Part 4 (1/2)
17. ”Praise be unto thee, O R[=a], thou exalted Power, the lord....
behold [thy] body is Isis.
18. ”Praise be unto thee, O R[=a], thou exalted Power, whose head giveth light to that which is in front of thee, behold [thy] body is Nephthys.
19. ”Praise be unto thee, O R[=a], thou exalted Power, thou source of the divine members, thou One, who bringest into being that which hath been begotten, behold [thy] body is Horus.
20. ”Praise be unto thee, O R[=a], thou exalted Power, who dost dwell in and illumine the celestial deep, behold [thy] body is Nu.”
[Footnote: For the text see _Annales du Musee Guimet: Le Tombeau de Seti 1_. (ed. Lefebure), Paris, 1886, pl. v.]
In the paragraphs which follow R[=a] is identified with a large number of G.o.ds and divine personages whose names are not of such common occurrence in the texts as those given above, and in one way or another the attributes of all the G.o.ds are ascribed to him. At the time when the hymn was written it is clear that polytheism, not pantheism as some would have it, was in the ascendant, and notwithstanding the fact that the Theban G.o.d Amen was gradually being forced to the heads.h.i.+p of the companies of the G.o.ds of Egypt, we find everywhere the attempt being made to emphasize the view that every G.o.d, whether foreign or native, was an aspect or form of R[=a].
The G.o.d Amen just referred to was originally a local G.o.d of Thebes, whose shrine was either founded or rebuilt as far back as the XIIth dynasty, about B.C. 2500. This ”hidden” G.o.d, for such is the meaning of the name Amen, was essentially a G.o.d of the south of Egypt, but when the Theban kings vanquished their foes in the north, and so became masters of the whole country, Amen became a G.o.d of the first importance, and the kings of the XVIIIth, XIXth, and XXth dynasties endowed his temples on a lavish scale. The priests of the G.o.d called Amen ”the king of the G.o.ds,”
and they endeavoured to make all Egypt accept him as such, but in spite of their power they saw that they could not bring this result about unless they identified him with the oldest G.o.ds of the land. They declared that he represented the hidden and mysterious power which created and sustains the universe, and that the sun was the symbol of this power; they therefore added his name to that of R[=a], and in this form he gradually usurped the attributes and powers of Nu, Khnemu, Ptah, H[=a]pi, and other great G.o.ds. A revolt headed by Amen-hetep, or Amenophis IV. (about B.C. 1500), took place against the supremacy of Amen in the middle of the XVIIIth dynasty, but it was unsuccessful. This king hated the G.o.d and his name so strongly that he changed his own name into that of ”Khu-en-Aten,” _i.e._, ”the glory of the solar Disk,” and ordered the name of Amen to be obliterated, wherever possible, on temples and other great monuments; and this was actually done in many places. It is impossible to say exactly what the religious views of the king were, but it is certain that he wished to subst.i.tute the cult of Aten, a form of the Sun-G.o.d wors.h.i.+pped at Annu (_i.e._, On or Heliopolis) in very ancient times, for that of Amen. ”Aten” means literally the ”Disk of the Sun,” and though it is difficult to understand at this distance of time in what the difference between the wors.h.i.+p of R[=a] and the wors.h.i.+p of ”R[=a] in his Disk” consisted, we may be certain that there must have been some subtle, theological distinction between them. But whatever the difference may have been, it was sufficient to make Amenophis forsake the old capital Thebes and withdraw to a place [Footnote: The site is marked by the ruins of Tell el-Amarna.]some distance to the north of that city, where he carried on the wors.h.i.+p of his beloved G.o.d Aten. In the pictures of the Aten wors.h.i.+p which have come down to us the G.o.d appears in the form of a disk from which proceed a number of arms and hands that bestow life upon his wors.h.i.+ppers. After the death of Amenophis the cult of Aten declined, and Amen resumed his sway over the minds of the Egyptians.
