The Kȝ as an Animating Force

Author(s): Andrew A. Gordon and Andrew H. Gordon

Source: Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt , 1996, Vol. 33 (1996), pp. 31-
35
Published by: American Research Center in Egypt

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40000603

REFERENCES
Linked references are available on JSTOR for this article:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/40000603?seq=1&cid=pdf-
reference#references_tab_contents
You may need to log in to JSTOR to access the linked references.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

American Research Center in Egypt is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and
extend access to Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt

This content downloaded from

73.83.17.152 on Thu, 07 Oct 2021 16:01:01 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 The Kd as an Animating Force1

Andrew A. Gordon

A Definition of the kS from an examination of the influence of nature

upon religion and society. Concepts of all three

As the ancient Egyptians were concerned with were highly fused in the ancient Egyptian mind.5
death and the dead, so were they concerned with According to Frankfort,6 the kS was an imper-
life and the living. As opposite sides of the same
sonal "vital force" which could differ in strength
issue, the Egyptians were concerned with what among individuals or in the same individual over
made a person or animal alive, and how that time. The Hmay have an implication of "vitality"
something could reanimate a person after death. or "will-power." Morenz called the kS "the hyper-
Erman reasoned that the Egyptians believed that physical vital force," which he connects with
the special activating force was the k3, which de-
creation and reanimation.7 According to Frank-
termined the difference between the living and fort, although the Egyptians described death as
the non-living.2 At birth, a person received histhe
k? "going to one's k3," this concept should not
through the will of Re. At death, it left him, but
be taken literally.8 While this vital force left the
still might occasionally return to reanimate him.
deceased at death, it and the deceased must re-
Toward this end, the tomb was provided with
join in the afterlife. Unlike the bj,9 the His not
food so that the kS would have sustenance and
depicted and personalized. It is an impersonal
stay. While Erman felt that the kS was always "a in, and quality of, humankind. According
force
vague and undefined conception" to the Egyp-
to Frankfort, the kS may be identified with the
tians,3 I believe that the idea originated from an ruah or nephesh, the life-spirit, which re-
Hebrew
observable phenomenon. Over time, thisturns idea to God after a person's death. Frankfort, as
became more complex and subtle. Renouf10 had previously done, identified the kS
Frankfort in Kingship and the Gods: A Study withofthe "genius" of the Romans. Both concepts
Ancient Near Eastern Religion as the Integration of
Society and Nature addressed the concept of the kS
5 See F. Rinses, Prismatic Society Revisited (Morristown, 1973).
in detail.4 1 agree with Frankfort's subtitle that the
orierin and concent of the Hcan be deduced best 6 Frankfort, Kingship, 61-65, 20. See E. Meyerowitz,
"Concepts of the Soul among the Akan of the Gold Coast,"
Africa 21:1 (1951), 24, and E. Meyerowitz, The Divine Kingship
1 This article is dedicated to the memory of Louis Zabkar.in Ghana and Ancient Egypt (London, 1960), 103, who states
It is a slightly revised version of a talk presented at the 1993
that the kra of the West African Akan people was a vital force,
ARCE meeting in Baltimore, Maryland. This paper spe- present in humans, which also could vary in strength over
cifically resulted from a conversation with Professor Calvin time.

Schwabe, who suggested that I look into the kj as a potential 7 S. Morenz, Egyptian Religion (Ithaca, 1973), 170, 183-85.
source of the "live flesh" energy. Just as directly, it has re-H. Bonnet (Reallexikon der dgyptischen Religionsgechichte [Ber-
sulted from an almost ten year collaboration between Calvinlin, 1971], 357-63) translated it similarly to Frankfort and
Schwabe and me. Our central premise has been that the col- Morenz as "Lebenskraft." P. Kaplony in: LA III, 275 trans-
laboration of a veterinarian and an Egyptologist would yield lated it as "Macht im Leben."

new insights into ancient Egyptian medicine, and other as- 8 Frankfort. Kinsrshii). 63.
nprts of anrifnt Fcrvntian rultnre
1 O/ 19 Zabkar has described the bj as "the personification of
2 A. Erman,
the vital forces." See L. Zabkar, A Study of the Ba Concept in AAn-
1907), cient86;
EPM&tian Texts (Chicago. 1968). 162:
A. Zabkar in: LA I. 589. Er
10 P. Renouf, Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as
3 Erman, Hand
illustrated by the Religion of ancient Egypt (London, 1880), 147-
4 (Chicago. 1962). esneciallv Chan. 5. 61-78. 52; P. Renouf, "On the true sense of an important Egyptian

