Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt

Equality or identity with Re is not enough, and we behold the translated Pharaoh a cosmic figure of elemental vastness, even superior to the Sun-god in the primeval darkj ness. The mysterious voice cries: "Father of king Teti J Father of king Teti in darkness! Father of king Teti) Atum in darkness! Bring thou king Teti to thy side that he may kindle for thee the light; that he may protect thee, as Nun (the primeval ocean) protected these four goddesses on the day when they protected the throne, (even) Isis, Nephthys, Neit, and Serket." l The dead king sweeps the sky as a devouring fire as soon as "the arm of the sunbeams is lifted with king Unis." 2 Again we see him towering between earth and sky: "This his right arm, it carries the sky in satisfaction; this his left arm, it supports the earth in joy." 3 The imagination runs riot in figures of cosmic power, and the king becomes "the outflow of the rain, he came forth at the origin of water";4 or he gains the secret and the power of all things as "the scribe of the god's-book, which says what is and causes to be what is not." 5 He came forth before the world or death existed. "The mother of king Pepi became pregnant with him, O Dweller in the rnether sky1; this king Pepi was born by his father Atum before the sky came forth, before the earth came forth, before men came forth, before gods were born, before death came forth. This king Pepi escapes the day of death as Set crosses the Lily-lake, the king crosses; the god is purified, the king is purified; the god sails the sky, the king sails the sky, etc., etc. escaped the day of death. This king Pepi belongs to your '"company1, ye gods of the rnether sky1, who cannot perish by their enemies; this king Pepi perishes not by his enemies. (Ye) who die not by a king, this king Pepi dies not by a king; (ye) who die not by any dead, king Pepi dies not by any dead." L When in process of time the gods were born, the king was present at their birth.

The mergence of the king into the very body and being of Re is analogous to his assimilation by the gods as a group. One of the most remarkable passages in the Pyramid Texts employs the ceremony and the suggestiveness of incense-burning as a sympathetic agency by which, as the odorous vapor arises from earth to the gods, it bears aloft the fragrance of the king to mingle with that of the gods, and thus to draw them together in fellowship and association. The passage is of importance as a very early priestly interpretation of the significance of incense as fellowship with the gods. The passage reads: "The fire is laid, the fire shines; The incense is laid on the fire, the incense shines. Thy fragrance comes to king Unis, O Incense; The fragrance of king Unis comes to thee, O Incense. Your fragrance comes to king Unis, O ye gods; The fragrance of king Unis comes to you, O ye gods. King Unis is with you, ye gods; Ye are with king Unis, ye gods. King Unis lives with you, ye gods; Ye live with king Unis, ye gods.

King Unis loves you, ye gods; Love ye him, ye gods." 2 Pepi, ye gods." The poem was of course accompanied by the burning of incense; also by an offering of bread which immediately followed. A formula of the ascension, as frequently with the burning of incense, then follows. This fellowship thus mystically symbolized is in sharp contrast with a dark and forbidding picture, surviving from vastly remote prehistoric days, in which we see the savage Pharaoh ferociously preying upon the gods like a blood-thirsty hunter in the jungle. The passage begins with the terrifying advent of the Pharaoh in the sky: "Clouds darken the sky, The stars rain down, The Bows (a constellation) stagger, The bones of the hell-hounds tremble, The 'porters1 are silent, When they see king Unis dawning as a soul, As a god living on his fathers, Feeding on his mothers. King Unis is lord of wisdom, Whose mother knows not his name. The honor of king Unis is in the sky, His might is in the horizon, Like Atum his father who begat him. When he begat him, he was stronger than he. 1 King Unis is one who eats men and lives on gods, Lord of messengers, who 'despatches1 his messages; It is 'Grasper-of-Forelocks' living in Kehew Who binds them for king Unis.

It is the serpent 'Splendid-Head' Who watches them for him and repels them for him. It is 'He-who-is-upon-theWillows' Who lassoes them for him. It is 'Punisher-of-all-Evil-doers* Who stabs them for king Unis. He takes out for him their entrails, He is a messenger whom he (king Unis) sends to 'punish1. of the dead king, which, however, contains an important statement that the king "lives on the being of every god, eating their organs who come with their belly filled with charms." Shesmu cuts them up for king Unis And cooks for him a portion of them In his evening kettles (or 'as his evening kettles = meal'). King Unis is he who eats their charms, And devours their glorious ones (souls). Their great ones are for his morning portion, Their middle (-sized) ones are for his evening portion, Their little ones are for his night portion. Their old men and their old women are for his incense-burning. It is the 'Great-Ones-North-of-the-Sky' Who set for him the fire to the kettles containing them, With the legs of their oldest ones (as fuel). The 'Dwellers-in-the-Sky' revolve for king Unis (in his service). rThe kettles are replenished1 for him with the legs of their women.

He has encircled all the Two Skies (corresponding to the Two Lands), He has revolved about the two regions. King Unis is the 'Great Mighty-One* Who overpowers the 'Mighty Ones' Whom he finds in his way, him he devours. . . .l The protection of king Unis is before all the noble (dead) Who dwell in the horizon. King Unis is a god, older than the eldest. Thousands revert to him, Hundreds are offered to him. Appointment as ' Great One ' is given to him By Orion, father of gods. King Unis has dawned again in the sky, Shining1 as lord of the horizon. He has taken the hearts of the gods; He has eaten the Red, He has swallowed the Green. King Unis is nourished on satisfied organs, He is satisfied, living on their hearts and their charms. Their charms are in his belly. The dignities of king Unis are not taken away from him; He hath swallowed the knowledge of every god. The lifetime of king Unis is eternity, His limit is everlastingness in this his dignity of: * If-hewishes-he-does, If-he-wishes-not-he-does-not/ 1 Who dwells in the limits of the horizon for ever and ever. Lo, their (the gods') soul is in the belly of king Unis, Their Glorious Ones are with king Unis.

The plenty of his portion is more than (that of) the gods. Lo, their soul is with king Unis." 2 In this remarkable picture the motive of the grotesque cannibalism is perfectly clear. The gods are hunted down, lassoed, bound, and slaughtered like wild cattle, that the king may devour their substance, and especially their internal organs, like the heart where the intelligence had its seat, in the belief that he might thus absorb and appropriate their qualities and powers. When "he has taken the hearts of the gods," "he has swallowed the knowledge of every god," and "their charms are in his belly"; and because the organs of the gods which he has devoured are plentifully satisfied with food, the king cannot hunger, for he has, as it were, eaten complete satiety.

This introduces us to a subject to which the Pyramid Texts devote much space — the question of the food supply in the distant realm of the Sun-god. To explain the apparently aimless presentation of food at the tomb, where, in the Solar belief the dead no longer tarried, it was assumed that the food offered there was transmitted to the dead in various ways. Sometimes it is Thoth who conveys the food from the tomb to the sky and delivers it to the dead king; l again it is the two Solar barques who transport it thither.2 The "Imperishable Stars" too may convey the food offered on earth to the kas in the sky 3 or the ferryman may be prevailed upon to do so.4 In any case the chief dread felt by the Egyptian for the hereafter was fear of hunger, and especially the danger that he might be reduced to the detestable extremity of consuming his own uncleanness. "The abomination of king Unis is offal; he rejects urine, he eats it not." 5 More commonly the celestial region where he tarries furnishes all his necessities. As son of Re, born of the Sky-goddess, he is frequently represented as suckled by one of the Sky-goddesses or some other divinity connected with Re, especially the ancient goddesses of the prehistoric kingdoms of South and North. These appear as "the two vultures with long hair and hanging breasts; . . . they draw their breasts over the mouth of king Pepi, but they do not wean him forever";6 or we find them as the two crowns of the two kingdoms personified as goddesses: "This king Pepi knows his mother, he forgets not his mother: (even) the White Crown shining and broad that dwells in Nekheb, mistress of the southern palace . . . and the bright Red Crown, mistress of the regions of Buto. O mother of this king Pepi . . . give thy breast to this king Pepi, suckle this king Pepi therewith." To this the goddess responds: "O my son Pepi, my king, my breast is extended to thee, that thou mayest suck it, my king, and live, my king, as long as thou art little." 7 This i Pyr. § 58. 2 Pyr. § 717. 3 Pyr. § 1220. 4Pyr. Ut. 521. Hence it is that even in the sky the deceased Pharaoh is concerned that the food supply of his ''altars that are on earth" shall be continued. See Pyr. § 1482. incident exhibits more of the naturally and warmly human than anything else in the Solar theology.

Besides this source of nourishment, and the very bodies of the gods themselves,1 there were also the offerings of all Egypt, as we have seen in the ancient Sun-hymn, where the dead king receives all that is offered by Egypt to Re (pp. 13-14). It is taken for granted that the celestial revenues belong to the king, and that they will meet all his wants. We hear the voice calling for the mortuary revenues in his behalf : " An offering which the king gives !

An offering which Anubis gives ! Thy thousand of young antelope from the highland, they come to thee with bowed head. An offering which the king gives! An offering which Anubis gives! Thy thousand of bread! Thy thousand of beer! Thy thousand of incense, that came forth from the palace hall ! Thy thousand of everything pleasant! Thy thousand of cattle! Thy thousand of everything thou eat est, on which thy desire is set!"2 The Pyramid Texts delight to picture the plenty which the king is to enjoy. "Plenty has extended her arm toward king Teti. The two arms of king Teti have embraced fisher and fowler, (even) all that the field furnishes to her son, the fisher-fowler." 3 We even see him going about with sack and basket collecting quantities of food,4 food of the gods which cannot perish, " bread which cannot dry up" and "beer which cannot grow stale." 5 For the voice prays to the Sun-god: "Give thou bread to this king Pepi from this thy eternal bread, thy everlasting beer,"6 and we read that "this king Pepi receives his eats him for himself," referring to divine victims whom he devours as food, is found no less than three times (Pyr. §§ 278 a, 407, 444 e). provision from that which is in the granary of

the Great God (Re) " l and his "bread is the bread of the god which is in the palace hall." 2 There in "the good seat of the Great God, in which he does the things to be done with the revered (dead), he appoints them to food and assigns them to fowling . . .; he appoints king Pepi to food, he assigns king Pepi to fowling." 3 He is surrounded by plenty: "He who is behind him belongs to food, he who is before him belongs to snared fowl," 4 and thus "that land into which king Unis goes — he thirsts not in it, he hungers not in it forever," 5 for there "Appetite belongs to the morning meal of the king, Plenty belongs to his evening meal."6 Again a voice summons him: "Ho, king Pepi! . . . Raise thee up! Arise! Sit down to thy thousand of bread, thy thousand of beer, thy thousand of oxen, thy thousand of geese, thy thousand of everything whereon the god lives." 7 There can be no failure of the source of supply: "a god does not escape from what he has said. (Therefore) he will furnish to thee thy thousand of bread, thy thousand of beer, thy thousand of oxen, thy thousand of geese, thy thousand of

everything on which the god lives." 8 There were, to be sure, certain contingencies to be guarded against, lest some one else should secure the provisions intended for the king. "This king Pepi eats this his sole bread alone; he does not give it to the one behind him;"9 nor does he permit the fowl of the air to plunder him of his portion.10 If necessary he may resort to magical means, so cunningly devised that he is enabled to banish hunger and thirst and drive them far away.

