. The two +great dominating ideas of immortality are those held by the +Christians and by the Mohammedans, and these are essentially the +same idea. Both these religions are creations of the Semitic +race. It is, therefore, decidedly of importance to find that the +Egyptian race, the creator of a third great religion, has also a +large Semitic strain. In fact, the investigations of the last ten +years appear to show that this Semitic strain it was which gave +the Egyptian race its creative power and made possible the +development of the Egyptian civilization. + +The Egyptian language furnishes us with indisputable proof of the +Semitic affinity, as Professor Adolf Erman showed years ago. The +anatomical examination by Professor Elliot Smith of a large +number of skeletons, dated by careful excavations, has given us a +further clue. There is a prehistoric race found in the earliest +cemeteries--neither Negroid nor Asiatic in characteristics. In +the late predynastic and the early dynastic periods, when the +great development began, this primitive race had become modified +by an infiltration of broad-headed people from the north. In the +Old Empire, this broad-headed people had become predominant, and +remain so throughout all Lower and Middle Egypt until the present +day. This intruding race, whose advent marks the beginning of +Egyptian civilization, I believe to have been Semitic. + +Remember this--the texts show clearly older ideas in conflict +with the Osiris belief. The primitive race was not, I believe, a +race of Osiris followers. Professor Erman has stated that the +Osiris belief is as early as 4200 B.C. That I am certain is +absolutely untenable. It is a question of Egyptian chronology in +which I beg to differ radically both from Eduard Meyer and +Professor Erman. In the formal calendar year of three hundred and +sixty-five days, there are twelve months of thirty days and five +intercalary days. These intercalary days are called the birthdays +of Osiris, Horus, Seth, Isis, and Nephthys--the five most +important figures in the Osiris myth. According to Professor +Meyer and Professor Erman, this formal calendar was introduced in +4200 B.C., one of the occasions when the heliacal rising of the +star Sothis fell on the first of the month Thoth of the calendar. +However, if we accept with them the date 3300 B.C. as the date of +the First dynasty, then in 4200 B.C. the Egyptians were just +emerging from a neolithic state. They were culturally incapable +of making a formal calendar and could have no possible use for +one. Either the calendar did not originate in Egypt, or it was +introduced in 2780 B.C., when again the heliacal rising Sothis +fell on the first of Thoth. At this time the Osiris story was +dominant, in the religion. We have a race almost certainly +Semitic, fusing the primitive race during the period 3500-3000, +and a few centuries later we have a new religious idea dominating +the fused race. When we examine this new idea, the Osiris belief, +we find its earliest form nothing more nor less than the common +tammuz or Adonis story of the Semites. The conclusion lies very +near at hand, that the Osiris story is in fact the Tammuz story, +brought into Egypt by the earliest Semitic tribes. In any case it +was a race with a large Semitic mixture which utilized this story +in working out a theory of immortality; and in all probability we +have in the Osiris-Isis religion a third great religion due to +the Semitic race. + +However this may be, it is clear that the craving of the king for +a special immortality, for an exalted future life, found its +justification through the Osiris-Isis myth. Horus was the +successor of Osiris as lord of the earth and the living. The +kings of Egypt were the successors of Horus. The chief name of +the king was his Horus name; Menes was the Horus Aha, Cheops the +Horus Mejeru. When the king died, he became Osiris, and passed to +the kingdom of Osiris. He passed through the underworld with the +sun-god, abode there as Osiris, the god-king, or sped to the +heavens to the celestial gods. Thus comes the entering wedge +of a great change in the conception of immortality--an ordinary +immortality for the common man, a special divine immortality +for the divine man, the king. [It appears probable that the +deification of the king and the assumption of a divine immortality +for him was prior in time to the statement of these beliefs in +the terms of the Osiris story.] Even at this early age, it +was, of course, clearly stated that the king must be righteous, +morally satisfactory in the eyes of the world and of the gods. +The gods, as always, were on the side of the moral code, and +especially on the side of the organized religion. It is +perhaps significant that the chief sins of the kings of the +Fourth dynasty, so execrated by the Egyptian priests in the +Ptolemaic period, were sins against the great gods. The other +charges are for the most part plainly slanders. In practice every +king whose family remained in power