The Egyptian Book of the Dead

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.

Ancient Egyptians believed that if they lived a good life that they would be allowed to live in a paradise in death. When an Egyptian would die, they would be mummified. Properly burying and preserving the body was very important because they believed that the soul would not actually disconnect from the body. Organs deemed important were put in jars and buried with the body. The heart was left inside the body. Once the body was cured in preserving solutions, it was then wrapped in linen cloths. Rich individuals were buried in temples with their most prized possessions. A priest would pray to Anubis for the dead to help them on their journey.

Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece both believed in life after death, though the process in which they follow that belief differ greatly. The Greeks believed that at the moment of death the spirit leaves the body in the form of a little gust of wind or a puff of breath. The Greeks believed in proper burial rights that were performed in three parts, and the relatives mostly women are the ones that conduct these rituals for the deceased. Much like the modern world these rituals consist of the first step; laying out the body to be dressed, the second funeral procession, and the third step was the cremation of the body. Unlike the Greeks the Egyptians developed a process in which they prepared and preserved the dead for the afterlife, known as mummification. This process is believed to have been the purpose of the Egyptians famous pyramids, believed to be the stairs that would lead the Pharaohs to their kingdom in the afterlife. Artifacts are buried in their tombs such as gold, wine, and sculptures to accompany the dead in life after death.

The Egyptians believed that the human soul used the first night after death to travel into the afterlife. The body, which the

Every individual experiences the act of death, and most persons experience the death of someone they know of. Whether family, kin, or someone infamous, the living deal with the process of dying. Anthropology seeks to understand the universal process of death ritual and how different cultures deal with death differently. An anthropologist can extract social values of a given culture, past or present, from how death ceremony is practiced. Such values could be regarding political hierarchy or an individual’s status in a society, and about a culture’s spiritual or religious faith. By exploring death ceremony in ancient Egypt, contemporary Hindu death practice in India, and current North American funerary rites, it can be illustrated that

Ptah was also a creator god who built the boats that carried the souls of the dead into the Underworld. Osiris was the ruler of the Underworld and husband to Isis, the goddess of fertility and the ideal wife. Isis’ song, Horus, was the god of the sky and depicted with a hawk-like head often portrayed with a double crown. These deities were worshipped daily by the Egyptians in temples built by the ruling pharaoh and his priests. The pharaoh was viewed as the intermediary between the deities and his people. Through his kingship and divine power, he was expected to maintain universal peace and order. Egyptians also underwent extensive and excessive processes to preserve their souls after death through tombs, mummification, and offerings to the gods for preservation of the deceased bodies (“Ancient Egyptian Religion”). The concept of life after death is rooted in ancient Egyptian religion where funerary processes and burial rituals were fundamental and crucial to an afterlife.

The tombs had two main functions. The first function was a place that provided an eternal resting place in which the body could lay protected from thieves and scavengers. The second function of the tomb was a place where cults and ritual acts could be performed to ensure eternal life (Taylor, 2001:136). The body of the person was buried along with their belongings in the tomb to ensure the individual had all the proper materials needed for the afterlife. The Egyptians usually did this because “Tombs were constructed to mirror aspects of the afterlife” (Olson, 2009). These tombs were not only a place where bodies of a deceased lay; it was also a place where rituals would take place. One ritual that was done on the bodies was the ‘Opening of the Mouth’. This was a burial ritual that “accompanied the placement of funerary goods in a tomb- and was a necessary step in the deceased’s rebirth” (Olson, 2009). One very important service that had to be done was the mummification process in which the removal of organs

