Osiris and the Egyptian resurrection V2

---

The general argument of the book is indicated in the following paragraphs. The materials now available for the enquiry may be divided roughly into two main classes: An examination of the statements on the ancient Reliofion of Egypt found in the works of the above-mentioned and other classical writers, carried on side by side with a study of the Egyptian texts, convinced me that the information supplied by them was wholly unsuitable for the solution of the numerous problems which confront the student of the ancient Egyptian Religion at every turn.

The reason of this is not far to seek. The works of classical writers on Egypt and her Religion contain much extremely valuable information, some of which is supported by the native Egyptian texts. On the other hand, there are incorporated with such informa- tion many fantastic theories and imaginings which are not only unsupported, but are absolutely contradicted by the facts drawn from the Egyptian monuments ; Herodotus and others wrote down, no doubt, accurately enough, so far as they understood it, what they were told by Egyptian priests and by their well-educated friends in Egypt, but it is quite clear, by the construction which they put upon much of the information which they received, that they did not really understand the rudi- mentary principles of the Egyptian Religion, or its primitive cults, or the nature of their symbolism.

There is no evidence in their works that they knew of, or even suspected, the existence in it of the all-embracing beliefs in the power of the great ancestral spirit, and in the resurrec- tion of men in general and their immortality, which are the chief characteristics of the Egyptian Religion. And these writers had no knowledge of the details of the cult of Osiris, and of his history, such as we now possess thanks to the religious texts of the Vlth dynasty , because they could not read the native literature of Egypt. They can hardly be blamed for this, because it is certain that very few of the Egyptian priests took the trouble to read and study it, and to arrange systematically the facts of their Religion which were to be derived from their ancient writings.

The confusion and contradictions which appear in the religious texts written under the XXth and following dynasties prove beyond all doubt that the knowledge of the early dynastic Religion of Egypt possessed by the priests in general after, let us say, Preface ix 1 B. Such being the case, the information which they could impart to cultivated and enquiring foreigners is almost useless of itself for historical investigations.

Moreover, the character of the Religion of Egypt changed entirely under the New Empire. Its spiritualities became buried under a mass of beliefs which were purely magical in character, and men in general relied for salvation upon spells, incantations, magical figures, and amulets ; only the wise few clung to the beliefs of their ancestors. When Herodotus visited Egypt the knowledge of the Religion of the Ancient and Middle Empires had practically died out.

The general untrustworthiness of the information about the Egyptian Religion supplied by classical writers beino- thus evident, it is clear that, if we wish to oain exact knowledge about the subject, we must seek for it in the study of the native literature, which is compara- tively large and full. A cursory examination of it leads us to hope that we shall find in it all the material we need for the purposes of our enquiry, but a fuller investigation of its contents produces at first a feeling somewhat akin to disappointment.

For we find that in no portion of it does there exist a text which is not associated with magic, that no text contains a connected statement of the purely religious beliefs which we know the Egyptians certainly possessed, that on many vital points no text supplies any direct information what- soever ; and finally, that there is in Egyptian no word for " religion " in our sense of the word. After a still further examination, however, the feeling of disappoint- ment vanishes, for if the facts supplied by texts of one period be compared with those afforded by texts of another, it becomes clear that they are all intimately related.

The writers of them all assumed the existence ' of the same beliefs in their readers, and also a know- ledge of the essentials of the native Religion of Ancient Egypt, which were understood and were received generally. Thus if we compare the contents of works of the post-Saite Period, e.

In each and all of these a knowledore of the o same facts is assumed by the writers to be possessed by the readers, and their acceptance by the readers is regarded as beyond question. In spite of all the popular developments of religious magic which flooded the old Religion of Egypt after the downfall of the New Empire, and the introduction of foreign gods, and the growth of the cults of local tree-gods, phallic gods, etc.

Of the Egyptian works mentioned above the most important for the purpose of an enquiry into the Religion of Ancient Egypt is the Book " Per-em-hru," commonly known as the Book of the Dead. In the oldest form of it with which we are acquainted, namely, that which was in use under the Vth and Vlth dynasties, it consists of a long series of spells, and incantations, and rhythmical formulae, etc.

This form is generally known as the " Helio- politan Recension," because it was the work of the priests of Anu, or Heliopolis, who added to the indi- genous sections of it a number of texts in which was promulgated their own particular worship, namely, that of the Sun-god Ra. Each spell and incantation was believed to produce a specific result, but what that result was is not always defined, and the variant titles of some spells prove that the Egyptian priests were not always certain what was the exact result which the recital of the spells would produce.

Mixed with these spells are short texts which show that so far back as B. According- to these the life everlasting- in heaven, in the kingdom of Osiris, could only be attained by those who had lived righteous lives upon earth, and who had been declared to be speakers of the truth in the Judgment Hall of Osiris.

The Egyptians set truth- speaking above all other virtues, and in the Great Judgment which took place in the Hall of Osiris the man who had spoken the truth on earth triumphed. Osiris himself was declared by Thoth and by the Great Jury of the gods who tried him to be " Truth-Speaker," Maa Kheru, and the soul of the man after whose name these words could be written with the authority of Osiris was sure of eternal life and bliss.

Under the Xlth and XHth dynasties these spells and texts were copied on to sarcophagi and coffins, e. Sometimes a Rubric was added which described the effect which would be produced if the recital of the spell were accompanied by the performance of certain ceremonies. Each spell was complete in itself, and the spells and Chapters taken together composed the Book of the Dead. Under the XVHIth dynasty an attempt was made to group them together according to their subject matter, and it became the fashion to add to the Chapters vignettes, which were first of all traced in outline in black ink, and were in later times painted in brilliant colours.

