{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_12255/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_12255","id":"gutenberg_12255","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12255","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Archaeology & Anthropology","Category: History - Ancient","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Egypt","Eschatology, Egyptian","Immortality"],"text":"Formatting notes: Footnotes are in [square brackets] and embedded in the\n                  e-text at the location of the superscript number in\n                  the original text. Words and phrases in italics are\n                  surrounded with _underlines_. Everything that appears\n                  in all-caps in this e-text was in all-caps in the\n                  original text.\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE EGYPTIAN CONCEPTION OF IMMORTALITY\n\nThe Ingersoll Lecture, 1911\n\nby\n\nGEORGE ANDREW REISNER\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE INGERSOLL LECTURESHIP\n\n\nExtract from the will of Miss Caroline Haskell Ingersoll, who\ndied in Keene, County of Cheshire, New Hampshire, Jan. 26, 1893.\n\nFirst.  In carrying out the wishes of my late beloved father,\nGeorge Goldthwait Ingersoll, as declared by him in his last will\nand testament, I give and bequeath to Harvard University in\nCambridge, Mass., where my late father was graduated, and which\nhe always held in love and honor, the sum of Five thousand\ndollars ($5,000) as a fund for the establishment of a Lectureship\non a plan somewhat similar to that of the Dudleian lecture, that\nis--one lecture to be delivered each year, on any convenient\nday between the last of May and the first day of December, on\nthis subject, \"the Immortality of Man,\" said lecture not to form\na part of the usual college course, nor to be delivered by any\nProfessor or Tutor as part of his usual routine of instruction,\nthough any such Professor or Tutor may be appointed to such\nservice.  The choice of said lecturer is not to be limited to any\none religious denomination, nor to any one profession, but may be\nthat of either clergyman or layman, the appointment to take place\nat least six months before the delivery of said lecture.  The\nabove sum to be safely invested and three fourths of the annual\ninterest thereof to be paid to the lecturer for his services and\nthe remaining fourth to be expended in the publishment and\ngratuitous distribution of the lecture, a copy of which is always\nto be furnished by the lecturer for such purpose.  The same\nlecture to be named and known as the \"the Ingersoll lecture on\nthe Immortality of Man.\"\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n  I.    Introduction\n  II.   Sources of the Material\n  III.  The Ideas of the Primitive Race\n  IV.   The Early Dynastic Period\n  V.    The Old Empire\n  VI.   The Middle Empire\n  VII.  The New Empire\n  VIII. The Ptolemaic-Roman Period\n  IX.   Summary\n\n\n\n\nI. INTRODUCTION\n\n\n\nOf the nations which have contributed to the direct stream of\ncivilization, Egypt and Mesopotamia are at present believed to be\nthe oldest.  The chronological dispute as to the relative\nantiquity of the two countries is of minor importance; for while\nin Babylonia the historical material is almost entirely\ninscriptional, in Egypt we know the handicrafts, the weapons, the\narts, and, to a certain extent, the religious beliefs of the race\nup to a period when it was just emerging from the Stone Age.  In a\nword, Egypt presents the most ancient race whose manner of life\nis known to man.  From the beginning of its history--that is,\nfrom about 4500 B.C.--we can trace the development of a\nreligion one of whose most prominent elements was a promise of a\nlife after death.  It was still a great religion when the\nChristian doctrine of immortality was enunciated.  In the early\ncenturies of the Christian era, it seemed almost possible that\nthe worship of Osiris and Isis might become the religion of the\nclassical world; and the last stand made by civilized paganism\nagainst Christianity was in the temple of Isis at Philae in the\nsixth century after Christ.\n\nIt is clear that a religion of such duration must have offered\nsome of those consolations to man that have marked all great\nreligions, chief of which is the faith in a spirit, in something\nthat preserves the personality of the man and does not perish\nwith the body.  This faith was, in fact, one of the chief elements\nin the Egyptian religion--the element best known to us through\nthe endless cemeteries which fill the desert from one end of\nEgypt to the other, and through the funerary inscriptions.\n\nIt is necessary, however, to correct the prevailing impression\nthat religion played the greatest part in Egyptian life or even a\ngreater part than it does in Moslem Egypt.  The mistaken belief\nthat death and the well-being of the dead overshadowed the\nexistence of the living, is due to the fact that the physical\ncharacter of the country has preserved for us the cemeteries and\nthe funerary temples better than all the other monuments.  The\nnarrow strip of fat black land along the Nile produces generally\nits three crops a year.  It is much too valuable to use as a\ncemetery.  But more than that, it is subject to periodic\nsaturation with water during the inundation, and is, therefore,\nunsuitable for the burials of a nation which wished to preserve\nthe contents of the graves.  On the other hand, the desert, which\nbounds this fertile strip so closely that a dozen steps will\nusually carry one from the black land to the gray,--the desert\noffers a dry preserving soil with absolutely no value to the\nliving.  Thus all the funerary monuments were erected on the\ndesert, and except where intentionally destroyed they are\npreserved to the present day.  The palaces, the towns, the farms,\nand many of the great temples which were erected on the black\nsoil, have been pulled down for building material or buried deep\nunder the steadily rising deposits of the Nile.  The tombs of six\nthousand years of dead have accumulated on the desert edge.\n\nMoreover, our impression of these tombs has been formed from the\nmonuments erected by kings, princes, priests, and the great and\nwealthy men of the kingdom.  The multitude of plain unadorned\nburial-places which the scientific excavator records by the\nthousands have escaped the attention of scholars interested in\nEgypt from the point of view of a comparison of religions.  It has\nalso been overlooked that the strikingly colored mummies and the\nglaring burial apparatus of the late period cost very little to\nprepare.  The manufacture of mummies was a regular trade in the\nPtolemaic period at least.  Mummy cases were prepared in advance\nwith blank spaces for the names.  I do not think that any more\nexpense was incurred in Egyptian funerals in the dynastic period\nthan is the case among the modern Egyptians.  The importance of\nthe funerary rites to the living must, therefore, not be\nexaggerated.\n\n\n\n\nII. SOURCES OF THE MATERIAL\n\n\nWith the exception of certain mythological explanations supplied\nby the inscriptions and reliefs in the temples, our knowledge of\nEgyptian ideas in regard to the future life is based on funerary\ncustoms as revealed by excavations and on the funerary texts\nfound in the tombs.  These tombs always show the same essential\nfunctions through all changes of form,--the protection of the\nburial against decay and spoliation, and the provision of a\nmeeting-place where the living may bring offerings to the dead.\nCorrespondingly, there are two sets of customs,--burial customs\nand offering customs.  The texts follow the same division.  For the\noffering place, the texts are magical formulas which, properly\nrecited by the living, provide material benefit for the dead.  For\nthe burial place, the texts are magical formulas to be used by\nthe spirit for its own benefit in the difficulties of the spirit\nlife.  These texts from the burial chambers are found in only a\nfew graves,--those of the very great,--and their contents\nshow us that they were intended only for people whose earthly\nposition was exceptional.