Egyptian Ideas of the Future Life by E. A. Wallis Budge

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"Thou art crowned Prince of heaven, and thou art the One [dowered with
all sovereignty] who appearest in the sky. R[=a] is he who is true of
voice. [Footnote: _i.e._, whatsoever R[=a] commandeth taketh place
straightway; see the Chapter on the Judgment of the Dead, p. 110.]
Hail, thou divine youth, thou heir of everlastingness, thou
self-begotten One! Hail, thou who didst give thyself birth! Hail, One,
thou mighty being, of myriad forms and aspects, thou king of the
world, prince of Annu (Heliopolis), lord of eternity, and ruler of
everlastingness! The company of the gods rejoice when thou risest and
dost sail across the sky, O thou who art exalted in the Sektet boat."

"Homage to thee, O Amen-R[=a], [Footnote: On the god Amen, see the
chapter, "The Gods of the Egyptians."] who dost rest upon Maat;
[Footnote: _i.e._, "thy existence, and thy risings and settings are
ordered and defined by fixed, unchanging, and unalterable law."] thou
passest over heaven and every face seeth thee. Thou dost wax great as
thy Majesty doth advance, and thy rays are upon all faces. Thou art
unknown, and no tongue can declare thy likeness; thou thyself alone
[canst do this]. Thou art One... Men praise thee in thy name, and they
swear by thee, for thou art lord over them. Thou hearest with thine
ears, and thou seest with thine eyes. Millions of years have gone over
the world. I cannot tell the number of those through which thou hast
passed. Thy heart hath decreed a day of happiness in thy name of
'Traveller.' Thou dost pass over and dost travel through untold spaces
[requiring] millions and hundreds of thousands of years [to pass
over]; thou passest through them in peace, and thou steerest thy way
across the watery abyss to the place which thou lovest; this thou
doest in one little moment of time, and then thou dost sink down and
dost make an end of the hours."

III. FROM THE PAPYRUS OF ANI. [Footnote: Plate 20.]

The following beautiful composition, part hymn and part prayer, is of
exceptional interest.

"Hail, thou Disk, thou lord of rays, who risest on the horizon day by
day! Shine thou with thy beams of light upon the face of Osiris Ani,
who is true of voice; for he singeth hymns of praise unto thee at
dawn, and he maketh thee to set at eventide with words of adoration,
May the soul of Ani come forth with thee into heaven, may he go forth
in the M[=a]tet boat, may he come into port in the Sektet boat, and
may he cleave his path among the never-resting stars in the heavens.

"Osiris Ani, being in peace and triumph, adoreth his lord, the lord of
eternity, saying, 'Homage to thee, O Heru-Khuti (Harmachis), who art
the god Khepera, the self-created one; when thou risest on the horizon
and sheddest thy beams of light upon the lands of the North and of the
South, thou art beautiful, yea beautiful, and all the gods rejoice
when they behold thee, the king of heaven. The goddess Nebt-Unnut is
stablished upon thy head; and her uraei of the South and of the North
are upon thy brow; she taketh up her place before thee. The god. Thoth
is stablished in the bows of thy boat to destroy utterly all thy foes.
Those who are in the Tuat (underworld) come forth to meet thee, and
they bow low in homage as they come towards thee, to behold thy
beautiful form. And I have come before thee that I may be with thee to
behold thy Disk each day. May I not be shut up [in the tomb], may I
not be turned back, may the limbs of my body be made new again when I
view thy beauties, even as [are those of] all thy favoured ones,
because I am one of those who worshipped thee upon earth. May I come
unto the land of eternity, may I come even unto the everlasting land,
for behold, O my lord, this hast thou ordained for me.'

"'Homage to thee, O thou who risest in thy horizon as R[=a], thou
restest upon Ma[=a]t, [Footnote: _i.e._, unchanging and unalterable
law.] Thou passest over the sky, and every face watcheth thee and thy
course, for thou hast been hidden from their gaze. Thou dost show
thyself at dawn and at eventide day by day. The Sektet boat, wherein,
is thy Majesty, goeth forth with might; thy beams are upon [all]
faces; thy rays of red and yellow cannot be known, and thy bright
beams cannot be told. The lands of the gods and the eastern lands of
Punt [Footnote: _i.e._, the east and west coasts of the Red Sea, and
the north-east coast of Africa.] must be seen ere that which, is
hidden [in thee] may be measured. [Footnote: I am doubtful about the
meaning of this passage.] Alone and by thyself thou, dost manifest
thyself [when] thou comest into being above Nu. May I advance, even as
thou dost advance; may I never cease [to go forward], even as thy
Majesty ceaseth not [to go forward], even though it be for a moment;
for with strides dost thou in one brief moment pass over spaces which
[man] would need hundreds of thousand; yea, millions of years to pass
over; [this] thou doest, and then thou dost sink to rest. Thou puttest
an end to the hours of the night, and thou dost count them, even thou;
thou endest them in thine own appointed season, and the earth,
becometh light, Thou settest thyself before thy handiwork in the
likeness of R[=a]; thou risest in the horizon.'

