^
PRINCETON,
N.
J.
Wiedemann, Alfred, 1856Shelf
BL 2450
.15 W5
1895
1936. The ancient Egyptian doctrine of the immortality
THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN DOCTRINE OF IMMORTALITY
a
THE
Ancient
EgyptianOF THE
Doctrine
Immortality of the Soul
ALFRED WIEDEMANN,AUTHOR OF
D.PH.
PROFESSOR OF ORIENTAL LANGUAGES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BONN'.EGYPTISCHE GESCHICHTE," "DIE RELIGION DER ALTEN ^GYPTER," " HERODOT'S ZVVEITES EUCH "
Saith %\otni^-ont EUustmtions
LONDON33,
CO. KING STREET, COVENT GARDEN,1895
H.
GREVEL &
W.C.
Printed by Hazell, Watson,
&
Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.
PREFACE.INwritingthis
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.
Thetions,
latter,
however, were but occasional manifesta-
whereas the system here treated of was the
popular beliefpeople,
amongearlyto
all
classes
of the Egyptian
from
Coptic
times.
By
far
thetexts
greater part of the religious papyri and
tomb
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
centredall
the
person of Osiris, the
most popular of
the gods of Egypt.
Vlll
PREFACE.in
Even
Pyramid times;
Osiris
had already attained
pre-eminence
he maintained this position throughnationallife,
out the whole duration of Egyptian
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 wifetohis sonit
and
Harpocratescarried with
;
and whereverthat
his w^orship
spread,tality
it
doctrinehis
of immor-
which was associated withdoctrine;
name.
This
Osirian
influenced
the
systems of Greekthe teachings ofin
philosophersthe Gnostics
it
made
itself felt in
;
w^e
find traces
of
it
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 mostthe teachings
profound and the most attractive ofof the Egyptian religion;
all
and
also in the comfort
PREFACE.and consolationto be derivedits
IX
from the patheticallyOsiris.
human
story
of
founder,
He, the son
of the gods, had sojourned
upon earth and bestowedcivilisation.
upon men the blessings ofhefell
At
length
a prey to theslain.
devices of theevil
Wicked One,and of death
and was
But the triumph of:
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 deadas"
henceforth to reignBeing."
The Gooddie,;
Even
as Osiris, so
must each manhislife
no
matter
how
noble and
how godly
never-
theless his deeds should be established for ever, his
name should
endure,
and the
life
which
is
eternal
awaited him beyond the tomb.
To
the Egyptian,life
nature on every hand presented images of theof Osiris.
To him
that
life
wasin
reflected
in
the
struggle between good
and
evil,
the contest bedesert,
tween the
fertilising Nile
and the encroaching
no
less
than
in the daily
and yearly courses of the was occasionally conlater,
sun.
In earlier times
Osiris;
founded with the Sun god
the two deities
b
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 Old
Year and the
rising of the
Sun oftobird,
the
New.his
The
new phoenix was supposedancein
make
appearusually
Marchwith
;
andthe
this
although
associatedof Osiris.
Sun, was often
representative
And
the epithets and
titles
of the
Sun
god were similarly bestowed upon-j
Osiris.
All the Osirian doctrines were readily apprehended
in 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 thefirst
Egypt should have been
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
theIt
doctrine of the immortality of theis
human
soul.
true that other ancient religions
attainedearly
to
a
similar
dogma,
for
the
belief
was
developed
among
Semites,I
Indo-germanians,I
2
THE ANCIENT 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.Egypt we
But
in
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.
Wewhich
do not know whether the
belief in immortalityis
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'sto
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 behindIn that system,all
it.
the stages through which this
doctrine of the
Egyptian religion had successively;
passed
are
preserved
for the
Egyptians
were so
immoderately conservativecould not
in
everything that theytheir
make up
their
minds to give up
THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.oldideas
3
of deity,
even after having advanced to
higher and
purer ones.
Thefind
older
ideas were
all
carefully retained,religion
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 as
it
arose into the circle of theit
older ones, however heterogeneous
might be to
the
rest.
The consequence wasessential that old
that in
Egypt
there
was no
religious progress in our sense of the term.it
Withof
us
is
and outworn formswith
belief
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 Egyptianin
mind, but because we have not yet succeeded
making
it
clear
to
ourselves.
