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51-397: Atum's name is thought to be derived from the verb tm which means 'to complete' or 'to finish'. Thus, he has been interpreted as being the "complete one" and also the finisher of the world, which he returns to watery chaos at the end of the creative cycle. As creator, he was seen as the progenitor of the world, the deities and universe having received his vital force or ka . Atum is one of

102-458: A mongoose , lion , bull , lizard , or ape . When he is represented as a solar deity, he can also be depicted as a scarab and when in reference to his primeval origins he is also seen depicted as the primeval mound. In the Greco-Roman period, he was sometimes shown as a standing ape holding a bow and arrow. Atum was worshipped throughout Egypt's history; the center of his worship centered on

153-569: A "doubleworld" with essential people and objects for the owner of the ka. As Ancient Orient Curator Andrey Bolshakov explains: "The notion of the ka was a dominating concept of the next life in the Old Kingdom. In a less pure form, it lived into the Middle Kingdom, and lost much of its importance in the New Kingdom, although the ka always remained the recipient of offerings." An important part of

204-587: A bꜣ, a unique character, and indeed Old Kingdom pyramids often were called the bꜣ of their owner. The bꜣ is an aspect of a person that the Egyptians believed would live after the body died, and it is sometimes depicted as a human-headed bird flying out of the tomb to join with the kꜣ in the afterlife. In the Coffin Texts , one form of the bꜣ that comes into existence after death is corporeal—eating, drinking and copulating. Egyptologist Louis Vico Žabkar argues that

255-519: A choice as to the type and or quality of the mummification they preferred: "The best and most expensive kind is said to represent [Osiris], the next best is somewhat inferior and cheaper, while the third is cheapest of all." Because 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

306-598: A heart scarab carefully secured to the body above it to prevent it from telling tales. According to the text of the Books of Breathing : It was thought that the heart was examined by Anubis and the deities during the Weighing of the Heart ceremony. If the heart weighed more than the feather of Maat , it was immediately eaten by the monster Ammit , and the soul became eternally restless. A person's shadow or silhouette, šwt ( shut ),

357-402: A house, though it is not right that one like me should have to do it. This have I done for thy sake. But, behold, thou dost not know good from bad. A person's name, or rn ( 𓂋 𓈖 'name') was an essential aspect of individuality and central to one's survival after death. Most ancient Egyptian names embodied a meaning which was believed to have a direct relationship with its owner. Placing

408-470: A mound ( benben ) (or identified with the mound itself), and rose from the primordial waters ( Nu ). Early myths state that Atum created the god Shu and goddess Tefnut by spitting them out of his mouth. One text debates that Atum did not create Shu and Tefnut by spitting them out of his mouth by means of saliva and semen, but rather by Atum's lips. Another writing describes Shu and Tefnut being birthed by Atum's hand. That same writing states that Atum's hand

459-440: A name on a statue ceded the image to the dead named, providing a second body. The obliteration of a name from an object or monument destroyed this connection and in some cases was done intentionally to hinder one's prospects in the afterlife. The bꜣ ( Egyptological pronunciation : ba ) 𓅽 was everything that makes an individual unique, similar to the notion of 'personality'. In this sense, inanimate objects could also have

510-402: A person's physical abilities in death, but also to release a Ba ' s attachment to the body. This allowed the bꜣ to be united with the kꜣ in the afterlife, creating an entity known as an ꜣḫ. Shu (Egyptian god) Shu ( Egyptian šw , "emptiness" or "he who rises up") was one of the primordial Egyptian gods , spouse and brother to the goddess Tefnut , and one of the nine deities of

561-456: Is always present. Because of this, Egyptians surmised that a shadow contains something of the person it represents. Through this association, statues of people and deities were sometimes referred to as shadows. In a commentary to The Egyptian Book of the Dead ( BD ), Egyptologist Ogden Goelet, Jr. discusses the forms of the shadow: In many BD papyri and tombs the deceased is depicted emerging from

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612-618: Is contrasted with the scarab-headed god Khepri —the young sun god, whose name is derived from the Egyptian ḫpr "to come into existence". Khepri-Atum encompassed sunrise and sunset, thus reflecting the entire cycle of morning and evening. Atum was a self-created deity , the first being to emerge from the darkness and endless watery abyss that existed before creation. A product of the energy and matter contained in this chaos, he created his children—the first deities, out of loneliness. He produced from his own sneeze, or in some accounts, semen, Shu ,

