History 313: Ancient Egyptian History

Monday, November 27, 2006

Ian Ford-Terry

Accessing the Afterlife

“As for any person who knows this spell, He will be like Re in the Eastern sky,
Like Osiris in the Netherworld. He will go down to the circle of fire
Without the flame touching him ever!”
–From the Coffin Texts, CT 1031
(Lichtheim , vol. 1, p. 133)

Herodotus has called Egypt “Gift of the Nile,” owing to the Egyptians’ abundance

of resources gifted to them by the annual flooding of the Nile’s river banks. This

abundance is thought to have allowed the Egyptians the opportunity to flourish in the arts

and to devote a great deal of time and resources to the development of Egyptian culture,

much of which appears to be associated with funerary cults and the perpetuation of life

after death. Despite parasitic diseases and other hardships caused by living in a sandy,

arid climate, John H. Taylor writes that “it was… out of a love of life that ancient

Egyptians derived their firm belief in a life after death,”1 and moreover that “it was…

[this firm belief] which provided the motivation for the building of the pyramids [as well

as] the spectacular funerary monuments which have drawn visitors to the banks of the

Nile from the classical era to the present day.” 2 It is this belief in the afterlife as well as

the gradual assimilation of afterlife accessibility by the Egyptian people which I shall

treat in this paper, paying close attention to the changing mythological emphases

involved through the course of the development of the Egyptian funerary texts (sakhu). I

will especially examine the role of the mythological cycle of Osiris as it allows for an

1
Taylor, John H., Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt. (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 2001), 11-12.
2
ibid, p. 12.
accessibility to the archetype of resurrection more easily available to the ordinary

Egyptian citizen on account of his anthropomorphic mortality.

Before a discussion can take place on the development of the Egyptian afterlife

from the Old Kingdom funerary texts to those of the New Kingdom, perhaps it would be

prudent to address the Egyptian concept of the constitution of the individual as it

concerns their survival of the process of death. Firstly, in order to achieve immortality, a

transfigured state of existence needed to be attained in which the deceased had

successfully integrated themselves into the eternal, cyclical patterns of the universe.

There were many different ways of achieving this, but according to Taylor the essential

idea was that they gave rise to a god-like effective body – called akh – which identified

the deceased with the gods who possessed the powers of creation and regeneration, and

who in their turn conferred some of their power onto the deceased and enabled him or her

to overcome death and rise again to new life.3

This integration could not occur, however, without first having successfully

integrated the composite aspects of one’s being4 after their separation at the moment of

death. These composite aspects consisted of both physical and non-physical elements,

which the Egyptians called kheperu (“manifestations”), but which Taylor feels “might be

more accurately described as ‘aspects’ or ‘modes’ of human existence.” 5 In this respect,

the various “aspects” of existence which the Egyptians felt collectively constituted the

human being were the body and the heart, and the ka and the ba.6

It was of prime importance that the physical body be preserved in the form of a

perfected image, or sah, of the deceased so that it could function as the place of
3
ibid, p. 31-32.
4
Specifically, one’s ka and one’s ba.
5
ibid, p. 16.
6
Also of equal importance but less pertinent to our discussion are the name and the shadow.
habitation for the ka and the ba, both of which were thought to have been those aspects of

oneself which separated from the deceased at the moment of death. The heart, on the

other hand, functioned as the center of one’s being as well as the means by which one

could control one’s bodily faculties in the afterlife. 7 The ka was that part of the deceased

chiefly responsible for keeping the individual alive through the intake of the life-

sustaining nourishment contained in the food offerings provided by servants of the

mortuary cult, and which inhabited either the mummified sah of the deceased or a serdab

statue while feeding. The ba was granted nearly unlimited freedom of movement and also

separated from the deceased at the moment of death. Taylor writes,

“While the corpse remained inert in the tomb (which was frequently
equated with the netherworld), the ba was able to fly away to visit the world of the
living, or to ascend to the sky to travel with the sun god in his barque… [the]
union of ba and corpse produced resurrection, just as the uniting of the sun god
and Osiris in the underworld each night rejuvenated both gods.”