\n\nFrom the funerary customs and the offering texts, a clear view is\nobtained of the general conception, the ordinary practice.  We see\nwhat was regarded as absolutely essential to the belief of the\ncommon man.  From the texts found in the burial chambers we get\nthe point of view of the educated or powerful man, the things\nthat might be done to gain for him an exceptional place in the\nother world.  Both of these classes of material must be\nconsidered, in order to gain a true idea of the practical\nbeliefs.  For it must be emphasized from the beginning that we\nhave in Egypt several apparently conflicting conceptions of\nimmortality.  Nor are we anywhere near obtaining in the case of\nthe texts the clearness necessary to understand fully all the\ndiffering views held by the priestly classes during a period of\nover two thousand years.\n\n\n\n\nIII. THE IDEAS OF THE PRIMITIVE RACE\n\n\nThe earliest belief in immortality is that which is shown to us\nby the burial customs of the primitive race,--the prehistoric\nEgyptian race.\n\nAbout 4500 B.C.  we find the Egyptian race was just emerging from\nthe Stone Age.  All the implements and weapons found are of flint\nor other stone.  The men of that time were ignorant of writing,\nbut show a certain facility in line drawings of men, plants, and\nanimals.  We have found thousands of their graves which all show\nthe same idea of death.  Each person was buried with implements,\nweapons, ornaments,--no doubt those actually used in life,--\nwith a full outfit of household pots and pans, and with a supply\nof food.  The man was dead, but he still needed the same things he\nused in ordinary life.  By a fortunate chance we have even\nrecovered bodies accidentally desiccated and preserved intact in\nthe dry soil.  These bodies do not show any trace of mutilation,\nmummification, or any other preparation for the grave except\nprobably washing.  The dead body was simply laid on a mat in the\ngrave, covered with a cloth and a mat or a skin, and then with\nclean gravel.  But with it was placed all those things which the\nman might need if his life were to go on in some mysterious,\nunseen way, as life went on among those on earth.  Possibly his\nrelations as in later times brought offerings of food to the\ngrave, but here even the dry soil of Egypt fails to furnish\npositive evidence.  All this shows a plain simple belief in the\npersistence of the life of a man as distinguished from the body\n--a belief widely prevalent among primitive people.  It contains\nnothing unusual, and is probably perfectly explicable psychologically\nby means of dreams.\n\nThere is little or no change in this underlying belief to be\nobserved in the burial customs of the Egyptians during the late\npredynastic period.  Copper weapons and implements succeed stone\nin the graves.  All those objects in whose manufacture the new\ntools are used show changes of technique and form.  It is even\ncurious to note that some of the older stone and flint objects,\nsome of the older pots and pans, are still made as a matter of\ntradition.  The importance of this is not to be overlooked.  For\ncenturies men had used flint knives and they had baked their\nbread in flat mud saucers set in the ashes.  For the centuries\nthese flint knives and these cakes with their saucers had been\nplaced in the graves.  Gradually metal knives and better bread\npans displaced these more primitive objects in daily life; but\nthe older primitive objects were still placed in the graves as a\nmatter of tradition.\n\nIt must be remembered, of course, that these traditional objects\nwere also in use in ancient traditional ceremonies on earth.  The\nsacrificial animals were still slaughtered with flint knives.  The\nold-style cakes were still offered in the holy places.  In other\nwords, life on earth now consisted of ordinary material life and\na traditional life--a life that clung to the forms of a more\nprimitive civilization as somehow more effective with the divine\npowers.  This view is closely reflected in the grave furniture;\nhere, too, were the practical objects and the traditional\nceremonial objects.  Life after death is still always the same as\nlife on earth--with the same physical needs, with the same need\nof help from supernatural powers or against supernatural powers.\nThe spirit of the man needed the spirit of the copper axe to\nswing in battle; but just as much he needed the spirit of the\nflint knife to make the first cut across the throat of the spirit\nbull of sacrifice.  Remember this--the other world, in which\nlived the spirit of the dead, was filled with the spirits or\nghosts of all things and animals.  The other, the unseen, was a\nduplicate of this world; all things which have shape were there\n--even to the black fields and the broad river of Egypt.  This is\nthe foundation of the Egyptian conception of immortality.  Through\nall the modifications and accretions of the following three\nthousand years, this foundation idea is always clearly visible.\nAll the statues, the carved and painted tombs, all the curious\nlittle model boats and workshops, all the painted mummies, all\nthe amulets, the scarabs, the little funerary statuettes,--all\nthis mummery which seems to be so characteristic and so\nessential, is only the means to an end, and an ever changing\nmeans to secure a successful comfortable existence of the spirit\nin the life after death,--in the ghostly duplicate of life on\nearth.\n\n\n\n\nIV. THE EARLY DYNASTIC PERIOD\n\n\nIt is clear that the effort to attain an immortality which is\nmerely a ghostly continuation of life on earth must reflect the\ngeneral development of Egyptian culture,--especially the\nadvance in arts and crafts.  One of the most striking examples of\nthis fact is the introduction of metal working mentioned above\nand the consequent placing of both flint and copper in the grave,\n--the division of grave furniture into practical objects and\nceremonial objects, which is the foundation for the use of\nsymbolic objects in later times.\n\nThe advance in arts and crafts not only suggests new ideas of the\nnecessities of the spirit, but it provides the necessary\ntechnical skill for the more effective satisfaction of all the\nneeds of the dead.  This takes, first of all, the form of\nsupplying a place for the burial, which furnishes greater\nsecurity to the body and a better communication between the\nliving and the dead.\n\nFrom the First Dynasty, say from 3300 B.C. down, as soon as the\nEgyptian had mastered the use of mud-brick and wood, we gain the\ncertainty of an idea which could only be guessed at in the\nprimitive period.  A place is provided above the grave at which\nthe living could meet the spirit of the dead with _periodical_\nofferings of food and other necessities.  In the life after death,\nspirit food and drink, once used, ceased to be, just as in life\non earth, and had to be renewed from day to day, lest the spirit\nof the dead suffer from hunger and thirst.  One of the great\ndevelopments of the first six dynasties looked to the provision\nof these daily necessities.\n\nThe invention of writing was immediately utilized.  About the\nbeginning of the First Dynasty writing was invented for\nadministrative and other practical purposes.  Gravestones, bearing\nin relief the name of the dead, were set up in the offering\nplaces of the kings and court people.  These were probably\nreminders for use in some simple formula recited in presenting\nthe periodical offerings.  As the Egyptians became more familiar\nwith the use of writing, the offering formula was written out in\nfull, enlarged and modified.\n\nSculptures, both relief and statuary, in every stage of their\ndevelopment, were used as magical accessories to the offering\nrites.\n\nSo, also, the whole history of Egyptian architecture was\nreflected in the tomb; for every advance brought about some\nchange in the form or structure.  In fact, the whole development\nof the form of the Egyptian tomb depended on the development of\ntechnical skill.  The same funerary functions are served\nthroughout.  