^

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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THE SWORDSMANA Manual of FenceWith an AppendixBy Alfred Hutton,"

for the Foil, Sabre,

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