Chapter 6 (part 18)

It reapeth the wheat, it cutteth the barley, and it giveth it unto thee. Now, therefore, O Pepi, he that hath given unto thee life and all power and eternity and the power of speech and thy body is Ra. Thou hast endued thyself with the forms of God, and thou hast become magnified thereby before the gods who dwell in the Lake. Hail, Pepi, thy soul standeth among the gods and among the shining ones, and the fear of thee striketh into their hearts. Hail, Pepi, thou placest thyself upon the throne of Him that dwelleth among the living, and it is the writing which thou hast [that striketh terror] into their hearts. Thy name shall live upon earth, thy name shall flourish upon earth, thou shalt neither perish nor be destroyed for ever and for ever." Corporeal pleasures. Side by side, however, with the passages which speak of the material and spiritual enjoyments of the deceased, we have others which seem to imply that the Egyptians believed in a corporeal existence, or at least in the capacity for corporeal enjoyment, in the future state. This belief may have rested upon the view that the life in the next world was but a continuation of the life upon earth, which it resembled closely, or it may have been due to the survival of semi-savage gross ideas incorporated into the religious texts of the Egyptians. However this may be, it is quite certain that in the Vth dynasty the deceased king Unas eats with his mouth, and exercises other natural functions of the body, and gratifies his passions. But the most remarkable passage in this connection is one in the [1. Compare: "O flesh of Teta, rot not, decay not, stink not." Recueil de Travaux , t. v., p. 55 (l. 347). "Pepi goeth forth with his flesh"; ibid. , t. v., p. 185 (1. 169). "thy bones shall not be destroyed, and thy flesh shall not perish"; ibid. , p. 55 (l. 353). 2. Compare the following passages:-- ( a ) ###. Ibid. , t. iv., p. 76 (ll. 628, 629). ( b ) ###. Ibid. , t. v., p. 37 (l. 277). ( c ) Ibid. , t. iii., p. 197 (1. 182 f). ( d ) Ibid., t. V., p. 40 (1. 286), and see M. Maspero's note on the same page.] Old tradition of hunting and devouring the gods. pyramid of Unas. Here all creation is represented as being in terror when they see the deceased king rise up as a soul in the form of a god who devours "his fathers and mothers"; he feeds upon men and also upon gods. He hunts the gods in the fields and snares them; and when they are tied up for slaughter he cuts their throats and disembowels them. He roasts and eats the best of them, but the old gods and goddesses are used for fuel. By eating them he imbibes both their magical powers, and their khu's . He becomes the "great Form, the form among forms, and the god of all the great gods who "exist in visible forms," and he is at the head of all the sahu , or spiritual bodies in heaven. He carries off the hearts of the gods, and devours the wisdom of every god; therefore the duration of his life is everlasting and he lives to all eternity, for the souls of the gods and their khu's are in him.