As all the great artisans were at the command of the\nking, all the great technical discoveries and inventions were\nfirst made in his service.  But every permanent gain in knowledge\nwas a benefit to the race and utilized by the common people.  So,\nfor example, the skill acquired in stone-cutting, during the\nconstruction of the great pyramids, was utilized a little later\nin producing rock-cut tombs from one end of Egypt to the other.\n\nThe functions of the grave remained the same.  Yet with the\nchanges in form resulting from the growth of skill, modifications\nin the funerary customs crept in.\n\nThe mud-brick tombs of the early part of the First Dynasty, like\nthe pre-dynastic graves, had only one chamber, limited in size by\nthe length of logs obtainable to form the roof.  The growing\ndesire for ostentation found a way to enlarge the tombs by\nbuilding them with a number of chambers.  The burial was placed in\nthe central chamber and the burial furniture in the additional\nchambers.  In this way the separation of the furniture and the\nactual burial was brought about.\n\n\n\n\nV. THE OLD EMPIRE\n\n\nAnother change comes in the Fourth Dynasty, and is to be noted\nfirst in the royal tombs, as is always the case.  The Egyptians\nhad now learned to cut stone and build with it.  The burial\nchambers hollowed in the solid rock were necessarily smaller than\nthe old chambers dug in the gravel and no longer sufficient to\ncontain the great mass of furniture gathered by a king for his\ngrave.  On the other hand, the chapels with the increase in\narchitectural skill could be build of great size.  Corresponding\nto these technical conditions we find a great increase in the\nimportance of the chapel.  It becomes a great temple, whose\nmagazines were filled with all those objects which had formerly\nbeen placed in the burial chamber and were so necessary to the\nlife of the spirit.  The temples of the third pyramid, for\nexample, contained nearly two thousand stone vessels.  Great\nestates were set aside by will, and the income appointed to the\nsupport of certain persons who on their side were obliged to keep\nup the temple, to make the offerings and to recite the magical\nformulas which would provide the spirit with all its necessities.\n\nFollowing closely the growth in importance of the royal chapels,\nthe private offering places assumed a greater importance.  The\ncustom of periodic offerings and the use of magical texts grew\nuntil it reached its highest point in the Fifth Dynasty.  At this\ntime there is a burial chamber deep underground where the dead\nwas laid securely in ancient traditional attitude, with his\nclothing and a few personal ornaments.  As a rule, it is only the\nwomen, always conservative, that have anything more.  Above this\ngrave, there is a solid rectangular structure, with a chapel or\noffering place on the side towards the valley.  The offering place\nis always there, no matter how poor or small the tomb.  But to\nunderstand just what the Egyptian thought, we must turn to the\nbetter tombs.  The walls are of limestone carved with reliefs\nrepresenting the important processes of daily life,--sowing,\nreaping, cattle-herding, hunting, pot-making, weaving,--all\nthose actions which furnish the daily supplies.  The dead man is\nrepresented overseeing all this.  Finally, near the offering\nniche, he is represented seated, usually with his wife at a table\nbearing loaves of the traditional _ta_ bread.  Beside him are\nrepresented heaps of provisions--meat, cakes, vegetables, wine\nand beer.  A list of objects is never missing, marked with\nnumbers,--a thousand loaves of bread, a thousand head of\ncattle, a thousand jars of wine, a thousand garments, and so on.\nWe know from latter inscriptions that these words, properly\nrecited, created for the spirit a store of spirit objects in\nequal numbers.  Below the niche is an altar for receiving actual\nofferings of food and drink.  It is clear that the living, coming\nto this offering place with or without material offerings, could,\nby proper recitation, secure to the spirit of the dead all its\ndaily needs.  This offering niche is the door of the other world\n--symbolically and actually.  In many graves the niche is carved\nto represent a door--sometimes opening in, and sometimes\nopening out.  Moreover, in several cases the figure of the dead is\ncarved half emerging from the opening door--a figure in all\nways like the figure of the dead as he is represented in the\nscenes from life.  Beyond this door lives the spirit of the dead.\n\nIn many offering chambers there is a small hole in the wall,\neither in the offering niche or in another place.  If this hole be\nproperly lighted and the space beyond has not been changed by\ndecay or violation, the light falls on the face of a statue of\nthe dead looking forth to the world of the living.  For behind the\nwall is another chamber, closed except for this small hole.  This\nhidden chamber contains statues of the dead often accompanied by\nstatues of his family and his servants.  These statues of the dead\nare labeled with his name, and are said to be the abode of his\nspirit, his _ka_, as the Egyptians called it.  Moreover, all the\noffering formulas named the _ka_ as the recipient of the food and\ndrink.  The duplicate spirit of the man is his _ka_.  In these\nstatues we have, then, a simulacrum of the man provided for use\nof his _ka_--perhaps to assist the _ka_ to the persistence of\nhis earthly form, and to the remembrance of his name.  But what\nwere the uses of the subsidiary statues?  What spirit resided in\nthem?  The man's son in his turn died, and a similar room was made\nfor him with his statue and his subsidiary statues.  Did his _ka_\nlive both in the statue placed with his father's statue and also\nin the statue in his own grave?  We have no answer.  Probably the\nEgyptian mind never formulated the difficulty.\n\nBut the new idea is clearly expressed.  It is no longer necessary\nto fill the burial chamber with a mass of household furniture for\nthe use of the dead.  All these things can be carved on the wall\nof the burial chamber and so made effective for his use.  It was\nin any case necessary to supply his food by means of the\nofferings, and it was quite as easy to supply all his other\nnecessities in the same way.  In other words, there is a distinct\ngrowth in the use of magic to benefit the dead.  At the same time,\nwe find the growth of the custom of supplying a special abode for\nthe _ka_--a simulacrum of the man, which assisted the _ka_ to\nretain the form of the living man and to remember his identity.\n\nThe tendency of this period is then to place a greater dependence\non magic than on food, drink, and grave furniture.  It is,\ntherefore, not surprising to find introduced, for the first time,\nthe use of magical texts in the burial chamber,--the so-called\nPyramid Texts.  In the burial chamber in the pyramid of Unas, last\nking of the Fifth Dynasty, and in the pyramids of the kings of\nthe Sixth Dynasty, the walls are covered with long magical texts\nor chapters--the oldest form of the so-called book of the dead\nor \"book of the going forth by day.\" The texts were probably\nsomewhat older, but are now used for the first time in this\nmanner, no doubt owing to the increased facility in carving\nstone.  In these the various powers of the other world are invoked\nby the incidents of the Osiris-Isis legend, to preserve the dead\nbody, to feed the _ka_, and to assist the other spirit, the _ba_,\nin its struggles with supernatural powers.\n\nThe pyramid texts introduce us to three important ideas,--(1) a\ncurious plurality of the spirit existence, (2) a condition of\nimmortality better than that of the old underworld or Earu, and\n(3) most important of all, the identification of the king with\nOsiris according to the terms of the Osiris-Isis legend.\n\nIn all the older offering formulas it is only the _ka_ spirit\nwhich is mentioned.  Here is the body perishable and destructible;\nhere is the life, the _ka_ which fills every limb and vessel of\nthe body and must, therefore, have the same form.  