The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia

180 The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia

n-Aten to establish a new faith, the outward symbol of which
was the solar disc, was but an indication of the general trend of
religious thought, and the Asiatic conquests of the Eighteenth
Dynasty introduced into Egypt the worship and creed of the
sun-god Baal. One by one the gods were identified with Ra;
Amon himself became Amon-Ra, and the local deity of Thebes
passed into a pantheistic sun-god. It was under these conditions
that a new ritual was compiled for the educated classes of Egypt,
or at all events was adopted by the religion of the State. This was
the BookAm Duat, the Book of the Other World.
Copies of it are written on the walls of the dark chambers in
the rock-cut labyrinths wherein the kings of the Nineteenth and
[196] Twentieth Dynasties were laid to rest. In the tomb of SetiI. we
find two versions, one in which the text is given in full, another
in which the usual plan is followed of giving only the last five
sections completely, while extracts alone are taken from the first
seven. The text is profusely illustrated by pictures, in order that
the dead might have no difficulty in understanding the words of
the ritual, or in recognising the friends and enemies he would
meet in the other world.
Unlike the Book of the Dead, the Book Am Duat is a systematic
treatise, which bears the stamp of individual authorship. It is an
apocalypse resting on an astronomical foundation, and is, in fact,
a minute and detailed account of the passage of the sun-god along
the heavenly river Ur-nes during the twelve hours of the night.
Each hour is represented by a separate locality in the world of
darkness, enclosed within gates, and guarded by fire-breathing
serpents and similar monsters. As the bark of the sun-god glides
along, the gates are successively opened by the magical power
of the words he utters, and their guardians receive him in peace.
Immediately he has passed the gates close behind him, and the
region he has left is once more enveloped in darkness.
But though he is thus able to illuminate for the brief space of
an hour the several regions of the other world, it is not as the