4 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Naville's Das Thebanische
Todtenbuch, vol. i. pl. civ.
Finally, it might be a kind of light shadow, like a reflection from the surface of calm water, or from a polished mirror, the living and coloured projection of the human figure, a double—ka—reproducing in minutest detail the complete image of the object or the person to whom it belonged.[*]
* The nature of the double has long been misapprehended by
Egyptologists, who had even made its name into a kind of
pronominal form. That nature was publicly and almost
simultaneously announced in 1878, first by Maspero, and
directly afterwards by Lepage-Renouf.
1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Dûmichen, of
a scene on the cornice of the front room of Osiris on the
terrace of the great temple of Denderah. The soul on the
left belongs to Horus, that on the right to Osiris, lord of
Amentît. Each bears upon its head the group of tall feathers
which is characteristic of figures of Anhûri (cf. p. 103).
The soul, the shadow, the double of a god, was in no way essentially different from the soul, shadow, or double of a man; his body, indeed, was moulded out of a more rarefied substance, and generally invisible, but endowed with the same qualities, and subject to the same imperfections as ours. The gods, therefore, on the whole, were more ethereal, stronger, more powerful, better fitted to command, to enjoy, and to suffer than ordinary men, but they were still men. They had bones,[**] muscles, flesh, blood; they were hungry and ate, they were thirsty and drank; our passions, griefs, joys, infirmities, were also theirs. The sa, a mysterious fluid, circulated throughout their members, and carried with it health, vigour, and life.
** For example, the text of the Destruction of Men, and
other documents, teach us that the flesh of the aged sun had
become gold, and his bones silver. The blood of Râ is
mentioned in the Book of the Dead, as well as the blood of
Isis and of other divinities.