In the above extract, it will be noticed that Amen is called the "One of
One," or the "One One," a title which has been explained as having no
reference whatever to the unity of God as understood in modern times:
but unless these words are intended to express the idea of unity, what
is their meaning? It is also said that he is "without second," and thus
there is no doubt whatever that when the Egyptians declared their god to
be One, and without a second, they meant precisely what the Hebrews and
Arabs meant when they declared their God to be One. [Footnote: See
Deut., vi. 4; and _Koran_, chapter cxii.] Such a God was an entirely
different Being from the personifications of the powers of nature and
the existences which, for want of a better name, have been called
"gods."
But, besides R[=a], there existed in very early times a god called
HORUS, whose symbol was the hawk, which, it seems, was the first living
thing worshipped by the Egyptians; Horus was the Sun-god, like R[=a],
and in later times was confounded with Horus the son of Isis. The chief
forms of Horus given in the texts are: (1) HERU-UR (Aroueris), (2)
HERU-MERTI, (3) HERU-NUB, (4) HERU-KHENT-KHAT, (5) HERU-KHENT-AN-MAA, (6)
HERU-KHUTI, (7) HERU-SAM-TAUI, (8) HERU-HEKENNU, (9) HERU-BEHUTET.
Connected with one of the forms of Horus, originally, were the four gods
of the cardinal points, or the "four, spirits of Horus," who supported
heaven at its four corners; their names were HAPI, TUAMUTEE, AMSET, and
QEBHSENNUF, and they represented the north, east, south, and west
respectively. The intestines of the dead were embalmed and placed in
four jars, each being under the protection, of one of these four gods.
Other important gods of the dead are: (1) ANUBIS, the son of R[=a] or
Osiris, who presided over the abode of the dead, and with AP-UAT shared
the dominion of the "funeral mountain"; the symbol of each of these gods
is a jackal. (2) HU and SA, the children of Temu, or R[=a], who appear
in the boat of the sun at the creation, and later in the Judgment Scene.
(3) The goddess MA[=A]T, who was associated with Thoth, Ptah, and Khnemu
in the work of creation; the name means "straight," hence what is right,
true, truth, real, genuine, upright, righteous, just, steadfast,
unalterable, and the like. (4) The goddess HET-HERT (Hathor), _i.e._,
the "house of Horus," which was that part of the sky where the sun rose
and set. The sycamore tree was sacred to her, and the deceased prays to
be fed by her with celestial food from out of it (5) The goddess
MEH-URT, who represented that portion of the sky in which the sun takes
his daily course; here it was, according to the view held at one period
at least, that the judgment of the deceased was supposed to take place.
(6) NEITH, the mother of SEBEK, who was also a goddess of the eastern
portion of the sky. (7) SEKHET and BAST, who are represented with the
heads of a lion and a cat, and who were symbols of the destroying,
scorching power of the sun, and of the gentle heat thereof,
respectively. (8) SERQ, who was a form of Isis. (9) TA-URT (Thoueris),
who was the genetrix of the gods. (10) UATCHET, who was a form of
Hather, and who had dominion over the northern sky, just as NEKHEBET was
mistress of the southern sky. (11) NEHEB-KA, who was a goddess who
possessed magical powers, and in some respects resembled Isis in her
attributes. (12) SEBAK, who was a form of the Sun-god, and was in later
times confounded with Sebak, or Sebek, the friend of Set. (13) AMSU (or
MIN or KUEM), who was the personification of the generative and
reproductive powers of nature. (14) BEB or BABA, who was the "firstborn
son of Osiris." (15) H[=a]pi, who was the god of the Nile, and with whom
most of the great gods were identified.
The names of the beings who at one time or another were called "gods" in
Egypt are so numerous that a mere list of them would fill scores of
pages, and in a work of this kind would be out of place. The reader is,
therefore, referred to Lanzone's _Mitologia Egizia_, where a
considerable number are enumerated and described.
CHAPTER IV.
THE JUDGMENT OF THE DEAD.
The belief that the deeds done in the body would be subjected to an
analysis and scrutiny by the divine powers after the death of a man
belongs to the earliest period of Egyptian civilization, and this belief
remained substantially the same in all generations. Though we have no
information as to the locality where the Last Judgment took place, or
whether the Egyptian soul passed into the judgment-hall immediately
after the death of the body, or after the mummification was ended and
the body was deposited in the tomb, it is quite certain that the belief
in the judgment was as deeply rooted in the Egyptians as the belief in
immortality. There seems to have been no idea of a general judgment when
all those who had lived in the world should receive their reward for the
deeds done in the body; on the contrary, all the evidence available goes
to show that each soul was dealt with individually, and was either
permitted to pass into the kingdom of Osiris and of the blessed, or was
destroyed straightway. Certain passages in the texts seem to suggest the
idea of the existence of a place for departed spirits wherein the souls
condemned in the judgment might dwell, but it must be remembered that it
was the enemies of R[=a], the Sun-god, that inhabited this region; and
it is impossible to imagine that the divine powers who presided over the
judgment would permit the souls of the wicked to live after they had
been condemned and to become enemies of those who were pure and blessed.
