Egyptians, could ever have become the byword they did through their alleged worship of a multitude of “gods” in various forms. It is quite true that the Egyptians paid honour to a number of gods, a number so large that the list of their mere names would fill a volume, but it is equally true that the educated classes in Egypt at all times never placed the “gods” on the same high level as God, and they never imagined that their views on this point could be mistaken. In prehistoric times every little village or town, every district and province, and every great city, had its own particular god; we may go a step farther, and say that every family of any wealth and position had its own god. The wealthy family selected some one to attend to its god, and to minister unto his wants, and the poor family contributed, according to its means, towards a common fund for providing a dwelling-house for the god, and for vestments, etc. But the god was an integral part of the family, whether rich or poor, and its destiny was practically locked up with that of the family. The overthrow of the family included the overthrow of the god, and seasons of prosperity resulted in abundant offerings, new vestments; perhaps a new shrine, and the like. The god of the village, although he was a more important being, might be led into captivity along with the people of the village, but the victory of his followers in a raid or fight caused the honours paid to him to be magnified and enhanced his renown.
The gods of provinces or of great cities were, of course, greater than those of villages and private families, and in the large houses dedicated to them, _i.e._, temples, a considerable number of them, represented by statues, would be found. Sometimes the attributes of one god would be ascribed to another, sometimes two or more gods would be “fused” or united and form one, sometimes gods were imported from remote villages and towns and even from foreign countries, and occasionally a community or town would repudiate its god or gods, and adopt a brand new set from some neighbouring district Thus the number of the gods was always changing, and the relative position of individual gods was always changing; an obscure and almost unknown, local god to-day might through a victory in war become the chief god of a city, and on the other hand, a god worshipped with abundant offerings and great ceremony one month might sink into insignificance and become to all intents and purposes a dead god the next. But besides family and village gods there were national gods, and gods of rivers and mountains, and gods of earth and sky, all of which taken together made a formidable number of “divine” beings whose good-will had to be secured, and whose ill-will must be appeased. Besides these, a number of animals as being sacred to the gods were also considered to be “divine,” and fear as well as love made the Egyptians add to their numerous classes of gods.
The gods of Egypt whose names are known to us do not represent all those that have been conceived by the Egyptian imagination, for with them as with much else, the law of the survival of the fittest holds good. Of the gods of the prehistoric man we know nothing, but it is more than probable that some of the gods who were worshipped in dynastic times represent, in a modified form, the deities of the savage, or semi-savage, Egyptian that held their influence on his mind the longest. A typical example of such a god will suffice, namely Thoth, whose original emblem was the dog-headed ape. In very early times great respect was paid to this animal on account of his sagacity, intelligence, and cunning; and the simple-minded Egyptian, when he heard him chattering just before the sunrise and sunset, assumed that he was in some way holding converse or was intimately connected with the sun. This idea clung to his mind, and we find in dynastic times, in the vignette representing the rising sun, that the apes, who are said to be the transformed openers of the portals of heaven, form a veritable company of the gods, and at the same time one of the most striking features of the scene. Thus an idea which came into being in the most remote times passed on from generation to generation until it became crystallized in the best copies of the Book of the Dead, at a period when Egypt was at its zenith of power and glory. The peculiar species of the dog-headed ape which is represented in statues and on papyri is famous for its cunning, and it was the words which it supplied to Thoth, who in turn transmitted them to Osiris, that enabled Osiris to be “true of voice,” or triumphant, over his enemies. It is probably in this capacity, _i.e._, as the friend of the dead, that the dog-headed ape appears seated upon the top of the standard of the Balance in which the heart of the deceased is being weighed against the feather symbolic of Ma[=a]t; for the commonest titles of the god are “lord of divine books,” “lord of divine words,” _i.e._, the formulae which make the deceased to be obeyed by friend and foe alike in the next world. In later times, when Thoth came to be represented by the ibis bird, his attributes were multiplied, and he became the god of letters, science, mathematics, etc.; at the creation he seems to have played a part not unlike that of “wisdom” which is so beautifully described by the writer of Proverbs (see Chap. VIII. vv. 23-31).
Whenever and wherever the Egyptians attempted to set up a system of gods they always found that the old local gods had to be taken into consideration, and a place had to be found for them in the system. This might be done by making them members of triads, or of groups of nine gods, now commonly called “enneads”; but in one form or other they had to appear. The researches made during the last few years have shown that there must have been several large schools of theological thought in Egypt, and of each of these the priests did their utmost to proclaim the superiority of their gods. In dynastic times there must have been great colleges at Heliopolis, Memphis, Abydos, and one or more places in the Delta, not to mention the smaller schools of priests which, probably existed at places on both sides of the Nile from Memphis to the south. Of the theories and doctrines of all such schools and colleges, those of Heliopolis have survived in the completest form, and by careful examination of the funeral texts which were inscribed on the monuments of the kings of Egypt of the Vth and VIth dynasties we can say what views they held about many of the gods. At the outset we see that the great god of Heliopolis was Temu or Atmu, the setting sun, and to him the priests of that place ascribed the attributes which rightly belong to R[=a], the Sun-god of the day-time. For some reason or other they formulated the idea of a company of the gods, nine in number, which was called the “great company _(paut)_ of the gods,” and at the head of this company they placed the god Temu. In Chapter XVII of the Book of the Dead [Footnote: See _Chapters of Coming Forth by Day_, p. 49.] we find the following passage:–
“I am the god Temu in his rising; I am the only One. I came into being in Nu. I am R[=a] who rose in the beginning.”
Next comes the question, “But who is this?” And the answer is: “It is R[=a] when at the beginning he rose in the city of Suten-henen (Heracleopolis Magna) crowned like a king in rising. The pillars of the god Shu were not as yet created when he was upon the staircase of him that dwelleth in Khemennu (Hermopolis Magna).” From these statements we learn that Temu and R[=a] were one and the same god, and that he was the first offspring of the god Nu, the primeval watery mass out of which all the gods came into being. The text continues: “I am the great god Nu who gave birth to himself, and who made his names to come into being and to form the company of the gods. But who is this? It is R[=a], the creator of the names of his members which came into being in the form of the gods who are in the train of R[=a].” And again: “I am he who is not driven back among the gods. But who is this? It is Tem, the dweller in his disk, or as others say, it is R[=a] in his rising in the eastern horizon of heaven.” Thus we learn further that Nu was self-produced, and that the gods are simply the names of his limbs; but then R[=a] is Nu, and the gods who are in his train or following are merely personifications of the names of his own members. He who cannot be driven back among the gods is either Temu or R[=a], and so we find that Nu, Temu, and R[=a] are one and the same god. The priests of Heliopolis in setting Temu at the head of their company of the gods thus gave R[=a], and Nu also, a place of high honour; they cleverly succeeded in making their own local god chief of the company, but at the same time they provided the older gods with positions of importance. In this way worshippers of R[=a], who had regarded their god as the oldest of the gods, would have little cause to complain of the introduction of Temu into the company of the gods, and the local vanity of Heliopolis would be gratified.
But besides the nine gods who were supposed to form the “great company” of gods of the city of Heliopolis, there was a second group of nine gods called the “little company” of the gods, and yet a third group of nine gods, which formed the least company. Now although the _paut_ or company of nine gods might be expected to contain nine always, this was not the case, and the number nine thus applied is sometimes misleading. There are several passages extant in texts in which the gods of a _paut_ are enumerated, but the total number is sometimes ten and sometimes eleven. This fact is easily explained when we remember that the Egyptians deified the various forms or aspects of a god, or the various phases in his life. Thus the setting sun, called Temu or Atmu, and the rising sun, called Khepera, and the mid-day sun, called R[=a], were three forms of the same god; and if any one of these three forms was included in a _paut_ or company of nine gods, the other two forms were also included by implication, even though the _paut_ then contained eleven, instead of nine gods. Similarly, the various forms of each god or goddess of the _paut_ were understood to be included in it, however large the total number of gods might become. We are not, therefore, to imagine that the three companies of the gods were limited in number to 9 x 3, or twenty-seven, even though the symbol for god be given twenty-seven times in the texts.
We have already alluded to the great number of gods who were known to the Egyptians, but it will be readily imagined that it was only those who were thought to deal with man’s destiny, here and hereafter, who obtained the worship and reverence of the people of Egypt. These were, comparatively, limited in number, and in fact may be said to consist of the members of the great company of the gods of Heliopolis, that is to say, of the gods who belonged to the cycle of Osiris. These may be briefly described as follows:–
1. TEMU or ATMU, _i.e._, the “closer” of the day, just as Ptah was the “opener” of the day. In the story of the creation he declares that he evolved himself under the form of the god Khepera, and in hymns he is said to be the “maker of the gods”, “the creator of men”, etc., and he usurped the position of R[=a] among the gods of Egypt. His worship must have been already very ancient at the time of the kings of the Vth dynasty, for his traditional form is that of a man at that time.
2. SHU was the firstborn son of Temu. According to one legend he sprang direct from the god, and according to another the goddess Hathor was his mother; yet a third legend makes him the son of Temu by the goddess Ius[=a]set. He it was who made his way between the gods Seb and Nut and raised up the latter to form the sky, and this belief is commemorated by the figures of this god in which he is represented as a god raising himself up from the earth with the sun’s disk on his shoulders. As a power of nature he typified the light, and, standing on the top of a staircase at Hermopolis Magua, [Footnote: See above, pp. 69 and 89.] he raised up the sky and held it up during each day. To assist him in this work he placed a pillar at each of the cardinal points, and the “supports of Shu” are thus the props of the sky.
3. TEFNUT was the twin-sister of Shu; as a power of nature she typified moisture or some aspect of the sun’s heat, but as a god of the dead she seems to have been, in some way, connected with the supply of drink to the deceased. Her brother Shu was the right eye of Temu, and she was the left, _i.e._, Shu represented an aspect of the Sun, and Tefnut of the Moon. The gods Temu, Shu, and Tefnut thus formed a trinity, and in the story of the creation the god Temu says, after describing how Shu and Tefnut proceeded from himself, “thus from being one god I became three.”
4. SEB was the son of the god Shu. He is called the “Erp[=a],” _i.e._, the “hereditary chief” of the gods, and the “father of the gods,” these being, of course, Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nephthys. He was originally the god of the earth, but later he became a god of the dead as representing the earth wherein the deceased was laid. One legend identifies him with the goose, the bird which, in later times was sacred to him, and he is often called the “Great Cackler,” in allusion to the idea that he made the primeval egg from which the world came into being.
5. NUT was the wife of Seb and the mother of Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nephthys. Originally she was the personification of the sky, and represented the feminine principle which was active at the creation of the universe. According to an old view, Seb and Nut existed in the primeval watery abyss side by side with Shu and Tefnut; and later Seb became the earth and Nut the sky. These deities were supposed to unite every evening, and to remain embraced until the morning, when the god Shu separated them, and set the goddess of the sky upon his four pillars until the evening. Nut was, naturally, regarded as the mother of the gods and of all things living, and she and her husband Seb were considered to be the givers of food, not only to the living but also to the dead. Though different views were current in Egypt as to the exact location of the heaven of the beatified dead, yet all schools of thought in all periods assigned it to some region in the sky, and the abundant allusions in the texts to the heavenly bodies–that is, the sun, moon, and stars–which the deceased dwells with, prove that the final abode of the souls of the righteous was not upon earth. The goddess Nut is sometimes represented as a female along whose body the sun travels, and sometimes as a cow; the tree sacred to her was the sycamore.
6. Osiris was the son of Seb and Nut, the husband of Isis and the father of Horus. The history of this god is given elsewhere in this book so fully that it is only necessary to refer briefly to him. He was held to be a man although of divine origin; he lived and reigned as a king on this earth; he was treacherously murdered by his brother Set, and his body was cut up into fourteen pieces, which were scattered about Egypt; after his death, Isis, by the use of magical formulae supplied to her by Thoth, succeeded in raising him to life, and he begot a son called Horus; when Horus was grown up, he engaged in combat with Set, and overcame him, and thus “avenged his father”; by means of magical formulae, supplied to him by Thoth, Osiris reconstituted and revivified his body, and became the type of the resurrection and the symbol of immortality; he was also the hope, the judge, and the god of the dead, probably even in pre-dynastic times. Osiris was in one aspect a solar deity, and originally he seems to have represented the sun after it had set; but he is also identified with the moon. In the XVIIIth dynasty, however, he is already the equal of R[=a], and later the attributes of God and of all the “gods” were ascribed to him.
