THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN DOCTRINE OF IMMORTALITY.

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THE

Ancient

EgyptianOF THE

Doctrine

Immortality of the Soul

ALFRED WIEDEMANN,AUTHOR OF

D.PH.

PROFESSOR OF ORIENTAL LANGUAGES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BONN

"^GYPTISCHE GESCHICHTE," "DIE RELIGION DER ALTEN ^GYPTER," ** HERODOT's ZWEITES BUCH "

Wiiih

i:tDettts-0ne

iUttdtmtion;^

LONDON33,

H. GREVEL & CO. KING STREET, COVENT GARDEN,

W.C.

T

S-

isj

^

Printed by Haf^lJ \yatson, Si:.Vihe^'/L4-i J-ondon and Aylesbury.

PREFACE.TN--

writing this treatise

my

object has

been to

give a clear exposition of the most important

shape which the doctrine of immortality assumed in

Egypt.only one

This particular form of the doctrine wasof

many

different

ones that were held.

The

latter,

however, were but occasional manifesta-

tions,

whereas the system here treated of was the

popular beliefpeople,

amongearly to

all

classes

of the

Egyptianfar

from

Coptic

times.

By

the

greater part of the religious papyri and

tomb

texts

and of the inscriptions of funerarytoit;

stelae are

devotedis

the symbolism

of nearlyit

all

the

amulets

connectedpractice ofin

with

it

;

was

bound;

up withandit

the

mummifying the dead

centredofall

the

person of Osiris, the most popular

the gods of Egypt.

260822

VIU

PREFACE.in

Even

Pyramid times;

Osiris

had already attainedthroughlife,

pre-eminence

he maintained

this position

out the whole duration of Egyptian national

and even survivedB.C. he,

its fall.

From

the fourth century

together with his companion deities, enteredlife

into the religious

of the Greeks

;

and homage

was paid

to

him by imperial Rome.

ThroughoutEmpire, eventhe

the length and breadth of the

Roman

to the remotest provinces of the

Danube andIsis,

Rhine, altars were raised to him, to his wifeto his son

and

Harpocratescarried with

;

and whereverthat

his

worship

spread,tality

it

it

doctrine of immorhis

which was associated withthe

name.

This

Osirian doctrine influenced

systems of Greekthe teachings ofin

philosophersthe Gnostics

;

it

made

itself felt init

;

we

find traces of

the writings

of Christian apologists and the older fathers of the

Church, and through their agencythe thoughts and opinions of our

it

has affectedtime.lies

own

The causein

of this far-reaching influenceitself,

both

the doctrine

which was at once the mostall

profound and the most attractive ofof the Egyptian religion;

the teachings

and

also in the comfort

PREFACE.

IX

and consolation

to be derivedits

from the patheticallyOsiris.

human

story of

founder,

He, the son

of the gods, had sojourned

upon earth and bestowed

upon men thehefell

blessings of civilisation.

At

length

a prey to the devices of theslain.

Wicked One,and of death

and was

But the triumph of:

evil

was only apparent

the work of Osiris endured, and

his son followed in his footsteps

and broke the power

offor

evil.

Neither had his being ended with death,

on dying he had passed into the world to come,over the dead as "

henceforth to reignBeing."

The Gooddie,;

Even

as Osiris, so

must each manhis life

no

matter

how

noble and

how godly

never-

theless his deeds should

be establishedthelife

for ever, hisis

name should

endure, and

which

eternal

awaited him beyond the tomb.

To

the Egyptian,life

nature on every hand presented images of theof Osiris.

To him

that

life

was

reflected

in

the

struggle between good

and

evil,

in the contest be-

tween the

fertilising

Nile and the encroaching desert,

no

less

than in the daily and yearly courses of theOsiris;

sun.

In earlier times

was occasionally conlater,

founded with the Sun god

the two deities

X

PREFACE.in

were habitually merged

one another.

The deathend of the

and resurrection of

Osiris occurred at theis

month Khoiak

that

to say, at the winter solstice,

concurrently with the dying of the

Sun of the Oldthe

Year and the

rising of the

Sun oftobird,

New.his

The

new phoenix was supposedancein

make

appearusually

March

;

and

this

although

associated

with the Sun, was often

representative

of Osiris.

And

the epithets and

titles

of the

Sun

god were

similarly bestowed

upon

Osiris.

All the Osirian doctrines were readily apprehendedin spite of their

deep import, and they steadily tended

towards the evolution of a high form of monotheisticbelief.