was justified before gods and +men, and took his place among the gods in the islands of the +blessed in the northern part of the heavens. + +The dead body was laid in the grave, supplied with all these +magic texts which were to restore and revive the soul and guide +it across waters and through dangers to the place of Osiris. But +the chapel was not wanting, the cult of the _ka_ was maintained, +the statues were placed in the hidden room, the food and drink +were brought daily to the door of the grave. Thus, while a +special immortality was evolved for the king, the funeral customs +continue to show the same service of the _ka_ as in the earlier +period. + +In the Sixth Dynasty, there is a return to the older practice of +placing objects in the grave itself. At present we are unable to +point out the reasons for this. Possibly experience had taught +men that endowments and craved walls left to the care of +descendants were insecure supports for a life after death which +was to last forever. At any rate, the custom arose of making +small models in wood or stone or metal of those scenes and +objects which were carved in relief on the walls of the chapel, +--models of houses, granaries, of kitchens, of brickyards; +models of herds and servants and soldiers; models of boats and +ships; models of dance-halls with the man seated drinking wine, +around him musicians, before him dancing girls; models of swords, +of vessels, of implements. Poorer people must be contented with +poorer things, down to the peasant who is buried with the few +little necessary pots and pans of his daily life. But always, in +every grave, the chapel, small or great, is there. The endowment +of funerary priests continues. Every man, I suppose, however +poor, had some one to make at least one offering at his grave. +And so it was down to the New Empire. + + + + +VI. THE MIDDLE EMPIRE + + +During the Middle Empire, the burial and offering customs show +the persistence of the old belief in life after death as on +earth. Pots, vessels, tools, weapons, ornaments, clothing, and +models of scenes from life, continue to be placed in the burial +chamber. The walls of the offering chambers of the nobles, at +this time cut in the rock, still bear representations from life +carved in relief. The symbolical doors and the offering formulas +still mark the spot where the dead receive the necessities of +life from the living. All graves of every class testify to the +faith in a life after death similar to life on earth. Yet certain +modifications are apparent which are significant for the future +development of the conception of immortality: (1) the pyramid +texts are used by the provincial nobles for their own benefit; +(2) Abydos assumes a great importance as the burial place of +Osiris; (3) the swathed mummy comes into general use in burials. + +The first identification of the king with Osiris in the pyramid +texts marks the conception of a better immortality for him. So, +as the possibility of a better immortality was claimed by wider +and wider circles of men, the use of the pyramid texts, or +similar texts, also became wider. In the Middle Empire, texts +practically identical with the pyramid texts, but furnished with +illustrations somewhat like those of the later books of the dead, +are found in the coffins of provincial nobles. + +The power of the monarchy had been weakening during the Fifth and +Sixth Dynasties, partly owing to the dissipation of national +resources by royal extravagance, partly owing to other causes. +After the Sixth Dynasty, the country was clearly in a period of +economic depression; and the government was broken up into a +series of nearly independent baronies corresponding roughly to +the later division into provinces or nomes. Our material is +scanty. The tombs of very few great men have been found. But when +in the Twelfth Dynasty an abundance of material is at hand, we +see, alongside the old forms of the burial customs, the use of +the pyramid texts on the inside walls of the coffins of the great +man. It was now possible for the _ba_ of the great landed noble +to seek refuge with the gods in the northwest heavens and share +their life. + +The increasing importance of Abydos as the burial place of Osiris +is of still greater significance. The tomb of a king of the First +Dynasty was identified by the priests as the actual burial place +of Osiris. Many great people made graves for themselves in the +same field; or, if they lived at a distance, built empty +cenotaphs there. A great temple of Osiris stood near by, and +became the centre of the celebration of mysteries illustrating +the death and revival of Osiris. Fortunately, a certain high +official named I-kher-nofret has left us an account of the Osiris +passion-play as performed under his oversight in the nineteenth +year of Sesostris III, nearly two thousand years before Christ +[See Schafer's article, "Die Osiris-mysterien," in Sethe's +_Untersuchungen zur Geshichte Aegyptens_, IV, 2, pp 1-42.]