Ancient Egyptian Culture

General Character

The Egyptians were mild in disposition, polite in manners, reverential to their elders and superiors, extremely loyal and patriotic, and intensely religious. They have been called a gloomy people, but their sculptures reveal a keen sense of humor and love of caricature. They were especially fond of ceremonies and of festivals. Their religion formed a part of their every-day life, and was interwoven with all their customs.

Religion

The Egyptian priests believed in one invisible, overruling, self-created God ; the immortality of the soul ; a judgment after death ; the final annihilation of the wicked ; and the ultimate absorption of the good into the eternal Deity. "God created his own members, which are the gods," they said; and so out of one great God grew a host of lesser ones, regarded by the priests as only His attributes and manifestations, but becoming to the people distinct and separate divinities. Natural objects and principles were thus deificd, — the soil, the sky, the east, the west, even the general idea of time and space. Each month and day had its own god. The Nile, as the souree of the country's fertility, was especially revered ; and the conflict of God with sin was seen in the life-giving river, and the barren, eneroaching desert.

The Sun, especially in later times, was the great exponent of Deity. His mysterious disappearance each night, and his return every morning to roll over the heavens with all the splendor of the preceding day, were events full of symbolic meaning. The rising sun was the beantiful young god Horus. In his mid-day glory he was Ra, as he neared the western horizon he became Tum, and during the night he was Amun. Each of these gods, as well as the many others connected with the sun, had his own specific character. This complex sun-god was imagined to float through the sky in a boat, accompanied by the souls of the Supremely Blest, and at night to pass into the regions of the dead.

Triad of Orders

There were three orders of gods. The first was for the priesthood, and represented the ideal and spiritual part of the religion ; the second impersonated human faculties and powers ; and the third — the most popular of all among the people — was made up of forms and forces in nature.

Triads of Gods

Each town or city had its specially honored triad of deities to whom its temples were dedicated. The triads often consisted of father, mother, and son, but sometimes of two gods and a king. Osiris, who with Isis and Horns formed the most celebrated of these triads, was worshiped throughout the land. So popular were these deities that it has been said, " With the exception of Amun and Neph, they comprise all Egyptian mythology."

Animal Worship

As early as the II dynasty certain animals had come to be regarded as emblems or even iucarnations of the gods. The bull Apis, whose temple was at Memphis, was supposed to be inhabited by Osiris himself, and the sacred presence of the god to be attested by certain marks on the body of the animal. Apis was consulted as oracle, and his breath was said to confer upon children the gift of prophecy. When an Apis died, great was the mourning until the priests found his successor, after which the rejoicing was equally demonstrative. The cost of burying the Apis was so great as sometimes to ruin the officials who had him in charge. The calf Mnevis at Heliopolis, and the white cow of Athor at Athribis, were also revereneed as inearnations of Deity. Other animals were considered as only emblems. Of these, the hawk, ape, ibis, cat, and asp were everywhere worshiped ; but crocodiles, dogs, jackals, frogs, beetles, and shrew-mice, as well as certain plants and vegetables, were venerated in different sections of the country. Those sacred in one nome were often in others hated and hunted or used for food. Thus, at Thebes the crocodile and the sheep were worshiped, while the goat was eaten ; at Mendes the sheep was eaten and the goat worshiped ; and at Apollinopolis the crocodile was so abhorred as an emblem of the evil spirit, that the people set apart an especial day to hunt and kill as many crocodiles as possible, throwing the dead bodies before the temple of their own god.

The crocodile was prinvipally worshiped about Lake Moeris in the Fayoom. A chosen number of these animals was kept in the temples, where they were given elegant apartments, and treated to every luxury, at public expense. Let us imagine a crocodile fresh from a warm, sumptnous bath, anointed with the most precious ointments, and perfumed with fragrant odors, its head and neck glittering with jeweled ear-rings and necklace, and its feet with bracelets, wallowing on a rich and costly carpet to receive the worship of intelligent human beings. Its death was mourned as a public calamity ; its body, wrapped in linen, was carried to the embalmers, attended by a train of people, weeping, and beating their breasts in grief; then, having been expensively embalmed and bandaged in gayly colored mummy-cloths, amid imposing ceremonies it was laid away in its rock sepulcher.

Embalming

This art was a secret known only to those priests who had it in charge. The mummy was more or less elaborately prepared, according to the wealth and station of the deceased. Iu the most expensive process the brain and intestines were extracted, cleansed with palm-wine and aromatic spices, and either returned to the body or deposited in vases which were placed in the tomb with the coffin.1 The body was also cleansed, and filled with a mixture of resin and aromatics, after which it was kept in niter for seventy days. It was then wrapped in bands of fine linen smeared on the inner side with gum. There were sometimes a thousand yards of bandages on one mummy. A thick papyrus case, fitted while damp to the exact shape of the bandaged body, next inclosed it. This case was richly painted and ornamented, the hair and features of the deceased being imitated, and eyes inlaid with brilliant enamel inserted. Sometimes the face was covered with heavy gold leaf. Often a network of colored beads was spread over the body, and a winged scarabams placed upon the breast. A long line of hieroglyphics extending down the front told the name aid quality of the departed. The inner case was inelosed in three other cases of the same form, all richly painted in different patterns. A wooden or carved stone sarcophagus was the final receptacle in the tomb.