31

This content downloaded from

73.83.17.152 on Thu, 07 Oct 2021 16:01:01 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 32 ' JARCE XXXIII (1996)

contained the idea of a transcendent

festation of spiritualpower that
force, especially manifested
in sacrificial
exists in humankind. Frankfort states,bulls.16"For the Ka
is 'the experience of power in With
its regard
directto therelation
kB of the king,
tothe issue is
man.' "n This power is notmore
confined
complex. Withto the humans,
Egyptian penchant for
but is found everywhere in nature.
concretizing In the
abstractions, the kBMem-
of the king be-
came almostis
phite Theology, this vital force a double
part or a of
twin crea-
that Blackman,
Frankfort, and
tion with which Ptah animates now Roth
the have associated
other gods with
and nature. Khnum, the ram-headed god
the placenta. Blackman of Ele-
identified the kB strongly
phantine, may also functionwith
in the theoryway.
this that theThe
placenta is a twin of the
rela-
king.17
tionship of the ram (and the He drew
bull) to this idea fromand
virility earlier studies
therefore to creation should not be
by Seligman andoverlooked.12
Murray,18 and Roscoe19 on the
so-called similar
According to Posener, the Hwas "Hamitic" Baganda people of Uganda.
in nature
Frankfort
to the muntu of the Bantu, and the elaborated
menehe on of
thisthe
idea of the pla-
Ule.13 Meyerowitz and Mercer statetwin
centa as a stillborn that it references
by citing is to
parallel in form and idea to ancient
the andkra
modern of Egyptians.20
the Akan According to
people of the Gold Coast ofFrankfort, Africa.14 however, the concept of the person-
Meyerowitz
states that the kra is an impersonal ified power of thevital
king's kBforce,
never entirely super-
which may vary in strength seded over thetime,
kB's original concept as a vital force.21
a reservoir
of sustenance to humans but which needs to be He states that the notion of the kB as twin ap-
fed, a guardian spirit, a twin or double, pears whichonlyis in the birth scenes for Hatshepsut
given to humans by a god. For a king, the andkra
Amenhotep
is III.22 Elsewhere the kB occurs
transmitted to his successor during thein its more usual usages. Schweitzer argues that
latter's
enthronement.15 Schwabe has likened it to the the presence of the kB in ritual scenes on earth
ring of the Dinka in that it is an animating mani- negates the identification of the kB with the
placenta which is not alive after birth.23 Roth,
wishing to continue the identification, modifies
word," TSBL 6 (1879), 497, refers to S. Birch [Memoire sur
une patere egyptienne (Paris, 1858)], as the first to suggest
the idea so that the kB may be regarded as "any
that the kB miffht mean "genius" in some circumstances. thing or being or conception that supports and
, , . r ,,94. 4
11 FranVfnrt Kino-^hih f>^ sustains a person , s lire. , . r 4
12 See, for example, Morenz, Egyptian Religion, 170, 183-
16 For the Dinka ring, see C. Schwabe, "Dinka 'Spirits,'
85. S. Mercer (The Pyramid Texts IV: The Excursuses [New York,
1952] 18), stated that the root of kB expresses generative Cattle and Communication," Journal of Cultural Geography 7
force. (1987), 117-26. The idea that the Dinka ring may be func-
tionally equivalent in some aspects to the ka is a personal
13 G. Posener, A Dictionary of Egyptian Civilization (Lon-
don. 1962). 142. communication.
17 A. Blackman, "The Pharaoh's Placenta and the Moon-
14 Meyerowitz, "Concept," 24-31. Mercer, The Pyramid
God
Texts IV, 20. These ideas are more fully explored in Khons,"/£A 3 (1916), 241 n. 3. For background, see
Meyero-
A. Blackman,
witz's later work, Divine Kingship, 103-20. She compares an- "Some Remarks on an Emblem upon the
cient Egyptian kingship and modern Akan kingship Headinoffour
an ancient Egyptian Birth-Goddess," JEA 3 (1916),
areas. She believes that the two are connected in199-906.
time by
18
diffusion. While many of her Egyptian sources are now C. Seligman and M. Murray, "Note upon an Early E
some-
what out-of-date, and she relies too much on the idea that tian Standard," Man 11 (1911), no. 97, 165-71.
the Egyptian gods represent clans or dynasties, she has, 19 J. Roscoe, The Baganda: An Account of their native Cus-
toms and, Beliefs (London. 1911).
nevertheless, assembled a large amount of evidence which
shows strong parallels between the two cultures. Whether20 Frankfort, Kingship, 72 and n. 55.
these parallels are culturally and historically linked or not, 21 Frankfort. Kimrshito. 69. 70. 73.
they are important from an ethnoarchaeological point of22 Frankfort, Kingship, 73.
view in determining potentially similar responses from simi-23 U. Schweitzer, Das Wesen des Ka im Diesseits und Jenseits
lar environmental and cultural stimuli. der Alien A&ypter (Gluckstadt, 1956), 15.
24 A. Roth, "The pss-kf and the 'Opening of the Mouth'
15 Meyerowitz, "Concept," 25; Meyerowitz, Divine Kingship,
105-6. This is similar to the ancient Egyptian understanding.
Ceremony: a Ritual of Birth and Rebirth,"/£A (1992) , 78, 126,
See Frankfort, Kingship, 133, 135, and L. Bell, "Luxorn.Temple
64. Roth's suggestion that the common phrase n kB n may
mean "for the sustenance of" (p. 127, n. 69) is intriguing.
and the Cult of the Royal Ka," JNES 44 (1985), 256, 258.