When death\ncomes, the _ka_ spirit, the image of the man, remains near the\nbody, and this spirit it was which was the object of the rites\nand offerings in the funerary chapel.  But besides this _ka_, it\nappears for the first time that the king at any rate possesses\nalso a soul called a _ba_.  In later times we see that every man\npossessed a _ba_, and we learn that each god possessed several\n_ba's_.  But it is in the pyramid texts that we learn for the\nfirst time of the _ba_ of a man, and that man is a king.  When\ndeath comes, the _ba_ takes flight in the form of a bird or\nwhatever form it wills.  All seems confused.  The _ka_ was near the\nbody, the _ka_ was in the field of Earu, under the earth\nploughing and sowing; the _ba_ is fluttering on the branches of\nthe tree on earth, the _ba_ has fled like a falcon to the\nheavens, and has been set as a star among the stars.  The dead\nking lives with the gods and is fed by them.  The goddesses give\nhim the breast.  He lives in the Island of Food.  He lives in Earu,\nthe Underworld, a land like Egypt, with fields and canals and\nflood and harvest.  He shares with the gods in the offerings made\nin the great temples on earth.\n\nIt is quite clear that all this is an expression of\ndissatisfaction with the old belief in the simple duplicate\nworld, the world of Earu under the earth.  It is noteworthy that\nthis first appears in royal tombs.  These texts are written for\nkings alone.  It is only many centuries later that the texts of\nthe book of the dead showed similar possibilities open to the\ncommon man.  This is the usual course of all advances in Egypt,--\narchitecture, sculpture, writing, whatever gain in skill or\nknowledge there is, appears first in the service of the royal\nfamily.  Thus, even in the conception of immortality, the new\nideas, the better immortality was first thought out for the\nbenefit of the king.  The basis for this lay simply in the life on\nearth.  The king had come early to have a sort of divinity\nascribed to him.  His chief name was the Horus name.  Menes was the\nHorus Aha; Cheops was the Horus Mejeru; Pepy II was the Horus\nNetery-khau.  But he was also the son of Ra, the sun-god, endued\nwith life forever.  The king was a god, and it could only be that\nin his future life he shared the life of the gods.  Thus, all is\nno more confused or mysterious than is the conception of the life\nof the gods themselves.\n\nBut the texts go even further than this and identify the dead\ngod-man, who as Horus was king on earth, with the father of\nHorus, the dead god of the earth, Osiris.  This identification of\nthe dead man with the dead god Osiris was later enlarged to\ninclude all men, and became in the Ptolemaic period the most\ncharacteristic feature of the Egyptian conception of life after\ndeath.\n\nThe Osiris story as it can be pieced together from the pyramid\ntexts [See A. Erman: _Die Aegyptische Religion_, p. 38 ff.] was\nbriefly thus: Keb, the earth-god, and Nut, the goddess of the\nsky, had four children,--Osiris and Isis, Seth and Nephthys,--\nwho were thus paired in marriage.  Keb gave Osiris his dominion,\nthe earth, and made him the god of the earth, and he ruled justly\nand powerfully.  Seth, his brother, was jealous, and by treachery\nenticed Osiris into a box, which he closed and threw into the\nwater.  Isis sought for the body of her husband until she found it,\nand Isis and Nephthys, her sister, sat at his head and feet and\nbewailed him.  Re, the greatest of the gods, heard Isis's\ncomplaint; his heart was touched, and he sent Anubis to bury\nOsiris.  Anubis re-joined his separated bones, bound him with\ncloths, and prepared him for burial,--that is, mummified him.\nThis is the form in which Osiris is represented,--as a mummy.\nIsis then fanned her wings, and the air from her wings caused the\nmummy to live.  His life on earth, however, was over, could not be\nrecalled, so that his new life could only be passed in the other\nworld, the world of the dead.  Here Osiris became king, as he had\nbeen king on earth.  But Isis conceived from the dead-living\nOsiris, bore a child in secret, and suckled him, hidden in a\nswamp.  When the child, the sun-god Horus, grew up, he fought\nagainst Seth to recover his father's kingdom, and to avenge his\ndeath.  Both gods were injured in the fight.  Horus lost an eye.\nBut Thoth intervened, separated the fighters, and healed their\nwounds.  Thoth spat upon the eye of Horus and it became whole.\nHorus, however, gave his eye to Osiris to eat, and thereby Osiris\nbecame endowed with life, soul, and power (i.e. in the underworld).\nBut Seth disputed the legitimacy of the birth of Horus, and the\ngreat gods held a court in the house of Keb.  In this court,\njustice was done, the truth of Horus's claims was established,\nand he was placed on the throne of his father. Osiris became\nthe ruler in the land of the dead, Horus in the land of the\nliving.\n\nThe kernel of the story appears to be this: Osiris is the god of\nthe earth, and his life is the life of the vegetation, dying and\nreviving with the course of the seasons, mourned by his wife Isis\nand succeeded by his son Horus, the sun-god.  It is apparently a\nform of the common Tammuz or Adonis story of the Semites.  This\nfact brings with it a suggestion which requires consideration.\n\nThe racial connection of the Egyptians may seem to have little to\ndo with immortality.  But I beg a moment's consideration.  The two\ngreat dominating ideas of immortality are those held by the\nChristians and by the Mohammedans, and these are essentially the\nsame idea.  Both these religions are creations of the Semitic\nrace.  It is, therefore, decidedly of importance to find that the\nEgyptian race, the creator of a third great religion, has also a\nlarge Semitic strain.  In fact, the investigations of the last ten\nyears appear to show that this Semitic strain it was which gave\nthe Egyptian race its creative power and made possible the\ndevelopment of the Egyptian civilization.\n\nThe Egyptian language furnishes us with indisputable proof of the\nSemitic affinity, as Professor Adolf Erman showed years ago.  The\nanatomical examination by Professor Elliot Smith of a large\nnumber of skeletons, dated by careful excavations, has given us a\nfurther clue.  There is a prehistoric race found in the earliest\ncemeteries--neither Negroid nor Asiatic in characteristics.  In\nthe late predynastic and the early dynastic periods, when the\ngreat development began, this primitive race had become modified\nby an infiltration of broad-headed people from the north.  In the\nOld Empire, this broad-headed people had become predominant, and\nremain so throughout all Lower and Middle Egypt until the present\nday.  This intruding race, whose advent marks the beginning of\nEgyptian civilization, I believe to have been Semitic.\n\nRemember this--the texts show clearly older ideas in conflict\nwith the Osiris belief.  The primitive race was not, I believe, a\nrace of Osiris followers.  Professor Erman has stated that the\nOsiris belief is as early as 4200 B.C.  That I am certain is\nabsolutely untenable.  It is a question of Egyptian chronology in\nwhich I beg to differ radically both from Eduard Meyer and\nProfessor Erman.  In the formal calendar year of three hundred and\nsixty-five days, there are twelve months of thirty days and five\nintercalary days.  These intercalary days are called the birthdays\nof Osiris, Horus, Seth, Isis, and Nephthys--the five most\nimportant figures in the Osiris myth.  According to Professor\nMeyer and Professor Erman, this formal calendar was introduced in\n4200 B.C., one of the occasions when the heliacal rising of the\nstar Sothis fell on the first of the month Thoth of the calendar.\nHowever, if we accept with them the date 3300 B.C. as the date of\nthe First dynasty, then in 4200 B.C. the Egyptians were just\nemerging from a neolithic state.  They were culturally incapable\nof making a formal calendar and could have no possible use for\none.  Either the calendar did not originate in Egypt, or it was\nintroduced in 2780 B.C., when again the heliacal rising Sothis\nfell on the first of Thoth.  