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CHAPTER 5. THE WORSHIP OF OSIRIS (Sections 26-35; figs. 3-7).
26. Legend of Osiris
(p.25). — From the Greek authors we are able to get a fairly connected
account of Osiris. They agree that he came from the north, Plutarch
saying that he was born on the right side of the world, which he
explains as the north; but Diodorus mentions the town from which he
came, namely, Nysa in Arabia Felix, on the borders of Egypt. The Book
of the Dead gives his birthplace as Deddu (Busiris), and this statement
is given by Plutarch on the authority of Eudoxus.
Plutarch gives the
legend of his birth on the first of the intercalary days (see Nut,
sect. 13, No. 13) as the firstborn of the deities Geb and Nut, and says
that on his entrance into the world a voice was heard saying, "The Lord
of all the earth is born," but Diodorus speaks of him as a human king.
The two Greek authors, Plutarch and Diodorus, go on to tell us that on
coming to the throne Osiris proceeded to teach his subjects the arts of
civilization, introducing corn and the vine, and reclaiming the
Egyptians from cannibalism and barbarism. Having reduced his own
kingdom to civilization and order, he gave the government into the
hands of his wife Isis, and travelled southwards up the Nile, teaching
the people as he went. The army that accompanied him was divided into
companies, to each of whom he gave a standard. He was accompanied also
by musicians and dancers, and he introduced the art of music, as well
as the knowledge of agriculture into all the countries through which he
passed. He built Thebes of the hundred Gates, and at Aswan he made a
dam to regulate the inundation of the Nile. He travelled through the
then known world, which included India and Asia Minor, and ended his
peaceful mission by returning happily and in triumph to Egypt.
There he
found everything in order, but his brother Set, consumed with jealousy
and longing to usurp the kingdom, determined on his death. To this end.
Set, with his fellow-conspirators, invited Osiris, under pretence of
friendship, to a banquet, and there exhibited a wooden coffer,
beautifully decorated, which he promised to give to any one whose body
it fitted. All the conspirators in turn lay down in it, but it fitted
none of them, for the measurements had been carefully taken from Osiris
himself without his knowledge. Osiris unsuspectingly entered the coffer
and lay down, whereupon Set and his companions hastily clapped on the
cover, nailed it down, and poured molten lead over it. They then
carried the coffer down to the Nile and threw it into the water.
Here
there comes a discrepancy in the narrative. According to the Metternich
stele, one of the few Egyptian authorities extant, Isis fled to Buto,
in the marshes of the Delta, to escape from Set, and there she brought
forth her son Horus, and remained in that place till he was old enough
to do battle with his father's murderer. Plutarch, however, makes no
mention of this, but says that Isis was at Koptos when she heard of the
death of Osiris, that she cut off a lock of her hair and put on
mourning apparel, and at once instituted a search for her husband's
body.
After many wanderings she arrived at Byblos, and found that the
coffer had lodged in the branches of a tamarisk tree. The tree had grown
round it and had become so large and luxuriant as to attract the notice
and admiration of the king of Byblos, who had it cut down and made it
into a pillar to support the roof of his palace. Isis became nurse to
the infant prince and in reward for her services was permitted to open
the pillar and remove the coffer. She took it away into the desert and
there opened it, and throwing herself on the corpse wept and lamented.
Afterwards she hid away the chest with the body still inside it, and
went to Buto, where her son Horus resided, presumably meaning to return
and bury the dead Osiris. Meanwhile, however, Set, hunting wild boars
by moonlight, came across the coffer and recognized it. In his fury he
flung it open, tore the body to pieces, and scattered the fragments far
and wide. Isis, on her return, found what had occurred. Mourning and
lamenting she searched through the length and breadth of Egypt, burying
each piece of the body in the place where she found it, and raising to
its memory a temple or a shrine.
This is the legend of Osiris
as it was known in Greek times. From what Herodotus says, and from
other indications in mythological texts, it would seem that the
Egyptians, like the Jews and Hindus, had a Supreme Deity whose name it
was not lawful to mention, and who manifested himself, as in Hinduism,
under many forms and names. It appears evident that this Supreme God
was known commonly among the Egyptians by the name of Osiris, but his
true name was hidden from all except those initiated into the
mysteries. In the pyramid texts, Unas says, "O great god, whose name is
unknown," On the stele of Re-ma there is the same expression, "His name
is not known."
(p.26) An observation of Herodotus proves that
Osiris was the chief deity, in Greek times at least, for he says that
though the Egyptians were not agreed upon the worship of their
different gods they were united in the cult of Osiris.
It is
this confusion of names and forms that makes the study of Osiris so
difficult, and I have endeavoured to point out only a few of his many
manifestations.
27. Osiris as a Sun-god.—
Egyptologists have generally looked upon Osiris as a form of the
Sungod, and, indeed, it is usually said that Ra is the living or
day-sun and Osiris the dead or night-sun. This view, however, is not
altogether borne out by the mythology of the Egyptians themselves,
except in so far as that almost every deity of any note was, at some
period of his career, identified with the sun by the worshippers of Ra.
Even in the Book of Am Duat and the Book of Gates, which are entirely
concerned with the journey of the sun during the hours of the night, it
is Ra who passes by in his boat, whose devoted followers gather round
to protect him from danger, to whom the gates, which divide the hours,
are flung open. Osiris, on the contrary, is not the hero of this
nocturnal journey- In the Book of Gates he appears only once, and then
at the entrance of the Sun into the Duat or other world. There he is
seen (Pl.13.) encircling the Duat and supporting Nut, who receives
Ra in her arms (fig.3). It is quite evident here that Osiris and the sun are
two distinct personalities.
Fig.3:
Detail of inscriptions at the Osireion at Abydos portraying the Book of Gates,
showing Osiris in circular form at top around the inscription of the
Duat, holding the upside-down figure of Nut. (Source: Plate 13, this volume).