. The +play began by the procession of the statue of the jackal-god +Wep-wawet (the road-opener) going forth to help his father +Osiris. Then the statue of Osiris himself in the Neshemet boat +came forth as triumphant king of the earth. Sham battles took +place referring to the conquest of the earth by Osiris. These +processions were only introductory. The principal procession took +place on the following day (or days), when Osiris went forth to +his death at Nedit. The actual death scene certainly took place +in secret. But when the dead body was found, the multitude joined +in the wailing and the lamentations. The god Thoth went forth in +a boat and brought back the body of Osiris. The body was prepared +for burial and taken in funeral procession to the grave at Peker. +Osiris was avenged on his enemies in a great battle on the water +at Nedit. Finally, the god, his life revived, comes from Peker in +triumphant procession and enters his temple at Abydos. + +Osiris mysteries were celebrated at other places, at least in +later times and perhaps even in the Middle Empire; but it is not +easy to discern the part these mysteries played in the Middle +Empire in the beliefs of the common people regarding their +immortality. The Osiris story was one of the most widespread in +Egypt, and, powerful in its effect on the feelings of all +classes, was certain, sooner or later, to prepare the way for a +general belief in a better immortality; but if we may judge from +the burial customs, the great mass of the people still believed +merely in an underworld, Earu, a duplicate of the earthly life, +but with greater possibilities of danger and evil. + +During the course of Egyptian history the position in which the +body is buried undergoes a series of remarkable changes. During +the early pre-dynastic period, the body, loosely enfolded in +cloths and skins, is laid in the grave double up on the left +side, _usually_ with the head south (i.e. upstream). This +position becomes the custom, with very few exceptions, during the +late predynastic period and the first three dynasties. Throughout +the Fourth to Sixth Dynasties, the body was in the same position, +but with the head north, loosely covered with shawls and +garments. The crouching position, with some slight modifications, +continues to be used for the poorest class down to the New +Empire. Among the Nubians, it is universal to the New Empire and +customary even later in unmixed Nubian communities. The swathed +extended burials begin in Egypt in the Fourth Dynasty, so far as +remains are preserved. Some members of the royal family of Cheops +were buried in swathed wrapping, lying extended on the left side +with the knees bent. During the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties this +extended position on the side becomes customary for the better +classes; and during the Middle Empire it becomes almost +universal. + +The final burial position, the swathed mummy lying extended on +the back, does not become general until the New Empire, about +1600 B.C. although it is the position hitherto regarded as the +characteristic Egyptian burial position. A few isolated cases, +some of them perhaps accidental, occur as early as the Old +Empire; but in the New Empire the extended burial on the back is +practically the only one to be observed. In other words, +beginning in the predynastic period with a burial position which +may be called natural and primitive, the Egyptian gradually +adopted a position which imitated the form of the dead Osiris, +the god of the dead. Each new change is first adopted by the +royal family, and is taken up by the other classes in turn until +it becomes universal. In the final form, the mummy was a +simulacrum of the dead as Osiris. + +Alongside these changes in the burial position progressed the art +of preserving the body. The earliest attempts were made on the +body of the king; and the knowledge of embalming gained in +preserving his body was gradually utilized for the higher classes +and finally for all but the poorest. It seems indisputable that +the royal personages of the Fourth and Sixth Dynasties were +mummified--i.e., the entrails were drawn, the body prepared +with spices and resins and wrapped tightly in cloths smeared with +resin. But the mummies of the nobles, even of this period, show +no trace of such treatment. The receptacles for the viscera are +sometimes found in their graves in the Sixth Dynasty, but are, as +a rule, empty, being mere dummy vases. Even in the Middle Empire, +the preservation of the bodies of the better classes was +extremely imperfect. The bundles of wrappings have kept their +form to the present day and it seems as if the mummy were still +intact; but an examination of the interior shows only loose +bones. Successful mummification appears among better-class people +in the New Empire for the first time and becomes a general custom +in the Late Period. The processes of successful mummification +necessitated the practical destruction of the body. + +In the Middle