Although the way in which Rome and Greece carried out their judgement differed, the judgement of both societies played a key role in determining the final destination of a soul in the afterlife. The picture in Document 1 depicts the weighing of Hunefer’s heart, which was taken from a page in the Book of the Dead, a collection of ancient Egyptian texts. This shows how judgement would be carried out using a scale that weighed an individual's heart to reflect upon their previous life. If the heart was heavier than a feather, then they would be sent to an eternity of suffering since it meant that they had lived an unjust life. If they lived a moral life, their heart would be lighter than the feather, and the individual was granted entrance to paradise; having a very different experience than others who had not passed judgement. Similarly to Egypt, ancient Rome had a form of judgment that determined one's fate in the afterlife. As shown in Document 2, instead of a scale determining an individual's fate in the afterlife, the Judges of the Dead Minos, Aeacus, and Rhadamanthys analyzed each Roman’s life on Earth. These three gods judged the individual based off how they lived their lives, which determined where their final destination would be in the afterlife. In Document 7 it says individuals were “judged [i.e. by the Judges of the Dead- Minos, Aeacus, Rhadamanthus] and depart to the

They would bury their loved ones in the ground, pray for their journey to the afterlife, and move along with their day. However, as time went on the rich became unsatisfied. They wanted their life after death to be as great as there life on Earth. So, they came up with the ideas of tombs. This small idea eventually expanded to the burial of Pharaohs in the pyramids. Some Pharaohs also requested that all their slaves be put to death along with them, so that they can be of use to them in the afterlife. Along with riches, foods, and servants these kings would be prepped and shined for the burial process. All of this prayer and sacrifice would, in hopes, lead to a successful afterlife. The significance displayed in these burials is the repeating theme of human life. The selfishness displayed in killing all of ones servants just so that they continue serving him in the afterlife is pure

Moreover, talking specifically about the Gods, Osiris was the one determining the good and bad, judging the everyday morality to determine if the person deserved an everlasting life (McKay, A History of Western Society, p. 23, Egyptian Religion.’’). The confessions were performed in proper funeral rituals and as a consequence Osiris was assisted by Anubis, the God of the of mummification, since the human body needed to be mummified for the

Ancient Greeks believed that when you died your soul went to the Underworld. They also believed that you had to go through a journey in order to be able to go to where you needed to in the Underworld. The first step of this journey was the god of death would come to

With the rise of the Middle Kingdom offered ascent to another lord of the dead, Osiris. Osiris turned into the divine force of the dead in light of the legend recounted his passing and resurrection. The legend talked about Osiris being a ruler of Egypt who was killed by his sibling Seth. His body was cut up and scattered all through the area. Isis utilized her enchantment to assemble the pieces back. This occasion kept Osiris from being similar to different divine beings and consequently he led the underworld. In Ancient Egyptian religion, when the body kicked the bucket, parts of its spirit known as ka (body twofold) and the ba (identity) would go to the Kingdom of the Dead. While the spirit stayed in the Fields of Aaru, Osiris requested function

Throughout history, man has fed the notion that gods demand sacrifice for their blessings to the earth. From ancient Hebrew legends to Greek mythology, peoples from all over the world took part in sacrifice. Whether or not blood was shed, as long as the sacrificial object was meaningful to the people and the process had consent behind it, the sacrifice was deemed valid. In Mary Renault’s novel The King Must Die, the protagonist Theseus discovers the meaning of each sacrifice and the cost of each one. Thus, modern readers may feel renewed by the sacrificial rituals from the book just as Theseus did when he encountered them.

Jan Assmann, the famous Egyptologist, covers the essence of researching Egyptian theology in his classic work Theologie und Frömmigkeit einer frühen Hochkultur. Translated to English under the title “The search for God in Ancient Egypt”, the book tackles the complex goal of investigating Egyptian Theology and offers Assman’s scholarly theories on Egyptology. With that said, the focus of the book shifts away from the study of Egyptian deities and mythology but centers rather around the implication of divinity at a societal and individual level. Overviews of theology and piety take precedence over the specific practices and technical beliefs of Egyptian religion, though the latter is also heavily discussed to better elaborate on the former’s context.

Some spells were combined to make a book which was continuously adorned into the tomb walls. Later on, the Book of the Dead was retained in the burial chambers of the dead person. Most of the people commissioned their copies of the books of the dead, and chose the spells that they opted to be most vital in their progression to the afterlife. There was no particular Book of the Dead as people had the freedom to decide what they thought was good for them. The spells were the determinant of how the life will be after death, thereby leaving them with the option of choosing those spells that they felt were most appropriate.