When we abandon
the consideration of single points and try to imagine
how
the different detached notions were combined by
the people into one belief, and what picture they had
4really
THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN DOCTRINE OFformed ofset
their
Heaven and Pantheonan impossiblethe;
thenManyand
we havedivinities
ourselves
task.
have
precisely
samewhole
character
perform the same functionsare mutually exclusive;
circles of ideas
yet
all
existed together and
were accepted and believedtime.
in at
one and the same
In these circumstancesreligious ideasfacts;
any discussion of Egyptianisolated
must begin by dealing with
each divinity, each idea, each smallest amuletitself
must be carefully examined byin
and treated ofit.
the
light
of the
texts
specially referring to
Generations of Egyptians pondered on each singlepoint seekingpriests
to
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 every
amulet possessing efficacy for the world to come andimportfor
man's etern^^ welfare.
But great as must
have been the expenditure of thought which produced
and developed
their variousin
religious doctrines, the
Egyptians never succeededbeliefs
welding their different
and practices into one consistent whole.life
In most religions the c^ods of
are distinct from
THE IMMORTALITY OF THEthe gods of death, but
SOUL.
5
such 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 uslife
at 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
is
owingthe
to the fact
that
our material for the study ofis
Egyptian
religion
almost exclusively derived from tombstjie
and funerary temples, while
number
of Egyptianis
monuments unconnected withcomparatively small.
the cult of the dead
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 whose
thoughts were pedantically turned
towards the contemplation of the next world.
Hadcome
this
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 means
to
end
it.
But
the reverse of what happened in the valley of
the Nile.
The most
ardent wish of
its
inhabitants
was
to
remain on earth as long as possible, to attain
to the age of
one hundred and ten years, and todeath the samelife
continue
to lead after
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 thetheir conceptions
same time how complicated were
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 THESOUL.his heart his
7
When
once a
man was
dead,
when
had
ceased to beat andhfeless hull
warmth had
left
body, aearth.this
was
all
that remained of
him upon
The
first
duty of the survivors was to preserveto thatit
from destruction, andto a guild
end
it
was handed overits
whose dutypriestly
was
to carry out
embalm-
ment under
supervision.
This was done
according to old and strictly established rules.internal
The
and more corruptible parts were taken away,rest of the
and 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 the
body was
filled
linen
bandaging andall
asphalt,
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 was wrappedin
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 accomtheir
panied
the
procession
with
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
ante-chamber of
tomb.
Harpers were there who sang of theofhis theirit
dead
man and
worth,grief
and
exhorted
his
relationsinlife,
to forget
and again
to rejoice
so long as
should be granted unto them
the
The whole process of embalmment is briefly described in Rhind Papynis, edited by Birch, London, 1863, and by The procedure of the taricheiits is Brugsch, Leipzig, 1865. 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, For the transport of the mummy, see Dumichen, Paris, 1875.
Kal. hisch.^ceremonies
pi.
35 sqq.
The minutely ordered
ritual
for the
at the
door of the tomb was published and investi-
gated in Schiaparelli's admirable work, // Libro del Funcrali,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, thewasleft
tomb wasAfterwardsthe
closed,it
and
the
dead
alone.
was only on
certain feastto
days that
relatives
made pilgrimages
the city of the
dead, sometimes alone and sometimes accompanied
bythe
priests.
Onthe the
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 symbolicof
formsof
little
clay
modelslike.it
oxen, geese,
cakes
bread,
and
the
Otherwise the tomb remained unvisited.
Howto
there fared with the dead could only be learned;
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 sepulchralsecret
chamber and see whatthere befell the dead!
and mysterious things had not
For
their existence
10
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 madethe
a
human
life
possible, separated
at
moment
of
his death into those
which were immortal and those
which were mortal.aunity,(
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 aloneIfall
own wayso,
to the gods.
succeeded
doing
and
it
was
further proved that the
deceased had been
good and upright, they againhim, andso
became
one with
entered
into
the
company
of the blessed, or even of the gods.ofall
The most important*
these
componentin the
parts *Proceed-
On
these component parts
cf.
WiedemannSt.
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,Sarlcophag des Panchejnisis,
may be foundp. 22;II.,
in
Von Bergmann's
I.,
p.
74 et seq.
THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.was the so-called[_j,
I I
Ka, the divine counterpart of
the deceased, holding the
same
relationit
to
him
as
a word to
the
conception whichIt
expresses, or ahis individuality
statue to the living man.as
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 reducedto
thought,
forming
a
purely concrete conceptionis
of this individuality,
which
strangely
impressive
by
reasonit
of
its
thorough
sensuousness.
He endowedhim, his
with athat of
material form completely corresponding tothe man, exactlyhis
resembling
second
self,
Double, his Doppelgdnger.\scenes, dating from the eighteenth centuryaccount)
Many*
On
this(
Ka was
sometimes used as interchangeable
with
Ren
^^;is
name.Ka;
t There
no modern word which exactly expresses theMaspero's translation of"
Egyptian idea of the
Double,
Doppclga?iger"tion of "
\s \.\\e
best hitherto proposed; Meyer's transla-
Ghosr
{Gesch.
^g.,
p. 83) is altogether misleading.
12B.C.
THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN DOCTRINE OFand onwards, representdifferent kings appearing
pig^
I.
Hatshcpsu, accompaniedofferings.
by her Ka, making perfumeel
{Froiu the temple of Dcr
Bahri.) *
*
The
illustration is
taken from Lepsius, Dciikmalcr,
III.
21.
Here
the solar cartouche, or throne-name, of
Thothmes
II.,
and his
3
THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.before divinities, while behind the
1
king stands his(fig.i),
Ka, as a
Httle
man
with the king's features(fig. 2),*
or as a staff with two hands
and surmounted
byIn
certain
symbols of royalty, or by the king's head.scenesthe
these
Personality accompaniesas a
the
Person, following
him
shadow
follows a man.
But evenabout 1500still
as early as the time ofB.C.,
Amenophis
III.,
the Egyptians had carried the idea
further,
and had completely dissevered the Per-
Horus- or Ka-name, are palimpsests effacing the names of Queen
Hatshepsu Ramaka, the builder of the temple.this
The
figures in;
scene originally represented the Queen and heris
Ka
but asit
she
always portrayedto
in
male
attire
throughout the temple,
was only necessarythe Horus- or
change her names
in order to appropriate
her figure as that of a king.
Egypt, pp.p.
The first satisfactory explanation of KA-name was given by Petrie in A Season in 21, 22; cf. Maspero, Etudes Egyptologiqnes, II.,
273 et scq.
He shows
that the rectangularis
parallelogram
in
which the Horus-nameto pass
written
is
the exact equivalent of
the square panel over the false door in the tomb, by which the
Ka was supposedforit.
from the sepulchral vault into the
upper chamber, or tomb-chapel, where offerings were provided
A
private person
had but one name, which was
also the
namefour
of his Ka.
But, on ascending the throne, the king tookhitherto
borne, and*
new names in addition to the one which he had among them a name for his Ka.have a crude representation ofthis
WeI.
Ka
sign, dating;
from
the reign ofTaiiis
Amenemhat I., of the Twelfth Dynasty see Petrie, (S2cond Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund), pi. L,
No.
3.
14
THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN DOCTRINE OF
sonality from the Person, the king being frequently
represented as appearing j^before his
own Personahty,
Fig. 2.
The Ka of Rameses
II.,
represented*
b}'
the two-handed sta'
standing behind the king while he
slab's his
enemies before Ra
Harmakhis.
{From Abu Simbel.)
which bears the insignia of
divinity,
the
staff
of
command, and*
the .symbol ofIII.
life,
the Ir dnkhof
(fig. 3).
Lepsius, Dcnk?nalcr,
186.
The hands
the
KaKa-
staff
have doubtless a.
common
origin with those of the
sign LJ
5
THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.
1
To
it
the king presents offerings of every kind and
prefers his petition for gifts of the gods in
exchange
Fig.
3. Amenophis
III.
making offerings to his Ka. temple at Soleb. ) *:
{From
his
His Personality repliesall
" IallI
give unto thee
allall
Life,
Stability,
all
Power,heart);
Health,
andfor
Joythe
(enlargement
of*
subdueIII. 87.
thee
Lepsius, Denk7nalet\
1
6
THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN DOCTRINE OF
peoples of Nubia (Khent), so that thou mayest cutoff their
heads."