Want of s.p.a.ce forbids the insertion here of a full list of the t.i.tles of Amen, and a brief extract from the Papyrus of the Princess Nesi-Khensu [Footnote: For a hieroglyphic transcript of the hieratic text, see Maspero, _Memoires_, tom. i., p. 594 ff.] must suffice to describe the estimation in which the G.o.d was held about B.C. 1000. In this Amen is addressed as ”the holy G.o.d, the lord of all the G.o.ds, Amen-R[=a], the lord of the thrones of the world, the prince of Apt (_i.e._, Karnak), the holy soul who came into being in the beginning, the great G.o.d who liveth by right and truth, the first ennead who gave birth unto the other two enneads, [Footnote: _i.e._, the great, the little, and the least companies of the G.o.ds; each company (_paut_) contained nine G.o.ds.]
the being in whom every G.o.d existeth, the One of One, the creator of the things which came into being when the earth took form in the beginning, whose births are hidden, whose forms are manifold, and whose growth cannot be known. The holy Form, beloved and terrible and mighty.... the lord of s.p.a.ce, the mighty One of the form of Khepera, who came into existence through Khepera, the lord of the form of Khepera; when he came into being nothing existed except himself. He shone upon the earth from primeval time, he the Disk, the prince of light and radiance.... When this holy G.o.d moulded himself, the heavens and the earth were made by his heart (_or_ mind).... He is the Disk of the Moon, the beauties whereof pervade the heavens and the earth, the untiring and beneficent king whose will germinateth from rising to setting, from whose divine eyes men and women come forth, and from whose mouth the G.o.ds do come, and [by whom] food and meat and drink are made and provided, and [by whom] the things which exist are created. He is the lord of time, and he traverseth eternity; he is the aged one who reneweth his youth.... He is the Being who cannot be known, and he is more hidden than all the G.o.ds.... He giveth long life and multiplieth the years of those who are favoured by him, he is the gracious protector of him whom he setteth in his heart, and he is the fas.h.i.+oner of eternity and everlastingness. He is the king of the North and of the South, Amen-R[=a], king of the G.o.ds, the lord of heaven, and of earth, and of the waters and of the mountains, with whose coming into being the earth began its existence, the mighty one, more princely than, all the G.o.ds of the first company.”
In the above extract, it will be noticed that Amen is called the ”One of One,” or the ”One One,” a t.i.tle which has been explained as having no reference whatever to the unity of G.o.d as understood in modern times: but unless these words are intended to express the idea of unity, what is their meaning? It is also said that he is ”without second,” and thus there is no doubt whatever that when the Egyptians declared their G.o.d to be One, and without a second, they meant precisely what the Hebrews and Arabs meant when they declared their G.o.d to be One. [Footnote: See Deut., vi. 4; and _Koran_, chapter cxii.] Such a G.o.d was an entirely different Being from the personifications of the powers of nature and the existences which, for want of a better name, have been called ”G.o.ds.”
But, besides R[=a], there existed in very early times a G.o.d called HORUS, whose symbol was the hawk, which, it seems, was the first living thing wors.h.i.+pped by the Egyptians; Horus was the Sun-G.o.d, like R[=a], and in later times was confounded with Horus the son of Isis. The chief forms of Horus given in the texts are: (1) HERU-UR (Aroueris), (2) HERU-MERTI, (3) HERU-NUB, (4) HERU-KHENT-KHAT, (5) HERU-KHENT-AN-MAA, (6) HERU-KHUTI, (7) HERU-SAM-TAUI, (8) HERU-HEKENNU, (9) HERU-BEHUTET.
Connected with one of the forms of Horus, originally, were the four G.o.ds of the cardinal points, or the ”four, spirits of Horus,” who supported heaven at its four corners; their names were HAPI, TUAMUTEE, AMSET, and QEBHSENNUF, and they represented the north, east, south, and west respectively. The intestines of the dead were embalmed and placed in four jars, each being under the protection, of one of these four G.o.ds.
Other important G.o.ds of the dead are: (1) ANUBIS, the son of R[=a] or Osiris, who presided over the abode of the dead, and with AP-UAT shared the dominion of the ”funeral mountain”; the symbol of each of these G.o.ds is a jackal. (2) HU and SA, the children of Temu, or R[=a], who appear in the boat of the sun at the creation, and later in the Judgment Scene.
(3) The G.o.ddess MA[=A]T, who was a.s.sociated with Thoth, Ptah, and Khnemu in the work of creation; the name means ”straight,” hence what is right, true, truth, real, genuine, upright, righteous, just, steadfast, unalterable, and the like. (4) The G.o.ddess HET-HERT (Hathor), _i.e._, the ”house of Horus,” which was that part of the sky where the sun rose and set. The sycamore tree was sacred to her, and the deceased prays to be fed by her with celestial food from out of it (5) The G.o.ddess MEH-URT, who represented that portion of the sky in which the sun takes his daily course; here it was, according to the view held at one period at least, that the judgment of the deceased was supposed to take place.
