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To sum up, the essential idea of the Egyptian conception of immortality
was that the ghost or spirit of the man preserved the personality and the
form of the man in the existence after death; that this spirit had the
same desires, the same pleasures, the same necessities, and the same fears
as on earth. Life after death was a duplicate of life on earth. On earth
life depended on work, on getting food from the fields and the herds, on
forming stone and metal, hide and vegetable fibre, into useful objects. In
other words, life depended on human power over the natural materials of
the earth. At the same time there were many things which could not be
controlled by power over the earth and its elements,—the sting of the
scorpion, the bite of the adder, the rise of the Nile, sickness, the
sudden onslaught of the enemy, the straying of cattle, the disfavor of the
god. For these evils man's only hope was magic,—the set words spoken in
the proper manner which have power over all unseen influence. So in the
case of life after death, all which human strength can provide of stores
of grain and drink and garments must be secured for his use; but he must
also be provided with the magic words to meet the chance evils of the
future life.
It is not surprising that the unknown future presented to the
imagination many evils unknown on earth. The spirit might forget its name,
it might lose its heart, it might be bound fast by evil powers in the
grave and unable to come forth by day. The mummy might decay; the spirit
might forget its form. So, as time went on, the use of magic words became
of greater and greater importance, until, to modern eyes, it seemed to
overshadow all else in the Egyptian conception of life after death.
As a part of the magical provisions of the dead, the Osiris myth,
probably built up in explanation of old rites, was drawn into the belief
in a future life, and apparently at the beginning solely for the
benefit of the king, for the benefit of those who claimed a certain
divinity on earth. The earth-god Osiris, god of the living, had died and
had been brought to life as god of the dead. So, also, the earth-king, the
Horus, the son of Ra, must die, but he also would live again in the other
world and share the throne of Osiris. More than this even, he became
Osiris. He was admitted to the life of the gods. Of course the ideas of
the existence of the gods were never clear and consistent. They lived in
secret places, their whole life was mysterious as well as powerful. These
are the field of knowledge which the Egyptian mind could not oversee with
any satisfaction to itself. The most it could do was to formulate the
magic words, invoking the names of the gods and conjuring them by the
events in the Osiris myth to accept this king as Osiris. The exceptional
man, the super-man, must have an exceptional future life; but to obtain
it, he must have the knowledge of the names and words necessary to force
the powers of the other world.
Thus the idea of an exceptional future life, a heaven, was brought into
the Egyptian conception of life after death. Admission to it depended on
the exceptional position on earth of those admitted. As even this
exceptional position was only of avail when combined with the knowledge of
certain formulas, it is not difficult to see how the knowledge of these
formulas might be considered sufficient to obtain the better future life,
even for others than the king. When in the depression that followed the
extravagance of the pyramid age the central monarchy lost its power, Egypt
broke up into a series of tribal baronies (nomes). In each was a ruler
almost independent of the king, a man who might presume with the proper
knowledge to claim a glorified future life similar to that of the king.
And, indeed, we find from the burial inscriptions of the Middle Empire
that such was the result. Feudalism extended the possibilities of heaven
to the great nobles. In the New Empire, the royal power was gradually
absorbed by the priestly organization of the national religion— the
religion of Amon-Ra; and the principle comes into practice that any priest
having the necessary knowledge could obtain for himself an exceptional
place in the future life. The Osirian burial customs spread even among the
people. The swathed body extended on the back becomes universal, even
though true mummification was still only for the rich.
In the Ptolemaic period, the preparation of all the apparatus of the
Osiris burial was divided up into trades. Factories, one may say, turned
out mummy cases of various kinds, with a scale of prices to fit every
purse. Other factories turned out amulets and charms. Magical texts, the
preparation of the body, the construction of the grave—all things were
done by regular crafts. The cheapening of the apparatus is most striking.
At the same time all but the poorest burials bear direct evidence of their
character as Osiris burials.
On the side of the moral requirement we must not look too closely.
There were powerful words which could compel even the great judges of the
dead to return a favorable verdict. There were magic hearts of stone which
might be worn in place of the heart, and, laid in the scales by Anubis,
weigh heavier than the truth. One might by words compel Anubis to accept
this stone heart instead of the real heart.
In general, one may say that the hope of immortality had little
influence on the moral life of the ordinary Egyptian. The moral code was
simple and sound and not greatly different from other primitive
codes,—forbidding all those things which the body of men regard as
unpleasant in others, commanding the plain virtues which were found
pleasant in others. Here, again, I think we may well look to modern Egypt
for a picture of ancient Egypt. We must not exaggerate the influence of
the belief in immortality on general morality. We must not think too well
of the life of the people—nor, on the other hand, too evil. They had their
sins and their virtues. The common herd was driven by necessity and lived
as it could. They clung to the belief in a life in the grave. The greater
people had leisure to learn and to provide the magic necessary to secure a
comfortable future life. They loved life and hated death.
Thus it was when the priests of the Osiris-Isis religion made their bid
to the classical world. They offered immortality by initiation. Learn the
proper rites, learn the master words, and secure eternal life among the
great gods. It was a religion for the exceptional man down to the last; it
required training and knowledge. Even in its most popular form in the
Ptolemaic period, a specially instructed class was required, who sold for
money the benefits of their knowledge, and men took rank in their security
of future life according to their means.
Not until Christianity came, offering eternal life free and without
price, did the common people find at last a road open to equal immortality
with the great men of the earth. |
