(4) Lhe Osirian doctrine of immortality.—We have already noticed in the preceding pages a con- siderable number of Egyptian conceptions of the future life. In this matter there was no uniform
RELIGION OF EGYPT
—
system of belief in the Nile valley. It appears to have been a generally accepted dogma that man’s life endures for ever ; but hs was represented and developed by each nome in conjunction with its own religious conceptions, without any regard to the possible prevalence of contradictory notions amongst their neighbours. They even went further than this in their want of system. The very same individuals occasionally regarded views of the future life which were logically self- contradictory as equally legitimate, and gave them a place side by side in their funeral texts. We must here pass over a long list of such doctrines, and rest content with giving a short account of the most important of them—a dogma which already played a part in the earliest period of Egyptian history, and became from c. 2000 B.c. the prevailing conception of the future life, till, finally, in the first millennium B.c. it was practically the only doctrine on the subject that was taken account of by the great mass of the Egyptian people.
(a) This doctrine connects itself with the fortunes of the god Osiris. The first biography of this god we possess comes from the post-Christian period, being found in Plutarch’s de Iside et Osiride ; but allu- sions in the monuments show that much the same story of his life was known as early as the Old Empire. It is true that, besides this main narra- tive, there were a number of others which showed deviations in details. Above all, the conceptions regarding the most important episode in the god’s existence, namely his resurrection, differed very widely, especially in the later texts. This may be due to the fact that, now that the Osirian doctrine was the prevailing one, the attempt was made to assimilate to it other doctrines of im- mortality, which originally started from other divine conceptions, or, conversely, to assimilate the Osirian doctrine itself to these heterogeneous processes of thought. The most widely current version, however, continued, to all appearance, to be that handed down by Plutarch, which is essen- tially as follows :—
Rhea (Nut), the consort of Helios (Ra), had sexual relations with Kronos (Seb). Helios ob- served this, and laid a curse upon her to the effect that she should not give birth to a child in any month of the year. But Hermes (Thoth), who was also in love with the goddess, succeeded in evading the curse. He won from Selene (Aah) at draughts the 70th part of each day, and formed from these 5 intercalary days, which he placed at the end of the year. Osiris was born on the first of these days, Aroéris (Her-ur, the elder Horus) on the second, Set on the third, Isis on the fourth, Nephthys on the fifth. Osiris and Aroéris pass for children of Helios, Isis of Hermes, Set and Nephthys of Kronos. According to some accounts, Osiris and Isis had already intercourse in their mother’s womb, the result being the birth of Aroéris. In general Osiris and Isis appear as one married couple, Set and Nephthys as another. After a time Osiris became king of Egypt, ruled mildly, gave laws, taught the doctrines concerning the gods, and then journeyed over the world as an introducer of civilization. On his return he was murdered, on the 17th of Athyr, in the 28th year of his life or his reign, by Set, who had associated with him as fellow-conspirators 72 men and a queen of Ethiopia named Aso. Isis’ grief was profound, but she found a companion in Anubis, a son of Osiris and Nephthys. Besides, she had herself a son by Osiris, namely Horus, who later became a helper to her after having during his youth been often threatened with danger at the hands of Set. According to Plu- tarch, Isis discovered the coffin in which Set had deposited Osiris, at Byblos in Phenicia, and
————
RELIGION OF EGYPT
brought it from there to Egypt. Set, however, found the coftin which had been concealed by Isis, tore the corpse of Osiris to pieces, and scattered them. When Isis discovered this outrage, she searched for the different parts of her husband’s corpse, and, wherever she found one of them, erected an Osiris tomb. Then she and Horus commenced a campaign against Set, which ended in the victory of Horus. By way of appendix Plutarch states that Isis had intercourse even with the dead Osiris, the result of which was the birth of Harpocrates (Her-pe-chrut, ‘Horus the child’).
When we look more closely at the treatment of the corpse of Osiris, as described in Plutarch’s narrative, we are struck with one feature which points to a mixing up of originally different accounts of the fate of the corpse. At first the latter rests as a whole in the coffin, then it is cut in pieces, and, finally, the pieces are again brought together. As a matter of fact, we have here a reflexion of the chief points in the Egyp- tian treatment of dead bodies; the only feature wanting is cremation, which in the earliest times was practised in the case of kings, and later occurs sporadically and in connexion with human sacrifice. This omission must be due to the cir- cumstance that, at the time when the Osirian doctrine was attaining to full vigour, cremation was no longer sufficiently in vogue to demand consideration. During the Naqada period, a dis- memberment of the corpse was customary at burial. In the Pyramid era this was generally re- placed by the burial of the whole body, which it was sought at the same time to preserve from decay by a more or less complete process of embalming. During this same period we find also a transition form, by which the corpse was first allowed to decompose, and then the bones were collected and placed again in the proper order of a skeleton. At a later period the custom that had practically exclusive sway in the Nile valley was that of embalming, which then came in general to be regarded as that applied to Osiris. During the process of embalming the latter, Nephthys and Isis were said to have sung dirges over the god, in order to aid in his resurrection; and a similar practice for a like purpose was followed also in connexion with human interments (see the texts in Horrack, Lamentations dIsis et de Nephthys, Paris, 1866; Budge, Archeologia, lii. 11 ff., 65 ff. The festivals in commemoration of the burial and the resurrection of Osiris at the end of the month Choiak are portrayed at Denderah ; cf. Loret, Rec. de trav. rel. a VEgypt. iii. 434f., iv. 21 ff, v. 851f.).