(6) NEITH, the mother of SEBEK, who was also a G.o.ddess of the eastern portion of the sky. (7) SEKHET and BAST, who are represented with the heads of a lion and a cat, and who were symbols of the destroying, scorching power of the sun, and of the gentle heat thereof, respectively. (8) SERQ, who was a form of Isis. (9) TA-URT (Thoueris), who was the genetrix of the G.o.ds. (10) UATCHET, who was a form of Hather, and who had dominion over the northern sky, just as NEKHEBET was mistress of the southern sky. (11) NEHEB-KA, who was a G.o.ddess who possessed magical powers, and in some respects resembled Isis in her attributes. (12) SEBAK, who was a form of the Sun-G.o.d, and was in later times confounded with Sebak, or Sebek, the friend of Set. (13) AMSU (or MIN or KUEM), who was the personification of the generative and reproductive powers of nature. (14) BEB or BABA, who was the ”firstborn son of Osiris.” (15) H[=a]pi, who was the G.o.d of the Nile, and with whom most of the great G.o.ds were identified.
The names of the beings who at one time or another were called ”G.o.ds” in Egypt are so numerous that a mere list of them would fill scores of pages, and in a work of this kind would be out of place. The reader is, therefore, referred to Lanzone's _Mitologia Egizia_, where a considerable number are enumerated and described.
CHAPTER IV.
THE JUDGMENT OF THE DEAD.
The belief that the deeds done in the body would be subjected to an a.n.a.lysis and scrutiny by the divine powers after the death of a man belongs to the earliest period of Egyptian civilization, and this belief remained substantially the same in all generations. Though we have no information as to the locality where the Last Judgment took place, or whether the Egyptian soul pa.s.sed into the judgment-hall immediately after the death of the body, or after the mummification was ended and the body was deposited in the tomb, it is quite certain that the belief in the judgment was as deeply rooted in the Egyptians as the belief in immortality. There seems to have been no idea of a general judgment when all those who had lived in the world should receive their reward for the deeds done in the body; on the contrary, all the evidence available goes to show that each soul was dealt with individually, and was either permitted to pa.s.s into the kingdom of Osiris and of the blessed, or was destroyed straightway. Certain pa.s.sages in the texts seem to suggest the idea of the existence of a place for departed spirits wherein the souls condemned in the judgment might dwell, but it must be remembered that it was the enemies of R[=a], the Sun-G.o.d, that inhabited this region; and it is impossible to imagine that the divine powers who presided over the judgment would permit the souls of the wicked to live after they had been condemned and to become enemies of those who were pure and blessed.
On the other hand, if we attach any importance to the ideas of the Copts upon this subject, and consider that they represent ancient beliefs which they derived from the Egyptians traditionally, it must be admitted that the Egyptian underworld contained some region wherein the souls of the wicked were punished for an indefinite period. The Coptic lives of saints and martyrs are full of allusions to the sufferings of the d.a.m.ned, but whether the descriptions of these are due to imaginings of the mind of the Christian Egyptian or to the bias of the scribe's opinions cannot always be said. When we consider that the Coptic h.e.l.l was little more than a modified form of the ancient Egyptian Amenti, or Amentet, it is difficult to believe that it was the name of the Egyptian underworld only which was borrowed, and that the ideas and beliefs concerning it which were held by the ancient Egyptians were not at the same time absorbed. Some Christian writers are most minute in their cla.s.sification of the wicked in h.e.l.l, as we may see from the following extract from the life of Pisentios, [Footnote: Ed. Amelineau, Paris, 1887, p. 144 f.] Bishop of Keft, in the VIIth century of our era. The holy man had taken refuge in a tomb wherein a number of mummies had been piled up, and when he had read the list of the names of the people who had been buried there he gave it to his disciple to replace. Then he addressed his disciple and admonished him to do the work of G.o.d with diligence, and warned him that every man must become even as were the mummies which lay before them. ”And some,” said he, ”whose sins have been many are now in Amenti, others are in the outer darkness, others are in pits and ditches filled with fire, and others are in the river of fire: upon these last no one hath bestowed rest. And others, likewise, are in a place of rest, by reason of their good works.” When the disciple had departed, the holy man began to talk to one of the mummies who had been a native of the town of Erment, or Armant, and whose father and mother had been called Agricolaos and Eustathia. He had been a wors.h.i.+pper of Poseidon, and had never heard that Christ had come into the world. ”And,” said he ”woe, woe is me because I was born into the world. Why did not my mother's womb become my tomb? When, it became necessary for me to die, the Kosmokrator angels were the first to come round about me, and they told me of all the sins which I had committed, and they said unto me, 'Let him that can save thee from the torments into which thou shalt be cast come hither.' And they had in their hands iron knives, and pointed goads which were like unto sharp spears, and they drove them into my sides and gnashed upon me with their teeth. When a little time afterwards my eyes were opened I saw death hovering about in the air in its manifold forms, and at that moment angels who were without pity came and dragged my wretched soul from my body, and having tied it under the form of a black horse they led me away to Amonti. Woe be unto every sinner like unto myself who hath been born into the world!