To no

close student of these doctrines can

the fact seem strange that

Egypt should have been

the

first

country in which Christianity permeated the

whole body of the people.recognise his old beliefs in

The Egyptian

could

many

a Christian theme,

and so much did theof Osiris

figure of Christ

remind him

and

his

son

Horus, that to him Christvalley even

became a hero who traversed the Nileasevil

Horus had done, overcoming His enemies, the

demons and the wicked.

In

Egypt the Osirian

PREFACE.faith

xiChristianity,;

and dogma were the precursors ofit

the foundations upon which

was able to build

and, altogether apart from their intrinsic worth andfar-reachinginfluence,it

is

this

which constitutes

their significance in the history of the world.

For the choice of thethe

illustrations, as well as for

Englishtranslator.

version,

I

am

gratefully

indebted to

my

ALFRED WIEDEMANN.Bonn, March1895.

THE

ANCIENT EGYPTIAN DOCTRINEOF THE

IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.T-L-^

ITTLEof

as

we knowinits

of the ancient Egyptian

religion

entirety,

and

of

its

motley

mixture

childishly

crude

fetichism

and

deep

philosophic thought, of superstition and true religious

worship, of polytheism, henotheism, and pantheism,

one dogma stands out clearly fromonearticle of belief toits

this

confusion,

which the Egyptian religion

owes

unique position

among

all

other religions

of antiquity

thea

doctrine of the immortality of thetrue that other ancient religions

human

soul.

It is

attainedearly

to

similar

dogma,

for

the

belief

was

developed

among

Semites,I

Indo-germanians,I

2:-

;

e

AJ>^CTE'NT

EGYPTIAN DOCTRINE OF;

Turanians, and Mongolians

but

in all these cases

it

appears as the outcome of a higher conception of

man and God andand,

of their reciprocal relationship,to,

when

attained

brought about the abandon-

ment of grossly material forms of thought.

But

in

Egypt we have the unique

spectacle of one of the

most elaborated forms of the doctrine of immortalityside

by

side with the

most elementary conception of

higher beings ever formulated by any people.

We

do not know whether the belief

in

immortality whichis

prevailed in the valley of the Nile

as old as theit

Egyptian

religion in general, although at first sightso.

appears to be

The

oldest of the longer religiousto us are found in the

texts which have

come down

wall inscriptions of pyramids of kings of the Fifth

and Sixth Dynasties (accordingof thedynasties),

to Manetho's to

schemeatleast

and must be dated

3000

B.C.

In these texts the doctrine of immortality

appears as a completed system with a long historyof development behindit.

In that system,doctrine of the

all

the stages through which this

Egyptian religion had successively;

passed

are

preserved

for the

Egyptians

were so

immoderately conservative in everything that theycould not

make up

their

minds

to

give

up

their

THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.oldideas

3

of deity,

even after having advanced to

higher and purer ones.carefully retained,religion

Thefind

older

ideas were

all

and we

various

systems of

which

in

point of time hadsoil

followed each

other on Egyptianside.

afterwards existing side byfor

There

is

no trace of any struggle;

the

victory between these systems

each new order of

thought was taken asolder ones, however

it

arose into the circle of theit

heterogeneous

might be to

the

rest.

The consequence was

that in

Egypt

there

was no

religious progress in our sense of the term.it

With usofbelief

is

essential that old

and outworn formswith

should

be cast off

;

them a new

doctrine could achieve no greater success than to win

a place

among

the older conceptions of the Egyptian

Pantheon.

Each

single

divinity,

each religious

belief,

each

amulet, has in itself a clear and intelligible signifi-

cance

;

and where

this is

apparently otherwise

it

is

not because the point was obscure to the Egyptian

mind, but because

we have notourselves.

yet succeeded in

making

it

clear

to

When we abandonby

the consideration of single points and try to imagine

how

the different detached notions were combined

the people into one belief, and

what picture they had

4really

THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN DOCTRINE OFformed ofset

their

Heaven and Pantheonan impossiblethe;

thenMany

we havedivinities

ourselves

task.

have

precisely

same character andwholecircles of ideas

perform the same functionsare mutually exclusive;

yet

all

existed together and

were accepted and believedtime.

in at

one and the same

In these circumstances any discussion of Egyptianreligious ideasfacts;

must begin by dealing with

isolated

each divinity, each idea, each smallest amuletcarefully

must bein

examined by

itself

and treated ofit.

the

light

of the texts specially referring to

Generations of Egyptians pondered on each singlepoint seekingprieststo

elucidate

it.