7. Isis was the wife of Osiris and mother of Horus; as a nature goddess she had a place in the boat of the sun at the creation, when she probably typified the dawn. By reason of her success in revivifying her husband’s body by means of the utterance of magical formulae, she is called the “lady of enchantments.” Her wanderings in search of her husband’s body, and the sorrow which she endured in bringing forth and rearing her child in the papyrus swamps of the Delta, and the persecution which she suffered at the hands of her husband’s enemies, form the subject of many allusions in texts of all periods. She has various aspects, but the one which appealed most to the imagination of the Egyptians, was that of “divine mother”; in this character thousands of statues represent her seated and suckling her child Horus whom she holds upon her knees.
8. Set was the son of Seb and Nut, and the husband of Nephthys. At a very early period he was regarded as the brother and friend of “Horus the Elder,” the Aroueris of the Greeks, and Set represented the night whilst Horus represented the day. Each of these gods performed many offices of a friendly nature for the dead, and among others they set up and held the ladder by which the deceased made his way from this earth to heaven, and helped him to ascend it. But, at a later period, the views of the Egyptians concerning Set changed, and soon after the reign of the kings called “Seti,” _i.e._, those whose names were based upon that of the god, he became the personification of all evil, and of all that is horrible and terrible in nature, such as the desert in its most desolate form, the storm and the tempest, etc. Set, as a power of nature, was always waging war with Horus the Elder, _i.e._, the night did battle with the day for supremacy; both gods, however, sprang from the same source, for the heads of both are, in one scene, made to belong to one body. When Horus, the son of Isis, had grown up, he did battle with Set, who had murdered Horus’s father Osiris, and vanquished him; in many texts these two originally distinct fights are confused, and the two Horus gods also. The conquest of Set by Horus in the first conflict typified only the defeat of the night by the day, but the defeat of Set in the second seems to have been understood as the victory of life over death, and of good over evil. The symbol of Set was an animal with a head something like that of a camel, but it has not yet been satisfactorily identified; figures of the god are uncommon, for most of them were destroyed by the Egyptians when they changed their views about him.
9. NEPHTHYS was the sister of Isis and her companion in all her wanderings and troubles; like her she had a place in the boat of the Sun at creation, when she probably typified the twilight or very early night. She was, according to one legend, the mother of Anubis by Osiris, but in the texts his father is declared to be R[=a]. In funeral papyri, stelae, etc., she always accompanies Isis in her ministrations to the dead, and as she assisted Osiris and Isis to defeat the wickedness of her own husband (Set), so she helped the deceased to overcome the powers of death and the grave.
Here then we have the nine gods of the divine company of Heliopolis, but no mention is made of Horus, the son of Isis, who played such an important part in the history of his father Osiris, and nothing is said about Thoth; both gods are, however, included in the company in various passages of the text, and it may be that their omission from it is the result of an error of the scribe. We have already given the chief details of the history of the gods Horus and Thoth, and the principal gods of the other companies may now be briefly named.
NU was the “father of the gods,” and progenitor of the “great company of the gods”; he was the primeval watery mass out of which all things came.
PTAH was one of the most active of the three great gods who carried out the commands of Thoth, who gave expression in words to the will of the primeval, creative Power; he was self-created, and was a form of the Sun-god R[=a] as the “Opener” of the day. From certain allusions in the Book of the Dead he is known to have “opened the mouth” [Footnote: “May the god Ptah open my mouth”; “may the god Shu open my mouth with his implement of iron wherewith he opened the mouth of the gods” (Chap. XXIII.)] of the gods, and it is in this capacity that he became a god of the cycle of Osiris. His feminine counterpart was the goddess SEKHET, and the third member of the triad of which he was the chief was NEFER-TEMU.
PTAH-SEKER is the dual god formed by fusing Seker, the Egyptian name of the incarnation of the Apis Bull of Memphis, with Ptah.
PTAH-SEKER-AUSAR was a triune god who, in brief, symbolized life, death, and the resurrection.
KHNEMU was one of the old cosmic gods who assisted Ptah in carrying out the commands of Thoth, who gave expression in words to the will of the primeval, creative Power, he is described as “the maker of things which are, the creator of things which shall be, the source of created things, the father of fathers, and the mother of mothers.” It was he who, according to one legend, fashioned man upon a potter’s wheel.
KHEPERA was an old primeval god, and the type of matter which contains within itself the germ of life which is about to spring into a new existence; thus he represented the dead body from which the spiritual body was about to rise. He is depicted in the form of a man having a beetle for a head, and this insect became his emblem because it was supposed to be self-begotten and self-produced. To the present day certain of the inhabitants of the Sudan, pound the dried scarabaeus or beetle and drink it in water, believing that it will insure them a numerous progeny. The name “Khepera” means “he who rolls,” and when the insect’s habit of rolling along its ball filled with eggs is taken into consideration, the appropriateness of the name is apparent. As the ball of eggs rolls along the germs mature and burst into life; and as the sun rolls across the sky emitting light and heat and with them life, so earthly things are produced and have their being by virtue thereof.
R[=A] was probably the oldest of the gods worshipped in Egypt, and his name belongs to such a remote period that its meaning is unknown. He was in all periods the visible emblem of God, and was the god of this earth to whom offerings and sacrifices were made daily; time began when R[=a] appeared above the horizon at creation in the form of the Sun, and the life of a man was compared to his daily course at a very early date. R[=a] was supposed to sail over heaven in two boats, the [=A]TET or M[=A] TET boat in which he journeyed from sunrise until noon, and the SEKTET boat in which he journeyed from noon until sunset. At his rising he was attacked by [=A]pep, a mighty “dragon” or serpent, the type of evil and darkness, and with this monster he did battle until the fiery darts which he discharged into the body of =Apep scorched and burnt him up; the fiends that were in attendance upon this terrible foe were also destroyed by fire, and their bodies were hacked in pieces. A repetition of this story is given in the legend of the fight between Horus and Set, and in both forms it represented originally the fight which was supposed to go on daily between light and darkness. Later, however, when Osiris had usurped the position of R[=a], and Horus represented a divine power who was about to avenge the cruel murder of his father, and the wrong which had been done to him, the moral conceptions of right and wrong, good and evil, truth and falsehood were applied to light and darkness, that is to say, to Horus and Set.
As R[=a] was the “father of the gods,” it was natural that every god should represent some phase of him, and that he should represent every god. A good illustration of this fact is afforded by a Hymn to R[=a], a fine copy of which is found inscribed on the walls of the sloping corridor in the tomb of Seti I., about B.C. 1370, from which we quote the following:–
11. “Praise be unto thee, O R[=a], thou exalted Power, who dost enter into the habitations of Ament, behold [thy] body is Temu.
12. “Praise be unto thee, O R[=a], thou exalted Power, who dost enter into the hidden place of Anubis, behold, [thy] body is Khepera.
13. “Praise be unto thee, O R[=a], thou exalted Power, whose duration of life is greater than that of the hidden forms, behold [thy] body is Shu.
14. “Praise be unto thee, O R[=a], thou exalted Power, …. behold [thy] body is Tefnut.
15. “Praise be unto thee, O R[=a], thou exalted Power, who bringest forth, green things in their season, behold [thy] body is Seb.
16. “Praise be unto thee, O R[=a], thou exalted Power, thou mighty being who dost judge,… behold [thy] body is Nut.
17. “Praise be unto thee, O R[=a], thou exalted Power, the lord…. behold [thy] body is Isis.
18. “Praise be unto thee, O R[=a], thou exalted Power, whose head giveth light to that which is in front of thee, behold [thy] body is Nephthys.
19. “Praise be unto thee, O R[=a], thou exalted Power, thou source of the divine members, thou One, who bringest into being that which hath been begotten, behold [thy] body is Horus.
20. “Praise be unto thee, O R[=a], thou exalted Power, who dost dwell in and illumine the celestial deep, behold [thy] body is Nu.” [Footnote: For the text see _Annales du Musee Guimet: Le Tombeau de Seti 1_. (ed. Lefebure), Paris, 1886, pl. v.]
In the paragraphs which follow R[=a] is identified with a large number of gods and divine personages whose names are not of such common occurrence in the texts as those given above, and in one way or another the attributes of all the gods are ascribed to him. At the time when the hymn was written it is clear that polytheism, not pantheism as some would have it, was in the ascendant, and notwithstanding the fact that the Theban god Amen was gradually being forced to the headship of the companies of the gods of Egypt, we find everywhere the attempt being made to emphasize the view that every god, whether foreign or native, was an aspect or form of R[=a].
The god Amen just referred to was originally a local god of Thebes, whose shrine was either founded or rebuilt as far back as the XIIth dynasty, about B.C. 2500. This “hidden” god, for such is the meaning of the name Amen, was essentially a god of the south of Egypt, but when the Theban kings vanquished their foes in the north, and so became masters of the whole country, Amen became a god of the first importance, and the kings of the XVIIIth, XIXth, and XXth dynasties endowed his temples on a lavish scale. The priests of the god called Amen “the king of the gods,” and they endeavoured to make all Egypt accept him as such, but in spite of their power they saw that they could not bring this result about unless they identified him with the oldest gods of the land. They declared that he represented the hidden and mysterious power which created and sustains the universe, and that the sun was the symbol of this power; they therefore added his name to that of R[=a], and in this form he gradually usurped the attributes and powers of Nu, Khnemu, Ptah, H[=a]pi, and other great gods. A revolt headed by Amen-hetep, or Amenophis IV. (about B.C. 1500), took place against the supremacy of Amen in the middle of the XVIIIth dynasty, but it was unsuccessful. This king hated the god and his name so strongly that he changed his own name into that of “Khu-en-Aten,” _i.e._, “the glory of the solar Disk,” and ordered the name of Amen to be obliterated, wherever possible, on temples and other great monuments; and this was actually done in many places. It is impossible to say exactly what the religious views of the king were, but it is certain that he wished to substitute the cult of Aten, a form of the Sun-god worshipped at Annu (_i.e._, On or Heliopolis) in very ancient times, for that of Amen. “Aten” means literally the “Disk of the Sun,” and though it is difficult to understand at this distance of time in what the difference between the worship of R[=a] and the worship of “R[=a] in his Disk” consisted, we may be certain that there must have been some subtle, theological distinction between them. But whatever the difference may have been, it was sufficient to make Amenophis forsake the old capital Thebes and withdraw to a place [Footnote: The site is marked by the ruins of Tell el-Amarna.]some distance to the north of that city, where he carried on the worship of his beloved god Aten. In the pictures of the Aten worship which have come down to us the god appears in the form of a disk from which proceed a number of arms and hands that bestow life upon his worshippers. After the death of Amenophis the cult of Aten declined, and Amen resumed his sway over the minds of the Egyptians.
Want of space forbids the insertion here of a full list of the titles of Amen, and a brief extract from the Papyrus of the Princess Nesi-Khensu [Footnote: For a hieroglyphic transcript of the hieratic text, see Maspero, _Memoires_, tom. i., p. 594 ff.] must suffice to describe the estimation in which the god was held about B.C. 1000. In this Amen is addressed as “the holy god, the lord of all the gods, Amen-R[=a], the lord of the thrones of the world, the prince of Apt (_i.e._, Karnak), the holy soul who came into being in the beginning, the great god who liveth by right and truth, the first ennead who gave birth unto the other two enneads, [Footnote: _i.e._, the great, the little, and the least companies of the gods; each company (_paut_) contained nine gods.] the being in whom every god existeth, the One of One, the creator of the things which came into being when the earth took form in the beginning, whose births are hidden, whose forms are manifold, and whose growth cannot be known. The holy Form, beloved and terrible and mighty…. the lord of space, the mighty One of the form of Khepera, who came into existence through Khepera, the lord of the form of Khepera; when he came into being nothing existed except himself. He shone upon the earth from primeval time, he the Disk, the prince of light and radiance…. When this holy god moulded himself, the heavens and the earth were made by his heart (_or_ mind)…. He is the Disk of the Moon, the beauties whereof pervade the heavens and the earth, the untiring and beneficent king whose will germinateth from rising to setting, from whose divine eyes men and women come forth, and from whose mouth the gods do come, and [by whom] food and meat and drink are made and provided, and [by whom] the things which exist are created. He is the lord of time, and he traverseth eternity; he is the aged one who reneweth his youth…. He is the Being who cannot be known, and he is more hidden than all the gods…. He giveth long life and multiplieth the years of those who are favoured by him, he is the gracious protector of him whom he setteth in his heart, and he is the fashioner of eternity and everlastingness. He is the king of the North and of the South, Amen-R[=a], king of the gods, the lord of heaven, and of earth, and of the waters and of the mountains, with whose coming into being the earth began its existence, the mighty one, more princely than, all the gods of the first company.”
