Chapter 10 (part 19)

The pyramid texts afford scanty information about the fiends and devils with which the later Egyptians peopled certain parts of the Tuat, wherein the night sun pursued his course, and where the souls of the dead dwelt; for this we must turn to the composition entitled the " Book of what is in the Tuat," several copies of which have come down to us inscribed upon tombs, coffins, and papyri of the XVIIIth and following dynasties. The Tuat was divided into twelve parts, corresponding to the twelve hours of the night; and this Book professed to afford to the deceased the means whereby he might pass through them successfully. In one of these divisions, which was under the rule of the god Seker, the entrance was guarded by a serpent on four legs with a human head, and within were a serpent with three heads, scorpions, vipers, and winged monsters of terrifying aspect; a vast desert place was their abode, and seemingly the darkness was so thick there that it might be felt. In other divisions we find serpents spitting fire, lions, crocodile-headed gods, a serpent that devours the dead, a huge crocodile, and many other reptiles of divers shapes and forms. From the descriptions which accompany the scenes, it is evident that the Tuat was regarded by the Egyptians of the XVIIIth dynasty from a moral as well as from a physical point of view. Apep, the emblem of evil, was here punished and overcome, and here dwelt the souls of the wicked and the righteous, who received their punishments or rewards, meted out to them by the decree of Ra and his company of gods. The chief instruments of punishment employed by the gods were fire and beasts which devoured the souls and bodies of the enemies [1. See below, p. 258. 2. Naville, Todtenbuch , Bd. I., Bl. 49. 3. Lepsius, Todtenbuch , Bl. 17. 4. ###. Naville, Todtenbuch , Bd. I., Bl. 184. 5. See Maspero, Les Hypogées Royaux de Thèbes , p. 76. 6. See Lefébure, Book of Hades ( Records of the Past , vol. x., p. 84).] Traditions about hell preserved in Coptic times. of Ra; and we may see from the literature of the Copts, or Egyptians who had embraced Christianity, how long the belief in a hell of fire and torturing fiends survived. Thus in the Life of Abba Shenuti, a man is told that the " executioners of Amenti will not show compassion upon thy wretched sol," and in the history of Pisentios, a Bishop of Coptos in the seventh century of our era, we have a series of details which reflect the Tuat of the ancient Egyptians in a remarkable manner. The bishop having taken up his abode in a tomb filled with mummies, causes one of them to tell his history. After saying that his parents were Greeks who worshipped Poseidon, he states that when he was dying already the avenging angels came about him with iron knives and goads as sharp as spears, which they thrust into his sides, while they gnashed their teeth at him; when he opened his eyes, he saw death in all its manifold forms round about him; and at that moment angels without mercy came and dragged his wretched soul from his body, and tying it to the form of a black horse they bore it away to Amenta.