Empire, which is the period under discussion, the +process of mummification had reached a middle stage, and, while +we are unable to explain exactly the causal relationship, it is +clear that this advance in the treatment of the body accompanied +a spread of the belief in the Osirian immortality. + + + + +VII. THE NEW EMPIRE + + +The New Empire (1600-1200 B.C.) was the great period of foreign +conquest. The Hyksos, Asiatic invaders, had held Egypt for a +century or more. The Theban princes who drove them out became +kings of Egypt, and followed them into Asia. With an army trained +in war by the long struggle with the Hyksos, the Egyptian kings, +having tasted the sweetness of the spoils of war, entered on the +conquest of western Asia and the Sudan. The plunder of both these +regions poured into Egypt. Under Thothmes III an annual campaign +was conducted into Syria to bring back the spoils and the +tribute. Foreign slaves and the products of foreign handicraft +were for sale in every market-place. The treasury was filled to +overflowing. A large share was assigned to Amon, the god of the +Theban family. Temples were built for him; estates established +for the maintenance of his rites; thousands of priests enrolled +for the service of his properties. The god became, in a material +sense, the greatest god of Egypt, the national god; and his +priesthood became the most powerful organization in the kingdom. +The high priest of Amon usurped the power of the king and finally +supplanted him. Such was the period in which the next great +development of the Egyptian idea of immortality is to be noted-- +a period of priestly activity in the beginning and of priestly +domination in the end. + +The priests are the scribes, the men of learning. They have the +lore of all magic, medicine, rules of conduct, religious rites. +It is not mere chance, therefore, that the New Empire was marked +by a great increase of magic in all its forms--texts and +symbolic objects--and by a great development in the knowledge +of the other world. In some of the texts the geography of the +underworld, in which Osiris is king, is worked out in great +detail. When the sun sets in the west, Ra in his boat enters the +underworld and passes through it during the twelve hours of the +night, bringing light and happiness to those who are in the +underworld. In the effort to secure the tomb against plundering, +the royal graves had been cut in the solid rock,--long and +complicated passages with false leads and deceptive turns and the +burial chamber in an unexpected place. The long walls of these +rooms presented a great surface suitable to decoration, and they +were utilized to depict scenes from the underworld and the +passage of Ra through it, so that the tombs became in fact +representations of the land of the dead, and were so considered. +These royal tombs were at a distance from the cultivated land, +hidden in valleys in the desert. Their funerary temples were +built on the edge of the desert beside the temples of the gods of +the place. + +Such fantastical reconstructions of the other world, however, +never found general favor and are confined to a few royal tombs. +The priests and other prominent people have rolls of papyrus +buried with them, bearing copies of books of the dead. These +books of the dead are made up of a series of chapters, each +complete in itself and each dealing with some phase of the future +life. There is no set order of chapters. There is no fixed number +of chapters. Each scribe seems to have selected the chapters +which he considered useful. The general title is: Chapters of the +going forth by day. The general character may be given by a +paragraph attached to one of the chapters in the Book of Ani the +Scribe [Edited by E. A. W. Budge, p. 26]: "If this book be known +on earth and written on the coffin, it is my mouth. He shall come +forth by day in any form he desires and he shall go into his +place without being prevented. There shall be given to him bread +and beer and meat upon the altar of Osiris. He shall enter in, in +peace, to the field of Earu according to this decree of the one +who is in the City of Dedu. There shall be given to him wheat and +barley there. He shall flourish as he did upon earth. He shall do +his desires like these nine Gods who are in the underworld, as +found true millions of times. He is the Osiris: the Scribe Ani." + +There are chapters to overcome all the evil which a soul may +encounter; there are words to greet all the gods whom the soul +desires to visit. The Scribe Ani had an exceptional position on +earth; he desires to do his desire in the other world; and in the +names of Osiris he recites the magic words that bring him the +power. He is Ani, but he calls himself Osiris; just as the +priestly doctor mixes his dose of medicine and calls it "the eye +of Horus tested and found true." + +In addition to magical texts, there are also magical, or +symbolic, objects placed in the graves,--amulets of various +kinds which were to