In the above extract, it will be noticed that Amen is called the “One of One,” or the “One One,” a title which has been explained as having no reference whatever to the unity of God as understood in modern times: but unless these words are intended to express the idea of unity, what is their meaning? It is also said that he is “without second,” and thus there is no doubt whatever that when the Egyptians declared their god to be One, and without a second, they meant precisely what the Hebrews and Arabs meant when they declared their God to be One. [Footnote: See Deut., vi. 4; and _Koran_, chapter cxii.] Such a God was an entirely different Being from the personifications of the powers of nature and the existences which, for want of a better name, have been called “gods.”
But, besides R[=a], there existed in very early times a god called HORUS, whose symbol was the hawk, which, it seems, was the first living thing worshipped by the Egyptians; Horus was the Sun-god, like R[=a], and in later times was confounded with Horus the son of Isis. The chief forms of Horus given in the texts are: (1) HERU-UR (Aroueris), (2) HERU-MERTI, (3) HERU-NUB, (4) HERU-KHENT-KHAT, (5) HERU-KHENT-AN-MAA, (6) HERU-KHUTI, (7) HERU-SAM-TAUI, (8) HERU-HEKENNU, (9) HERU-BEHUTET. Connected with one of the forms of Horus, originally, were the four gods of the cardinal points, or the “four, spirits of Horus,” who supported heaven at its four corners; their names were HAPI, TUAMUTEE, AMSET, and QEBHSENNUF, and they represented the north, east, south, and west respectively. The intestines of the dead were embalmed and placed in four jars, each being under the protection, of one of these four gods. Other important gods of the dead are: (1) ANUBIS, the son of R[=a] or Osiris, who presided over the abode of the dead, and with AP-UAT shared the dominion of the “funeral mountain”; the symbol of each of these gods is a jackal. (2) HU and SA, the children of Temu, or R[=a], who appear in the boat of the sun at the creation, and later in the Judgment Scene. (3) The goddess MA[=A]T, who was associated with Thoth, Ptah, and Khnemu in the work of creation; the name means “straight,” hence what is right, true, truth, real, genuine, upright, righteous, just, steadfast, unalterable, and the like. (4) The goddess HET-HERT (Hathor), _i.e._, the “house of Horus,” which was that part of the sky where the sun rose and set. The sycamore tree was sacred to her, and the deceased prays to be fed by her with celestial food from out of it (5) The goddess MEH-URT, who represented that portion of the sky in which the sun takes his daily course; here it was, according to the view held at one period at least, that the judgment of the deceased was supposed to take place. (6) NEITH, the mother of SEBEK, who was also a goddess of the eastern portion of the sky. (7) SEKHET and BAST, who are represented with the heads of a lion and a cat, and who were symbols of the destroying, scorching power of the sun, and of the gentle heat thereof, respectively. (8) SERQ, who was a form of Isis. (9) TA-URT (Thoueris), who was the genetrix of the gods. (10) UATCHET, who was a form of Hather, and who had dominion over the northern sky, just as NEKHEBET was mistress of the southern sky. (11) NEHEB-KA, who was a goddess who possessed magical powers, and in some respects resembled Isis in her attributes. (12) SEBAK, who was a form of the Sun-god, and was in later times confounded with Sebak, or Sebek, the friend of Set. (13) AMSU (or MIN or KUEM), who was the personification of the generative and reproductive powers of nature. (14) BEB or BABA, who was the “firstborn son of Osiris.” (15) H[=a]pi, who was the god of the Nile, and with whom most of the great gods were identified.
The names of the beings who at one time or another were called “gods” in Egypt are so numerous that a mere list of them would fill scores of pages, and in a work of this kind would be out of place. The reader is, therefore, referred to Lanzone’s _Mitologia Egizia_, where a considerable number are enumerated and described.
CHAPTER IV.
THE JUDGMENT OF THE DEAD.
The belief that the deeds done in the body would be subjected to an analysis and scrutiny by the divine powers after the death of a man belongs to the earliest period of Egyptian civilization, and this belief remained substantially the same in all generations. Though we have no information as to the locality where the Last Judgment took place, or whether the Egyptian soul passed into the judgment-hall immediately after the death of the body, or after the mummification was ended and the body was deposited in the tomb, it is quite certain that the belief in the judgment was as deeply rooted in the Egyptians as the belief in immortality. There seems to have been no idea of a general judgment when all those who had lived in the world should receive their reward for the deeds done in the body; on the contrary, all the evidence available goes to show that each soul was dealt with individually, and was either permitted to pass into the kingdom of Osiris and of the blessed, or was destroyed straightway. Certain passages in the texts seem to suggest the idea of the existence of a place for departed spirits wherein the souls condemned in the judgment might dwell, but it must be remembered that it was the enemies of R[=a], the Sun-god, that inhabited this region; and it is impossible to imagine that the divine powers who presided over the judgment would permit the souls of the wicked to live after they had been condemned and to become enemies of those who were pure and blessed. On the other hand, if we attach any importance to the ideas of the Copts upon this subject, and consider that they represent ancient beliefs which they derived from the Egyptians traditionally, it must be admitted that the Egyptian underworld contained some region wherein the souls of the wicked were punished for an indefinite period. The Coptic lives of saints and martyrs are full of allusions to the sufferings of the damned, but whether the descriptions of these are due to imaginings of the mind of the Christian Egyptian or to the bias of the scribe’s opinions cannot always be said. When we consider that the Coptic hell was little more than a modified form of the ancient Egyptian Amenti, or Amentet, it is difficult to believe that it was the name of the Egyptian underworld only which was borrowed, and that the ideas and beliefs concerning it which were held by the ancient Egyptians were not at the same time absorbed. Some Christian writers are most minute in their classification of the wicked in hell, as we may see from the following extract from the life of Pisentios, [Footnote: Ed. Amelineau, Paris, 1887, p. 144 f.] Bishop of Keft, in the VIIth century of our era. The holy man had taken refuge in a tomb wherein a number of mummies had been piled up, and when he had read the list of the names of the people who had been buried there he gave it to his disciple to replace. Then he addressed his disciple and admonished him to do the work of God with diligence, and warned him that every man must become even as were the mummies which lay before them. “And some,” said he, “whose sins have been many are now in Amenti, others are in the outer darkness, others are in pits and ditches filled with fire, and others are in the river of fire: upon these last no one hath bestowed rest. And others, likewise, are in a place of rest, by reason of their good works.” When the disciple had departed, the holy man began to talk to one of the mummies who had been a native of the town of Erment, or Armant, and whose father and mother had been called Agricolaos and Eustathia. He had been a worshipper of Poseidon, and had never heard that Christ had come into the world. “And,” said he “woe, woe is me because I was born into the world. Why did not my mother’s womb become my tomb? When, it became necessary for me to die, the Kosmokrator angels were the first to come round about me, and they told me of all the sins which I had committed, and they said unto me, ‘Let him that can save thee from the torments into which thou shalt be cast come hither.’ And they had in their hands iron knives, and pointed goads which were like unto sharp spears, and they drove them into my sides and gnashed upon me with their teeth. When a little time afterwards my eyes were opened I saw death hovering about in the air in its manifold forms, and at that moment angels who were without pity came and dragged my wretched soul from my body, and having tied it under the form of a black horse they led me away to Amonti. Woe be unto every sinner like unto myself who hath been born into the world! O my master and father, I was then delivered into the hands of a multitude of tormentors who were without pity and who had each a different form. Oh, what a number of wild beasts did I see in the way! Oh, what a number of powers were there that inflicted punishment upon me! And it came to pass that when I had been cast into the outer darkness, I saw a great ditch which was more than two hundred cubits deep, and it was filled with reptiles; each reptile had seven heads, and the body of each was like unto that of a scorpion. In this place also lived the Great Worm, the mere sight of which terrified him that looked thereat. In his mouth he had teeth like unto iron stakes, and one took me and threw me to this Worm which never ceased to eat; then immediately all the [other] beasts gathered together near him, and when he had filled his mouth [with my flesh], all the beasts who were round about me filled theirs.” In answer to the question of the holy man as to whether he had enjoyed any rest or period without suffering, the mummy replied: “Yea, O my father, pity is shown unto those who are in torment every Saturday and every Sunday. As soon as Sunday is over we are cast into the torments which we deserve, so that we may forget the years which we have passed in the world; and as soon as we have forgotten the grief of this torment we are cast into another which is still more grievous.”
Now, it is easy to see from the above description of the torments which the wicked were supposed to suffer, that the writer had in his mind some of the pictures with which we are now familiar, thanks to the excavation of tombs which has gone on in Egypt during the last few years; and it is also easy to see that he, in common with many other Coptic writers, misunderstood the purport of them. The outer darkness, _i.e._, the blackest place of all in the underworld, the river of fire, the pits of fire, the snake and the scorpion, and such like things, all have their counterparts, or rather originals, in the scenes which accompany the texts which describe the passage of the sun through the underworld during the hours of the night. Having once misunderstood the general meaning of such scenes, it was easy to convert the foes of R[=a], the Sun-god, into the souls of the damned, and to look upon the burning up of such foes–who were after all only certain powers of nature personified–as the well-merited punishment of those who had done evil upon the earth. How far the Copts reproduced unconsciously the views which had been held by their ancestors for thousands of years cannot be said, but even after much allowance has been made for this possibility, there remains still to be explained a large number of beliefs and views which seem to have been the peculiar product of the Egyptian Christian imagination.
It has been said above that the idea of the judgment of the dead is of very great antiquity in Egypt; indeed, it is so old that it is useless to try to ascertain the date of the period when it first grew up. In the earliest religious texts known to us, there are indications that the Egyptians expected a judgment, but they are not sufficiently definite to argue from; it is certainly doubtful if the judgment was thought to be as thorough and as searching then as in the later period. As far back as the reign of Men-kau-R[=a], the Mycerinus of the Greeks, about B.C. 3600, a religious text, which afterwards formed chapter 30B of the Book of the Dead, was found inscribed on an iron slab; in the handwriting of the god Thoth, by the royal son or prince Herut[=a]t[=a]f. [Footnote: See _Chapters of Coming Forth by Day_, Translation, p. 80.] The original purpose of the composition of this text cannot be said, but there is little doubt that it was intended, to benefit the deceased in the judgment, and, if we translate its title literally, it was intended to prevent his heart from “falling away from him in the underworld.” In the first part of it the deceased, after adjuring his heart, says, “May naught stand up to oppose me in the judgment; may there be no opposition to me in the presence of the sovereign princes; may there be no parting of thee from me in the presence of him that keepeth the Balance!… May the officers of the court of Osiris (in Egyptian _Shenit_), who form the conditions of the lives of men, not cause my name to stink! Let [the judgment] be satisfactory unto me, let the hearing be satisfactory unto me, and let me have joy of heart at the weighing of words. Let not that which is false be uttered against me before the Great God, the Lord of Amentet.”
Now, although the papyrus upon, which this statement and prayer are found was written about two thousand years after Men-kau-R[=a] reigned, there is no doubt that they were copied from texts which were themselves copied at a much earlier period, and that the story of the finding of the text inscribed upon an iron slab is contemporary with its actual discovery by Herut[=a]t[=a]f. It is not necessary to inquire here whether the word “find” (in Egyptian _qem_) means a genuine discovery or not, but it is clear that those who had the papyrus copied saw no absurdity or impropriety in ascribing the text to the period of Men-kau-R[=a]. Another text, which afterwards also became a chapter of the Book of the Dead, under the title “Chapter of not letting the heart of the deceased be driven away from him in the underworld,” was inscribed on a coffin of the XIth dynasty, about B.C. 2500, and in it we have the following petition: “May naught stand up to oppose me in judgment in the presence of the lords of the trial (literally, ‘lords of things’); let it not be said of me and of that which I have done, ‘He hath done deeds against that which is very right and true’; may naught be against me in the presence of the Great God, the Lord of Amentet.” [Footnote: _Chapters of Coming Forth by Day_, p. 78.] From these passages we are right in assuming that before the end of the IVth dynasty the idea of being “weighed in the balance” was already evolved; that the religious schools of Egypt had assigned to a god the duty of watching the balance when cases were being tried; that this weighing in the balance took place in the presence of the beings called _Shenit_, who were believed to control the acts and deeds of men; that it was thought that evidence unfavourable to the deceased might be produced by his foes at the judgment; that the weighing took place in the presence of the Great God, the Lord of Amentet; and that the heart of the deceased might fail him either physically or morally. The deceased addresses his heart, calling it is “mother,” and next identifies it with his _ka_ or double, coupling the mention of the _ka_ with the name of the god Khnemu: these facts are exceedingly important, for they prove that the deceased considered his heart to be the source of his life and being, and the mention of the god Khnemu takes the date of the composition back to a period coaeval with the beginnings of religious thought in Egypt. It was the god Khnemu who assisted Thoth in performing the commands of God at the creation, and one very interesting sculpture at Philae shows Khnemu in the act of fashioning man upon a potter’s wheel. The deceased, in mentioning Khnemu’s name, seems to invoke his aid in the judgment as fashioner of man and as the being who is in some respects responsible for the manner of his life upon earth.
