Scarabs Part 5

In the interior of the pyramid of Mer-en-Ra (or Mirinri Ist,) 3200 B.C., was inscribed on the walls: "And they installing this _Mihtimsaouf Mirini_ upon their thrones at the head of the divine Nine, mistress of Ra, it who has its dwelling fixed, because they cause that _Mihtimsaouf Mirini_ may be as _Ra, in its name of the Scarabaeus_, and thou hast entered as to thyself as Ra," etc.[72]

"Salutation to thee Tumu,[73] salutation to thee, Scarabaeus-G.o.d, who art thyself; thou who liftest up, in that holding thy name of lifter up ('from the earth,' 'the stairway,' or 'stairs,') and who art (Khopiru) in this, holding the name of the Scarabaeus-G.o.d (Khopiru)!

Salutation to thee Eye of Horus, whom it has furnished with its two creating hands (Tumu,)" etc.[74]

Chapter XVII., line 75, of the Book of the Dead, reads: "O Khepra in its boat! the society of the G.o.ds is its body, in other words, it is Eternity."

Chapter XXIV., lines 1, 2, say: "I am Khepra who gives to itself a form on high, from the thigh of its mother, making a wolf-dog, for those who are in the celestial abyss, and the phnix, for those who are among the divine chiefs." That is, as Harmakhis.

Chapter XV., lines 3, 4, read: "Salutation to thee, Harmakhis-Khepra who to itself gives a form to itself! Splendid is thy rising in the horizon, illuminating the double earth with thy rays." The same chapter, line 47, reads: "Khepra, father of the G.o.ds! He (the defunct) has never any more injury to fear, thanks to that deliverance."

Chapter Cx.x.xIV., line 2, says: "Homage to Khepra in its boat who every day overthrows Apap." Comp., chapter Cx.x.x., line 21, XLI., line 2.

Apap was the evil serpent, the executioner of the G.o.ds, that is, the princ.i.p.al evil one; and Khepra, the scarabaeus deity, overthrows the princ.i.p.al evil one, every day, according to this text.

"The Osiris * * * (name of the defunct was inserted in this blank,) is considered as a lord of eternity, he is considered as Khepra, he is lord of the diadem, he is in the eye of the sun," etc., says chapter XLII., lines 12, 13 _et seq._

And in chapter XVII., which is one of the oldest chapters of the _Per-em-hru_, lines 76, 77, 78, is; "O Khepra in thy boat! (i.e., as Harmakhis) the body of the G.o.ds is even thy body, or so to say, it is Eternity. Save Osiris * * * from those watching judges (i.e., Isis and Nephthys,) to whom the master of spells has entrusted, at his pleasure, the watching of his enemies--whom the executioner will strike--and from whose observation none escape. Let me not fall under their sword; let me not go into their place of torture; let me not remain supplicating in their abodes; let me not come into their place for execution; let me not sit down in their boilers; let me not do those things which are done by those whom the G.o.ds detest," etc.

Further according to the Book of the Dead, the soul of the dead man, says: "I fly among those of the divine essence, I become in it, Khepra ... I am that, which is in the bosom of the G.o.ds." (Chapter Lx.x.xIII., lines 1, 2.)

Another text reads: "O it who establishes the mysteries which are in me, produce the transformations as Khepra, going out of the condition of the disk so as to give light (or, to enlighten.)" Chapter LXIV., line 16. (Comp. also chapter XCIII.)

Another text says: "I give vigor to the murdering sword which is in the hand of Khepra against the rebels." (Chapter XCV., line 3.)

Khepra is also called, Tum-Khepra. (Chapter CXLI., line 6.)

Reaching the eternal abode, the soul, says: "I am intact, intact as my father Osiris-Khepra, of whom the image is, the man whose body is not decomposed." (Chapter CLIV., lines 1, 2.)