The idea underlying the addition of the vignettes is not clear, but it seems to have been magical. Under the XVHIth dynasty it became customary to preface the Chapters and vignettes by a large scene in. Such scenes form one of the principal characteristics of the Theban Recension of the Book of the Dead. Down to the end of the XlXth dynasty the Book of the Dead was regarded generally as the final authority on Egyptian psychology and eschatology as understood by the priests of the cult of Osiris. With the downfall of the rule of the priests of Amen-Ra at Thebes Osiris regained his old position of absolute and supreme power in the Other World, and in copies of the Saite Recension of the Book of the Dead written between b.

The above facts show that the Book of the Dead existed in an organized and written form during the greater part of the Dynastic Period, and to it we must have recourse if we would understand the Religion of the Egyptians during that time.

Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection

We might reasonably expect that it would supply us with all the information we require about the Egyptian Religion, and in such a form that there could be no doubt about its meaning. Unfortunately, such is not the case, for however care- fully we study the various Recensions, and collate papyri, and arrange the facts available, we find that many gaps still exist in our knowledge, and that our ignorance of the exact meanings of many words makes it impossible to arrive at definite conclusions in many cases. Moreover, we find that such information as we have is not always understood in the same way by all Egyptologists, and that the deductions which they make from the same texts frequently differ in character, and are sometimes wholly contradictory.

When, in con- nection with my official work, I began to enquire into the Religion of Egypt I found that some authorities thought that it was full of the spiritual and metaphysical con- ceptions which characterize the Religions of some highly civilized modern nations, and was highly philosophical in its nature. Others thought that it consisted of a series of crude and savage beliefs which found expression in disgusting ceremonies, and cannibalistic orgies, and licentious rites, similar to those which are performed at the present day among the Negroes and Negroid peoples in the Southern and Western Sildan.

Others Preface xiii regarded it as a kind of solar cult based upon beliefs which were originally derived from Asia, but which were so corrupted and overlaid with native additions as to be unrecognizable. Others, again, considered it to be wholly phallic in character, and there were yet others who thought that it was nothing but a system of Black Magic, and undeserving of the name of a Religion.

When I had considered these views in detail it seemed to me that their authors must have described the Religion of Egypt from different standpoints, and that their conflicting opinions had been based upon some aspects of it, without due attention having been given to others. It was quite obvious that all these opinions could not be right at the same time, and that the only course left for the enquirer to pursue under the circum- stances was to examine them one by one, and to compare them with facts derived exclusively from ancient Egyptian texts.

The principal texts available at that time were the published copies of the papyri of Nebseni, Qenna, Neb-qet and Sutimes, the texts from coffins at Berlin, the Turin Papyrus, the Book of Opening the Mouth, the Book of Gates, and the first portion of the text of Unas. In the years which followed editions of many magic, religious, and liturgical papyri appeared, and before the close of last century the material available for an enquiry into the character of the Egyptian Religion was abundant.

In fact, the student was then able to compare for the first time the contents of the Heliopolitan, Theban, and Saite Recensions of the Book of the Dead with those of several other cognate funerary works which, though belonging to a later period, are of great value. The examination of this material occupied much, time, but the more it was worked the clearer it became that many of the theories current as to the Egyptian Relisrion were wrong-. The facts derived from the texts, when arranged, proved beyond all doubt that the indigenous Religion of ancient Egypt was unlike any of the Asiatic Religions with which it had been compared, and that all its fundamentals remained unchanged throughout the Dynastic Period.

Moreover, the evidence xiv Preface of the tomb-deposits of the Predynastic, Archaic, and early Dynastic Periods which, thanks to the excavations of tombs made at Abydos, Nakadah, Dallas, and other parts of Upper Egypt, had become available, proved that the religious beliefs of the people who had made these tombs were substantially the same in all three Periods.

And it became clear that the general character of the Religion of the dynastic Egyptians was identical with that of the Religion of the primitive Egyptians. In other words, the facts derived from the papyri, sarcophagi, coffins, stelae, etc. The evidence derived from the Egyptian texts also supplied information about several beliefs and characteristics of the Religion in all periods.

It showed inter alia that the Egyptians believed in the existence of God Almighty, and that His behests were performed by a number of " gods," or as we might say, emanations, or ano-els ; that maQfical rites and ceremonies of all kinds were closely associated with beliefs of a highly spiritual character ; that the religion was not phallic, although the importance of the organs of generation, male and female, was greatly emphasized in connection with the worship of such "gods" as Menu and Amen; that birds, beasts, fishes, reptiles, trees, stones, etc.

There is no need to refer here to the doctrines of reward and punishment, resurrection and immortality, for the existence of these among the Egyptians was demonstrated by E. All these characteristics seemed to indicate that the Egyptian Religion was of African rather than Asiatic Preface xv origin, as many had supposed, but the chief obstacle to the acceptance of this view was the fact that the rehgious literature of Egypt contains numerous hymns to the Sun-god under his various forms, e.

It is well known that the cult of Ra, under one phase or another, was the form of Religion accepted by the Pharaohs, and the priesthood, and a limited aristocracy, from the middle of the Vth dynasty onwards. And as each king, beginning with Assa, delighted to call himself " son of Ra," and regarded himself as an incarnation of Ra, this is not to be wondered at. On the other hand, there is no evidence that the great bulk of the people of Egypt adopted the cult of Ra, and many Chapters of the Book of the Dead prove that the Moon-god was their favourite object of worship.

Many African peoples, especially those who live in the great forests and on the Nile, Congo, Niger, and other great rivers, not only regard the Sun with indifference, but with positive dislike ; on the other hand, the Moon and its spirit are venerated devoutly. Proofs of this fact are found in the writings of many travellers, whose works are quoted in their proper place in this book.

