The History of the Ancient Civilizations. Duncker Max

assume that the Egyptians believed in man's return to his divine origin in the sense that a soul which was not found wanting in weight, and was conscious of its own true nature, was not only received, after the completion of the proper cycle, into the bosom of the godhead, and allowed to be absorbed into the divine power, but was so far deified that it could adopt divine attributes and power, and even assume a divine title.

According to the account of Herodotus, the Egyptians believed that the soul of the dead passed into an animal, born at the time; from this it wandered into all the other animals on earth, in the air and the sea, and after 3,000 years it was again born with a human body.[129] That this account is incorrect is proved by the records already quoted; it may perhaps have arisen from the Egyptian conception that the soul of the justified obtained the power to assume every shape. But a purification of the unclean and ignorant soul by passing through the bodies of all kinds of animals could never have been assumed by the Egyptians, since the sacred races were pre-eminent manifestations, and the selected animals continuous incarnations, of the gods. If a pilgrimage through the bodies of beasts was really regarded by the Egyptians as a course of punishment and amelioration, the beasts meant can only be such as were not sacred. But as yet the examination of the monuments and records has by no means completely cleared up the relation of the soul to the body it has left, nor has it attained to any result on the fate in store for the souls which were found wanting when weighed in the balance.

      FOOTNOTES:

      [34] Herod. 3, 37.

      [35] De Rougé, "Revue archéolog." 1860, 1, 357.

      [36] "De Isid." c. 51, 52; "De Pyth. Oraculis," p. 400.

[37] Macrob. "Sat." 6, 18.

[38] "De Isid." c. 36.

[39] De Rougé, "Zeitsch. d. d. m. Gesellschaft," after a sepulchral pillar in the Berlin Museum, 4, 375.

[40] Champollion, Monuments, pl. 123 seq. Dümichen, "Tempelinschriften." 1, 24. Lepsius, "Aelteste Texte des Todtenbuchs," s. 13.

[41] Lepsius, "Die Götter der vier Elemente;" Dümichen, in "Zeitsch. für ægyptische Sprache," 1869 s. 7.

[42] Herod. 2, 61.

[43] Plut. "De Isid." c. 38.

[44] The identification of Neith with Athene (Herod. 2, 62; Plat. "Tim." p. 21) rests on the similarity of the name, on the torch-races in honour of Pallas at Athens, and the feast of lamps at Sais. Gutschmid, "Beiträge zur Geschichte des alten Orients," s. 39, 45 ff., has shown that Neith and Athene cannot be brought into agreement in points of language. The inscription on the throne of Neith at Sais, given by Plutarch ("De Isid." c. 9), "I am all that has been, is, will be, and no mortal has lifted my robe," does not in the first part of it contradict certain applications of the oldest text of the "Book of the Dead" (see below). On the other hand, the second part is doubtful. In any case, the fact that the peplos has not been raised does not refer to the inconceivable nature of the goddess, but to seclusion from sexual intercourse. It can only mean that Neith was born from her own creative force.

[45] Herod. 2, 60, 137, 138.

[46] Horapoll. 1, 10.

[47] Brugsch, "Zeitschr. d. d. morgenland. Gesellschaft," 10, 683.

[48] De Rougé, "Revue archéolog." 1860, 1, 339.

[49] Plutarch, "De Isid." c. 63; cf. Eber's "Gosen," s. 484.

[50] Plut. "De Isid." c. 9.

[51] Bunsen, "Ægypten," I, 446.

[52] Lepsius in "Zeitschrift für æg. Sprache," 1868, s. 127.

[53] Lepsius, "Aelteste Texte," s. 42, 48, 52; "Götterkreis," s. 31–43.

[54] Plut. "De Isid." c. 11.

[55] Ibid. c. 21.

[56] Wilkinson, 4, 237, 242, 246.

[57] Parthey, "Abh. der Berl. Akademie," 1863; Minutoli, "Reise zum Tempel des Ammon;" cf. Herod. 4. 181.

[58] Bunsen, "Ægypten," 1, 470; Lepsius, "Briefe," s. 105.

[59] Diod. 1, 13.

[60] Plut. "De Isid." c. 12–20.

[61] Herod. 2, 144; Diod. 1, 25, 44.

[62] Compare the beautiful explanation given by Lepsius of the game at dice between Hermes and Selene, narrated in Plutarch, loc. cit.

[63] Lepsius, "Chronol." 1, 91. As to the meaning of Seb, I should be inclined to give the preference to the view of Brugsch.

[64] Brugsch and Lepsius in "Zeitschrift für æg. Sprache," 1868, s. 122 ff.

[65] Wilkinson, "Ancient Egypt," 4, 189.

[66] Lepsius, "Götterkreis," s. 35; "Briefe," 106–111.

[67] Diod. 1, 22.

[68] Plut. "De Isid." c. 20