The Egyptian Book of the Dead, Nuclear Physics and the Substratum
By John Frederick Sweeney Abstract The Egyptian Book of the Dead, a collection of coffin texts, has long been thought by Egyptologists to describe the ourney of the soul in the afterlife, or the A! Duat" #n fact, the so $ called Book of the Dead describes the in%isible Substratu!, the &black hole' for! of !atter to which all !atter returns, and fro! which all !atter arises" The hieroglyphics of the (apyrus of Ani, for exa!ple, do not describe the ourney of the soul, but the creation of the ato!" This This pape paperr gi%e gi%es s e%id e%iden ence ce for for the the %ery %ery Anci Ancien entt Egy Egyptia ptians ns as ha%i ha%ing ng knowledge of a higher !athe!atics than our own ci%ili)ation, including the Exceptional *ie Algebras E+ and -, the .ctonions and Sedenions, as well as the Substratu! and the nuclear processes that occur there" The .siris !yth represents a general re $ telling of the nuclear processes which occur within the Substratu!, the in%isible &black hole' for! of !atter"
1
Table of Contents Introduction
Book of the Dead ! "ikipedia
#
The Papyrus of $ni
%%
&ctonions
%'
Sedenions
%#
The E(ceptional )ie $lgebra *+
%
Conclusion
++
Bibliography
+#
$ppendi( I
The &siris )egend
+-
$ppendi( II '+ Negati.e Confessions /Papyrus of Ani 0
'%
$ppendi( III
''
$ppendi( III
1ields of $aru
The $m Duat
'#
Co.er Illustration This Illustration This detail scene, fro! the (apyrus of /unefer 0ca" 0ca" 1-23 B4E5, shows the scribe /unefer6s heart being weighed on the scale of 7aat agains againstt the feather feather of truth, truth, by the ackal8he ackal8heade aded d Anubis Anubis"" The ibis8headed Thoth,, scribe of the gods, records the result" #f his heart e9uals exactly the Thoth weight of the feather, /unefer is allowed to pass into the afterlife" #f not, he is eaten eaten by the waiting waiting chi!er chi!eric ic de%our de%ouring ing creatu creature re A!!it A!!it co!posed of the deadly crocodile, lion, and hippopota!us" :ignettes such as these were a co!!on illustration in Egyptian books of the dead"
2
Table of Contents Introduction
Book of the Dead ! "ikipedia
#
The Papyrus of $ni
%%
&ctonions
%'
Sedenions
%#
The E(ceptional )ie $lgebra *+
%
Conclusion
++
Bibliography
+#
$ppendi( I
The &siris )egend
+-
$ppendi( II '+ Negati.e Confessions /Papyrus of Ani 0
'%
$ppendi( III
''
$ppendi( III
1ields of $aru
The $m Duat
'#
Co.er Illustration This Illustration This detail scene, fro! the (apyrus of /unefer 0ca" 0ca" 1-23 B4E5, shows the scribe /unefer6s heart being weighed on the scale of 7aat agains againstt the feather feather of truth, truth, by the ackal8he ackal8heade aded d Anubis Anubis"" The ibis8headed Thoth,, scribe of the gods, records the result" #f his heart e9uals exactly the Thoth weight of the feather, /unefer is allowed to pass into the afterlife" #f not, he is eaten eaten by the waiting waiting chi!er chi!eric ic de%our de%ouring ing creatu creature re A!!it A!!it co!posed of the deadly crocodile, lion, and hippopota!us" :ignettes such as these were a co!!on illustration in Egyptian books of the dead"
2
Introduction
The Egyptian Book of the Dead has been called !any things in the brief history of Egyptology, Egyptology, which began with ;apoleonallace Budge, !erely took such texts like the 4offin Texts literally, and with their li!ited knowledge of Egyptian culture and of !athe!atics, translated the! in the standard !eaning which acade!ic accepts today" Although late 1=th 4entury !athe!atics had disco%ered the .ctonions and Sedenions by that that ti!e ti!e,, they they had alre alrea ady been een dis! is!isse issed d as usel useles ess s by lea leading ding !athe!aticians, and were so disregarded up until around 1==? or so" Sir @oger (enrose, for exa!ple, dis!issed the .ctonions as useless for physics" @obert de 7arrais !ade a state!ent in his -??- essay about - Assessors as to how a series of nu!bers associated with the !ultiplication table for the Sedenions was related to the - Assessors Assessors of the Egyptian Book of the Dead" For that !atter, elsewhere De 7arrais stated that the Tibetan Book of the Dead contains si!ilar content" De 7arrais went e%en further to describe an .siris (artition within the Sedenion !ultiplication table" Then there are the - negati%e confessions to the god 7aat 0see Appendix #5" These were written to acco!pany the - Assessors, although the confessions did not always confor! to the proper Assessor, Budge states" >hether this was intentional is a 9uestion worthy of research in tande! with exploration of Sedenions" This This paper paper posits posits the exist existenc ence e of Early Early loba loball 4i%ili 4i%ili)at )ation ion,, an ad%anc ad%anced ed ci%ili)ation which enoyed a far higher le%el of technology than our present ci%ili)ation, before the last !aor #ce Age, so!e 1,??? years ago" This is the ci%ili)ation which built the i)a (yra!id 4o!plex, and this ci%ili)ation co $ existed with the ci%ili)ation of people who co!!itted the :edas to Sanskrit" #n fact, the :edas had been an oral tradition but the disastrous period of the #ce Age !ade it necessary for the Brah!ans to co!!it their spoken tradition to paper" Fro! that perspecti%e, the fragile papyri we ha%e inherited today perhaps dates fro! a !ore recent ci%ili)ation of +??? to -??? B4, when the ancient knowledge had already been lost" >hile the basic outlines of the knowledge was retained, the content had probably been lost, although it re!ains possible that the hieroglyphics of the 4offin Texts and papyri contain coded language which obscures the scientific knowledge within" 3
Budge wrote that the text the!sel%es were based on %ery ancient knowledge, so it does re!ain possible that the hieroglyphic texts contain coded language, a techni9ue which is true of the /indu tradition" #t !ay pro%e i!possible to discern whether the scribes who copied the coffin texts understood the hidden !eanings of the scrolls, if they do indeed exist" #n this way, the - Assessors were retained, along with the - confessions, the 2 ates of .siris and the 2 Assistants of .siris" >estern ci%ili)ation disco%ered higher algebras around 13? but had all but dis!issed the! by 1=?? as useless" >hile .ctonions !ade a brief co!eback in the 1==?