At this time the Osiris story was\ndominant, in the religion.  We have a race almost certainly\nSemitic, fusing the primitive race during the period 3500-3000,\nand a few centuries later we have a new religious idea dominating\nthe fused race.  When we examine this new idea, the Osiris belief,\nwe find its earliest form nothing more nor less than the common\ntammuz or Adonis story of the Semites.  The conclusion lies very\nnear at hand, that the Osiris story is in fact the Tammuz story,\nbrought into Egypt by the earliest Semitic tribes.  In any case it\nwas a race with a large Semitic mixture which utilized this story\nin working out a theory of immortality; and in all probability we\nhave in the Osiris-Isis religion a third great religion due to\nthe Semitic race.\n\nHowever this may be, it is clear that the craving of the king for\na special immortality, for an exalted future life, found its\njustification through the Osiris-Isis myth.  Horus was the\nsuccessor of Osiris as lord of the earth and the living.  The\nkings of Egypt were the successors of Horus.  The chief name of\nthe king was his Horus name; Menes was the Horus Aha, Cheops the\nHorus Mejeru.  When the king died, he became Osiris, and passed to\nthe kingdom of Osiris.  He passed through the underworld with the\nsun-god, abode there as Osiris, the god-king, or sped to the\nheavens to the celestial gods.  Thus comes the entering wedge\nof a great change in the conception of immortality--an ordinary\nimmortality for the common man, a special divine immortality\nfor the divine man, the king.  [It appears probable that the\ndeification of the king and the assumption of a divine immortality\nfor him was prior in time to the statement of these beliefs in\nthe terms of the Osiris story.]  Even at this early age, it\nwas, of course, clearly stated that the king must be righteous,\nmorally satisfactory in the eyes of the world and of the gods.\nThe gods, as always, were on the side of the moral code, and\nespecially on the side of the organized religion.  It is\nperhaps significant that the chief sins of the kings of the\nFourth dynasty, so execrated by the Egyptian priests in the\nPtolemaic period, were sins against the great gods.  The other\ncharges are for the most part plainly slanders.  In practice every\nking whose family remained in power was justified before gods and\nmen, and took his place among the gods in the islands of the\nblessed in the northern part of the heavens.\n\nThe dead body was laid in the grave, supplied with all these\nmagic texts which were to restore and revive the soul and guide\nit across waters and through dangers to the place of Osiris.  But\nthe chapel was not wanting, the cult of the _ka_ was maintained,\nthe statues were placed in the hidden room, the food and drink\nwere brought daily to the door of the grave.  Thus, while a\nspecial immortality was evolved for the king, the funeral customs\ncontinue to show the same service of the _ka_ as in the earlier\nperiod.\n\nIn the Sixth Dynasty, there is a return to the older practice of\nplacing objects in the grave itself.  At present we are unable to\npoint out the reasons for this.  Possibly experience had taught\nmen that endowments and craved walls left to the care of\ndescendants were insecure supports for a life after death which\nwas to last forever.  At any rate, the custom arose of making\nsmall models in wood or stone or metal of those scenes and\nobjects which were carved in relief on the walls of the chapel,\n--models of houses, granaries, of kitchens, of brickyards;\nmodels of herds and servants and soldiers; models of boats and\nships; models of dance-halls with the man seated drinking wine,\naround him musicians, before him dancing girls; models of swords,\nof vessels, of implements.  Poorer people must be contented with\npoorer things, down to the peasant who is buried with the few\nlittle necessary pots and pans of his daily life.  But always, in\nevery grave, the chapel, small or great, is there.  The endowment\nof funerary priests continues.  Every man, I suppose, however\npoor, had some one to make at least one offering at his grave.\nAnd so it was down to the New Empire.\n\n\n\n\nVI. THE MIDDLE EMPIRE\n\n\nDuring the Middle Empire, the burial and offering customs show\nthe persistence of the old belief in life after death as on\nearth.  Pots, vessels, tools, weapons, ornaments, clothing, and\nmodels of scenes from life, continue to be placed in the burial\nchamber.  The walls of the offering chambers of the nobles, at\nthis time cut in the rock, still bear representations from life\ncarved in relief.  The symbolical doors and the offering formulas\nstill mark the spot where the dead receive the necessities of\nlife from the living.  All graves of every class testify to the\nfaith in a life after death similar to life on earth.  Yet certain\nmodifications are apparent which are significant for the future\ndevelopment of the conception of immortality: (1) the pyramid\ntexts are used by the provincial nobles for their own benefit;\n(2) Abydos assumes a great importance as the burial place of\nOsiris; (3) the swathed mummy comes into general use in burials.\n\nThe first identification of the king with Osiris in the pyramid\ntexts marks the conception of a better immortality for him.  So,\nas the possibility of a better immortality was claimed by wider\nand wider circles of men, the use of the pyramid texts, or\nsimilar texts, also became wider.  In the Middle Empire, texts\npractically identical with the pyramid texts, but furnished with\nillustrations somewhat like those of the later books of the dead,\nare found in the coffins of provincial nobles.\n\nThe power of the monarchy had been weakening during the Fifth and\nSixth Dynasties, partly owing to the dissipation of national\nresources by royal extravagance, partly owing to other causes.\nAfter the Sixth Dynasty, the country was clearly in a period of\neconomic depression; and the government was broken up into a\nseries of nearly independent baronies corresponding roughly to\nthe later division into provinces or nomes.  Our material is\nscanty.  The tombs of very few great men have been found.  But when\nin the Twelfth Dynasty an abundance of material is at hand, we\nsee, alongside the old forms of the burial customs, the use of\nthe pyramid texts on the inside walls of the coffins of the great\nman.  It was now possible for the _ba_ of the great landed noble\nto seek refuge with the gods in the northwest heavens and share\ntheir life.\n\nThe increasing importance of Abydos as the burial place of Osiris\nis of still greater significance.  The tomb of a king of the First\nDynasty was identified by the priests as the actual burial place\nof Osiris.  Many great people made graves for themselves in the\nsame field; or, if they lived at a distance, built empty\ncenotaphs there.  A great temple of Osiris stood near by, and\nbecame the centre of the celebration of mysteries illustrating\nthe death and revival of Osiris.  Fortunately, a certain high\nofficial named I-kher-nofret has left us an account of the Osiris\npassion-play as performed under his oversight in the nineteenth\nyear of Sesostris III, nearly two thousand years before Christ\n[See Schafer's article, \"Die Osiris-mysterien,\" in Sethe's\n_Untersuchungen zur Geshichte Aegyptens_, IV, 2, pp 1-42.].  The\nplay began by the procession of the statue of the jackal-god\nWep-wawet (the road-opener) going forth to help his father\nOsiris.  Then the statue of Osiris himself in the Neshemet boat\ncame forth as triumphant king of the earth.  Sham battles took\nplace referring to the conquest of the earth by Osiris.  These\nprocessions were only introductory.  The principal procession took\nplace on the following day (or days), when Osiris went forth to\nhis death at Nedit.  The actual death scene certainly took place\nin secret.  But when the dead body was found, the multitude joined\nin the wailing and the lamentations.  The god Thoth went forth in\na boat and brought back the body of Osiris.  The body was prepared\nfor burial and taken in funeral procession to the grave at Peker.