Egyptian Ideas of the Future Life eBook

E. A. Wallis Budge
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 167 pages of information about Egyptian Ideas of the Future Life.

Egyptian Ideas of the Future Life eBook

E. A. Wallis Budge
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 167 pages of information about Egyptian Ideas of the Future Life.

  “My eyes are the eyes of Hathor.

  “My ears are the ears of Ap-uat.

  “My nose is the nose of Khenti-Khas.

  “My lips are the lips of Anpu.

  “My teeth are the teeth of Serqet.

  “My neck is the neck of the divine goddess Isis.

  “My hands are the hands of Ba-neb-Tattu.

  “My fore-arms are the fore-arms of Neith, the Lady of Sais.

  “My backbone is the backbone of Suti.

  “My phallus is the phallus of Osiris.

  “My reins are the reins of the Lords of Kher-[=a]ba.

  “My chest is the chest of the Mighty one of terror.

  “My belly and back are the belly and back of Sekhet.

  “My buttocks are the buttocks of the Eye of Horus.

  “My hips and legs are the hips and legs of Nut.

  “My feet are the feet of Ptah.

“My fingers and my leg-bones are the fingers and leg-bones of the Living Gods.” [Footnote:  The idea of the deification of the human members was current already in the VIth dynasty.  See Recueil de Travaux, tom. viii, pp. 87, 88.]

And immediately after this the deceased says: 

  “There is no member of my body which is not the member of a god.  The
  god Thoth shieldeth my body altogether, and I am R[=a] day by day.”

Thus we see by what means the Egyptians believed that mortal man could be raised from the dead, and attain unto life everlasting.  The resurrection was the object with which every prayer was said and every ceremony performed, and every text, and every amulet, and every formula, of each and every period, was intended to enable the mortal to put on immortality and to live eternally in a transformed glorified body.  If this fact be borne in mind many apparent difficulties will disappear before the readers in this perusal of Egyptian texts, and the religion of the Egyptians will be seen to possess a consistence of aim and a steadiness of principle which, to some, it at first appears to lack.

THE END.

Printed BALLANTYNE, HANSON & Co
Edinburgh & London

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Egyptian Ideas of the Future Life from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.