4
who li%es upon clouds and watches e%ery hu!an action, the Substratu! records all that we do" There is no need for so!e !essianic old !an in the sky" et o%er the !illennia, religion has !isconstrued the basic function of the Substratu!, for the purpose of controlling other hu!ans" The following passage fro! >ikipedia explains that /ell did not exist during the early :edic period" The reader !ay find that the concept of /ell de%eloped later" This paper argues that a si!ilar process occurred in ancient Egypt" Early Vedic religion does not have a concept of Hell. Ṛ g-veda mentions three realms, bhūr (the earth), svar (the sky) and bhuvas or antarikṣa (the middle area, i.e. air or atmosphere)). n later Hindu literature, especially the la! books and "uranas, more realms are mentioned, including a realm similar to Hell, called naraka (in #evan$gar%& नरक ). 'ama as first born human (together !ith his t!in sister 'am%) in virtue of precedence becomes ruler of men and a udge on their departure. riginally he resides in Heaven, but later, especially medieval traditions, mention his court in naraka. n the la!-books (sm ṛtis and dharma-sūtras, like the *anu-sm ṛti) naraka is a place of punishment for sins. t is a lo!er spiritual plane (called naraka-loka) !here the spirit is udged, or partial fruits of karma affected in a ne+t life. n *ahabharata there is a mention of the "andavas and the auravas both going to Heaven. t first 'udhisthir goes to heaven !here he sees #uryodhana enoying in heaven, ndra tells him #uryodhana is in heaven as he did his shatriya duties, then he sho!s 'udhisthir hell !here it appears his brothers are but later its revealed it !as a test for 'udhisthir and his brothers and auravas both are in heaven and both live happily in divine abode of gods. Hells are described in various "uranas and other scriptures. aruda "urana gives a detailed account of Hell, its features and enlists amount of punishment for most of the crimes like a modern day penal code. t is believed that people !ho commit sins go to Hell and have to go through punishments in accordance !ith the sins they committed. /he god 'amar$a, !ho is the god of death, presides over Hell. #etailed accounts of all the sins committed by an individual are kept by 0hitragupta, !ho is the record keeper in 'ama1s court. 0hitragupta reads out the sins committed and 'ama orders appropriate punishments to be given to individuals. /hese punishments include dipping in boiling oil, burning in fire, torture using various !eapons, etc. in various Hells. ndividuals !ho finish their 2uota of the punishments are reborn in accordance !ith their balance of karma. ll created beings are imperfect and thus have at least one sin to their record3 but if one has generally led a pious life, one ascends 5
to svarga, a temporary realm of enoinment similar to "aradise, after a brief period of e+piation in Hell and before the ne+t reincarnation according to the la! of karma.
6
"ikipedia on the Book of the Dead /he is an ancient Egyptian funerary te+t, used from the beginning of the 5e! ingdom (around 6778 40E) to around 78 40E. 96: /he original Egyptian name for the te+t, transliterated r! n! prt 9;: 9>: m hr! is translated as <4ook of 0oming =orth by #ay<. nother translation !ould be <4ook of emerging forth into the ?ight<. /he te+t consists of a number of magic spells intended to assist a dead person1s ourney through the #uat , or under!orld, and into the afterlife. /he 4ook of the #ead !as part of a tradition of funerary te+ts !hich includes the earlier "yramid /e+ts and 0offin /e+ts, !hich !ere painted onto obects, not papyrus. @ome of the spells included !ere dra!n from these older !orks and date to the >rd millennium 40E. ther spells !ere composed later in Egyptian history, dating to the /hird ntermediate "eriod (66th to Ath centuries 40E). number of the spells !hich made up the 4ook continued to be inscribed on tomb !alls and sarcophagi, as had al!ays been the spells from !hich they originated. /he 4ook of the #ead !as placed in the coffin or burial chamber of the deceased. /here !as no single or canonical 4ook of the #ead . /he surviving papyri contain a varying selection of religious and magical te+ts and vary considerably in their illustration. @ome people seem to have commissioned their o!n copies of the 4ook of the #ead , perhaps choosing the spells they thought most vital in their o!n progression to the afterlife. /he 4ook of the #ead !as most commonly !ritten in hieroglyphic or hieratic script on a papyrus scroll, and often illustrated !ith vignettes depicting the deceased and their ourney into the afterlife. /he 4ook of the #ead developed from a tradition of funerary manuscripts dating back to the Egyptian ld ingdom. /he first funerary te+ts !ere the "yramid /e+ts, first used in the "yramid of ing Bnas of the 7th dynasty, around ;C88 40E. 9C: /hese te+ts !ere !ritten on the !alls of the burial chambers !ithin pyramids, and !ere e+clusively for the use of the "haraoh (and, from the Dth dynasty, the ueen). /he "yramid /e+ts !ere !ritten in an unusual hieroglyphic style3 many of the hieroglyphs representing humans or animals !ere left incomplete or dra!n mutilated, most likely to prevent them causing any harm to the dead pharaoh. 97: /he purpose of the "yramid /e+ts !as to help the dead ing take his place amongst the gods, in particular to reunite him !ith his divine father Fa3 at this period the 7