In Chapter 30A there is no mention made of the “guardian of the balance,” and the deceased says, “May naught stand up to oppose me in judgment in the presence of the lords of things!” The “lords of things” may be either the “lords of creation,” _i.e._, the great cosmic gods, or the “lords of the affairs [of the hall of judgment],” _i.e._, of the trial. In this chapter the deceased addresses not Khnemu, but “the gods who dwell in the divine clouds, and who are exalted by reason of their sceptres,” that is to say, the four gods of the cardinal points, called Mestha, H[=a]pi Tuamutef, and Qebhsennuf, who also presided over the chief internal organs of the human body. Here, again, it seems as if the deceased was anxious to make these gods in some way responsible for the deeds done by him in his life, inasmuch as they presided, over the organs that were the prime movers of his actions. In any case, he considers them in, the light of intercessors, for he beseeches them to “speak fair words unto R[=a]” on his behalf, and to make him to prosper before the goddess Nehebka. In this case, the favour of R[=a], the Sun-god, the visible emblem of the almighty and eternal God, is sought for, and also that of the serpent goddess, whose attributes are not yet accurately defined, but who has much to do with the destinies of the dead. No mention whatever is made of the Lord of Amentet–Osiris.
Before we pass to the consideration of the manner in which the judgment is depicted upon the finest examples of the illustrated papyri, reference must be made to an interesting vignette in the papyri of Nebseni [Footnote: British Museum, No. 9900.] and Amen-neb. [Footnote 2: British Museum, No. 0964.] In both of these papyri we see a figure of the deceased himself being weighed in the balance against his own heart in the presence of the god Osiris. It seems probable that a belief was current at one time in ancient Egypt concerning the possibility of the body being weighed against the heart, with the view of finding out if the former had obeyed the dictates of the latter; be that as it may, however, it is quite certain that this remarkable variant of the vignette of Chapter 30B had some special meaning, and, as it occurs in two papyri which date from the XVIIIth dynasty, we are justified in assuming that it represents a belief belonging to a much older period. The judgment here depicted must, in any case, be different from that which forms such a striking scene in the later illustrated papyri of the XVIIIth and following dynasties.
We have now proved that the idea of the judgment of the dead was accepted in religious writings as early as the IVth dynasty, about B.C. 3600, but we have to wait nearly two thousand years before we find it in picture form. Certain scenes which are found in the Book of the Dead as vignettes accompanying certain texts or chapters, _e.g._, the Fields of Hetep, or the Elysian Fields, are exceedingly old, and are found on sarcophagi of the XIth and XIIth dynasties; but the earliest picture known of the Judgment Scene is not older than the XVIIIth dynasty. In the oldest Theban papyri of the Book of the Dead no Judgment Scene is forthcoming, and when we find it wanting in such authoritative documents as the Papyrus of Nebseni and that of Nu, [Footnote: British Museum, No. 10,477.] we must take it for granted that there was some reason for its omission. In the great illustrated papyri, in which, the Judgment Scene is given in full, it will be noticed that it comes at the beginning of the work, and that it is preceded by hymns and by a vignette. Thus, in the Papyrus of Ani, [Footnote: British Museum, No. 10,470.] we have a hymn to R[=a] followed by a vignette representing the sunrise, and a hymn to Osiris; and in the Papyrus of Hunefer, [Footnote 2: British Museum, No. 9901.] though the hymns are different, the arrangement is the same. We are justified, then, in assuming that the hymns and the Judgment Scene together formed an introductory section to the Book of the Dead, and it is possible that it indicates the existence of the belief, at least during the period of the greatest power of the priests of Amen, from B.C. 1700 to B.C. 800, that the judgment of the dead for the deeds done in the body preceded the admission of the dead into the kingdom of Osiris. As the hymns which accompany the Judgment Scene are fine examples of a high class of devotional compositions, a few translations from some of them are here given.
HYMN TO R[=A]. [Footnote: See _The Chapters of Coming Forth by Day_, p. 7.]
“Homage to thee, O thou who risest in Nu, [Footnote: The sky personified.] and who at thy manifestation dost make the world bright with light; the whole company of the gods sing hymns of praise unto thee after thou hast come forth. The divine Merti [Footnote: Literally, the Two Eyes, _i.e._, Isis and Nephthys.] goddesses who minister unto thee cherish thee as King of the North and South, thou beautiful and beloved Man-child. When, thou risest men and women live. The nations rejoice in thee, and the Souls of Annu [Footnote: _i.e._, R[=a], Shu and Tefnut.] (Heliopolis) sing unto thee songs of joy. The Souls of the city of Pe, [Footnote: Part of the city of Buto (Per-Uatchit). The souls of Pe were Horus, Mestha, H[=a]pi.] and the Souls of the city of Nekhen [Footnote: _i.e._, Horus, Tuamutef, and Qebhsennuf.] exalt thee, the apes of dawn adore thee, and all beasts and cattle praise thee with one accord. The goddess Seba overthroweth thine enemies, therefore hast thou rejoicing in thy boat; thy mariners are content thereat. Thou hast attained unto the [= A]tet boat, [Footnote: _i.e._, the boat in which the sun travels until noon.] and thy heart swelleth with joy. O lord of the gods, when thou didst create them they shouted for joy. The azure goddess Nut doth compass thee on every side, and the god Nu floodeth thee with his rays of light. O cast thou thy light upon me and let me see thy beauties, and when thou goest forth over the earth I will sing praises unto thy fair face. Thou risest in heaven’s horizon, and thy disk is adored when it resteth upon the mountain to give life unto the world.”
“Thou risest, thou risest, and thou comest forth from the god Nu. Thou dost renew thy youth, and thou dost set thyself in the place where thou wast yesterday. O thou divine Child, who didst create thyself, I am not able [to describe] thee. Thou hast come with thy risings, and thou hast made heaven and earth resplendent with thy rays of pure emerald light. The land of Punt [Footnote: _i.e._, the land on each side of the Red Sea and North-east Africa.] is established [to give] the perfumes which, thou smellest with thy nostrils. Thou risest, O marvellous Being, in heaven, and the two serpent-goddesses, Merti, are established upon thy brow. Thou art the giver of laws, O thou lord of the world and of all the inhabitants thereof; all the gods adore thee.”
HYMN TO OSIRIS [Footnote: See _The Chapters of Coming Forth by Day_, p. 11.]
“Glory be to thee, O Osiris Un-nefer, the great god within Abydos, king of eternity and lord of everlastingness, the god who passest through millions of years in thy existence. Thou art the eldest son of the womb of Nut, thou wast engendered by Seb, the Ancestor of the gods, thou art the lord of the Crowns of the North and of the South, and of the lofty white crown. As Prince of the gods and of men thou hast received the crook, and the whip, and the dignity of thy divine fathers. Let thy heart which is in the mountain of Ament [Footnote: _i.e._, the underworld.] be content, for thy son Horus is established upon thy throne. Thou art crowned the lord of Tattu (Mendes) and ruler in Abtu (Abydos). Through thee the world waxeth green in triumph before the might of Neb-er-tcher. [Footnote: A name of Osiris.] Thou leadest in thy train that which is, and that which is not yet, in thy name of ‘Ta-her-sta-nef;’ thou towest along the earth in thy name of ‘Seker;’ thou art exceedingly mighty and most terrible in thy name of ‘Osiris;’ thou endurest for ever and for ever in thy name of ‘Un-nefer.'”
“Homage to thee, O thou King of kings, Lord of lords, Prince of Princes! From the womb of Nut thou hast ruled the world and the underworld. Thy body is of bright and shining metal, thy head is of azure blue, and the brilliance of the turquoise encircleth thee. O thou god An, who hast had existence for millions of years, who pervadest all things with thy body, who art beautiful in countenance in the Land of Holiness (_i.e._, the underworld), grant thou to me splendour in heaven, might upon earth, and triumph in the underworld. Grant thou that I may sail down to Tattu like a living soul, and up to Abtu like the phoenix; and grant that I may enter in and come forth from the pylons of the lands of the underworld without let or hindrance. May loaves of bread be given unto me in the house of coolness, and offerings of food and drink in Annu (Heliopolis), and a homestead for ever and for ever in the Field of Reeds [Footnote: A division of the “Fields of Peace” or Elysian Fields.] with wheat and barley therefor.”
In the long and important hymn in the Papyrus of Hunefer [Footnote: See _The Chapters of Coming Forth By Day_, pp. 343-346.] occurs the following petition, which is put into the mouth of the deceased:–
“Grant that I may follow in the train of thy Majesty even as I did upon earth. Let my soul be called [into the presence], and let it be found by the side of the lords of right and truth. I have come into the City of God, the region which existed in primeval time, with [my] soul, and with [my] double, and with [my] translucent form, to dwell in this land. The God thereof is the lord of right and truth, he is the lord of the _tchefau_ food of the gods, and he is most holy. His land draweth unto itself every land; the South cometh sailing down the river thereto, and the North, steered thither by winds, cometh daily to make festival therein according to the command of the God thereof, who is the Lord of peace therein. And doth he not say, ‘The happiness thereof is a care unto me’? The god who dwelleth therein worketh right and truth; unto him that doeth these things he giveth old age, and to him that followeth after them rank and honour, until at length he attaineth unto a happy funeral and burial in the Holy Land” (_i.e._, the underworld).
The deceased, having recited these words of prayer and adoration to R[=a], the symbol of Almighty God, and to his son Osiris, next “cometh forth into the Hall of Ma[=a]ti, that he may be separated from every sin which he hath done, and may behold the faces of the gods.” [Footnote: This quotation is from the title of Chapter CXXV. of the Book of the Dead.] From the earliest times the Ma[=a]ti were the two goddesses Isis and Nephthys, and they were so called because they represented the ideas of straightness, integrity, righteousness, what is right, the truth, and such like; the word Ma[=a]t originally meant a measuring reed or stick. They were supposed either to sit in the Hall of Ma[=a]t outside the shrine of Osiris, or to stand by the side of this god in the shrine; an example of the former position will be seen in the Papyrus of Ani (Plate 31), and of the latter in the Papyrus of Hunefer (Plate 4). The original idea of the Hall of Ma[=a]t or Ma[=a]ti was that it contained forty-two gods; a fact which we may see from the following passage in the Introduction to Chapter CXXV. of the Book of the Dead. The deceased says to Osiris:–
“Homage to thee, O thou great God, thou Lord of the two Ma[=a]t goddesses! I have come to thee, O my Lord, and I have made myself to come hither that I may behold thy beauties. I know thee, and I know thy name, and I know the names of the two and forty gods who live with thee in this Hall of Ma[=a]ti, who live as watchers of sinners and who feed upon their blood on that day when the characters (_or_ lives) of men are reckoned up (_or_ taken into account) in the presence of the god Un-nefer. Verily, God of the Rekhti-Merti (_i.e._, the twin sisters of the two eyes), the Lord of the city of Ma[=a]ti is thy name. Verily I have come to thee, and I have brought Ma[=a]t unto thee, and I have destroyed wickedness.”
The deceased then goes on to enumerate the sins or offences which he has not committed; and he concludes by saying: “I am pure; I am pure; I am pure; I am pure. My purity is the purity of the great Bennu which is in the city of Suten-henen (Heracleopolis), for, behold., I am the nostrils of the God of breath, who maketh all mankind to live on the day when the Eye of R[=a] is full in Annu (Heliopolis) at the end of the second month of the season PERT. [Footnote: _i.e._, the last day of the sixth month of the Egyptian year, called by the Copta Mekhir.] I have seen the Eye of R[=a] when it was full in Annu; [Footnote: The allusion here seems to be to the Summer or Winter Solstice.] therefore let not evil befall me either in this land or in this Hall of Ma[=a]ti, because I, even I, know the names of the gods who are therein.”