be used in the other world. Some of these +were simply the amulets used in daily life to guard against +sickness, bite of snake, and other earthly evils which were also +incident to the life after death. Other amulets, like the +so-called _Ushabtiu_, were to meet special conditions of the +other world. These _Ushabtiu_, or "answerers," were little images +of workmen bearing agricultural implements whose duty it was to +take the place of the dead in the fields of Earu when Osiris as +king called him to do his share of the field work. Even the king +appears liable to this service, and for him thousands of these +figures were made,--sometimes labeled each with the day of the +year. In a few cases there was even a charm written on the figure +to prevent it hearing the command of any one but its master. + +Alongside these manifold manifestations of the belief in magic, +other furniture--implements, weapons, and utensils--are still +placed in the grave. The offering places are still maintained. +All burials are now extended on the back and wrapped in bandages. +Yet the common graves lack the receptacles for the viscera, lack +magical texts, lack ushabtiu, and--in a word--lack all those +things which are typical of the better-class graves of the +period. The conception of the future life among the common people +is apparently not essentially different from that of the Old +Empire. But the books of the dead and the offering formulas show +that the priests and high officials at death were called Osiris. + +By the end of the Late Period the Osiris cult of the dead had +come to be universal. No doubt political events had much to do +with this. The absorption of the powers of the king by the +priesthood of the national god Amon-Ra, the crushing of the +nobility by a succession of foreign invaders, and the general +uncertainty of life, had disturbed the old fixed relations. The +hope of every Egyptian turned to a glorified future life as +Osiris. + +The tendency to use magical texts and symbolic objects reached +its height. About 700 B.C. a revival of national life, brought +about by the establishment of the Egyptian kings of Sais as kings +of Egypt, led to a renaissance of Egyptian art. The old monuments +were copied and imitated, the old funerary texts and offering +formulas were sought out in the older graves. Even the pyramid +texts reappear after one thousand years of practical oblivion. +The value of master words was so firmly fixed in the Egyptian +mind that misunderstood texts of all sorts were copied out and +placed in the graves to secure to the dead some vague benefit in +the other world. + +The process of mummification was at its height. The bodies were +no longer preserved. The process was merely the creation of a +simulacrum of the dead Osiris So-and-So. All the perishable parts +of the body were removed or destroyed by chemicals. Only the +skin, bones, hair, and teeth remained to be padded with mud and +resin, wrapped in cloths, covered with a painted and gilded +_cartonnage_ to represent the glorified Osiris mummy. + + + + +VIII. THE PTOLEMAIC-ROMAN PERIOD + + +In the Ptolemaic-Roman period we see the final stage of the +Osiris cult. Every dead man is laid in his grave without +furniture, prepared as a simulacrum of Osiris. The wealthiest +people have gilded and painted mummy cases with amulets and +funerary papyrus. The poorer are merely bundles of wrappings. +Every dead man is Osiris, and no doubt carried with him words +learned on earth to gain his way to a place in the kingdom of +Osiris. The offering places above the grave are still made and +offerings are still brought. + +To gain some idea of the way in which these two conceptions of +the living dead were worked out in actual life, one has only to +turn to the funerary customs of the modern Egyptians. In the case +of both Christians and Moslems, the grave rites are similar; but +with those of the Moslems I am more familiar. The grave consists +still of the two parts, the burying place and the offering place. +The swathed body is laid on the right side, with the right hand +under the cheek and the face towards Mecca. At the burial the +confession of the faith is recited over and over, lest the dead +forget it. + +Korans are sometimes placed in the graves; and I have even seen a +confession of the faith written on paper and placed on a twig +before the face of the dead. At the appointed seasons-- +especially at the great Feast of Sacrifice--offerings are +brought to the grave. The family party passes through the +cemetery, the women bearing baskets of bread and bottles of +water, the men turning the head to the right and to the left and +reciting the _fatha_ in propitiation of the spirits. The party +enters the offering inclosure of the grave of their relative. The +wives greet the dead--"Peace unto thee, oh, my husband, oh, my +father, we have wept until we have watered the earth with our +tears on thy account." The offerings are laid before the tomb. A +scribe is called and recites or reads