In chap. 17 of the Book of the Dead Ra is
identified with Osiris, but the original text and the glosses are so
obscure that it is not possible to make out the true meaning. In the
hvmn to Ra, which comes between chaps.15 and 16, there is a very
definite statement about the night sun, showing that it is Ra himself
and not Osiris. "Thou (Ra) completest the hours of the Night, according
as thou hast measured them out. And when thou hast completed them
according to thy rule, day dawneth." All through the Book of the Dead,
though it is implied that Osiris and Ra are the same, yet there is no
definite statement of the fact. M. Jequier thinks that the whole of the
Book of Am Duat, and particularly the Book of Gates, is an attempt of
the theologians of the XVIIIth and XlXth Dynasties to reconcile the
solar with the Osirian worship.
28. Osiris as the Moon-god.—
Osiris is identified with the moon quite as readily as with the sun.
Chap.65 of the Book of the Dead gives prayers to the moon couched in
precisely the same terms as the petitions to Osiris. "O thou who
shinest forth from the Moon, thou who givest light from the Moon, let
me come forth at large amid thy train .... let the Duat be opened for
me ... let me come forth upon this day." In the Lamentations of Isis
and Nephthys, Osiris is actually identified with the moon. " Thoth ....
placeth thy soul in the barque Maat, in that name which is thine of
God Moon .... Thou comest to us as a child each month" (de Horrack,
Rec. of Past, ii). Again, in the Book of the Dead, chap.8, "I am
the same Osiris, the dweller in Amentet I am the Moon-god who dwelleth
among the gods." Plutarch says that upon the new moon of Phamenoth,
which falls in the beginning of spring, a festival was celebrated which
was called The entrance of Osiris into the Moon.
Another proof
of the connection of Osiris with the moon is that the lunar festivals
of the Month and the Half-month, i.e. the New Moon and the Full Moon,
are specially dedicated to him from very early times; he is also Lord
of the Sixth-day festival (the first quarter of the moon), and the
Tenait (the last quarter) is one of his sacred days, and one specially
observed at Abydos.
The
two ceremonies recorded by Plutarch may
also have a connection with the worship of Osiris Lunus, as the
principal object was made in the form of a crescent. At the funeral of
Osiris, a tree was cut down and the trunk formed into the shape of a
crescent. The other ceremony was more elaborate. "On the 19th of
Pachons they march in procession to the sea-side, whither likewise the
priests and other proper officers carry the sacred chest, wherein is
enclosed a small boat or vessel of gold. Into this they first pour some
fresh water, and then all that are present cry out with a loud voice,
'Osiris is found.' As soon as this ceremony is finished, they throw a
little fresh mould, together with some rich odours and spices, into
this water, mixing the whole mass together and working it up into a
little image in the shape of a crescent, which image they afterwards
dress up and adorn with a proper habit."
Herodotus says that
"pigs were sacrificed to Bacchus, and to the moon when completely full.
When they offer this sacrifice to the moon, and have killed the victim,
they put the end of his tail, with the (p.27) spleen and the fat, into
a caul found in the body of the animal, all of which they burn on the
sacred fire, and eat the rest of the flesh on the day of the full moon.
Those who, on account of their poverty, cannot bear the expense of this
sacrifice, mould a paste into the form of a hog and make their
offering. In the evening of the festival of Bacchus, though everyone be
obliged to kill a swine before the door of his house, yet he
immediately restores the carcase to the hog-herd that sold it to him.
The rest of this festival is celebrated in Egypt to the honour of
Bacchus with the same ceremonies as in Greece." The Grecian ceremonies
being phallic, it is evident that Osiris Lunus was the same deity as
Osiris Generator, and it is this idea that Hermes Trismegistos
expresses when he calls the moon the instrument of birth. Though we
only hear of the sacrifice of pigs to Osiris and the moon in Greek
times, yet we have an evident allusion to it as early as the XIXth
Dynasty. On the sarcophagus of Seti I, and in the tomb of Rameses V,
there are representations of Osiris enthroned, and before him is a boat
in which stands a pig being beaten by an ape. The ape is the emblem of
Thoth, who is one of the chief lunar deities. So in this scene we have
the combination of Osiris and the moon in connection with the pig.
Bronze
figures of Osiris-Lunus are not uncommon. In this form he is never
represented as a mummy, but wears the short kilt, and on his head the
disk of the moon, and sometimes the horns of the crescent. The Sacred
Eye is either in his hand or engraved on the disk, and his name,
Osiris-Aah, is on the pedestal.
29. Osiris as a god of vegetation.
One of the principal forms under which Osiris is worshipped is as a god
of vegetation and generation. Hymns addressed to him are full of
allusions to his generative power. "Nothing is made living without him,
the Lord of Life" (Stele of Re-ma). "Through thee the world waxeth
green in triumph before the might of Neb-er-Zer" (Pap. of Ani).
And, in a hymn of the time of Rameses IX, Osiris is worshipped as the god from whom all life comes:
"Thou
art praised, thou who stretchest out thine arms, who sleepest on thy
side, who liest on the sand, the Lord of the ground, thou mummy with
the long phallus . . . . . . The earth lies on thine arm and its corners upon
thee from here to the four supports of heaven. Shouldst thou move, then
trembles the earth . . . . . [The Nile] comes forth from the sweat of thy
hands. Thou spuest out the air that is in thy throat into the nostrils
of mankind. Divine is that on which one lives. It . . . . . . in thy
nostrils, the tree and its leafage, the reeds and the . . . . . . barley,
wheat, and fruit trees . . . . . . Thou art the father and mother of mankind,
they live on thy breath, they subsist on the flesh of thy body" (Erman,
A.Z., 1900, 30-33). Mr. Fraser (Golden Bough, i, 304) suggests that the
Dad-pillar, the well-known emblem often called the Backbone of Osiris,
" might very well be a conventional representation of a tree stripped
of its leaves, and, if Osiris was a tree-spirit, the bare trunk and
branches of a tree might naturally be described as his backbone."
Osiris,
as the begetter of mankind, is identified with the god Min of Koptos,
the god of generation, and the Phallic festivals celebrated in honour
of Osiris are said by Plutarch to be precisely the same as those in
honour of Bacchus, the similarity of worship being so great that the
two Greek authors who have left us the most detailed account of the
Egyptian religion do not hesitate to speak of Osiris as Bacchus.