\nOsiris was avenged on his enemies in a great battle on the water\nat Nedit.  Finally, the god, his life revived, comes from Peker in\ntriumphant procession and enters his temple at Abydos.\n\nOsiris mysteries were celebrated at other places, at least in\nlater times and perhaps even in the Middle Empire; but it is not\neasy to discern the part these mysteries played in the Middle\nEmpire in the beliefs of the common people regarding their\nimmortality.  The Osiris story was one of the most widespread in\nEgypt, and, powerful in its effect on the feelings of all\nclasses, was certain, sooner or later, to prepare the way for a\ngeneral belief in a better immortality; but if we may judge from\nthe burial customs, the great mass of the people still believed\nmerely in an underworld, Earu, a duplicate of the earthly life,\nbut with greater possibilities of danger and evil.\n\nDuring the course of Egyptian history the position in which the\nbody is buried undergoes a series of remarkable changes.  During\nthe early pre-dynastic period, the body, loosely enfolded in\ncloths and skins, is laid in the grave double up on the left\nside, _usually_ with the head south (i.e. upstream).  This\nposition becomes the custom, with very few exceptions, during the\nlate predynastic period and the first three dynasties.  Throughout\nthe Fourth to Sixth Dynasties, the body was in the same position,\nbut with the head north, loosely covered with shawls and\ngarments.  The crouching position, with some slight modifications,\ncontinues to be used for the poorest class down to the New\nEmpire. Among the Nubians, it is universal to the New Empire and\ncustomary even later in unmixed Nubian communities.  The swathed\nextended burials begin in Egypt in the Fourth Dynasty, so far as\nremains are preserved.  Some members of the royal family of Cheops\nwere buried in swathed wrapping, lying extended on the left side\nwith the knees bent.  During the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties this\nextended position on the side becomes customary for the better\nclasses; and during the Middle Empire it becomes almost\nuniversal.\n\nThe final burial position, the swathed mummy lying extended on\nthe back, does not become general until the New Empire, about\n1600 B.C. although it is the position hitherto regarded as the\ncharacteristic Egyptian burial position.  A few isolated cases,\nsome of them perhaps accidental, occur as early as the Old\nEmpire; but in the New Empire the extended burial on the back is\npractically the only one to be observed.  In other words,\nbeginning in the predynastic period with a burial position which\nmay be called natural and primitive, the Egyptian gradually\nadopted a position which imitated the form of the dead Osiris,\nthe god of the dead.  Each new change is first adopted by the\nroyal family, and is taken up by the other classes in turn until\nit becomes universal.  In the final form, the mummy was a\nsimulacrum of the dead as Osiris.\n\nAlongside these changes in the burial position progressed the art\nof preserving the body.  The earliest attempts were made on the\nbody of the king; and the knowledge of embalming gained in\npreserving his body was gradually utilized for the higher classes\nand finally for all but the poorest.  It seems indisputable that\nthe royal personages of the Fourth and Sixth Dynasties were\nmummified--i.e., the entrails were drawn, the body prepared\nwith spices and resins and wrapped tightly in cloths smeared with\nresin.  But the mummies of the nobles, even of this period, show\nno trace of such treatment.  The receptacles for the viscera are\nsometimes found in their graves in the Sixth Dynasty, but are, as\na rule, empty, being mere dummy vases.  Even in the Middle Empire,\nthe preservation of the bodies of the better classes was\nextremely imperfect.  The bundles of wrappings have kept their\nform to the present day and it seems as if the mummy were still\nintact; but an examination of the interior shows only loose\nbones.  Successful mummification appears among better-class people\nin the New Empire for the first time and becomes a general custom\nin the Late Period.  The processes of successful mummification\nnecessitated the practical destruction of the body.\n\nIn the Middle Empire, which is the period under discussion, the\nprocess of mummification had reached a middle stage, and, while\nwe are unable to explain exactly the causal relationship, it is\nclear that this advance in the treatment of the body accompanied\na spread of the belief in the Osirian immortality.\n\n\n\n\nVII. THE NEW EMPIRE\n\n\nThe New Empire (1600-1200 B.C.) was the great period of foreign\nconquest.  The Hyksos, Asiatic invaders, had held Egypt for a\ncentury or more.  The Theban princes who drove them out became\nkings of Egypt, and followed them into Asia.  With an army trained\nin war by the long struggle with the Hyksos, the Egyptian kings,\nhaving tasted the sweetness of the spoils of war, entered on the\nconquest of western Asia and the Sudan.  The plunder of both these\nregions poured into Egypt.  Under Thothmes III an annual campaign\nwas conducted into Syria to bring back the spoils and the\ntribute.  Foreign slaves and the products of foreign handicraft\nwere for sale in every market-place.  The treasury was filled to\noverflowing.  A large share was assigned to Amon, the god of the\nTheban family.  Temples were built for him; estates established\nfor the maintenance of his rites; thousands of priests enrolled\nfor the service of his properties.  The god became, in a material\nsense, the greatest god of Egypt, the national god; and his\npriesthood became the most powerful organization in the kingdom.\nThe high priest of Amon usurped the power of the king and finally\nsupplanted him.  Such was the period in which the next great\ndevelopment of the Egyptian idea of immortality is to be noted--\na period of priestly activity in the beginning and of priestly\ndomination in the end.\n\nThe priests are the scribes, the men of learning.  They have the\nlore of all magic, medicine, rules of conduct, religious rites.\nIt is not mere chance, therefore, that the New Empire was marked\nby a great increase of magic in all its forms--texts and\nsymbolic objects--and by a great development in the knowledge\nof the other world.  In some of the texts the geography of the\nunderworld, in which Osiris is king, is worked out in great\ndetail.  When the sun sets in the west, Ra in his boat enters the\nunderworld and passes through it during the twelve hours of the\nnight, bringing light and happiness to those who are in the\nunderworld.  In the effort to secure the tomb against plundering,\nthe royal graves had been cut in the solid rock,--long and\ncomplicated passages with false leads and deceptive turns and the\nburial chamber in an unexpected place.  The long walls of these\nrooms presented a great surface suitable to decoration, and they\nwere utilized to depict scenes from the underworld and the\npassage of Ra through it, so that the tombs became in fact\nrepresentations of the land of the dead, and were so considered.\nThese royal tombs were at a distance from the cultivated land,\nhidden in valleys in the desert.  Their funerary temples were\nbuilt on the edge of the desert beside the temples of the gods of\nthe place.\n\nSuch fantastical reconstructions of the other world, however,\nnever found general favor and are confined to a few royal tombs.\nThe priests and other prominent people have rolls of papyrus\nburied with them, bearing copies of books of the dead.  These\nbooks of the dead are made up of a series of chapters, each\ncomplete in itself and each dealing with some phase of the future\nlife.  There is no set order of chapters.  There is no fixed number\nof chapters.  Each scribe seems to have selected the chapters\nwhich he considered useful.  The general title is: Chapters of the\ngoing forth by day.  The general character may be given by a\nparagraph attached to one of the chapters in the Book of Ani the\nScribe [Edited by E. A. W. Budge, p. 26]: \"If this book be known\non earth and written on the coffin, it is my mouth.  