some chapter of the Koran +over and over, one hundred, one hundred and fifty, five hundred, +one thousand times, and concludes: "I have read this for thee, +oh, such and such a one." Or, "I have transferred the merit of +this to thee." When you question these people as to the +particulars of their belief, you find their ideas vague and +indefinite. Among the men a dispute quickly starts,--the people +who have been found good by the examining angels on the night of +the burial are there, but the bad are somewhere else. No, says +another, they are all in their graves, but the bad suffer +torment. Still another maintains that the good have already +passed to the lowest heaven. These are all mere remnants of +theological discussions caught from the sheikhs. The women +stolidly maintain that the dead are in their tombs and the +offerings must be brought. When you inquire which are the good +and which are the bad, there is again a great divergence of +opinion; but it is clear that every man believes in his heart +that a knowledge of the prayers and forms of the Moslem religion +is absolutely essential and entirely sufficient to gain a +desirable future life. The great master word is the confession of +faith--there is no god but Allah and Mohammed is his prophet. + +So it must have been in the last stage of the Osiris cult. +Immortality, a glorified future existence as an Osiris in the +kingdom of Osiris, with all the pleasures and comforts of life, +was secured to him who was buried with the proper rites and knew +the magic words. And yet the old feeling was never lost that the +dead was somehow in the grave and might suffer hunger and thirst. + +When Christianity came into Egypt, all the gaudy apparatus of the +Osiris religion was swept out of existence. The body was to rise +again and might not be mutilated. Mummification, which destroyed +the body in order to preserve a conventional simulacrum, ceased +abruptly. Grave furniture was of course unthinkable. But the use +of charms did not cease. Crosses were embroidered in the +gravecloths; or small crosses of metal or wood placed on the +breast or arm; the gravestone bore a simple prayer to the Holy +Spirit for the peaceful rest of the soul. But the offering place +was still maintained; prayers were recited on the feast days; +lamps were allowed to remain at the grave; food was brought, but +given to the poor. + +In all periods there are thousands of graves of poor people +without a single thing to secure their future life,--people who +were probably content simply to lay down the burdens of life. In +the Christian period these thousands of unnamed dead all have one +mark. They are laid with their feet to the east. Each one was a +Christian and secure in his future life, according to his faith +and his life on earth. + + + + +IX. SUMMARY + + +To sum up, the essential idea of the Egyptian conception of +immortality was that the ghost or spirit of the man preserved the +personality and the form of the man in the existence after death; +that this spirit had the same desires, the same pleasures, the +same necessities, and the same fears as on earth. Life after +death was a duplicate of life on earth. On earth life depended on +work, on getting food from the fields and the herds, on forming +stone and metal, hide and vegetable fibre, into useful objects. +In other words, life depended on human power over the natural +materials of the earth. At the same time there were many things +which could not be controlled by power over the earth and its +elements,--the sting of the scorpion, the bite of the adder, +the rise of the Nile, sickness, the sudden onslaught of the +enemy, the straying of cattle, the disfavor of the god. For these +evils man's only hope was magic,--the set words spoken in the +proper manner which have power over all unseen influence. So in +the case of life after death, all which human strength can +provide of stores of grain and drink and garments must be secured +for his use; but he must also be provided with the magic words to +meet the chance evils of the future life. + +It is not surprising that the unknown future presented to the +imagination many evils unknown on earth. The spirit might forget +its name, it might lose its heart, it might be bound fast by evil +powers in the grave and unable to come forth by day. The mummy +might decay; the spirit might forget its form. So, as time went +on, the use of magic words became of greater and greater +importance, until, to modern eyes, it seemed to overshadow all +else in the Egyptian conception of life after death. + +As a part of the magical provisions of the dead, the Osiris myth, +probably built up in explanation of old rites, was drawn into the +belief in a future life, and apparently at the beginning _solely +for the benefit of the king_, for the benefit of those who +claimed a certain divinity on earth. The earth-god Osiris, god of +the living, had died and had been brought to life as god of the +dead. So, also, the earth-king, the Horus, the son