afterlife !as seen as being in the sky, rather than the under!orld described in the 4ook of the #ead .97: /o!ards the end of the ld ingdom, the "yramid /e+ts ceased to be an e+clusively royal privilege, and !ere adopted by regional governors and other highranking officials. n the *iddle ingdom, a ne! funerary te+t emerged, the 0offin /e+ts. /he 0offin /e+ts used a ne!er version of the language, ne! spells, and included illustrations for the first time. /he 0offin /e+ts !ere most commonly !ritten on the inner surfaces of coffins, though they are occasionally found on tomb !alls or on papyri. 97: /he 0offin /e+ts !ere available to !ealthy private individuals, vastly increasing the number of people !ho could e+pect to participate in the afterlife3 a process !hich has been described as the th dynasty, !here the ne! spells !ere included amongst older te+ts kno!n from the "yramid /e+ts and 0offin /e+ts. @ome of the spells introduced at this time claim an older provenance3 for instance the rubric to spell >84 states that it !as discovered by the "rince Hordedef in the reign of ing *enkaure, many hundreds of years before it is attested in the archaeological record.9A: 4y the 6th dynasty, the 4ook of the #ead had become !idespread not only for members of the royal family, but courtiers and other officials as !ell. t this stage, the spells !ere typically inscribed on linen shrouds !rapped around the dead, though occasionally they are found !ritten on coffins or on papyrus. 9I: /he 5e! ingdom sa! the 4ook of the #ead develop and spread further. /he famous @pell 6;7, the 1Jeighing of the Heart1, is first kno!n from the reign of Hatshepsut and /uthmose , c.6CA7 40E. =rom this period on!ard the 4ook of the #ead !as typically !ritten on a papyrus scroll, and the te+t illustrated !ith vignettes. #uring the 6th dynasty in particular, the vignettes tended to be lavish, sometimes at the e+pense of the surrounding te+t. 9: n the /hird ntermediate "eriod, the 4ook of the #ead started to appear in hieratic script, as !ell as in the traditional hieroglyphics. /he hieratic scrolls !ere a cheaper version, lacking illustration apart from a single vignette at the beginning, and !ere produced on smaller papyri. t the same time, many burials used additional funerary te+ts, for instance the -mduat .968:
8
#uring the ;7th and ;Dth dynasties, the 4ook of the #ead !as updated, revised and standardised. @pells !ere consistently ordered and numbered for the first time. /his standardised version is kno!n today as the 1@aite recension1, after the @aite (;Dth) dynasty. n the ?ate period and "tolemaic period, the 4ook of the #ead remained based on the @aite recension, though increasingly abbreviated to!ards the end of the "tolemaic period. 5e! funerary te+ts appeared, including the 4ook of 4reathing and 4ook of /raversing Eternity . /he last use of the 4ook of the #ead !as in the 6st century 40E, though some artistic motifs dra!n from it !ere still in use in Foman times. 966: /he 4ook of the #ead is made up of a number of individual te+ts and their accompanying illustrations. *ost sub-te+ts begin !ith the !ord , !hich can mean mouth, speech, a chapter of a book, spell, ro utterance, or incantation. /his ambiguity reflects the similarity in Egyptian thought bet!een ritual speech and magical po!er. 96>: n the conte+t of the 4ook of the #ead , it is typically translated as either 8, and sometimes spells D and 6;D relate to the heart, and !ere inscribed on scarabs. 96D: /he te+ts and images of the 4ook of the #ead !ere magical as !ell as religious. *agic !as as legitimate an activity as praying to the gods, even !hen the magic !as aimed at controlling the gods themselves.96A: ndeed, there !as little distinction for the ncient Egyptians bet!een magical and religious practice. 96I: /he concept of magic ( heka ) !as intimately linked !ith the spoken and !ritten !ord. /he act of speaking a ritual formula !as an act of creation396: there is a sense in !hich action and speech !ere one and the same thing. 96I: /he magical po!er of !ords e+tended to the !ritten !ord. Hieroglyphic script !as held to have been invented by the god
9
/hoth, and the hieroglyphs themselves !ere po!erful. Jritten !ords conveyed the full force of a spell. 96: /his !as even true !hen the te+t !as abbreviated or omitted, as often occurred in later 4ook of the #ead scrolls, particularly if the 9;8: accompanying images !ere present. /he Egyptians believed that kno!ing the name of something gave po!er over it3 thus, the 4ook of the #ead e2uips its o!ner !ith the mystical names of many of the entities he !ould encounter in the afterlife, giving him po!er of them.9;6: /he spells of the 4ook of the #ead made use of several magical techni2ues !hich can be seen in other areas of Egyptian life. number of spells are for magical amulets, !hich !ould protect the deceased from harm. n addition to being represented on a 4ook of papyrus, these spells appeared on amulets !ound into the the #ead !rappings of a mummy. 96A: Everyday magic made use of amulets in huge numbers. ther items in direct contact !ith the body in the tomb, such as headrests, !ere considered to have amuletic value. 9;;: number of spells refer to Egyptian beliefs about the magical healing po!er of saliva. 96A:
The mystical Spell 17, from the Papyrus of Ani The !i"nette at the top illustrates, from left to ri"ht, the "o# $eh as a representation of the Sea% a "ate&ay to the realm of 'siris% the (ye of $orus% the celestial co& )ehet*+eret% an# a human hea# risin" from a coffin, "uar#e# y the four Sons of $orus-12.
1/
The Papyrus of $ni
Thoth0s #eclaration to the (nnea#, ase# on the &ei"hin" of the heart of the scrie Ani Ten of the 42 Assessors may e seen in the top panels
is a papyrus manuscript !ith cursive The /he hieroglyphs and color illustrations created circa 6;78 40E, in the 6th dynasty of the 5e! ingdom of ancient Egypt. Egyptians compiled an individualiGed book for certain people upon their death, called the 4ook of .oing =orth by #ay , more commonly kno!n as the 4ook of the #ead , typically containing declarations and spells to help the deceased in their afterlife. /he "apyrus of -ni is the manuscript compiled for the /heban scribe ni. t !as purchased in 6III by @ir E. . Jallis 4udge for the collection of the 4ritish *useum !here it remains today. 4efore shipping the manuscript to England, 4udge cut the seventy-eight foot scroll into thirty-seven sheets of nearly e2ual siGe, damaging the scroll1s integrity at a time !hen technology had not yet allo!ed the pieces to be put back together.
11
Di.isions Sections 2% 1+ 2+ + 2 ? 2' 1? 2# ?3 2-23 24 -?
12
2
1=
%2 %%
1 -?