On the other hand, if we attach any importance to the ideas of the Copts
upon this subject, and consider that they represent ancient beliefs
which they derived from the Egyptians traditionally, it must be admitted
that the Egyptian underworld contained some region wherein the souls of
the wicked were punished for an indefinite period. The Coptic lives of
saints and martyrs are full of allusions to the sufferings of the
damned, but whether the descriptions of these are due to imaginings of
the mind of the Christian Egyptian or to the bias of the scribe's
opinions cannot always be said. When we consider that the Coptic hell
was little more than a modified form of the ancient Egyptian Amenti, or
Amentet, it is difficult to believe that it was the name of the Egyptian
underworld only which was borrowed, and that the ideas and beliefs
concerning it which were held by the ancient Egyptians were not at the
same time absorbed. Some Christian writers are most minute in their
classification of the wicked in hell, as we may see from the following
extract from the life of Pisentios, [Footnote: Ed. Amelineau, Paris,
1887, p. 144 f.] Bishop of Keft, in the VIIth century of our era. The
holy man had taken refuge in a tomb wherein a number of mummies had been
piled up, and when he had read the list of the names of the people who
had been buried there he gave it to his disciple to replace. Then he
addressed his disciple and admonished him to do the work of God with
diligence, and warned him that every man must become even as were the
mummies which lay before them. "And some," said he, "whose sins have
been many are now in Amenti, others are in the outer darkness, others
are in pits and ditches filled with fire, and others are in the river of
fire: upon these last no one hath bestowed rest. And others, likewise,
are in a place of rest, by reason of their good works." When the
disciple had departed, the holy man began to talk to one of the mummies
who had been a native of the town of Erment, or Armant, and whose father
and mother had been called Agricolaos and Eustathia. He had been a
worshipper of Poseidon, and had never heard that Christ had come into
the world. "And," said he "woe, woe is me because I was born into the
world. Why did not my mother's womb become my tomb? When, it became
necessary for me to die, the Kosmokrator angels were the first to come
round about me, and they told me of all the sins which I had committed,
and they said unto me, 'Let him that can save thee from the torments
into which thou shalt be cast come hither.' And they had in their hands
iron knives, and pointed goads which were like unto sharp spears, and
they drove them into my sides and gnashed upon me with their teeth. When
a little time afterwards my eyes were opened I saw death hovering about
in the air in its manifold forms, and at that moment angels who were
without pity came and dragged my wretched soul from my body, and having
tied it under the form of a black horse they led me away to Amonti. Woe
be unto every sinner like unto myself who hath been born into the world!
O my master and father, I was then delivered into the hands of a
multitude of tormentors who were without pity and who had each a
different form. Oh, what a number of wild beasts did I see in the way!
Oh, what a number of powers were there that inflicted punishment upon
me! And it came to pass that when I had been cast into the outer
darkness, I saw a great ditch which was more than two hundred cubits
deep, and it was filled with reptiles; each reptile had seven heads, and
the body of each was like unto that of a scorpion. In this place also
lived the Great Worm, the mere sight of which terrified him that looked
thereat. In his mouth he had teeth like unto iron stakes, and one took
me and threw me to this Worm which never ceased to eat; then immediately
all the [other] beasts gathered together near him, and when he had
filled his mouth [with my flesh], all the beasts who were round about me
filled theirs." In answer to the question of the holy man as to whether
he had enjoyed any rest or period without suffering, the mummy replied:
"Yea, O my father, pity is shown unto those who are in torment every
Saturday and every Sunday. As soon as Sunday is over we are cast into
the torments which we deserve, so that we may forget the years which we
have passed in the world; and as soon as we have forgotten the grief of
this torment we are cast into another which is still more grievous."
Now, it is easy to see from the above description of the torments which
the wicked were supposed to suffer, that the writer had in his mind some
of the pictures with which we are now familiar, thanks to the excavation
of tombs which has gone on in Egypt during the last few years; and it is
also easy to see that he, in common with many other Coptic writers,
misunderstood the purport of them. The outer darkness, _i.e._, the
blackest place of all in the underworld, the river of fire, the pits of
fire, the snake and the scorpion, and such like things, all have their
counterparts, or rather originals, in the scenes which accompany the
texts which describe the passage of the sun through the underworld
during the hours of the night. Having once misunderstood the general
meaning of such scenes, it was easy to convert the foes of R[=a], the
Sun-god, into the souls of the damned, and to look upon the burning up
of such foes--who were after all only certain powers of nature
personified--as the well-merited punishment of those who had done evil
upon the earth. How far the Copts reproduced unconsciously the views
which had been held by their ancestors for thousands of years cannot be
said, but even after much allowance has been made for this possibility,
there remains still to be explained a large number of beliefs and views
which seem to have been the peculiar product of the Egyptian Christian
imagination.
It has been said above that the idea of the judgment of the dead is of
very great antiquity in Egypt; indeed, it is so old that it is useless
to try to ascertain the date of the period when it first grew up. In the
earliest religious texts known to us, there are indications that the
Egyptians expected a judgment, but they are not sufficiently definite to
argue from; it is certainly doubtful if the judgment was thought to be
as thorough and as searching then as in the later period. As far back as
the reign of Men-kau-R[=a], the Mycerinus of the Greeks, about B.C.