"Hunger! Come not to king Teti. Hasten to Nun (the primeval flood), go to the flood. King Teti is sated; he hungers not by reason of this bread of Horus which he has eaten, which his eldest daughter made for him. He is satisfied therewith, he takes this land therewith. King Teti thirsts not by reason of Shu; he hungers not by reason of Tefnut. Hapi, Dewamutef, Kebehsenuf, and Imset (the four sons of Horus), they expel this hunger which is in the body of king Teti, and this thirst which is in the lips of king Teti." l Finally one of the most, if not the most, important of the numerous sources from which the departed Pharaoh hoped to draw his sustenance in the realm of Re was the tree of life in the mysterious isle in the midst of the Field of Offerings, in search of which he sets out in company with the Morning Star. The Morning Star is a gorgeous green falcon, a Solar divinity, identified with "Horus of Dewat." He has four faces, corresponding to the four Horuses of the East, with whom he is doubtless also identified.2 We find him standing in the bow of his celestial barque of seven hundred and seventy cubits in length, and there the voice addresses him: "Take thou this king Pepi with thee in the cabin of thy boat. . . . Thou takest this thy favorite harpoon, thy staff which '"pierces1 the canals, whose points are the rays of the sun, whose barbs are the claws of Mafdet. King Pepi cuts off therewith the heads of the adversaries, dwelling in the Field of Offerings, when he has descended to the sea.. Bow thy head, decline thy arms, 0 Sea! The children of Nut are these above may be Osirian, in view of "the bread of Horus," but the distinction between Osirian and Solar elements is here of slight consequence. 2 Pyr. § 1207. (Pepi and the Morning Star) who have descended to thee, wearing their garlands on their heads, wearing their garlands at their throats." Here the homage of the sea is claimed because Pepi and the Morning Star are bent upon a beneficent errand for Isis and Horus.1 The story then proceeds: "This king Pepi opened his path like the fowlers, he exchanged greetings with the lords of the kas, he went to the great isle in the midst of the Field of Offerings over which the gods make the swallows fly.

The swallows are the Imperishable Stars. They give to this king Pepi this tree of life, whereof they live, that ye (Pepi and the Morning Star) may at the same time live thereof." 2 But the most sinister enemies may contrive to deprive the king of the sustenance which we have seen to be so elaborately provided. They may even lurk in his own body, especially in his nostrils, where they may appropriate the food intended for the king.3 In this early age, however, enemies and dangers in the hereafter have not been multiplied by the priests as they were later in the Book of the Dead. There are precautions against them, like the dread name received by the king, a name so potent that his enemies all fear it and flee away. " Re calls thee in this thy name of which all the Glorious are afraid.

Thy terror is against hearts like the terror of Re when he rises in the horizon." 4 Besides the name the dead king also receives a peculiar costume or a "recognizance," which at once distinguishes and protects him against attack from those who might mistake him for an enemy.5 clearly Solar character of the story, in which Pepi goes in search of the tree of life with the Morning Star, a Sun-god, carrying a spear of sunbeams. 2 Pyr. §§ 1209-16. * Pyr. § 484. 4 Pyr. § 2025. 5 Pyr. §§ 2044, 2004.

Charms, as we have already shown, were among the equipment furnished by the Pyramid Texts, and not a few of these are of a protective character. The enemy against which these are most often directed in the Pyramid Texts is serpents. It was of course natural that the dead, who were buried in the earth, out of which serpents come forth, should be especially exposed to this danger. In the case of the king also, there was another reason. In the myth of Re, he was stung by a serpent and forced to reveal his name to Isis. The departed Pharaoh who is identified with Re must necessarily meet the same danger, and from it he is protected by numerous serpent charms in the Pyramid Texts. In such charms it is quite in accordance with the Solar tale to find Re invoked to exorcise the dangerous reptile. "O serpent, turn back, for Re sees thee" were words which came very naturally to the lips of the Egyptian of this age.1 While all the great goddesses of Egypt are said to extend their protection over the king, it is especially the Sky-goddess Nut who shields him from all harm.2 The men in whose hands the Pyramid Texts grew up took the greatest delight in elaborating and reiterating in ever new and

different pictures the blessedness enjoyed by the king, thus protected, maintained, and honored in the Sun-god's realm. Their imagination flits from figure to figure, and picture to picture, and allowed to run like some wild tropical plant without control or guidance, weaves a complex fabric of a thousand hues which refuse 240, 242 et al. these are strongly colored by Osirian theology; indeed Ut. 443-7 are largely Osirian, but the original character of Nut's functions in the celestial and Solar theology is clear. to merge into one harmonious or coherent whole. At one moment the king is enthroned in Oriental splendor as he was on earth, at another he wanders in the Field of Rushes in search of food; here he appears in the bow of the Solar barque, yonder he is one of the Imperishable Stars acting as the servant of Re. There is no endeavor to harmonize these inconsistent representations, although in the mass we gain a broad impression of the eternal felicity of a godlike ruler, "who puts his annals (the record of his deeds) among his people, and his love among the gods." l " The king ascends to the sky among the gods dwelling in the sky. He stands on the great rdais^, he hears (in judicial session) the (legal) affairs of men. Re finds

thee upon the shores of the sky in this lake that is in Nut (the Sky-goddess). 'The arriver comes!' say the gods. He (Re) gives thee his arm on the stairway to the sky. ' He who knows his place comes,' say the gods. O Pure One, assume thy throne in the barque of Re and sail thou the sky. . . . Sail thou with the Imperishable Stars, sail thou with the Unwearied Stars. Receive thou the tribute1 of the Evening Barque, become thou a spirit dwelling in Dewat. Live thou this pleasant life which the lord of the horizon lives." 2 "This king Pepi goes to the Field of Life, the birthplace of Re in the sky. He finds Kebehet approaching him with these her four jars with which she refreshes the heart of the Great God (Re) on the day when he awakes (or 'by day when he awakes'). She refreshes the heart3 of this king Pepi therewith to life, she purifies him, she cleanses him. He receives his provision from that which is in the granary of the Great God; of a jar of water in the Tale of the Two Brothers, infra, p. 359. he is clothed by the Imperishable Stars." l To Re and Thoth (the sun and the moon) the voice cries: "Take

ye this king Unis with you that he may eat of that which ye eat, and that he may drink of that which ye drink, that he may live on that whereon ye live, that he may sit in that wherein ye sit, that he may be mighty by that whereby ye are mighty, that he may sail in that wherein ye sail. The booth of king Unis is plaited (erected) in the reeds, the pool of king Unis is in the Field of Offerings.

His offering is among you, ye gods. The water of king Unis is wine like (that of) of Re. King Unis circles the Sky like Re, he traverses the sky like Thoth." 2 The voice summons the divine nourishment of the king: "Bring the milk of Isis for king Teti, the flood of Nephthys, the circuit of the lake, the waves of the sea, life, prosperity, health, happiness, bread, beer, clothing, food, that king Teti may live therefrom." 3 "Lo, the two who are on the throne of the Great God (Re), they summon this king Pepi to life and satisfaction forever; they (the two) are Prosperity and Health." 4 Thus " it is better with him to-day than yesterday," 5 and we hear the voice calling to him: "Ho! King Pepi, pure one! Re finds thee standing with thy mother Nut. She leads thee in the path of the horizon and thou makest thy abiding place there. How beautiful it is together with thy ka for ever and ever." 6 Over and over again the story of the king's translation to the sky is brought before us with an indomitable conviction and insistence which it must be concluded were thought to make the words of inevitable power and effect.

Condensed into a paragraph the whole sweep of the king's celestial career is brought before us in a few swift strokes, each like a ray of sunshine touching for but an instant the prominences of some far landscape across which we look. Long successions of such paragraphs crowd one behind another like the waves of the sea, as if to overwhelm and in their impetuous rush to bear away as on a flood the insistent fact of death and sweep it to utter annihilation. It is difficult to convey to the modern reader the impression made by these thousands of lines as they roll on in victorious disregard of the invincibility of death, especially in those epitomizations of the king's celestial career which are so frequent, the paragraphs here under discussion. In so far as they owe their impressiveness to their mere bulk, built up like a bulwark against death, we can gain the impression only by reading the whole collection through. The general character of such individual epitomizing paragraphs is perhaps suggested by such as the following. The voice addresses the king: "Thy seats among the gods abide; Re leans upon thee with his shoulder. Thy odor is as their odor, thy sweat is as the sweat of the Eighteen Gods. Thou dawnest, O king Teti, in the royal hood; thy hand seizes the sceptre, thy fist grasps the mace. Stand, O king Teti, in front of the two palaces of the South and the North. Judge the gods, (for) thou art of the elders who surround Re, who are before the Morning Star. Thou art born at thy New Moons like the moon. Re leans upon thee in the horizon, O king Teti. The Imperishable Stars follow thee, the companions of Re serve thee, O king Teti. Thou purifiest thyself, thou ascendest to Re; the sky is not empty of thee, O king Teti, forever."1 "King Teti purifies himself; he receives to himself his pure seat that is in the sky. He 1Pyr. §§730-3. abides, the beautiful seats of king Teti abide. He receives to himself his pure seat that is in the barque of Re. The sailors who row Re, they (also) row king Teti.

The sailors who carry Re around behind the horizon, they carry (also) king Teti around behind the horizon." l " O king Neferkere! the mouth of the earth opens to thee, Geb (the Earth-god) speaks to thee : ' Thou art great like a king, mighty like Re.' Thou purifiest thyself in the Jackal-lake, thou cleansest thyself in the lake of Dewat. 'Welcome to thee,' say the Eighteen Gods. The eastern door of the sky is opened to thee by Yemen-kau; Nut has given to thee her arms, O king Neferkere, she of the long hair and pendent breasts. She guides thee to the sky, she does not put king Neferkere down (again) to the earth.

She bears thee, O king Neferkere, like Orion ; she makes thy abiding place before the Double Palace (of Upper and Lower Egypt transferred to the sky). King Neferkere descends into the barque like Re, on the shores of the Lily-lake. King Neferkere is rowed by the Unwearied Stars, he commands the Imperishable Stars." 2 Such in the main outlines were the beliefs held by the Egyptian of the Old Kingdom (2980-2475 B. C.) concerning the Solar hereafter. There can bo no doubt that at some time they were a fairly well-defined group, separable as a group from those of the Osirian faith. To the Osirian faith, moreover, they were opposed, and evidences of their incompatibility, or even hostility, have survived.