On articles of furniture, on toys, on the coffins of mummies, on papyri and linen and other monuments, the scarabaeus appears and sets off in a strong light, the Egyptian belief in the resurrection and re-birth of the pious dead. The very idea of the transformation is shown, by the hieroglyph of the scarab for the word _Kheper_, i.e., _to be_, to _become_, to _raise up_. One of the most urgent prayers to be found in many places, in the Book of the Dead as made by the deceased, is, that he may go out of the under-world to the higher regions of light, and have power to "go forth as a living soul, to take all the forms which may please him." Chabas says as to this: "We know that such was the princ.i.p.al beat.i.tude of the elect in the Egyptian heaven; it allowed the faculty of transformation into all the universe under the form wished for." The G.o.d Khepra with folding wings symbolized these metamorphoses.

It figures continually in the sepulchral paintings on the walls of the hypogea of Thebes, and it announces the second birth of the soul to the future eternal life. Some figures have the scarab over the head, sometimes in place of the head. In the Great Temple at Edfu a scarab has been found portrayed with two heads, one of a ram, the symbol of Amen, or Ammon; the hidden or mysterious highest deity of the priesthood especially of Thebes; the other of a hawk, the symbol of Horus, holding in its claws a symbol of the universe.[75] It may symbolize by this form, the rising sun and the coming of the Spring sun of the vernal equinox in the zodiacal sign of the ram, but more likely has a much deeper religious meaning.[76] Represented with the head and legs of a man the scarab was an emblem of Ptah.

FOOTNOTES:

[63] Unless it be the XIIth. Myer.

[64] _La Galerie de l'egypte Ancienne_, etc., by Aug. Ed.

Mariette-Bey. Paris, 1878, pp. 46, 47.

[65] _Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de l'Orient_, by G. Maspero.

Paris, 1886, p. 68 _et seq._

[66] Brugsch-Bey in, Egypt Under the Pharaohs. London, 1891, pp. 25, 26. As to the knowledge of the Ancient Egyptians; Comp. Egyptian Science from the Monuments and Ancient Books, treated as a general introduction to the History of Science, by N.E. Johnson, B.A., etc.

London, (1891?) Ten Years Digging in Egypt, 1881-1891, by W.M.

Flinders Petrie, etc. London, 1892, pub. by The Religious Tract Society.

[67] Comp. _La Morale egyptienne_, etc., by E. Amelineau. Paris, 1892.

Introd. pp. Lx.x.xII. _et seq._, XX. _et seq. Ritual Funeraire de Pamonth_, by M. Eugene Revillout. Paris, 1889.

[68] _Le Papyrus de Neb-Qed (exemplaire hieroglyphique du Livre des Morts,) reproduit_, etc., _par_ Theodule Deveria _avec la traduction du texte par_ Paul Pierret _conservateur-adjoint du Musee egyptien du Louvre_. Paris, 1872, pl. III., col. 13, 14, p. 3.

[69] Comp. as to the Sphinx, Egypt Under the Pharaohs, by Heinrich Brugsch-Bey. London, 1891, pp. 37, 38, and especially p. 199 _et seq._ Also G. Maspero in his, _Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de l'Orient_.

Paris, 1886, pp. 28, 50, 64, 209.

[70] Comp. _Recherches sur les monum. qu'on peut attribuer aux six premieres Dynasties de Manethon_, etc., by M. Le vicomte Emmanuel de Rouge. Paris, _Imp. Imper._, 1866. _Recueil de Travaux Relatifs a la Philol. et a l'Arch. egypt. et a.s.syri_, edited by Maspero, Vol. III.

and IV., 1882 _et seq._

[71] Comp. Egypt Under the Pharaohs, etc., by Heinrich Brugsch-Bey.

London, 1891, p. 199 _et seq._ The Nile. Notes for Travellers in Egypt by E.A. Wallis Budge. Litt. D., F.S.A. London, 1892, pp. 194-5. Hist.

of the Egyptian Relig., by Dr. C.P. Tiele, trans. by James Ballingal.