Taking into consideration all the information available on the subject, it is tolerably clear that the cult of the Sun-god was introduced into Egypt by the priests of Heliopolis, under the Vth dynasty, when they assumed the rule of the country and began to nominate their favourite warriors to the throne of Egypt.

These astute theologians, either by force or persuasion, succeeded in making the official classes and priest- hood believe that all the indigenous great gods were forms of Ra, and so secured his supremacy. Meanwhile, the bulk of the people clung to their ancient cult of the Moon, and to their sacred beasts and birds, etc. It seems to me, then, that the existence of the cult of Ra in Egypt xvi Preface does not affect the enquiry into the indigenous ReHgion of Egypt in any way. During the years , I was engaged officially in preparing for publication the volume which the Trustees of the British Museum issued with the second edition of their Facsimile of the Papyrus of Ani, and in the three following years I prepared privately the edition of The Theban Recension of the Book of the Dead which appeared, with an English translation and an Egyptian-English Vocabulary, in three volumes in None of the existing works on the Egyptian Religion explained the difficulties, but a perusal of the articles which Professor Maspero had contributed to the Revue des Religions tom.

Moreover, the writings of the late E. Early in the summer of my official duties led me to Marawi, in the Dongola Province of the Egyptian Sudan, and I took up my abode in the neighbouring village of Shibbah to be near the excavations which were carried out that year at Gebel Barkal. The information I oained con- firmed and supplemented the reports on such matters which I had heard in Egypt on several occasions from Egyptians who had lived in the Sudan under the rule of Isma'il Pasha, and I found that it explained many of the beliefs which are enshrined in the Book of the Dead Preface xvii During subsequent visits to the Sudan I became con- vinced that a satisfactory explanation of the ancient Egyptian Religion could only be obtained from the Religions of the Sudan, more especially those of the peoples who lived in the isolated districts in the south and west of that region, where European influence was limited, and where native beliefs and religious cere- monials still possessed life and meaning.

I then began to read systematically the books of all the great travellers in the Sudan, beginning with the Travels of Ibn Battitah, and ending with recent publications like Mr. The notes made in the course of this reading formed a large mass of material which seemed to me to be of great value for the comparative study of the Egyptian and Sudani Religions, and they illustrated in a remarkable manner the similarity of ancient Egyptian and modern African religious beliefs.

About this Book

It may be objected that the modern beliefs and superstitions of the Sudan and Congo-land and Dahomey are survivals of ancient Egyptian religious views and opinions, but the objection seems to me to possess no validity. The oldest and best form of the Egyptian Religion died more than 3, years ago, and many of the most illuminating facts for comparative and illustrative purposes are derived from the Religions of peoples who live in parts of Africa into which Egyptian influence never penetrated.

The power of the Egyptians reached no farther than the northern end of the " Island" of Meroe, and it was not truly effective beyond Napata, the modern Marawi, near the foot of the Fourth Cataract. Modern Sudani beliefs are identical with those of ancient Egypt, because the Egyptians were Africans and the modern peoples of the Sudan are Africans. And making allowance for differences in natural circumstances and geographical position, ancient and modern Nilotic peoples give outward expression to their beliefs in the same way. The general evidence derived from the Religion VOL.

With the cult of Osiris was bound up all that was best in the civilization of Egypt during the Dynastic Period. It weaned the primitive Egyptians from cannibalism and from cruel and barbarous customs, it taught them to respect human life and to regard man as the image of God, and his dead body as a sacred thing, it induced them to devote themselves to agri- cultural labours, and it improved their morality.

Above all, it transformed them from nomad hunters and thieves into a settled people with a god, a priesthood, and a worship, and taught them to believe in divine incarnation, and gave them a hope of resurrection and immortality, and of an existence in heaven, which, they were taught, could only be attained by those who had lived righteous lives upon earth, and through the mercy of Osiris.

The Egyptian texts now available enable us to trace the history of the cult of Osiris from the Archaic to the Roman Period with tolerable completeness, but its beginning is hopelessly lost in obscurity. Osiris was, I believe, an African, though not necessarily a Nilotic, god, and the birthplace of his cult seems to have been Upper Egypt. The exact meaning of his name is uncertain, for that of "Seat-maker," which is suggested by the Pyramid Texts, is hardly convincing ; it is better to admit the fact at once and to say that its meaning- is unknown. As rerards the seat of his worship in Upper Egypt, it is quite certam that a shrine of the god existed at Abydos under the 1st dynasty.

At first sight it seems as if he was merely a deified king who had lived and reigned in the immediate neighbourhood of that town. Early in the Dynastic Period his priests cleverly succeeded in incorporating in his worship all that was best in the local cults, and the ideals of morality, justice, and righteousness which Preface xix they grouped about it appealed quickly to the people all over Egypt. The spread of the cult was rapid, both in Upper Egypt and in the Delta, because no other cult offered to its adherents the hope of the resurrection and immortality. Among the tribes of Egypt in general the cult of Osiris took the place of the cult of ancestral spirits, which was universal in the Nile Valley in primitive times, but the people lost nothing by the exchange, for Osiris became the divine ancestor of them all.

His human nature, they thought, enabled him to understand the needs, troubles, and griefs of men, and to listen sympathetically to their prayers, and his divine nature gave him powers to help them in this world and in the next, which no other Ancestor-ofod ever possessed. Osiris, the divine Ancestor, became the Father of the souls of the Egyptians, and the symbol of their hope of resurrection and immortality. The early religious texts of Egypt prove beyond all doubt that the Egyptians, in common with many peoples in other parts of the world, when in a primitive state of civilization, were cannibals in the Predynastic Period, and that, like many of the Nilotic tribes of the present day, they ate the bodies of enemies slain m battle as a matter of course.