Now as the gods who live in the Hall of Ma[=a]t with Osiris are two and forty in number, we should expect that two and forty sins or offences would be mentioned in the addresses which the deceased makes to them; but this is not the case, for the sins enumerated in the Introduction never reach this number. In the great illustrated papyri of the XVIIIth and XIXth dynasties we find, however, that notwithstanding the fact that a large number of sins, which the deceased declares he has not committed, are mentioned in the Introduction, the scribes and artists added a series of negative statements, forty-two in number, which they set out in a tabular form. This, clearly, is an attempt to make the sins mentioned equal in number to the gods of the Hall of Ma[=a]t, and it would seem as if they preferred to compose an entirely new form of this section of the one hundred and twenty-fifth chapter to making any attempt to add to or alter the older section. The artists, then, depicted a Hall of Ma[=a]t, the doors of which are wide open, and the cornice of which is formed of uraei and feathers, symbolic of Ma[=a]t. Over the middle of the cornice is a seated deity with hands extended, the right over the Eye of Horus, and the left over a pool. At the end of the Hall are seated the goddesses of Ma[=a]t, _i.e._, Isis and Nephthys, the deceased adoring Osiris who is seated on a throne, a balance with the heart of the deceased in one scale, and the feather, symbolic of Ma[=a]t, in the other, and Thoth painting a large feather. In this Hall sit the forty-two gods, and as the deceased passes by each, the deceased addresses him by his name and at the same time declares that he has not committed a certain sin. An examination of the different papyri shows that the scribes often made mistakes in writing this list of gods and list of sins, and, as the result, the deceased is made to recite before one god the confession which strictly belongs to another. Inasmuch, as the deceased always says after pronouncing the name of each god, “I have not done” such and such a sin, the whole group of addresses has been called the “Negative Confession.” The fundamental ideas of religion and morality which underlie this Confession are exceedingly old, and we may gather from it with tolerable clearness what the ancient Egyptian believed to constitute his duty towards God and towards his neighbour.
It is impossible to explain, the fact that forty-two gods only are addressed, and equally so to say why this number was adopted. Some have believed that the forty-two gods represented each a name of Egypt, and much support is given to this view by the fact that most of the lists of names make the number to be forty-two; but then, again, the lists do not agree. The classical authors differ also, for by some of these writers the names are said to be thirty-six in number, and by others forty-six are enumerated. These differences may, however, be easily explained, for the central administration may at any time have added to or taken from the number of names for fiscal or other considerations, and we shall probably be correct in assuming that at the time the Negative Confession was drawn up in the tabular form in which we meet it in the XVIIIth dynasty the names were forty-two in number. Support is also lent to this view by the fact that the earliest form of the Confession, which forms the Introduction to Chapter CXXV., mentions less than forty sins. Incidentally we may notice that the forty-two gods are subservient to Osiris, and that they only occupy a subordinate position in the Hall of Judgment, for it is the result of the weighing of the heart of the deceased in the balance that decides his future. Before passing to the description of the Hall of Judgment where the balance is set, it is necessary to give a rendering of the Negative Confession which, presumably, the deceased recites before his heart is weighed in the balance; it is made from the Papyrus of Nu. [Footnote: British Museum, No. 10,477.]
1. “Hail Usekh-nemtet (_i.e._, Long of strides), who comest forth from Anuu (Heliopolis), I have not done iniquity.
2. “Hail Hept-seshet (_i.e._, Embraced by flame), who comest forth from Kher-[=a]ba, [Footnote: A city near Memphis.] I have not robbed with violence.
3. “Hail Fenti (_i.e._, Nose), who comest forth from Khemennu (Hermopolis), I have not done violence to any man.
4. “Hail [=A]m-khaibitu (_i.e._, Eater of shades), who comest forth from the Qereret (_i.e._, the cavern where the Nile rises), I have not committed theft.
5. “Hail Neha-bra (_i.e._, Stinking face), who comest forth from Restau, I have slain neither man nor woman.
6. “Hail Rereti (_i.e._, Double Lion-god), who comest forth from heaven, I have not made light the bushel.
7. “Hail Maata-f-em-seshet (_i.e._, Fiery eyes), who comest forth from Sekhem (Letopolis), I have not acted deceitfully.
8. “Hail Neba (_i.e._, Flame), who comest forth and retreatest, I have not purloined the things which belong unto God.
9. “Hail Set-qesu (_i.e._, Crusher of bones), who comest forth from Suten-henen (Heracleopolis), I have not uttered falsehood.
10. “Hail Khemi (_i.e._, Overthrower), who comest forth from Shetait (_i.e._, the hidden place), I have not carried off goods by force.
11. “Hail Uatch-nesert (_i.e._, Vigorous of Flame), who comest forth from Het-ka-Ptah (Memphis), I have not uttered vile (_or_ evil) words.
12. “Hail Hra-f-ha-f (_i.e._, He whose face is behind him), who comest forth from the cavern and the deep, I have not carried off food by force.
13. “Hail Qerti (_i.e._, the double Nile source), who comest forth from the Underworld, I have not acted deceitfully.
14. “Hail Ta-ret (_i.e._, Fiery-foot), who comest forth out of the darkness, I have not eaten my heart (_i.e._ lost my temper and become angry).
15. “Hail Hetch-abehu (_i.e._, Shining teeth), who comest forth from Ta-she (_i.e._, the Fayyum), I have invaded no [man’s land].
16. “Hail [=A]m-senef (_i.e._, Eater of blood), who comest forth from the house of the block, I have not slaughtered animals which are the possessions of God.
17. “Hail [=A]m-besek (_i.e._, Eater of entrails), who comest forth from M[=a]bet, I have not laid waste the lands which have been ploughed.
18. “Hail Neb-Ma[=a]t (_i.e._, Lord of Ma[=a]t), who comest forth from the city of the two Ma[=a]ti, I have not pried into matters to make mischief.
19. “Hail Thenemi (_i.e._, Retreater), who comest forth from Bast (_i.e._, Bubastis), I have not set my mouth in motion against any man.
20. “Hail [=A]nti, who comest forth from Annu (Heliopolis), I have not given way to wrath without due cause.
21. “Hail Tututef, who comest forth from the home of Ati, I have not committed fornication, and I have not committed sodomy.
22. “Hail Uamemti, who comest forth from the house of slaughter, I have not polluted myself.
23. “Hail Maa-ant-f (_i.e._, Seer of what is brought to him), who comest forth from the house of the god Amsu, I have not lain with the wife of a man.
24. “Hail Her-seru, who comest forth from Nehatu, I have not made any man to be afraid.
25. “Hail Neb-Sekhem, who comest forth from the Lake of Kaui, I have not made my speech to burn with anger. [Footnote: Literally, “I have not been hot of mouth.”]
26. “Hail Seshet-kheru (_i.e._, Orderer of speech), who comest forth from Urit, I have not made myself deaf unto the words of right and truth.
27. “Hail Nekhen (_i.e._, Babe), who comest forth from the Lake of Heq[=a] t, I have not made another person to weep.
28. “Hail Kenemti, who comest forth from Kenemet, I have not uttered blasphemies.
29. “Hail An-hetep-f (_i.e._, Bringer of his offering), who comest forth from Sau, I have not acted with violence.
30. “Hail Ser-kheru (_i.e._, Disposer of Speech), who comest forth from Unsi, I have not hastened my heart. [Footnote: _i.e._, acted without due consideration.]
31. “Hail Neb-hrau (_i.e._, Lord of Faces), who comest forth from Netchefet, I have not pierced (?) my skin (?), and I have not taken vengeance on the god.
32. “Hail Serekhi, who comest forth from Uthent, I have not multiplied my speech beyond what should be said.
33. “Hail Neb-abui (_i.e._, Lord of horns), who comest forth from Sauti, I have not committed fraud, [and I have not] looked upon evil.
34. “Hail Nefer-Tem, who comest forth from Ptah-het-ka (Memphis), I have never uttered curses against the king.
35. “Hail Tem-sep, who comest forth from Tattu, I have not fouled running water.
36. “Hail Ari-em-ab-f, who comest forth from Tebti, I have not exalted my speech.
37. “Hail Ahi, who comest forth from Nu, I have not uttered curses against God.
38. “Hail Uatch-rekhit [who comest forth from his shrine (?)], I have not behaved with insolence.
39. “Hail Neheb-nefert, who comest forth from his temple, I have not made distinctions. [Footnote: _i.e._, I have not been guilty of favouritism.]
40. “Hail Neheb-kau, who comest forth from thy cavern, I have not increased my wealth except by means of such things as are mine own possessions.
41. “Hail Tcheser-tep, who comest forth from thy shrine, I have not uttered curses against that which belongeth to God and is with me.
42. “Hail An-[=a]-f (_i.e._, Bringer of his arm), [who comest forth from Aukert], I have not thought scorn of the god of the city.”
A brief examination of this “Confession” shows that the Egyptian code of morality was very comprehensive, and it would be very hard to find an act, the commission of which would be reckoned a sin when the “Confession” was put together, which is not included under one or other part of it. The renderings of the words for certain sins are not always definite or exact, because we do not know the precise idea which the framer of this remarkable document had. The deceased states that he has neither cursed God, nor thought scorn of the god of his city, nor cursed the king, nor committed theft of any kind, nor murder, nor adultery, nor sodomy, nor crimes against the god of generation; he has not been imperious or haughty, or violent, or wrathful, or hasty in deed, or a hypocrite, or an accepter of persons, or a blasphemer, or crafty, or avaricious, or fraudulent, or deaf to pious words, or a party to evil actions, or proud, or puffed up; he has terrified no man, he has not cheated in the market-place, and he has neither fouled the public watercourse nor laid waste the tilled land of the community. This is, in brief, the confession which the deceased makes; and the next act in the Judgment Scene is weighing the heart of the deceased in the scales. As none of the oldest papyri of the Book of the Dead supplies us with a representation of this scene, we must have recourse to the best of the illustrated papyri of the latter half of the XVIIIth and of the XIXth dynasties. The details of the Judgment Scene vary greatly in various papyri, but the essential parts of it are always preserved. The following is the description of the judgment of Ani, as it appears in his wonderful papyrus preserved in the British Museum.
In the underworld, and in that portion of it which is called the Hall of Ma[=a]ti, is set a balance wherein the heart of the deceased is to be weighed. The beam is suspended by a ring upon a projection from the standard of the balance made in the form of the feather which is the symbol of Ma[=a]t, or what is right and true. The tongue of the balance is fixed to the beam, and when this is exactly level, the tongue is as straight as the standard; if either end of the beam inclines downwards the tongue cannot remain in a perpendicular position. It must be distinctly understood that the heart which was weighed in the one scale was not expected to make the weight which was in the other to kick the beam, for all that was asked or required of the deceased was that his heart should balance exactly the symbol of the law. The standard was sometimes surmounted by a human head wearing the feather of Ma[=a]t; sometimes by the head of a jackal, the animal sacred to Anubis; and sometimes by the head of an ibis, the bird sacred to Thoth; in the Papyrus of Ani a dog-headed ape, the associate of Thoth, sits on the top of the standard. In some papyri (_e.g._, those of Ani [Footnote: About B.C. 1500.] and Hunefer [Footnote: About B.C. 1370.]), in addition to Osiris, the king of the underworld and judge of the dead, the gods of his cycle or company appear as witnesses of the judgment. In the Papyrus of the priestess Anhai [Footnote: About B.C. 1000.] in the British Museum the great and the little companies of the gods appear as witnesses, but the artist was so careless that instead of nine gods in each group he painted six in one and five in the other. In the Turin papyrus [Footnote: Written in the Ptolemaic period.] we see the whole of the forty-two gods, to whom the deceased recited the [Illustration: The weighing of the heart of the scribe Ani in the Balance in the presence of the gods.] “Negative Confession,” seated in the judgment-hall. The gods present at the weighing of Ani’s heart are–
1. R[=A]-HARMACHIS, hawk-headed, the Sun-god of the dawn and of noon.
2. TEMU, the Sun-god of the evening, the great god of Heliopolis. He is depicted always in human form and with the face of a man, a fact which proves that he had at a very early period passed through all the forms in which gods are represented, and had arrived at that of a man. He has upon his head the crowns of the South and North.