This content downloaded from

73.83.17.152 on Thu, 07 Oct 2021 16:01:01 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 THE KB AS AN ANIMATING FORCE 33

In Pyramid Texts 149c-d, among

detail.27 The king becomesothers,
fused with thisauni-
close reading of the text versal vital energywith
begins to such a the
degree that
kB theas
linea
double of the king, but between
ends him with
and it becomes
it blurred.28
as the Accord-
vital
power of the king. The ing to Bell, personify
texts the king is the living royal king's
the kB, and
kB to a certain extent, but then seem to draw his legitimacy is determined by its presence.29
back. Pyramid Text 149 c-d states: This vital or generative energy renews or revi-
talizes the king.30 Perhaps the king is "twin born"
Your limbs are the twin children (literally the in the sense that he is human; but through the
son and daughter) of Atum, Oh imperishable infusion of the kB energy, he is also eternal.31
one (i.e., the king as a circumpolar star). You After death, he is the link between the gods and
shall not perish and your kB shall not perish; the next king in transferring this energy which
for you are the kB. will bestow legitimacy on the next king. Thus,
while everyone may possess this vital energy, the
Initially, the king and his kB appear to be sepa- king as intermediary between the gods and the
rate, this difference being reinforced by the people must possess it at a higher level to pre-
presence of the twin children of Atum in the serve the natural order or maat.
previous line. But the identity of the king with If the kB is understood as the animating force
his kB in the following line implies an imma- in nature, then I would argue that the expression
nence of one with the other. That is, it is the life "to go to one's kB" more naturally means "to be
force or animating principal which is immanent reborn" rather than "to die." At death, the Egyp-
in the king from birth, and which the king as tians believed that the animating force left the
king gives to his subjects and to nature. This body. The kB was at rest until the burial rituals
idea may become clearer in Pyramid Texts 136- were completed.32 Then the deceased might re-
37 and 582 in which Re and Horus are respec- join his kB and live again.
tively identified as the kB of the king. According
to Frankfort, the kB is the god of the king, and Life Force and Nourishment (iSand KBw)
the relationship between the king, gods, and
people are defined in terms of the kB?^ That is, Just as the two words are similarly spelled, an
the king receives this vital or animating force evident relationship exists between kB, life force,
from the gods, and acts as their mediator in and kBw, food or nourishment. KB is written with
distributing it to his people.26 This animating the upraised arms, perhaps imitating the horns
principle, the concept of the kB, indicates to of a bull and a vertical stroke (Gardiner D28 8c
Frankfort that the ancient Egyptians understood Zl), while kBw is usually written with the up-
the participation of people in nature. raised arms and stroke followed by a roll of bread
In a recent article, Lanny Bell discusses the re- and plural strokes (Gardiner X4 8c Z2). The Afri-
lationship between the kine and his kB in more can Nuer and Dinka, as well as other Nilotic
groups, may dance with upraised arms in imita-
tion of the horns of a bull.33 In addition, it
25 Frankfort, Kingship, 77-78. should not be surprising that the words for bull
26 while Frankfort understands this to be so throughout
this chapter, he does an apparent turnaround on the last
27 L. Bell, "Luxor Temple and the Cult of the Royal Ka,"
page (p. 78). He seems to diminish the importance of the rNES44
kB (1985), 251-94.
as "vital force" and the king's position in its distribution. 28
InRH1 TNFS 44 H QRM 978
29 R^li TXTF.S: 44 MQSFil 9R0 98Q
the last paragraph of the chapter, he states that these inter-
pretations, which he has spent 18 pages elucidating, "all but 30 Bell, INES44 (1985), 276, 283.
obliterate the specifically Egyptian features of the concept."31 See JNES 44 (1985), 293-94 for a discussion of the
king's two bodies from a medieval perspective.
In the chapter, it seems to me that he has shown conclusively
that the opposite is so. The kB is a complex concept, but 32 it Frankfort. Kinpshii). 63.
seems to flow from the idea of "vital force," and that this idea
33 C. Schwabe, Cattle, Priests, and Progress in Medicine (Min-
neapolis, 1978), 56 and fig. 1.14 for the Nuer. See also
is the root from which the H-concept emerges as Frankfort
himself acknowledges (p. 73). Schwabe ("A Unique Surgical Operation on the Horns of