"Osiris; the scribe Ani, declareth his praise of thee when thou
shinest, and when thou risest at dawn he crieth in his joy at thy
birth, saying:--

"'Thou art crowned with the majesty of thy beauties; thou mouldest thy
limbs as thou dost advance, and thou bringest them forth without
birth-pangs in the form of R[=a], as thou dost rise up in the
celestial height. Grant thou that I may come unto the heaven which is
everlasting, and unto the mountain where dwell thy favoured ones. May
I be joined unto those shining beings, holy and perfect, who are in
the underworld; and may I come forth with them to behold thy beauties
when thou shinest at eventide, and goest to thy mother Nut. Thou dost
place thyself in the west, and my hands adore [thee] when thou settest
as a living being. [Footnote: _i.e._, "because when thou settest thou
dost not die."] Behold, thou art the everlasting creator, and thou art
adored [as such when] thou settest in the heavens. I have given my
heart to thee without wavering, O thou who art mightier than the
gods.'

"A hymn of praise to thee, O thou who risest like unto gold, and who
dost flood the world with light on the day of thy birth. Thy mother
giveth thee birth, and straightway thou dost give light upon the path
of [thy] Disk, O thou great Light who shinest in the heavens. Thou
makest the generations of men to flourish through the Nile-flood, and
thou dost cause gladness to exist in all lands, and in, all cities,
and in all temples. Thou art glorious by reason of thy splendours, and
thou makest strong thy KA (_i.e._ Double) with, divine foods, O thou
mighty one of victories, thou Power of Powers, who dost make strong
thy throne against evil fiends--thou who art glorious in Majesty in
the Sektet boat, and most mighty in the [=A]tet [Footnote: The Sun's
evening and morning boats respectively.] boat!" This selection may be
fittingly closed by a short hymn [Footnote: From the Papyrus of Nekht
(Brit. Mus. No. 10,471).] which, though, of a later date, reproduces
in a brief form all the essentials of the longer hymns of the XVIIIth
dynasty (about B.C. 1700 to 1400).

"Homage to thee, O thou glorious Being, thou who art dowered [with all
sovereignty]. O Temu-Harma-chis, [Footnote: The evening and morning
sun respectively.] when thou risest in the horizon of heaven, a cry of
joy cometh forth, to thee from the mouth of all peoples, O thou
beautiful Being, thou dost renew thyself in thy season in the form of
the Disk within thy mother Hathor; [Footnote: Like Nut, a goddess of
the sky, but particularly of that portion of it in which the sun
rises.] therefore in every place every heart swelleth with joy at thy
rising for ever. The regions of the North and South come to thee with
homage, and send forth, acclamations at thy rising in the horizon of
heaven; thou illuminest the two lands with rays of turquoise light.
Hail, R[=a], thou who art R[=a]-Harmachis, thou divine man-child, heir
of eternity, self-begotten and self-born, king of the earth, prince of
the underworld, governor of the regions of Aukert (_i.e._ the
underworld)! Thou didst come forth, from the water, thou hast sprung
from the god Nu, who cherisheth thee and ordereth thy members. Hail,
god of life, thou lord of love, all men live when thou shinest; thou
art crowned king of the gods. The goddess Nut doeth homage unto thee,
and the goddess Ma[=a]t embraceth thee at all times. Those who are in
thy following sing unto thee with joy and bow down their foreheads to
the earth when they meet thee, thou lord of heaven, thou lord of
earth, thou king of Right and Truth, thou lord of eternity, thou
prince of everlastingness, thou sovereign of all the gods, thou god of
life, thou creator of eternity, thou maker of heaven, wherein thou art
firmly established. The company of the gods rejoice at thy rising, the
earth is glad when it beholdeth thy rays; the peoples that have been
long dead come forth with cries of joy to see thy beauties every day.
Thou goest forth each day over heaven and earth, and art made strong
each day by thy mother Nut. Thou passest through the heights of
heaven, thy heart swelleth with joy; the abyss of the sky is content
thereat. The Serpent-fiend hath fallen, his arms are hewn off, and the
knife hath cut asunder his joints, R[=a] liveth in Ma[=a]t the
beautiful. The Sektet boat draweth on and cometh into port; the South
and the North, the West and the East, turn, to praise thee, O thou
primeval substance of the earth who didst come into being of thine own
accord, Isis and Nephthys salute thee, they sing unto thee songs of
joy at thy rising in the boat, they protect thee with their hands. The
souls of the East follow thee, the souls of the West praise thee. Thou
art the ruler of all the gods, and thou hast joy of heart within thy
shrine; for the Serpent-fiend Nak hath been condemned to the fire, and
thy heart shall be joyful for ever."