With the importance of the unification of the dispersed elements of one’s being

thus aligned with a mythical context, it is perhaps useful to examine the mythical and

theological backdrop in which occur the major thematic elements of the deceased’s

becoming akh. According to Rudolf Anthes, the concept of a “great” or “universal” god

arose in response to the unification of Egypt in the beginning of the 3 rd millennium

B.C.E., where the king of Egypt was simultaneously seen as the god Horus of the

heavens and as the god-king Horus on earth.8 In addition, when the king died he became

the god Osiris, father of Horus, who in turn regenerated his father at the time of his own

death. Thus these two became inextricably linked and were identified with one another

from the very beginning of Egyptian history in accordance to what Anthes calls the

7
ibid, p. 17.
8
Anthes, Rudolf, “Egyptian Theology in the Third Millenium B.C.” Journal of Near
Eastern Studies 18, no. 3 (1959): p. 178.
“pedigree of the gods,” or the “lineage of Horus.”9 As of 2550 B.C.E., however, the sun

god Re begins to succeed Horus as the highest god, being as he was seen to be

exclusively the sun and the ruler of the universe, while the earthly king was the son of

Re.10 Nevertheless, Anthes states that “Re in the new concept corresponds with the

Horus-Osiris king in the old concept, either [of them] being the highest god.” 11 Both of

these gods (Horus-Osiris seen as a single entity complex), however, are pertinent to the

transfiguration of the deceased Egyptian, both king and otherwise, inasmuch as they are

continually seen throughout Egyptian history as being the gods of regeneration and

resurrection par excellence.12

As the pharaoh is viewed in the early dynastic periods as the god Horus on earth

and following his death to be taking his place as the god Horus of the heavens, the

Pyramid Texts, being part of a collective body of funerary literature known throughout

Egyptian history collectively as sakhu, meaning “that which makes akh,”13 seem to be

especially aimed towards transfiguration of the deceased king by assisting him in his

ascent to the sky to be received by the divinities in that realm. 14 It is here, in the Pyramid

Texts, that we begin to see the mythological motifs which will characterize much of the

sakhu from the Old Kingdom through the New Kingdom. Among these motifs was the

transfiguration of the deceased via his integration into the effective forces of nature, a

necessary act on the part of the god king whose divine functions on behalf of Egypt

would certainly continue after death. This act is in accordance with the already well-
9
ibid, p. 173.
10
ibid, p. 176.
11
ibid, p. 177.
12
ibid, p. 192.
13
Taylor, John H., Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt. (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 2001), 193.
14
Hornung, Erik, The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife.(Ithaca:
Cornell University Press, 1999), 5.
established mythological cycles of Osiris and Horus from which Anthe’s theory of the

“lineage of Horus” was derived. In fact, Anthes goes as far as to assert that “The

mythological concept concerning Osiris and Isis, Horus and Seth, existed in the form of a

tale of logical continuity already in the time when the Pyramid Texts were cut in stone.”15

These texts describe the deceased king, often identified with Osiris, and his

struggle through a still developing topography of the netherworld to “emerge from his

tomb and either to be accepted by Re as his peer in heaven or to replace Re.” 16 The latter

was most probably true in the case of Unas, where he is said to have superseded Osiris

and become a “Lone Star,” looking “down on Osiris, as he commands the spirits, while

you stand far from him; you are not among them, you shall not be among them!” 17 This is

one case where Osiris is not equated with the “lord of the sky,” 18 but rather as the “lord of

the Netherworld,” a function which he will hold in future developments of Egyptian

funerary texts. Anthes states that “when Re was acknowledged as the lord of heaven, no

space in heaven was left for Osiris,”19 and moreover, that

“This concept changed with the breakdown of the social order of the Old
Kingdom, about 2300 B.C.E., from which the individual consciousness emerged.
From then on it was no longer the acknowledgment of his contemporaries which
proved the righteousness of man. He then had to fit into a divine order which was
no longer mirrored on earth. He had to answer to god for the deeds of his life
after death. Thus the god Osiris, who was then no longer the deceased king,
became the judge in a trial in the beyond, to which every man was subjected.” 20

Thus as the Egyptian centralized government deteriorated from within, the exclusive

royal claim to the enjoyment of the afterlife was relinquished to a greater portion of the

15
Anthes, Rudolf, “Egyptian Theology in the Third Millenium B.C.” Journal of Near
Eastern Studies 18, no. 3 (1959): 208.
16
ibid, p. 182.
17
Lichtheim, Miriam, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I. (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2006), 33.
18
whereas he is often enough in the Pyramid Texts.
19
Anthes, Rudolf, “Egyptian Theology in the Third Millenium B.C.” Journal of Near
Eastern Studies 18, no. 3 (1959): 182.
20
ibid.
population, at first mostly government officials and their families, but it became

increasingly clear that, “for the first time… all Egyptians, and not the king alone, could

attain divine status in the afterlife.”21

In this socio-political context, a new development in funerary texts – the Coffin

Texts – took place in which the spells from the Pyramid Texts were adapted and added to

from various sources, allowing for the transfiguration of the nomarchs and their families

who were buried in the coffins wherein these texts were inscribed. That these texts were

located on the coffins themselves, rather than on the walls of pyramids, are but one of the

distinguishing features of these sakhu. While the organization is similar to the Pyramid