The
ritual of the worship of Osiris as a god of vegetation is preserved in
a Ptolemaic inscription at Dendereh. There we have the exact details of
the celebration of the Ploughing Festival to which allusions are made in
texts relating to Osiris. The ritual of Abydos is followed by Koptos,
Elephantine, Kusae, Diospolis of Lower Egypt, Hermopolis, Athribis, and
Schedia; but in Busiris, Heracleopolis Magna, Sais, and Netert it
differed in several particulars.
To take Abydos first, as the chief
place of worship in Upper Egypt, the ceremony was performed in the
presence of the cow-goddess Shenty. In the temple of Seti at Abydos
there is a coloured bas-relief of the goddess in the inner chamber at
the back, and it is probable that this chamber is the Per- Shenty
(House or Chamber of Shenty) where some of the mysteries of the death
and resurrection of Osiris were celebrated. A hollow statuette of pure
gold was made in the likeness of the god—that is to say, of a man
bandaged like a mummy—with the high crown of Upper Egypt. It was to be
a cubit long, including the crown, and two palms wide. Then the
reliquary was of black copper, and its length two palms and three
fingers, its breadth three palms and three fingers, and its height one
palm. On the twelfth of Khoiak four hin of sand and one hin of barley
were put into the statuette, which was then laid in the " garden " with
rushes over and under it.
(p.28) The " garden " was in the Per-Shenty,
and was made of stone, four-square and resting on four pillars. It was
a cubit and two palms in length and breadth, and three palms three
fingers deep inside. The statuette was wrapped in a shet-garment and
decorated with a necklace and a blue flower laid beside it. On the 21st
of Khoiak, nine days after, all the sand and barley was taken out of
the statuette, and dry incense put in its place. The statuette was then
bandaged with four strips of fine linen, and was laid daily in the sun
until the " day of resting in the chamber of Sokar."
On the 25th of
Khoiak the statuette which had been made the previous year was brought
out and laid on a bier, and was buried the same day in the
burial-place called the Arq-heh. This Arq-heh was probably a small
shrine; as Pef-tot-nit (Louvre, A 93) , in describing what he had done
for the temple of Osiris at Abydos, says, "The Arq-heh was of a single
block of syenite."
There was, besides, another mystic ceremony, the
making of what Brugsch, in his translation, calls, "Kiigelchen," but
which should more properly be called cylinders. This mystical ceremony
was, apparently, not performed at Abydos. The cylinders were to be made
of barley, date-meal, dried balsam, fresh resin, fourteen kinds of
sweet-smelling spices, and fourteen kinds of precious stones (according
to the number of the relics of the god) mixed together with water from
the holy lake, and made in the form of little balls, which were wrapped
in sycamore leaves.
At Busiris the ritual was rather
different, as might be expected from the different character of the
god. The festival did not begin till the 20th of Khoiak, when the
barley and sand were put into the "gardens" in the Per-Shenty. Then
fresh inundation water was poured out of a golden vase over both the
goddess and the "garden," and the barley was allowed to grow as the
emblem of the resurrection of the god after his burial in the earth,
"for the growth of the garden is the growth of the divine substance."
The later date is owing to the later harvest of the north.
At Philae
there is a representation of the god lying on his bier, a priest
pouring water over him, and plants growing out of his body (M.A.F.,
tome xiii, pl.40). On the sarcophagus of Ankhrui found at Hawara there
is a similar picture (fig.4) (Petrie, Hawara, pl.2).
Fig.4:
Tomb of Ankhrui (30th Dyn.) at Hawara, showing (1) top of sarcophagus
lid, with the deceased paying tribute to Horus the hawk; 2) side of
lid, showing mummified Osiris with plants growing out, representing generation (source: Petrie 1889, Hawara, pl.2.)
In the Museum at
Marseilles there is a basalt sarcophagus of the Saite period, on which
is engraved a scene described thus by M. Maspero: "A hillock, rounded
at the top and crowned with four cone-shaped trees; the inscription
tells us that it is Osiris who rests here." This is the same scene as
those already cited, of plants growing from the body of Osiris, though
here the grave only, and not the body, are shown.
Representations
of the resurrection of Osiris are seen at Dendereh, more literally and
not so poetically expressed as at Philae. At Dendereh the god leaps
alive from his bier with the mummy wrappings still upon him (Mar.
Dendereh iv, pls. 72, 90). The little cylinders were to be finished on
the 14th, and placed inside the statuette on the 16th. The linen in
which the statuette was wrapped had to be made in one day, and the
wrapping took place on the 24th. But the 30th of Khoiak was the great
day at Busiris, for then was performed the great ceremony of the
Uplifting of the Dad-pillar. The statuette was buried in a grave called
(by Brugsch) "The Depth above Earth." The Dadpillar was to remain
standing for ten days. This raising of the Dad is a very curious
ceremony, but no satisfactory explanation of it has yet been made. One
of the best-known representations of it is at Abydos in the Hall of the
Osirian mysteries, where Isis and the king, Seti I, are raising the
pillar between them, and there is also a picture of the Dad firmly set
up and swathed with cloth. Still earlier is a scene in the tomb of
Kheru-ef at Assassif, copied by Prof. Erman, where Amenhotep III,
attended by his queen and the royal daughters, is setting up the
Dad-pillar "on the morning of the Sed-festivals," while the sacred
cattle "go round the walls four times" (Brugsch, Thes., 1190).
As
the god of vegetation certain trees and plants must of necessity be
under his special protection; and this we find to be the case. To him
were sacred the tamarisk and the sont-acacia; and at Busiris the
necropolis, in which his effigy was annually buried, was called
Aat-en-beh, Place of Palm-branches. Amt, the Town of the Acacia-trees,
was so completely identified with him in his bull form that it was
called Apis by the Greeks. Diodorus remarks that the ivy was sacred to
Osiris as to Bacchus, and Plutarch says that a fig-leaf was the emblem
of the god, and that his votaries were forbidden to cut down any
fruit-trees or to mar any springs of water.