From the considerations set forth in the preceding pages, and from the
extracts from religious texts of various periods, and from the hymns
quoted, the reader may himself judge the views which the ancient
Egyptian held concerning God Almighty and his visible type and symbol
R[=a], the Sun-god. Egyptologists differ in their interpretations of
certain passages, but agree as to general facts. In dealing with the
facts it cannot be too clearly understood that the religious ideas of
the prehistoric Egyptian were very different from those of the cultured
priest of Memphis in the IInd dynasty, or those of the worshippers of
Temu or Atum, the god of the setting sun, in the IVth dynasty. The
editors of religious texts of all periods have retained many grossly
superstitious and coarse beliefs, which they knew well to be the
products of the imaginations of their savage, or semi-savage ancestors,
not because they themselves believed in them, or thought that the laity
to whom they ministered would accept them, but because of their
reverence for inherited traditions. The followers of every great
religion in the world have never wholly shaken off all the superstitions
which they have in all generations inherited from their ancestors; and
what is true of the peoples of the past is true, in a degree, of the
peoples of to-day. In the East the older the ideas, and beliefs, and
traditions, are, the more sacred they become; but this has not prevented
men there from developing high moral and spiritual conceptions and
continuing to believe in them, and among such must be counted the One,
self-begotten, and self-existent God whom the Egyptians worshipped.

CHAPTER II.

OSIRIS THE GOD OF THE RESURRECTION.

The Egyptians of every period in which they are known to us believed
that Osiris was of divine origin, that he suffered death and mutilation
at the hands of the powers of evil, that after a great struggle with
these powers he rose again, that he became henceforth the king of the
underworld and judge of the dead, and that because he had conquered
death the righteous also might conquer death; and they raised Osiris to
such an exalted position in heaven that he became the equal and, in
certain cases, the superior of R[=a], the Sun-god, and ascribed to him
the attributes which belong unto God. However far back we go, we find
that these views about Osiris are assumed to be known to the reader of
religious texts and accepted by him, and in the earliest funeral book
the position of Osiris in respect of the other gods is identical with
that which he is made to hold in the latest copies of the Book of the
Dead. The first writers of the ancient hieroglyphic funeral texts and
their later editors have assumed so completely that the history of
Osiris was known unto all men, that none of them, as far as we know,
thought it necessary to write down a connected narrative of the life and
sufferings upon earth of this god, or if they did, it has not come down
to us. Even in the Vth dynasty we find Osiris and the gods of his cycle,
or company, occupying a peculiar and special place in the compositions
written for the benefit of the dead, and the stone and other monuments
which belong to still earlier periods mention ceremonies the performance
of which assumed the substantial accuracy of the history of Osiris as
made known to us by later writers. But we have a connected history of
Osiris which, though not written in Egyptian, contains so much that is
of Egyptian origin that we may be sure that its author drew his
information from Egyptian sources: I refer to the work, _De Iside et
Osiride_, of the Greek writer, Plutarch, who flourished about the middle
of the first century of our era. In it, unfortunately, Plutarch
identifies certain of the Egyptian gods with the gods of the Greeks, and
he adds a number of statements which rest either upon his own
imagination, or are the results of misinformation. The translation
[Footnote: _Plutarchi de Iside et Osirids liber: Graece et Anglice_. By
S. Squire, Cambridge, 1744.] by Squire runs as follows:--