This content downloaded from

73.83.17.152 on Thu, 07 Oct 2021 16:01:01 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 34 JARCE XXXIII (1996)

with its vitality and mating

virilityforce (kj),M which
vagina, could
th
place at which new lifegods, emerges
priests, (kjt),^
or deceased. pregna
woman (bkjt),^ and work Two or construction
different types resu of t
ing in the creation ofAs Buchheim has noted, a distinction
something newexists be-(kSt)^ ar
all represented withtween
the live (cnh) flesh and raw (wjd,
upraised i.e., dead)
arms.38 The
energy is present inflesh.43
both The terms
males "live flesh"and
or "fleshfemales.3
from a
On a surface level, living
life bovine
is animal"
dependent are used to describeuponpre- fo
scription
for survival. Since the Old ingredients
Kingdom, in the Ebers, Hearst,
food and offe
ings were dedicated Berlin
to the Medical Papyri.44
kS of In this
the regard, Buch-
deceased,
represented in scenes heimonqueried,
the "Whattomb is closer to the primitive Addi
walls.
way of thinking
tionally, in the sacrifice than to refresh theduring
of animals, patient by whi
ceremony the visible
priests 'medication'
maywith another material
have eaten which some
the flesh,40 more wascontains
involvedstrong life than
power. . . . a
"45simple
In the first in-
meal
Rather than butchery,stance,
withit was a its
case ofresultant
transferring the animat-
meat a
joints,41 animal sacrifice ing forcewas
throughathe use of "livein
ritual flesh." In the
which t
flesh, especially the forelesr, contained
second, it was a case of sustaining thattheanimat-ani-
ing force through the use of food offerings.46
The aim of the Opening-of-the-Mouth ceremony
was to reanimate the deceased, and the presenta-
African Bulls in Ancient and Modern Times," Agricultural
History 58 [1984], 148) who specifically links this behaviour
tion of the foreleg of the bull (kS), the symbol of
to the Egyptian kj.
vitality and virility, to the mouth of the deceased
34 WBV, 94-96; CDME 283.
35 WBV, 93-94; CDME 283. was an intended highlight of that ceremony.47
36 WBl. 481: CDME. 85: Roth. JEA 78 (1992). 126. n. Weigall
66. has drawn attention to New Kingdom
37 WBV, 98-101; CDME, 283. funerary scenes in which the foreleg of a living
38 The kj sign in Egyptological literature is sometimes
calf is amputated.48 Majno has connected this
understood as arms extended outward in a protective ges-
act with the Opening-of-the-Mouth ceremony,
ture as in PT Utterance 600. For example, Hornung states,
"The word is written with the sign of two outstretched arms
that appear to reach upward, but according to Egyptian42 See our two succeeding articles C. Schwabe and A. Gor-
convention they should be understood as extending don, " 'Live Flesh' and 'Opening-of-the-Mouth,' Part One:
hori-
Biomedical and Ethnological Aspects," forthcoming; and
zontally and enfolding the human being in a protective
A. Gordon and C. Schwabe, " 'Live Flesh' and 'Opening-of-
embrace." (E. Hornung, Idea into Image: Essays on Ancient
Egyptian Thought [New York, 1992], 175). However, thethe-Mouth,'
Egyp- Part Two: Egyptological Aspects," forthcoming.
43 L. Buchheim, "Die Verordnung von 'lebendem' Fleisch
tians were quite capable of drawing the fci-arms horizontally
if they wished, such as in PT 229b. See Gardiner sign list D30.
in altagyptischen Papyri," Sudhoffs Archiv fur Geschichte der
Medizin
In fact, the kS could be portrayed vertically facing up or 44 (1960), 97-116. A. Eggebrecht, Schlachtungs-
down as well as horizontally. According to Sourdive, whenim Alten Agypten und ihre Wiedergabe imFlachbild bis zum
brduche
Ende
portrayed horizontally, especially from the New Kingdom des Mittleren Reiches (Miinchen, 1973), 61-63, disagreed,
on,
it is closely associated with offerings of food necessary
claiming
for that cnh and wz>d were used interchangeably and
svnonvmouslv with reference to prescription ingredients.
the deceased (C. Sourdive, La main dans VEgypte pharaonique
[Berne, 1984], 432). In this regard, the presentation of 44 the
L. Buchheim, " 'lebendem' Fleisch," SAGM 44, passim.
45 L. Buchheim, "'lebendem' Fleisch," SAGM 44, 109
thumb and little finger to the deceased or his statue in offer-
ing rituals is perhaps related. (translated from the original German).
46 See C. Schwabe and A. Gordon, " 'Live Flesh' 1," and
39 It is the interaction of the male and female energy
A. Gordon
which results in creation or rebirth. See L. Troy, Patterns of and C. Schwabe, " 'Live Flesh' 2," forthcoming.
Queenship in ancient Egyptian Myth and History (Uppsala, 47 Because it is portrayed on so many New Kingdom tomb
1986), 3, and more erenerallv 1-51. walls, and Books of the Dead, A. Eggebrecht, Schlachtungs-
brauche,
40 For example, see R. Mond and O. Myers, The Bucheum I 53, indicates that the removal of the forelimb was
(London, 1934), 5, and 4-9, with regard to the Apis bull.
the focus of all ritual slaughter. H. Junker (Giza III [Wien,
41 As for example, Gardiner, AEO I, 16; most recently
1938], 229-30) also thought that the removal of the foreleg
S. Ikram in a semi-popular article "Food for Eternity: What
had a special meaning. If this is so, then the use to which the
forelimb was out must also be extremelv important.
the Ancient Egyptians Ate & Drank, Part 1," KMT 5:1 (1994),
28. The title of her soon to be published dissertation, Choice
48 A. Weigall, "An Ancient Egyptian Funeral Ceremony,"
TEA 2 (1915), 10-12.
Cuts: Meat Production in Ancient Egypt exemplifies this view.