We find it said of Re that " he has not given him (the king) to Osiris, he (the king) has not died the death; he has become a Glorious One in the horizon";3 and still more unequivocal is the following: "Re-Atum does not give thee to Osiris. He (Osiris) numbers not thy heart, he gains not power over thy heart. Re-Atum gives thee not to Horus (son of Osiris). He numbers not thy heart, he gains not power over thy heart. Osiris! thou hast not gained power over him, thy son (Horus) has not gained power over him. Horus! thou hast not gained power over him, thy father (Osiris) has not gained power over him." l It is evident that to the devotee of the Solar faith, Osiris once represented the realm and the dominion of death, to which the follower of Re was not delivered up. In harmony with this is the apprehension that the entire Osirian group might enter the pyramid with evil intent. As a great Solar symbol it was necessary to protect the pyramid from the possible aggressions of Osiris, the Osirian Horus, and the other divinities of the Osirian group.2 At a very early age the beliefs of both the Solar and the Osirian religion merged as we have seen in the first lecture.

While the nucleus of each group of myths is fairly distinguishable from the other, the coalescence of the Solar and Osirian conceptions of the hereafter has left us a very difficult process of analysis if we undertake to separate them. There is a certain body of beliefs regarding the hereafter which we may designate as Solar, and another group which are unquestionably Osirian, but the two faiths have so interpenetrated each other that there is much neutral territory which we cannot assign to either, to the entire exclusion of the other. It is clear that in the Solar faith we have a state theology, with all the splendor and the prestige of its royal patrons behind it; while in that of Osiris we are confronted by a religion of the people, which made a strong appeal to the individual believer. It is not impossible that the history of the early sequence of these beliefs was thus: We should begin with a primitive belief in a subterranean kingdom of the dead which claimed all men. As an exclusive privilege of kings at first, and then of the great and noble, the glorious celestial hereafter which we have been discussing, finally emerged as a Solar kingdom of the dead. When the growing prestige of Osiris had displaced the older mortuary gods (like

Anubis) Osiris became the great lord of the Nether World, and Osiris and his realm entered into competition with the Solar and celestial hereafter. In the mergence of these two faiths we discern for the first time in history the age-long struggle between the state form of religion and the popular faith of the masses. It will be the purpose of the next lecture to disengage as far as may be the nucleus of the Osirian teaching of the after life, and to trace the still undetermined course of its struggle with the imposing celestial theology whose doctrine of the royal dead we have been following.

Probably nothing in the life of the ancient Niledwellers commends them more appealingly to our sympathetic consideration than the fact that when the Osirian faith had once developed, it so readily caught the popular imagination as to spread rapidly among all classes. It thus came into active competition with the Solar faith of the court and state priesthoods. This was especially true of its doctrines of the after life, in the progress of which we can discern the gradual Osirianization of Egyptian religion, and especially of the Solar teaching regarding the hereafter. There is nothing in the Osiris myth, nor in the character or later history of Osiris, to suggest a celestial hereafter.

Indeed clear and unequivocal survivals from a period when he was hostile to the celestial and Solar dead are still discoverable in the Pyramid Texts. We recall the exorcisms intended to restrain Osiris and his kin from entering the pyramid, a Solar tomb, with evil intent (p. 75). l Again we find the dead king as a star in the sky, thus addressed: "Thou lookest down upon Osiris commanding the Glorious (=the dead). There thou standest, being far from him, (for) thou art not of them (the dead), thou belongest not among them." 2 Likewise it is said of the Sun-god: "He has freed king Teti from Kherti, he has iPyr. §§1266-7. 2Pyr. §251. 142 not given him to Osiris." l It is perhaps due to an effort to overcome this difficulty that Horus, the son of Osiris, is represented as one "who puts not this Pepi over the dead, he puts him among the gods, he being divine." 2 The prehistoric Osiris faith, probably local to the Delta, thus involved a forbidding hereafter which was dreaded and at the same time was opposed to celestial blessedness beyond. To be sure, the Heliopolitan group of gods, the Divine Ennead of that city, makes Osiris a child of Nut, the Sky-goddess. But his father was the Earth-god Geb, a very natural result of the character of Osiris as a Nilegod and a spirit of vegetable life, both of which in Egyptian belief came out of the earth. Moreover, the celestial destiny through Nut the Sky-goddess is not necessarily Osirian. It is found, along with the frequent and nonOsirian or even pre-Osirian co-ordination of Horus and Set, associated in the service of the dead.3 The appearance of these two together assisting the dead cannot be Osirian.4 To be protected and assisted by Nut, therefore, does not necessarily imply that she is doing this for the dead king, because he is identified with Osiris, her son. It is thus probable that as a Sky-goddess intimately associated with Re, Nut's functions in the celestial life hereafter were originally Solar and at first not connected with the Osirian faith.

When Osiris migrated up the Nile from the Delta, we recall how he was identified with one of the old mortuary gods of the South, the "First of the Westerners" (KhentiAmentiu), and his kingdom was conceived as situated in the West, or below the western horizon, where it merged into the Nether World. He became king of a realm of the dead below the earth, and hence his frequent title, "Lord of Dewat," the "Nether World," which occurs even in the Pyramid Texts.1 It is as lord of a subterranean kingdom of the dead that Osiris later appears.2 out of it, according to later texts, especially the Sun-hymns, and the common designation of the universe in the Empire is "sky, earth, and Dewat," it is evident that it was later understood to be the Nether World. Such is the conclusion of Sethe in his still unpublished Antrittsvorlesung. See also Jequier, Le livre de ce quHl y a dans V Hades, Paris, 1894, especially pp. 3-6; also Lefebure, in Sphinx, vol. I, pp. 27-46. In the Pyramid Texts it is evidently in the sky in a considerable number of passages. It can be understood in no other way in passages where it is parallel with "sky," like the following: Or again: The sky conceived thee together with Orion; Dewat bears thee

together with Orion." (Pyr. § 820= the same in Pyr. § 1527.) Who voyages the sky with Orion, Who sails Dewat with Osiris." (Pyr. §882.) Similarly "Dewat seizes thy hand, (leads thee) to the place where Orion ( = the sky) (Pyr. § 802) ; and Orion and Sothis in +he " horizon " are encircled by Dewat (Pyr. § 151). Here Dewat is in the horizon, and likewise we find the dead "descends among" the dwellers in Dewat after he has ascended to the sky (Pyr. § 2084 c). It was thus sufficiently accessible from the sky, so that the dead, after he ascended, bathed in the " lake of Dewat" (Pyr. § 1164), and while in the sky he became a "glorious one dwelling in Dewat" (Pyr. § 1172 b). When he has climbed the ladder of Re, Horus and Set take him to Dewat (Pyr. § 390). It is parallel with 'kr, where 'kr is a variant of Geb, the earth (Pyr. § 1014 = § 796), which carries it down to earth again. It might appear here that Dewat was a lower region of the sky, in the vicinity of the horizon, below which it also extended. It is notable that in the Coffin Texts of the Middle Kingdom there appears a "lower Dewat" (Lacau, Rec.

27, 218, 1. 47).

The deceased says: "My place is in the barque of Re in the middle of lower Dewat" (ibid., 1. 52). Dewat thus merged into the Nether World, with which it was ultimately identified, or, being originally the Nether World, it had its counterpart in the sky.

As there was nothing then in the myth or the offices of Osiris to carry him to the sky, so the simplest of the Osirian Utterances in the Pyramid Texts do not carry him thither. There are as many varying pictures of the Osirian destiny as in the Solar theology. We find the dead king as a mere messenger of Osiris announcing the prosperous issue and plentiful yield of the year, the harvest year, which is associated with Osiris.1 That group of incidents in the myth which proves to be especially available in the future career of the dead king is his relations with Horus, the son of Osiris, and the filial piety displayed by the son toward his father. We may find the dead king identified with Horus and marching forth in triumph from Buto, with his mother, Isis, before him and Nephthys behind him, while Upwawet opened the way for them.2 More often, however, the dead king does all that Osiris did, receiving heart and limbs as did Osiris,3 or becoming Osiris himself. This was the favorite belief of the Osiris faith. The king became Osiris and rose from the dead as Osiris did.4 This identity began at birth and is described in the Pyramid Texts with all the wonders and prodigies of a divine birth.

"The waters of life that are in the sky come; The waters of life that are in the earth come. The sky burns for thee, The earth trembles for thee, Before the divine birth. The two mountains divide, The god becomes, iPyr. §§1195#. ascension of Solar character. The god takes possession of his body. The two mountains divide, This king Neferkere becomes, This king Neferkere takes possession of his body."

Osiris as Nile is thus born between the two mountains of the eastern and western Nile shores, and in the same way, and as the same being, the king is born.1 Hence we find the king appearing elsewhere as the inundation.2 It is not the mere assumption of the form of Osiris,3 but complete identity with him, which is set forth in this doctrine of the Pyramid Texts. "As he (Osiris) lives, this king Unis lives; as he dies not, this king Unis dies not; as he perishes not, this king Unis perishes not." These asseverations are repeated over and over, and addressed to every god in the Ennead, that each may be called upon to witness their truth. Osiris himself under various names is adjured, "Thy body is the body of this king Unis, thy flesh is the flesh of this king Unis, thy bones are the bones of this king Unis." 4 Thus the dead king receives the throne of Osiris, and becomes, like him, king of the dead. "Ho! king Neferkere (Pepi II)! How beautiful is this!

How beautiful is this, which thy father Osiris has done for thee! He has given thee his throne, thou rulest those of the hidden places (the dead), thou leadest their august ones, all the glorious ones follow thee." 5 The supreme boon which this identity of the king with Osiris assured the dead Pharaoh was the good offices of Horus, the personification of filial piety. All the pious where the dead king receives the throne of Osiris, because identified with him and others in which he receives it as the heir of Osiris. He may take it even from Horus, heir of Osiris, e. g., Pyr. Ut. 414. attentions which Osiris had once enjoyed at the hands of his son Horus now likewise become the king's portion.

The litigation which the myth recounts at Heliopolis is successfully met by the aid of Horus, as well as Thoth, and, like Osiris, the dead king receives the predicate "righteous of voice," or "justified," an epithet which was later construed as meaning "triumphant."1 Over and over again the resurrection of Osiris by Horus, and the restoration of his body, are likewise affirmed to be the king's privilege. " Horus collects for thee thy limbs that he may put thee together without any lack in thee." 2 Horus then champions his cause, as he had done that of his father, till the dead king gains the supreme place as sovereign of all. "O Osiris king Teti, arise! Horus comes that he may reclaim thee from the gods. Horus loves thee, he has equipped thee with his eye. . . . Horus has opened for thee thy eye that thou mayest see with it. . . . The gods . . . they love thee. Isis and Nephthys have healed thee. Horus is not far from thee; thou art his ka. Thy face is gracious unto him. . . . Thou hast received the word of Horus, thou art satisfied therewith.

Hearken unto Horus, he has caused the gods to serve thee. . . . Horus has found thee that there is profit for him in thee. Horus sends up to thee the gods; he has given them to thee that they may illuminate thy face.