3600, a religious text, which afterwards formed chapter 30B of the Book
of the Dead, was found inscribed on an iron slab; in the handwriting of
the god Thoth, by the royal son or prince Herut[=a]t[=a]f. [Footnote:
See _Chapters of Coming Forth by Day_, Translation, p. 80.] The original
purpose of the composition of this text cannot be said, but there is
little doubt that it was intended, to benefit the deceased in the
judgment, and, if we translate its title literally, it was intended to
prevent his heart from "falling away from him in the underworld." In the
first part of it the deceased, after adjuring his heart, says, "May
naught stand up to oppose me in the judgment; may there be no opposition
to me in the presence of the sovereign princes; may there be no parting
of thee from me in the presence of him that keepeth the Balance!... May
the officers of the court of Osiris (in Egyptian _Shenit_), who form the
conditions of the lives of men, not cause my name to stink! Let [the
judgment] be satisfactory unto me, let the hearing be satisfactory unto
me, and let me have joy of heart at the weighing of words. Let not that
which is false be uttered against me before the Great God, the Lord of
Amentet."
Now, although the papyrus upon, which this statement and prayer are
found was written about two thousand years after Men-kau-R[=a] reigned,
there is no doubt that they were copied from texts which were themselves
copied at a much earlier period, and that the story of the finding of
the text inscribed upon an iron slab is contemporary with its actual
discovery by Herut[=a]t[=a]f. It is not necessary to inquire here
whether the word "find" (in Egyptian _qem_) means a genuine discovery or
not, but it is clear that those who had the papyrus copied saw no
absurdity or impropriety in ascribing the text to the period of
Men-kau-R[=a]. Another text, which afterwards also became a chapter of
the Book of the Dead, under the title "Chapter of not letting the heart
of the deceased be driven away from him in the underworld," was
inscribed on a coffin of the XIth dynasty, about B.C. 2500, and in it we
have the following petition: "May naught stand up to oppose me in
judgment in the presence of the lords of the trial (literally, 'lords of
things'); let it not be said of me and of that which I have done, 'He
hath done deeds against that which is very right and true'; may naught
be against me in the presence of the Great God, the Lord of Amentet."
[Footnote: _Chapters of Coming Forth by Day_, p. 78.] From these
passages we are right in assuming that before the end of the IVth
dynasty the idea of being "weighed in the balance" was already evolved;
that the religious schools of Egypt had assigned to a god the duty of
watching the balance when cases were being tried; that this weighing in
the balance took place in the presence of the beings called _Shenit_,
who were believed to control the acts and deeds of men; that it was
thought that evidence unfavourable to the deceased might be produced by
his foes at the judgment; that the weighing took place in the presence
of the Great God, the Lord of Amentet; and that the heart of the
deceased might fail him either physically or morally. The deceased
addresses his heart, calling it is "mother," and next identifies it with
his _ka_ or double, coupling the mention of the _ka_ with the name of
the god Khnemu: these facts are exceedingly important, for they prove
that the deceased considered his heart to be the source of his life and
being, and the mention of the god Khnemu takes the date of the
composition back to a period coaeval with the beginnings of religious
thought in Egypt. It was the god Khnemu who assisted Thoth in performing
the commands of God at the creation, and one very interesting sculpture
at Philae shows Khnemu in the act of fashioning man upon a potter's
wheel. The deceased, in mentioning Khnemu's name, seems to invoke his
aid in the judgment as fashioner of man and as the being who is in some
respects responsible for the manner of his life upon earth.
In Chapter 30A there is no mention made of the "guardian of the
balance," and the deceased says, "May naught stand up to oppose me in
judgment in the presence of the lords of things!" The "lords of things"
may be either the "lords of creation," _i.e._, the great cosmic gods, or
the "lords of the affairs [of the hall of judgment]," _i.e._, of the
trial. In this chapter the deceased addresses not Khnemu, but "the gods
who dwell in the divine clouds, and who are exalted by reason of their
sceptres," that is to say, the four gods of the cardinal points, called
Mestha, H[=a]pi Tuamutef, and Qebhsennuf, who also presided over the
chief internal organs of the human body. Here, again, it seems as if the
deceased was anxious to make these gods in some way responsible for the
deeds done by him in his life, inasmuch as they presided, over the
organs that were the prime movers of his actions. In any case, he
considers them in, the light of intercessors, for he beseeches them to
"speak fair words unto R[=a]" on his behalf, and to make him to prosper
before the goddess Nehebka. In this case, the favour of R[=a], the
Sun-god, the visible emblem of the almighty and eternal God, is sought
for, and also that of the serpent goddess, whose attributes are not yet
accurately defined, but who has much to do with the destinies of the
dead. No mention whatever is made of the Lord of Amentet--Osiris.
Before we pass to the consideration of the manner in which the judgment
is depicted upon the finest examples of the illustrated papyri,
reference must be made to an interesting vignette in the papyri of
Nebseni [Footnote: British Museum, No. 9900.] and Amen-neb. [Footnote 2:
British Museum, No. 0964.] In both of these papyri we see a figure of
the deceased himself being weighed in the balance against his own heart
in the presence of the god Osiris. It seems probable that a belief was
current at one time in ancient Egypt concerning the possibility of the
body being weighed against the heart, with the view of finding out if
the former had obeyed the dictates of the latter; be that as it may,
however, it is quite certain that this remarkable variant of the
vignette of Chapter 30B had some special meaning, and, as it occurs in
two papyri which date from the XVIIIth dynasty, we are justified in
assuming that it represents a belief belonging to a much older period.