Title /y!ns (raises of Chert8;eter Se%en Arits (ylons of the /ouse of .siris Speeches /ail Thoths 4hapter 4ollection 1 /o!ages 7iscellaneous 0/y!ns, /ails, /o!age, 4hapter, @ubric5 4hapter 4ollection Funeral 4ha!ber Texts
13
The Concept of the 5nder6orld in $ncient Egypt
Jith the rise of the cult of siris during the *iddle ingdom the : #ivine pardon at udgement al!ays remained a central concern for the ncient Egyptians.96C: *odern understanding of Egyptian notions of hell relies on si+ ancient te+ts&967:
14
1
The Book of Two Ways Book of the Ways of Rosetau
2
The Book of Amduat Book of the Hidden Room, Book of That Which Is in the Underworld
3
The Book of Gates
4
The Book of the Dead Book of Going Forth y Day
5
The Book of the !arth
6
The Book of "a#erns
&ctonions
Two 6gate spells6" .n the top register, Ani and his wife face the 6se%en gates of the /ouse of .siris6" Below, they encounter ten of the -1 6!ysterious portals of the /ouse of .siris in the Field of @eeds6" All are guarded by unpleasant protectors"G
The Egyptian Book of the Dead !akes reference to .ctonions in two waysH as shown abo%e, the /ouse of .siris had se%en gates" .ther sources indicate that .siris had se%en assistants" Both of these nu!bers fit the nu!ber of .ctonions in their !ultiplication table, the Fano (lane, which is an e9uilateral triangle, each angle of sixty degrees" The lower register in the papyrus shown abo%e indicates -1 portals of the /ouse of .siris in the Field of @eeds" -1 I -1 -, the nu!ber of Assessors, which is i!portant in the study of Sedenions" >e !ay see as well that 2 x -1 And these e9uations ha%e to do with triplets of .ctonions !atching Sedenions" See de 7arrais &- Assessors' for specific details" The author is writing a paper which !atches de 7arrais< understanding of the .ctonions, Sedenions and Trigintaduonions with Egyptian !ythology which will be forthco!ing"
15
Sedenions
The late @obert de 7arrais first suggested the relationships between the Assessors and the Sedenions in -??-" 7oreo%er, he !ade reference to the &.siris (artition' in the sa!e paper" De 7arrais enoyed a pheno!enal genius, and was perhaps the first hu!an in !odern ti!es to understand Sedenions, as well as how they interact with .ctonions and higher !ath for!s such as the Trigintaduonions" The 9uestion re!aining isH was he !erely kiddingK Tongue in cheekK .r was he seriousK #n his style of writing, de 7arrais would !ake !any literary allusions, not bothering to substantiate !any of the!" Either he assu!ed the reader already knew of what he wrote, or would do the research to find out what he was talking about" For exa!ple, !ost of his readers probably don
16
four &nor!ed unit' )ero 8di%isors on the extended N that is an Assessor, in fact plus or !inus differences along one or the other diagonal ha%e no effect on the basic dyna!ics" # prefer, therefore, to think of each Assessor
Anyone who has !ore than passing interest in Egyptology knows Budgehen additional e%idence is a!ounted, support for de 7arraise can begin to see fro! de 7arrais< state!ents that, where the 4offin Texts and the papyri discuss destruction of souls, with a guillotine $ like contraption depicted in one scene, the actual act referred to is the negation of a nu!ber by Rero or otherwise" By the ti!e the coffin texts had been written, the understanding of their authors had de%ol%ed to where they no longer understood the !athe!atics and physics behind the co%er storyH they si!ply belie%ed the co%er story" >ith the e%idence about the .ctonions now present, and de 7arrais< explanation of the - Assessors and the .siris (artition, we can now !o%e on to the final bit of e%idence which further links the .ctonions and the 17
SedenionsH the Exceptional *ie Algebra -"
18
The E(ceptional )ie $lgebra *+
#n the lower depths of the .siris Te!ple in Abdyos, Egypt, one !ay find a Flower of *ife inscribed on the wall" >hile it is al!ost i!possible to deter!ine who inscribed the flower there, there is good reason to belie%e that the flower pre8dates the arri%al of the (ythagoreans who worshipped and studied there, before bringing their knowledge of ad%anced Egyptian !ath and science back ho!e to reece" ;ot !any will !ake the connection between the Flower of *ife and the Exceptional *ie Algebra -, since !ost depictions of - and its root structure display the ele!ents in a different fashion" The author happened to find one paper which gi%es the roots of - as a Flower of *ife, and thus the author !ade this connection" ;ow, why would the ancient Egyptians inscribe the Flower of *ife P - on the lower wall of the Te!ple of .sirisK This !ust ha%e been !ore than coincidence, for now we now that the ancient Egyptians understood .ctonions and Sedenions, and the Exceptional *ie Algebra - happens to link with both in a !ost critical fashion" The author hypothesi)es here that the .siris legend in fact represents a !ythical explanation for the de%elop!ent of nuclear particles, either i!plicitly or explicitly" #t would be worth researching the hieroglyphs along with Egyptian nu!ber syste!s for parallels between ancient Egyptian writings and ancient :edic writings, where !athe!atical concepts and e9uations are inscribed in coded Sanskrit" For this to occur, so!e researcher knowledgeable of hieroglyphics and the culture of %ery Ancient Egypt would ha%e to accept the concepts of :edic (hysics such as the Substratu!, the 7oolakaprithiki, the :rithi and the (urusha, to ade9uately conduct the research" (rofessional Egyptologists probably will not do this, although such endea%ors !ay sa%e the! decades of work and win the! ;obel pri)es" Such inno%ations in a gi%en field of study re!ain for outsiders $ the author !ay gi%e it a try once he has ti!e to !aster hieroglyphics"
19
The root syste! for the Exceptional *ie Algebra -, which is the only root syste! in which the angle (i P + appears between two roots" This !ay be so since the 7oolaprkrithi is di%ided into six sectors" #n a pre%ious paper published on :ixtra, the author wroteH #n this paper we exa!ine the root syste! of -, which holds the key to the transition fro! the .ctonions to the Sedenions, and fro! binary to ternary !ath, and in%ol%ing three 8 for!s" The author further notes relationships between the /opf Fibration and the (oincare Dodecahedral Space, as the !o!entu! of recent papers appears to indicate close connections between these constructions" >ith regard to 1-, -, - and the - Assessors of the Sedenions, the ancient Egyptians knew of these relationships, since they depicted the 1- astrological houses, - Assessors in the scenes showing the weighing of the soul of .siris" #n addition, an .siris Te!ple in Egypt holds a Flower of *ife painted on its subterranean wall, and the Flower of *ife is !erely a depiction of the root syste! of -" The Flower of *ife is well 8 known to students of sacred geo!etry and has appeared in crop circles"