Horus has placed thee at the head of the gods. He has caused thee to take every crown. . . . Horus has seized for thee the gods. They escape not from thee, from the place where thou hast gone. Horus counts for thee the gods. They retreat not from thee, from the place which thou hast seized. . . . Horus avenged thee; it was not long till he avenged thee. Ho, Osiris king Teti ! thou art a mighty god, there is no god like thee. Horus has given to thee his children that they might carry thee. He has given to thee all gods that they may serve thee, and thou have power over them." x A long series of Utterances in the Pyramid Texts sets forth this championship of the dead king as Osiris by his son Horus.2 In all this there is little or no trace of the celestial destiny, or any indication of the place where the action occurs. Such incidents and such Utterances are appropriated from the Osirian theology and myth, with little or no change. But the Osirian doctrine of the hereafter, absorbed into these royal mortuary texts by the priesthood of Heliopolis, could not, in spite of its vigorous popularity, resist the prestige of the state (or Solar) theology. Even in

the Osirian Utterances on the good offices of Horus just mentioned we twice find the dead king, although he is assumed to be Osiris, thus addressed: "Thou art a Glorious One (Y'hwty) in thy name of 'Horizon (Y'ht) from which Re comes forth.' " 3 The Osirian hereafter was thus celestialized, as had been the Osirian theology when it was correlated with that of Heliopolis. We find the Sky-goddess Nut extending to the Osirian dead her protection and the privilege of entering her realm. Nut "takes him to the sky, she does not cast him down to the earth." 4 The ancient hymn in praise of the Sky-goddess embedded in the Pyramid Texts5 has received an introduction, in which the king as Osiris is commended to her protection, and the hymn is broken up by petitions inserted at intervals craving a celestial destiny for the dead king, although this archaic hymn had originally no demonstrable connection with Osiris, and was, as far as any indication it contains is concerned, written before the priestly theology had made Osiris the son of the Sky-goddess.1 Similarly Anubis, the ancient mortuary god of Siut, "counts Osiris away from the gods belonging to the earth, to the gods dwelling in the sky";2 and we find in the Pyramid Texts the anomalous ascent of Osiris to

the sky: "The sky thunders (lit. speaks), earth trembles, for fear of thee, Osiris, when thou makest ascent. Ho, mother cows yonder! Ho, suckling mothers (cows) yonder! Go ye behind him, weep for him, hail him, acclaim him, when he makes ascent and goes to the sky among his brethren, the gods."3 His transition to the Solar and celestial destiny is effected in one passage by a piece of purely mortuary theologizing which represents Re as raising Osiris from the dead.4 Thus is Osiris celestialized until the Pyramid Texts even call him "lord of the sky," 5 and represent him as ruling there. The departed Pharaoh is ferried over, the doors of the sky are opened for him, he passes all enemies as he goes, and he is announced to Osiris in the sky precisely as in the Solar theology. There he is welcomed by Osiris,6 and he joins the "Imperishable Stars, the followers of Osiris," 7 just as in the Solar faith.

In the same way he emerges as a god of primeval origin and elemental powers. "Thou bearest the sky in thy hand, thou layest down the earth with thy foot." 8 ^ Celestials and men acclaim the dead, even "thy wind is incense, thy north wind is smoke, " 9 say they.

While the Heliopolitan priests thus solarized and celesUt. 444-7 and 450-2. ^ Pyr. §§964,968. ° Pyr' ! 222°* » Pyr. § 749. 8 Pyr. § 2067. 9 Pyr. § 877. tialized the Osirian mortuary doctrines, although they were essentially terrestrial in origin and character, these Solar theologians were in their turn unable to resist the powerful influence which the popularity of the Osirian faith brought to bear upon them. The Pyramid Texts were eventually Osirianized, and the steady progress of this process, exhibiting the course of the struggle between the Solar faith of the state temples and the popular beliefs of the Osirian religion thus discernible in the Pyramid Texts, is one of the most remarkable survivals from the early world, preserving as it does the earliest example of such a spiritual and intellectual conflict between state and popular religion. The dying Sun and the dying Osiris are here in competition. With the people the human Osiris makes the stronger appeal, and even the wealthy and subsidized priesthoods of the Solar religion could not withstand the power of this appeal. What we have opportunity to observe in the Pyramid Texts is specifically the gradual but irresistible intrusion of Osiris into the Solar doctrines of the hereafter and their resulting Osirianization.

Even on his coffin, preserved in the pyramid sepulchre, the departed king is called "Osiris, lord of Dewat." l The Osirian influence is superficially evident in otherwise purely Solar Utterances of the Pyramid Texts where the Osirian editor has inserted the epithet "Osiris" before the king's name, so that we have " Osiris king Unis," or "Osiris king Pepi." 2 This was at first so mechanically done that in the offering ritual it was placed only at the head of each Utterance. In the earliest of our five versions of the Pyramid Texts, that of Unis, we find "Osiris" inserted before the king's name wherever that name stands at the head of the Utterance, but not where it is found in the body of the text. Evidently the Osirian editor ran hastily and mechanically through the sections, inserting " Osiris " at the head of each one which began with the king's name, but not taking the trouble to go through each section seeking the king's name and to insert "Osiris" wherever necessary in the body of the text also.1 In this way the whole Offering Ritual was Osirianized in Unis's pyramid, but the editor ceased this process of mechanical insertion at the end of the ritual. A similar method may be observed where the same Utterance happens to be preserved in two different pyramids, one exhibiting the mechanical insertion of "Osiris" before the king's name, while the other lacks such editing. This is especially significant where the content of the Utterances is purely Solar.2 But the Osirianization of the Pyramid Texts involves more than such mechanical alteration of externals. We find one Utterance3 in its old Solar form, without a single reference to Osiris or to Osirian doctrine, side by side with the same Utterance in expanded form filled with Osirian elements. The traces of the Osirian editor's work are evident throughout, but they are interestingly demonstrable and 30 b (once) ; but the following references will show how regularly it is found at the head of the Utterance and not in the body of the text in the pyramid of Unis. In Ut. 45-49, once each at beginning; in Ut. 72-76 and 78-79, once each at beginning; omitted in Ut. 77, 81, and 93, where Unis's name does not begin the Utterance.

In Ut. 84, 85, 87-92, 94, 108-171, and 199 " Osiris-Unis " heads each Utterance. After Ut. 200 " Osiris-Unis" does not occur at all. It is evident that this mechanical method of Osirianization did not extend beyond the Offering Ritual, which also terminates at this place. in a series of five stanzas each addressed to a different god, whose name begins the stanza. The last stanza of the five begins with two gods' names, however, the second being "Sekhem, son of Osiris," although in the apostrophe, which constitutes this fifth stanza, the two gods are addressed by pronouns in the singular number! It is evident that, like the other four stanzas, the fifth also began with the name of a single god, but that the Osirian editor has inserted the name of an Osirian god as a second name, forgetting to change the pronouns.1 The insertion is enhanced in significance by the fact that all five gods in these five stanzas are Solar gods, and the last one, after which the name of Osiris was inserted, is identified with Re.

The process was carried so far that it was sometimes applied to passages totally at variance with the Osirian doctrine. In the old Solar teaching we not infrequently find Horus and Set side by side on an equal basis, and both represented as engaged in some beneficent act for the dead.2 Now when the dead king is identified with Osiris, by the insertion of the name "Osiris" before that of the king, we are confronted by the extraordinary assumption that Set performs pious mortuary offices for Osiris, although the Osiris myth represents Set as mutilating the body of the dead Osiris and scattering his limbs far and wide. Thus an old purification ceremony in the presence of the gods and nobles of Heliopolis (and hence clearly Solar) represents the dead as cleansed by the spittle of Horus and the spittle of Set. This ceremony 370, 390, 418, 473, 487, 594, 535, 601, 683, 798, 801 = §§ 1016, 823, 848-850, 946, 971, 1148. had, of course, nothing to do with the Osirian ritual, but when the ritual introducing this ceremony was Osirianized, we find "King Osiris, this Pepi" inserted before the formula of purification, thus assuming that Osiris was purified by his arch-enemy, the foul Set! l Similarly, Set may appear alone in old Solar Utterances on familiar and friendly

terms with the dead king, so that the king may be addressed thus: "He calls to thee on the stairway of the sky; thou ascendest to the god; Set fraternizes with thee," even though the king has just been raised as Osiris from the dead ! 2 The ladder leading to the sky was originally an element of the Solar faith. That it had nothing to do with Osiris is evident, among other things, from the fact that one version of the ladder episode represents it in charge of Set.3 The Osirianization of the ladder episode is clearly traceable in four versions of it, which are but variants of the same ancient original.4 The four represent a period of nearly a century, at least of some eighty-five years. In the oldest form preserved to us, in the pyramid of Unis,5 dating from the middle of the twenty-seventh century, the Utterance opens with the acclamation of the gods as Unis ascends. " ' How beautiful to see, how satisfying to behold,' say the gods, 'when this god ascends to the sky, when Unis ascends to the sky. . . .' The gods in the sky and the gods on earth come to him; they make supports for Unis on their arm. Thou ascendest, O Unis, 3Pyr. §478; compare also "Set lifts

him (the dead) up" (Pyr. § 1148). In Pyr. § 1253 we find "ladder which carried the Ombite (Set)."

Mernere), 474 (Pepi). to the sky. Ascend upon it in this its name of ' Ladder.' The sky is given to Unis, the earth is given to him by Atum." Such is the essential substance of the Utterance.1 The ladder here barely emerges and the climber is the Pharaoh himself, though Atum is prominent. A generation later, in the pyramid of Teti the ladder is more developed and the original climber is Atum, the Sun-god; but the Osirian goddesses, Isis and Nephthys, are introduced. Finally, in the pyramid of Pepi I, at least eightyfive years after that of Unis, the opening acclamation of the old gods as they behold the ascent of the Pharaoh is put into the mouths of Isis and Nephthys, and the climber has become Osiris.2 Thus Osiris has taken possession of the old Solar episode and appropriated the old Solar text. This has taken place in spite of embarrassing complications.

In harmony with the common co-ordination of Horus and Set in the service of the dead, an old Solar doctrine represented them as assisting him at the ascent of the ladder which Re and Horus set up. But when the ascending king becomes Osiris, the editor seems quite unconscious of the incongruity, as Set, the mortal enemy and slayer of Osiris, assists him to reach his celestial abode ! 3 Nowhere is the intrusion of Osiris in the Pyramid Texts more striking than in the Utterances devoted to the services of the four Eastern Horuses on behalf of the dead.

