Chapter 12 (part 1)

FUNERAL CEREMONIES. In illustration of the ceremonies which accompanied the burial of the dead the reader will find extracts from different texts printed in the Appendix on p. 264 ff. To these may be added an extract from the curious ritual which was in vogue in the Vth and VIth dynasties, and which commemorated the ceremonies which were performed for the god Osiris. It is to be noticed how closely the deceased is identified with Osiris, the type of incorruptibility. Osiris takes upon himself "all that is hateful" in the dead : that is, he adopts the burden of his sins; and the dead is purified by the typical sprinkling of water. While the gods are only accompanied by their ka 's, the deceased, in right of his identification with a higher power, is accompanied by his Tet also, that is, by his Osiris. Throughout the ceremony, the Eye of Horus, which is represented by various substances, plays a prominent part, for it is that which gives vigour to the heart of the dead and leads him to the god. That portion of the ceremony which was believed to procure the unlocking of the jaws and the opening of the mouth of the deceased, or of the statue which sometimes represented him, was performed after the purification by water and incense had been effected; and hereby was he enabled to partake of the meat and drink offerings, wherein the friends and relatives also participated, in order that they might cement and seal their mystic unity with the dead and with the god with whom he was identified. [1. Some fifty years ago, M. Reuvens expressed his belief that the ### represented the four quarters of the world, and according to M. Maspero it unites in itself the four pillars which support the sky and Osiris, whom they preserve from chaos; see Recueil de Travaux , t. xii., p. 79, note 3; and Études de Mythologie , t. ii., p. 359. 2. On the eyes of Horus, see Lefébure, Le Mythe Osirien--Les Yeux d'Horus , Paris, 1874; and Grébaut, Les deux yeux du Disque Solaire ( Recueil de Travaux t. i., pp. 72, 87, 112-131). 3. To discuss the origin and development of animal sacrifice among the early Egyptians lies outside the scope of this work. For information on the significance of sacrifice among the Semites, in whose customs many originally Egyptian ideas probably survived, see Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites , p. 294 ff. On the origin of sacrificial acts, see Max Müller, Natural Religion , London, 1889, p. 184; and E. B. Tylor, Primitive Culture , vol. ii., p. 340. Whether the Egyptians regarded the sacrifice of bulls, geese, etc., at the tomb as expiatory offerings, can hardly yet be decided.] Certain formulae were directed to be repeated four times: a direction which takes us back to the time when the Egyptians first divided the world into four parts, each corresponding to one of the four pillars which held up the sky, that is to say, to one of the four cardinal points, East, South, West, and North, presided over by a special god. The deceased sought to obtain the assistance of each of the four gods of the cardinal points, and to have the right to roam about in his district; hence the formula was repeated four times.