The judgment here depicted must, in any case, be different from that
which forms such a striking scene in the later illustrated papyri of the
XVIIIth and following dynasties.
We have now proved that the idea of the judgment of the dead was
accepted in religious writings as early as the IVth dynasty, about B.C.
3600, but we have to wait nearly two thousand years before we find it in
picture form. Certain scenes which are found in the Book of the Dead as
vignettes accompanying certain texts or chapters, _e.g._, the Fields of
Hetep, or the Elysian Fields, are exceedingly old, and are found on
sarcophagi of the XIth and XIIth dynasties; but the earliest picture
known of the Judgment Scene is not older than the XVIIIth dynasty. In
the oldest Theban papyri of the Book of the Dead no Judgment Scene is
forthcoming, and when we find it wanting in such authoritative documents
as the Papyrus of Nebseni and that of Nu, [Footnote: British Museum, No.
10,477.] we must take it for granted that there was some reason for its
omission. In the great illustrated papyri, in which, the Judgment Scene
is given in full, it will be noticed that it comes at the beginning of
the work, and that it is preceded by hymns and by a vignette. Thus, in
the Papyrus of Ani, [Footnote: British Museum, No. 10,470.] we have a
hymn to R[=a] followed by a vignette representing the sunrise, and a
hymn to Osiris; and in the Papyrus of Hunefer, [Footnote 2: British
Museum, No. 9901.] though the hymns are different, the arrangement is
the same. We are justified, then, in assuming that the hymns and the
Judgment Scene together formed an introductory section to the Book of
the Dead, and it is possible that it indicates the existence of the
belief, at least during the period of the greatest power of the priests
of Amen, from B.C. 1700 to B.C. 800, that the judgment of the dead for
the deeds done in the body preceded the admission of the dead into the
kingdom of Osiris. As the hymns which accompany the Judgment Scene are
fine examples of a high class of devotional compositions, a few
translations from some of them are here given.
HYMN TO R[=A]. [Footnote: See _The Chapters of Coming Forth by Day_, p.
7.]
"Homage to thee, O thou who risest in Nu, [Footnote: The sky
personified.] and who at thy manifestation dost make the world bright
with light; the whole company of the gods sing hymns of praise unto
thee after thou hast come forth. The divine Merti [Footnote:
Literally, the Two Eyes, _i.e._, Isis and Nephthys.] goddesses who
minister unto thee cherish thee as King of the North and South, thou
beautiful and beloved Man-child. When, thou risest men and women live.
The nations rejoice in thee, and the Souls of Annu [Footnote: _i.e._,
R[=a], Shu and Tefnut.] (Heliopolis) sing unto thee songs of joy. The
Souls of the city of Pe, [Footnote: Part of the city of Buto
(Per-Uatchit). The souls of Pe were Horus, Mestha, H[=a]pi.] and the
Souls of the city of Nekhen [Footnote: _i.e._, Horus, Tuamutef, and
Qebhsennuf.] exalt thee, the apes of dawn adore thee, and all beasts
and cattle praise thee with one accord. The goddess Seba overthroweth
thine enemies, therefore hast thou rejoicing in thy boat; thy mariners
are content thereat. Thou hast attained unto the [= A]tet boat,
[Footnote: _i.e._, the boat in which the sun travels until noon.] and
thy heart swelleth with joy. O lord of the gods, when thou didst
create them they shouted for joy. The azure goddess Nut doth compass
thee on every side, and the god Nu floodeth thee with his rays of
light. O cast thou thy light upon me and let me see thy beauties, and
when thou goest forth over the earth I will sing praises unto thy fair
face. Thou risest in heaven's horizon, and thy disk is adored when it
resteth upon the mountain to give life unto the world."
"Thou risest, thou risest, and thou comest forth from the god Nu. Thou
dost renew thy youth, and thou dost set thyself in the place where
thou wast yesterday. O thou divine Child, who didst create thyself, I
am not able [to describe] thee. Thou hast come with thy risings, and
thou hast made heaven and earth resplendent with thy rays of pure
emerald light. The land of Punt [Footnote: _i.e._, the land on each
side of the Red Sea and North-east Africa.] is established [to give]
the perfumes which, thou smellest with thy nostrils. Thou risest, O
marvellous Being, in heaven, and the two serpent-goddesses, Merti, are
established upon thy brow. Thou art the giver of laws, O thou lord of
the world and of all the inhabitants thereof; all the gods adore
thee."
HYMN TO OSIRIS [Footnote: See _The Chapters of Coming Forth by Day_, p.
11.]