He shall come\nforth by day in any form he desires and he shall go into his\nplace without being prevented.  There shall be given to him bread\nand beer and meat upon the altar of Osiris.  He shall enter in, in\npeace, to the field of Earu according to this decree of the one\nwho is in the City of Dedu.  There shall be given to him wheat and\nbarley there.  He shall flourish as he did upon earth.  He shall do\nhis desires like these nine Gods who are in the underworld, as\nfound true millions of times.  He is the Osiris: the Scribe Ani.\"\n\nThere are chapters to overcome all the evil which a soul may\nencounter; there are words to greet all the gods whom the soul\ndesires to visit.  The Scribe Ani had an exceptional position on\nearth; he desires to do his desire in the other world; and in the\nnames of Osiris he recites the magic words that bring him the\npower.  He is Ani, but he calls himself Osiris; just as the\npriestly doctor mixes his dose of medicine and calls it \"the eye\nof Horus tested and found true.\"\n\nIn addition to magical texts, there are also magical, or\nsymbolic, objects placed in the graves,--amulets of various\nkinds which were to be used in the other world.  Some of these\nwere simply the amulets used in daily life to guard against\nsickness, bite of snake, and other earthly evils which were also\nincident to the life after death.  Other amulets, like the\nso-called _Ushabtiu_, were to meet special conditions of the\nother world.  These _Ushabtiu_, or \"answerers,\" were little images\nof workmen bearing agricultural implements whose duty it was to\ntake the place of the dead in the fields of Earu when Osiris as\nking called him to do his share of the field work.  Even the king\nappears liable to this service, and for him thousands of these\nfigures were made,--sometimes labeled each with the day of the\nyear.  In a few cases there was even a charm written on the figure\nto prevent it hearing the command of any one but its master.\n\nAlongside these manifold manifestations of the belief in magic,\nother furniture--implements, weapons, and utensils--are still\nplaced in the grave.  The offering places are still maintained.\nAll burials are now extended on the back and wrapped in bandages.\nYet the common graves lack the receptacles for the viscera, lack\nmagical texts, lack ushabtiu, and--in a word--lack all those\nthings which are typical of the better-class graves of the\nperiod.  The conception of the future life among the common people\nis apparently not essentially different from that of the Old\nEmpire.  But the books of the dead and the offering formulas show\nthat the priests and high officials at death were called Osiris.\n\nBy the end of the Late Period the Osiris cult of the dead had\ncome to be universal.  No doubt political events had much to do\nwith this.  The absorption of the powers of the king by the\npriesthood of the national god Amon-Ra, the crushing of the\nnobility by a succession of foreign invaders, and the general\nuncertainty of life, had disturbed the old fixed relations.  The\nhope of every Egyptian turned to a glorified future life as\nOsiris.\n\nThe tendency to use magical texts and symbolic objects reached\nits height.  About 700 B.C. a revival of national life, brought\nabout by the establishment of the Egyptian kings of Sais as kings\nof Egypt, led to a renaissance of Egyptian art.  The old monuments\nwere copied and imitated, the old funerary texts and offering\nformulas were sought out in the older graves.  Even the pyramid\ntexts reappear after one thousand years of practical oblivion.\nThe value of master words was so firmly fixed in the Egyptian\nmind that misunderstood texts of all sorts were copied out and\nplaced in the graves to secure to the dead some vague benefit in\nthe other world.\n\nThe process of mummification was at its height.  The bodies were\nno longer preserved.  The process was merely the creation of a\nsimulacrum of the dead Osiris So-and-So.  All the perishable parts\nof the body were removed or destroyed by chemicals.  Only the\nskin, bones, hair, and teeth remained to be padded with mud and\nresin, wrapped in cloths, covered with a painted and gilded\n_cartonnage_ to represent the glorified Osiris mummy.\n\n\n\n\nVIII. THE PTOLEMAIC-ROMAN PERIOD\n\n\nIn the Ptolemaic-Roman period we see the final stage of the\nOsiris cult.  Every dead man is laid in his grave without\nfurniture, prepared as a simulacrum of Osiris.  The wealthiest\npeople have gilded and painted mummy cases with amulets and\nfunerary papyrus.  The poorer are merely bundles of wrappings.\nEvery dead man is Osiris, and no doubt carried with him words\nlearned on earth to gain his way to a place in the kingdom of\nOsiris.  The offering places above the grave are still made and\nofferings are still brought.\n\nTo gain some idea of the way in which these two conceptions of\nthe living dead were worked out in actual life, one has only to\nturn to the funerary customs of the modern Egyptians.  In the case\nof both Christians and Moslems, the grave rites are similar; but\nwith those of the Moslems I am more familiar.  The grave consists\nstill of the two parts, the burying place and the offering place.\nThe swathed body is laid on the right side, with the right hand\nunder the cheek and the face towards Mecca.  At the burial the\nconfession of the faith is recited over and over, lest the dead\nforget it.\n\nKorans are sometimes placed in the graves; and I have even seen a\nconfession of the faith written on paper and placed on a twig\nbefore the face of the dead.  At the appointed seasons--\nespecially at the great Feast of Sacrifice--offerings are\nbrought to the grave.  The family party passes through the\ncemetery, the women bearing baskets of bread and bottles of\nwater, the men turning the head to the right and to the left and\nreciting the _fatha_ in propitiation of the spirits.  The party\nenters the offering inclosure of the grave of their relative.  The\nwives greet the dead--\"Peace unto thee, oh, my husband, oh, my\nfather, we have wept until we have watered the earth with our\ntears on thy account.\" The offerings are laid before the tomb.  A\nscribe is called and recites or reads some chapter of the Koran\nover and over, one hundred, one hundred and fifty, five hundred,\none thousand times, and concludes: \"I have read this for thee,\noh, such and such a one.\" Or, \"I have transferred the merit of\nthis to thee.\" When you question these people as to the\nparticulars of their belief, you find their ideas vague and\nindefinite.  Among the men a dispute quickly starts,--the people\nwho have been found good by the examining angels on the night of\nthe burial are there, but the bad are somewhere else.  No, says\nanother, they are all in their graves, but the bad suffer\ntorment.  Still another maintains that the good have already\npassed to the lowest heaven.  These are all mere remnants of\ntheological discussions caught from the sheikhs.  The women\nstolidly maintain that the dead are in their tombs and the\nofferings must be brought.  When you inquire which are the good\nand which are the bad, there is again a great divergence of\nopinion; but it is clear that every man believes in his heart\nthat a knowledge of the prayers and forms of the Moslem religion\nis absolutely essential and entirely sufficient to gain a\ndesirable future life.  The great master word is the confession of\nfaith--there is no god but Allah and Mohammed is his prophet.\n\nSo it must have been in the last stage of the Osiris cult.\nImmortality, a glorified future existence as an Osiris in the\nkingdom of Osiris, with all the pleasures and comforts of life,\nwas secured to him who was buried with the proper rites and knew\nthe magic words.  And yet the old feeling was never lost that the\ndead was somehow in the grave and might suffer hunger and thirst.\n\nWhen Christianity came into Egypt, all the gaudy apparatus of the\nOsiris religion was swept out of existence.  The body was to rise\nagain and might not be mutilated.  Mummification, which destroyed\nthe body in order to preserve a conventional simulacrum, ceased\nabruptly.  