Other joys, however, than those described above, await the man who has passed satisfactorily through the judgment and has made his way into the realm of the gods. For, in answer to a long petition in the Papyrus of Ani, which has been given above (see p. [33] f.), the god Rā promises to the deceased the following: "Thou shalt come forth into heaven, thou shalt pass over the sky, thou shalt be joined unto the starry deities. Praises shall be offered unto thee in thy boat, thou shalt be hymned in the Ātet boat, thou shalt behold Rā within his shrine, thou shalt set together with his Disk day by day, thou shalt see the ANT [[148]] fish when it springeth into being in the waters of turquoise, and thou shalt see the ABTU [[149]] fish in his hour. It shall come to pass that the Evil One shall fall when he layeth a snare to destroy thee, and the joints of his neck and of his back shall be hacked asunder. Rā [saileth] with a fair wind, and the Sektet boat draweth on and cometh into port. The mariners of Rā rejoice, and the heart of Nebt-ānkh (i.e., Isis) is glad, for the enemy of Rā hath fallen to the ground. Thou shalt behold Horus on the standing-place of the pilot of the boat, and Thoth and Maāt shall stand one upon each side of him. All the gods shall rejoice when they behold Rā coming in peace to make the hearts of the shining ones to live, and Osiris Ani, triumphant, the scribe of the divine offspring of the lords of Thebes, shall be along with them."
But, not content with sailing in the boat of Rā daily as one of many beatified beings, the deceased hoped to transform each of his limbs into a god, and when this was effected to become Rā himself. Thus in Chapter XLII. of the Book of the Dead [[150]] the deceased says--
"My hair is the hair of Nu.
"My face is the face of the Disk.
"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 Saïs.
"My backbone is the backbone of Suti.
"My phallus is the phallus of Osiris.
"My reins are the reins of the Lords of Kher-āba.
"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." [[151]]
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 Rā 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
FOOTNOTES