3. SHU, man-headed, the son of R[=a] and Hathor, the personification of the sunlight.
4. TEFNUT, lion-headed, the twin-sister of Shu, the personification of moisture.
5. SEB, man-headed, the son of Shu, the personification of the earth.
6. NUT, woman-headed, the female counterpart of the gods Nu and Seb; she was the personification of the primeval water, and later of the sky.
7. ISIS, woman-headed, the sister-wife of Osiris, and mother of Horus.
8. NEPHTHYS, woman-headed, the sister-wife of Osiris, and mother of Anubis.
9. HORUS, the “great god,” hawk-headed, whose worship was probably the oldest in Egypt.
10. HATHOR, woman-headed, the personification of that portion of the sky where the sun rose and set.
11. HU, man-headed, and
12. SA, also man-headed; these gods are present in the boat of R[=a] in the scenes which depict the creation.
On one side of the balance kneels the god Anubis, jackal-headed, who holds the weight of the tongue of the balance in his right hand, and behind him stands Thoth, the scribe of the gods, ibis-headed, holding in his hands a reed wherewith to write down the result of the weighing. Near him is seated the tri-formed beast [=A]m-mit, the, “Eater of the Dead,” who waits to devour the heart of Ani should it be found to be light. In the Papyrus of Neb-qet at Paris this beast is seen lying by the side of a lake of fire, at each corner of which is seated a dog-headed ape; this lake is also seen in Chapter CXXVI. of the Book of the Dead. The gods who are seated before a table of offerings, and Anubis, and Thoth, and [=A]m-mit, are the beings who conduct the case, so to speak, against Ani. On the other side of the balance stand Ani and his wife Thuthu with their heads reverently bent; they are depicted in human form, and wear garments and ornaments similar to those which they wore upon earth. His soul, in the form of a man-headed hawk standing upon a pylon, is present, also a man-headed, rectangular object, resting upon a pylon, which has frequently been supposed to represent the deceased in an embryonic state. In the Papyrus of Anhai two of these objects appear, one on each side of the balance; they are described as Shai and Renenet, two words which are translated by “Destiny” and “Fortune” respectively. It is most probable, as the reading of the name of the object is _Meskhenet_, and as the deity Meskhenet represents sometimes both Shai and Renenet, that the artist intended the object to represent both deities, even though we find the god Shai standing below it close to the standard of the balance. Close by the soul stand two goddesses called Meskhenet and Renenet respectively; the former is, probably, one of the four goddesses who assisted at the resurrection of Osiris, and the latter the personification of Fortune, which has already been included under the _Meskhenet_ object above, the personification of Destiny.
It will be remembered that Meskhenet accompanied Isis, Nephthys, Heqet, and Khnemu to the house of the lady Rut-Tettet, who was about to bring forth three children. When these deities arrived, having changed their forms into those of women, they found R[=a]-user standing there. And when they had made music for him, he said to them, “Mistresses, there is a woman in travail here;” and they replied, “Let us see her, for we know how to deliver a woman.” R[=a]-user then brought them into the house, and the goddesses shut themselves in with the lady Rut-Tettet. Isis took her place before her, and Nephthys behind her, whilst Heqet hastened the birth of the children; as each child was born Meskhenet stepped up to him and said, “A king who shall have dominion over the whole land,” and the god Khnemu bestowed health upon his limbs. [Footnote: See Erman, _Westcar Papyrus_, Berlin, 1890, hieroglyphic transcript, plates 9 and 10.] Of these five gods, Isis, Nephthys, Meskhenet, Heqet, and Khnemu, the first three are present at the judgment of Ani; Khnemu is mentioned in Ani’s address to his heart (see below), and only Heqet is unrepresented.
As the weighing of his heart is about to take place Ani says, “My heart, my mother! My heart, my mother! My heart whereby I came into being! May naught stand up to oppose me in the judgment; may there be no opposition to me in the presence of the sovereign princes; may there be no parting of thee from me in the presence of him that keepeth the Balance! Thou art my _ka_, the dweller in my body; the god Khnemu who knitteth and strengtheneth my limbs. Mayest thou come forth into the place of happiness whither we go. May the princes of the court of Osiris, who order the circumstances of the lives of men, not cause my name to stink.” Some papyri add, “Let it be satisfactory unto us, and let the listening be satisfactory unto us, and let there be joy of heart unto us at the weighing of words. Let not that which is false be uttered against me before the great god, the lord of Amentet! Verily how great shalt thou be when thou risest in triumph!”
The tongue of the balance having been examined by Anubis, and the ape having indicated to his associate Thoth that the beam is exactly straight, and that the heart, therefore, counterbalances the feather symbolic of Ma[=a]t _(_i.e._, right, truth, law, etc.), neither outweighing nor underweighing it, Thoth writes down the result, and then makes the following address to the gods:–
“Hear ye this judgment. The heart of Osiris hath in very truth been weighed, and his soul hath stood as a witness for him; it hath been found true by trial in the Great Balance. There hath not been found any wickedness in him; he hath not wasted the offerings in the temples; he hath not done harm by his deeds; and he spread abroad no evil reports while he was upon earth.”
In answer to this report the company of the gods, who are styled “the great company of the gods,” reply, “That which cometh forth from thy mouth, O Thoth, who dwellest in Khemennu (Hermopolis), is confirmed. Osiris, the scribe Ani, triumphant, is holy and righteous. He hath not sinned, neither hath he done evil against us. The Devourer [=A]m-mit shall not be allowed to prevail over him, and meat-offerings and entrance into the presence of the god Osiris shall be granted unto him, together with a homestead for ever in the Field of Peace, as unto the followers of Horus.” [Footnote: These are a class of mythological beings, or demi-gods, who already in the Vth dynasty were supposed to recite prayers on behalf of the deceased, and to assist Horus and Set in performing funeral ceremonies. See my _Papyrus of Ani_, p. cxxv.]
Here we notice at once that the deceased is identified with Osiris, the god and judge of the dead, and that they have bestowed upon him the god’s own name; the reason of this is as follows. The friends of the deceased performed for him all the ceremonies and rites which were performed for Osiris by Isis and Nephthys, and it was assumed that, as a result, the same things which took place in favour of Osiris would also happen on behalf of the deceased, and that in fact, the deceased would become the counterpart of Osiris. Everywhere in the texts of the Book of the Dead the deceased is identified with Osiris, from B.C. 3400 to the Roman period. Another point to notice is the application of the words _ma[=a] kheru_ to the deceased, a term which I have, for want of a better word, rendered “triumphant.” These words actually mean “true of voice” or “right of word,” and indicate that the person to whom they are applied has acquired the power of using his voice in such a way that when the invisible beings are addressed by him they will render unto him all the service which he has obtained the right to demand. It is well known that in ancient times magicians and sorcerers were wont to address spirits or demons in a peculiar tone of voice, and that all magical formulae were recited in a similar manner; the use of the wrong sound or tone of voice would result in the most disastrous consequences to the speaker, and perhaps in death. The deceased had to make his way through a number of regions in the underworld, and to pass through many series of halls, the doors of which were guarded by beings who were prepared, unless properly addressed, to be hostile to the new-comer; he also had need to take passage in a boat, and to obtain the help of the gods and of the powers of the various localities wherein he wanted to travel if he wished to pass safely into the place where he would be. The Book of the Dead provided him with all the texts and formulae which he would have to recite to secure this result, but unless the words contained in them were pronounced in a proper manner, and said in a proper tone of voice, they would have no effect upon the powers of the underworld. The term _ma[=a] kheru_ is applied but very rarely to the living, but commonly to the dead, and indeed the dead needed most the power which these words indicated. In the case of Ani, the gods, having accepted the favourable report of the result obtained by weighing Ani’s heart by Thoth, style him _ma[=a] kheru_, which is equivalent to conferring upon him power to overcome all opposition, of every kind, which he may meet. Henceforth every door will open at his command, every god will hasten to obey immediately Ani has uttered his name, and those whose duty it is to provide celestial food for the beatified will do so for him when once the order has been given. Before passing on to other matters it is interesting to note that the term _ma[=a] kheru_ is not applied to Ani by himself in the Judgment Scene, nor by Thoth, the scribe of the gods, nor by Horus when he introduces him to Osiris; it is only the gods who can make a man _ma[=a] kheru_, and thereby he also escapes from the Devourer.
The judgment ended, Horus, the son of Isis, who has assumed all the attributes of his father Osiris, takes Ani’s left hand in his right and leads him up to the shrine wherein the god Osiris is seated. The god wears the white crown with feathers, and he holds in his hands a sceptre, a crook, and whip, or flail, which typify sovereignty and dominion. His throne is a tomb, of which the bolted doors and the cornice of uraei may be seen painted on the side. At the back of his neck hangs the _menat_ or symbol of joy and happiness; on his right hand stands Nephthys, and on his left stands Isis. Before him, standing on a lotus flower, are the four children of Horus, Mestha, H[=a]pi, Tuamutef, and Qebhsennuf, who presided over and protected the intestines of the dead; close by hangs the skin of a bull with which magical ideas seem to have been associated. The top of the shrine in which the god sits is surmounted by uraei, wearing disks on their heads, and the cornice also is similarly decorated. In several papyri the god is seen standing up in the shrine, sometimes with and sometimes without the goddesses Isis and Nephthys. In the Papyrus of Hunefer we find a most interesting variant of this [Illustration: Horus, the son of Isis, leading the scribe Ani into the presence of Osiris, the god and judge of the dead; before the shrine of the god Am kneels in adoration and presents offerings.] portion of the scene, for the throne of Osiris rests upon, or in, water. This reminds us of the passage in the one hundred and twenty-sixth chapter of the Book of the Dead in which the god Thoth says to the deceased, “Who is he whose roof is of fire, whose walls are living uraei, and the floor of whose house is a stream of running water? Who is he, I say?” The deceased answers, “It is Osiris,” and the god says, “Come forward, then; for verily thou shalt be mentioned [to him].”
When Horus had led in Ani he addressed Osiris, saying, “I have come unto thee, O Un-nefer, and I have brought the Osiris Ani unto thee. His heart hath been found righteous and it hath come forth from the balance; it hath not sinned against any god or any goddess. Thoth hath weighed it according to the decree uttered unto him by the company of the gods; and it is very true and right. Grant unto him cakes and ale; and let him enter into thy presence; and may he be like unto the followers of Horus for ever!” After this address Ani, kneeling by the side of tables of offerings of fruit, flowers, etc., which he has brought unto Osiris, says, “O Lord of Amentet, I am in thy presence. There is no sin in me, I have not lied wittingly, nor have I done aught with a false heart. Grant that I may be like unto those favoured ones who are round about thee, and that I may be an Osiris greatly favoured of the beautiful god and beloved of the Lord of the world, [I], the royal scribe of Ma[=a]t, who loveth him, Ani, triumphant before Osiris.” [Footnote: Or “true of voice in respect of Osiris;” _i.e._, Ani makes his petition, and Osiris is to hear and answer because he has uttered the right words in the right manner, and in the right tone of voice.] Thus we come to the end of the scene of the weighing of the heart.
The man who has passed safely through this ordeal has now to meet the gods of the underworld, and the Book of the Dead provides the words which “the heart which is righteous and sinless” shall say unto them. One of the fullest and most correct texts of “the speech of the deceased when he cometh forth true of voice from the Hall of the Ma[=a]ti goddesses” is found in the Papyrus of Nu; in it the deceased says:–
“Homage to you, O ye gods who dwell in the Hall of the Ma[=a]ti goddesses, I, even I, know you, and I know your names. Let me not fall under your knives of slaughter, and bring ye not forward my wickedness unto the god in whose train ye are; and let not evil hap come upon, me by your means. O declare ye me true of voice in the presence of Neb-er-teber, because I have done that which is right and true in Ta-mera (_i.e._, Egypt). I have not cursed God, therefore let not evil hap come upon me through the King who dwelleth in his day.