A favorite means of ascension, of opening the sky-gates, life of the king, appended at the end of the Utterance, is perhaps an intrusive Osirian reference; but it does not affect the clearly celestial and Solar character of the Utterance. It is omitted in Ut. 480, but appears more fully developed in the Osirianized Utterances 572 and 474, but in none of the Utterances to which it is appended is the name of Osiris mentioned, while the epithet which is employed, "Ymnw (Hidden one?) of the Wild Bull," is usually Solar. of ferrying over, of purification and the like, was to have all these things first done for each of the four Horuses in succession, and then by sympathetic inevitability also for the dead king. Four considerable Utterances are built up in this way, each containing an account of the things done by each of the four Horuses, and then likewise by the king.1 In the oldest form of these Utterances, as found in the pyramid of Teti, the quartette comprise the following: 1. Horus of the Gods. 2. Horus of the Horizon (Harakhte). 3. Horus of the Shesmet. 4. Horus of the East.2 The exclusively Solar character of each of these Horuses is evident from the connections in which they appear in the Pyramid Texts, while in the case of two of them (Horus of the Horizon and Horus of the East) the name renders it evident. Indeed, in the Teti pyramid the four appear as heralds announcing the name of Teti to the Sun-god, in a passage which is hostile to Osiris, and affirms that the Sun-god "has not given him (the king) forms of their names appear. In 1085-6 the four Horuses appear ferrying over on the two floats of the sky; they are found again in 1105 and in 1206, "these four youths who stand on the east side of the sky" bind the two floats for Re and then for the dead. We should doubtless recognize them also in the four curly haired youths who are in charge of the ferry-boat to the eastern sky in Ut. 520. (But in Ut. 522 the four in charge of the ferry-boat are the four genii, the "sons of Horus," and confusion must be guarded against.) The four Horuses in 1258 (Ut. 532), who are identified with the dead and kept from decay by Isis and Nephthys, are treated above.

For the sake of completeness, compare the four children of Geb in Pyr. §§ 1510-11, and especially the four children of Atum who decay not (Pyr. §§2057-8), just as in 1258. to Osiris." l Two generations after Teti we find the same four Horuses, unaltered,2 side by side with a further development of the group exhibiting an intruder; it appears thus: 1. Horus of the Gods. 2. Horus of the East. 3. Horus of the Shesmet. 4. Osiris.3 Osiris has thus pushed his way into this Solar group to the displacement of the most unequivocally Solar of them all, Horus of the Horizon (Harakhte). The intrusion of Osiris here is the most convincing example of his power, and the most clearly discernible in the whole range of the process which Osirianized the Pyramid Texts. We can now understand why it is that when the dead is identified with the four Horuses, he is preserved from decay by Isis and Nephthys as the four Horuses had been likewise preserved by the same Osirian goddesses. When once the group has been Osirianized it is to be expected that they shall enjoy the good offices of the wife and sister of Osiris.4 The exclusion of one of the four Horuses, by the intrusion of Osiris, leaving really only three, is doubtless the reason

why we find in another Osirianized Utterance that only three of them appear.5 As the four Solar Horuses of the East were Osirianized, so in all probability were the four mortuary genii, commonly known as the "four sons of Horus." We find this second four (whom we shall call the four genii to distinguish them from the four Solar Horuses) figuring prominently in the ascension. Indeed they make^the ladder, which is a purely celestial and Solar matter, as we have seen (p. Ill), and they make it together with Atum, the primeval Sun-god. Similarly we find them all in a list of Solar gods,1 and they appear also in charge of the Solar ferry-boat,2 in which they ferry over the dead.3 The four Horuses also have much to do with the celestial ferry, and it would appear, though this is merely a conjecture, that the four genii are an artificial creation parallel with the four Horuses, and perhaps their sons.4 In any case the dead may be identified with one of them as with the four Horuses.5 The four genii were, however, fully Osirianized, they avenge Osiris and smite Set,6 and they carry the body of the dead king as Osiris.7 In the later mortuary ritual of the Osirian faith they played a prominent role, and are especially well known

as the four genii who had charge of the viscera of the dead, which they protect in the hereafter in the four so-called "Canopic" jars, each one of which is surmounted by the head of one of the four genii. This function in the Osirian faith is foreshadowed in the Pyramid Texts in a passage where we find them expelling hunger and thirst from the belly and lips of the dead.8 As the four Horuses and the four genii, who had so mu h to do with the ascension and the celestial ferry, were Osirianized, so eventually was the ancient Solar ferryman "Face-Behind-Him," who receives the title "Doorkeeper of Osiris" and the Solar ferry becomes the prop- \ Pyr. §§ 147-9. 2 Pyr. Ut. 522. 3 Pyr. § 1092. of Letopolis" (Pyr. §2078). his name "Imperishable," at which time they are called the "souls" of Horus (Pyr. §2102). erty of Osiris, to whom the ferryman is adjured to say, "Let this thy (Osiris's) ship be brought for this king Pepi." ! The two floats of reeds suffered much the same fate. These, as we have seen (p. 108), are clearly Solar when they first appear.2 Indeed, in the pyramid of Teti they are found in an Utterance 3 explicitly hostile to Osiris, in which it is stated that the Sun-god

does not deliver the dead king to Osiris. Nevertheless the reed floats are also completely Osirianized in the Pyramid Texts. We find them laid down for Osiris, by the gods of the cardinal points, in an Utterance purely Osirian in character,4 and within a century after they appear still purely Solar in the pyramid of Unis, they were employed in that of Pepi I for the crossing of Osiris.5 If the ladder, the ferry-boat, and the reed floats, the instrumentalities for reaching the skies, a place with which Osiris had properly nothing to do, were thus early Osirianized, we cannot wonder that the sky itself and its denizens were likewise appropriated by Osiris till the "Imperishable Stars" are called "followers of Osiris." In the same way, when the king is born, like Osiris, as Nile,6 we may find him transferred to the sky and flooding the heavens as the Nile inundation; he makes all the sky fresh and verdant. " King Unis comes to his pools that are in the region of the flood at the great inundation, to the place of peace with green fields, that is in the horizon.

Unis makes the verdure to flourish in the two regions of the horizon." 7 Finally Osiris is not only identified with the dead king, but also even with his temple and pyramid,8 the great Solar symbol, from which these " Pyr. § 1201. 2 Pyr. Ut. 263-6. 3 Pyr. Ut. 264. 'Pyr. §§ 508-9. 8 Pyr. §§ 1657-8. same Pyramid Texts contain formulae for exorcising Osiris and his kin (see p. 75). l An important link between the celestial and the Osirian doctrine of the hereafter was the fact that the Sun-god died every day in the west. There was at Abydos, as we have already seen (p. 38), an old mortuary god known as "First of the Westerners/' who was early absorbed by Osiris, so that "First of the Westerners" became an epithet appended to the name of Osiris. Before this conquest by Osiris took place, however, the " First of the Westerners" as a local god of Abydos had already become involved in the celestial hereafter. An ancient Abydos offering formulary preserved in the Pyramid Texts addresses the dead thus: "The earth is hacked up for thee, the offering is placed before thee. Thou goest upon that way whereon the gods go. Turn thee that thou mayest see this offering which the king has made for thee, which the First of the Westerners has made for thee. Thou goest to those northern gods, the Imperishable Stars." 2 It is evident that the First of the Westerners is closely associated with the celestial hereafter in this passage. Later, when Osiris was identified with the First of the Westerners, the latter's connection with the celestial hereafter will have assisted in celestializing the Osirian mortuary beliefs.

Now, while all this also resulted in Osirianizing the celestial and Solar mortuary teachings, they still remained celestial. When the dead Osiris is taken up by Re,3 it is evident that Re's position in these composite mortuary doctrines is still the chief one. The fact remains, then, that the celestial doctrines of the hereafter dominate the Pyramid Texts throughout, and the later subterranean kingdom of Osiris and Re's voyage through it are still entirely in the background in these royal mortuary teachings. Among the people Re is later, as it were, dragged into the Nether World to illumine there the subjects of Osiris in his mortuary kingdom, and this is one of the most convincing evidences of the power of Osiris among the lower classes. In the royal and state temple theology, Osiris is lifted to the sky, and while he is there Solarized, we have just shown how he also tinctures the Solar teaching of the celestial kingdom of the dead with Osirian doctrines. The result was thus inevitable confusion, as the two faiths interpenetrated.

In both faiths we recall that the king is identified with the god, and hence we find him unhesitatingly called Osiris and Re in the same passage. The following extensive passages well illustrate the often inextricable confusion resulting from the interweaving of these unharmonized elements. The text opens with the resurrection of Osiris at the hands of Horus, but we soon perceive that this incident has been engrafted upon ancient Solar doctrines.

"Arise for me, O king. Arise for me, O Osiris king Mernere. I am he, I am thy son, I am Horus. I come to thee, I purify thee, I make thee alive, I gather for thee thy bones. . . . For I am Horus, thy avenger. I have smitten for thee him who smote thee. I have avenged thee, king Osiris Mernere, on him who did thee evil. I have come to thee with a commission of Heru. He has put thee, king Osiris Mernere, upon the throne of ReAtum, that thou mayest lead the people. Thou embarkest in this barque of Re, to which the gods love to descend, in which they love to embark, in which Re is rowed to the horizon. Thou embarkest therein like Re, thou sittest down on this throne of Re that thou mayest command the gods. For thou art Re who came forth from Nut, who begets Re every day. This Mernere is born every day like Re." Then follows a picture of enthronement and felicity in the realm of Re, in which there is no reference to Osiris. It then proceeds: "They (the 'two great gods who are in charge of the Field of Rushes') recite for thee this chapter which they recited for ReAtum who shines every day. They

put this Mernere upon their thrones before every Divine Ennead, like Re and like his successor. They cause this Mernere to become like Re in this his name of Kheprer (Sun-god) . Thou ascendest to them like Re in this his name of Re. Thou wanderest away from them like Re in this his name of 'Atum.1 The two Divine Enneads rejoice, O king Osiris Mernere. They say, 'Our brother here comes to us/ say the two Divine Enneads concerning Osiris Mernere, 0 king Osiris Mernere. 'One of us comes to us/ say the two Divine Enneads concerning thee, O king Osiris Mernere. 'The first-born of his mother !' say the two Divine Enneads concerning thee, O king Osiris Mernere. 'He to whom evil was done by his brother Set comes to us/ say the two Divine Enneads. ' But we shall not permit that Set be delivered from bearing thee forever, O king Osiris Mernere/ say the two Divine Enneads concerning thee, O king Osiris Mernere. Lift thee up, O king Osiris Mernere. Thou livest." 2 It will be noticed that the Osirian passage which follows so abruptly upon the Solar is Osirian in content, and its Osirian character does not consist in the simple insertion of the name of Osiris before that of the king. names of Re

Perhaps even worse confusion is exhibited by the following Utterance: "0 this Pepi! Thou hast departed. Thou art a Glorious One, thou art mighty as a god, like the successor of Osiris. Thy soul hast thou in the midst of thee. Thy power (or 'control') hast thou behind thee. Thy crown hast thou on thy head. . . . The servants of the god are behind thee, the nobles of the god are before thee." "They recite: 'The god comes! The god comes! This Pepi comes upon the throne of Osiris. This Glorious One comes, the Dweller in Nedyt, the mighty one, the dweller in Thinis (Osiris)."' "Isis speaks to thee, Nephthys greets thee. The Glorious come to thee, bowing down; they kiss the earth at thy feet, because the terror of thee, O this Pepi, is in the cities of Seya." "Thou ascendest to thy mother Nut; she seizes thy arm. She gives to thee the way to the horizon, to the place where Re is. The double doors of the sky are opened for thee, the double doors of Kebehu (the sky) are opened for thee." "Thou findest Re standing (there) ; he greets thee. He seizes thy arm, he leads thee into the double palace of the sky. He places thee upon the throne of Osiris."

