The religions of ancient Egypt and BabyloniaSayce, A. H. (Archibald Henry)
Religion
The religions of ancient Egypt and Babylonia
Sayce, A. H. (Archibald Henry)
Assyro-Babylonian religion; Egypt -- Religion
Chapters xliv. to liii. are occupied in describing how the dead man is
thus preserved from “the second death.” Illustrations are drawn both from
the punishments undergone by the enemies of the sun-god in the story of
his passage through the world of night, and from the old beliefs connected
with the lot of the Ka. He was neither to be beheaded, nor cast head
downwards into the abyss, nor was he to feed on filth like the Ka for
which no offerings of food had been provided. The dangers from which he is
thus preserved are next contrasted with the joys that await him in the
paradise of the Blest (chs. liv.-lxiii.).
The 64th chapter, which sums up the preceding part of the book, and
constitutes a break between it and what follows, has already been
considered. The ten chapters which succeed it are all similarly concerned
with “coming forth from the day.” They thus traverse the same ground as
the first fifteen chapters of the book, but they deal with the subject in
a different way and from a different point of view. They are a fresh proof
of the composite character of the work, and of the desire of its authors
to incorporate in it all that had been written on the future life of the
soul up to the time of its composition. Professor Maspero believes that
they embody the various formulæ relating to the severance of soul and body
which were current in the priestly schools.(157)
Equally separate in tone and spirit are the next six chapters (lxxv.-xc.),
which have emanated from the school of Heliopolis. They deal with the
destiny of the Ba or “soul” rather than with that of the Osirian, and
describe the transformations which it can undergo if fortified with the
words of the ritual. It may at will transform itself into a hawk of gold,
a lotus flower, the moon-god or Ptaḥ, even into a viper, a crocodile, or a
goose. But first it must fly to Heliopolis and the solar deities who
reside there, and it is in Heliopolis that its transformation into the god
Ptaḥ is to take place.
The next chapter, the 91st, transports us into a different atmosphere of
religious thought. It deals with the reunion of the soul and the body. But
the two which follow forbid the Egyptian to believe that this meant a
sojourn of the soul in the tomb. On the contrary, the soul, it is said, is
not to be “imprisoned”; while the 93rd chapter “opens the gates of the
sepulchre to the soul and the shadow (_khaib_), that they may go forth and
employ their limbs.” And the land to which they were to go was a land of
sunlight.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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