The Book of the Dead, Abode of the Blessed

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD

The Papyrus of Ani

by

E. A. WALLIS BUDGE

Late keeper of Assyrian and Egyptian Antiquities

in the British Museum

[1895]

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 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 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 [1] (Fig. 2), and this is believed to signify the night sky
across which the moon travels. In an interesting picture which M. Juier 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. One scene makes the morning
and evening boats of Ra to sail along the back of Nut; another depicts Shu holding
up the boat of the sun wherein is the disk on the horizon. A third from the sarcophagus
of Seti I. represents Nu the god of the primeval water holding up the boat of
the sun, wherein we see the beetle with the solar disk facing it accompanied by
Isis and Nephthys, who stand one on each side; behind Isis stand the gods Seb,
Shu, Hek, Hu, and Sa, and behind Nephthys are three deities who represent the
doors through which the god Tmu has made his way to the world.

The Tuat, or abode of the dead.

Within the two bowed female figures which represent the day and the night sky,
and which have been referred to above (Fig. 2), is a third figure which is bent
round in a circle; the space enclosed by it represents according to Dr. Brugsch
the Tuat or Egyptian underworld, wherein dwelt the gods of the dead and the departed
souls. This view is supported by the scene from the sarcophagus of Seti I. (Fig.
1). In the watery space above the bark is the figure of the god bent round in
a circle with his toes touching his head, and upon his head stands the goddess
Nut with outstretched hands receiving the disk of the sun. In the space enclosed
by the body of the god is the legend, “This is Osiris; his circuit is the Tuat.”
Though nearly all Egyptologists agree about the meaning of the word being “the
place of departed souls,” yet it has been translated in various ways, different
scholars locating the Tuat in different parts of creation. Dr. Brugsch and others
place it under the earth, others have supposed it to be the space which exists
between the arms of Shu and the body of Nut, but the most recent theory put forth
is that it was situated neither above nor below the earth, but beyond Egypt to
the north, from which it was separated by the mountain range which, as the Egyptians
thought, supported the sky. The region of the Tuat was a long, mountainous, narrow
valley with a river running along it; starting from the east it made its way to
the north, and then taking a circular direction it came back to the east. In the
Tuat lived all manner of fearful monsters and beasts, and here was the country
through which the sun passed during the twelve hours of the night; according to
one view he traversed this region in splendour, and according to another he died
and became subject to Osiris the king, god and judge of the kingdom of the departed.

The Fields of Aaru and Hetep.

The souls of the dead made their way to their abode in the “other world” by
a ladder, according to a very ancient view, or through a gap in the mountains
of Abydos called Peka according to another; but, by whichever way they passed
from earth, their destination was a region in the Tuat which is called in the
pyramid and later texts Sekhet-Aaru, which was situated in the Sekhet-Hetep,[l]
and was supposed to lie to the north of Egypt. Here dwell Horus and Set, for the
fields of Aaru and Hetep are their domains, and here enters the deceased with
two of the children of Horus on one side of him, and two on the other, and the
“two great chiefs who preside over the throne of the great god proclaim eternal
life and power for him.” Here like the supreme God he is declared to be “one,”
and the four children of Horus proclaim his name to Ra. Having gone to the north
of the Aaru Field he makes his way to the eastern portion of the tuat, where according
to one legend he becomes like the morning star, near his sister Sothis. Here he
lived in the form of the star Sothis, and “the great and little companies of the
gods purify him in the Great Bear.” The Egyptian theologians, who conceived that
a ladder was necessary to enable the soul to ascend to the next world, provided
it also with an address which it was to utter when it reached the top. As given
in the pyramid of Unas it reads as follows’:–“Hail to thee, O daughter of Amenta,
mistress of Peteru(?) of heaven, thou gift of Thoth, thou mistress of the two
sides of the ladder, open a way to Unas, let Unas pass. Hail to thee, O Nau, who
art [seated] upon the brink of the Lake of Kha, open thou a way to Unas, let Unas
pass. Hail to thee, O thou bull of four horns, thou who hast one horn to the west,
and one to the east, and one to the north, and one to the south, . . . . . . let
Unas pass, for he is a being from the purified Amenta, who goeth forth from the
country of Baqta. Hail to thee, O Sekhet-Hetep, hail to thee, and to the fields
which are in thee, the fields of Unas are in thee, for pure offerings are in thee.”

Power of the gods of Annu.

The souls of the dead could also be commended to the care of the gods above
by the gods of Annu, and thus we find it said in the pyramid of Unas: “O gods
of the west, O gods of the east, O gods of the south, O gods of the north, ye
four [orders of gods] who embrace the four holy ends of the universe, and who
granted to Osiris to come forth to heaven, and to sail over the celestial waters
thereof with his son Horus by his side to protect him and to make him to rise
like a great god from the celestial deep, say ye to Unas, ‘Behold Horus, the son
of Osiris, behold Unas, the god of the aged gods, the son of Hathor, behold the
seed of Seb, for Osiris hath commanded that Unas shall rise like the second of
Horus, and the four khu’s who are in Annu have written this command to the great
gods who are in the celestial waters.'” And again, “When men are buried and receive
their thousands of cakes and thousands of vases of ale upon the table of him that
ruleth in Amenta, that being is in sore straits who hath not a written decree:
now the decree of Unas is under the greatest, and not under the little seal.”

The plan of the Sekhet-Hetep which we find in the Book of the Dead during the
Theban period will be described below, and it is therefore sufficient to say here
that the ideas of the happy life which the deceased led had their origin in the
pyramid texts, as may be seen from the following passage:–“Unas hath offered
incense unto the great and little companies of the gods, and his mouth is pure,
and the tongue which is therein is pure. O ye judges, ye have taken Unas unto
yourselves, let him eat that which ye eat, let him drink that which ye drink,
let him live upon that which ye live upon, let your seat be his seat, let his
power be your power, let the boat wherein he shall sail be your boat, let him
net birds in Aaru, let him possess running streams in Sekhet-Hetep, and may he
obtain his meat and his drink from you, O ye gods. May the water of Unas be of
the wine which is of Ra, may he revolve in the sky like Ra, and may he pass over
the sky like Thoth.”

Of the condition of those who failed to secure a life of beatitude with the
gods in the Sekhet-Aaru of the Tuat, the pyramid texts say nothing, and it seems
as if the doctrine of punishment of the wicked and of the judgment which took
place after death is a development characteristic of a later period.