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
whom the book was copied, in one of the murky regions of the other world
instead of in the solar bark. They had been followers of Osiris and not of
Ra, and there was accordingly no place for them in the boat of the
sun-god.
Osiris is thus subordinated to the sun. The god of the dead is not allowed
to rule even in his own domains. Such light and life as are graciously
permitted to him come from the passing of the solar bark once in each
twenty-four hours. He has lost the bright and happy fields of Alu, he has
had to quit even the judgment-hall where he decided the lot of man. Osiris
and his creed are deposed to make way for another god with another and a
lower form of doctrine.
The fact was so patent, that a second solar apocalypse was written in
order to smooth it away. This was the Book of the Gates or of Hades, a
copy of which is also inscribed in the tomb of Seti. It differs only in
details from the Book Am Duat; the main outlines of the latter, with the
passage of the solar bark through the twelve hours or regions of the
night, remain unaltered. But the details vary considerably. The gates
which shut the hours off one from the other become fortified pylons,
guarded by serpents breathing fire. The Hades of Sokaris is suppressed,
and the judgment-hall of Osiris is introduced between the fifth and sixth
hours. The object of the judgment, however, seems merely the punishment of
the enemies of the god, who are tied to stakes and finally burned or
otherwise put to death in the eighth hour. Among them appears Set in the
form of a swine, who is driven out of the hall of judgment by a
cynocephalous ape. As for the righteous, they are still allowed to
cultivate the fields of the kingdom of Osiris; but it is a kingdom which
is plunged in darkness except during the brief space of time when the bark
of the sun-god floats through it. Osiris, nevertheless, is acknowledged as
lord of the world of the dead, in contradistinction to the Book Am Duat,
which assigns him only a portion of it; and when the sun-god emerges into
the world of light at the end of the twelfth hour, it is by passing
through the hands of Nut, the sky, who stands on the body of Osiris,
“which encircles the other world.” Nor is the serpent Apophis, the enemy
of Ra, confounded with Set; his overthrow by Tum takes place in the first
hour, before the tribunal of Osiris is reached.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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