Before the cominof of the cult of Osiris they must have eaten their own dead, as many modern tribes do, and there is reason to think that, even after they had learned to know Osiris, the natural likincr for human flesh, which is common to most African peoples, asserted itself in times when food was scarce and during famines. The disposal of the bodies of the dead must always have been a matter of difficulty in Egypt, for land suitable for purposes of agriculture was far too valuable to the living to be given up to the dead.

The bodies of kings, chiefs, nobles, and rich men were always buried, sometimes in tombs hewn in the rocks, and sometimes in the sandy soil on the edge of the desert, and at one time it must have been thought that they were the only members of the population who would enjoy a future existence. The bodies of the bulk of the people were either laid in extremely shallow- graves, from which they would be dragged easily by the dogs, and by the wolves, foxes, and jackals of the desert, b 2 XX Preface or were thrown out boldly into the desert or into "the bush " as they say in the Southern Sudan at the present day to be eaten by the leopards, hyenas, lynxes, etc.

Now it is quite clear that only a very small percentage of these bodies can have been " buried " in such a way that they would be preserved for an indefinitely long period. For the cost of preparing tombs in the hills and of equipping them with funerary furniture even of the most inexpensive kind, or of digging graves and providing them with suitable " deposits," was wholly prohibitive for the greater part of the population. The number of bodies which were made into mummies must have been very small.

That very few people were " buried " in Egypt is proved by the comparatively small number of tombs which have been found up to the present time. For, if we were to add together the numbers of all the ancient Egyptian tombs known both to Europeans and natives, it is very doubtful if the total would exceed fifty thousand, if we exclude the Predynastic graves. Many of the rock- hewn tombs were used over and over again, no doubt for many generations, but even so, the proportion of the " buried " bodies to the unburied is very small indeed.

Attempts have recently been made to calculate the duration of certain periods of Egyptian history by computing the number of graves found in groups of cemeteries, but it seems to me that all calculations of the kind are worthless, because we do not know what proportion of the population was buried in any century, or even generation. Now the spread of the cult of Osiris, however great, could never alter the material resources of the country, and make it possible for all persons to be buried in such a way that their bodies would be preserved for an indefinitely long period.

From them, moreover, by means of the ceremonies performed by the priests and the words of their services, were raised up their spirit-bodies, which were to inherit eternity. According to the priests of Osiris immortaHty could only be attained by belief in their god, and the souls of unbelievers could not enter his kingdom ; they had, to all intents and purposes, no hope of resurrection, and therefore could have no exist- ence in the Other World.

What the fate of the body of an Osirian was ultimately mattered very little, provided that the sacred words of the liturgy of the dead had been said over it, for through these the genesis of the spirit- body and its union with its soul in Abydos or Busiris were assured. The costly tombs, and elaborate mummi- fication, and funerary ceremonies, and splendid copies of the Book of the Dead, and inscribed amulets, with which the great and wealthy provided themselves, availed their owners nothing in the Judgment Hall of Osiris, and the true Osirian must have regarded them more as evidences of wealth and power than as effectual means of salvation.

For he knew that in that Hall the hearts of kings and peasants alike were weighed in the Balance before a just Judge, and that the sentence pronounced was in accord- ance with the evidence given by the Warder of the Balance. The pleadings of Thoth, who had acted as advocate for Osiris on a memorable occasion, were heard by Osiris, and his recommendations appear to have been generally adopted by the god. As no man could possibly fulfil the demands of the Law, it was the mercy of Osiris which ultimately decided the fate of a soul in the Other World, and not the splendour of a tomb, or the magnificence of a funeral procession.

The king who was declared justified in the Judgment lived presumably with the rank and state of a king in the Other World, the noble as a noble, and the poor man as a poor man ; but for all there was only the same hope, and that hope was Osiris. Osiris the god became this hope because he had lived in a body which had suffered, and died, and had been mutilated, and had, after reconstitution, been raised from the dead by the god incarnate in it, and had passed into heaven.

A vignette in the Book " Am-Tuat " even suggests that slaves had been buried alive in the tomb, one at each of the four corners, which held the mortal body of Osiris. Moreover, the presence of the bodies of the women in the l jmb of Amen-hetep 1 1 at Thebes proves that in the XVlllth dynasty favourite wives were either poisoned or strangled, or allowed to commit suicide, so that their s[ irits might go to their husband in the Other World anrl continue their wifely service to him. The blood- thirsty character of this king, which displayed itself in hanging the bodies of seven vanquished chiefs at the bow of his boat, and in exposing them on the walls of 'i'hebes and Napata, suggests that the unfortunate women in his tomb were slain in accordance with his wishes.

The absence of bodies of women and slaves from the other royal tombs and from the masladaks of Gizah, Sakkarah, etc. The custom of burying figures of stone, wood, faience, etc. Other cruel and savage customs also disappeared, and in th ; sacranKMital ceremonies of the later perifxl we fmd lh - l lood of the grajx;, th ; bread-cake, and the llesh of newly slaugluered animals, taking the i lace of the human flesh and blood which ] laye l such prominent parts in the older ceremonies. And their innate proclivities suggest that portions at least of the bodies of human victims slain to " give life " to the gods were eaten sacramentally.

The festival commemorated a great victory of a decisive character over certain rebel tribes, and the atrocities which triumphant Africans can commit when drunk with slaughter and mad with the smell of blood, readily suggest what was the horrible fate of the Antiu. In the Sun-temples at Abu-Sir of the Wih. The size and number of the conduits for carrying away the blood of the victims bear incontrovertible "evidence of the magni- tude of the slaughterings which took place. We may now summarize briefly the character of the ancient Religion of Egypt. Earth- god, Nile-god, and to a host of spirits, of whom we know the names of about three thousand.