2/
Fro! the - @oot Syste! the paper transitions to Sedenions, which are closely related to the nu!ber -" Tony S!ith6s essay explores !any of these relationships, and so has been included in its entirety" Then, the author adds another piece of e%idence regarding the i!portance of - in the An *ie Algebra" #n passing we note the a%ailability of - to three 8 for!s or triplets, which again will pro%e i!portant in the connection between .ctonions and Sedenions"
This for! of the root syste! of - consists of two Fano planes, or the .ctonion !ultiplication syste!" Jews ha%e been carrying around this sy!bol for so!e se%en thousand years, and presu!ably left Egypt with this sy!bol so!ewhere around 3??? B4" The interior of the Star of Da%id for!s a hexagon, the shape of the purusha in :edic ;uclear (hysics"
21
Conclusion
This paper has gi%en strong e%idence that the %ery ancient 0pre 8 #ce Age, circa 1,??? B45 Egyptian ci%ili)ation understood ad%anced !athe!atics and enoyed a higher technology than our own" This e%idence includes the Se%en ates P Assistants of .siris, the repeated references to -, a key nu!ber for the Sedenions, as well as the Exceptional *ie Algebra -, which plays a decisi%e role in linking the .ctonions, Twisted .ctonions, Sedenions and Trigantaduonions" 7oreo%er, this paper draws the hypothesis that the .siris legend describes the life cycle of !atter, fro! reco!bination in the Substratu! to re8birth as new !atter, while the A!duat describes the Substratu! and the processes which occur within the Substratu!" A future paper by this author will articulate the details of this hypothesis" At the sa!e ti!e, our ci%ili)ation has reected .ctonions 0Sir @odger (enrose5 and Sedenions while ha%ing barely explored Trigintaduonions and beyond" The only person who see!s to ha%e understood these nu!bers, @obert de 7arrais, died in -?11 and no other see!s to ha%e taken his place, while few presu!ably ha%e actually read and understood his work" The .siris legend lends credence to the idea that the Egyptians knew about .ctonions and Sedenions, as >ikipedia statesH K The dis!e!bered parts could be said to nu!ber as !any as forty8two, each piece being e9uated with one of the forty8two no!es, or pro%inces, in 22
Egypt"G-M The source for this is 7 (inch -??, p" 2=" #n general, the .siris !yth describes the death of !atter and then its re8birth, after a ter! spent in the nderworld or A!duat" For this reason .siris beca!e associated with the annual rebirth of crops" #n this sense, the .siris !yth !ay si!ply co!prise a legend or story that explains in general ter!s a specific scientific process, and e%entually the deeper !eaning beca!e lost to hu!anity" The pattern of the de%olution of the Egyptian e!pire and culture pro%ides a perfect exa!ple for this process of hu!an decay" K.siris is deeply in%ol%ed with natural cycles of death and renewal, such as the annual growth of crops, that parallel his own resurrection"GM' #n other ways, the cere!onies and se9uences of the A!duat or nderworld tend to coincide with si!ilar processes which ha%e been encoded in :edic literatureH The 4ere!ony of .pening of the 7outh being perfor!ed on the !u!!y of the royal scribe /unefer at the door of the to!b" GFro! Brit" 7us", (ap" ;o" ==?1"M The author hypothesi)es here that the 4ere!ony of the .pening of the 7outh refers to the procedures needed to de8stabili)e the purusha in order to open up the enor!ous reser%oirs of free energy a%ailable within" That professionals in either Egyptology or in (hysics will pursue such a lead re!ains highly doubtful, for western scientists fail to understand :edic (hysics, and the concept of the Substratu!, and thus would reect such suggestions" The Substratu! retains all !atter, whate%er e!anates fro! the Substratu! !ust return in the for! of decayed photons" There is a !athe!atical e9uation to deter!ine the life of the photon in :edic (hysics" E%en hu!an actions are recorded in the Substratu!, and this is where the concept of kar!a fits in" Since the Substratu! records all actions, then the kar!ic effect arises fro! the conse9uences of hu!an acti%ity" #f the conse9uences are positi%e, then the hu!an will recei%e positi%e benefits fro! his or her actions, and %ice %ersa" Thus it !ay ha%e been a si!ple !atter for later generations of Egyptians to !odify the original spiritual .sirian science into a !oralistic religious tale" The e%idence gi%en in this essayH the references to the se%en .ctonions, the Sedenions, the Exceptional *ie Algebra - and its root syste!, the Flower of *ife, with - as the only root syste! with (i P+ between two roots, relating to the 7oolakaprithiki and the (urusha, all indicate a knowledge of the sa!e ancient science secretly coded within :edic literature" That is to say that the %ery ancient Egyptian ci%ili)ation, that of 1,??? B4 or so, prior to the last !aor #ce Age, probably enoyed a higher le%el of !athe!atics and science than enoyed by our present ci%ili)ation, which put further de%elop!ent on hold during the late 1=th 4entury, apparently to !ollify the interests of wealthy capitalists, such as those who silenced and destroyed ;ikola Tesla" As our ci%ili)ation draws to a close, we will be re!e!bered, if at all, as those who %alued !aterial wealth o%er knowledge or spiritual pursuit, 23
and thus perhaps sealed our own collecti%e fate" (latohile !ainstrea! scholars enoy downplaying such sources, the growing body of e%idence see!s to indicate highly ad%anced :edic and Egyptian ci%ili)ations in the period before the last !aor #ce Age" :edic literature encodes a full 8 blown scientific theory of ad%anced physics and !athe!atics, which one author esti!ates would take so!e +,??? to 1?,??? years for a group of hu!ans to de%elop" The possibility exists that Egyptian hieroglyphics contain secret codes which contain the sa!e or a si!ilar science, which our ci%ili)ation grasps only a s!all part, with no co!prehensi%e %iew of the entire scale of the science" The .siris !yth !erely ser%es as a loose co%er to obscure the occult science hidden within the hieroglyphs" #n -?1, we still cannot replicate the stone 8 cutting that built the pyra!id co!plex at i)a 0or in 4u)co, (eru5, e%en with laser technology" .ur best guess is that the reat (yra!id was built by successi%e ar!ies of sla%es, but this is a !ere hypothesis" A better, yet unexplored hypothesis is that those who built the reat (yra!id enoyed a higher for! of technology which did not re9uire ar!ies of sla%esL a *at%ian i!!igrant built the 4oral 4astle in 4oral ables, Florida, alone and at night, with technology he learned by studying ancient Egypt" Since we cannot depend on Egyptologists nor physicists to explore the language of ancient Egypt to unco%er and to decode this ad%anced science, this author will !ake the atte!pt in future papers to be published on :ixra"