“Homage to you, O ye gods, who dwell in the Hall of the Ma[=a]ti goddesses, who are without evil in your bodies, and who live upon right and truth, and who feed yourselves upon right and truth in the presence of the god Horus, who dwelleth in his divine Disk; deliver ye me from the god Baba [Footnote: The first born son of Osiris.] who feedeth upon the entrails of the mighty ones upon the day of the great reckoning, O grant ye that I may come to you, for I have not committed faults, I have not sinned, I have not done evil, I have not borne false witness; therefore let nothing [evil] be done unto me. I live upon right and truth, and I feed upon right and truth. I have performed the commandments of men [as well as] the things whereat are gratified the gods; I have made God to be at peace [with me by doing] that which is his will. I have given bread to the hungry man, and water to the thirsty man, and apparel to the naked man, and a boat to the [shipwrecked] mariner. I have made holy offerings to the gods, and sepulchral meals to the beatified dead. Be ye then my deliverers, be ye then my protectors, and make ye not accusation against me in the presence of [Osiris]. I am clean of mouth and clean of hands; therefore let it be said unto me by those who shall behold me, ‘Come in peace, come in peace.’ I have heard the mighty word which the spiritual bodies spake unto the Cat [Footnote: _i.e._, R[=a] as the slayer of the serpent of darkness, the head of which be cuts off with a knife. (See above, p. 63). The usual reading is “which the Ass spake to the Cat;” the Ass being Osiris and the cat R[=a].] in the house of Hapt-re. I have testified in the presence of Hra-f-ha-f, and he hath given [his] decision. I have seen the things over which the Persea tree spreadeth within Re-stau. I am he who hath offered up prayers to the gods and who knoweth their persons. I have come, and I have advanced to make the declaration of right and truth, and to set the Balance upon what supporteth it in the region of Aukert.
“Hail, thou who art exalted upon thy standard (_i.e._, Osiris), thou lord of the ‘Atefu’ crown whose name is proclaimed as ‘Lord of the winds,’ deliver thou me from thy divine messengers who cause dire deeds to happen, and who cause calamities to come into being, and who are without coverings for their faces, for I have done that which is right and true for the Lord of right and truth. I have purified myself and my breast with libations, and my hinder parts with the things which make clean, and my inward parts have been [immersed] in the Pool of Right and Truth. There is no single member of mine which lacketh right and truth. I have been purified in the Pool of the South, and I have rested in the City of the North, which is in the Field of the Grasshoppers, wherein the divine sailors of R[=a] bathe at the second hour of the night and at the third hour of the day; and the hearts of the gods are gratified after they have passed through it, whether it be by night, or whether it be by day. And I would that they should say unto me, ‘Come forward,’ and ‘Who art thou?’ and ‘What is thy name?’ These are the words which, I would have the gods say unto me. [Then would I reply] ‘My name is He who is provided with flowers, and Dweller in his olive tree.’ Then let them say unto me straightway, ‘Pass on,’ and I would pass on to the city to the north of the Olive tree, ‘What then wilt thou see there?’ [say they. And I say]’ The Leg and the Thigh,’ ‘What wouldst thou say unto them?’ [say they.] ‘Let me see rejoicings in the land of the Fenkhu’ [I reply]. ‘What will they give thee? [say they]. ‘A fiery flame and a crystal tablet’ [I reply]. ‘What wilt thou do therewith?’ [say they]. ‘Bury them by the furrow of M[=a][=a]at as Things for the night’ [I reply]. ‘What wilt thou find by the furrow of M[=a][=a]at?’ [say they]. ‘A sceptre of flint called Giver of Air’ [I reply]. ‘What wilt thou do with the fiery flame and the crystal tablet after thou hast buried them?’ [say they]. ‘I will recite words over them, in the furrow. I will extinguish the fire, and I will break the tablet, and I will make a pool of water’ [I reply]. Then let the gods say unto me, ‘Come and enter in through the door of this Hall of the M[=a][=a]ti goddesses, for thou knowest us.'”
After these remarkable prayers follows a dialogue between each part of the Hall of M[=a][=a]ti and the deceased, which reads as follows:–
_Door bolts_. “We will not let thee enter in through us unless thou tellest our names.”
_Deceased_. “‘Tongue of the place of Right and Truth’ is your name.”
_Right post_. “I will not let thee enter in by me unless thou tellest my name.”
_Deceased_. “‘Scale of the lifter up of right and truth’ is thy name.”
_Left post_. “I will not let thee enter in by me unless thou tellest my name.”
_Deceased_. “‘Scale of wine’ is thy name.”
_Threshold_. “I will not let thee pass over me unless thou tellest my name.”
_Deceased_. “‘Ox of the god Seb’ is thy name.”
_Hasp_. “I will not open unto thee unless thou tellest my name.”
_Deceased_. “‘Leg-bone of his mother’ is thy name.”
_Socket-hole_. “I will not open unto thee unless thou tellest my name.”
_Deceased_. “‘Living Eye of Sebek, the lord of Bakhau,’ is thy name.”
_Porter_. “I will not open unto thee unless thou tellest my name.”
_Deceased_. “‘Elbow of the god Shu when he placeth himself to protect Osiris’ is thy name.”
_Side posts_. “We will not let thee pass in by us, unless thou tellest our names.”
_Deceased_. “‘Children of the uraei-goddesses’ is your name.”
“Thou knowest us; pass on, therefore, by us” [say these].
_Floor_. “I will not let thee tread upon me, because I am silent and I am holy, and because I do not know the names of thy feet wherewith thou wouldst walk upon me; therefore tell them to me.”
_Deceased_. “‘Traveller of the god Khas’ is the name of my right foot, and ‘Staff of the goddess Hathor’ is the name of my left foot.”
“Thou knowest me; pass on, therefore, over me” [it saith].
_Doorkeeper_. “I will not take in thy name unless thou tellest my name.”
_Deceased_. “‘Discerner of hearts and searcher of the reins’ is thy name.”
_Doorkeeper_. “Who is the god that dwelleth in his hour? Utter his name.”
_Deceased_. “‘M[=a]au-Taui’ is his name.”
_Doorkeeper_. “And who is M[=a]au-Taui?”
_Deceased_. “He is Thoth.”
_Thoth_. “Come! But why hast thou come?”
_Deceased_. “I have come and I press forward that my name may be mentioned.”
_Thoth_, “In what state art thou?”
_Deceased_. “I am purified from evil things, and I am protected from the baleful deeds of those who live in their days; and I am not of them.”
_Thoth_. “Now will I make mention of thy name [to the god]. And who is he whose roof is of fire, whose walls are living uraei, and the floor of whose house is a stream of water? Who is he, I say?”
_Deceased_. “It is Osiris.”
_Thoth_. “Come forward, then; verily, mention of thy name shall be made unto him. Thy cakes [shall come] from the Eye of R[=a]; and thine ale [shall come] from the Eye of R[=a]; and thy sepulchral meals upon earth [shall come] from the Eye of R[=a].”
With these words Chapter CXXV comes to an end. We have seen how the deceased has passed through the ordeal of the judgment, and how the scribes provided him with hymns and prayers, and with the words of a confession with a view of facilitating his passage through the dread Hall of the Ma[=a]ti goddesses. Unfortunately the answer which the god Osiris may be supposed to have made to his son Horus in respect of the deceased is not recorded, but there is no doubt that the Egyptian assumed that it would be favourable to him, and that permission would be accorded him to enter into each and every portion of the underworld, and to partake of all the delights which the beatified enjoyed under the rule of R[=a] and Osiris.
CHAPTER V.
THE RESURRECTION AND IMMORTALITY.
In perusing the literature of the ancient Egyptians one of the first things which forces itself upon the mind of the reader is the frequency of allusions to the future life or to things which appertain thereto. The writers of the various religious and other works, belonging to all periods of Egyptian history, which have come down to us, tacitly assume throughout that those who once have lived in this world have “renewed” their life in that which is beyond the grave, and that they still live and will live until time shall be no more. The Egyptian belief in the existence of Almighty God is old, so old that we must seek for its beginnings in pre-dynastic times; but the belief in a future life is very much older, and its beginnings must be as old, at least, as the oldest human remains which have been found in Egypt. To attempt to measure by years the remoteness of the period when these were committed to the earth, is futile, for no date that could be given them is likely to be even approximately correct, and they may as well date from B.C. 12,000 as from B.C. 8000. Of one fact, however, we may be quite certain; that is to say, that the oldest human remains that have been found in Egypt bear upon them traces of the use of bitumen, which proves that the Egyptians at the very beginning of their stay in the valley of the Nile made some attempt to preserve their dead by means of mummification. [Footnote: See J. de Morgan, _Ethnographie Prehistorique_, Paris, 1897, p. 189.] If they were, as many think, invaders who had made their way across Arabia and the Red Sea and the eastern desert of the Nile, they may have brought the idea and habit of preserving their dead with them, or they may have adopted, in a modified form, some practice in use among the aboriginal inhabitants whom they found on their arrival in Egypt; in either case the fact that they attempted to preserve their dead by the use of substances which would arrest decay is certain, and in a degree their attempt has succeeded.
The existence of the non-historic inhabitants of Egypt has been revealed to us in recent years by means of a number of successful excavations which have been made in Upper Egypt on both sides of the Nile by several European and native explorers, and one of the most striking results has been the discovery of three different kinds of burials, which undoubtedly belong to three different periods, as we may see by examining the various objects which have been found in the early graves at Nak[=a]dah and other non-historic sites of the same age and type. In the oldest tombs we find the skeleton laid upon its left side, with the limbs bent: the knees are on a level with the breast, and the hands are placed in front of the face. Generally the head faces towards the south, but no invariable rule seems to have been observed as to its “orientation.” Before the body was laid in the ground it was either wrapped in gazelle skin or laid in loose grass; the substance used for the purposes of wrapping probably depended upon the social condition of the deceased. In burials of this class there are no traces of mummification, or of burning, or of stripping the flesh from the bones. In the next oldest graves the bodies are found to have been wholly or partly stripped of their flesh; in the former case all the bones are found cast indiscriminately is the grave, in the latter the bones of the hands and the feet were laid together, while the rest of the skeleton is scattered about in wild confusion. Graves of this period are found to be oriented either north or south, and the bodies in them usually have the head separated from the body; sometimes it is clear that the bodies have been “jointed” so that they might occupy less space. Occasionally the bodies are found lying upon their backs with their legs and arms folded over them; in this case they are covered over with clay casings. In certain graves it is clear that the body has been burnt. Now in all classes of tombs belonging to the prehistoric period in Egypt we find offerings in vases and vessels of various kinds, a fact which proves beyond all doubt that the men who made these graves believed that their dead friends and relatives would live again in some place, of the whereabouts of which they probably had very vague ideas, in a life which was, presumably, not unlike that which they had lived upon earth. The flint tools, knives, scrapers and the like indicate that they thought they would hunt and slay their quarry when brought down, and fight their foes; and the schist objects found in the graves, which M. de Morgan identifies as amulets, shows that even in those early days man believed that he could protect himself against the powers of supernatural and invisible enemies by talismans. The man who would hunt and fight in the next world must live again; and if he would live again it must be either in his old body or in a new one; if in the old body, it must be revivified. But once having imagined a new life, probably in a new body, death a second time was not, the prehistoric Egyptian hoped, within the bounds of possibility. Here, then, we have the origin of the grand ideas of the RESURRECTION and IMMORTALITY.
There is every reason for believing that the prehistoric Egyptian expected to eat, and to drink, and to lead a life of pleasure in the region where he imagined his heaven to be, and there is little doubt that he thought the body in which he would live there would be not unlike the body which he had while he was upon earth. At this stage his ideas of the supernatural and of the future life would be like those of any man of the same race who stood on the same level in the scale of civilization, but in every way he was a great contrast to the Egyptian who lived, let us say, in the time of Mena, the first historical king of Egypt, the date of whom for convenience’ sake is placed at B.C. 4400. The interval between the time when the prehistoric Egyptians made the graves described above and the reign of Mena must have been very considerable, and we may justly believe it to represent some thousands of years; but whatever its length, we find that the time was not sufficient to wipe out the early views which had been handed on from generation to generation, or even to modify some of the beliefs which we now know to have existed in an almost unchanged state at the latest period of Egyptian history. In the texts which were edited by the priests of Heliopolis we find references to a state or condition of things, as far as social matters are concerned, which could only exist in a society of men who were half savages. And we see from later works, when extracts are made from the earlier texts which contain such references, that the passages in which objectionable allusions occur are either omitted altogether or modified. We know of a certainty that the educated men of the College of Heliopolis cannot have indulged in the excesses which the deceased kings for whom they prepared the funeral texts are assumed to enjoy, and the mention of the nameless abomination which the savage Egyptian inflicted upon his vanquished foe can only have been allowed to remain in them because of their own reverence for the written word.