The ritual of
Dendereh continued in practice until Roman times, for figures of Osiris
made of barley and sand were found by Drs. Grenfell and Hunt at Sheikh
Fadl, the ancient Kynopolis. These figures were roughly modelled to the
desired shape, and were then bandaged after the fashion of a mummy
(p.29) with patches of gilding here and there, to represent the golden
statuette enjoined by the priests of Dendereh. The little cylinders,
which contained sand and barley, but no precious stones, were found
with the figures. The coffin which contained the figure has the hawk
head of Horus, and across the breast is the winged scarab, emblem of
the resurrection. Some were found in a little chamber built of stones,
which seems to correspond with the Arq-heh of Abydos. Two dedicatory
tablets were with the figures, on one of which was the date of the
twelfth year of Trajan. This shows that the ceremony did not die out
till the introduction of Christianity. The ritual was certainly of much
earlier date than the inscription of Dendereh, and a modification of
the ceremony was used in the XVIIIth Dynasty at the burial of a king.
In Ma-her-pra's tomb at Thebes "there was found a symbolic bier with a
mattress, &c., and on the top a figure of Osiris painted on linen.
Earth had been placed on this figure and grains of corn sown and
watered there so that they sprouted " (Arch. Rep. of the E.E.F., 1898-99, p.25).
30. Osiris as god of the Nile.
As the creator of all things living, Osiris is also god of the Nile,
for it is to the river that Egypt owes her fertility. Plutarch, who as
a careful folk-lorist noted all details of ritual, observes that the
Greeks allegorise Saturn into Time and Juno into Air, and in the same
way by Osiris the Egyptians mean the Nile. But he goes on to say that
there are other philosophers who think that by Osiris is not meant the
Nile only but the principle and power of moisture in general, looking
upon this as the cause of generation and what gives being to the
seminal substance. They imagine, he continues, that Osiris is of a
black colour because water gives a black cast to everything with which
it is mixed.
This gives a very curious derivation for the name Kem-ur,
The great black One, under which name Osiris is mentioned several times
in the Book of the Dead. "I flood the land with water, and Kem-ur is my
name" (chap.65). When he is set as Judge of the Dead, his throne
stands upon water, out of which grows the lotus that supports the four
Children of Horus. Offerings almost invariably include the lotus, the
most striking of the water-plants of Egypt. In the Sed-festival of
Osorkon II, the Osirified king, wearing the white crown, stands with a
stream of water pouring from his hands. This is evidently the scene to
which the hymn already quoted (sect. 29) refers, "The Nile comes forth
from the sweat of thy hands." The king as Osiris personifies the Nile,
and wears the crown of Upper Egypt as the country from which the Nile
comes.
31. Osiris as god and judge of the Dead.—
It is in this capacity that Osiris is best known, for everyone is
familiar with the scene of the Weighing of the Heart, where the feather
of Maat and the heart of the deceased are weighed in the scales against
each other. Anubis watches the pointer of the balance, Maat or the ape
of Thoth sits on the upright support, Thoth enters the record on his
tablet; the deceased recites the Negative Confession, and watches the
proceedings anxiously, for near the balance crouches the horrible
animal, Amemt, the Eater of Hearts, ready to devour any heart which
fails to balance the feather exactly. At a little distance the
impartial judge, Osiris, sits enthroned, surrounded by all the
splendour that the artist could contrive. Sometimes another scene is
shown, where the deceased, after passing the ordeal of the Scales in
safety, is led by Thoth to the foot of the throne and there presented
to Osiris. The speech of Thoth and the prayer of the deceased are
given, but the reply of Osiris is never found.
As god of the
dead, there are several points of great interest. According to the
inscription, Horus buried his father with great pomp, and all the
funeral ceremonies in Egypt were supposed to be an exact imitation of
those used for the burial of Osiris. The paintings and sculptures in
the tombs of the kings are distinctly said to be a copy of those with
which Horus decorated the tomb of his father. It is therefore evident
that in the funeral ceremonies used at the entombment of a king or a
high official we shall find some at least of the ritual of the worship
of Osiris as god of the dead.
32. Sacrifices.
One custom which was never omitted at a great funeral was the
sacrificing, and this brings us to one of the most interesting points
of the ritual. That it was to Osiris that the sacrifices were made is
shown by a passage in the Book of the Dead, "Oh Terrible One, who art
over the Two Lands, Red God who orderest the block of execution, to
whom is given the Double [Urert] Crown and Enjoyment as Prince of
Henen-seten" (chap.17). The dead being identified with Osiris would
require sacrifices as gods, and the scene of the slaughter and
dismemberment ofcattle is very common in tombs and temples.
The
question now arises as to whether (p.30) animals were merely
substitutes for human victims. Porphyry says that, according to
Manetho, Amasis abolished human sacrifice at Heliopolis. Diodorus
reports that in ancient times the kings sacrificed red-haired men at
the sepulchre of Osiris, by which may be meant either the traditional
sepulchre of the god, or more probably the tomb of a predecessor of the
royal sacrificer. Plutarch is even more explicit; he quotes Manetho to
the effect that in the city of Eilitheiya it was the custom to
sacrifice men annually and in public, by burning them alive, their
ashes being afterwards scattered. The human victim was called Typho.
Turning to the evidence of the monuments, we find in the temple of
Dendereh a human figure with a hare's head and pierced with knives,
tied to a stake before Osiris Khenti-Amentiu (Mar. Dend. iv, pl.Ivi),
and Horus is shown in a Ptolemaic sculpture at Karnak killing a bound
hareheaded figure before the bier of Osiris, who is represented in the
form of Harpocrates. That these figures are really human beings with
the head of an animal fastened on is proved by another sculpture at
Dendereh (id. ib. pl.Ixxxi), where a kneeling man has the hawk's head
and wings over his head and shoulders, and in another place, a priest
has the jackal's head on his shoulders, his own head appearing through
the disguise (id. ib. pl.xxxi). Besides, Diodorus tells us that the
Egyptian kings in former times had worn on their heads the fore-part of
a lion, or of a bull, or of a dragon, showing that this method of
disguise or transformation was a well-known custom.