With anxious

fearall

and laymen strove

to acquire the use of

the formulae

by the help of which man hoped

to

appease the gods, overcome demons, and attain tobliss,

and

all

sought to provide themselves with everyfor the

amulet possessing efficacyimportfor

world to come and

man's eternal welfare.

But great as must

have been the expenditure of thought which produced

and developed

their various religious doctrines, thein

Egyptians never succeededbeliefs

welding their different

and practices into one consistent whole.life

In most religions the gods of

are distinct from

THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.the gods of death, but such

5

a distinction scarcely

existed at all in

Egypt.

There the same beings whofate ofit

were supposed to determine theworld were supposed to determineto

man

in this

also in the world

come

;

only in the case of certain deities sometimes

the one and sometimes the other side of the divineactivity

was brought

into special prominence.

The

exercise of their different functions

by the gods was

not in accordance with any fixed underlying principle,

was not any

essential

outcome of

their characters, but

rather a matter of their caprice and inclination.

In

course of time the Egyptian idea of these functions

changed, and was variously apprehended in differentplaces.It

seems to us atlife

first

as

though the relation

of the gods to the

beyond had nearly everywhere

been regarded as more important than their relationto thislife.

But

this impression isfor

owingthe

to the fact

that ourreligion

materialis

the study of

Egyptian

almost exclusively derived from tombs

and funerary temples, while the number of Egyptian

monuments unconnected with thecomparatively small.

cult of the

dead

is

On

this

account

it

has been supposed that both in

their religion

and

in their public life the

Egyptians

turned

all

their thoughts

towards death and what lay

6

THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN DOCTRINE OFit

beyond

But a close examination of the monufull

ments has proved that they had asof thelife

an enjoyment

here as other nations of antiquity, and thatstiff

they are not to be regarded as arace of

and

spiritless

men whosethis

thoughts were pedantically turned

towards the contemplation of the next world.

Hadcome

been the

case, the

Egyptians would havelife

to hold a pessimistic view of the

here and

hereafter something like that prevailing in India, and

have striven to escape from the monotony and dulnessof existencethisis

by seeking some meanswhat happenedof

to

end

it.

But

the reverse of

in the valley ofits

the Nile.

The most ardent wishon earth as long as

inhabitants

was

to remain

possible, to attain

to the age of one

hundred and ten

years,life

and

to

continue to lead after death the same

which theypictured

had been wont to lead while

here.

They;

the after-life in the most material fashion

they could

imagine no

fairer existence

than that which they led

on the banks of the

Nile.

How

simple and at the

same time how

complicated were their conceptions

can best be shown by some account of their ideas

on the immortality of the soul andas

its

constitutionset

a

combination

of

separate

parts

forth

in

ancient Egyptian documents.

THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.7

When

once a

man was

dead,

whenleft

his heart his

had

ceased to beat and warmth hadHfeless hull

body, aearth.this

was

all

that remained of

him upon

The

first

duty of the survivors was to preserveit

from destruction, and to that endto a guild

was handed overits

whose dutypriestly

it

was

to carry out

embalm-

ment under

supervision.

This was done

according to old and strictly established rules.

The

internal and more corruptible parts were taken away,

and the

rest of the

body

i.e.^

the

bony framework

and

its

covering

was soaked

in

natron and asphalt,

smeared

with sweet-smelling

unguents, and

madewith

incorruptible.

The

inside of theasphalt,

body was

filled

linen

bandaging andall

among which weresymbolising

placedtality

kinds of

amulets

immor-

heart-shapedandlittle

vases, snake-heads in carnelian,

scarabaei,

glazed-ware figures of divinities.

Byfor

their mystic

power these amulets were intendedassist the preservation of the corpse,

to further

and

which physical provision had already been madeIn about seventy days,

by embalmment.

when

the

work of embalmment was completed, the body waswrappedin

linen bandages, placed in a coffin,

and

so returned to the family.

The

friends

and

relatives

of

the deceased

then

8

THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN DOCTRINE OFthe deadin

carried

solemn

procession

across

the

river to his last resting-place,for himself in the hills

which he had provided

forming the western boundary

of the valley of the Nile.

Mourning-women accom;

panied

the procession

with their wailing

priests

burnt incense and intoned prayers, and other priests

made

offerings

and performed mysterious ceremonies

both during the procession and at the entrance tothe

tomb*

The

mummy

was then lowered

into

the vault, which was closed and walled up, furtherofferings

were made, and afterwards the mournersin the

partook of the funeral feastthe tomb.

ante-chamber of

Harpers were there who sang of theofhis

dead

man and

worth,grief

and

exhorted

his

relationsinlife,

to forget

theirit

and again

to rejoice

so long as

should be granted unto them

the

The whole process of embalmment is briefly described in Rhind Papyrus, edited by Birch, London, 1863, and by Brugsch, Leipzig, 1865. The procedure of the taricheuts is described in a Vienna papyrus, edited by Bergmann, Vienna,*

1887, and the conclusion of their operations in a Paris papyrus and a Bulaq papyrus, edited by Maspero, Pap. du Louvre^Paris, 1875.