"Ho, this Pepi! The Horus-eye comes to thee, it addresses thee. Thy soul that is among the gods comes to thee; thy power (or 'control') that is among the Glorious comes to thee. The son has avenged his father, Horus has avenged Osiris. Horus has avenged Pepi on his enemies." "Thou risest, O this Pepi, avenged, equipped as a god, endued with the form of Osiris, upon the throne of the First of the Westerners. Thou doest what he was accustomed to do among the Glorious, the Imperishable Stars/' "Thy son stands on thy throne equipped with thy form. He does what thou wast accustomed to do formerly before the living, by command of Re, the great god. He ploughs barley, he ploughs spelt, he presents thee therewith." "'Ho, this Pepi! All satisfying life is given to thee, eternity is thine/ says Re. Thou speakest thyself; receive to thee the form of the god wherewith thou shalt be great among the gods who are in control of the lake." "Ho, this Pepi! Thy soul stands among the gods, among the Glorious. The fear of thee is on their hearts."

"Ho, this Pepi! This Pepi stands upon thy throne before the living. The terror of thee is on their hearts." ; "Thy name lives upon earth, thy name grows old upon earth. Thou perishest not, thou passest not away for ever and ever." l While there is some effort here to correlate the functions of Re and Osiris, it can hardly be called an attempt at harmonization of conflicting doctrines. This is practically unknown in the Pyramid Texts. Perhaps we may regard it as an explanation of Osiris's presence in the sky when we find a reference to the fact that "he ascended ... to the sky that he might join the suite of Re." 2 But the fact that both Re and Osiris appear as supreme kings of the hereafter cannot be reconciled, and such mutually irreconcilable beliefs caused the Egyptian no more effort to harmonize conflicting doctrine is that on p. 102, where the place of the Imperishable Stars in the north is pushed over toward the east to harmonize with the doctrine of the eastern sky as the place of the abode of the celestial dead. Pyr. § 1000. discomfort than was felt by any early civilization in the maintenance of a group of religious teachings side by side with others involving varying and totally inconsistent suppositions. Even Christianity itself has not escaped this experience.

There is a marked difference between Osiris and Re. Osiris is in function passive. Rarely does he become an active agent on behalf of the dead (as, e. g., in Pyr. Ut. 559). The blessedness of the Osirian destiny consisted largely in the enjoyment of the good offices of Horus, who appears as the son of the dead as soon as the latter is identified with Osiris. On the other hand, Re is a mighty sovereign, often directly interposing in favor of the dead, while it is the services of others on behalf of Osiris (not by Osiris) which the dead (as Osiris) enjoys. Osiris is a god of the dead; Re, on the other hand, is the great power in the affairs of living men, and there we behold his sovereignty expanding and developing to hold sway in a more exalted realm of moral values — a realm of which we shall gain the earliest glimpses anywhere vouchsafed us as we endeavor to discover more than the merely material agencies, and the material ends, which we have seen dominating the Egyptian conception of the hereafter.

Nowhere in ancient times has the capacity of a race to control the material world been so fully expressed in surviving material remains as in the Nile valley. In the abounding fulness of their energies they built up a fabric of material civilization, the monuments of which it would seem time can never wholly sweep away. But the manifold substance of life, interfused of custom and tradition, of individual traits fashioned among social, economic, and governmental forces, ever developing in the daily operations and functions of life — all that made the stage and the setting amid which necessity for hourly moral decisions arises — all that creates the attitude of the individual and impels the inner man as he is called upon to make these decisions — all these constitute an elusive higher atmosphere of the ancient world which tomb masonry and pyramid orientation have not transmitted to us. Save in a few scanty references in the inscriptions of the Pyramid Age, it has vanished forever; for even the inscriptions, as we have seen, are concerned chiefly with the material welfare of the departed in the hereafter. What they disclose, however, is of unique interest, preserving as it does the earliest chapter in the moral development of man as known to us, a chapter marking perhaps the most 165 important fundamental step in the evolution of civilization.

Moreover, these materials from the Pyramid Age have never been put together, and in gathering them together for these lectures I have been not a little surprised to find them as numerous as they are. They are, indeed, sufficiently numerous, and so unequivocal as to demonstrate the existence nearly three thousand years before Christ of a keen moral discernment, already so far developed that we must conclude it had begun far back in the fourth millennium B. C. Indeed the Egyptian of the Pyramid Age had already begun to look back upon a time when sin and strife did not exist, to "that first body" of "the company of the just," "born before arose," "strife," "voice," "blasphemy,"

"conflict," or the frightful mutilations inflicted upon each other by Horus and Set.1 With this age of innocence, or at least of righteousness and peace, we must associate also the time of which they spoke, "before death came forth." 2 The development of moral discernment had indeed gone so far in the Pyramid Age that the thought of the age was dealing with the origin of good and evil, the source of human traits. We recall that our Memphite philosopher and theologian attributed all these things to the creative word of his god, " which made that which is loved and that which is hated," "which gave life to the peaceful and death to the guilty." 3 Akin to this is the emergence, in this age, of the earliest abstract term dis- / cernible in the ancient world, the word for " truth, right, righteousness, justice," all of which are connoted by one word.

Furthermore, in the daily secular life of this remote age, even in administration, moral ideals already had great influence. In the Feudal Age, a thousand years after the rise of the Old Kingdom, at the installation of the vizier, that official used to be referred to the example of an ancient vizier who had already become proverbial in the Pyramid Age. The cause of his enduring reputation was that he had decided a case, in which his relatives were involved, against his own kin, no matter what the merits of the case might be, lest he should be accused of partial judgment in favor of his own family.1 A similar example of respect for moral ideals in high places is doubtless to be recognized in the Horus-name of king Userkaf (twenty-eighth century B. C). He called himself "Doer-of-Righteousness" (or Justice).

Among the people the most common virtue discernible by us is fihaljiety. Over and over again we find the massive tombs of the Pyramid Age erected by the son for the departed father, as well as a splendid interment arranged by the son.2 Indeed one of the sons of this age even surpasses the example of all others, for he states in a passage of his tomb inscription: "Now I caused that I should be buried in the same tomb with this Zau (his father), in order that I might be with him in the same place; not, however, because I was not in a position to make a second tomb; but I did this in order that I might see this Zau every day, in order that I might be with him in the same place." 3 It is especially in the tomb that such claims of moral worthiness are made. This is not an accident; such claims are made in the tomb in this age with the logical purpose of securing in the hereafter any benefits accruing from such virtues. Thus, on the base of a mortuary statue set up in a tomb, the deceased represented by the portrait statue says: "I had these statues made by the sculptor and he was satisfied with the pay which I

gave him." x The man very evidently wished it known that his mortuary equipment was honestly gotten. A nomarch of the twenty-seventh century B. C. left the following record of his upright life : " I gave bread to all the hungry of the Cerastes-Mountain (his domain); I clothed him who was naked therein. I filled its shores with large cattle and its lowlands1 with small cattle. I satisfied the wolves of the mountain and the fowl of the sky with 'flesh' of small cattle. ... I never oppressed one in possession of his property so that he complained of me because of it to the god of my city; (but) I spake and told that which was good. Never was there one fearing because of one stronger than he, so that he complained because of it to the god. ... I was a benefactor to it (his domain) in the folds of the cattle, in the settlements of the fowlers. ... I speak no lie, for I was one beloved of his father, praised of his mother, excellent in character to his brother, and amiable to [his sister]." 2 Over and over these men of four thousand five hundred to five thousand years ago affirm their innocence of evildoing. "Never did I do anything evil toward any person," 3

says the chief physician of king Sahure in the middle of the twenty-eighth century before Christ, while a priest a little later says essentially the same thing: "Never have I done aught of violence toward any person." 4 A century later a citizen of little or no rank places the following address to the living upon the front Zeitschr. fur aegypt. Sprache, 48, 156. of his tomb: "0 ye living, who are upon earth, who pass by this tomb ... let a mortuary offering of that which ye have come forth for me, for I was one beloved of the people. Never was I beaten in the presence of any official since my birth; never did I take the property of any man by violence; I was a doer of that which pleased all men." x It is evident from such addresses to the living as this that one motive for these affirmations of estimable character was the hope of maintaining the goodwill of one's surviving neighbors, that they might present mortuary offerings of food and drink at the tomb.

It is equally clear also that such moral worthiness was deemed of value in the sight of the gods and might influence materially the happiness of the dead in the hereafter.

An ethical ordeal awaited those who had passed into the shadow world. Both the motives mentioned are found combined in a single address to the living on the front of the tomb of the greatest of early African explorers, Harkhuf of Elephantine, who penetrated the Sudan in the twenty-sixth century B. C. He says: "I was . . . one (beloved) of his father, praised of his mother, whom all his brothers loved. I gave bread to the hungry, clothing to the naked, I ferried him who had no boat. O ye living who are upon earth, [who shall pass by this tomb whether] going down-stream or going up-stream, who shall say, 'A thousand loaves, a thousand jars of beer for the owner of this tomb!' I will intercede for their sakes in the Nether World. I am a worthy and equipped Glorious One, a ritual priest whose mouth knows. As for any man who shall enter into (this) tomb as his mortuary possession, I will seize him like a wild fowl; he shall be judged for it by the Great God. I was one saying good things and repeating what was loved. Never did I say aught evil to a powerful one against anybody. I desired that it might be well with me in the Great God's presence.

Never did I [judge two brothers] in such a way that a son was deprived of his paternal possession." l Here the threat of judgment is not only used to deter the lawless who might take possession of the dead man's tomb, but the thought of that judgment, meaning moral responsibility beyond the grave, is affirmed to have been the motive of the great explorer's exemplary life. That motive is thus carried back to the actual course of his daily, earthly life as when he says: "I desired that it might be well with me in the Great God's presence." 2 Throughout his life, then, he looked forward to standing in that dread presence to answer for the ethical quality of his conduct. As the earliest evidence of moral responsibility beyond the tomb, such utterances in the cemeteries of the Pyramid Age, nearly five thousand years ago, are not a little impressive. In other lands, for over two thousand years after this, good and bad alike were consigned to the same realm of the dead, and no distinction whatever was made between them. It is, as it were, an isolated moral vista down which we look, penetrating the early gloom as a shaft of sunshine penetrates the darkness.

It is of great importance to identify these ideas of a moral searching in the hereafter with one or the other of the two dominant theologies, that is with Re or Osiris. Unfortunately the god whose judgment is feared is not mentioned by name, but an epithet, "Great God," is employed instead. This is expanded in one tomb to " Great and 338.