In the Book of the Dead,
sacrifices of human beings, or of animals in the place of human
victims, are alluded to frequently, sometimes in set terms. "The Great
Circle of gods at the Great Hoeing in Deddu, when the associates of Set
arrive and take the form of goats, slay them in the presence of the
gods there, while their blood runneth down" (chap.18). "Horus
cutteth off their heads in heaven when in the forms of winged fowl,
their hinder parts on earth when in the forms of quadrupeds or in water
as fishes. All fiends, male or female, the Osiris N. destroyeth them"
(chap.134). "I have come, and I have slain for thee him that
attacked thee. I have come, and I have brought unto thee the fiends of
Set with their fetters upon them. I have come, and I have made
sacrificial victims of those who were hostile to thee. I have come, and
I have made sacrifices unto thee of thine animals and victims for
slaughter" (chap.173).
Plutarch, when describing the
animals reserved for sacrifice, observes that no bullock may be offered
to the gods which has not the seal of the priests first stamped upon
it. He then quotes Castor to the effect that this seal has on it the
impress of a man kneeling with his hands tied behind him and a sword
pointed at his throat.
When we remember what Plutarch says
also about the human victim being called Set, and that according to
Diodorus the victim was red-haired, red being the colour of Set, it is
evident that in the sacrificial animals we have the substitutes for the
human victim, and we may expect to find at the funerals of kings and
great officials that the human sacrifice is continued to a
comparatively late date.
In the sculptures of the XVIIIth
Dynasty tombs of Sennefer, Paheri, Rekh-ma-Ra, Renni, and
Mentu-her-khepesh-ef, a human figure is depicted which has been
recognized by M. Lefebure and others as the sacrificial victim. He is
called the Teknu, and in the tombs of Rekh-ma-Ra and Sennefer he is
wrapped in an ox-skin with only his head visible. In the other tombs
the Teknu crouches down on the sledge on which he is being drawn to the
place of sacrifice. In the sculptures of Mentu-her-khepesh-ef, it
appears that the ritual enforced the strangling of the victim and the
destruction of the body by fire, which supports Plutarch's statement of
the human sacrifice by fire.
In the tomb of Renni (pl.xii) at
El Kab, the victim, here called Kenu, is kneeling upright on a small
sledge, so swathed in cloth that only the outline of the figure is
visible. The sledge is drawn by several men, and the inscription reads
" Bringing the Kenu to this Underworld."
The ebony tablets of
Mena (Petrie, Royal Tombs II, pl.3, Nos. 2, 4, 6) give a sacrificial
scene, in which the victim is a human being (fig.5). Tablet No. 2 gives a bound
captive kneeling before the ka-name of the king; this is probably the
first scene of the sacrificial ceremony of which we get the principal
scene in the other tablets. No. 6 shows a kneeling captive whose arms
are bound behind him; before him sits a man who strikes him to the
heart with a small weapon. Behind the sacrificial priest is a standing
figure holding a staff; and behind the victim are a long pole, and the
hide of an animal, which is in later times the symbol of Ami-Ut, a god
of the dead. Above the scene is the hieroglyph Shesep. No. 4, though
greatly broken, gives many details which have been destroyed in No. 6.
The (p.31) sacrifice has completely disappeared, only the head of the
standing figure remains. Behind him, however, is the sign for a palace
or fortress, and behind that is the ka-name, Aha, of King Mena. We can
also see that the long pole behind the victim is one of the sacred
standards surmounted by a hawk. The sign Mes (Born of, or Child) is
above the hawk, and the sign Shesep occurs again with the hieroglyphs
for South and North above it. It is evident that Shesep, which means "
to receive," has here some special technical meaning.
Fig.5: Ebony tablets of king Mena at Abydos, showing sacrifices (source: Petrie, 1901, pl.3)
There is
also the legend, given by Herodotus, of Hercules being led before
Jupiter to be sacrificed. Herodotus treats the legend with scorn, the
custom being so totally at variance with the mild and gentle character
of the Egyptians of his day. But the truth of the story is at once
apparent when taken in connection with other instances of human
sacrifices. The name Busiris, which Diodorus mentions as a fabulous
king who sacrificed his guests, points to the place where the victims
were immolated; and seeing that the raising of the Dad-pillar was the
chief religious event of the year, it was probably before that object
of worship that the sacrifices were performed.
In the tomb of
Amenhotep II, three human bodies were found, but though there is no
actual proof that these were the victims of sacrifice yet from their
position it seems likely that they had been immolated in honour of the
dead king.
33. In
considering Osiris as god of the dead, it is necessary to remember that
every dead person in later times was identified with him and was called
by his name. In the early dynasties this was not the custom, only kings
being honoured in this manner. Men-kau-Ra is the first of whom we have
any record who bears the name of Osiris, though we shall see further on
(Osiris in the Sed-festival) that the king in his life-time was
identified with the god. In the Xllth Dynasty the custom became
general, and in the XVIIIth it was universal, every dead person being
called Osiris. The complete identification of the king with Osiris is
shown in a sculpture in the tomb of Horemheb (L. D.
iii, 78, a and b),
where Thothmes III is enthroned as Osiris in a shrine, before him are
four human figures called respectively Amset, Hapi, Duamutef, and
Qebhsennuf, with the cartouches of Neb-maat-Ra, Men-kheperu- Ra,
Aa-kheperu-Ra, and Menkheper-Ra. The Weighing of the Heart takes place
in the presence of these royal personages in exactly the same manner as
though they were the gods themselves.
The kingdom of Osiris
was called by the Egyptians the Fields of Aalu. Here the dead lived
again a similar life to that which they had passed upon earth. It was a
land of agriculture and of simple country pleasures. There the wheat
grew to the height of five cubits, the ears being two cubits long,
while the ears of barley were even larger. The South part contained the
Lake of the Kharu fowl, in the North was the lake of the Re fowl. The
whole territory was surrounded by an iron wall (chaps.109 and 149).
The pictures represent a country intersected by canals which form
islands. Here the deceased carries on his agricultural pursuits, he
ploughs with a yoke of oxen, he drives the oxen over the ploughed field
to tread in the seed, and he reaps the corn, which is as tall as
himself. In another part he is paddling in a canoe on one of the
canals, probably for pleasure as he carries his provisions with him
(Papyrus of Nebseni).
