Life After Death_ A History of the Afterlife in Western Religion - Alan Segal [29]
The myth of Osiris’s dismemberment by Seth, his evil brother and god of disorder, served as a narrative structure on which to base the transformation to eternal life, but like writing itself, its ritual observances were largely confined to the aristocracy. For one thing, mummification itself was very expensive. When a deceased was properly embalmed by the priesthood of Osiris, his (or her) everlasting life was symbolized by putting the hieroglyphic symbol of Osiris before the proper name. At first, this symbol was reserved for the pharaoh only. As we have seen, the pharaoh was considered to be Horus on earth and Osiris when he rose into the heavens. The victory of Osiris’s son Horus against Seth was declared “true of voice,” and the same term followed the cartouche of the immortalized mortal. Indeed, each of the utensils or statues in temples had to receive a special rite of consecration, an “opening of the mouth,” in which a sword symbolically opened the nostrils or mouth of the deceased to enable breathing in the afterlife. Again, we see that the intervention of the living was necessary as an act of piety for the immortality of the dead.
Thus, the great funerary rituals of ancient Egypt were not simple acts of piety for the corpse but performative utterances, processes of actual revivification in the afterlife. The artist who created the sacred objects was called sankh, “giver of life,” and the ritual of bringing the corpse life was called heka, a great cosmic power to make rituals effective. The term heka itself is often translated as “magic” but in fact it overlaps quite fully with what we would call “religion” as well, there being no need in Egypt to separate religion and magic. Heka depicts a creative and protective power, a precondition for all life.29 It is probably most profitably translated into English as “power.” Heka was often depicted as the Werethekau, the cobra, who also appears as Wadjyt, the symbol of Lower (northern) Egypt on the brow of the pharaoh.
All we today have left of these ritual observances are the huge monuments of this religion but it is clear that each pyramid and tomb was but the solid remains of a vast social drama of remembrance and ritual transformation and that the immortalization service was carried on for the benefit of the person entombed. The religious duties and rituals performed by the priests ensured the immortality of the dead as much as the tomb and the mummification itself.
As with most cultures, the Egyptian view of the afterlife contained many different and often conflicting opinions at the same time. The Heliopolitan priesthood promoted the identification of its local god Amon-Re, the sun, with the pharaoh. The pharaoh, identified with this divinity, was believed to return to his immortal status after death, from which he surveyed the earth from the heavens each day. King Unas was the first “to make the walls of his tomb speak.” Compared to the bare walls of previous dynasties, Unas’s richly inscribed pyramid burial chamber has a programmatic sequence including formulas against serpents and others that might invade the extremities of the tomb. A complete menu of offerings was provided to sustain the body of the departed on its way to the afterlife. Next declarations of the continued life of the pharaoh were delivered.30 One extract from the pyramid of Unas declared:
There is no word against Unas on earth among men.
There is no misdeed against Unas in the sky among gods.
Unas has removed the word against himself, he has erased it,
in order to rise up to the sky.
Wepwawet (the ‘opener of ways’) has let Unas fly to the sky among his brothers the gods.
Unas has moved his arms as a god, has beaten his wings as a kite, and flies up, the flyer O men! Unas flies up away from you.31
Following these declarations, Unas was said to have ascended