What relation all these "gods " and spirits bore to each other and to Osiris is not at first clear, and it is the realization of the existence of these which has induced some writers to declare that the Egyptian Religion was nothing but a polytheistic cult. And yet it was not, for the Egyptians believed in the existence of One Great God, self-produced, self-existent, almighty and eternal. Who created the "gods," the heavens and the sun, moon and stars in them, and the earth and everything on it.

Navigation links for help, collections

They believed that xxiv Preface He maintained in being everything which He had created, and that He was the support of the universe and the Lord of it all. Of this God they never attempted to make any figure, form, likeness, or similitude, for they thought that no man could depict or describe Him, and that all His attributes were quite beyond man's compre- hension.

On the rare occasions in which He is men- tioned in their writings He is always called " Neter " I -jj, i. God, and besides this He has no name. The exact meaning of the word " Neter " is unknown. His behests were carried out in heaven, earth, and the Other World by a number of "great gods " who formed His Council, and who were in turn served by lesser "gods" and spirits. The two eldest of the great gods, Shu and Tefnut, were produced by God from His own Person, and with Him they formed the first Egyptian Trinity, Shu and Tefnut produced Keb and Nut, and they in turn produced Osiris and I sis, and Set and Nephthys, all of whom were born on the earth at the same time, each having a mortal body, Osiris was white and was the personification of good, Set was black or red and was the personification of evil.

These two gods fought each other continually, and at length Set killed the mortal body of Osiris. Osiris begot by Isis a son called Horus, who avenged his father and slew Set. Osiris rose from the dead and became the king of heaven, the abode of righteous souls, and Set, who took the form of a black pig, became the lord of the region where the souls of the damned congregated. The management of the physical world and of the lives and affairs of men was deputed by God to the "gods," "goddesses," and spirits, of whom some were supposed to view man and his aftairs benevolently, and others malevolently.

Little by little the fear of these obtained great power over the minds of men, and at length the worship due to God from men was paid by men to them. No proof of any kind is forthcoming which shows that the Egyptians ever entirely forgot the existence of God, but they certainly seem to have believed that he had altogether ceased to interfere in human affairs, and was content to leave the destinies of men to Preface xxv the care of the " gods " and spirits.

Now the Egyptians were not satisfied with this state of affairs, and they craved to know a god who possessed a nature akin to their own, and who because he was of like nature to themselves would be more sympathetic towards them than the Sun-god, or the Earth-god, or any other impersonal nature-god or spirit.

To satisfy this craving the primitive theologians of Egypt invented the dogma which declared that Osiris and Set, and Isis and Nephthys, appeared on earth in the forms of human beings, and that their mortal bodies were absolutely similar in every respect to the bodies of men born of women. It is nowhere stated where, or by what means, Osiris and Set obtained their mortal bodies, nor whether they were created from the dust of the earth, or derived from a human mother. The Egyptians do not seem to have troubled themselves about questions of this kind, but were quite satisfied to believe that Osiris became incarnate in a mortal body, which possessed the nature of ordinary man.

Other dogmas made Osiris to suffer death at the hands of Set, to beget a son by Isis after his death, to rise from the dead in a transformed body, and to dwell in heaven as the lord of righteous souls. This information is derived from texts which are as old as the Vlth dynasty, and thus we see that as early as B. Now, if we examine the Religions of modern African peoples, we find that the beliefs underlying them are almost identical with those described above. As they are not derived from the Egyptians, it follows that they are the natural product of the religious mind of the natives of certain parts of Africa, which is the same in all periods.

The evidence of the older travellers, Dc Brosses, Mungo Park, Livingstone, and others, and that of more recent travellers such as Dr. Nassau and Sir Harry Johnston, proves that almost every African people with whom they came in contact possessed a name for God Almighty, in Whose existence and power they firmly believed. Their attitude towards God was, and is, exactly that of the ancient Egyptians. I have conversed with all ranks and conditions upon the subject of their faith, and can pronounce, without the smallest shadow of doubt, that the belief in one God, and of a future state of reward and punishment, is entire and universal among them.

It is remarkable, however, that, except at the appearance of a new moon, as before related, the Pagan natives do not think it necessary to offer up prayers and supplications to the Almighty. They represent the Deity, indeed, as the creator and preserver of things ; but, in general, they consider him as a being so remote, and of so exalted a nature, that it is idle to imagine the feeble supplications of wretched mortals can reverse the decrees, and change the purposes of unerring Wisdom.

The concerns of this world, they believe, are committed by the Almighty to the direction and superintendence of subordinate spirits, over whom they suppose that certain magical ceremonies have great influence. But in the Congo basin God is rather imagined as the pre-existing Creator, Who has probably called men into existence, however indifferent He may afterwards show Himself to the fate of each human being.

In the beliefs of many of these Congo Negroes the Supreme God of the Sky is too far off to care about humanity ; He created all things, and left everything but the supreme command to a multitude of petty spirits ; or He allowed unchecked the spitefulness of a lesser god, a more or less malignant Devil. The fundamental beliefs of the ancient Egyptian belong to a time when he was near to Nature, and when he leaned more upon God than he did upon himself. As he grew more civilized he relied more upon himself, and less upon God, and the forms and ceremonies of religion were then brought into existence by the priests.

In its earliest form his religion was not a matter of creed and dogma, but a personal, natural and spontaneous pouring out and uplifting of the emotions from the individual to the Infinite.

Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection; Volume 2

His religious ceremonials may, it is true, have begun with the worship of the powers of pro- creation, or of their symbols, the organs of generation, or of spirits of some kind ; but the Egyptian's Religion was much older than these, and it must have originated in his sensations, emotions, and instincts. Religion was a reality to him long before he could describe it, and the spirits which he could not see wefe also realities to him.

So real, in fact, were they that the fear of what he thought they could or would do to him became the prime mover of his actions as regards the practical worship of them, or religious ceremonials. In times of difficulty caused by the human beings who lived round about him, and who were always more or less his foes, he appealed for guidance and help as a matter of course to his father and grandfather, so long as they lived, and when they were dead he turned to their spirits for assistance.

But when disaster followed all his efforts he was naturally driven to look for help beyond his father's spirit, to that great, first Spirit, Who had made the first member of his own and of every other tribe, and every- thing which existed in the world.

In this way the Egyptians first found God, the Creator of all. His religion, which was wholly natural and personal, was at all times a mixture of fear of spirits in general, and of hope in the power of ancestral spirits. This power developed later in his mind into the veritable power of xxviii Preface God, Whom he believed to be incarnate in his great ancestor Osiris.

Leonard says of the reHgion of the Lower Niger tribes is equally true, in my opinion, of the religion of the ancient Egyptians. Their religion, which was their entire sociology and existence, is nothing from beginning to end but a long chain of ancestral precedents, every single link and rivet of which became a custom and a law from their spiritual fathers unto themselves in the flesh.

The fathers of the tribes became first spirit fathers, and when these had developed into ancestral "gods," a system of worship grew up around them, and their propitiation was held to be necessary ; out of this worship religious customs arose, a formula of offerings and sacrifices gradually developed, and this finally took the form of ritual. In setting the facts given in the following pages before the reader I make no claim to have cleared up all the difficulties which surround the history of the origin and development of the Egyptian Religion, but I certainly think that they indicate the means which must be used in explaining fundamental Egyptian beliefs and relisfious ceremonial.

Whether I have succeeded in showino- that a oreneral resemblance exists between ancient Egyptian beliefs and the beliefs of modern Sudani peoples, the reader will decide. It is important to have the facts collected, and it is high time for the attention of students of comparative African Religion to be directed to them. The plan of this book is simple. I have first of all given the history of Osiris as it is found in the works of Greek and Roman writers.

This is followed by a chapter on the death and mutilation of gods, the facts for which are derived from early texts. Next follow a series of chapters in which the various forms of Osiris are described and discussed, and a chapter containing details of the heaven of Osiris and the state of beatified souls and spirit-bodies in the heaven of Osiris.

The sources from which the informa- tion on these points is drawn are the texts in the corridors and chambers of the royal pyramids at Sakkarah. The translations of the passages given in Chapter IV and in the Appendix appear in English Preface xxix for the first time. Other chapters are devoted to describing the principal forms of Osiris, and the cult of Osiris as practised at Abydos, Denderah, etc. A lengthy chapter containing a series of comparisons between ancient Egyptian and modern Sudani Relisfion and macjic is also q;iven. Some o o o important notes, too late for insertion in their proper places, will be tound in Vol II, pp.

My grateful thanks are due to the Hon. Lionel Walter Rothschild for the kind assistance he has afforded me in all questions relating to the African animals, birds, reptiles, and insects which appear in Egyptian mythology, and for the trouble he has taken in explaining to me the various specimens of them which are preserved in his great collections at Tring Park.

These works throw ofreat lieht on the social life and relicrious customs of the primitive Egyptians. I am indebted to Messrs. Harrison and Sons for the skill and care with which they have printed this book and to their Reader, Mr. Bishop, for the attention which he has devoted to the reading of the proofs. The Funeral Coffer of Osiris and the Erica tree The Tet of Osiris at Abydos Isis, cow-headed, pouring out water for the soul of Osiris Thoth bearing life and serenity Thoth writing on his palette Isis addressing the mummy of Osiris Osiris, in the form of a bull, bearing a mummy Nephthys addressing the mummy of Horus of the Tuat Osiris seated in his shrine Osiris seated on top of the steps Amentet in the shrine of Osiris The Tet as the Ka of Ra Isis setting up the standard of the head-box of Osiris Thoth and Anubis setting up the standard of the head-box of Osiris The head-box of Osiris, with plumes and disk Osiris-Seker in his funeral coffer Osiris-Nepra with wheat growing from his body Osiris the Moon-god Osiris and Sarapis Horus giving hfe to Osiris Horus on a Ka-standard Decapitated captives with their heads between their feet The wicked burning in a pit of fire head downwards Enemies of the god burning in a pit of fire The Heads of Enemies burning in a pit of fire King Seneferu sacrificing a prisoner A serpent spitting at the decapitated enemies of Ra King Amen-em-hat sacrificing a prisoner Ptolemy VIII spearing a prisoner Seti I offering incense and a hbation to Osiris Seti I presenting a censer of burning incense and pouring out a hbation to Osiris Seti I offering unguents to Osiris Seti I anointing the face of Osiris Seti I offering raiment to Osiris Seti I offering sceptres to Osiris Seti I presenting unguents to Heqet, the Frog-goddess Uatchit and Sa presenting life to Isis Osiris in his closed shrine with Isis and his four grandchildren.

The scales of Maat Truth King Munza wearing his crown of state Skin of the pied bull of Osiris Skin of an animal sacred to Osiris Anubis weighing the heart The gorilla of the Book of the Dead A human-headed object umbihcal cord box? The History of Osiris as told by Classical Writers. The religious literature of all the great periods of Egyptian history is filled with allusions to incidents connected with the life, death, and resurrection of Osiris, the god and judge of the Egyptian dead ; and from first to last the authors of relifjious texts took it for o-ranted that their readers were well acquainted with such incidents in all their details.