"Glory be to thee, O Osiris Un-nefer, the great god within Abydos,
king of eternity and lord of everlastingness, the god who passest
through millions of years in thy existence. Thou art the eldest son of
the womb of Nut, thou wast engendered by Seb, the Ancestor of the
gods, thou art the lord of the Crowns of the North and of the South,
and of the lofty white crown. As Prince of the gods and of men thou
hast received the crook, and the whip, and the dignity of thy divine
fathers. Let thy heart which is in the mountain of Ament [Footnote:
_i.e._, the underworld.] be content, for thy son Horus is established
upon thy throne. Thou art crowned the lord of Tattu (Mendes) and ruler
in Abtu (Abydos). Through thee the world waxeth green in triumph
before the might of Neb-er-tcher. [Footnote: A name of Osiris.] Thou
leadest in thy train that which is, and that which is not yet, in thy
name of 'Ta-her-sta-nef;' thou towest along the earth in thy name of
'Seker;' thou art exceedingly mighty and most terrible in thy name of
'Osiris;' thou endurest for ever and for ever in thy name of
'Un-nefer.'"
"Homage to thee, O thou King of kings, Lord of lords, Prince of
Princes! From the womb of Nut thou hast ruled the world and the
underworld. Thy body is of bright and shining metal, thy head is of
azure blue, and the brilliance of the turquoise encircleth thee. O
thou god An, who hast had existence for millions of years, who
pervadest all things with thy body, who art beautiful in countenance
in the Land of Holiness (_i.e._, the underworld), grant thou to me
splendour in heaven, might upon earth, and triumph in the underworld.
Grant thou that I may sail down to Tattu like a living soul, and up to
Abtu like the phoenix; and grant that I may enter in and come forth
from the pylons of the lands of the underworld without let or
hindrance. May loaves of bread be given unto me in the house of
coolness, and offerings of food and drink in Annu (Heliopolis), and a
homestead for ever and for ever in the Field of Reeds [Footnote: A
division of the "Fields of Peace" or Elysian Fields.] with wheat and
barley therefor."
In the long and important hymn in the Papyrus of Hunefer [Footnote: See
_The Chapters of Coming Forth By Day_, pp. 343-346.] occurs the
following petition, which is put into the mouth of the deceased:--
"Grant that I may follow in the train of thy Majesty even as I did
upon earth. Let my soul be called [into the presence], and let it be
found by the side of the lords of right and truth. I have come into
the City of God, the region which existed in primeval time, with [my]
soul, and with [my] double, and with [my] translucent form, to dwell
in this land. The God thereof is the lord of right and truth, he is
the lord of the _tchefau_ food of the gods, and he is most holy. His
land draweth unto itself every land; the South cometh sailing down the
river thereto, and the North, steered thither by winds, cometh daily
to make festival therein according to the command of the God thereof,
who is the Lord of peace therein. And doth he not say, 'The happiness
thereof is a care unto me'? The god who dwelleth therein worketh right
and truth; unto him that doeth these things he giveth old age, and to
him that followeth after them rank and honour, until at length he
attaineth unto a happy funeral and burial in the Holy Land" (_i.e._,
the underworld).
The deceased, having recited these words of prayer and adoration to
R[=a], the symbol of Almighty God, and to his son Osiris, next "cometh
forth into the Hall of Ma[=a]ti, that he may be separated from every sin
which he hath done, and may behold the faces of the gods." [Footnote:
This quotation is from the title of Chapter CXXV. of the Book of the
Dead.] From the earliest times the Ma[=a]ti were the two goddesses Isis
and Nephthys, and they were so called because they represented the ideas
of straightness, integrity, righteousness, what is right, the truth, and
such like; the word Ma[=a]t originally meant a measuring reed or stick.
They were supposed either to sit in the Hall of Ma[=a]t outside the
shrine of Osiris, or to stand by the side of this god in the shrine; an
example of the former position will be seen in the Papyrus of Ani (Plate
31), and of the latter in the Papyrus of Hunefer (Plate 4). The original
idea of the Hall of Ma[=a]t or Ma[=a]ti was that it contained forty-two
gods; a fact which we may see from the following passage in the
Introduction to Chapter CXXV. of the Book of the Dead. The deceased says
to Osiris:--
"Homage to thee, O thou great God, thou Lord of the two Ma[=a]t
goddesses! I have come to thee, O my Lord, and I have made myself to
come hither that I may behold thy beauties. I know thee, and I know
thy name, and I know the names of the two and forty gods who live with
thee in this Hall of Ma[=a]ti, who live as watchers of sinners and who
feed upon their blood on that day when the characters (_or_ lives) of
men are reckoned up (_or_ taken into account) in the presence of the
god Un-nefer. Verily, God of the Rekhti-Merti (_i.e._, the twin
sisters of the two eyes), the Lord of the city of Ma[=a]ti is thy
name. Verily I have come to thee, and I have brought Ma[=a]t unto
thee, and I have destroyed wickedness."
The deceased then goes on to enumerate the sins or offences which he has
not committed; and he concludes by saying: "I am pure; I am pure; I am
pure; I am pure. My purity is the purity of the great Bennu which is in
the city of Suten-henen (Heracleopolis), for, behold., I am the nostrils
of the God of breath, who maketh all mankind to live on the day when the
Eye of R[=a] is full in Annu (Heliopolis) at the end of the second month
of the season PERT. [Footnote: _i.e._, the last day of the sixth month
of the Egyptian year, called by the Copta Mekhir.] I have seen the Eye
of R[=a] when it was full in Annu; [Footnote: The allusion here seems to
be to the Summer or Winter Solstice.] therefore let not evil befall me
either in this land or in this Hall of Ma[=a]ti, because I, even I, know
the names of the gods who are therein."