In bas-reliefs of the
same periodIII.,*
which represent the birth of Amenophis
his
Kaalike
is
born at the same time
as
the
king,
and
both are presented to(fig. 4),
Amenbuild
Ra, as two boys exactly
and blessed by him.templespriests
Abouttoto
this
time
the
kings
began to
their
own;
Personalities,
and appointed
them
andhis
from
time to time the
sovereignhis
would
visit
temple to implore from himself
own
protection,
and
still
greater
gifts.
So long
as the king
walked
the earth, so long
his " living
Ka,
lord of
Lower Egypt,of Splendour
tarried in his dwelling, in the
Upper and Abodehis
(SPn
^^ Duaty
\\
for
Kahim,
was
himself, independent of him,his counterpart
superior to
and yet
and bound up with him.
Thewas
disjunction of the Personality from the Person
not,
however,;
rigorously
and
systematically
insisted
uponfar
the two were
indeed separate, but
were so
one as to come into being only throughother.
and with each*
A
man
lived
no longer thanel Bahri,
In the course of his excavations at
Der
for the
Egypt Exploration Fund, M. Naville discovered theof
originals of
these scenes in a series of bas-reliefs representing the birth
Queen Hatshepsii which weret Lepsius, Dcnk??ialer,III. 21,
plagiarised by129.
Amenophis
III.
Emm
9
THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.his
1
Ka
remained with him, and
it
never
left
himthis
until the
moment
of his death.
But there was:
difference in their reciprocal relationslive without the body, but the
the
Ka
couldlive
body could not
without the Ka.
Yet
this
does not imply that the
Kain
was a higher, ajust
spiritual
being
;
it
was materialneedingsuffering
the
same waydrink forthirstlotif
as the
body
itself,
food
and
its
well-being,
andit.
hunger andrespectits
these were deniedlot
In this
was the commonbodily
of
Egyptian
gods
;
they also requiredtoit
sustenance,
and
were sorely puttheir
if
offerings failed
them and
food and drink were unsupplied.
After a man's death his
Ka
became
his Personality
proper
;
prayers and offerings were
made
to
the
gods that they might grant bread and wine, meat
and milk,
and
all
good
things
needful
for
the
sustenance of a god to the*
Ka
of the deceased.^stelae in
Such prayers were
also inscribed
on funerary
order
that passers-by might repeat
them
for the benefit of the dead.
These
inscriptions vary but
little.
tablet of
Khemnekht (now
in the
The prayer on the funerary Agram Museum) dates from:
the Thirteenth Dynasty, and runs as follows
"
O
every scribe,pass by this
every Kherhebstele,
(lector, priestly reciter), all
ye
who
who
love and honour your gods, and would have your
offices to flourish (shine) for
your children, say yeOsirisfor
'
:
Let royalpriest
offerings
be
brought unto
the
Ka
of
the
;
20
THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN DOCTRINE OFmadeto
Offerings were also
the
Ka
itself,it
and
it
was believed that from time
to time
visited
the
tombforinit.
in
order to
accept the food there providedoccasionsit
the
On such mummy,
became incorporatelive
which began to renew^'^'^
and
grow
(c:^^
"(^ ^=^^^ rfid), or^'^^^/)'
itself as
do plants and
trees (*^^^~^^n ^^AAAA
became, as the texts oc-
^i
casionally express
it,
"
the living
Ka
in its coffin."
The
rich
founded endowments whose revenues wereto all time in providing their
to be
expended
Kassumsthis
with food offerings, and bequeathed certainfor
the
maintenance of
priests
to
attend
to
large staffs of officials were kept
up
to provide the
necessaries ofKhemnekht.'"
life
for the Personalities of the dead.*
For an account of the development of the formulaesee
on funerarysteles*
stelae,
funeraires egyptieimes^particulars
The
Wiedemann, Observations siir guelques Le Miiseon X., 42, 199 et seq. above summarised may be verified from
contracts which a prince [erpd-ha) of Siut concluded with thepriests of
Anubis under the Tenth or Eleventh Dynasty (discussed
by Maspero, Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archeology, VII., p. 6 et seq., Etudes de Mythologie, I., p. 62 et seq., and
Erman, ^g.
Zeitschr.,
1882, p.