In no text do we find any connected history of the god, and nowhere are stated in detail the reasons why he assumed his exalted position as the judge of souls, or why, for about four thousand years, he remained the great type and symbol of the Resurrection.

Bestselling Series

No funerary inscription exists, however early, in which evidence cannot be found proving that the deceased had set his hope of immortality in Osiris, and at no time in Egypt's long history do we find that the position of Osiris was usurped by any other god. On the contrary, it is Osiris who is made to usurp the attributes and powers of other gods, and in tracing his history in the following pages we shall find that the importance of the cult of this god grew in proportion to the growth of the power and wealth of Egypt, and that finally its influence filled both the national and private life of her inhabitants, from the Mediterranean Sea to the Sixth Cataract at Shablukah.

The fame of Osiris extended to the nations around, and it is to the hands of foreigners that we are indebted for connected, though short, narratives of his history. These, though full of misunderstandings and actual misstatements, are of con- siderable interest and value, and we must summarize them and set their principal contents before the reader VOL. B 2 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection before we attempt to set out the facts concerning the god which are found in the texts of ancient Egypt.

He was born on the first of the five epagomenal days of the Egyptian year, and became king of Egypt ; whether he reigned from his birth or was crowned king after he had grown up is not stated. Having become king, he devoted himself to improving the condition of his sub- jects.

He weaned them from their miserable and barbarous manners, he taught them how to till the earth and how to sow and reap crops, he formulated a code of laws for them, and made them to worship the gods and perform service to them. He then left Egypt and travelled over the rest of the world teaching the various nations to do what his own subjects were doing.

He forced no man to carry out his instructions, but by means of gentle persuasion and an appeal to their reason, he succeeded in inducing them to practise what he preached. Many of his wise counsels were imparted to his listeners in hymns and songs, which were sung to the accompani- ment of instruments of music. During the absence of Osiris his own kingdom was administered by his wife Isis, who performed the duties committed to her charge with great wisdom and prudence. A most useful English version is that of Squire, published at Cambridge in The French version, with notes, of Amyot, published at Paris in 18 , contains much interesting information.

The German version of Parthey is also useful. With the view of carrying out his baleful design, he hatched a plot, and persuaded seventy-two persons, as well as a certain queen of Ethiopia, who was called Aso 'Acroj , to join in the Osiris being embraced by Isis and Nephthys. From a bas-relief at Philae. He caused a very handsome box, or chest, to be made the exact size of the body of Osiris, the measure of which he had caused to be taken by craft, and having richly decorated it, he had it brought into his dining room and left there.

He then invited Osiris to a banquet, at which all the fellow-conspirators were B 2 4 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection present, and whilst the guests were admiring the hand- some box, Typhon, speaking as if in jest, declared that he would give it to him that was able to lie down comfortably in it. Thereupon one after the other of the seventy-two conspirators tried to get into the box, but were unable to do so.

At length Osiris expressed his willingness to make trial if the box would contain him, and finding that it did he lay down in it. All the conspirators rushed to the box, and dragging the cover quickly over it, they fastened it in position with nails, and then poured lead over it. Thus it became impossible for Osiris to breathe, and he was suffocated. The con- spirators, under the direction of Typhon, then dragged the box from the banqueting hall to the bank of the Nile,. When the report of the murder reached I sis, who was then in the city of Coptos, she immediately cut off one of the locks of her hair, arid put on mourning apparel, and wandered about the country in a distraught state searching for the box which contained her husband's body.

Certain children who had seen the box thrown into the Nile told her what had been done with it, and how It had floated out to sea by way of the Tanitic mouth of the Nile.

On this day great lamentation was made by Isis and Nephthys for their brother Osiris, the sounds of which were heard from Sais in the north to Abydos in the south. See Strabo, XVI, ii, The modern village of Jebel is near the site. History as told by Classical Writers 5 The king of Byblos marvelled at the size of this tree, and had it cut down, and caused a pillar for his palace to be made of that portion of the trunk which contained the box.

When this news reached I sis she set out at once for Byblos, and when she arrived there she sat down by the side of the fountain of the palace and spoke to no one except the queen's maidens, who soon came to her. At the head stands Nephthys and at the foot Isis. From a bas-relief at Denderah. When the maidens returned to the palace the queen perceived the odour which emanated from their hair and bodies, and learning from them that it was due to their contact with Isis, she sent to her and invited her to come to the palace.

After, a conversation with her she appointed her to be the nurse of one of her children. From a bas-relief at Abydos. After she had treated the child thus for some time, the queen one night saw her son burning in the fire, whereupon she uttered a piercing cry, and so prevented him from obtaining the gift of immortality which was about to be bestowed upon him.

Then Isis revealed herself to the queen, and told her her story, and begged that the pillar might be given to her. When this had been done, she removed it and cut out the box, and having wrapped the pillar up in fine linen and anointed it with un- guents, she gave it back to the king and queen, who sent it to the temple of Byblos, where it was duly and regularly worshipped by the people of the city. The tree trunk, or pillar, is confused with the Tet, the raising up of which to an upright position was one of the most sacred ceremonies of the cfreat festival of Osiris.

The illustration shows the Tet in the form in which it was worshipped at Abydos. This done, Isis threw herself upon the box and uttered such piercing shrieks and lamentations that the younger of the king's sons was frightened into convulsions and died on the spot.