O my master and father, I was then delivered into the hands of a mult.i.tude of tormentors who were without pity and who had each a different form. Oh, what a number of wild beasts did I see in the way!
Oh, what a number of powers were there that inflicted punishment upon me! And it came to pa.s.s that when I had been cast into the outer darkness, I saw a great ditch which was more than two hundred cubits deep, and it was filled with reptiles; each reptile had seven heads, and the body of each was like unto that of a scorpion. In this place also lived the Great Worm, the mere sight of which terrified him that looked thereat. In his mouth he had teeth like unto iron stakes, and one took me and threw me to this Worm which never ceased to eat; then immediately all the [other] beasts gathered together near him, and when he had filled his mouth [with my flesh], all the beasts who were round about me filled theirs.” In answer to the question of the holy man as to whether he had enjoyed any rest or period without suffering, the mummy replied: ”Yea, O my father, pity is shown unto those who are in torment every Sat.u.r.day and every Sunday. As soon as Sunday is over we are cast into the torments which we deserve, so that we may forget the years which we have pa.s.sed in the world; and as soon as we have forgotten the grief of this torment we are cast into another which is still more grievous.”
Now, it is easy to see from the above description of the torments which the wicked were supposed to suffer, that the writer had in his mind some of the pictures with which we are now familiar, thanks to the excavation of tombs which has gone on in Egypt during the last few years; and it is also easy to see that he, in common with many other Coptic writers, misunderstood the purport of them. The outer darkness, _i.e._, the blackest place of all in the underworld, the river of fire, the pits of fire, the snake and the scorpion, and such like things, all have their counterparts, or rather originals, in the scenes which accompany the texts which describe the pa.s.sage of the sun through the underworld during the hours of the night. Having once misunderstood the general meaning of such scenes, it was easy to convert the foes of R[=a], the Sun-G.o.d, into the souls of the d.a.m.ned, and to look upon the burning up of such foes--who were after all only certain powers of nature personified--as the well-merited punishment of those who had done evil upon the earth. How far the Copts reproduced unconsciously the views which had been held by their ancestors for thousands of years cannot be said, but even after much allowance has been made for this possibility, there remains still to be explained a large number of beliefs and views which seem to have been the peculiar product of the Egyptian Christian imagination.
It has been said above that the idea of the judgment of the dead is of very great antiquity in Egypt; indeed, it is so old that it is useless to try to ascertain the date of the period when it first grew up. In the earliest religious texts known to us, there are indications that the Egyptians expected a judgment, but they are not sufficiently definite to argue from; it is certainly doubtful if the judgment was thought to be as thorough and as searching then as in the later period. As far back as the reign of Men-kau-R[=a], the Mycerinus of the Greeks, about B.C.
3600, a religious text, which afterwards formed chapter 30B of the Book of the Dead, was found inscribed on an iron slab; in the handwriting of the G.o.d Thoth, by the royal son or prince Herut[=a]t[=a]f. [Footnote: See _Chapters of Coming Forth by Day_, Translation, p. 80.] The original purpose of the composition of this text cannot be said, but there is little doubt that it was intended, to benefit the deceased in the judgment, and, if we translate its t.i.tle literally, it was intended to prevent his heart from ”falling away from him in the underworld.” In the first part of it the deceased, after adjuring his heart, says, ”May naught stand up to oppose me in the judgment; may there be no opposition to me in the presence of the sovereign princes; may there be no parting of thee from me in the presence of him that keepeth the Balance!... May the officers of the court of Osiris (in Egyptian _Shenit_), who form the conditions of the lives of men, not cause my name to stink! Let [the judgment] be satisfactory unto me, let the hearing be satisfactory unto me, and let me have joy of heart at the weighing of words. Let not that which is false be uttered against me before the Great G.o.d, the Lord of Amentet.”