Boston, 1882, p. 81 _et seq._

[72] _Recueil de Travaux Relatifs a la Philol. et a l'Arch. egypt._, etc., _publie de sous la direction de_ G. Maspero, Vol. XI., fas. I, pp. 2, 3. See also as to mention of Tumu, the Scarabaeus, in the pyramid of Pepi II. (Nefer-ka-Ra) 3166 B.C. _Ibid._, Vol. XII., pp.

144, 153.

[73] Tumu or Tmu was also called Hor-em-khu, i.e., Horus on the horizon, or, the rising sun, he was the deity Harmakhis of the Greeks; his symbol, as before mentioned, was the Great Sphinx. Egypt Under the Pharaohs, by Brugsch-Bey. London, 1891, pp. 199, 201. As to Tum, see _Supra_.

[74] _Recueil_, etc., before cited, Vol. XII., p. 160 _et seq._, 189, 190. Pyramid of Pepi II. See also the Book of the Dead, Turin Mss. ch.

CXLI., A. 6; _Ibid._, ch. XVII. beginning; _Ibid._, ch. LXXIX., l. 1; _Ibid._, ch. LXXVIII., l. 12.

[75] _Religions de l'Antiquite_, etc., by J.D. Guigniaut, founded on the German work of Dr. Fred. Creuzer. Paris, 1825, Vol. I., part 2, pl. XLVIII., 187b. Compare the other curious figures of the scarabaeus in this volume, also p. 948 _et seq._

[76] Comp. Wilkinson, Manners, etc., of the Ancient Egyptians, 2nd series, London, 1841, Vol. II., p. 260, Vol. I., pp. 250, 256.

VII.

IMPORTANCE OF THE HEART IN THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN RELIGION.

IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL ACCORDING TO THAT RELIGION. SYMBOLISM OF THE SCARAB IN THEIR DOCTRINE OF SUCH IMMORTALITY. NO THING IN THIS UNIVERSE ABSOLUTELY DESTROYED, ONLY CHANGED. THE IDEA OF METEMPSYCHOSIS IN ANCIENT EGYPT. ELEVATED IDEAS AS TO THE DEITY.

HYMN TO AMMON-RA CITED. QUOTATIONS AS TO EGYPTIAN PHILOSOPHY, EVOLUTION OF THE UNIVERSE AND KOSMOGONY. OF KHEPRA AND OF TUM OR ATMU. EGYPTIAN PSYCHOLOGY AND ITS DIVISIONS.

The human heart, the first life principle of human existence and regeneration, the first apparent individuality of embryonic human life; was symbolized, in the _Per-em-Hru_, i.e., the Book of the Dead, by Khepra, the scarabaeus deity; this is one reason why the texts (chapters x.x.x. and XXVII., see also LXIV.,) which related to the heart, were those usually inscribed on the funeral scarabaei, and consecrated to the preservation of the heart of the dead. The condition of death was described by the Egyptian expression: "The one whose heart does not beat." The resurrection or re-birth from the dead only began, according to the Egyptian idea, when this organ, so essential and necessary to all animal life, was returned to the deceased _Ba_, i.e., responsible soul, by the decree of Osiris and the judges of the dead, which Thoth registers: "To him is accorded that his heart may be in its place." Indeed most of the texts of the _Per-em-Hru_, as we have seen, are dedicated to the preservation of the heart of the dead one. The philosophic student can therefore from this, at once see, the great value of the scarabaeus symbol to the whole religious thought-world of Ancient Egypt. It was the symbol, when returned to the dead, of the regenerated and resurrected life of the dead one to the heavenly regions of the blessed for all eternity, to the second birth in the regions of eternal rest and happiness.

