Chapter 11 (part 1)

THE PRINCIPAL GEOGRAPHICAL AND MYTHOLOGICAL PLACES IN THE BOOK OF THE DEAD. Abtu , the Abydos of the Greeks (Strabo, XVII., i., 42), the capital of the eighth nome of Upper Egypt. It was the seat of the worship of Osiris, and from this fact was called Per-Ausar or Busiris, "the house of Osiris "; the Copts gave it the name ###. Egyptian tradition made the sun to end his daily course at Abydos, and to enter into the Tuat at this place through a "gap" in the mountains called in Egyptian peq . These mountains lay near to the town; and in the XIIth dynasty it was believed that the souls of the dead made their way into the other world by the valley which led through them to the great Oasis, where some placed the Elysian Fields. Amenta or Amentet , or was originally the place where the sun set, but subsequently the name was applied to the cemeteries and tombs which were usually built or hewn in the stony plateaus and mountains on the western bank of the Nile. Some believe that Amenta was, at first, the name of a small district, without either funereal or mythological signification. The Christian Egyptians or Copts used the word Amend to translate the Greek word Hades, to which they attributed all the ideas which their heathen ancestors had associated with the Amenta of the Book of the Dead. Annu , the Heliopolis of the Greeks (Herodotus, II., 3, 7, 8, 9, 59, 93; Strabo, XVII., I, 27 ff ), and the capital of the thirteenth nome of Lower Egypt. [1. See Amélineau, la Géographie de l'Égypte, à l'Époque Copte , p. 155. 2. See Brugsch, Dict. Géog. , p. 227. 3. See Maspero, Études de Mythologie , t. i., p. 345.] The Hebrews called it On (Genesis xli., 45, 50; xlvi., 20), Aven (Ezekiel xxx., 17), and Bêth-Shemesh (Jeremiah xliii., 13); this last name is an exact translation of the Egyptian per Ra , "house of the sun," which was also a designation of Annu. The Copts have preserved the oldest name of the city under the form ###. A Coptic bishop of this place was present at the Council of Ephesus. The city of Annu seems to have become associated with the worship of the sun in prehistoric times. Already in the Vth dynasty its priesthood had succeeded in gaining supremacy for their religious views and beliefs throughout Egypt, and from first to last it maintained its position as the chief seat of theological learning in Egypt. The body of the Aged One, a name of Osiris, reposed in Annu, and there dwelt the Eye of Osiris. The deceased made his way to Annu, where souls were joined unto bodies in thousands, and where the blessed dead lived on celestial food for ever. An-rutf or Naarutf , is a section or door of the Tuat which lies to the north of Re-stau; the meaning of the word is "it never sprouteth." An-tes (?) (see within, p. 323), an unknown locality where a light tower (?), was adored.