663-425: Is the title of the god's wife based on her Heliopolitan beginning. Other myths state Atum created by masturbation , with the hand he used in this act that may be interpreted as the female principle inherent within him due to the fact that the word for hand in Egyptian is feminine ( ḏr.t ) and identified with goddesses such as Hathor or Iusaaset . Yet other interpretations state that he made union with his shadow. In

714-582: Is to have laid hands on me although I had nothing wicked to thee. 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 ... I spent eight months without eating and drinking like a man. I wept exceedingly together with my household in front of my street-quarter. I gave linen clothes to wrap thee and left no benefit undone that had to be performed for thee. And now, behold, I have spent three years alone without entering into

765-576: The Ennead of the Heliopolis cosmogony. He was the god of light, peace, lions, air, and wind. In Heliopolitan theology, Atum created the first couple of the Ennead , Shu and Tefnut by masturbating or by spitting. Shu was the father of Nut and Geb and grandfather of Osiris , Isis , Set , and Nephthys . His great-grandsons are Horus and Anubis . B C D F G H I K M N P Q R S T U W As

816-611: The New Kingdom , there cults attributed to Atum, such as the Theban royal high priestesses known as the Divine Adoratrices of Amun who acted as the Hand of Atum in temple rituals at the time. Re would take centerstage later on but as Atum was overshadowed, the people of ancient Egypt would continue to worship him through cultic rituals in which he is depicted as having close relationships with

867-480: The Old Kingdom , the Egyptians believed that Atum lifted the dead king's soul from his pyramid to the starry heavens. He was also a solar deity , associated with the primary sun god Ra . Atum was linked specifically with the evening sun, while Ra or the closely linked god Khepri were connected with the sun at morning and midday. In the Coffin Texts , Atum has a vital conversation with Osiris in which he describes

918-462: The afterlife . Egyptologist R. David, at the University of Manchester, explains the many facets of the soul as follows: The Egyptians believed that the human personality had many facets—a concept that was probably developed early in the Old Kingdom. 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

969-419: The Egyptian soul was thought to be the jb ( ib ), or heart . In the Egyptian religion, the heart was the key to the afterlife. It was essential to surviving death in the nether world, where it gave evidence for, or against, its possessor. Like the physical body ( ẖt ), the heart was a necessary part of judgement in the afterlife and it was to be carefully preserved and stored within the mummified body with

1020-401: The afterlife, akh represented the deceased, who was transfigured and often identified with light. It was associated with thought, but not as an action of the mind; rather, it was intellect as a living entity. The ꜣḫ also played a role in the afterlife. Following the death of the ẖt (physical body), the bꜣ and kꜣ were reunited to reanimate the ꜣḫ. The reanimation of the ꜣḫ was only possible if

1071-502: The afterlife. 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. 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: 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

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1122-564: The air, Shu was considered to be a cooling, and thus calming, influence, and pacifier. Due to the association with dry air, calm, and thus Ma'at ( truth , justice, order, and balance), Shu was depicted as the dry air/atmosphere between the Earth and sky, separating the two realms after the event of the First Occasion. Shu was also portrayed in art as wearing an ostrich feather . Shu was seen with between one and four feathers. The ostrich feather

1173-446: The bodies of children on a potter's wheel and inserted them into their mothers' bodies. Depending on the region, Egyptians believed that Heqet or Meskhenet was the creator of each person's kꜣ, breathing it into them at the instant of their birth as the part of their soul that made them be alive . The Egyptians also believed that the kꜣ was sustained through food and drink. For this reason food and drink offerings were presented to

1224-407: The burial chamber to be as personalized as it could be, with paintings and statuary showing scenes and triumphs from the deceased's life. In the Old Kingdom, only the pharaoh was granted mummification and, thus, a chance at an eternal and fulfilling afterlife. By the Middle Kingdom, all dead were afforded the opportunity. Herodotus , an ancient Greek scholar, observed that grieving families were given

1275-497: The bꜣ is not merely a part of the person but is the person himself , unlike the soul in Greek, or late Judaic, Christian or Muslim thought. The idea of a purely immaterial existence was so foreign to Egyptian thought that when Christianity spread in Egypt, they borrowed the Greek word ψυχή psychē to describe the concept of soul instead of the term bꜣ. Žabkar concludes that so particular was