Taking as a model the daily course of the sun, which rising in the morning as Horus; reaching the zenith at noon as Ra; setting in the evening, in the regions of darkness as Tum; and absent during the night and until the morrow as Osiris; upon which, victorious over the chaotic darkness, it arose in triumph again as Horus; the birth and journey of man on earth, was considered by the Ancient Egyptians as similar to the solar journey; and death, the end of that journey, was a.s.similated to the course of the sun when at night it was, according to their astronomical knowledge, supposed to be in the Lower Regions or Underworld, the abode of Osiris. When he died, the Egyptian became as Osiris, "the nocturnal sun;" resurrected, he became Horus, the new-born and rising sun; in midday, he was Ra. Horus was: "The Old One who rejuvenated himself." Such a re-birth of the dead to immortality, was the recompense promised by the Egyptian religion, to the soul of the man pious and good during this life, but the wicked were to be tortured, transformed into lower forms, or annihilated.[77] Matter, according to it, does not perish but only changes and the earth itself, was deified as Seb, Isis, Ta-nen, and Ptah-Tatunen.

What then did matter become, it was transformed, the deities were transformed. Matter was transformed,--this is explained to us through the symbolism of the scarab, the hieroglyph of the word _Kheper_, i.e., "to be," "to exist," "to become," "to create," "to emanate;" of which, as I have said, the Great Sphinx is the symbol, and has therefore the philosophical value of creator and created.[78] G.o.d and His universe, existence and change or transformation, death and dissolution, all which were only considered as regeneration and re-birth in another form. Thence becomes apparent to us, the great value and importance to the Egyptian people of the symbolism of the scarab, it was, to them, the emblematic synthesis of their religion as to-day to Christians, the Latin or the Greek cross, is the emblematic synthesis of Latin or Greek Christianity. The philosophic Egyptian, thought, the atoms and molecules of all bodies and of all matter, were never destroyed or lost, they were always in motion but were only transformed and changed, by death or the dissolution of forms.

Death on this earth did not destroy the personality of the human being, that continued beyond death on our earth, and as to those who had been good and pious during their life here, their personality continued eternally; but the punishment of the wicked was, the annihilation of that personality or an immobility which was almost the same. The work ent.i.tled, Hermes Trismegistos, contains a resume of that idea, saying, among other things: "What was composed is divided.

That division is not Death, it is the a.n.a.lysis of a combination; but the aim of that a.n.a.lysis is not destruction, it is the renewment. What is in effect the energy of life? Is it not movement? What then is there in this world, immovable?"[79]

The everlasting interchange of life and death, flows throughout all the religious philosophy of the Ancient Egyptians; basing itself on the continual return of day from night and of day to night, and upon the apparent course of the sun, they seem to have formulated the idea of the immortality of the soul of man after death.

Herodotus tells us,[80] that the Egyptians believed, that the soul of the departed pa.s.sed into an animal, and after having gone through all the ranks of the animal world, was at the end of three thousand years reunited to the human body; but from the remains of the Egyptian religion we have to-day, next to nothing has been found that will confirm this statement, but much that shows the Greek authors were frequently in error. In the realm of the dead, according to the texts of the Book of the Dead, (chapter Lx.x.xIX. and other places,) the responsible soul or _Ba_ of the deceased, may become a sparrow-hawk, an adder, a crocodile-headed being, etc., but only to deceive its demon enemies;[81] not until after this, is the _Khu_, the intellectual soul, which accompanies the _Ba_, which is represented under the symbolized form of a sparrow-hawk with a human head, reunited to the _Ba_. This however all occurs, not on earth, but in the realms of the dead. The Ancient Egyptian believed, that as the setting of the sun was an actual separation of the body and soul of the sun-G.o.d; and its rising, a reunion of the two; so it happened to the future of the spiritual of man, and that after man's death on this earth, his spirit, as did that of the sun-G.o.d; would arise again to life, but it would be to a life of immortality in a higher sphere. I am inclined also to think, that they believed the spiritual body of the new-born child came down from the sun-disk or from some very exalted sphere.[82]

The following quotations from Eugene Grebaut's translation in French, of the Hymn to Ammon-Ra, are important for an understanding of the positions of Khepra and of Turn during the Theban Dynasties.

"Hail to thee Ra, lord of the _maat_, (the) mysterious in his shrine.