"Rhea, [Footnote: _i.e._, Nut.] say they, having accompanied Saturn
[Footnote: _i.e._, Seb.] by stealth, was discovered by the Sun,
[Footnote: _i.e._, R[=a].] who hereupon denounced a curse upon her,
'that she should not he delivered in any month or year'--Mercury,
however, being likewise in love with the same goddess, in recompense
of the favours which he had received from her, plays at tables with
the Moon, and wins from her the seventieth part of each of her
illuminations; these several parts, mating in the whole five days, he
afterwards joined together, and added to the three hundred and sixty,
of which the year formerly consisted, which days therefore are even
yet called by the Egyptians the Epact or superadded, and observed by
them as the birthdays of their gods. For upon the first of them, say
they, was OSIRIS born, just at whose entrance into the world a voice
was heard, saying, 'The lord of all the earth is born.' There are some
indeed who relate this circumstance in a different manner, as that a
certain person, named Pamyles, as he was fetching water from the
temple of Jupiter at Thebes, heard a voice commanding him to proclaim
aloud that 'the good and great king Osiris was then born'; and that
for this reason Saturn committed the education of the child to him,
and that in memory of this event the Pamylia were afterwards
instituted, a festival much resembling the Phalliphoria or Priapeia of
the Greeks. Upon the second of these days was AROUERIS [Footnote:
_i.e._, Hera-ur, "Horus the Elder."] born, whom some call Apollo, and
others distinguish by the name of the elder Orus. Upon the third Typho
[Footnote: _i.e._, Set.] came into the world, being born neither at
the proper time, nor by the proper place, but forcing his way through
a wound which he had made in his mother's side. ISIS was born upon the
fourth of them in the marshes of Egypt, as NEPTHYS was upon the last,
whom some call Teleute and Aphrodite, and others Nike--Now as to the
fathers of these children, the two first of them are said to have been
begotten by the Sun, Isis by Mercury, Typho and Nepthys by Saturn; and
accordingly, the third of these superadded days, because it was looked
upon as the birthday of Typho, was regarded by the kings as
inauspicious, and consequently they neither transacted any business on
it, or even suffered themselves to take any refreshment until the
evening. They further add, that Typho married Nepthys; and that Isis
and Osiris, having a mutual affection, loved each other in their
mother's womb before they were born, and that from this commerce
sprang Aroueris, whom the Egyptians likewise call the elder Orus, and
the Greeks Apollo.

"Osiris, being now become king of Egypt, applied himself towards
civilizing his countrymen, by turning them from their former indigent
and barbarous course of life; he moreover taught them how to cultivate
and improve the fruits of the earth; he gave them a body of laws to
regulate their conduct by, and instructed them in that reverence and
worship which they were to pay to the gods. With the same good
disposition he afterwards travelled over the rest of the world
inducing the people everywhere to submit to his discipline; not indeed
compelling them by force of arms, but persuading them to yield to the
strength of his reasons, which were conveyed to them in the most
agreeable manner, in hymns and songs, accompanied by instruments of
music: from which last circumstance the Greeks conclude him to have
been the same with their Dionysius or Bacchus--During Osiris' absence
from his kingdom, Typho had no opportunity of making any innovations
in the state, Isis being extremely vigilant in the government, and
always upon her guard. After his return, however, having first
persuaded seventy-two other persons to join with him in the
conspiracy, together with a certain queen of Ethiopia named Aso, who
chanced to be in Egypt at that time, he contrived a proper stratagem
to execute his base designs. For having privily taken the measure of
Osiris' body, he caused a chest to be made exactly of the same size
with it, as beautiful as may be, and set off with all the ornaments of
art. This chest he brought into his banqueting-room; where, after it
had been much admired by all who were present, Typho, as it were in
jest, promised to give it to any one of them whose body upon trial it
might be found to fit. Upon this the whole company one after another,
go into it; but as it did not fit any of them, last of all Osiris lays
himself down in it, upon which the conspirators immediately ran
together, clapped the cover upon it, and then fastened it down on the
outside with nails, pouring likewise melted lead over it. After this
they carried it away to the river side, and conveyed it to the sea by
the Tanaitic mouth of the Nile; which, for this reason, is still held
in the utmost abomination by the Egyptians, and never named by them
but with proper marks of detestation. These things, say they, were
thus executed upon the 17th [Footnote: In the Egyptian calendar this
day was marked triply unlucky.] day of the month Athyr, when the sun
was in Scorpio, in the 28th year of Osiris' reign; though there are
others who tell us that he was no more than 28 years old at this time.

