The Land of Pharaohs

Next we move to the ancient Egyptian’s death and eternity belief. The thought of the hereafter impressed the mind of the Egyptian people more than any other people. This is dto the nature of the ancient Egyptian and his too much meditation in the phenomena besetting him, i.e. the sunrise, as if it were newly born and its sunset, as if it were dying. Then the next day it rises and sets again. There is also the flood which comes once a year, after which the Nile water level becomes low. They likened the reduction of the Nile water level to a person who is about to die and who, was not as bountiful as the flood that brought with it fish and fertile silt. All these phenomena and the ancient Egyptian’s meditations brought the idea of eternity into being. Hence keeping the body of the dead was necessary so that the soul can find it after death to live anew.

Perhaps this idea came into being due to the quality of Egypt’s sands which kept the dead person’s body in a very astonishing way where the body of the dead person (the corpse) looked nearly life that of the living person. We will speak in detail, later, about the art of embalmment which has astonished the world by the thorough keeping of the bodies of our grandfathers the pharaohs.

The ancient Egyptians carried the body of the dead (after being embalmed) in a procession till they reached the eastern bank of the Nile. There they find a small fleet of boats waiting for them from inside with cloth. The body of the dead was laid down in this room accompanied by the statues of Isis and Niftees, the two gods that protected the dead. The priest burned the incense and the female mourners went on slapping their heads.

After crossing the Nile to the western bank, the procession continues till it reaches grave. After performing some rituals, nothing is left except lowering down the coffin and the funeral furniture and arranging it. The coffin which is made according to the shape of the mummy is put in another coffin made of stone which takes the shape of a rectangular basin. Several things are laid round it such as sticks, weapons and amulets. The stone coffin is closed with a heavy lid and beside the coffin the canopy pots are put inside a special box. (The canopy pots are the pots in which the bowels of the dead are put. They take the shape of Horus’s four sons, hence they are four pots.)

Afterwards the dead person's foodstuffs called “the growing” osirbat are put. They were wooden frames taking the shape of embalmed Osoris. Inside them there was a bag of coarse cloth filled with a mixture of barley and sand which is watered for some days. The barley grows thickly and when it reaches the height of 12-15 cm. It was dried. Then the sticks including the pieces of cloth were wrapped. The aim of this operation was to urge the dead to come back to life because Osoris had been returned to life by this method.

Going out of the soul:

In the ancient state, the soul’s ascent to heaven was via a great staircase, holding the heavenly cow tail, flying like a bird, or carried on the smoke of burnt incense or a sandstorm. The belief which was settled and was for all humans after it became the right of any one to worship any god, was that the soul went out of the body in the form of a human headed bird.

The hall where the dead were tried in the hereafter was called the Investigation Hall. There Osoris is sitting on the throne with his two sisters Isis and Neftis and 14 delegates behind him. In the middle of the Hall there was a big balance with a monst0er beside it to protect it. Tohot and Anobis were also in the hall. The trial of the dead begins when Anobis admits the dead (wearing a linen garment) who greets Osoris and the other gods. The dead defends himself 36 times because he fears they don’t believe him. So he repeats the evidence of his innocence addressing about 42 gods (Egypt was divided into 42 provinces and each god represented a province). After- wards the dead mentions how he was good where he gave bread to the hungry, water to the thirsty and brought clothes to the naked.

Then his heart is put in one of the scales of the balance and a small statue representing truth (Ma’at) is put in the other scale. There is nothing mentioned in detail about how the heart of the dead is weighed. Nobody knew whether sins made the heart heavy or light. If this man was proved to be innocent, he world have the right to live and be happy in the other weld. If he was guilty he would be annihilated by the devourer (a fabulous monster which is a mixture is of the crocodile, the lion and the hippo).

What occupied the mind of the ancient Egyptian was what would happen to him during the trial. He knew that not all the people will win bliss in the hereafter. So, priests made some amulets and magical writings to protect the dead and acquit him during the trial. One of these magical writings was able to make the sun god (which is the real power behind this trial) fall from its skies into the Nile, if that dead person has not been acquitted after the trial. Chapter 125 in the Dead Persons’ Book was written to remove sins from the guilty. This chapter was copied on Papyrus papers so as to be put inside the coffin between the mummy’s legs so as to clear the dead. The priests in such a way deceived the people by saying that their magic writings could clear the dead even if he were guilty.

1. Have you lived all the life which has been defined by god to you?
2. Have you cared for your body as the god had cared for you during your youth?
3. Have you kept your body clean as a clean garment that has not been stained by dirt?

Life in the hereafter::

The ancient Egyptian imagined that life in the hereafter was like life on earth where there was a sky like the sky of the earth. He also thought that since agriculture was the backbone of life in Egypt, it would by so in the hereafter. He imagined the hereafter as fields of wheat and barley to harvest and enjoy opulence and security. But it was difficult for the noblemen to work in fields, so the Opatshi statues appeared. They represented the servants during working, the bakers and butchers and women while weaving the cloth. In the hereafter those served their master and did all the actions he should have done by himself.

It was one of the most important books for the ancient Egyptian. It contained a group of religious and magical texts known to the Egyptians as “ the seasons of motion by day". The Book of the Dead, in fact, was the offspring of the texts of the pyramids and coffins. Its aim was to provide a comfortable life in the hereafter for the dead person and giving him the necessary power to leave the grave when necessary. Most of what was found in the grave were parts of the book of the Dead which the dead believed he was in need of. The rest was not copied, but many texts which contained the whole book of the dead were found. In the following, you find some lines from this book together with their translation, according to the order of the line.

- An adoration of Ra’a when he rises in the Eastern Horizon of heaven. Behold, Osoris, the scribe of the holy offerings of all the gods. “ Ani ” says homage is to you who has come as “ Kheperi ”. Kheperi is the creator of the gods. You rise and shine making your mother bright, crowned as the king of the gods. Mother “ Nut ” receives you with her tow hands in an act of worship.

The dead feared the thieves’ aggression on the gold and the silver which were in the grave. He also suspected the employees who maintained the grave. Therefore, any employee who does not perform his task faithfully was threatened by the dead to face the severest punishment. He was not to get the honor bestowed on the best of the people. No sacred water shall be poured on him, their sons shall not be appointed to their offices and the sanctity of his wife shall be defiled in front of him. But if he performs his duties well, he will be awarded by the king and will have many jobs. Besides, there were evil dead persons who the ancient Egyptians believed to leave their graves and upset the living people. It believed that most of the diseases suffered by the living people were caused by the evil dead persons. So we come to the end of the idea of death and eternity believed by the ancient Egyptian.

We hope we have given it its due attention. Thus, we have thrown light on all the sides of the ancient Egyptian’s religion in brief .We also got acquainted with the Egyptian’s interest in preparing himself for the hereafter, doing his best to get the permanent bliss and how the worship and the presence of gods were like conscience and moral preacher and how the Egyptian was the first to know the idea of monotheism.