This existence, though ideal in some ways, was
not altogether attractive to the ease-loving Egyptian. The hard manual
work, to which the educated classes were unaccustomed, was distasteful,
and yet the Fields of Peace, of which the Fields of Aalu were a part,
were places of happiness and enjoyment. It was to remedy this one
defect, that the models of servants were placed in the graves.
Originally these were servants of all kinds, but they became
stereotyped in the Middle Kingdom, after which time only the farm
labourers, carrying hoe, pick, and basket, are found. These are known
as ushahti figures. The inscription on them is an address from the
deceased, in which he adjures them to take upon themselves the tasks
which Osiris, ruler of the land to which he was going, might command
him to perform.
I cannot refrain from quoting Plutarch on
Osiris as god of the dead. "As to that circumstance of their
mythology, which the priests of the present age seem to have in so much
abhorrence, and of which they never speak but with the utmost caution
and reserve, that Osiris rules over the Dead, and is in reality none
other than the Hades or Pluto of the Greeks—'tis the not rightly
apprehending in what manner this is true, which has given occasion to
all the disturbance which has been raised upon this point; filling the
minds of the vulgar with doubts and suspicions, unable as they are to
conceive, how the most pure and truly holy Osiris should have his
(p.32) dwelling under the earth, amongst the bodies of those who appear
to be dead. And, indeed, this God is removed as far as possible from
the earth, being not susceptible of the least stain or pollution
whatever, and pure from all communication with such Beings as are
liable to corruption and death. As therefore the souls of men are not
able to participate of the divine nature, whilst they are thus
encompassed about with bodies and passions, any farther than by those
obscure glimmerings, which they may be able to attain unto, as it were
in a confused dream, through means of philosophy—so when they are
freed from these impediments, and remove into those purer and unseen
regions, which are neither discernible by our present senses nor liable
to accidents of any kind, 'tis then that this God becomes their leader
and their king; upon him they wholly depend, still beholding without
satiety, and still ardently longing after that beauty, which 'tis not
possible for man to express or think." [Squire's translation.)
34. Osiris in the Sed-festival. It has been observed by Herr Moller (A.Z.
1901, p. 71) that Osiris plays a large part in the ceremonies of the
Sed festival, and it is remarkable that the King himself represents the
god. Of the kings thus depicted we have fourteen, though it is
uncertain whether the sculptures of Seti I as Osiris are intended to
represent the Sed-festival.
King
Dynasty Location
Sources [1]
1. Narmer
Prehistoric El-Kab
Hierakonpolis, Pl.26.
2. Zer
Ist Dyn. Abydos
Royal Tombs.
3. Den
Ist Dyn.
Abydos
Royal Tombs.
4.
Ra-en-user Vth Dyn.
Abusir
A.Z. 1899, Taf.I
5.
Pepy-Mery-Ra Vlth Dyn.
Hammamat L.D. II, 115a.
6. Usertsen III (not contemporary).
Xllth Dyn. Semneh
L.D. Ill, 48,49, 51
7. Amenhotep I XVIIIth Dyn. Karnak
8.
Thothmes III "
" Thebes. Semneh
L.D. 111,36.
" "
" " Abydos Abydos II, Pl.33.
9. Amenhotep III " " Thebes. Soleb L.D. Ill, 74.
10.
Akhenaten " " El Amarna
L.D. Ill, 100.
11.
Rameses I XlXth Dyn. Qurna
L.D. Ill, 131.
12. Seti I " " . Qurna Champollion II, 149
Rossellini III, 57
13.
Rameses II " " El Kab
L.D. Ill, 174.
" " " " Ehnasya
14.
Osorkon II XXIInd Dyn. Bubastis
Festival Hall Osorkon II.
The latest representation, that of Osorkon,
is the best preserved, and gives the ceremony in most detail (fig.6). The King,
robed as Osiris, and holding the crook and scourge, emblems of the god
of the dead. sometimes marches, sometimes is carried, in procession
through the temple. He wears either the white crown or the red crown
according to the part he has to play. During a portion of the ceremony
he is accompanied by the queen and the princesses. The King however is
the chief personage, and to him worship appears to be paid as to a god.
Next in importance to him is the great figure of Upuaut of the South,
which is carried by six priests immediately in front of the living
representative of Osiris. The procession is headed by the Mut neter en
Siuti. The Divine Mother of Him of Siut. "He of Siut" is a title of
Upuaut as god of that city. Following the figure of Upuaut are two
priests carrying small standards, one of Upuaut of the North, and one
of the Joint of Meat which in Ptolemaic times is called Khonsu. This
festival took place on the first day of Khoiak.
Of Rameses II,
whose festivals exceeded in number those of any other king, I know only
two representations. He is enthroned in a shrine and wears the white
crown; his son Kha-em-uast, who stands before him, "satisfies the heart
of the Lord of the Two Lands at the Sed-festival." The date of this at
El Kab is the forty-first year of the king's reign. Another instance of
the Osiride king enthroned is found at Ehnasya.
Seti I is
shown as an Osiride figure in a tomb at Thebes, but it is not certain
that he is celebrating the Sed-festival, as he wears the Atef crown and
not one of the crowns of Egypt. There is also a representation of him
as Osiris in a shrine, with Ptah and Sekhet on one side, Amen-Ra and
Mut on the other; but again there is nothing to show that it is the
Sed-festival.
Rameses I appears in the double shrine which
forms the hieroglyph for the Sed-festival. The shrine is surmounted by
the crouching hawk, and the king wears the white crown.
Akhenaten's
Sed-festival is figured in the style peculiar to that king. He wears
the red crown, and is borne on a litter by priests, while the sun's
disk stretches down innumerable hands to bless him as he passes on his
way. Here again there is a date: the 12th year, the second month of
Pert (Mechir), the eighth day.