For the transport of thepi.

mummy,

see DiJMiCHEN,for theinvesti-

Kal. Insch.yceremonies

35 sqq.

at the

The minutely ordered ritual door of the tomb was published and

gated in ScHiAPARELLi's admirable work, // Libro dei Funerali,Turin, 1881

1890.

;

THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.to enjoy the light of the sun;

9is

for

whenit;

Hfe

past

man knowsgraveis

not what shall follow

beyond the

darkness and long sleep.

Gayer and gayer

grew the banquet, often degenerating into an orgy

when

at length

all

the guests had withdrawn, the

tomb wasAfterwards

closed,it

and

the

dead

wasfeast

left

alone.

was only on certain

days that

the relatives

made pilgrimages

to

the city of the

dead, sometimes alone and sometimes accompanied

bythe

priests.

Onthethe

these occasions they again entered

ante-chamber of the tomb, and there offeredtoin

prayerseither

dead,

or

broughtreal

himandof

offerings,

shape

of

foods

drinks,

or

else

under the symboliccakes

formsof

little

clay

models of oxen, geese,like.it

bread,

and the

Otherwise the tomb remained unvisited.

How;

there fared with the dead could only be learnedto

from the doctrines and mysteries of religiondescend into the vaultthe

and

disturb

the peace

of

mummyyet

was accounted a heavy crime against

both gods and men.

Andto

how much an Egyptian

could have wished

look behind the sealed

walls of the sepulchral

chamber and see whatthere befell the dead!

secret

and mysterious thingshad not

For

their existence

lO

THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN DOCTRINE OFdeathend,;

terminated with

their

earthly

being only

had come

to

an

but

they

themselveslife.

had

entered on a new, a higher and an eternalconstituent parts, whose union in the

The

man had mademomentof

a

human

life

possible, separated at the

his death into those

which were immortal and those

which were mortal.aunity,(I

But while thethe

latter

formed

and

constituted

corruptible

body

onlyrites

Kha), on which the above-mentionedpractised,

of

embalmment weredistinct

each

of

the

former were

even

when

in

combination.

These

" living, indestructible "

parts of a

man, which

together almost correspond to our idea of the soul,

had found

their

common homeit

in

his living

body

;

but on leavingto findinits

at

his

death each set out aloneIf all

own wayso,

to the gods.

succeeded

doing

and

it

was

further

proved that the

deceased had been good

and upright, they againso

became one with

him, and

entered

into

the

company

of the blessed, or even of the gods.all

T he*

most important of

these

component parts *in the

On

these component parts

cf.

WiedemannSt.

Proceed-

ings of the Orientalist Congress atetseq.

Etienne^

II.

(1878), p. 159

Many parallel

texts to the additional chapter of

The Book

of the Dead, there referred to, may be found in Von Bergmann's Sarkophag des Panehemisis, I., p. 22; II., p. 74. et seq.

1

THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.was theso-called[_],

1

Ka, the^diyine counterpart of

the deceased, holding the

same

relationit

to

him

as

a word to the conception whichstatue to the living man.asIt

expresses, or ahis individuality

was;

embodied

in the

man's name

the picture ofin

himthe

which was, or might have been, called up

minds of those who knew himthat

at the

mention of

name*

Amongrise to

other races similar thoughts

have given

higher ideas, and led to a philo-

sophic explanation of the distinctionsonalities

between perin

and

persons,

such as that contained

the Platonic Ideas. of abstract

But the Egyptian was incapableand was reduced to forming

thought,

a purely concrete conception of this individuality,

which

is

strangely

impressive

by

reasonit

of

its

thorough

sensuousness.

He endowedhim, his

with athat of

material form completely corresponding tothe man, exactly resemblinghis

second

self,

Double, his Doppelgdnger.\scenes, dating from the eighteenth centuryaccount)

Many*

On

this(

Ka was

sometimes used as interchangeable

with

Ren

^(^

c O U

.b?f-^

cui)

^f^

o

> -^ > c

Xi

*-C

-v^-:^ -Ho

^ " B Wh-S ^ o O ^ C in _

pbjD

^

.-STjvith a certain formula,* and placed within

the tomb, in the hope that they would there attaintolife;

and become the useful servants of the blessedthey are the so-called

dead

USHABTIU

(or

Respond-

ents), of*

which hundreds and thousands of specimensvi.