24
Bibliography
dobe "#= "age 6 /he and the 4o+-ites they fly& #iagonal +is"air @ystems of Lero-#ivisors in the @edenions1 6D #imensions Fobert ". 0. MpdfMmathM8866;D8 vixra.orgp#f13/9/116!1p#f
9"#=:
dobe "#= concept of ?issaous =igures in relation to @edenions and his , in his first paper about ... 4y the term K ,N makes reference to the ... MpdfM6>8.866Dv6.pdf http!iraor"p#f13/8//18!1p#f
25
$ppendi( I The &siris myth is the !ost elaborate and influential story in ancient Egyptian !ythology" #t concerns the !urder of the god .siris, a pri!e%al king of Egypt, and its conse9uences" .siris6 !urderer, his brother Set, usurps his throne" 7eanwhile, .siris6 wife #sis restores her husband6s body, allowing hi! to posthu!ously concei%e a son with her" The re!ainder of the story focuses on /orus, the product of #sis and .siris6 union, who is first a %ulnerable child protected by his !other and then beco!es Set6s ri%al for the throne" Their often %iolent conflict ends with /orus6 triu!ph, which restores order to Egypt after Set6s unrighteous reign and co!pletes the process of .siris6 resurrection" The !yth, with its co!plex sy!bolis!, is integral to the Egyptian conceptions of kingship and succession, conflict between order and disorder and, especially, death and the afterlife" #t expresses the essential character of each of the four deities at its center, and !any ele!ents of their worship in ancient Egyptian religion were deri%ed fro! the !yth" The .siris !yth reached its basic for! in or before the -th century B4" 7any of its ele!ents originated in religious ideas, but the conflict between /orus and Set !ay ha%e been partly inspired by a regional struggle in Egypt6s early history or prehistory" Scholars ha%e tried to discern the exact nature of the e%ents that ga%e rise to the story, but they ha%e reached no definiti%e conclusions" (arts of the !yth appear in a wide %ariety of Egyptian texts, fro! funerary texts and !agical spells to short stories" The story is, therefore, !ore detailed and !ore cohesi%e than any other ancient Egyptian !yth" et no Egyptian source gi%es a full account of the !yth, and the sources %ary widely in their %ersions of e%ents" reekand @o!an writings, particularly De Iside et Osiride by (lutarch, pro%ide !ore infor!ation but !ay not always accurately reflect Egyptian beliefs" Through these writings, the .siris !yth persisted after knowledge of !ost ancient Egyptian beliefs was lost, and it is still well known today" The !yth of .siris was %ery i!portant in ancient Egyptian religion and was popular a!ong ordinary people" G1M .ne reason for this popularity is the !yth6s pri!ary religious !eaning, which i!plies that any dead person can reach a pleasant afterlife"G-M Another reason is that the characters and their e!otions are !ore re!iniscent of the li%es of real people than those in !ost Egyptian !yths, !aking the story !ore appealing to the general populace"GM #n particular, the !yth con%eys a strong sense of fa!ily loyalty and de%otion, as the Egyptologist J" wyn riffiths put it, in the relationships between .siris, #sis, and /orus"GM >ith this widespread appeal, the !yth appears in !ore ancient texts than any other !yth and in an exceptionally broad range of Egyptian literary styles"G1M These sources pro%ide an unusual a!ount of detail"G-M
26
Ancient Egyptian !yths are frag!entary and %ague, because the religious !etaphors contained within the !yths were !ore i!portant than coherent narration" The .siris !yth is frag!entary to so!e extent, and rich in sy!bolis!" #n co!parison with other !yths, it bears a greater rese!blance to a cohesi%e story" G3M
The Pyramid Texts in the Pyramid of Teti The earliest !entions of the .siris !yth are in the Pyramid Texts, the first Egyptian funerary texts, which appeared on the walls of burial cha!bers in pyra!ids at the end of the Fifth Dynasty, during the -th century B4" These texts, !ade up of disparate spells or utterances, contain ideas that are presu!ed to date fro! still earlier ti!es"G+M The texts are concerned with the afterlife of the king buried in the pyra!id, so they fre9uently refer to the .siris !yth, which is deeply in%ol%ed with kingship and the afterlife"G2M 7aor ele!ents of the story, such as the death and restoration of .siris and the strife between /orus and Set, appear in the utterances of the Pyramid Texts"GM The sa!e ele!ents fro! the !yth that appear in the Pyramid Texts recur in funerary texts written in later ti!es, such as the Coffin Texts fro! the 7iddle Cingdo! 0c" -?33$1+3? B45 and the Book of the Dead fro! the ;ew Cingdo!0c" 133?$1?2? B45" 7ost of these writings were !ade for the general populace, so the association !ade in these texts, between .siris and the dead, is no longer restricted to royalty"G=M The !ost co!plete ancient Egyptian account of the !yth is the reat /y!n to .siris, an inscription fro! the Eighteenth Dynasty 0c" 133?$1-=- B45 that gi%es the general outline of the entire story but includes little detail"G1?M Another i!portant source is the 7e!phite Theology, a religious narrati%e that includes 27
an account of .siris6 death as well as the resolution of the dispute between /orus and Set" This narrati%e associates the kingship that .siris and /orus represent with (tah, the creator deity of 7e!phis"G11M The text was long thought to date back to the .ld Cingdo! 0c" -++$-11 B45 and was treated as a source for infor!ation about the early stages in the de%elop!ent of the !yth" Since the 1=2?s, howe%er, Egyptologists ha%e concluded that the text dates fro! the ;ew Cingdo! at the earliest"G1-M Texts related to .sirian rituals co!e fro! the walls of Egyptian te!ples that date fro! the ;ew Cingdo! to the (tole!aic era of -$? B4" Such ritual texts are another !aor source of infor!ation about the !yth"G1M 7agical healing spells, which were used by Egyptians of all classes, are the source for an i!portant portion of the !yth, in which /orus is poisoned or otherwise sickened, and #sis heals hi!" The spells identify a sick person with /orus so that he or she can benefit fro! the goddess6 efforts" The spells are known fro! papyrus copies, which ser%e as instructions for healing rituals, and fro! a speciali)ed type of inscribed stone stela called a cippus" (eople seeking healing poured water o%er these cippi, an act that was belie%ed to i!bue the water with the healing power contained in the text, and then drank the water in hope of curing their ail!ents" The the!e of an endangered child protected by !agic appears on inscribed ritual wands fro! the 7iddle Cingdo!, which were !ade centuries before the !ore detailed healing spells that specifically connect this the!e with the .siris !yth"G1M Episodes fro! the !yth were recorded in writings intended as entertain!ent" (ro!inent a!ong these texts is The 4ontendings of /orus and Set, a hu!orous retelling of se%eral episodes of the struggle between the two deities, which dates to the Twentieth Dynasty 0c" 11=?