Now, although the papyrus upon, which this statement and prayer are found was written about two thousand years after Men-kau-R[=a] reigned, there is no doubt that they were copied from texts which were themselves copied at a much earlier period, and that the story of the finding of the text inscribed upon an iron slab is contemporary with its actual discovery by Herut[=a]t[=a]f. It is not necessary to inquire here whether the word ”find” (in Egyptian _qem_) means a genuine discovery or not, but it is clear that those who had the papyrus copied saw no absurdity or impropriety in ascribing the text to the period of Men-kau-R[=a]. Another text, which afterwards also became a chapter of the Book of the Dead, under the t.i.tle ”Chapter of not letting the heart of the deceased be driven away from him in the underworld,” was inscribed on a coffin of the XIth dynasty, about B.C. 2500, and in it we have the following pet.i.tion: ”May naught stand up to oppose me in judgment in the presence of the lords of the trial (literally, 'lords of things'); let it not be said of me and of that which I have done, 'He hath done deeds against that which is very right and true'; may naught be against me in the presence of the Great G.o.d, the Lord of Amentet.”
[Footnote: _Chapters of Coming Forth by Day_, p. 78.] From these pa.s.sages we are right in a.s.suming that before the end of the IVth dynasty the idea of being ”weighed in the balance” was already evolved; that the religious schools of Egypt had a.s.signed to a G.o.d the duty of watching the balance when cases were being tried; that this weighing in the balance took place in the presence of the beings called _Shenit_, who were believed to control the acts and deeds of men; that it was thought that evidence unfavourable to the deceased might be produced by his foes at the judgment; that the weighing took place in the presence of the Great G.o.d, the Lord of Amentet; and that the heart of the deceased might fail him either physically or morally. The deceased addresses his heart, calling it is ”mother,” and next identifies it with his _ka_ or double, coupling the mention of the _ka_ with the name of the G.o.d Khnemu: these facts are exceedingly important, for they prove that the deceased considered his heart to be the source of his life and being, and the mention of the G.o.d Khnemu takes the date of the composition back to a period coaeval with the beginnings of religious thought in Egypt. It was the G.o.d Khnemu who a.s.sisted Thoth in performing the commands of G.o.d at the creation, and one very interesting sculpture at Philae shows Khnemu in the act of fas.h.i.+oning man upon a potter's wheel. The deceased, in mentioning Khnemu's name, seems to invoke his aid in the judgment as fas.h.i.+oner of man and as the being who is in some respects responsible for the manner of his life upon earth.
In Chapter 30A there is no mention made of the ”guardian of the balance,” and the deceased says, ”May naught stand up to oppose me in judgment in the presence of the lords of things!” The ”lords of things”
may be either the ”lords of creation,” _i.e._, the great cosmic G.o.ds, or the ”lords of the affairs [of the hall of judgment],” _i.e._, of the trial. In this chapter the deceased addresses not Khnemu, but ”the G.o.ds who dwell in the divine clouds, and who are exalted by reason of their sceptres,” that is to say, the four G.o.ds of the cardinal points, called Mestha, H[=a]pi Tuamutef, and Qebhsennuf, who also presided over the chief internal organs of the human body. Here, again, it seems as if the deceased was anxious to make these G.o.ds in some way responsible for the deeds done by him in his life, inasmuch as they presided, over the organs that were the prime movers of his actions. In any case, he considers them in, the light of intercessors, for he beseeches them to ”speak fair words unto R[=a]” on his behalf, and to make him to prosper before the G.o.ddess Nehebka. In this case, the favour of R[=a], the Sun-G.o.d, the visible emblem of the almighty and eternal G.o.d, is sought for, and also that of the serpent G.o.ddess, whose attributes are not yet accurately defined, but who has much to do with the destinies of the dead. No mention whatever is made of the Lord of Amentet--Osiris.