Now as the gods who live in the Hall of Ma[=a]t with Osiris are two and
forty in number, we should expect that two and forty sins or offences
would be mentioned in the addresses which the deceased makes to them;
but this is not the case, for the sins enumerated in the Introduction
never reach this number. In the great illustrated papyri of the XVIIIth
and XIXth dynasties we find, however, that notwithstanding the fact that
a large number of sins, which the deceased declares he has not
committed, are mentioned in the Introduction, the scribes and artists
added a series of negative statements, forty-two in number, which they
set out in a tabular form. This, clearly, is an attempt to make the sins
mentioned equal in number to the gods of the Hall of Ma[=a]t, and it
would seem as if they preferred to compose an entirely new form of this
section of the one hundred and twenty-fifth chapter to making any
attempt to add to or alter the older section. The artists, then,
depicted a Hall of Ma[=a]t, the doors of which are wide open, and the
cornice of which is formed of uraei and feathers, symbolic of Ma[=a]t.
Over the middle of the cornice is a seated deity with hands extended,
the right over the Eye of Horus, and the left over a pool. At the end of
the Hall are seated the goddesses of Ma[=a]t, _i.e._, Isis and Nephthys,
the deceased adoring Osiris who is seated on a throne, a balance with
the heart of the deceased in one scale, and the feather, symbolic of
Ma[=a]t, in the other, and Thoth painting a large feather. In this Hall
sit the forty-two gods, and as the deceased passes by each, the deceased
addresses him by his name and at the same time declares that he has not
committed a certain sin. An examination of the different papyri shows
that the scribes often made mistakes in writing this list of gods and
list of sins, and, as the result, the deceased is made to recite before
one god the confession which strictly belongs to another. Inasmuch, as
the deceased always says after pronouncing the name of each god, "I have
not done" such and such a sin, the whole group of addresses has been
called the "Negative Confession." The fundamental ideas of religion and
morality which underlie this Confession are exceedingly old, and we may
gather from it with tolerable clearness what the ancient Egyptian
believed to constitute his duty towards God and towards his neighbour.
It is impossible to explain, the fact that forty-two gods only are
addressed, and equally so to say why this number was adopted. Some have
believed that the forty-two gods represented each a name of Egypt, and
much support is given to this view by the fact that most of the lists of
names make the number to be forty-two; but then, again, the lists do not
agree. The classical authors differ also, for by some of these writers
the names are said to be thirty-six in number, and by others forty-six
are enumerated. These differences may, however, be easily explained, for
the central administration may at any time have added to or taken from
the number of names for fiscal or other considerations, and we shall
probably be correct in assuming that at the time the Negative Confession
was drawn up in the tabular form in which we meet it in the XVIIIth
dynasty the names were forty-two in number. Support is also lent to this
view by the fact that the earliest form of the Confession, which forms
the Introduction to Chapter CXXV., mentions less than forty sins.
Incidentally we may notice that the forty-two gods are subservient to
Osiris, and that they only occupy a subordinate position in the Hall of
Judgment, for it is the result of the weighing of the heart of the
deceased in the balance that decides his future. Before passing to the
description of the Hall of Judgment where the balance is set, it is
necessary to give a rendering of the Negative Confession which,
presumably, the deceased recites before his heart is weighed in the
balance; it is made from the Papyrus of Nu. [Footnote: British Museum,
No. 10,477.]
1. "Hail Usekh-nemtet (_i.e._, Long of strides), who comest forth from
Anuu (Heliopolis), I have not done iniquity.
2. "Hail Hept-seshet (_i.e._, Embraced by flame), who comest forth
from Kher-[=a]ba, [Footnote: A city near Memphis.] I have not robbed
with violence.
3. "Hail Fenti (_i.e._, Nose), who comest forth from Khemennu
(Hermopolis), I have not done violence to any man.
4. "Hail [=A]m-khaibitu (_i.e._, Eater of shades), who comest forth
from the Qereret (_i.e._, the cavern where the Nile rises), I have not
committed theft.
5. "Hail Neha-bra (_i.e._, Stinking face), who comest forth from
Restau, I have slain neither man nor woman.
6. "Hail Rereti (_i.e._, Double Lion-god), who comest forth from
heaven, I have not made light the bushel.
7. "Hail Maata-f-em-seshet (_i.e._, Fiery eyes), who comest forth from
Sekhem (Letopolis), I have not acted deceitfully.
8. "Hail Neba (_i.e._, Flame), who comest forth and retreatest, I have
not purloined the things which belong unto God.
9. "Hail Set-qesu (_i.e._, Crusher of bones), who comest forth from
Suten-henen (Heracleopolis), I have not uttered falsehood.
10. "Hail Khemi (_i.e._, Overthrower), who comest forth from Shetait
(_i.e._, the hidden place), I have not carried off goods by force.
11. "Hail Uatch-nesert (_i.e._, Vigorous of Flame), who comest forth
from Het-ka-Ptah (Memphis), I have not uttered vile (_or_ evil) words.
12. "Hail Hra-f-ha-f (_i.e._, He whose face is behind him), who comest
forth from the cavern and the deep, I have not carried off food by
force.