This content downloaded from

73.83.17.152 on Thu, 07 Oct 2021 16:01:01 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 THE KB AS AN ANIMATING FORCE 35

explained concretely
whose purpose "was precisely a matter through
of theinfus-
observations
ing life into mummies of or statues."49
the ancient Egyptians? Once the
deceased was reanimated, I would
food suggest that the idea (kBw)
offerings of the kB was
were needed to sustain him. based upon the physical observations of the an-
cient Egyptians, and only later was abstracted
Toward an Understanding of the KB and made more complex. Could the ancient
Egyptians have noticed a biological force which
The kB is the impersonal vital energy appeared
that to animate matter? When Frankfort
makes the world live and function. One source, indicated that ancient Egyptian religion was an
kBw, is the food which all living things eat, and integration of society and nature, he showed the
which is offered to the gods in sacrifices. With direction in which we must go. By investigating
the Egyptian concept of the kB as an animatingEgyptian texts and pictures, can we find direct
life force in nature, and with the Egyptian con- evidence, or can we at least infer from it that
cern for making the dead live in the next world,the Egyptians were aware of a force or energy
the ancient Egyptians would have been inter-that animates men and animals, and which they
ested in finding ways to transfer this life force thought could be transferred to statues of the
(kB) from the living to the dead in order to re-deceased and the deceased themselves? Such an
animate them in the next world. They would energy could explain the meaning of kBw as
also have been concerned with increasing this"nourishment" or "sustenance," because certain
vital energy in the living. As Erman has noted, living or recently killed animals might be used
the difference between life and death is the en- to transfer that energy to the living or the dead.
ergy known as the kB. Was the kB "a vague and Certain
un- animals, such as the bull (kB) were high
defined conception" to the ancient Egyptians,50 in this energy or life force. I suspect that the sym-
or is it a "complex and scarcely definable con-
bolic eating of the sacrifice was to transfer some
cept" to this generation,51 or can it rather beenergy to the living, and the presentation
of this
of whole or parts of animals to the deceased or
49 G. Majno, The Healing Hand: Man and Wound in the An- his statue was to serve a similar function.
cient World (Cambridge, 1975), 107.
50 Erman, Handbook, 86.
51 Morenz, Egyptian Religion, 204. Walnut Creek, CA

This content downloaded from

73.83.17.152 on Thu, 07 Oct 2021 16:01:01 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms