Ancient Egyptian concept of the soul, Underworld, Maat, etc

The ancient Egyptians believed that a human soul was made up of five parts: the Ren, the Ba, the Ka, the Sheut, and the Ib. In addition to these components of the soul there was the human body (called the ha, occasionally a plural haw, meaning approximately sum of bodily parts). The other souls were aakhu, khaibut, and khat.

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Ib (heart)[edit]

jb (F34) "heart"
in hieroglyphs

An important part of the Egyptian soul was thought to be the Ib (jb), or heart. The Ib^[1] or metaphysical heart was believed to be formed from one drop of blood from the child's mother's heart, taken at conception.^[2]

To ancient Egyptians, the heart was the seat of emotion, thought, will and intention. This is evidenced by the many expressions in the Egyptian language which incorporate the word ib, Awt-ib: happiness (literally, wideness of heart), Xak-ib: estranged (literally, truncated of heart). This word was transcribed by Wallis Budge as Ab.

In Egyptian religion, the heart was the key to the afterlife. It was conceived as surviving death in the nether world, where it gave evidence for, or against, its possessor. It was thought that the heart was examined by Anubis and the deities during the Weighing of the Heart ceremony. If the heart weighed more than the feather of Maat, it was immediately consumed by the monster Ammit.

Sheut (shadow)[edit]

A person's shadow or silhouette, Sheut (šwt in Egyptian), is always present. Because of this, Egyptians surmised that a shadow contains something of the person it represents. Through this association, statues of people and deities were sometimes referred to as shadows.

The shadow was also representative to Egyptians of a figure of death, or servant of Anubis, and was depicted graphically as a small human figure painted completely black. Sometimes people (usually pharaohs) had a shadow box in which part of their Sheut was stored.

Ren (name)[edit]

As a part of the soul, a person's ren (r n 'name') was given to them at birth and the Egyptians believed that it would live for as long as that name was spoken, which explains why efforts were made to protect it and the practice of placing it in numerous writings. For example, part of the Book of Breathings, a derivative of the Book of the Dead, was a means to ensure the survival of the name. A cartouche (magical rope) often was used to surround the name and protect it. Conversely, the names of deceased enemies of the state, such as Akhenaten, were hacked out of monuments in a form of damnatio memoriae. Sometimes, however, they were removed in order to make room for the economical insertion of the name of a successor, without having to build another monument. The greater the number of places a name was used, the greater the possibility it would survive to be read and spoken.

Ba[edit]

Ba takes the form of a bird with a human head.

This golden Ba amulet from thePtolemaic period would have been worn as an apotropaic device. Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.

bꜣ (G29)
in hieroglyphs

bꜣ (G53)
in hieroglyphs

The 'Ba' (bꜣ) was everything that makes an individual unique, similar to the notion of 'personality'. (In this sense, inanimate objects could also have a 'Ba', a unique character, and indeed Old Kingdom pyramids often were called the 'Ba' of their owner). The 'Ba' is an aspect of a person that the Egyptians believed would live after the body died, and it is sometimes depicted as a human-headed bird flying out of the tomb to join with the 'Ka' in the afterlife.

In the Coffin Texts one form of the Ba that comes into existence after death is corporeal, eating, drinking and copulating. Louis Žabkar argued that the Ba is not part of the person but is the person himself, unlike the soul in Greek, or late Judaic, Christian or Muslim thought. The idea of a purely immaterial existence was so foreign to Egyptian thought that when Christianity spread in Egypt they borrowed the Greek word psyche to describe the concept of soul and not the term Ba. Žabkar concludes that so particular was the concept of Ba to ancient Egyptian thought that it ought not to be translated but instead the concept be footnoted or parenthetically explained as one of the modes of existence for a person.^[3]

In another mode of existence the Ba of the deceased is depicted in the Book of Going Forth by Day returning to the mummy and participating in life outside the tomb in non-corporeal form, echoing the solar theology of Re (or Ra) uniting with Osiris each night.^[4]

The word 'bau' (bꜣw), plural of the word ba, meant something similar to 'impressiveness', 'power', and 'reputation', particularly of a deity. When a deity intervened in human affairs, it was said that the 'Bau' of the deity were at work [Borghouts 1982].

Ka[edit]

kꜣ (D28)
in hieroglyphs

The Ka (kꜣ) was the Egyptian concept of vital essence, that which distinguishes the difference between a living and a dead person, with death occurring when the ka left the body. The Egyptians believed that Khnum created the bodies of children on a potter's wheel and inserted them into their mothers' bodies. Depending on the region, Egyptians believed that Heket or Meskhenet was the creator of each person's Ka, breathing it into them at the instant of their birth as the part of their soul that made them bealive. This resembles the concept of spirit in other religions.

The Egyptians also believed that the ka was sustained through food and drink. For this reason food and drink offerings were presented to the dead, although it was the kau(kꜣw) within the offerings that was consumed, not the physical aspect. The ka was often represented in Egyptian iconography as a second image of the king, leading earlier works to attempt to translate ka as double.

Akh[edit]

Akh glyph

The Akh (Ꜣḫ meaning '(magically) effective one'),^[5] was a concept of the dead that varied over the long history of ancient Egyptian belief.

It was associated with thought, but not as an action of the mind; rather, it was intellect as a living entity. The Akh also played a role in the afterlife. Following the death of the Khat (physical body), the Ba and Ka were reunited to reanimate the Akh.^[6] The reanimation of the Akh was only possible if the proper funeral rites were executed and followed by constant offerings. The ritual was termed: se-akh 'to make (a dead person) into an (living) akh.' In this sense, it even developed into a sort of ghost or roaming 'dead being' (when the tomb was not in order any more) during the Ramesside Period. An Akh could do either harm or good to persons still living, depending on the circumstances, causing e.g., nightmares, feelings of guilt, sickness, etc. It could be evoked by prayers or written letters left in the tomb's offering chapel also in order to help living family members, e.g., by intervening in disputes, by making an appeal to other dead persons or deities with any authority to influence things on earth for the better, but also to inflict punishments.

The separation of Akh and the unification of Ka and Ba were brought about after death by having the proper offerings made and knowing the proper, efficacious spell, but there was an attendant risk of dying again. Egyptian funerary literature (such as the Coffin Texts and the Book of the Dead) were intended to aid the deceased in "not dying a second time" and becoming an akh.

Relationships[edit]

Ancient Egyptians believed that death occurs when a person's ka leaves the body. Ceremonies conducted by priests after death, including the "opening of the mouth (wp r)", aimed not only to restore a person's physical abilities in death, but also to release a Ba's attachment to the body. This allowed the Ba to be united with the Ka in the afterlife, creating an entity known as an "Akh" (ꜣḫ, meaning "effective one").

Egyptians conceived of an afterlife as quite similar to normal physical existence — but with a difference. The model for this new existence was the journey of the Sun. At night the Sun descended into the Duat (the underworld). Eventually the Sun meets the body of the mummified Osiris. Osiris and the Sun, re-energized by each other, rise to new life for another day. For the deceased, their body and their tomb were their personal Osiris and a personal Duat. For this reason they are often addressed as "Osiris". For this process to work, some sort of bodily preservation was required, to allow the Ba to return during the night, and to rise to new life in the morning. However, the complete Akhu were also thought to appear as stars.^[7] Until the Late Period, non-royal Egyptians did not expect to unite with the Sun deity, it being reserved for the royals.^[8]

The Book of the Dead, the collection of spells which aided a person in the afterlife, had the Egyptian name of the Book of going forth by day. They helped people avoid the perils of the afterlife and also aided their existence, containing spells to assure "not dying a second time in the underworld", and to "grant memory always" to a person. In the Egyptian religion it was possible to die in the afterlife and this death was permanent.

The tomb of Paheri, an Eighteenth dynasty nomarch of Nekhen, has an eloquent description of this existence, and is translated by James P. Allen as:

Your life happening again, without your ba being kept away from your divine corpse, with your ba being together with the akh ... You shall emerge each day and return each evening. A lamp will be lit for you in the night until the sunlight shines forth on your breast. You shall be told: "Welcome, welcome, into this your house of the living!"

In Egyptian mythology, Duat (pronounced "do-aht") (also Tuat and Tuaut or Akert, Amenthes, Amenti, or Neter-khertet) is the realm of the dead. The Duat is the realm of the god Osiris and the residence of other gods and supernatural beings. It is the region through which the sun god Ra travels from west to east during the night, and where he battled Apep. It also was the place where people's souls went after death for judgement, though that was not the full extent of the afterlife.^[1] Burial chambers formed touching-points between the mundane world and the Duat, and spirits could use tombs to travel back and forth from the Duat.^[2]

What we know of the Duat principally derives from funerary texts such as Book of Gates, Book of Caverns, Coffin Texts, Amduat and the Book of the Dead. Each of these documents fulfills a different purpose and gives a different perspective on the Duat, and different texts can be inconsistent with one another. The texts which survive differ in age and origin, and it is likely that there was never a single uniform interpretation of the Duat.^[3]

The geography of Duat is similar in outline to the world the Egyptians knew. There are realistic features like rivers, islands, fields, lakes, mounds and caverns, along with fantastic lakes of fire, walls of iron and trees of turquoise. In the Book of Two Ways, one of the Coffin Texts, there is even a map-like image of the Duat.^[4]

The Book of the Dead and Coffin Texts were intended to guide people who had recently died through the Duat's dangerous landscape and to a life as an akh or blessed spirit amongst the gods. The dead person must pass a series of gates guarded by dangerous spirits, depicted as human bodies with grotesque heads of animals, insects, torches or knives.^[5] These beings have equally grotesque names, for instance "Blood-drinker who comes from the Slaughterhouse" or "One who eats the excrement of his hindquarters".^[6] Other features emphasised in these texts are mounds and caverns, inhabited by gods or supernatural animals, which threatened the spirits of the dead. The purpose of the books is not to lay out a geography, but to describe a succession of rites of passage which the dead would have to pass to reach the afterlife.^[7]

If the deceased successfully passed these unpleasant demons, he or she would reach the Weighing of the Heart. In this ritual, the heart of the deceased was weighed by Anubis, using a feather, representing Ma'at, the goddess of truth and justice. The heart would become out of balance because of failure to follow Ma'at and any hearts heavier or lighter than her feather were rejected and eaten by the Ammit, the Devourer of Souls. Those souls that passed the test would be allowed to travel toward the paradise of Aaru.

In spite of the unpleasant inhabitants of the Duat, this was no Hell to which souls were condemned; the nature of Duat is more complex than that. The grotesque spirits of the underworld were not evil, but under the control of the Gods.^[8] The Duat was also a residence of gods themselves; as well as Osiris, Anubis, Thoth, Horus, Hathor and Ma'at all appear as a dead soul makes its way toward judgement. It was also in the underworld that the sun, Ra, travelled under the Earth from west to east and was transformed from its aged Atum form into Khepri, the new dawning Sun. Just as a dead person faced many challenges in the Duat, Ra faced attack in the underworld from the evil serpent Apep.

Maat, "'Mayet'", "'Maae't'" or ma'at (thought to have been pronounced *[muʔ.ʕat]),^[1] also spelled māt or mayet, was the ancient Egyptianconcept of truth, balance, order, law, morality, and justice. Maat was also personified as a goddess regulating the stars, seasons, and the actions of both mortals and the deities, who set the order of the universe from chaos at the moment of creation. Her ideological counterpart was Isfet.

The earliest surviving records indicating that Maat is the norm for nature and society, in this world and the next, were recorded during the Old Kingdom, the earliest substantial surviving examples being found in the Pyramid Texts of Unas (ca. 2375 BCE and 2345 BCE).^[2]

Later, as a goddess in other traditions of the Egyptian pantheon, where most goddesses were paired with a male aspect, her masculine counterpart was Thoth and their attributes are the similar. After the rise of Ra they were depicted together in the Solar Barque. In other accounts, Thoth was paired off with Seshat, goddess of writing and measure, who is a lesser known deity.

After her role in creation and continuously preventing the universe from returning to chaos, her primary role in Egyptian mythology dealt with the weighing of souls (also called the weighing of the heart) that took place in the underworld, Duat.^[3] Her feather was the measure that determined whether the souls (considered to reside in the heart) of the departed would reach the paradise of afterlife successfully.

Pharaohs are often depicted with the emblems of Maat to emphasise their role in upholding the laws of the Creator.