Amenhotep III has left two
records of his Sed festival, one at Thebes and one at Soleb. At Thebes
he is enthroned in the two shrines, and wears in one case the white
crown, in the other the red crown. Before him is the emblem of the Ka,
a staff with (p.33) two human arms, surmounted by a hawk, which
presents the notched palm-branch, emblem of millions of years, to the
deified king. Over the arms of the Ka hangs the sign of Life attached
to the signs of the Sed-festival. At Soleb he is seen standing, wearing
the red crown, and accompanied by Queen Thyi and the Seten Mesu, Royal
Children, i.e. the princesses. The standards carried in procession are
five in number, that of Upuaut being foremost. He is also represented
enthroned and wearing the red crown. The date of the festival appears
to be in the month Khoiak.
Thothmes III recorded his
Sed-festival at two places, Semneh and Abydos, or possibly they are the
records of two separate festivals. At Abydos very little remains, only
the figure of the enthroned king with his name, and in front of him the
hide on a pole; some other fragments show that a priest in a
panther-skin stood before him (Petrie, Abydos II,
pl.33). At Semneh he is enthroned in a shrine, and wears the white
crown, and before him are standards, the foremost one being that of
"Upuaut, Leader of the South and the Two Lands," a title of Upuaut of
the South. This is the only standard named. Behind the shrine the
Osirified Thothmes appears again, standing and wearing the red crown;
and in another place he is again standing, wearing the red crown and
attended by the Anmutef priest.
The Sed-festival of Amenhotep
I is sculptured on a slab found at Karnak by M. Legrain. The king is
enthroned, wearing the dress, and bearing the emblems, of Osiris.
At
Semneh we have the Sed-festival of Usertsen III celebrated by Thothmes
III, with, apparently, the same ritual as that of a living king.
Usertsen is enthroned in a shrine which is carried in a boat. He wears
the white crown, and before him are the standards of Upuaut, Neith, the
Joint of Meat, and the Ibis, carried by emblems of Life and Strength.
The standard of Neith is actually foremost, but it appears to take that
place to fill the gap below the standard of Upuaut, which projects very
far forward.
Pepy I has left many records of his
Sed-festivals, but as far as I know there is only one representation,
which is cut on the rocks at Hammamat. He is figured in the double
shrine, on one side wearing the white crown, on the other side with the
red crown. Below is an inscription, "The first time of the
Sed-festival." Another graffito tells us that the festival took place
in his 18th year, on the 27th day of the 3rd month of Shemu (Epiphi).
Of
Ra-en-user's Sed-festival only fragments of the sculpture remain. The
king wears the white crown, but of the standards carried before him all
are destroyed, except one, the Joint of Meat. In another fragment are
the Seten Mesut, Royal Daughters, carried in litters which resemble
sedan-chairs.
King Den's Sed-festival is recorded on a small
ebony tablet found at Abydos. He is enthroned in a shrine, and wears
the double crown. The dancing figure in front I take to be another
scene in the same ceremony; as in the case of Thothmes III, where the
king, vested as Osiris, stands immediately behind the figure of himself
enthroned.
King Zer appears twice enthroned, once with the
white crown, once with the red crown. In each case the standard of
Upuaut precedes him.
The earliest representation of this
festival, where the king appears as Osiris, is on the great mace-head
of Narmer (fig.7). The king is enthroned in a shrine raised on a flight of nine
steps, and wears the red crown. The scene before him is divided into
three registers; in the first are the four sacred standards, that of
Upuaut being foremost; in the second and principal register are three
dancers, and a litter like a sedan-chair, containing a figure closely
wrapped up, which we know from the sculptures of Ra-enuser to be the
Seten Mest, Royal Daughter. Below there are cattle and numerals. In
these scenes we get the earliest representation of this ceremony, and
we can see that the principal points are preserved down to the last
occasion of which we have any record, viz. Osorkon II, a period
extending over four thousand years. The points are three in number:—
1. The king in the robe, and with the emblems, of Osiris, evidently representing the god.
2. The importance of the sacred standards, and the prominent position of the standard of Upuaut.
3. The presence of the Royal Daughters as an integral part of the ceremony.
As
to the second point, some explanation may be found when we turn to the
name of the festival, of which there has as yet been no satisfactory
derivation. On the Palermo Stone there is a record, in the eleventh
year of an unnamed king (called Konig V by Dr. Schafer), of the birth
of the god Sed, the name being determined by the figure which, in later
times, is called Upuaut, a jackal on a (p.34) pedestal, and in front of
him the ostrich feather, emblem of space and lightness, on which,
according to Professor Sethe, the king ascended into heaven at his
death. In the tomb of Kaa (Mar. Mast.
D. 19), and also in another tomb found at Sakkara by Mariette, hitherto
unpublished, the deceased is said to have been "the divine servant of
the god Sed," with the same determinative as on the Palermo Stone. If
the Sed-festival were in honour of the jackal-god Sed, it would be
natural that the figure of the jackal should take a prominent place in
the ceremonies. It is remarkable that in the later sculptures of this
scene, the jackal standard is often carried by an emblematic figure, an
ankh or an uas-sceptre with arms.
Herr Moller has published some curious scenes from a coffin found at Deir el Bahri (A.Z.
1901, p. 71), in which the Sed-festival is depicted, but without any
royal name. The Royal Daughters and the standards of Upuaut are
represented as in the cases already cited; Upuaut is called Lord of
Siut and Leader of the South, and the ostrich feather in front of the
stand has been metamorphosed into a lotus. The closely wrapped figures
in litters have the names Amset, Hapi, and Duamutef, there is nothing
but their likeness to similar figures at Abusir and on the mace-head of
Narmer, to show that they are intended for the princesses; further on,
however, there are other figures in the same attitude and attire,
though not in litters, who are labelled Seten Mesut. The scene of
driving four calves is not known elsewhere in the Sed-festival, though
it is not uncommon in other representations of the worship of the gods.
35. The Da-seten-hetep formula.—
There is one curious point to be noticed in the very common funerary
formula Da-seten-hetep; we find that in the Old Kingdom Osiris is
seldom mentioned. I give a table made up from Lepsius' Denkmaler, Mariette's Mastabas, Davis' Mastaba of Akhethetep, and Rock Tombs of Sheikh Said.
Dynasties:
IVth Vth VIth Total
Anubis alone .
.
15 23 23
61
Anubis and Osiris
1
8 13 22
Osiris
alone . .
1 2
1 4
Anubis with other gods 1 1 1 3
Formula
without a god 1 3
1 5
Total:
19
37 39 95
By Anubis I mean the couchant jackal-god, who appears without name, and with the title Khenti-Neter-seh.
It
is evident from this table that it is not to Osiris that the prayer is
addressed, and I think that the reason is as follows:—
I have
shown that the king, when living, is identified with Osiris in the
Sed-festival, that he was identified after death with the same god is
proved by the coffin of Men-kau-Ra, where the dead king is called "the
Osiris Men-kau-Ra;" and also by the pyramid texts. There is a litany in
the Pyramid of Unas (1. 209, et seq.), which apostrophizes Osiris by
various epithets, and continues, "If he lives, Unas lives; if he does
not die, neither does Unas die; if he is not destroyed, Unas is not
destroyed; if he begets not, Unas begets not; if he begets, then Unas
begets." And it closes with the words, "Thy body is the body of Unas;
thy flesh is the flesh of Unas; thy bones the bones of Unas; as thou
art, so is Unas; as is Unas, so art thou." In the Pyramid of Teta (1.
256) there is the very definite statement that " this Teta is Osiris."
Here,
then, we see that, alive or dead, the King is Osiris and Osiris is the
King. He is the incarnate god upon earth to whom all prayers are
addressed, and who, in connection with Anubis and other gods of the
dead, looks after the welfare of those who have passed out of life.
Therefore it would be mere vain repetition and tautology to introduce
the name of Osiris in the funerary prayers when he has already been
addressed under the title of Seten (king). As time advanced this
appears to be forgotten, and gradually the name of Osiris is inserted,
and that of Anubis ousted, till finally the King and Osiris, one and
the same person, are mentioned together, often to the exclusion of any
other god, in the prayers for the dead.
There is one example
which goes to prove my argument, and which shows that even as late as
the XVIIIth Dynasty the origin of the formula was not completely
forgotten. The inscription is on a wooden statue (Champ. Not.
ii, pp. 719, 720), and runs thus: "May the king grant an offering,"
then come the titles and name of Queen Aahmes-Nefertari, "may she give
life, strength, and health, for the ka of," and then follow the titles
and name of the deceased. Here, then, are the incarnate god and the
deified queen named together as the givers of what is necessary in the
next world.
36. Ceremonies in honour of Osiris.—There are (p.35) several other ceremonies in honour of Osiris, which cannot be classified under any of the foregoing heads.
Plutarch
mentions two which are very similar and may possibly be the same
ceremony as practised in different parts of the country. At the one
which takes place at the winter solstice, "they lead the sacred cow in
procession seven times round her temple, which procession they call in
express terms "The Searching after Osiris." The other "doleful rite"
was to expose to public view "a gilded Ox covered with a pall of the
finest black linen (for this animal is regarded as the living image of
Osiris), and this ceremony they perform four days successively,
beginning on the seventeenth of the abovementioned month (Athyr)."
The
festival of lights is mentioned in the Ritual of Dendereh, and is
described by Herodotus. "There shall be celebrated a voyage on the 22nd
of Khoiak in the 8th hour of the day, when many lamps shall be lighted
near them (the relics) and the gods belonging to them, the list of
whose names runs thus, Horus, Thoth, Anubis, Isis, Nephthys, and the
nineteen Children of Horus. These shall be put into 34 boats.
Furthermore these gods shall be bandaged with the four webs from the
South Town and the North Town (Sais)" (Brugsch). Herodotus describes
the festival as he saw it at Sais. "When they meet to sacrifice in the
city of Sais, they hang up by night a great number of lamps, filled
with oil and a mixture of salt, round every house, the tow swimming on
the surface. These burn the whole night, and the Festival is thence
named The Lighting of Lamps. The Egyptians, who are not present at this
solemnity observe the same ceremonies wherever they be, and lamps are
lighted that night, not only in Sais, but throughout all Egypt.
Nevertheless, the reasons for using these illuminations and paying so
great respect to this night are kept secret."
There are many
allusions to this custom scattered through the religious texts, and all
show that it was a ceremony in honour of Osiris. "O, Osiris, I kindle
the flame for thee on the day of the shrouding of thy mummified body." [Stela of Rameses IV, Piehl, A.Z.,
1885, 16). "The flame for thy ka, O Osiris Khenti- Amentiu, the flame
for thy ka, O chief Kheri-heb Petamenap . . . . . . It protects thee and shines
about thy head . . . . . . . it makes all thine enemies to fall down before thee,
thine enemies are overthrown" (Dumichen, A.Z., 1883, 14-15). At Soleb during the Sed-festival of Amenhotep III, the lighting of a lamp forms part of the function (L. D.
iii, 84); and at an earlier period still, in the Xllth Dynasty, the
kindling of a spark or lamp was evidently one of the chief rites at the
commemorative ceremonies for the dead (Griffith, Siut, pl.viii).
Herodotus
mentions a ceremony which he describes partly from observation and
partly from hearsay, but which seems to be a confused account of some
Osirian rite. "The Egyptians celebrate a certain festival from the day
of Rampsinitus' descent (into Hades) to that of his re-ascension . . .
. . . . The priests every year at that time, clothing one of their
order in a
cloak woven the same day, and covering his eyes with a mitre, guide him
into the way that leads towards the Temple of Ceres [Isis], and then
return, upon which, they say, two wolves come and conduct him to the
Temple, twenty stades distant from the city, and afterwards accompany
him back to the place from whence he came." The garment woven in one
day is probably the same that is ordered in the Ritual of Dendereh,
"the 19th of Khoiak, on which day shall be made the linen for wrapping
the body." The two wolves stand for Upuaut of the South and Upuaut of
the North coming from the temple of Isis to meet the incarnate Osiris.
They conduct him as the "openers of roads."
Firmicus Maternus
gives a description of a ceremony which apparently represents the
burial rites of Osiris. A pine tree was cut down, and the heart of the
tree removed. From this was made an image of Osiris, which was replaced
in the hollow tree as in a tomb, where it remained till the following
year, when it was burned.
[Continue to Chapter 6]
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