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by Persida Drotar |
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by Persida Drotar |
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Ever since ancient times, death has always been an issue occupying our minds. One of the most important questions we all raise is whether or not there is a place afterlife where the spirit continues to live. I think it’s interesting how we spend twenty or so years of our lives growing, maturing, getting an education, and thinking of our future, yet by the time we reach early adulthood or even sooner, we are concerned about death and what's beyond it. This makes us wonder of our own path, if any, in the afterlife.
These are the same questions the ancient
Egyptians were concerned with. They saw death as a transition from physical
life to a better life in which they could reach their full potential. ("Ancient,"
1) Osiris, the god of the underworld was the one that made a peaceful afterlife
possible, but in order for the soul to survive death, the body had to be
preserved through mummification.
First, they would remove the brain and
fill the empty skull with Natron, a salty chemical, and plaster. Then,
they would cut the body and take out the stomach, clean it with palm wine,
and fill in the hole with spices. They would take all the contents of the
abdomen and place them in jars after adding Natron. Only the heart would
be left inside, because after death, they believed, the heart would be
weighed in the temple of Osiris. The Egyptians believed that it was on
the heart that all the deeds in a person’s life were recorded. In the Hall
of the Two Truths, also known as the Temple of Osiris, the gods Anubis
and Thoth would weigh the heart against the deeds it recorded. The test
involved a balance on which the heart was put and weighed against the feather
of truth that held all the lies and sins of the past life.
Next, they would stuff the body with linen and sew it up. Then, the body would be placed in Natron for forty days, after which they would wash it and wrap in all in bandages of linen smeared with gum. ("Death," 1) After the body was securely wrapped, the priest would perform the last ritual, "the Opening of the Mouth" which would "magically give the deceased the ability to speak and eat again, and to have full use of his body." ("Ancient," 2)
The internal organs removed were placed in canopic jars. The name comes from their appearance of human or animal-headed tops. The heads of the jars represented the heads of the sons of Horus: Hopi, a baboon, in which the lungs were secured; Duamutef, the wild dog guarded the stomach; Imseti, which was human, guarded the liver, and Qebehesenuef, a falcon, guarded the intestines. (El Mahdy 67)
The mummy was then placed in a coffin inside a tomb. The Book of the Dead was also included in the tomb. Egyptians believed that in order to get to the Afterlife, the dead would have to go through Duat, a dangerous place where the evil could only be overcome by the right spells which were written down in this Book of the Dead. It would also be of assistance in talking to the judges, and would help the dead pass unharmed through Duat. ("Death," 1)
One of the Egyptian myths in which all of these convictions are condensed, is "the Land of the Dead." This is the story of a man and his son’s visiting the Duat. The events that led to their departure were two funerals they watched; one of a rich man, and one of a poor man. The purpose of their trip is for Setna, the father, to find out that wealth and importance in life would not necessarily secure a fulfilling afterlife. Se-Osiris, the son, possessed magical powers, so they both set out on their expedition, in the land of darkness. It was only their Kas, or doubles that were able to enter Duat. This is the place of torment, boiling lakes, and deadly snakes. It is the place of torture and trials. In the First Region of the Night, they took the Boat in which the sun, Re, began its journey into the land of the dead with the ending of each day. In the Boat were all the Kas of the ones that had died that day and were on their way to the Judgment Hall of Osiris.
The Second Region was the Kingdom of Re, where all the gods and heroes lived. The Boat didn’t stop there, but continued its course through the Third Region where the dead disembarked in the outer court of the judgment hall. The Boat continued its way towards the East where it brought once more the rising of the sun.
The spirits of Setna and Se-Osiris flew over the Kas of the dead and watched their judgment. Before the Weighing of the Heart, each spirit spoke in its own defense, proclaiming itself to be sin free. Then, Anubis, the guardian of the dead, would take the heart and place it on a scale against the Feather of the Truth, a symbol of the god of truth and justice. If the heart would be heavier, it would be devoured by a monster. If not, the dead person would be made another Osiris and be allowed to pass into the Fields of Peace where he would dwell forever. ("Mysteries," 1)
In this story, the spirit of the rich man was devoured because of the evilness during life, but the poor man, because of his great heart, was allowed to dwell with Osiris. Upon returning, Se-Osiris taught Setna that it is better to desire a poor man’s destiny if he had done nothing but good all his life, rather than that of a rich man’s who has worked evil throughout his life. ("The Land," 1) Se-Osiris fulfilled his mission when he helped Setna understand the truth about life and death. They both gained knowledge in regard to the destiny of each human being.
The Egyptian belief of how the Afterlife functioned and what were the conditions to become another Osiris created a sense of morality among their people. It brought an ethic code to have the promise of eternal life.
"The Land of the Dead" is also an etiologic story. In the Egyptian philosophy, the rising and setting of the sun represented a cycle of death and rebirth every day. Re, the sun, dies at every sun set, which was the beginning of Duat; but also, the Duat was the place where the sun was transformed into a "developing infant, ready to be born again at sunrise." ("Egyptian," 1)
Egyptian myths are some of the ancient writings that talk about their beliefs, practices, and lifestyle. They present their view of Afterlife in a clear and detailed way, which strengthens their convictions, but it is only when we step on the other side that we’ll know for sure…
Works Cited
Asimov, Isaac. The Egyptians. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1967
Death and the Afterlife, February 1996.
Egyptian Influence, June 1997. The Traditional Astrologer.
El Madhy, Christina.Mummies, Myth and Magic in Ancient Egypt. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1989
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