She then placed the box in a boat, and taking the elder son with her, she set sail for Egypt. Soon after her departure she History as told by Classical Writers 7 opened the box, and laying her face on that of her dead husband, she embraced his body, and wept bitterly. Meanwhile the boy, wondering what was happening, stole up behind and spied upon her ; when Isis became aware of this she turned round suddenly, being in a great passion, and in her anger cast so terrible a look upon him that he died of fright.

Some, however, say that he did not die through the wrath of the goddess, but that he fell into the sea and was drowned. He is said to be the " Maneros " upon whom the Egyptians call during their feasts. In due course Isis arrived in Egypt from By bios, and having placed the box in an out-of-the-way place, she set out to visit her son Horus, who was being reared at Butus.

When the news of the dismemberment of Osiris reached Isis, she set out in search of his scattered limbs. This region of the Delta being full of marshes and canals Isis travelled about in 'a boat made of the papyrus plant, which was sacred to her. No crocodile dared to attack her in her papyrus boat, and unto this day men make their boats of papyrus, because they believe that when in them they are safe from the attacks of crocodiles. Isis was successful in her search, and wherever she found a member of her husband's body she buried it, and built a sepulchre over it ; this explains why there are so many tombs of Osiris in Egypt.

Some say that Isis only buried figures of Osiris in the various cities and pre- tended that they were his body, so that she might thereby cause the worship of her husband to be general, and that Typhon, distracted by the number of the tombs of Osiris, might despair of ever being able to find the true one. Isis found all the members of the body of Osiris save one, which was cast by Typhon into the Nile after he had severed it from the body, and had been eaten by the Lepidotus, Phagrus, and Oxyrhynchus fishes, but she made a fig-ure of it which was ever after used in commemorative festivals.

A fight took place between them which lasted for several days, and at length the murderer of Osiris was vanquished and taken prisoner, and handed over to the custody of Isis. Feeling some The cow-headed Isis pouring out a libalion in honour of the soul of Osiris, which rises in the form of a man-headed hawk from the plants growing in a sacred lake. In its place Thoth gave her a crown made in the shape of an ox's head, Typhon made use of his liberty to accuse Horus of illegitimacy, but the matter was tried before the gods, and by the assistance History as told by Classical Writers 9 of Thoth, who acted as his advocate, Horus was enabled to prove to the gods that he was the lawful successor to the throne of his father, Osiris.

Subsequently Isis had union with her husband, Osiris, and the result of the god's embrace was the child Harpokrates, who came into the world prematurely, and was lame in his lower limbs in consequence. The early generations of men thought there were two principal gods that were eternal, that is to say, the sun and the moon ; the former they called " Osiris," and the latter "Isis. The name " Isis" means " ancient," and has been applied to the moon from time immemorial. Osiris and Isis govern the whole world, and they foster and protect everything in it, and they divide the year into three parts, spring, summer, and winter.

Others say that Zeus and Hera were the rulers of Egypt, and that from them five gods were born, one upon each of the five epagomenal days, viz. Those who hold this view identify Osiris with Bacchus, and Isis with Ceres. Osiris married Isis, and after he became king he performed many things for the benefit and advantage of mankind generally.

It is also said that I sis formulated a code of laws which provided wholesome punishments for wild and violent men. He was brought up in Nysa, a town of Arabia Felix, where he discovered the use of the vine.

Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection - Sir Ernest Alfred Wallis Budge - Google Книги

He was the first to drink wine, and he taught men to plant the vine, and how to make and preserve wine. He held Hermes in Thoth, the advocate of Osiris, bearing Thoth, the advocate of Osiris, writing life and serenity. From the Papyrus of Hunefer. Egyptian, Thoth in high honour, because of his ingenuity and power of quick invention.

Hermes taught men to speak distinctly, he gave names to things which possessed none before, he invented letters, and instituted the worship of the gods, he invented arithmetic, music, and sculpture, and formulated a system of astronomy. He was the confidential scribe of Osiris, who invariably accepted his advice upon all matters. History as told by Classical Writers ii a large army, and he determined to go about the world teaching mankind to plant vines and to sow wheat and barley.

Having made all arrangements in Egypt he committed the government of his whole kingdom to Isis, and gave her as an assistant Hermes, his trusted scribe who excelled all others in wisdom and prudence. He appointed to be the chief of the forces in Egypt his kinsman Hercules, a man of great physical strength. Osiris took with him Apollo in Egyptian, Horus , Anubis who wore a dog's skin, Macedo who wore a wolfs skin.

Pan in Egyptian, Menu , and various skilful husbandmen. As he marched through Ethiopia, a company of satyrs was presented to him ; he was fond of music and dancing, and therefore added them to the body of musicians and singers, both male and female, who were in his train. Having taught the Ethiopians the arts of tillage and husbandry, he built several cities in their country, and appointed governors over them, and then continued his journey.

On the borders of Ethiopia he raised the river banks, and took precautions to prevent the Nile from overflowing the neighbouring country and turning it into a marsh, and he built canals with flood-gates and regulators. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations.

Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity individual or corporate has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public.

We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant. The Best Books of Check out the top books of the year on our page Best Books of Looking for beautiful books? Visit our Beautiful Books page and find lovely books for kids, photography lovers and more. Book ratings by Goodreads.

• My Kilted Hero
• Chapter 004, The Propeller Environment
• Atmospheric Physics: Background – Methods – Trends (Research Topics in Aerospace)
• On the Hole: The complex dynamics, intricate relationships, hilarious conversations and sub-plots of two golfers.
• Mass Transport in Solids and Fluids (Cambridge Solid State Science Series)
• February 18th,Today is Your Birthday, Beyond Astrology Almanac Maximize Your Best Times For Love Marriage Communications Business Ideas Thoughts on Success & FREE Bonus Report