[18] Cf. 1 Chron. XXIX. 11, 12; Isa. XI. 2.
[19] This prayer is contained in that part of The Book of the Dead, chap, CV., entitled Chapter whereby the Ka of a person is satisfied in the Nether world: “Hail to thee who wast my Ka during life! Lo! I come unto thee, I arise resplendent, I labour, I am strong, I am hale (var., I pass on), I bring grains of incense, I am purified thereby, I purify thereby that which goeth forth from thee. This conjuration of evil which I say; this warding off of evil which I perform; (this conjuration) is not made against me (?)” The conjuration runs as follows: “I am that amulet of green felspar, the necklace of the god Rā, which is given (var., which I gave) unto them who are upon the horizon. They flourish, I flourish, my Ka flourishes even as they, my duration of life flourishes even as they, my Ka has abundance of food even as they. The scale of the balance rises, Truth rises high to the nose of the god Rā in that day on which my Ka is where I am (?) My head and my arm are made (?) to where I am (?) I am he whose eye seeth, whose ears hear; I am not a beast of sacrifice. The sacrificial formulæ proceed where I am, for the upper ones”—otherwise said, “for the upper ones of heaven.” The funerary papyrus of Sûtimes (Naville, Todtenbuch, I., pl. 117) contains the following addition at the end of this chapter: “I enter (?) unto thee (to the Ka?). I am pure, the Osiris is justified against his enemies.” The accompanying vignette for this chapter shows the deceased as worshipping or sacrificing before the Ka-sign on a standard. Occasionally we find the Ka sign represented as enclosing pictures of offerings, a form explained by the common double meaning of the word Ka, which signifies both “Double” and food.
[20] In the religious texts the heart is called both
áb
hāti. Sometimes, as in The Book of the Dead, chap. XXVI. et seq., the two were differentiated; but, generally speaking, the two terms appear to have been synonymous.
[22] Plutarch, Septem sap. conviv., p. 159 B: “We then, said I” (Diales), “render these tributes to the belly (τῇ γαστρί). But if Solon or any one else has any allegation to make we will listen.” “By all means,” said Solon, “lest we should appear more senseless than the Egyptians, who cutting up the dead body showed [the entrails] to the sun, then cast them into the river, but of the rest of the body, as now become pure, they took care. For in reality this [the belly] is the pollution of our flesh, and the Hell, as in Hades,—full of dire streams, and of wind and fire confused together, and of dead things.”
Plutarch, De esu carnium orat., ii., p. 996, 38: “As the Egyptians, taking out from the dead the belly (τὴν κοιλίαν) and cutting it up before the sun, cast it away, as the cause of all the sins which the man has committed; in like manner that we ourselves, cutting out gluttony and bloodthirstiness, should purify the rest of our life.”
Porphyry, De abst., iv., 10: When they embalm those of the noble that have died, together with their other treatment of the dead body, they take out the belly (τὴν κοιλίαν), and put it into a coffer, and holding the coffer to the sun they protest, one of the embalmers making a speech on behalf of the dead. This speech, which Euphantus translated from his native language, is as follows: “O Lord, the Sun, and all ye gods who give life to men, receive me and make me a companion to the eternal gods. For the gods, whom my parents made known to me, as long time as I have had my life in this world I have continued to reverence, and those who gave birth to my body I have ever honoured. And for the rest of men, I have neither slain any, nor defrauded any of anything entrusted to me, nor committed any other wicked act, but if I haply in my life have sinned at all,: by either eating or drinking what was unlawful, not on my own account did I sin, but on account of these (showing the coffer in which the belly [ἡ γαστήρ] lay).” And having said these things he throws it into the river; but the rest of the body, as pure, he embalms. Thus they thought that they needed to excuse themselves to the Deity on account of what they had eaten and drunk, and therefore to reproach the belly.”