of Ra, must +die, but he also would live again in the other world and share +the throne of Osiris. More than this even, he became Osiris. He +was admitted to the life of the gods. Of course the ideas of the +existence of the gods were never clear and consistent. They lived +in secret places, their whole life was mysterious as well as +powerful. These are the field of knowledge which the Egyptian +mind could not oversee with any satisfaction to itself. The most +it could do was to formulate the magic words, invoking the names +of the gods and conjuring them by the events in the Osiris myth +to accept this king as Osiris. The exceptional man, the +super-man, must have an exceptional future life; but to obtain +it, he must have the knowledge of the names and words necessary +to force the powers of the other world. + +Thus the idea of an exceptional future life, a heaven, was +brought into the Egyptian conception of life after death. +Admission to it depended on the exceptional position on earth of +those admitted. As even this exceptional position was only of +avail when combined with the knowledge of certain formulas, it is +not difficult to see how the knowledge of these formulas might be +considered sufficient to obtain the better future life, even for +others than the king. When in the depression that followed the +extravagance of the pyramid age the central monarchy lost its +power, Egypt broke up into a series of tribal baronies (nomes). +In each was a ruler almost independent of the king, a man who +might presume with the proper knowledge to claim a glorified +future life similar to that of the king. And, indeed, we find +from the burial inscriptions of the Middle Empire that such was +the result. Feudalism extended the possibilities of heaven to the +great nobles. In the New Empire, the royal power was gradually +absorbed by the priestly organization of the national religion-- +the religion of Amon-Ra; and the principle comes into practice +that any priest having the necessary knowledge could obtain for +himself an exceptional place in the future life. The Osirian +burial customs spread even among the people. The swathed body +extended on the back becomes universal, even though true +mummification was still only for the rich. + +In the Ptolemaic period, the preparation of all the apparatus of +the Osiris burial was divided up into trades. Factories, one may +say, turned out mummy cases of various kinds, with a scale of +prices to fit every purse. Other factories turned out amulets and +charms. Magical texts, the preparation of the body, the +construction of the grave--all things were done by regular +crafts. The cheapening of the apparatus is most striking. At the +same time all but the poorest burials bear direct evidence of +their character as Osiris burials. + +On the side of the moral requirement we must not look too +closely. There were powerful words which could compel even the +great judges of the dead to return a favorable verdict. There +were magic hearts of stone which might be worn in place of the +heart, and, laid in the scales by Anubis, weigh heavier than the +truth. One might by words compel Anubis to accept this stone +heart instead of the real heart. + +In general, one may say that the hope of immortality had little +influence on the moral life of the ordinary Egyptian. The moral +code was simple and sound and not greatly different from other +primitive codes,--forbidding all those things which the body of +men regard as unpleasant in others, commanding the plain virtues +which were found pleasant in others. Here, again, I think we may +well look to modern Egypt for a picture of ancient Egypt. We must +not exaggerate the influence of the belief in immortality on +general morality. We must not think too well of the life of the +people--nor, on the other hand, too evil. They had their sins +and their virtues. The common herd was driven by necessity and +lived as it could. They clung to the belief in a life in the +grave. The greater people had leisure to learn and to provide the +magic necessary to secure a comfortable future life. They loved +life and hated death. + +Thus it was when the priests of the Osiris-Isis religion made +their bid to the classical world. They offered immortality by +initiation. Learn the proper rites, learn the master words, and +secure eternal life among the great gods. It was a religion for +the exceptional man down to the last; it required training and +knowledge. Even in its most popular form in the Ptolemaic period, +a specially instructed class was required, who sold for money the +benefits of their knowledge, and men took rank in their security +of future life according to their means. + +Not until Christianity came, offering eternal life free and +without price, did the common people find at last a road open to +equal immortality with the great men of the earth. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EGYPTIAN CONCEPTION OF +IMMORTALITY
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