1326-677: The city of Heliopolis ( Egyptian : Annu or Iunu ). The only surviving remnant of Heliopolis is the Temple of Ra-Atum obelisk located in Al-Masalla of Al-Matariyyah, Cairo . It was erected by Senusret I of the Twelfth Dynasty , and still stands in its original position. In the Old Kingdom Atum was at the center of the Egyptian belief system, being partly responsible for the origins of existence, having created himself and everything else out of

1377-532: The concept of the bꜣ to ancient Egyptian thought that it ought not to be translated but instead the concept be footnoted or parenthetically explained as one of the modes of existence for a person. In another mode of existence the bꜣ of the deceased is depicted in the Book of the Dead returning to the mummy and participating in life outside the tomb in non-corporeal form, echoing the solar theology of Ra uniting with Osiris each night. The word bꜣw ( baw ), plural of

1428-451: The dead, although it was the kꜣ within the offerings that was consumed, not the physical aspect. In the Middle kingdom a form of offering tray known as a soul house was developed to facilitate this. The kꜣ was often represented in Egyptian iconography as a second image of the king, leading earlier works to attempt to translate kꜣ as double . In the Old Kingdom private tombs, artwork depicted

1479-399: 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. Before 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. The main ceremony, the opening of

1530-536: The divine Tripartite wig or the dual white and red crown of Upper and Lower Egypt , known as the Double Crown, reinforcing his connection with kingship. In the Netherworld Books, he is sometimes depicted as an old man leaning on a stick, a reference to his role as the aging evening sun. Sometimes he is also shown as a serpent , the form he returns to at the end of the creative cycle, and also occasionally as

1581-409: The end of the universe as a time in which everything will cease to exist with the exception of the elements of the primordial waters, stating that after millions of years he and Osiris would be the only ones to survive the end of time as serpents. He claims that he will destroy everything he created in the beginning of existence and bring it back to Nu, the primeval waters, thus describing the belief that

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1632-562: The first pair of cosmic elements, created the sky goddess , Nut , and the Earth god , Geb . Shu separated Nut from Geb as they were in the act of love, creating duality in the manifest world: above and below, light and dark, good and evil . Prior to their separation, however, Nut had given birth to the gods Isis , Osiris , Nephthys (Horus) and Set . The Egyptians believed that if Shu did not hold Nut (sky) and Geb (Earth) apart there would be no way for physically-manifest life to exist. Shu

1683-516: The form of the soul, an eternal force which resided in and with every human. The concept of the soul and the parts which encompass it has varied from the Old Kingdom to the New Kingdom , at times changing from one dynasty to another, from five parts to more. Most ancient Egyptian funerary texts reference numerous parts of the soul: Collectively, these spirits of a dead person were called the Akh after that person had successfully completed its transition to

1734-473: The god of air, and Tefnut , the goddess of moisture. The brother and sister, curious about the primeval waters that surrounded them, went to explore the waters and disappeared into the darkness. Unable to bear his loss, Atum sent a fiery messenger, the Eye of Ra , to find his children. The tears of joy he shed upon their return were the first human beings. Atum is usually depicted in anthropomorphic form, wearing either

1785-511: The gods and goddesses would one day cease to exist outside of the primeval waters. In the Book of the Dead , which was still current in the Graeco-Roman period, the sun god Atum is said to have ascended from chaos -waters with the appearance of a snake , the animal renewing itself every morning. Atum is the god of pre-existence and post-existence . In the binary solar cycle , the serpentine Atum

1836-456: The king, as well as being represented through lizards on small reliquaries and amulets closer to the Late Period . Ka (Egyptian soul) B C D F G H I K M N P Q R S T U W The ancient Egyptians believed that a soul ( kꜣ and bꜣ ; Egypt. pron. ka/ba) was made up of many parts. In addition to these components of

1887-539: The most important and frequently mentioned deities from earliest times, as evidenced by his prominence in the Pyramid Texts , where he is sometimes syncretized with Ra to form Ra-Atum, and is portrayed as both a creator and father to the king throughout the collection of spells. Several writings contradict how Atum was brought into existence. According to the Heliopolitan view, Atum originally existed in his egg within

1938-492: The mouth ceremony , is best depicted within Pharaoh Seti I 's tomb. 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. This ritual which, presumably, would have been performed during interment, was meant to reanimate each section of the body: brain, head, limbs, etc. so that