"The first who knew the accident which had befallen their king were
the Pans and Satyrs who inhabited the country about Chemmis
(Panopolis); and they immediately acquainting the people with the news
gave the first occasion to the name Panic Terrors, which has ever
since been made use of to signify any sudden affright or amazement of
a multitude. As to Isis, as soon as the report reached her she
immediately cut off one of the locks of her hair, [Footnote: The hair
cut off as a sign of mourning was usually laid in the tomb of the
dead.] and put on mourning apparel upon the very spot where she then
happened to be, which accordingly from this accident has ever since
been called Koptis, or _the city of mourning_, though some are of
opinion that this word rather signifies _deprivation_. After this she
wandered everywhere about the country full of disquietude and
perplexity in search, of the chest, inquiring of every person she met
with, even, of some children whom she chanced to see, whether they
knew what was become of it. Now it happened that these children had
seen what Typho's accomplices had done with the body, and accordingly
acquainted her by what mouth of the Nile it had been conveyed into the
sea--For this reason therefore the Egyptians look upon children as
endued with a kind of faculty of divining, and in consequence of this
notion are very curious in observing the accidental prattle which they
have with one another whilst they are at play (especially if it be in
a sacred place), forming omens and presages from it--Isis, during this
interval, having been informed that Osiris, deceived by her sister
Nepthys who was in love with him, had unwittingly united with her
instead of herself, as she concluded from the melilot-garland,
[Footnote: _i.e._, a wreath of clover.] which he had left with her,
made it her business likewise to search out the child, the fruit of
this unlawful commerce (for her sister, dreading the anger of her
husband Typho, had exposed it as soon as it was born), and
accordingly, after much pains and difficulty, by means of some dogs
that conducted her to the place where it was, she found it and bred it
up; so that in process of time it became her constant guard and
attendant, and from hence obtained the name of Anubis, being thought
to watch and guard the gods, as dogs do mankind.

"At length she receives more particular news of the chest, that it had
been carried by the waves of the sea to the coast of Byblos,
[Footnote: Not the Byblos of Syria (Jebel) but the papyrus swamps of
the Delta.] and there gently lodged in the branches of a bush of
Tamarisk, which, in a short time, had shot up into a large and
beautiful tree, growing round the chest and enclosing it on every
side, so that it was not to be seen; and farther, that the king of the
country, amazed at its unusual size, had cut the tree down, and made
that part of the trunk wherein the chest was concealed, a pillar to
support; the roof of his house. These things, say they, being made
known to Isis in an extraordinary manner by the report of Demons, sue
immediately went to Byblos; where, setting herself down by the side of
a fountain, she refused to speak to anybody, excepting only to the
queen's women who chanced to be there; these indeed she saluted and
caressed in the kindest manner possible, plaiting their hair for them,
and transmitting into them part of that wonderfully grateful odour
which issued from her own body. This raised a great desire in the
queen their mistress to see the stranger who had this admirable
faculty of transfusing so fragrant a smell from herself into the hair
and skin of other people. She therefore sent for her to court, and,
after a further acquaintance with her, made her nurse to one of her
sons. Now the name of the king who reigned at this time at Byblos, was
Meloarthus, as that of his queen was Astarte, or, according to others,
Saosis, though some call her Nemanoun, which answers to the Greek name
Athenais.

"Isis fed the child by giving it her finger to suck instead of the
breast; she likewise put him every night into the fire in order to
consume his mortal part, whilst transforming herself into a swallow,
she hovered round the pillar and bemoaned her sad fate. Thus continued
she to do for some time, till the queen, who stood watching her,
observing the child to be all in a flame, cryed out, and thereby
deprived him of that immortality which would otherwise have been
conferred upon him. The Goddess upon this, discovering herself,
requested that the pillar, which supported the roof, might be given
her; which she accordingly took down, and then easily cutting it open,
after she had taken, out what she wanted, she wrapped up the remainder
of the trunk in fine linnen, and pouring perfumed oil upon it,
delivered it again into the hands of the king and queen (which piece
of wood is to this day preserved in the temple of Isis, and worshipped
by the people of Byblos). When this was done, she threw herself upon
the chest, making at the same time such a loud and terrible
lamentation over it, as frightened the younger of the king's sons, who
heard her, out of his life. But the elder of them she took with, her
and set sail with the chest for Egypt; and it being now about morning,
the river Phaedrus sending forth a rough and sharp air, she in her
anger dried up its current.

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