God, lord of the sky." l It is hardly possible that any other than Re can be meant. To be sure, the celestializing of Osiris has in one or two rare instances brought even him the title "lord of the sky" (see above, p. 149), but the unprejudiced mind on hearing the words "Great God, lord of the sky" would think of no other than Re, to whom it was and had been for centuries incessantly applied; and this conclusion is confirmed by all that we find in the Pyramid Texts, where, as we shall see, Re is over and over again the lord of the judgment. It is he who is meant when Inti of Deshasheh says: "But as for all people who shall do evil to this (tomb), who shall do anything destructive to this (tomb), who shall damage the writing therein, judgment shall be had with them for it by the Great God, the lord of judgment in the place where judgment is had." 2 We have already followed the elaborate provision for all the contingencies of the hereafter which we find in the Pyramid Texts, and we recall how indispensable was the purification of the dead at some point in his transition from the earthly to the celestial realm. We stated in reference to that purification that its significance was not exhausted in purely physical and ceremonial cleansing.

That to some extent it signified moral purification is evident from the fact that when the dead king in one passage is washed by "the Followers of Horus," "they recite the 'Chapter of the Just' on behalf of this king Pepi (whom they are washing); they recite the ' Chapter of Those Who Have Ascended to Life and Satisfaction' on behalf of this king Pepi."3 The "Followers of Horus" who perform this ceremony are of course Solar, and thus moral purity in the hereafter is associated with the Sungod at the very beginning. This connection between the Sun-god and moral requirements is clearly recognized in a number of important passages in the Pyramid Texts.

" ' Let him come, he is pure/ says the priest of Re concerning king Mernere. The door-keeper of the sky, he announces him (Mernere) to these four gods (the four Horuses) who are over the lake of Keneset. They recite (the chapter), 'How just is king Mernere for his father Geb!'1 They recite (the chapter), 'How just is king Mernere for his father Re!'" 2 The king, then, is not exempt from the requirement which the tombs of his nobles disclose them as so anxious to fulfil, and the god whom he satisfies, as in the case of his subjects, is Re. "There is no evil which king Pepi has done. Weighty is this word in thy sight, O Re." 3 In a typical Solar Utterance, an appendix to an untouched Solar Utterance preceding it, we find Re's ferryman thus addressed: "O thou who ferriest over the just who is without a ship, ferryman of the Field of Rushes, king Merire (Pepi) is just before the sky and before the earth.

King Pepi is just before that island of the earth to which he has swum and arrived there." 4 When the righteous king has safely crossed, he furthermore finds a Solar Horus in charge of the celestial doors, who presides in that of Pepi, has inserted Osiris over Geb here, and then incorrectlyadded "Pepi," making "Osiris Pepi." The text thus made nonsense, viz., "How just is king Pepi for Osiris Pepi!" The passage incidentally furnishes one of the best examples of Osirian editing. That the text had nothing to do with Osiris in this passage, but concerned solely Geb and Re, is shown by the following context: "His (the king's) boundaries exist not, his landmarks are not found; while Geb, with his arm to the sky and his (other) arm to the earth, announces king Mernere to Re." what is evidently a building, of uncertain character, to which is appended the phrase " of righteousness." x Re has two barques of "Truth" or "Righteousness,"2 and we remember that the goddess of Truth or Righteousness, a personification of one of the few abstractions existent in this early age, was a daughter of Re.

Similarly, the Morning Star, a Solar deity, takes due note of the moral status of the dead Pharaoh. "Thou (O Morning Star) makest this Pepi to sit down because of his righteousness and to rise up because of his reverence." 3 Sometimes his guiltlessness applies to matters not wholly within the moral realm from our modern point of view.

Having become the son of Re, rising and setting like Re, receiving the food of Horus (son of Re), ministering to Re and rowing Re across the sky, it is said of the king: "This Pepi blasphemes not the king, he defames1 not Bastet, he does not make merry in the sanctuary." 4 The moral worthiness of the deceased must of course, in accordance with the Egyptian's keen legal discernment, be determined in legal form and by legal process. We have seen that the nobles refer to the judgment in their tombs, and it would seem that even the king was subject to such judgment. Indeed not even the gods escaped it; for it is stated that every god who assists the Pharaoh to the sky "shall be justified before Geb." 5 In the same way the punishment of a refractory god is " that he shall not ascend to the house of Horus that is in the sky on that day of the (legal) hearing." 6 In a series of three Solar Utterances concerning the two celestial reed floats,7 himself the king! the last one concludes with a refrain three times uttered: "This king Pepi is justified, this king Pepi is praised, the ka of this king Pepi is praised." When we note that the second of this coherent

series of three Utterances is antiOsirian, it is evident that the justification occurring in this connection is not Osirian but Solar, like the Utterance in which it is found. This conclusion is confirmed by another Solar Utterance on the two reed floats which affirms: "This Pepi is justified, the ka of this Pepi is justified." * The translated Pharaoh, who is thus declared just, continues to exhibit the same qualities in the exercise of the celestial sovereignty which he receives. "He judges justice before Re on that day of the feast, (called) ' First of the Year/ The sky is in satisfaction, the earth is in joy, having heard that king Neferkere (Pepi II) has placed justice [in the place of injustice]. They are satisfied who sit with king Neferkere in his court of justice with the just utterance which came forth from his mouth." 2 It is significant that the king exercises this just judgment in the presence of Re the Sun-god. Similarly in a Solar Utterance we find it affirmed that "king Unis has set justice therein (in the isle where he is) in the place of injustice." 3 There can be no doubt that in the Old Kingdom the sovereignty of Re had resulted in attributing to him the moral requirements laid upon the dead in the

hereafter, and that in the surviving literature of that age he is chiefly the righteous god rather than Osiris. Righteousalso "truth" or "righteousness." As the correlated opposite means "falsehood," it is perhaps more nearly correct to render "truth" and "falsehood." ness is a quality which is associated with several gods in the Old Kingdom, but none of the others approaches the prominence of Re in this particular. We find the four genii, the sons of Horus, who, as we have seen, were not improbably Solar in origin, though later Osirianized, called "these four gods who live in righteousness, leaning upon their sceptres, guarding the Southland." * These gods are once associated with Letopolis,2 and it is perhaps a connected fact that officiating before Khenti-yerti of Letopolis we find a god called " Expeller of Deceit," using the word for "deceit" which is correlated with "Truth or Righteousness " in the Pyramid Texts as its opposite.3 These four sons of Horus are mortuary gods, and one of the old mortuary gods of Memphis, Sokar, possessed a barque which was called the " Barque of Truth (or Righteousness)." 4 To this barque or its presiding divinity the dead king is compared: "The tongue of this king Pepi is (that of) ' The-Righteous-One (a god) -Belonging-tothe-Barque-of -Righteousness.' " 5 The Osirian Horus once

receives the epithet "the justified" in the Pyramid Texts;6 and Osiris likewise is, though very rarely, called " Lord of Truth (or Righteousness)." 7 In connection with the Osirian litigation at Heliopolis three statements regarding the legal triumph of the king are made which, because of the legal character of the victory, may not be exclusively ethical. The passage says of the king: "He is justified through that which he has done." 8 Again, he "comes forth to the truth (or ' righteousness ' in the sense of legal victory), that he may take it with him";9 and finally the king "goes forth on this day that he may bring the truth with him." l The later rapid growth of ethical teaching in the Osiris faith and the assumption of the role of judge by Osiris is not yet discernible in the Pyramid Age, and the development which made these elements so prominent in the Middle Kingdom took place in the obscure period after the close of the Pyramid Age. Contrary to the conclusion generally accepted at present, it was the Sun-god, therefore, who was the earliest champion of moral worthiness and the great judge in the hereafter. A thousand years later Osiris, as the victorious litigant at Heliopolis, as the champion of the dead who had legally triumphed over

all his enemies, emerged as the great moral judge. In the usurpation of this role by Osiris we have another evidence of the irresistible process which Osirianized Egyptian religion. To these later conditions from which modern students have drawn their impressions, the current conclusion regarding the early moral supremacy of Osiris is due. The greater age of the Solar faith in this as in other particulars is, however, perfectly clear.2 These early moral aspirations had their limitations.

Let us not forget that we are dealing with an age lying between five thousand and forty-five hundred years ago. The chief conquests of man in this remote age had been gained in a struggle with material forces. In this struggle he had issued a decisive victor, but nevertheless it was Osirian litigation at Heliopolis is the incident in the career of Osiris which resulted in the introduction of powerful ethical motives into Egyptian religion. A further study of the Pyramid Texts and the collection of all the data they contain on the subject, as presented above, demonstrate in my judgment the incorrectness of this conclusion as well as the early moral superiority of the Solar religion. amid the tangle of a host of obscuring influences into which we cannot enter here; it was, as it were, through the dust of an engrossing conflict that he had caught but faintly the veiled glory of the moral vision. Let us not imagine, then, that the obligations which this vision imposed were all-embracing or that it could include all that we discern in it. The requirements of the great judge in the hereafter were not incompatible with the grossest sensuality.

Not only was sensual pleasure permitted in the hereafter as depicted by the Pyramid Texts, but positive provision was made for supplying it.1 The king is assured of sensual gratification in the grossest terms, and we hear it said of him that he "is the man who takes women from their husbands whither he wills and when his heart desires." 2 Nevertheless that was a momentous step which regarded felicity after death as in any measure dependent upon the ethical quality of the dead man's earthly life; and it must have been a deep and abiding moral consciousness which made even the divine Pharaoh, who was above the mandates of earthly government, amenable to the celestial judge and subject to moral requirements.

This step could not have been taken at once. It is possible that even in the brief century and a half covered by the Pyramid Texts we may discern some trace of the progress of ethical consciousness as it was involving even the king in its imperious demands. We have already noted above the statement regarding the king, "This king Pepi is justified." Now, it happens that the Utterance in which this statement occurs is found in a variant after. form in the pyramids of Unis and Teti, two kings earlier than Pepi. Neither of these earlier forms contains this statement of justification, and within a period of sixty to eighty years the editors deemed it wise to insert it.1 As we have so often said, it is not easy to read the spiritual and intellectual progress of a race in monuments so largely material as contrasted with literary documents.

It is easy to be misled and to misinterpret the meagre indications furnished by purely material monuments. Behind them lies a vast complex of human forces and of human thinking which for the most part eludes us. Nevertheless it is impossible to contemplate the colossal tombs of the Fourth Dynasty, so well known as the Pyramids of Gizeh, and to contrast them with the comparatively diminutive royal tombs which follow in the next two dynasties, without, as we have before hinted, discerning more than exclusively political causes behind this sudden and startling change. The insertion of the Pyramid Texts themselves during the last century and a half of the Pyramid Age is an evident resort to less material forces enlisted on behalf of the departed Pharaoh as he confronted the shadow world. On the other hand, the Great Pyramids of Gizeh represent, as we have said before, the struggle of titanic material forces in the endeavor by purely material means to immortalize the king's physical body, enveloping it in a vast and impenetrable husk of masonry, there to preserve forever all that linked the spirit of the king to material life. The Great Pyramids of Gizeh, while they are to-day the most imposing surviving witnesses to the earliest emergence of organized man and the triumph of concerted effort, are !The Utterances are 263 (Unis), 264 (Teti), and 265-6 (Pepi).

