Egyptian Dead Beliefs

The earliest surviving literary work, dating from 2100 BC in the Sumerian city of Uruk, The Epic of Gilgamesh tells the story of a hero’s journey to immortality. The Epic of Gilgamesh, written by the Sumerians in their akkadian text and translated by George Smith in the early 1870s, follows the main character Gilgamesh, the unjust and cruel king of Uruk, and his friend Enkidu on their journey to achieve greatness in which Enkidu dies, prompting Gilgamesh to seek immortality. In the story, Enkidu’s character serves as a foil to show and exaggerate Gilgamesh’s immorality and bravery.

In the Egyptian religion, there is belief in an afterlife. The Egyptians believe that another life continued after one has died. Because their beliefs were true, the time of Ancient Egyptians developed rituals regarding the death and burial of a person. These tasks would prepare the deceased soul to reach the good place and ensure a good afterlife. The afterlife to the Egyptian was a place of bliss, delight, and peace. Death occupied the Egyptians they believed that after death they would pass through the dark and terrifying place called the underworld. Before a person's soul can rest he or she would prepare as a mortal, be mummified, and take the journey of tests before passing through the underworld into the afterlife.

There were many ways that the Ancient Egyptian society and the Mesopotamian society were similar yet at the same time they were very different. Egyptians and Sumerians agreed on religion in a sense that both cultures were polytheistic. However, the relationships between the gods and goddesses were different between the Sumerians and Egyptians. This essay will discuss those differences in culture, religion and the viewpoints on death and afterlife.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is a Mesopotamian myth and the oldest known narrative there is, originally created on clay tablets written in cuneiform. The story focuses on two individuals. Gilgamesh, who is the tyrannical ruler of the kingdom of Uruk. Then his counterweight, Enkidu who resides in the forest and was raised by animals. It may seem that neither would have much in common, considering one is royalty and one is a wild man. However, these two characters balance each other despite their differences, which results in a beautiful friendship, but both will lose as well as gain in the end.

The epic of Gilgamesh is the earliest primary document discovered in human history dating back to approximately 2,000 B.C.E. This document tells a story of an ancient King Gilgamesh, ruler of Sumer in 2,700 B.C.E. who is created gloriously by gods as one third man and two third god. In this epic, Gilgamesh begins his kingship as an audacious and immature ruler. Exhausted from complaints, the gods send a wild man named Enkidu to become civilized and assist Gilgamesh to mature into a righteous leader. However, Enkidus death causes Gilgamesh to realize his fear of immortality and search for an escape from death. On his journey, Gilgamesh learns that the gods will not grant his wish and that he must

Regardless of social strata, death and the afterlife were almost always valued by the living in ancient Egypt. The afterlife was birthed and designed for great societal rulers but eventually trickled down and was adopted by other levels of society (Murnane in Obayashi, 1992, p. 42). Death was interpreted as “new life in another state” by ancient Egypt, and the ultimate goal of immortality could be attained if specific burial arrangements were made for the dead. This was to avoid a final death of the soul known as the “second death,” and measures such as burial with food, drink, and personal possessions, were taken to aid the soul on its journey into immortality (Murnane in Obayashi, 1992, p. 36).

The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Odyssey have been a part of human literature for many, many years now, they are both more referred to as epic poems. Both epics are found in different points of time in human cultures stretching roughly 1000 years apart. The Epic of Gilgamesh is a poem from early Mesopotamian culture and The Odyssey is said to be written from the early onset of the Greek civilization. The main characters for these epics are Gilgamesh, a demigod and ruler of Uruk, and Odysseus a great warrior returning home to his wife from war. The two main characters of these epic poems, Gilgamesh and Odysseus share many traits together and apart from each other. Among the qualities that these characters display in each of their respective poems,

The Egyptians believed very much in life after death. As Taylor states in Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt, “It is often observed that they appear to have devoted greater efforts and resources to preparing for the afterlife than to creating a convenient environment for living” (Taylor, 2001:12). The Egyptians viewed life on earth as one stage and death as the beginning of another. They believed that, “human existence did not end with death and that survival of the body played a part in the new life” (Taylor, 2001:12). One of the key elements in the Egyptian culture and religion was the preservation of the body. The body was the most important aspect because it was like a portal through which an individual could continue to live

The Odyssey, written in 725 BCE. in Greece is a tale of a great warrior Odysseus, trying to return home to his wife after fighting a great war. The Epic of Gilgamesh, written earlier in 2700 B.C. in Mesopotamia, is the tale of a King Gilgamesh who goes on a quest to find immortality. Throughout these two epics’ both Gilgamesh and Odysseus are required to fight for their survival.  In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the king of Uruk has to fight Humbaba, a giant beast who is the guardian of the Cedar Forest. While Odysseus lands in the island of the Cyclopes and is trapped in a cave with a giant.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest epic known to date. It is an old Babylonian tale first written down in Sumerian. The first known copy of the epic is dated to around 2100 to 2000 B.C.E. However, it is believed to have originated many years earlier passed along though oral story telling. The epic was used in Babylonian schools to teach literature to students (Puchner 36). In ancient times, the Epic of Gilgamesh was widely read from Mesopotamia to Syria to Levant and Anatolia. The epic was also translated into non-Mesopotamian languages such as Hittite (Puchner 34). The story we know today was expanded upon around 1200 B.C.E. by a Babylonian priest. “The eleven-tablet version may be said to have assumed its present form during the latter part of the second millennium”(Abusch 618). It was then written down again and stored in the library of an Assyrian king named Ashurbanipal (Ziolkowski 55-56). It was thanks to this act that

The Epic of Gilgamesh is one of the oldest recorded stories in literature and was written between 2000 and 1400 B.C. The main protagonist, Gilgamesh, is two-thirds human and one-third god. Through his search for obtaining everlasting life, he experiences several obstacles and constantly demonstrates heroism, even when he’s near death.

The people of ancient Egypt prepared for the afterlife by having their name written down on somewhere, anywhere. They would also have to have a good, caring, hard working life. Finally in order to be prepared they would need to be mummified. Their preserved body would be used so that their Ba and Ka (the two halves of your soul) could find their way back to their tomb. If the Ba and ka got lost you would no longer be able to Land of two

Like other epics, The Epic of Gilgamesh started as an oral fable passed by word of mouth. The epic was written in about c. 2750 BC, by a Babylonian scribe. The Epic of Gilgamesh tells the story of Gilgamesh, who is known to be ⅔ god and ⅓ man. Gilgamesh was the king of Uruk, a large city in Sumer. He took care of his village, making sure the had nice homes, temples, and gardens. Gilgamesh was a big role model to the people of Uruk, and everyone looked up to him. Gilgamesh had so many adventures, and each one tells a very different story.

The Egyptian belief in the afterlife affected the lives of all Egyptians. The Book of the Dead was a book containing many magical spells, designed to make the journey to the afterworld much smoother. This book could be purchased by any person with enough money, and most Egyptians would have their name inscribed

The Book was originally intended as a set of spells and incantations meant to insure safe passage for the soul of a deceased person into the Underworld. Some of the ending chapters include instructions on not dying a second time, meaning how not to die in the underworld and thus having no chance of being reborn or living a full afterlife. The original text--at least, the bits and pieces that modern scholars possess--consists of a set of hymns, beginning with the Hymn to Osiris. This hymn is meant to call up the king of the underworld and make him aware of the presence of the soul. After summoning Osiris, the presiding priest would begin a series of ceremonies designed to give the spirit all the