1989-462: The next world. 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. 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 . Therefore, it was necessary for the body to be preserved as efficiently and completely as possible and for

2040-475: The primeval waters, being born during the primordial flood, becoming the source of everything that was created after him. The Memphites (priests of Memphis), on the other hand, believed that Ptah created Atum in a more intellectual way, using his speech and thought, as told on the Shabaka Stone . In the Heliopolitan creation myth , Atum was considered to be the first god , having created himself , sitting on

2091-460: The primordial waters. He is believed to have been present in ideology as early as predynastic times, becoming even more prevalent during the Old Kingdom as indicated by the pyramid texts in which he appears frequently. He continues to be found in the Middle Kingdom , during which he is depicted in the Book of the Dead in which he appears in spells to help with the journey to the Afterlife. Later, in

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2142-548: The proper funeral rites were executed and followed by constant offerings. The ritual was termed s-ꜣḫ "make (a dead person) into an (living) ꜣḫ". In this sense, it developed into a sort of roaming ghost (when the tomb was not in order any more) during the Twentieth Dynasty . An ꜣḫ could do either harm or good to persons still living, depending on the circumstances, causing, e.g., nightmares, feelings of guilt, sickness, etc. It could be invoked by prayers or written letters left in

2193-439: The soul, there was the human body (called the ḥꜥ , occasionally a plural ḥꜥw , meaning approximately "sum of bodily parts"). According to ancient Egyptian creation myths , the god Atum created the world out of chaos, utilizing his own magic ( ḥkꜣ ). Because the earth was created with magic, Egyptians believed that the world was imbued with magic and so was every living thing upon it. When humans were created, that magic took

2244-429: The soul. Many scholars define sḫm ( sekhem ) as the living force or life-force of the soul which exists in the afterlife after all judgement has been passed. It is defined in a Book of the Dead as the "power" and as a place within which Horus and Osiris dwell in the underworld. The ꜣḫ "(magically) effective one" was a concept of the dead that varied over the long history of ancient Egyptian belief. Relative to

2295-424: The spiritual body would be able to move 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. This spiritual body was then able to interact with the many entities extant in

2346-469: The tomb by day in shadow form, a thin, black, featureless silhouette of a person. The person in this form is, as we would put it, a mere shadow of his former existence, yet nonetheless still existing. Another form the shadow assumes in the BD , especially in connection with gods, is an ostrich-feather sun-shade, an object which would create a shadow. Little is known about the Egyptian interpretation of this portion of

2397-431: The tomb's offering chapel also in order to help living family members, e.g., by intervening in disputes, by making an appeal to other dead persons or deities with any authority to influence things on earth for the better, but also to inflict punishments. The separation of ꜣḫ and the unification of kꜣ and bꜣ were brought about after death by having the proper offerings made and knowing the proper, efficacious spell, but there

2448-438: The word bꜣ, meant something similar to "impressiveness", "power", and "reputation", particularly of a deity. When a deity intervened in human affairs, it was said that the bꜣw of the deity were at work. The kꜣ ( ka ), 𓂓 , was the Egyptian concept of vital essence, which distinguishes the difference between a living and a dead person, with death occurring when the kꜣ left the body. The Egyptians believed that Khnum created

2499-497: Was always more temperate). It was said that Shu quickly decided that he missed her, but she changed into a cat that destroyed any man or god that approached. Thoth , disguised, eventually succeeded in convincing her to return. The Greeks associated Shu with Atlas , the primordial Titan who held up the celestial spheres , as they are both depicted holding up the sky . According to the Heliopolitan cosmology, Shu and Tefnut ,

2550-422: Was an attendant risk of dying again. Egyptian funerary literature (such as the Coffin Texts and the Book of the Dead ) were intended to aid the deceased in "not dying a second time" and to aid in becoming an ꜣḫ. Ancient Egyptians believed that death occurs when a person's kꜣ leaves the body. Ceremonies conducted by priests after death, including the " opening of the mouth ( wp r ) ", aimed not only to restore

2601-401: Was symbolic of lightness and emptiness . Fog and clouds were also Shu's elements and they were often called his bones . Because of his position between the sky and Earth , he was also known as the wind . In a much later myth, representing a terrible weather disaster at the end of the Old Kingdom , it's said that Tefnut and Shu once argued, and Tefnut left Egypt for Nubia (which

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