159
ff.,
the best publication of
these inscriptions being that by Griffith, Insc?iptio?is of Siut
and Derin
Rifeh, London, 1889,
Similar contracts were:
made evenLepsius,pi. I.;
the times of the pyramid-building kingsII. 3-7;
cf.
^.-.;
Denkvu'iler,
De Roug6, Inscriptions hicroglyphiques,p.
Mariette, Les Mastabahs,
316
et seq.)
THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.The
21
Ka
was represented by statues of the deadplaced within his tomb, and some-
man which weresovereign.*
times in temples also by gracious permission of the
Wherever one of these statues
stood,
there might the
Ka
sojourn and take part in Feastslife;
of Offerings and the pleasures of earthly
there
even seems to have been a belief thatimprisonedformulae.in
it
might be
a statue
by meansin the
of certain magic
Royal statuesroyal
temples were destined
to the use of the
Kas, the many statues ofall
the
same king
in
one temple being apparentlyservice, t
intended for his
own Ka
The Egyptians, holdingof a
the belief that the statue
human being
represented and embodied a
human
Ka, concluded
that the statues of the gods represented
and embodied divine Kas, and were indeed neither
more noridea
less
than the
Kas
of the gods.
Thus the
of divinity
became
entirely
anthropomorphic,
and, just as the king built his temple not to himself
but to
his
Personality, so
also
sanctuaries
weretoat
sometimes dedicated not to a god himself but* As in the case of statues found in the temple of Ptah Memphis (Mariette, Mon. div., pi. 27 b), and in that of Amon
at
Karnak (Mariette, Karfiak,
pi.
8
f; cf.
Lepsius, Aiiswahl,
pi. 11).
t This striking theory was first broached by Maspero, Rcc. de Trav., 1., p. 154; EUidcs de Mythologie, 1. p. 80.
22his
THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN DOCTRINE OFPersonality.
For example, the chief temple offor the
Memphis was not
service of the
god Ptah,
the makerKa.
of the world,
whomrather
the Greeksfor
comhisthis
pared to Hephaestos,
but
that
ofinin
Ptah was not alone among the gods
respect.
The
pyramid texts show that even
the
times of the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties Thot, Set,
Horus, and other gods were recognised as having
Kasself*
;
that
is
to
say,
each was
supposed to be
possessed of hisIt
own
Personality in addition to himthis
was believed that the divine Ka,
image
which had the greater likeness to man, stood nearerto
manin
than the god himself, and
hence
in
the
case of votive stelae dedicated to the incarnation of
Ptah
the sacred Apis-bull
of
Memphis, prayeris
for the
divine favour and blessingsits
not as a ruleIt is a
addressed to the Apis, but to
Ka.
very
remarkable
fact that in several inscriptions t the
god
WeKaIII.,
find occasional
mention of the
Ka
of the East
and theed.,
of the
West (Wilkinson, Manners andwhich areto
Customs, 2nd
pp. 200, 201),
be considered as being the Kas
of the deities of the Easttlie
and of the West, and not as Kas of
abstract conceptions of East and West.194,1.
t Lefsius, Denk??ialer, III.ijischriften,1)1.
13;
Dumichen, Tcmpelpi.
I.,
pi.
29
;
Von Bergmann,
Hicrogl. Insch.,
33
61,
col.
2
;
Renouf,
Transactions of the Society of Biblical
;
THE IMMORTALITY OF THERais
SOUL.
23
credited with no
less
than
seven
Bas and
fourteen Kas, corresponding to the various quahtiesor attributes pertaining to his
own
being,
and which
he could communicate to the person of the kingsuch as:
wealth, stability, majesty, glory, might, vic-
tory, creative power, etc.*
Thus
the apprehension of the
Ka, of a man's Perfound even
sonality, as his Doppelgdnger, or Double,in
some
of the oldest texts, acquired a far-reaching
significance
which extended not only to the doctrinealso to the conception of
of
human immortality butAs we have already
the relations of gods to men.stated, each
man hadit
a
Kahim
so long as he was alive, but at his death
left
and led an independent existence.wanderings did he meetit
Only
after long
again in the world to come,
and wegreetit,
still
possess the prayer with which he was to"
beginning with the words,duringlife!
Hail to thee
who
wast
my Ka
I
come untoBrugsch,
thee," etc.f _^.
A?'ch(Eology, VI., pp. 504 ct seq.