13. "Hail Qerti (_i.e._, the double Nile source), who comest forth
from the Underworld, I have not acted deceitfully.
14. "Hail Ta-ret (_i.e._, Fiery-foot), who comest forth out of the
darkness, I have not eaten my heart (_i.e._ lost my temper and become
angry).
15. "Hail Hetch-abehu (_i.e._, Shining teeth), who comest forth from
Ta-she (_i.e._, the Fayyum), I have invaded no [man's land].
16. "Hail [=A]m-senef (_i.e._, Eater of blood), who comest forth from
the house of the block, I have not slaughtered animals which are the
possessions of God.
17. "Hail [=A]m-besek (_i.e._, Eater of entrails), who comest forth
from M[=a]bet, I have not laid waste the lands which have been
ploughed.
18. "Hail Neb-Ma[=a]t (_i.e._, Lord of Ma[=a]t), who comest forth from
the city of the two Ma[=a]ti, I have not pried into matters to make
mischief.
19. "Hail Thenemi (_i.e._, Retreater), who comest forth from Bast
(_i.e._, Bubastis), I have not set my mouth in motion against any man.
20. "Hail [=A]nti, who comest forth from Annu (Heliopolis), I have not
given way to wrath without due cause.
21. "Hail Tututef, who comest forth from the home of Ati, I have not
committed fornication, and I have not committed sodomy.
22. "Hail Uamemti, who comest forth from the house of slaughter, I
have not polluted myself.
23. "Hail Maa-ant-f (_i.e._, Seer of what is brought to him), who
comest forth from the house of the god Amsu, I have not lain with the
wife of a man.
24. "Hail Her-seru, who comest forth from Nehatu, I have not made any
man to be afraid.
25. "Hail Neb-Sekhem, who comest forth from the Lake of Kaui, I have
not made my speech to burn with anger. [Footnote: Literally, "I have
not been hot of mouth."]
26. "Hail Seshet-kheru (_i.e._, Orderer of speech), who comest forth
from Urit, I have not made myself deaf unto the words of right and
truth.
27. "Hail Nekhen (_i.e._, Babe), who comest forth from the Lake of
Heq[=a] t, I have not made another person to weep.
28. "Hail Kenemti, who comest forth from Kenemet, I have not uttered
blasphemies.
29. "Hail An-hetep-f (_i.e._, Bringer of his offering), who comest
forth from Sau, I have not acted with violence.
30. "Hail Ser-kheru (_i.e._, Disposer of Speech), who comest forth
from Unsi, I have not hastened my heart. [Footnote: _i.e._, acted
without due consideration.]
31. "Hail Neb-hrau (_i.e._, Lord of Faces), who comest forth from
Netchefet, I have not pierced (?) my skin (?), and I have not taken
vengeance on the god.
32. "Hail Serekhi, who comest forth from Uthent, I have not multiplied
my speech beyond what should be said.
33. "Hail Neb-abui (_i.e._, Lord of horns), who comest forth from
Sauti, I have not committed fraud, [and I have not] looked upon evil.
34. "Hail Nefer-Tem, who comest forth from Ptah-het-ka (Memphis), I
have never uttered curses against the king.
35. "Hail Tem-sep, who comest forth from Tattu, I have not fouled
running water.
36. "Hail Ari-em-ab-f, who comest forth from Tebti, I have not exalted
my speech.
37. "Hail Ahi, who comest forth from Nu, I have not uttered curses
against God.
38. "Hail Uatch-rekhit [who comest forth from his shrine (?)], I have
not behaved with insolence.
39. "Hail Neheb-nefert, who comest forth from his temple, I have not
made distinctions. [Footnote: _i.e._, I have not been guilty of
favouritism.]
40. "Hail Neheb-kau, who comest forth from thy cavern, I have not
increased my wealth except by means of such things as are mine own
possessions.
41. "Hail Tcheser-tep, who comest forth from thy shrine, I have not
uttered curses against that which belongeth to God and is with me.
42. "Hail An-[=a]-f (_i.e._, Bringer of his arm), [who comest forth
from Aukert], I have not thought scorn of the god of the city."
A brief examination of this "Confession" shows that the Egyptian code of
morality was very comprehensive, and it would be very hard to find an
act, the commission of which would be reckoned a sin when the
"Confession" was put together, which is not included under one or other
part of it. The renderings of the words for certain sins are not always
definite or exact, because we do not know the precise idea which the
framer of this remarkable document had. The deceased states that he has
neither cursed God, nor thought scorn of the god of his city, nor cursed
the king, nor committed theft of any kind, nor murder, nor adultery, nor
sodomy, nor crimes against the god of generation; he has not been
imperious or haughty, or violent, or wrathful, or hasty in deed, or a
hypocrite, or an accepter of persons, or a blasphemer, or crafty, or
avaricious, or fraudulent, or deaf to pious words, or a party to evil
actions, or proud, or puffed up; he has terrified no man, he has not
cheated in the market-place, and he has neither fouled the public
watercourse nor laid waste the tilled land of the community. This is, in
brief, the confession which the deceased makes; and the next act in the
Judgment Scene is weighing the heart of the deceased in the scales. As
none of the oldest papyri of the Book of the Dead supplies us with a
representation of this scene, we must have recourse to the best of the
illustrated papyri of the latter half of the XVIIIth and of the XIXth
dynasties. The details of the Judgment Scene vary greatly in various
papyri, but the essential parts of it are always preserved. The
following is the description of the judgment of Ani, as it appears in
his wonderful papyrus preserved in the British Museum.