Certain numbers were considered sacred, holy, or magical by the ancient Egyptians, particularly 2, 3, 4, 7, and their multiples and sums.^[1]^{[clarification needed]}

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Three: symbol of plurality[edit]

The basic symbol for plurality among the ancient Egyptians was the number three: even the way they wrote the word for "plurality" in hieroglyphics consisted of three vertical marks ( | | | ). Triads of deities were also used in Egyptian religion to signify a complete system. Examples include references to the god Atum "when he was one and became three" when he gave birth toShu and Tefnut, and the triad of Horus, Osiris, and Isis.^[2]

Examples

The beer used to trick Sekhmet soaked three hands into the ground.
The second god, Re, named three times to define the sun: dawn, noon, and evening.
Thoth is described as the “thrice-great god of wisdom”. ^[3]
A doomed prince was doomed to three fates: to die by a crocodile, a serpent, or a dog.^[4]
Three groups of three attempts each (nine attempts) were required for a legendary peasant to recover his stolen goods.^[5]
A boasting mage claimed to be able to cast a great darkness to last three days. ^[6]
After asking Thoth for help, a King of Ethiopia was brought to Thebes and publicly beaten three further times.^[7]
An Ethiopian mage tried—and failed—three times to defeat the greatest mage of Egypt.^[8]
An Egyptian mage, in an attempt to enter the land of the dead, threw a certain powder on a fire three times.^[9]
There are twelve (three times four) sections of the Egyptian land of the dead. The dead disembark at the third.^[10]
The Knot of Isis, representing life, has three loops.^[11]

Five[edit]

Examples

The second god, Rê, named five gods and goddesses.^[12]
Thoth added five days to the year by winning the light from the moon in a game of gambling. ^[13]
It took five days for the five children of Nut to be born. These are Osiris, Nephthys, Isis, Set and Horus the Elder - this should not be mistaken with Harpocrates (Horus the Infant) who defeated Set in battle. ^[14]
A boasting mage claimed to be able to bring the Pharaoh of Egypt to Ethiopia and by magic, have him beaten with a rod five hundred (five times five times five times four) times, and return him to Egypt in the space of five hours.^[15]
An Ethiopian mage comes to challenge Egypt’s greatest mage—to reading of a sealed letter—five hundred (five times five times five times four) years after the atrocity depicted in it occurred.^[16]
The star, or pentagram, representing the afterlife, has five points.^[17]

Fives are less common in Egyptian mythology.

Seven: symbol of perfection, effectiveness, completeness[edit]

The number seven was apparently the Egyptian symbol of such ideas as perfection, effectiveness, and completeness.

Examples

Seven thousand barrels of red beer were used to trick Sekhmet out of killing. ^[18]
In her search for her husband’s pieces, the goddess Isis was guarded by seven scorpions. ^[19]
A legendary famine lasted seven years. ^[20]
The lowest amount that the Nile flooded to solve the famine was seven cubits. The highest was four times seven (28) cubits. ^[21]
A doomed prince found a tower seventy (ten times seven) cubits high with seventy (ten times seven) windows. ^[22]
Set tore the god Osiris’ body into fourteen pieces: seven each for the two regions of Upper and Lower Egypt. ^[23]
The Pool symbol, representing water, contains seven zigzag lines.^[24]
The Gold symbol has seven spines on its underside.^[25]

Notes[edit]

Jump up^ Britannica, Ib
Jump up^ Slider, Ab, Egyptian heart and soul conception
Jump up^ "A Study of the Ba Concept In Ancient Egyptian Texts.", p. 162–163, Louis V. Žabkar, University of Chicago Press, 1968. [1]
Jump up^ Oxford Guide: The Essential Guide to Egyptian Mythology, James P. Allen, p. 28, Berkley, 2003, ISBN 0-425-19096-X
Jump up^ Allen, James W. Middle Egyptian : An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-77483-7.
Jump up^ EGYPTOLOGY ONLINE, 2009
Jump up^ Ancient Egyptian Religion: An Interpretation by Henri Frankfort, p. 100. 2000 edition, first copyright 1948. Google Books preview retrieved January 19, 2008.
Jump up^ 26th Dynasty stela description from Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna

References[edit]

Wisner, Kerry E. (2001), The Spiritual Bodies of the Ancient Egyptians, retrieved 2011-03-03
EGYPTOLOGY ONLINE (2001), The concept of the afterlife, archived from the original on 2008-04-21, retrieved 2009

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