;
Dictio7iary, Supplt.,
pp. 997 et seq., 1230.
* Cf.
I
Chron. xxix.is
11, 12;
Isa. xi. 2.
t This prayer
contained in that part of The Book of the
Dead, chap,
cv.,
entitled
Chapter whereby theto thee
Ka
of a perso7i
is
satisfied in the
Nether world: "Hail!
who wast my KaI
during hfeI
!
LoI
I
come untoI
tliee, I
arise resplendent,I
labour,
am
strong,
am
hale {var.,
pass on),
bring grains of incense,
24
THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN DOCTRINE OEThe second immortalpart of
man was
his heart
([]
J
O ab)*
The heart was removed from the bodybecame ofDuring certain
by
the embahners, and the texts give no definite exit.
planation as to whatI
am
purified thereby,
I
purify thereby that which goeth forthevil
from thee.off of
This conjuration of
which
I
say; this wardingis
evil
which(?)"
I
perform
;
(this
conjuration)
not
madethatis
against
me
TheI
conjuration runs as follows: "I
am
amulet of green
felspar, the necklace of the
god Ra, which
given (var., which
gave) unto them
who
are
upon the horizon.
They
flourish,life
I
flourish,
my Ka
flourishes even as they,
my
duration of
flourishes even as they,
my Ka
has abundance
of food even as they.rises high to the
The
scale of the balance rises, Truth
nose of the god(?)
Ra
in that
day on whichare
my;
KaI
is
whereI
I
amI
My
head and
my arm
made
(?) to
where
am
(?)
am
he whose eye seeth, whose ears hear
am
not a beast of sacrifice.I
The"
sacrificial
formulae proceed" for
where
am, for the upper ones
otherwise said,(?)
the upper
ones of heaven."Todtenbiich,I.,
The funerary papyrus'
of Sutimes (Naville,
pi.
117) contains the following addition at theI
end ofI
this
chapter:
enter
unto thee (to the
Ka ?).The
am
pure, the Osiris
is
justified against his enemies."this
accompanying vignetteOccasionally
for
chapter shows
the
deceased
as worshipping or sacrificing before the KA-sign on a standard.
we
find
the
Ka
sign
represented as
enclosing
*
pictures of offerings, a form explained
by the common doubleboth"
meaning*
of the
word Ka, which
signifies
Doublef)
" _>^^
is
called both
J 0"
1
^^.
and
O
/ulii.
Sometimes, as in
The Book of the Dead,but, generally
chap. xw'i. el
seq.,
the two were differentiated;
speaking, the two terms appear to have been synonymous.
THE IMMORTALITY OF THEperiods of Egyptian history, butrarely,it
SOUL.
2'J
still
comparatively
was enclosed,
as
were the
rest of the viscera,
in special
alabaster, limestone, or
wooden
vases, of
which four were placed with the
mummy
in its grave.
These vases are generally but most erroneously called"
Canopic
" vases.
They
usually date from the times
of the
New
Empire, but we have some few datingIn other cases the visceraits
from the Ancient Empire.
were replaced within the body after
embalmment,genii
and with them waxen images of the fourthe
of
dead as
their
guardian
divinities.
But
for the
most part documents do not afford us any information
as
to
what was done with the material
heart.
Perhaps the priests took measuresanceforin
for its disappear-
order to furnishdoctrine
some tangible foundationheart.
their
concerning thewriters
Certain
statements of Greek
seem
to
imply some
such proceeding.viscera,
According
to these authorities the
which must have included the
heart,
were
cast into the Nile, because they were designated as
the source of
all
human
error.
Porphyry gives us
even the form of the prayer which was repeated
whensented
the
chest containing
the intestines wasif
prethis
before
the
Sun
;
and
the
text of
prayer has not hitherto been confirmed from original
28
THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN DOCTRINE OFit
documentsracter that
is
yet so thoroughly Egyptian in cha-
its
authenticity cannot be doubted/'^
*I
Plutarch, Scptem(Diales), "
'
sap. conviv., p. 159 B: "We then, said render these tributes to the belly (r^ yaa-rpl). But
listen."