$1?2? B45"G13M #t %i%idly characteri)es the deities in%ol%edL as the Egyptologist Donald B" @edford says, /orus appears as a physically weak but cle%er (uck8like figure, Seth GSetM as a strong8!an buffoon of li!ited intelligence, @e8/orakhty G@aM as a preudiced, sulky udge, and .siris as an articulate cur!udgeon with an acid tongue"G1+M Despite its atypical nature, 4ontendings includes !any of the oldest episodes in the di%ine conflict, and !any e%ents appear in the sa!e order as in !uch later accounts, suggesting that a traditional se9uence of e%ents was for!ing at the ti!e that the story was written"G12M Ancient reek and @o!an writers, who described Egyptian religion late in its history, recorded !uch of the .siris !yth" /erodotus, in the 3th century B4, !entioned parts of the !yth in his description of Egypt in The Histories, and four centuries later, Diodorus Siculus pro%ided a su!!ary of the !yth in his Bibliotheca historica"G1M #n the early -nd century AD,G1=M (lutarch wrote the !ost co!plete ancient account of the !yth in De Iside et Osiride, an analysis of Egyptian religious beliefs"G-?M (lutarch6s account of the !yth is the %ersion that !odern popular
28
writings !ost fre9uently retell"G-1M The writings of these classical authors !ay gi%e a distorted %iew of Egyptian beliefs"G-?M For instance, De Iside et Osiride includes !any interpretations of Egyptian belief that are influenced by %arious reek philosophies, and its account of the !yth contains portions with no known parallel in Egyptian tradition" riffiths concluded that se%eral ele!ents of this account were taken fro! reek !ythology, and that the work as a whole was not based directly on Egyptian sources" G--M /is colleague, John Baines, on the other hand, says that te!ples !ay ha%e kept written accounts of !yths, which later were lost, and that (lutarch could ha%e drawn on such sources to write his narrati%e" G-M
Death and resurrection of &siris At the start of the story, .siris rules Egypt, ha%ing inherited the kingship fro! his ancestors in a lineage stretching back to the creator of the world, @a or Atu!" /is 9ueen is #sis, who, along with .siris and his !urderer Set, is one of the children of the earth god eb and the sky goddess ;ut" *ittle infor!ation about the reign of .siris appears in Egyptian sourcesL the focus is on his death and the e%ents that follow"G-M .siris is connected with life8gi%ing power, righteous kingship, and the rule of maat , the ideal natural order whose !aintenance was a funda!ental goal in ancient Egyptian culture"G-3M Set is closely associated with %iolence and chaos" Therefore, the slaying of .siris sy!boli)es the struggle between order and disorder, and the disruption of life by death"G-+M So!e %ersions of the !yth pro%ide Set6s !oti%e for killing .siris" According to a spell in the Pyramid Texts, Set is taking re%enge for a kick .siris ga%e hi!, G-2M whereas in a *ate (eriod text, Set6s grie%ance is that .siris had sex with ;ephthys, who is Set6s consort and the fourth child of eb and ;ut"G-M The !urder itself is fre9uently alluded to, but ne%er clearly described" The Egyptians belie%ed that written words had the power to affect reality, so they a%oided writing directly about profoundly negati%e e%ents such as .siris6 death"G-M So!eti!es they denied his death altogether, e%en though the bulk of the traditions about hi! !ake it clear that he has been !urdered"G-=M #n so!e cases the texts suggest that Set takes the for! of a wild ani!al, such as a crocodile or bull, to slay .sirisL in others they i!ply that .siris6 corpse is thrown in the water or that he is drowned" This latter tradition is the origin of the Egyptian belief that people who had drowned in the ;ile were sacred"G?M E%en the identity of the %icti! is changeable in texts, as it is so!eti!es the god /aroeris, an elder for! of /orus, who is !urdered by Set and then a%enged by another for! of /orus, who is /aroeris6 son by #sis"G1M By the end of the ;ew Cingdo!, a tradition had de%eloped that Set had cut .siris6 body into pieces and scattered the! across Egypt" 4ult centers of .siris all o%er the country clai!ed that the corpse, or particular pieces of it, were found near the!" The dis!e!bered parts could be said to nu!ber as
29
!any as forty8two, each piece being e9uated with one of the forty8two no!es, or pro%inces, in Egypt" G-M Thus, the god of kingship beco!es the e!bodi!ent of his kingdo!"G?M
#sis, in the for! of a bird, copulates with the deceased .siris" At either side are /orus, although he is as yet unborn, and #sis in hu!an for!"GM .siris6 death is followed either by an interregnu! or by a period in which Set assu!es the kingship" 7eanwhile, #sis searches for her husband6s body with the aid of ;ephthys" GM >hen searching for or !ourning .siris, the two goddesses are often likened to falcons or kites,G3M possibly because kites tra%el far in search of carrion,G+Mbecause the Egyptians associated their plainti%e calls with cries of grief, or because of the goddesses6 connection with /orus, who is often represented as a falcon"G3M #n the ;ew Cingdo!, when .siris6 death and renewal ca!e to be associated with the annual flooding of the ;ile that fertili)ed Egypt, the waters of the ;ile were e9uated with #sis6 tears of !ourning,G2M or with .siris6 bodily fluids" GM .siris thus represented the life8gi%ing di%ine power that was present in the ri%er6s water and in the plants that grew after the flood"G=M The goddesses find and restore .siris6 body, often with the help of other deities, including Thoth, a deity credited with great !agical and healing powers, and Anubis, the god of e!bal!ing and funerary rites" Their efforts are the !ythological basis for Egyptian e!bal!ing practices, which, by !u!!ifying the body, sought to pre%ent and re%erse the decay that follows death" This part of the story is often extended with episodes in which Set or his followers try to da!age the corpse, and #sis and her allies !ust protect it" .nce .siris is !ade whole, #sis concei%es his son and rightful heir, /orus" GM .ne a!biguous spell in the 4offin Texts !ay indicate that #sis is i!pregnated by a flash of lightning,G?M while in other sources, #sis, still in bird for!, fans breath and life into .siris6 body with her wings and copulates with