In the underworld, and in that portion of it which is called the Hall of
Ma[=a]ti, is set a balance wherein the heart of the deceased is to be
weighed. The beam is suspended by a ring upon a projection from the
standard of the balance made in the form of the feather which is the
symbol of Ma[=a]t, or what is right and true. The tongue of the balance
is fixed to the beam, and when this is exactly level, the tongue is as
straight as the standard; if either end of the beam inclines downwards
the tongue cannot remain in a perpendicular position. It must be
distinctly understood that the heart which was weighed in the one scale
was not expected to make the weight which was in the other to kick the
beam, for all that was asked or required of the deceased was that his
heart should balance exactly the symbol of the law. The standard was
sometimes surmounted by a human head wearing the feather of Ma[=a]t;
sometimes by the head of a jackal, the animal sacred to Anubis; and
sometimes by the head of an ibis, the bird sacred to Thoth; in the
Papyrus of Ani a dog-headed ape, the associate of Thoth, sits on the top
of the standard. In some papyri (_e.g._, those of Ani [Footnote: About
B.C. 1500.] and Hunefer [Footnote: About B.C. 1370.]), in addition to
Osiris, the king of the underworld and judge of the dead, the gods of
his cycle or company appear as witnesses of the judgment. In the Papyrus
of the priestess Anhai [Footnote: About B.C. 1000.] in the British
Museum the great and the little companies of the gods appear as
witnesses, but the artist was so careless that instead of nine gods in
each group he painted six in one and five in the other. In the Turin
papyrus [Footnote: Written in the Ptolemaic period.] we see the whole of
the forty-two gods, to whom the deceased recited the [Illustration: The
weighing of the heart of the scribe Ani in the Balance in the presence
of the gods.] "Negative Confession," seated in the judgment-hall. The
gods present at the weighing of Ani's heart are--
1. R[=A]-HARMACHIS, hawk-headed, the Sun-god of the dawn and of noon.
2. TEMU, the Sun-god of the evening, the great god of Heliopolis. He
is depicted always in human form and with the face of a man, a fact
which proves that he had at a very early period passed through all the
forms in which gods are represented, and had arrived at that of a man.
He has upon his head the crowns of the South and North.
3. SHU, man-headed, the son of R[=a] and Hathor, the personification
of the sunlight.
4. TEFNUT, lion-headed, the twin-sister of Shu, the personification of
moisture.
5. SEB, man-headed, the son of Shu, the personification of the earth.
6. NUT, woman-headed, the female counterpart of the gods Nu and Seb;
she was the personification of the primeval water, and later of the
sky.
7. ISIS, woman-headed, the sister-wife of Osiris, and mother of Horus.
8. NEPHTHYS, woman-headed, the sister-wife of Osiris, and mother of
Anubis.
9. HORUS, the "great god," hawk-headed, whose worship was probably the
oldest in Egypt.
10. HATHOR, woman-headed, the personification of that portion of the
sky where the sun rose and set.
11. HU, man-headed, and
12. SA, also man-headed; these gods are present in the boat of R[=a]
in the scenes which depict the creation.
On one side of the balance kneels the god Anubis, jackal-headed, who
holds the weight of the tongue of the balance in his right hand, and
behind him stands Thoth, the scribe of the gods, ibis-headed, holding in
his hands a reed wherewith to write down the result of the weighing.
Near him is seated the tri-formed beast [=A]m-mit, the, "Eater of the
Dead," who waits to devour the heart of Ani should it be found to be
light. In the Papyrus of Neb-qet at Paris this beast is seen lying by
the side of a lake of fire, at each corner of which is seated a
dog-headed ape; this lake is also seen in Chapter CXXVI. of the Book of
the Dead. The gods who are seated before a table of offerings, and
Anubis, and Thoth, and [=A]m-mit, are the beings who conduct the case,
so to speak, against Ani. On the other side of the balance stand Ani and
his wife Thuthu with their heads reverently bent; they are depicted in
human form, and wear garments and ornaments similar to those which they
wore upon earth. His soul, in the form of a man-headed hawk standing
upon a pylon, is present, also a man-headed, rectangular object,
resting upon a pylon, which has frequently been supposed to represent
the deceased in an embryonic state. In the Papyrus of Anhai two of these
objects appear, one on each side of the balance; they are described as
Shai and Renenet, two words which are translated by "Destiny" and
"Fortune" respectively. It is most probable, as the reading of the name
of the object is _Meskhenet_, and as the deity Meskhenet represents
sometimes both Shai and Renenet, that the artist intended the object to
represent both deities, even though we find the god Shai standing below
it close to the standard of the balance. Close by the soul stand two
goddesses called Meskhenet and Renenet respectively; the former is,
probably, one of the four goddesses who assisted at the resurrection of
Osiris, and the latter the personification of Fortune, which has already
been included under the _Meskhenet_ object above, the personification of Destiny. |
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