Solon or any one else has any allegation to make we will " By all means/' said Solon, " lest we should appear more senseless than the Eg3'ptians, who cutting up the deadif
body showedriver,
[the entrails] to the sun, then cast
them
into the
but of the rest of the body, as
now become
pure, they
took care.flesh,
For
in reality this [the belly] is the pollution of
our
and the Hell, as in Hades, full of dire streams, and of wind and fire confused together, and of dead things."
Plutarch, De esu carnw7?icuttingit
orat.,
ii.,
p.
996, 38:{Tr]v
"As
the
Egyptians, taking out from the dead the belly
KoCkiav)
andall
up before the sun,
cast
it
away, as the cause of;
the sins which the
man
has committed
in like
manner
that
we
ourselves, cutting out gluttony
and bloodthirstiness, should purify
the rest of our
life."
Porphyry,/)^ abst, iv., 10: "When they embalm those of the noble that have died, together with their other treatment of the dead body, they take out the belly (rj)i/ Koi\iav\ and putof the
and holding the coffer to the sun they protest, one embalmers making a speech on behalf of the dead. This speech, which Euphantus translated from his native language,it
into a coffer,
is
as follows
:
"
O
Lord, the Sun, anda
all
ye gods
who
give
life
to
men, receive
me and make meI
companionworld
to the eternal to
gods.
For the gods,
as long time asto reverence,
have had
whom my my life
parentsin this
made knownI
me,
have continuedI
and those who gavefor the rest of
birth toI
my body
have ever
honoured.
And
men,
have neither slain any,
nor defrauded any of anything entrusted to me, nor committed any other wicked act, but if I haply in my life have sinned at
THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.But the immortal heart of a man, which stooda similar relationship to his material heart as histo the
29in
Katill
whole body,
left
him
at
death and journeyed
on alone through the regions of the other worldit
reached the
"
Abode
of Hearts."it
Its first
meetingin
with the deceased to
whom
had belonged wasit
the Hall of Judgment, where
stood forth as hisevil
accuser
;
for in
it
all his
good and
thoughts had
found expression during his
lifetime.
They had
not
originated there, for the heart was essentially divine
and pure, but
it
had of necessity harboured andthereforeit
known them,* andtestify
was
called
upon
to
concerning
the
man's former thoughts and
deeds before Osiris, judge of the dead.In the meantime the
mummy
was without heart,;
and had become
lifeless
and dead
for to pierce the
heart of anything was equivalent to utterly destroyingby either eating or drinking what was unlawful, not onaccount didI
all,
my
own
sin,
but on account of these (showing the[r;
coffer in
which the bellyit
yaaTrjp]
lay).*';
Andthat
having said these
things he throws
into the river
but the rest of the body, asthey needed to
pure, he embalms.
Thus they thought
excuse themselves to the Deity on account of what they hadeaten and drunk, and therefore to reproach the belly."* It
was
in this
sense that the Egyptians regarded the heart
as the seat of the feelings, and spoke of the heart as rejoicing,
as mourning, as weeping.
30it.
THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN DOCTRINE OFTheOsiris, too(to
which we
shall presently
return),
would have shared the
fate of the
mummyits
had the device not been conceived of providing thelatter
with an
artificial
heart
in
place of
own The
original one,
which had returned to the gods.
provisional
heart
was represented by an
artificial
Fig. 6.
A
heart scarab.*
scarabseus, generallyin
made
of hard
greenish
stone
the image of the beetle, which was a symbol of(fig. 6).
genesis and resurrection
Underneath
it
was
madeit
flat,
and inscribed with magic formulae,! thatfor the
might be the substitute*
dead man's heart,in
,
The
illustration is
taken from photographs of a scarab
the
Edwards
collection at University College,
London.
t For the translation of chap. xxxb. of The Booix of the Dead, which formed the usual inscriptions on heart scarabs, see p. 53.
1
THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.andform.also
3
ensure hishisits
resurrection
by virtue of
its
But when
own
heart was restored to
him
the scaraba::us lost
significance.
Like
all
the rest
of the amulets which the
Egyptians gave to their
dead,
its
efficacy only availed for the space of time
intervening between death and the reunion of those
ik.
Fig.
7.
The Ba as a bird.Whenonce
elements which death had separated.
the resurrection had taken place there was no further
need of amulets, nor any hurt through lack of them.
Another
immortal
part
of
man was
the
y.
by
F.
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for the Foil, Sabre,
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