In passing it must be mentioned that the religious ideas of the men who were buried without mutilation of limbs, or stripping of flesh from the body, or burning, must have been different from those of the men who practised such things on the dead. The former are buried in the ante-natal position of a child, and we may perhaps be justified in seeing in this custom the symbol of a hope that as the child is born from this position into the world, so might the deceased be born into the life in the world beyond the grave; and the presence of amulets, the object of which was to protect the body, seems to indicate that they expected the actual body to rise again. The latter, by the mutilation of the bodies and the burning of the dead, seem to show that they had no hope of living again in their natural bodies, and how far they had approached to the conception of the resurrection of a spiritual body we shall probably never know. When we arrive at the IVth dynasty we find that, so far from any practice of mutilation or burning of the body being common, every text assumes that the body is to be buried whole; this fact indicates a reversal of the custom of mutilation, or burning, which must have been in use, however, for a considerable time. It is to this reversal that we probably owe such passages as, “O flesh of Pepi, rot not, decay not, stink not;” “Pepi goeth forth with his flesh;” “thy bones shall not be destroyed, and thy flesh shall not perish,” [Footnote: See _Recueil de Travaux_, tom. v. pp. 55, 185 (lines 160, 317, 353).] etc.; and they denote a return to the views and ways of the earliest people known to us in Egypt.
In the interval which elapsed between the period of the prehistoric burials and the IVth dynasty, the Egyptian formulated certain theories about the component parts of his own body, and we must consider these briefly before we can describe the form in which the dead were believed to rise. The physical body of a man was called KHAT, a word which indicates something in which decay is inherent; it was this which was buried in the tomb after mummification, and its preservation from destruction of every kind was the object of all amulets, magical ceremonies, prayers, and formulae, from the earliest to the latest times. The god Osiris even possessed such a body, and its various members were preserved as relics in several shrines in Egypt. Attached to the body in some remarkable way was the KA, or “double,” of a man; it may be defined as an abstract individuality or personality which was endowed with all his characteristic attributes, and it possessed an absolutely independent existence. It was free to move from place to place upon earth at will, and it could enter heaven and hold converse with the gods. The offerings made in, the tombs at all periods were intended for the nourishment of the KA, and it was supposed to be able to eat and drink and to enjoy the odour of incense. In the earliest times a certain portion of the tomb was set apart for the use of the KA, and the religious organization of the period ordered that a class of priests should perform ceremonies and recite prayers at stated seasons for the benefit of the KA in the KA chapel; these men were known as “KA priests.” In the period when the pyramids were built it was firmly believed that the deceased, in some form, was able to be purified, and to sit down and to eat bread with it “unceasingly and for ever;” and the KA who was not supplied with a sufficiency of food in the shape of offerings of bread, cakes, flowers, fruit, wine, ale, and the like, was in serious danger of starvation.
The soul was called BA, and the ideas which the Egyptians held concerning it are somewhat difficult to reconcile; the meaning of the word seems to be something like “sublime,” “noble,” “mighty.” The BA dwelt in the KA, and seems to have had the power of becoming corporeal or incorporeal at will; it had both substance and form, and is frequently depicted on the papyri and monuments as a human-headed hawk; in nature and substance it is stated to be ethereal. It had the power to leave the tomb, and to pass up into heaven where it was believed to enjoy an eternal existence in a state of glory; it could, however, and did, revisit the body in the tomb, and from certain texts it seems that it could re-animate it and hold converse with it. Like the heart AB it was, in some respects, the seat of life in man. The souls of the blessed dead dwelt in heaven with the gods, and they partook of all the celestial enjoyments for ever.
The spiritual intelligence, or spirit, of a man was called KHU, and it seems to have taken form as a shining, luminous, intangible shape of the body; the KHUs formed a class of celestial beings who lived with the gods, but their functions are not clear. The KHU, like the KA, could be imprisoned in the tomb, and to obviate this catastrophe special formulae were composed and duly recited. Besides the KHU another very important part of a man’s entity went into heaven, namely, his SEKHEM. The word literally means “to have the mastery over something,” and, as used in the early texts, that which enables one to have the mastery over something; _i.e._, “power.” The SEKHEM of a man was, apparently, his vital force or strength personified, and the Egyptians believed that it could and did, under certain conditions, follow him that possessed it upon earth into heaven. Another part of a man was the KHAIBIT or “shadow,” which is frequently mentioned in connexion with the soul and, in late times, was always thought to be near it. Finally we may mention the REN, or “name” of a man, as one of his most important constituent parts. The Egyptians, in common with all Eastern nations, attached the greatest importance to the preservation of the name, and any person, who effected the blotting out of a man’s name was thought to have destroyed him also. Like the KA it was a portion, of a man’s most special identity, and it is easy to see why so much importance grew to be attached to it; a nameless being could not be introduced to the gods, and as no created thing exists without a name the man who had no name was in a worse position before the divine powers than the feeblest inanimate object. To perpetuate the name of a father was a good son’s duty, and to keep the tombs of the dead in good repair so that all might read the names of those who were buried in them was a most meritorious act. On the other hand, if the deceased knew the names of divine beings, whether friends or foes, and could pronounce them, he at once obtained power over them, and was able to make them perform his will.
We have seen that the entity of a man consisted of body, double, soul, heart, spiritual intelligence or spirit, power, shadow, and name. These eight parts may be reduced to three by leaving out of consideration the double, heart, power, shadow and name as representing beliefs which were produced by the Egyptian as he was slowly ascending the scale of civilization, and as being the peculiar product of his race; we may then say that a man consisted of body, soul, and spirit. But did all three rise, and live in the world beyond the grave? The Egyptian texts answer this question definitely; the soul and the spirit of the righteous passed from the body and lived with the beatified and the gods in heaven; but the physical body did not rise again, and it was believed never to leave the tomb. There were ignorant people in Egypt who, no doubt, believed in the resurrection of the corruptible body, and who imagined that the new life would be, after all, something very much like a continuation of that which they were living in this world; but the Egyptian who followed the teaching of his sacred writings knew that such beliefs were not consistent with the views of their priests and of educated people in general. Already in the Vth dynasty, about B.C. 3400, it is stated definitely:–
“The soul to heaven, the body to earth;” [Footnote: _Recueil de Travaux_, tom. iv. p. 71 (l. 582).] and three thousand years later the Egyptian writer declared the same thing, but in different words, when he wrote:–[Footnote: Horrack, _Lamentations d’ Isis_, Paris, 1866, p. 6.] “Heaven hath thy soul, and earth thy body.”
The Egyptian hoped, among other things, that he would sail over the sky in the boat of R[=a], but he knew well that he could not do this in his mortal body; he believed firmly that he would live for millions of years, but with the experience of the human race before him he knew that this also was impossible if the body in which he was to live was that in which he had lived upon earth. At first he thought that his physical body might, after the manner of the sun, be “renewed daily,” and that his new life would resemble that of that emblem of the Sun-god R[=a] with which he sought to identify himself. Later, however, his experience taught him that the best mummified body was sometimes destroyed, either by damp, or dry rot, or decay in one form or another, and that mummification alone was not sufficient to ensure resurrection or the attainment of the future life; and, in brief, he discovered that by no human means could that which is corruptible by nature be made to become incorruptible, for the very animals in which the gods themselves were incarnate became sick and died in their appointed season. It is hard to say why the Egyptians continued to mummify the dead since there is good reason for knowing that they did not expect the physical body to rise again. It may be that they thought its preservation necessary for the welfare of the KA, or “double,” and for the development of a new body from it; also the continued custom may have been the result of intense conservatism. But whatever the reason, the Egyptian never ceased to take every possible precaution to preserve the dead body intact, had he sought for help in his trouble from another source.
It will be remembered that when Isis found the dead body of her husband Osiris, she at once set to work to protect it. She drove away the foes, and made the ill-luck which had come upon it to be of no effect. In order to bring about this result “she made strong her speech with all the strength of her mouth, she was perfect of tongue, and she halted not in her speech,” and she pronounced a series of words or formulae with which Thoth had provided her; thus she succeeded in “stirring up the inactivity of the Still-heart” and in accomplishing her desire in respect of him. Her cries, prompted by love and grief, would have had no effect on the dead body unless they had been accompanied by the words of Thoth, which she uttered with boldness (_Ichu_), and understanding (_ager_), and without fault in pronunciation (_an-uh_). The Egyptian of old kept this fact in his mind, and determined to procure the resurrection of his friends and relatives by the same means as Isis employed, _i.e._, the formulae of Thoth; with this object in view each dead person, was provided with a series of texts, either written upon his coffin, or upon papyri and amulets, which would have the same effect as the words of Thoth which were spoken by Isis. But the relatives of the deceased had also a duty to perform in this matter, and that was to provide for the recital of certain prayers, and for the performance of a number of symbolical ceremonies over the dead body before It was laid to rest finally in the tomb. A sacrifice had to be offered up, and the deceased and his friends and relatives assisted at it, and each ceremony was accompanied by its proper prayers; when all had been done and said according to the ordinances of the priests, the body was taken, to its place in the mummy chamber. But the words of Thoth and the prayers of the priests caused the body to become changed into a “S[=A]HU,” or incorruptible, spiritual body, which passed straightway out of the tomb and made its way to heaven where it dwelt with the gods. When, in the Book of the Dead the deceased says, “I exist, I exist; I live, I live; I germinate, I germinate,” [Footnote: See Chap. cliv.] and again, “I germinate like the plants,” [Footnote: See Chap. lxxxviii. 3.] the deceased does not mean that his physical body is putting forth the beginnings of another body like the old one, but a spiritual body which “hath neither defect nor, like R[=a], shall suffer diminution for ever.” Into the S[=A]HU passed the soul which had lived in the body of a man upon earth, and it seems as if the new, incorruptible body formed the dwelling-place of the soul in heaven just as the physical body had been its earthly abode. The reasons why the Egyptians continued to mummify their dead is thus apparent; they did not do so believing that their physical bodies would rise again, but because they wished the spiritual body to “sprout” or “germinate” from them, and if possible–at least it seems so–to be in the form of the physical body. In this way did the dead rise according to the Egyptians, and in this body did they come.
From what has been said above, it will be seen that there is no reason for doubting the antiquity of the Egyptian belief in the resurrection of the dead and in immortality, and the general evidence derived both from archaeological and religious considerations supports this view. As old, however, as this belief in general is the specific belief in a spiritual body (S[=A]H or S[=A]HU); for we find it in texts of the Vth dynasty incorporated with ideas which belong to the prehistoric Egyptian in his savage or semi-savage state. One remarkable extract will prove this point. In the funeral chapters which are inscribed on the walls of the chambers and passages inside the pyramid of King Unas, who flourished at the end of the Vth dynasty, about B.C. 3300, is a passage in which the deceased king terrifies all the powers of heaven and earth because he “riseth as a soul (BA) in the form of the god who liveth upon his fathers and who maketh food of his mothers. Unas is the lord of wisdom and his mother knoweth not his name. He hath become mighty like unto the god Temu, the father who gave him birth, and after Temu gave him birth he became stronger than his father.” The king is likened unto a Bull, and he feedeth upon every god, whatever may be the form in which he appeareth; “he hath weighed words with the god whose name is hidden,” and he devoureth men and liveth upon gods. The dead king is then said to set out to limit the gods in their meadows, and when he has caught them with nooses, he causes them to be slain. They are next cooked in blazing cauldrons, the greatest for his morning meal, the lesser for his evening meal, and the least for his midnight meal; the old gods and goddesses serve as fuel for his cooking pots. In this way, having swallowed the magical powers and spirits of the gods, he becomes the Great Power of Powers among the gods, and the greatest of the gods who appear in visible forms. “Whatever he hath found upon his path he hath consumed, and his strength is greater than that of any spiritual body (S[=A]HU) in the horizon; he is the firstborn of all the firstborn, and … he hath carried off the hearts of the gods…. He hath eaten the wisdom of every god, and his period of existence is everlasting, and his life shall be unto all eternity, … for the souls and the spirits of the gods are in him.”
We have, it is clear, in this passage an allusion to the custom of savages of all nations and periods, of eating portions of the bodies of valiant foes whom they have vanquished in war in order to absorb their virtues and strength; the same habit has also obtained in some places in respect of animals. In the case of the gods the deceased is made to covet their one peculiar attribute, that is to say, everlasting life; and when he has absorbed their souls and spirits he is declared to have obtained all that makes him superior to every other spiritual body in strength and in length of life. The “magical powers” (_heka_) which the king is also said to have “eaten,” are the words and formulae, the utterance of which by him, in whatever circumstances he may be placed, will cause every being, friendly or unfriendly, to do his will. But apart from any question of the slaughter of the gods the Egyptians declared of this same king, “Behold, thou hast not gone as one dead, but as one living, to sit upon the throne of Osiris.” [Footnote: _Recuell de