Chapter 9 (part 1)

THE ABODE OF THE BLESSED. The Egyptian heaven. The gods of the Egyptians dwelt in a heaven with their ka's , and khu's , and shadows, and there they received the blessed dead to dwell with them. This heaven was situated in the sky, which the Egyptians believed to be like an iron ceiling, either flat or vaulted, and to correspond in extent and shape with the earth beneath it. This ceiling was rectangular, and was supported at each corner by a pillar; in this idea, we have, as M. Maspero has observed, a survival of the roof-tree of very primitive nations. At a very early date the four pillars were identified with "the four ancient khu's who dwell in the hair of Horus," who are also said to be "the four gods who stand by the pillar-sceptres of heaven." These four gods are "children of Horus," and their names are Amset, Hapi, Tuamautef, and Qebhsennuf. They were supposed to preside over the four quarters of the world, and subsequently were acknowledged to be the gods of the cardinal points. The Egyptians named the sky or heaven pet . A less primitive view made the heavens in the form of the goddess Nut who was represented as a woman with bowed body whose hands and feet rest on the earth. In this case the two arms and the two [1. ###. Recueil de Travaux , t. iv., p. 55 (l. 473); and compare ###. Ibid. , t. v. p. 186 (l. 171). 2. Ibid. , t. v., p. 27 (1. 233). 3. Ibid., p. 39 (l. 281). 4 Ibid., p. 10 (l. 60).] The Egyptian heaven. legs form the four pillars upon which the heavens are supported. Nut, the sky goddess, was the wife of Seb, the earth god, from whose embrace she was separated by Shu, the god of the air; when this separation was effected, earth, air, and sky came into being. Signor Lanzone has collected a number of illustrations of this event from papyri and other documents, wherein we have Seb lying on the ground, and Shu uplifting Nut with his outstretched hands. The feet of the goddess rested on the east, and her hands on the west this is shown by the scene wherein Shu is accompanied by two females who have on their heads "east" and, "west" respectively. The child of the union of Seb and Nut was the Sun, who was born in the east in the morning, and who made [1. Dizionario di Mitologia Egizia , tavv. i 150 ff. 2. Ibid. , tav. 158.] The Egyptian heaven. his course along his mother's body, until he set in the west in the evening. The moon followed the sun's course along his mother's body, but sometimes a second female is represented bowed beneath Nut (Fig. 2), and this is believed to signify the night sky across which the moon travels. In an interesting picture which M. Jéquier has published the goddess is depicted lying flat with her arms stretched out at full length above her head; on her breast is the disk of the sun, and on her stomach the moon. Those who believed that the sky was an iron plane imagined that the stars were a numbers of lamps which were hung out therefrom, and those who pictured the sky as a goddess studded her body with stars.