Egyptian Ideas of the Future LifeBudge, E. A. Wallis (Ernest Alfred Wallis), Sir
ReligionComparative
Egyptian Ideas of the Future Life
Budge, E. A. Wallis (Ernest Alfred Wallis), Sir
Egypt -- Religion; Eschatology, Egyptian; Future life
voice, they would have no effect upon the powers of the underworld. The
term _ma[=a] kheru_ is applied but very rarely to the living, but
commonly to the dead, and indeed the dead needed most the power which
these words indicated. In the case of Ani, the gods, having accepted the
favourable report of the result obtained by weighing Ani's heart by
Thoth, style him _ma[=a] kheru_, which is equivalent to conferring upon
him power to overcome all opposition, of every kind, which he may meet.
Henceforth every door will open at his command, every god will hasten to
obey immediately Ani has uttered his name, and those whose duty it is to
provide celestial food for the beatified will do so for him when once
the order has been given. Before passing on to other matters it is
interesting to note that the term _ma[=a] kheru_ is not applied to Ani
by himself in the Judgment Scene, nor by Thoth, the scribe of the gods,
nor by Horus when he introduces him to Osiris; it is only the gods who
can make a man _ma[=a] kheru_, and thereby he also escapes from the
Devourer.
The judgment ended, Horus, the son of Isis, who has assumed all the
attributes of his father Osiris, takes Ani's left hand in his right and
leads him up to the shrine wherein the god Osiris is seated. The god
wears the white crown with feathers, and he holds in his hands a
sceptre, a crook, and whip, or flail, which typify sovereignty and
dominion. His throne is a tomb, of which the bolted doors and the
cornice of uraei may be seen painted on the side. At the back of his
neck hangs the _menat_ or symbol of joy and happiness; on his right hand
stands Nephthys, and on his left stands Isis. Before him, standing on a
lotus flower, are the four children of Horus, Mestha, H[=a]pi, Tuamutef,
and Qebhsennuf, who presided over and protected the intestines of the
dead; close by hangs the skin of a bull with which magical ideas seem to
have been associated. The top of the shrine in which the god sits is
surmounted by uraei, wearing disks on their heads, and the cornice also
is similarly decorated. In several papyri the god is seen standing up in
the shrine, sometimes with and sometimes without the goddesses Isis and
Nephthys. In the Papyrus of Hunefer we find a most interesting variant
of this [Illustration: Horus, the son of Isis, leading the scribe Ani
into the presence of Osiris, the god and judge of the dead; before the
shrine of the god Am kneels in adoration and presents offerings.]
portion of the scene, for the throne of Osiris rests upon, or in, water.
This reminds us of the passage in the one hundred and twenty-sixth
chapter of the Book of the Dead in which the god Thoth says to the
deceased, "Who is he whose roof is of fire, whose walls are living
uraei, and the floor of whose house is a stream of running water? Who is
he, I say?" The deceased answers, "It is Osiris," and the god says,
"Come forward, then; for verily thou shalt be mentioned [to him]."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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