Chapter

which there reads:appointed to

The Book of the Dead aon^xsts of this formula, "O Ushabti there! Should I be called and do any of the labours that are done in the Netherofabilities, lo!

world by a person according to his

all

obstacles

have been beaten down

for thee

;

be thou counted forwatering the

me

at

every moment, for planting the

fields, for

soil, for

conveying the sands of East and West.soever thou callest

Here am

I,

whither-

me

!

"

Re7iouf's Translation,

64

THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN DOCTRINE OF^

J.

may

be found in collections of Egyptian antiquities*).

(see Frontispiece

These

" servants for the

under-

world," or " servants to the OsiRIS," as the texts call

them, owed their very being and

life

to the dead,

and

stood to him in the same relation as

man

to

God.

Andthesetheirall

as

men

seek to testify their gratitude to the

Creator by doinglittle

Him

service, so

it

was hoped that

figures

would show

their thankfulness

by

diligence,

and spare

their master

and maker

toil.

Many

other customs arose out of similar ideas to

those which gave rise to the institution ofArticles of personal

USHABTiu.toilet use,

adornment and

for

wreaths, weapons,

carriages,

playthings,set of

and

tools

were given to the dead, and a wholefurniture

household

was often

laid

away

in the

grave in order

that the OsiRIS should not be obliged to set toat once to

work

make

or collect these things for himself on

his entrance into the

next world

;

for this

purpose

choice was often

madein

of such objects as thehis lifetime.

man

had used and valued*

All this care,

The frontispiece represents one of 399 Ushabtiu made for a named Horut'a, who lived during the Twenty-sixth IJynasty. These Ushabtiu were found at Hawara by Petrie see Kahun^ Gjirob^ and Hawara, pp. 9, 19.priest:

THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.

6$

however, was bestowed not simply in the interest ofthose

who had

entered upon the

life

everlasting but

also in that of those

who were

left

behind.

Among

other powers possessed by the dead was that of goingto

andit,

froall

upon earth

;

and, to prevent their exercise

of

things whose lack

might impel them towere placed

revisit the scenes of their earthly lives

within the tombs, for their visits might not be alto-

gether pleasant for survivors withholding any partof

the

goods which belonged to the dead.

But

these facts must

not lead us to conclude that the

tomb was the permanent dwelling of the dead, andthat the objects placed withinfor his use there,it

were really intended

and

for all time.

As

the amulets laid in and about the

mummy

were

for the use of the OsiRIS, so the furniture

and imple-

ments placed near the

coffin

were intended not soits

muchhad

for the

mummy

lying in

tomb

as for the

Osiris dwelling with the gods. Each of these objectsits

heavenly counterpart, even as the

mummyit

was represented by the OsiRlS.**

Professor Petrie, speaking of his discovery that

was the

Egyptian custom to place masonic deposits of miniature modeltools, etc.,

underneath the foundations of temples, and giving an

account of the foundation deposits which he found beneath the

pyramid temple of Usertesen

II.,

at Illahun, says

:

"

The reason5

"

66It

THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN DOCTRINE OFwas thus that the Egyptians sought to makeall

themselves homes in the next world, and to securethe comforts and pleasures of their earthlythelife life

in

which was to come.

Nevertheless, the piousfor ever as:

Egyptian did not expect to remainOsiris, or as a god in

an

human

likeness

he rather

hoped

for ever-increasing

freedom, for the power of

taking other shapes and transforming himself at willinto

quadrupeds;

;

or into birdsinto

such as the

swallowthe

or the heronlotus;

or

plants

more

especially

or even into gods *is

This

no doctrine of compulsory transmigration

such as used to be freely ascribed to the Egyptians

on the strength of the statements made by Herodotus tfor;

there

is

no question here of souls beingis

burying such objects

yet unexplained

;

but

it

seems not

unlikely that theybuilders, like the

were intendedmodels placed

for the use of thein

tombs

for the

Kas of the Kas of the

deceased.

Whether each building had a Ka, which neededis

ghostly repair by the builders' Kas,(Ka/iun,Giirod,its

also to be considered

and Hawara^

p.

22).

We

know

that each(cf.

building had

guardian

spirit in the

form of a serpent

thein

representation of one dating from the time of

AmenophisDiv.,pi.

III.,

Ghizeh, No. 217, published by Mariette,*

Mon,

63