Mummies of Ancient Egypt: Spirit of the Dead

CONTENTS:
	Introduction The Funerary Texts The Offering and Resurrection Rituals The Judgement of the Dead

Introduction

In Spirit of the Dead,remember that the ancient Egyptians saw each person as a whole human being made up of a body, a ba, and a ka; when that person dies, the ba and ka are released from the body in hopes of reuniting in the netherworld as an akh, and thus enjoying eternal life among the gods. Of course, achieving resurrection was not instantaneous or completely guaranteed, but for those who followed the social order in life, and performed the proper funerary rituals when they died - or had them prepared for them - the likelihood of passing the "Judgement of the Dead" was fairly certain.

The Funerary Texts

Nevertheless, the netherworld was a strange and potentially dangerous place, and the Egyptians were not a society to leave even a sure thing to chance, especially when eternal life was the reward. And they didn't: over the course of some 2,500 years they recorded an elaborate series of "funerary texts," made up of special types of spells (or "utterances"), which together described the necessary rituals that should be performed for the dead, and also provided crucial instructions to be used by the dead in the afterlife. It is largely from these texts, written in columns on royal tomb walls (the "Pyramid" texts), on coffins (the "Coffin" texts), and on papyri (in later collections called "books") left in mummy tombs, that we have learned from the Egyptians about how they saw the world and the promise of life after death.

Djheutymose coffin

An example of coffin texts is shown (above) with the coffin of Djeheutymose, a priest of Horus from the Saite Period (685-525 BC). Left: Djheutymose himself is shown being embalmed by Anubis. Beneath and surrounding are spells from the Book of the Dead. The coffin belongs to the Kelsey Museum of Archeology

The Offering and Resurrection Rituals

The funerary texts are made up of spells - some of the spells are only a sentence long, while others might take up several pages. They are divided into two general types that reflect two important stages in the preparation for afterlife: (1) providing the dead with the means to enter the netherworld, and (2) providing instruction for reaching and passing the final judgement. The first group of spells included incantations of protection, and, most importantly, rituals of "offering" and "resurrection." They described specific instructions for the friends or followers of the dead to perform as part of a formal funeral. First there was to be purification of the body, followed by the "Opening of the Mouth" ceremony, in which the faculties of the dead were restored, and his or her ba and ka were released into the next world. Next was the "offering ritual," in which ceremonial offerings of food and other items were made to the deceased. Here is an example of an offering spell from the Pyramid texts:

Osiris King [name], receive the Eye of Horus:
it cannot be cut away from you
Two pieces of bread.

This offering was to be spoken to a deceased king, who was addressed as "Osiris," the Egyptian king of the dead; the

speaker would have been the king's son or successor, who would act in the role of Horus, Osiris's son. According to Egyptian myth, Osiris was the first mummy, who, having been killed by Seth, was rescued by his son, Horus, and was restored and resurrected to life. The "Eye of Horus" here represents any ritualistic offering made to the dead king; that together with calling forth the name of Osiris, would hopefully identify the dead with Osiris and thus give him the power of resurrection as well.

The second part of this first stage, the "resurrection" ritual, essentially delivered the deceased from this world into the next; that is, the dead were made to "[go] away alive" into the netherworld, where they would reach the Final Judgement and eternal reunion with their ka.

The second general type of funerary texts are referred to as "personal spells," because they were for the deceased himself, and were often written with the name of the deceased inserted in the place of a personal pronoun. While the ritual texts provided the means by which the individual could enter the afterlife, in the form of the ba and with the aim of becoming an akh, they also left the individual to make that journey alone.

The personal spells, therefore, provided maps of inhabitants or obstacles in the afterlife as well as specific phrases or instructions to help the deceased pass safely through the underworld. It is only "enemies of the gods" that have no hope of resurrection. They are to be punished: beheaded, chopped into pieces, cooked, and roasted in a fire until nothing is left - completely annihilated. The justified were safe, unless they made a mistake that might cause them to become lost, or, worse, mistakenly identified as an enemy. Thus the importance of the personal spells.

Back to top

A heart scarab inscribed with a special personal spell from the Book of the Dead to protect the deceased's heart in the final judgement. The scarab itself would be placed in side the body, close to the heart. (Kelsey Museum of Archeology, #KM 81.4.77)

The Judgement of the Dead

Among the obstacles that could stand in the way of reunion of ba and ka, and resurrection, the most important was the Judgement of the Dead. We know of the Judgement mostly from one of the latest and most popular collections of spells known as the Book of the Dead, which became the standard for funerary literature from the 18th Dynasty until the end of ancient Egyptian civilization. Especially from spell 125 of the Book of the Dead, we learn about the final judgement.

A scene from the the Book of the Dead depicts the Judgement of the Dead. Anubis watches the scales; on the right, Thoth records the results; Amemet, next to Anubis, waits to eat sinful hearts. In the scales are shown the deceased's heart on left, and the feather of Maat on the right. Click on the image or here for a larger view

The deceased's ba, we are told, is summoned in to the "Hall of Two Truths" (or of the two Maat goddesses), where the judgement is to take place. There the deceased was usually joined by Anubis, the god of embalming,who ushered him or her into the hall where he would first greet Re and his nine gods,

or Osiris and his forty-two messengers, reciting to them "I know you, I know your names." From there the heart of the deceased was placed on one side of a balance. The heart was special to the ancient Egyptians: it was considered the center of a person's personality, and it provided a link between one's life in this world and the next - it would assure memory of ones earthly identity in the afterlife. So important was it that the Egyptians took special care that the heart be left in the body of the deceased, along with a spell from the Book of the Dead to give the heart back to the dead in the afterlife. (This unlike the brain, which was extracted and discarded.) On the other side of the balance was placed a feather, symbol of Maat, goddess of truth, justice and order.

The deceased then would begin immediately reciting a formula called the Negative Confession, part of which is shown below:

I have not done falsehood against men.
I have not impoverished my associates.
I have done no wrong in the Place of Truth.
I have not learnt that which is not.
I have done no evil.
I have not made people labor daily in excess of what was due to be done for me ...

The statements in the confession corresponded with the desire to separate one from his sins, the ultimate goal of the judgement. What's more, the statements reflect that the confessor is not being made to answer to moral laws of the gods,

but to attest to his previous social character among the living. As the confession was recited, the scales of the balance would either stay in equilibrium, indicating that his heart was not heavy and he thus told the truth, or would tip, indicating that his heart was made heavy with falsehood.Anubis would be present to verify the results and bring the scales in balance, and also to reassure the confessor, since Anubis, who presided over mummification, was presumed to have much knowledge about he dead. Thoth, the god of the written word, would record the results.

Additionally, the deceased who was prepared for the judgement would have also spoken to his heart from spell 30b of the Book of the Dead:

O my heart which I had from my mother!
O my heart which I had from my mother!
O my heart of my different ages!
Do not stand up as a witness against me.
do not be opposed to me in the tribunal,
do not be hostile to me in the presence of
the keeper of the Balance ...

Assuming all went well, as it usually did if one made it to the Hall of Two Truths, a general verdict would be given in which the truthfulness of the judged is validated, and he is allowed to receive offerings and take bread with Osiris, confirming his transfer to the order of the afterlife, and is given a parcel of land on which to live eternally.

The principle value in achieving this eternal extension of one's life in the next world is the promise it holds in fulfilling one's life begun on earth. Those who were debilitated in life by crippling diseases, or who suffered from poverty, or those women who were unable to bear children, would be given an opportunity to fulfill their desires in a new place where those obstacles were now removed. The dream of an ideal life held on earth could now be realized.

Last updated 20 February 1997 by CHICO