![]() ![]() Placing a name on a statue ceded the image to the dead named, providing a second body. Most ancient Egyptian names embodied a meaning which was believed to have a direct relationship with its owner. Ren (name, identity) Ī person's name, or rn ( □ □ 'name') was an essential aspect of individuality and central to one's survival after death. But, behold, thou dost not know good from bad. And now, behold, I have spent three years alone without entering into a house, though it is not right that one like me should have to do it. I gave linen clothes to wrap thee and left no benefit undone that had to be performed for thee. I wept exceedingly together with my household in front of my street-quarter. I spent eight months without eating and drinking like a man. From the time I lived with thee as thy husband down to today, what have I done to thee that I need hide? When thou didst sicken of the illness which thou hadst, I caused a master-physician to be fetched . What wicked thing have I done to thee that I should have come to this evil pass? What have I done to thee? But what thou hast done to me is to have laid hands on me although I had nothing wicked to thee. A well-known example was found in a tomb from the Middle Kingdom in which a man leaves a letter to his late wife who, it can be supposed, is haunting him: As a part of the larger construct, the ꜣḫ, the sꜥḥ was sometimes seen as an avenging spirit which would return from the underworld to seek revenge on those who had wronged the spirit in life. This spiritual body was then able to interact with the many entities extant in the afterlife. If all the rites, ceremonies, and preservation rituals for the ẖt were observed correctly, and the deceased was found worthy (by Osiris and the gods of the underworld) of passing through into the afterlife, the sꜥḥ ( sah spiritual representation of the physical body) forms. Terracotta from Deir el-Medina, 19th–20th Dynasties, New Kingdom of Egypt. Sah (spiritual body) Ostrakon with the beginning of the Ghost story. so that the spiritual body would be able to move in the afterlife. This ritual which, presumably, would have been performed during interment, was meant to reanimate each section of the body: brain, head, limbs, etc. All along the walls and statuary inside the tomb are reliefs and paintings of priests performing the sacred rituals and, below the painted images, the text of the liturgy for opening of the mouth can be found. The main ceremony, the opening of the mouth ceremony, is best depicted within Pharaoh Seti I's tomb. īefore a person could be judged by the gods, they had to be "awakened" through a series of funerary rites designed to reanimate their mummified remains in the afterlife. ![]() Herodotus, an ancient Greek scholar, observed that grieving families were given a choice as to the type and or quality of the mummification they preferred: "The best and most expensive kind is said to represent, the next best is somewhat inferior and cheaper, while the third is cheapest of all." īecause the state of the body was tied so closely with the quality of the afterlife, by the time of the Middle Kingdom, not only were the burial chambers painted with depictions of favourite pastimes and great accomplishments of the dead, but there were also small figurines ( ushabtis) of servants, slaves, and guards (and, in some cases beloved pets) included in the tombs, to serve the deceased in the afterlife. By the Middle Kingdom, all dead were afforded the opportunity. In the Old Kingdom, only the pharaoh was granted mummification and, thus, a chance at an eternal and fulfilling afterlife. Therefore, it was necessary for the body to be preserved as efficiently and completely as possible and for the burial chamber to be as personalized as it could be, with paintings and statuary showing scenes and triumphs from the deceased's life. The ẖt (Egyptological spelling: khet), or physical form, had to exist for the soul ( kꜣ/ bꜣ) to have intelligence or the chance to be judged by the guardians of the underworld. On display at the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose, California. Khet (physical body) An ushabti box, Ptolemaic Period. In some instances, these forms could be employed to help those whom the deceased wished to support or, alternately, to take revenge on his enemies. In life, the person was a complete entity, but if he had led a virtuous life, he could also have access to a multiplicity of forms that could be used in the next world. ![]() The Egyptians believed that the human personality had many facets-a concept that was probably developed early in the Old Kingdom. David, at the University of Manchester, explains the many facets of the soul as follows: Collectively, these spirits of a dead person were called the Akh after that person had successfully completed its transition to the afterlife.
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