Unis, the oldest king, died about 2625 B. C, and Pepi I about 2570. likewise the silent but eloquent expression of a supreme endeavor to achieve immortality by sheer physical force. For merely physical reasons such a colossal struggle with the forces of decay could not go on indefinitely; with these reasons political tendencies too made common cause; but combined with all these we must not fail to see that the mere insertion of the Pyramid Texts in itself in the royal tombs of the last century and a half of the Pyramid Age was an abandonment of the titanic struggle with material forces and an evident resort to less tangible agencies. The recognition of a judgment and the requirement of moral worthiness in the hereafter was a still more momentous step in the same direction. It marked a transition from reliance on agencies external to the personality of the dead to dependence on inner values. Immortality began to make its appeal as a thing achieved in a man's own soul. It was the beginning of a shift of emphasis from objective advantages to subjective qualities.

It meant the ultimate extension of the dominion of God beyond the limits of the material world, that he might reign in the invisible kingdom of the heart. It was thus also the first step in the long process by which the individual personality begins to emerge as contrasted with the mass of society, a process which we can discern likewise in the marvellous portrait sculpture of the Pyramid Age. The vision of the possibilities of individual character had dimly dawned upon the minds of these men of the early world; their own moral ideals were passing into the character of their greatest gods, and with this supreme achievement the development of the five hundred years which we call the Pyramid Age had reached its close.

When Egypt emerged from the darkness which followed the Pyramid Age, and after a century and a half of preparatory development reached the culmination of the Feudal Age (Twelfth Dynasty), about 2000 B. C, the men of this classic period looked back upon a struggle of their ancestors with death— a struggle whose visible monuments were distributed along a period of fifteen hundred years. The first five hundred years of this struggle was still represented by the tombs of the first two dynasties in Abydos and vicinity, but it was veiled in mist, and to the men of the Feudal Age its monuments were mingled with the memorials of the gods who once ruled Egypt. Of the thousand years which had elapsed since the Pyramid Age began, the first five hundred was impressively embodied before their eyes in that sixty-mile rampart of pyramids sweeping along the margin of the western desert. There they stretched like a line of silent outposts on the frontiers of death. It was a thousand years since the first of them had been built, and five hundred years had elapsed since the architects had rolled up their papyrus drawings of the latest, and the last group of workmen had gathered up their tools and departed.

The priesthoods too, left without support, had, as we have already seen, long forsaken the sumptuous temples and monumental approaches that rose on the valley side. The sixty-mile pyramid cemetery lay in silent desolation, deeply encumbered with sand half hiding the ruins of massive architecture, of fallen architraves and prostrate colonnades, a solitary waste where only the slinking figure of the vanishing jackal suggested the futile protection of the old mortuary gods of the desert. Even at the present day no such imposing spectacle as the pyramid cemeteries of Egypt is to be found anywhere in the ancient world, and we easily recall something of the reverential awe with which they oppressed us when we first looked upon them. Do we ever realize that this impression was felt by their descendants only a few centuries after the builders had passed away? and that they were already ancient to the men of 2000 B. C? On the minds of the men of the Feudal Age the Pyramid cemetery made a profound impression. If already in the Pyramid Age there had been some relaxation in the conviction that by sheer material force man might make conquest of immortality, the spectacle of these colossal ruins now quickened such doubts into open scepticism, a scepticism which ere long found effective literary expression.

Discernment of moral requirements had involved subjective contemplation. For the first time in history man began to contemplate himself as well as his destiny, to "expatiate free o'er all this scene of man." It is a ripe age which in so doing has passed beyond the unquestioning acceptance of traditional beliefs as bequeathed by the fathers. Scepticism means a long experience with inherited beliefs, much rumination on what has heretofore received unthinking acquiescence, a conscious recognition of personal power to believe or disbelieve, and thus a distinct step forward in the development of self-consciousness and personal initiative. It is only a people of ripe civilization who develop scepticism. It is never found under primitive conditions. It was a momentous thousand years of intellectual progress, therefore, of which these sceptics of the Feudal Age represented the culmination.

Their mental attitude finds expression in a song of mourning, doubtless often repeated in the cemetery, and as we follow the lines we might conclude that the author had certainly stood on some elevated point overlooking the pyramid cemetery of the Old Kingdom as he wrote them. We possess two fragmentary versions of the song, one on papyrus, the other on the walls of a Theban tomb.1 But the papyrus version was also copied from a tomb, for the superscription reads: "Song which is in the house (tomb-chapel) of king Intef 2 the justified, which is in front of the singer with the harp." The song reads: "How prosperous is this good prince! 3 It is a goodly destiny, that the bodies diminish, Passing away while others remain, Since the time of the ancestors, The gods who were aforetime, Who rest in their pyramids, Nobles and the glorious departed likewise, Entombed in their pyramids. Those who built their (tomb)-temples, Their place is no more. Behold what is done therein.

I have heard the words of Imhotep and Hardedef, 4 The first version is found among the love-songs of Papyrus Harris, 500, in the British Museum, pi. vi, 1. 2, to pi. vii, 1. 3 (part of a duplicate on a fragment of tomb wall in Leyden). See Mueller, pis. xii-xv. The other version is in the tomb of Neferhotep, Mueller, pi. i. For the older publications see Mueller. under king Zoser of the Third Dynasty (thirtieth century B. C). He was the first great architect in stone-masonry construction, the father of stone architecture. The futility of the massive building methods which he introduced is thus brought out with double effectiveness. He has not escaped the fate of all the rest in the Old Kingdom cemetery. Hardedef was a royal prince, son of Khufu of Gizeh, and hence connected with the greatest pyramid. He lived about a century after Imhotep. Both of them had thus become proverbial wise men a thousand years after they had passed away. (Words) greatly celebrated as their utterances. Behold the places thereof; Their walls are dismantled, Their places are no more, As if they had never been.

"None cometh from thence That he may tell (us) how they fare; That he may tell (us) of their fortunes, That he may content our heart, Until we (too) depart To the place whither they have gone. "Encourage thy heart to forget it, Making it pleasant for thee to follow thy desire, While thou livest. Put myrrh upon thy head, And garments on thee of fine linen, Imbued with marvellous luxuries, The genuine things of the gods. "Increase yet more thy delights, And let [not] thy heart languish. Follow thy desire and thy good, Fashion thine affairs on earth After the mandates of thine (own) heart. (Till) that day of lamentation cometh to thee, When the silent-hearted hears not their lamentation, Nor he that is in the tomb attends the mourning. "Celebrate the glad day, Be not weary therein. Lo, no man taketh his goods with him. Yea, none returneth again that is gone thither."

Plain English · paraphraseNo one comes back from there to tell us how they are, to tell us about their fate, to comfort our hearts, until we too go to the place they have gone. Encourage your heart to forget this, to find joy in following your desires while you are alive. Anoint your head with myrrh, wear fine linen soaked in wonderful luxuries, the true gifts of the gods. Increase your pleasures, and let your heart not grow weak. Follow your desires and your good things, arrange your affairs on earth according to your own heart’s wishes. Until that day of mourning comes to you, when the heart that is silent no longer hears their sorrow, and the one in the tomb pays no attention to the weeping. Rejoice in the happy days, do not grow tired of them. Indeed, no one takes their possessions with them. No one returns from the place they have gone.

Such were the feelings of some of these men of the Feudal Age as they looked out over the tombs of their ancestors and contemplated the colossal futility of the vast pyramid cemeteries of the Old Kingdom. Even the names of some of the wise men of a thousand years before, whose sayings had become proverbial, and who thus had attained more than a sepulchral immortality in some colossal tomb, arose in the recollection of the singer. It can hardly be a matter of chance that Imhotep, the first of the two whom the singer commemorates, was the earliest architect in stone masonry on a large scale, the father of architecture in stone. As the architect of king Zoser of the thirtieth century B. C, he was the builder of the oldest superstructure of stone masonry still surviving from the ancient world, the so-called "terraced pyramid" of Sakkara. It was a peculiarly effective stroke to revert to the tomb of this first great architect, and to find it in such a state of ruin that the places thereof were " as if they had never been." Indeed, to this day its place is unknown.

Hardedef, too, the other wise man whom the poem recalls, was a son of Khufu, and therefore connected with the greatest of the pyramids. The fact, too, that these two ancient sages had survived only in their wise sayings was another illustration of the futility of material agencies as a means of immortality. At the same time the disappearance of such souls as these to a realm where they could no longer be discerned, whence none returned to tell of their fate, strikes the sombrest and most wistful note in all these lines. It is a note of which we seem to hear an echo in the East three thousand years later in the lines of Omar Khayyam: " Strange, is it not ? that of the myriads who Before us passed the door of Darkness through, Not one returns to tell us of the Road Which to discover we must travel too." x Here is bared a scepticism which doubts all means, material or otherwise, for attaining felicity or even survival beyond the grave. To such doubts there is no answer; there is only a means of sweeping them temporarily aside, a means to be found in sensual gratification which drowns such doubts in forgetfulness. "Eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow we die."

The other version of the song, from the tomb of the " divine father (priest) of Amon, Neferhotep," at Thebes, is hardly as effective as the first, and unhappily is very fragmentary. It contains, however, some valuable lines which should not be overlooked. "How rests this just prince I The goodly destiny befalls, The bodies pass away Since the time of the god, And generations come into their places. "Re shows himself at early morn, Atum goes to rest in Manu.1 Men beget and women conceive, Every nostril breathes the air. Morning comes, they bear numerously, They (the new-born) come to their (appointed) places. "Celebrate the glad day, O divine father. Put the finest spices together at thy nose, Garlands of lotus flowers at thy shoulder, at thy neck. Thy sister who dwells in thy heart, She sits at thy side. Put song and music before thee, Behind thee all evil things, And remember thou (only) joy. the sun. Manu is the mountain of the west. "Till comes that day of mooring, At the land that loveth silence, (Where) the heart is quiet Of the son whom he loves. "Celebrate the glad day, O Neferhotep, justified, divine father, Excellent and pure of hands. I have heard all that befell Those . . .

Their houses are dismantled, The place of them is no more, They are as if they had never been, Since the time of the god, Those lords . . . "[Wilt thou plant for thee pleasant trees] 1 Upon the shore of thy pool, That thy soul may sit under them, That he may drink their water? Follow thy desire wholly, Give bread to him who hath no field. So shalt thou gain a good name For the future forever. 2 "Thou hast seen [rthe tombs of the great1] [rWhere priests offer, wearing skins of1] the panther; Their libation vessels are on the ground, And their bread of their food-offerings. known mortuary grove in this lacuna; he refers to Maspero, in Recueil de travaux, II, pp. 105-7; Rouge, Inscr. hierogl., CV; Mem. Miss, franc., V, 300, 330. But I cannot agree with Mueller in making it an injunction to equip the futile tomb with a grove equally futile, and supposing it to be an insertion by a later orthodox scribe. This can be avoided by making it a question. moral worthiness, kindness to the poor, and the resulting good name shall endure. Songstresses [weep1 . . .