Texts, the Coffin Texts conceptualize the afterlife in a much more vivid form, developing

“the notion of the two main contrasting concepts of the afterlife: the heavenly travels of

the ba, and the existence in the earthly netherworld, through the preservation of the

corpse and the nourishing of the ka.” 22

Moreover, they began to describe the territory of the netherworld and even

included illustrations so as to orient the deceased in the afterlife according to a

cosmography which was becoming more developed at this time. Hornung states that the

Book of Two Ways was “the first real guide to the hereafter,” and comments that “the

book represented the results of government-funded research into the hereafter and was

supposed to convey to the dead the knowledge necessary for them to make their way

home without going astray.” 23 As a result, Osiris and the territories over which he

presides began to receive special attention in the Coffin Texts, and in the Book of Two

21
Taylor, John H., Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt. (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 2001), 194.
22
ibid, p. 195.
23
Hornung, Erik, The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife.(Ithaca:
Cornell University Press, 1999), 11.
Ways, the deceased, having journeyed through the many dangers which lay in wait for

him in the underworld, encounters the corpse of Osiris in the region of Rosetau, and,

gazing upon the deceased god attains immortality, for “whoever gazes upon the deceased

Osiris cannot die.”24

Still later, in the New Kingdom, Osiris and his underworld begin to feature even

more prominently, since the need for the individual reconciliation with the divine

authorities becomes greater as the persons utilizing the sakhu become more diversified. A

most obvious example of this is the 125 th chapter of the Book of Coming Forth by Day,

where the deceased declare their innocence in the form of a negative confession and

subsequently have their hearts weighed against the feather of Ma’at in the “Hall of Two

Truths,” presided over by Osiris. That these are more ordinary people making these

confessions becomes evident when one considers the nature of the confessions being

made. Statements such as “I have not seized food… I have not trespassed… I have not

stolen bread rations… I have not wanted more than I had,” 25 seem to indicate that these

are not kings or nobles making these statements, but rather more ordinary Egyptian

citizens who are attempting to clear their good names before the gods so as to be allowed

access to a pleasurable existence among the gods and akhu in the afterlife.

Additionally, the New Kingdom Books of the Underworld26 emphasize the crucial

relationship between Osiris and the sun god in their depiction of the journey of the sun

god in his solar barque through the twelve hours of the underworld. The most important

episode in this journey was the 5 th hour of the night, “when the sun god encountered his

24
ibid.
25
Lichtheim, Miriam, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume II. (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2006), 126-127.
26
Specifically, the book of the Amduat.
own corpse, equated with the mummified Osiris, and the two were united. The sun god’s

power resurrected Osiris, and the sun god, by merging with his corpse, was himself

rejuvenated, releasing the creative forces necessary for the continuation of life. This

union served as the model for the joining of the ba and mummy, by which ordinary

mortals were rejuvenated.”27

I speculate that this development in the sakhu, while emphasizing the creative

powers of the “great” sun god, also emphasizes the mortal aspect of the anthropomorphic

god Osiris, to which all mortal humans can relate. In this way the afterlife is made

increasingly accessible to ordinary mortals via the mediation of the most mortal of the

gods. Furthermore, the increasing emphasis placed on the domain of Osiris, and the need

to reconcile oneself to him before progressing heavenward, seems to support the idea of

this development in afterlife accessibility. Lichtheim’s notes on spell 1031 from the

Coffin Texts speculate similarly that, “the dead must first satisfy Osiris, the ruler of the

dead, before he can join the sun god.” 28 In this way, then, Anthes’ assertion that the

“lineage [of Horus] was conceived to indicate that all these cosmic entities were parts of,

or belonged to, Horus, the universal god,”29 can be seen speculatively to include not only

the gods engendered by the death of the earth king Horus,30 but also every deceased

Egyptian whose transfiguration causes them to be integrated into the eternal cycles of the

Egyptian cosmos.

27
Taylor, p. 29.
28
Lichtheim, Miriam, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I. (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2006), 133.
29
Anthes, p 178.
30
Who, according to Anthes becomes Osiris, who in turn separates Geb from Nut and so forth.
Bibliography:

Taylor, John H., Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 2001.
Hornung, Erik, The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife. Ithaca: Cornell
University
Press, 1999.
Lichtheim, Miriam, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I. Berkeley: University
of
California Press, 2006.
Lichtheim, Miriam, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume II. Berkeley: University
of
California Press, 2006.
Anthes, Rudolf, “Egyptian Theology in the Third Millenium B.C.” Journal of Near
Eastern Studies 18, no. 3 (1959): 169-212.
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-
2968%28195907%2918%3A3%3C169%3AETITTM%3E2.0.CO%3B2-0