59
See also: The origin of death 33 ■ The spirits of the dead live on 36–37 ■ Entering into the faith 224–25 ■ Social
holiness and evangelicalism 239 ■ The ultimate reward for the righteous 279 ■ Awaiting the Day of Judgment 312–13
ANCIENT AND CLASSICAL BELIEFS
The body had to be preserved by
mummification and buried with a
set of funerary equipment, including
jars containing the internal organs, in
rituals that identified the deceased
with the god Osiris. Reenacting
the death and resurrection of the
god prepared the deceased for
the journey to the next world.
Every stage of mummification
was accompanied by religious ritual.
Embalmers enacted the role of the
jackal-headed god, Anubis, who
was the protective god of the dead;
Anubis invented the mysteries of
embalming in order to resurrect
the slain Osiris. Embalming spells
reassured the deceased: “You will
live again, you will live forever.”
The journey of the dead
The preservation of the physical
body by mummification was
important because it was to the
body that the ka needed to return
for sustenance. If the body was
decayed, the ka would starve. The
ka needed to take strength from
the body to rejoin the ba in the
afterlife. Together they created
the akh, which would have to gain
admittance to the afterlife.
The deceased then negotiated
the path from this world to the
next, and was led by Anubis into
the Hall of Two Truths. Here, the
heart was weighed in the balance
against Ma’at, goddess of truth,
symbolized by a feather. If the
heart, heavy with sin, outweighedthe feather, it would be gobbled
up by Ammut, she-monster and
devourer of the dead. If the scales
balanced, the deceased could
proceed to paradise, the gates of
which were guarded by Osiris.
Important Egyptians were buried
with a manual: the Book of the
Dead, or the Spells for Coming Forth
by Day. This guide taught the dead
how to speak, breathe, eat, and drink
in the afterlife. It included, crucially,
a spell for “not dying again in the
realm of the dead.” ■Elaborate preparations for safe
passage to the next world were at first
reserved only for the nobility, as here,
but later the promise of rebirth into
eternal life was open to all Egyptians.
The death of Osiris
The story of the death and
resurrection of Osiris was the
foundation myth that offered
Egyptians the hope of new life
after death—initially just for the
king, but for all Egyptians by the
Middle Kingdom period.
The god Osiris was said to
have been killed by his jealous
brother Seth, who cut his body
into pieces and scattered them
across Egypt. “It is not possibleto destroy the body of a god,”
Seth said, “but I have done so.”
Osiris’s wife Isis and her sister
Nephthys gathered up the body,
piece by piece, and the god
Anubis embalmed it as the first
mummy. Isis changed herself
into a kite and, hovering over
the mummified Osiris, fanned
the breath of life back into him
for long enough to conceive a
child, Horus (who would avenge
his father), before Osiris took his
place as lord of the underworld.O my heart...! Do not stand
up as a witness against me,
do not be opposed to
me in the tribunal.
Ancient Egyptian
Book of the Dead