Grave furniture was of course unthinkable.  But the use\nof charms did not cease.  Crosses were embroidered in the\ngravecloths; or small crosses of metal or wood placed on the\nbreast or arm; the gravestone bore a simple prayer to the Holy\nSpirit for the peaceful rest of the soul.  But the offering place\nwas still maintained; prayers were recited on the feast days;\nlamps were allowed to remain at the grave; food was brought, but\ngiven to the poor.\n\nIn all periods there are thousands of graves of poor people\nwithout a single thing to secure their future life,--people who\nwere probably content simply to lay down the burdens of life.  In\nthe Christian period these thousands of unnamed dead all have one\nmark.  They are laid with their feet to the east.  Each one was a\nChristian and secure in his future life, according to his faith\nand his life on earth.\n\n\n\n\nIX. SUMMARY\n\n\nTo sum up, the essential idea of the Egyptian conception of\nimmortality was that the ghost or spirit of the man preserved the\npersonality and the form of the man in the existence after death;\nthat this spirit had the same desires, the same pleasures, the\nsame necessities, and the same fears as on earth.  Life after\ndeath was a duplicate of life on earth.  On earth life depended on\nwork, on getting food from the fields and the herds, on forming\nstone and metal, hide and vegetable fibre, into useful objects.\nIn other words, life depended on human power over the natural\nmaterials of the earth.  At the same time there were many things\nwhich could not be controlled by power over the earth and its\nelements,--the sting of the scorpion, the bite of the adder,\nthe rise of the Nile, sickness, the sudden onslaught of the\nenemy, the straying of cattle, the disfavor of the god.  For these\nevils man's only hope was magic,--the set words spoken in the\nproper manner which have power over all unseen influence.  So in\nthe case of life after death, all which human strength can\nprovide of stores of grain and drink and garments must be secured\nfor his use; but he must also be provided with the magic words to\nmeet the chance evils of the future life.\n\nIt is not surprising that the unknown future presented to the\nimagination many evils unknown on earth.  The spirit might forget\nits name, it might lose its heart, it might be bound fast by evil\npowers in the grave and unable to come forth by day.  The mummy\nmight decay; the spirit might forget its form.  So, as time went\non, the use of magic words became of greater and greater\nimportance, until, to modern eyes, it seemed to overshadow all\nelse in the Egyptian conception of life after death.\n\nAs a part of the magical provisions of the dead, the Osiris myth,\nprobably built up in explanation of old rites, was drawn into the\nbelief in a future life, and apparently at the beginning _solely\nfor the benefit of the king_, for the benefit of those who\nclaimed a certain divinity on earth.  The earth-god Osiris, god of\nthe living, had died and had been brought to life as god of the\ndead.  So, also, the earth-king, the Horus, the son of Ra, must\ndie, but he also would live again in the other world and share\nthe throne of Osiris.  More than this even, he became Osiris.  He\nwas admitted to the life of the gods.  Of course the ideas of the\nexistence of the gods were never clear and consistent.  They lived\nin secret places, their whole life was mysterious as well as\npowerful.  These are the field of knowledge which the Egyptian\nmind could not oversee with any satisfaction to itself.  The most\nit could do was to formulate the magic words, invoking the names\nof the gods and conjuring them by the events in the Osiris myth\nto accept this king as Osiris.  The exceptional man, the\nsuper-man, must have an exceptional future life; but to obtain\nit, he must have the knowledge of the names and words necessary\nto force the powers of the other world.\n\nThus the idea of an exceptional future life, a heaven, was\nbrought into the Egyptian conception of life after death.\nAdmission to it depended on the exceptional position on earth of\nthose admitted.  As even this exceptional position was only of\navail when combined with the knowledge of certain formulas, it is\nnot difficult to see how the knowledge of these formulas might be\nconsidered sufficient to obtain the better future life, even for\nothers than the king.  When in the depression that followed the\nextravagance of the pyramid age the central monarchy lost its\npower, Egypt broke up into a series of tribal baronies (nomes).\nIn each was a ruler almost independent of the king, a man who\nmight presume with the proper knowledge to claim a glorified\nfuture life similar to that of the king.  And, indeed, we find\nfrom the burial inscriptions of the Middle Empire that such was\nthe result.  Feudalism extended the possibilities of heaven to the\ngreat nobles.  In the New Empire, the royal power was gradually\nabsorbed by the priestly organization of the national religion--\nthe religion of Amon-Ra; and the principle comes into practice\nthat any priest having the necessary knowledge could obtain for\nhimself an exceptional place in the future life.  The Osirian\nburial customs spread even among the people.  The swathed body\nextended on the back becomes universal, even though true\nmummification was still only for the rich.\n\nIn the Ptolemaic period, the preparation of all the apparatus of\nthe Osiris burial was divided up into trades.  Factories, one may\nsay, turned out mummy cases of various kinds, with a scale of\nprices to fit every purse.  Other factories turned out amulets and\ncharms.  Magical texts, the preparation of the body, the\nconstruction of the grave--all things were done by regular\ncrafts.  The cheapening of the apparatus is most striking.  At the\nsame time all but the poorest burials bear direct evidence of\ntheir character as Osiris burials.\n\nOn the side of the moral requirement we must not look too\nclosely.  There were powerful words which could compel even the\ngreat judges of the dead to return a favorable verdict.  There\nwere magic hearts of stone which might be worn in place of the\nheart, and, laid in the scales by Anubis, weigh heavier than the\ntruth.  One might by words compel Anubis to accept this stone\nheart instead of the real heart.\n\nIn general, one may say that the hope of immortality had little\ninfluence on the moral life of the ordinary Egyptian.  The moral\ncode was simple and sound and not greatly different from other\nprimitive codes,--forbidding all those things which the body of\nmen regard as unpleasant in others, commanding the plain virtues\nwhich were found pleasant in others.  Here, again, I think we may\nwell look to modern Egypt for a picture of ancient Egypt.  We must\nnot exaggerate the influence of the belief in immortality on\ngeneral morality.  We must not think too well of the life of the\npeople--nor, on the other hand, too evil.  They had their sins\nand their virtues.  The common herd was driven by necessity and\nlived as it could.  They clung to the belief in a life in the\ngrave.  The greater people had leisure to learn and to provide the\nmagic necessary to secure a comfortable future life.  They loved\nlife and hated death.\n\nThus it was when the priests of the Osiris-Isis religion made\ntheir bid to the classical world.  They offered immortality by\ninitiation.  Learn the proper rites, learn the master words, and\nsecure eternal life among the great gods.  It was a religion for\nthe exceptional man down to the last; it required training and\nknowledge.  Even in its most popular form in the Ptolemaic period,\na specially instructed class was required, who sold for money the\nbenefits of their knowledge, and men took rank in their security\nof future life according to their means.\n\nNot until Christianity came, offering eternal life free and\nwithout price, did the common people find at last a road open to\nequal immortality with the great men of the earth.","title":"The Egyptian Conception of Immortality: The Ingersoll Lecture, 1911","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":11072}