3/
hi!"GM .siris6 re%i%al is apparently not per!anent, and after this point in the story he is only !entioned as the ruler of the Duat, the distant and !ysterious real! of the dead" Although he li%es on only in the Duat, he and the kingship he stands for will, in a sense, be reborn in his son" G1M The cohesi%e account by (lutarch, which deals !ainly with this portion of the !yth, differs in !any respects fro! the known Egyptian sources" Setwho! (lutarch, using reek na!es for !any of the Egyptian deities, refers to as Typhonconspires against .siris with se%enty8three other people" Set has an elaborate chest !ade to fit .siris6 exact !easure!ents and then, at a ban9uet, declares that he will gi%e the chest as a gift to whoe%er fits inside it" The guests, in turn, lie inside the coffin, but none fit inside except .siris" >hen he lies down in the chest, Set and his acco!plices sla! the co%er shut, seal it, and throw it into the ;ile" >ith .siris6 corpse inside, the chest floats out into the sea, arri%ing at the city of Byblos, where a tree grows around it" The king of Byblos has the tree cut down and !ade into a pillar for his palace, still with the chest inside" #sis !ust re!o%e the chest fro! within the tree in order to retrie%e her husband6s body" /a%ing taken the chest, she lea%es the tree in Byblos, where it beco!es an obect of worship for the locals" This episode, which is not known fro! Egyptian sources, gi%es an etiological explanation for a cult of #sis and .siris that existed in Byblos in (lutarch6s ti!e and possibly as early as the ;ew Cingdo!"G-M (lutarch states that Set steals and dis!e!bers the corpse only after #sis has retrie%ed it" #sis then finds and buries each piece of her husband6s body, with the exception of the penis, which she has to reconstruct with !agic, because the original was eaten by fish in the ri%er" According to (lutarch, this is the reason the Egyptians had a taboo against eating fish" #n Egyptian accounts, howe%er, the penis of .siris is found intact, and the only close parallel with this part of (lutarch6s story is in The Tale of Two Brothers, a folk tale fro! the ;ew Cingdo! with si!ilarities to the .siris !yth"GM A final difference in (lutarch6s account is /orus6 birth" The for! of /orus that a%enges his father has been concei%ed and born before .siris6 death" #t is a pre!ature and weak second child, /arpocrates, who is born fro! .siris6 posthu!ous union with #sis" /ere, two of the separate for!s of /orus that exist in Egyptian tradition ha%e been gi%en distinct positions within (lutarch6s %ersion of the !yth"GM
31
#sis nursing /orus Birth and childhood of 8orusGeditM #n Egyptian accounts, the pregnant #sis hides fro! Set, to who! the unborn child is a threat, in a thicket of papyrus in the ;ile Delta" This place is called Akh-bity , !eaning papyrus thicket of the king of *ower Egypt in Egyptian"G3M reek writers call this place hemmis and indicate that it is near the city of Buto,G+M but in the !yth, the physical location is uni!portant co!pared with its nature as an iconic place of seclusion and safety"G2M The thicket6s special status is indicated by its fre9uent depiction in Egyptian artL for !ost e%ents in Egyptian !ythology, the backdrop is !ini!ally described or illustrated" #n this thicket, #sis gi%es birth to /orus and raises hi!, and hence it is called the nest of /orus"GM The i!age of #sis nursing her child is a %ery co!!on !otif in Egyptian art"G3M There are texts in which #sis tra%els in the wider world" She !o%es a!ong ordinary hu!ans who are unaware of her identity, and she e%en appeals to these people for help" This is another unusual circu!stance, for in Egyptian !yth, gods and hu!ans are nor!ally separate" GM As in the first phase of the !yth, she often has the aid of other deities, who protect her son in her absence"GM According to one !agical spell, se%en !inor scorpion deities tra%el with and guard #sis as she seeks help for /orus" They e%en take re%enge on a wealthy wo!an who has refused to help #sis by stinging the wo!an6s son, !aking it necessary for #sis to heal the bla!eless child"GM This story con%eys a !oral !essage that the poor can be !ore %irtuous than the wealthy and illustrates #sis6 fair and co!passionate nature"G=M #n this stage of the !yth, /orus is a %ulnerable child beset by dangers" The !agical texts that use /orus6 childhood as the basis for their healing spells gi%e hi! different ail!ents, fro! scorpion stings to si!ple sto!achaches, G3?M adapting the tradition to fit the !alady that each spell was intended to treat" G31M
7ost co!!only, the child god has been bitten by a snake, reflecting the Egyptians6 fear of snakebite and the resulting poison" GM So!e texts indicate that these hostile creatures are agents of Set"G3-M #sis !ay use her own !agical powers to sa%e her child, or she !ay plead with or threaten deities such as
32
@a or eb, so they will cure hi!" As she is the archetypal !ourner in the first portion of the story, so during /orus6 childhood she is the ideal de%oted !other"G3M Through the !agical healing texts, her efforts to heal her son are extended to cure any patient" G2M Conflict of 8orus and SetGeditM The next phase of the !yth begins when the adult /orus challenges Set for the throne of Egypt" The contest between the! is often %iolent but is described as a legal udg!ent before the Ennead, an asse!bled group of Egyptian deities, to decide who should inherit the kingship" The udge in this trial !ay be eb, who, as the father of .siris and Set, held the throne before they did, or it !ay be the creator gods @a or Atu!, the originators of kingship"G3M .ther deities take i!portant rolesH Thoth fre9uently acts as a conciliator in the disputeG33M or as an assistant to the di%ine udge, and in 4ontendings, #sis uses her cunning and !agical power to aid her son" G3+M
The ri%alry of /orus and Set is portrayed in two contrasting ways" Both perspecti%es appear as early as the Pyramid Texts, the earliest source of the !yth" #n so!e spells fro! these texts, /orus is the son of .siris and nephew of Set, and the !urder of .siris is the !aor i !petus for the conflict" The other tradition depicts /orus and Set as brothers"G32M This incongruity persists in !any of the subse9uent sources, where the two gods !ay be called brothers or uncle and nephew at different points in the sa!e docu!ent"G3M
33
/orus spears Set, who appears in the for! of a hippopota!us, as #sis looks on The di%ine struggle in%ol%es !any episodes" 4ontendings describes the two gods appealing to %arious other deities to arbitrate the dispute and co!peting in different types of contests, such as racing in boats or fighting each other in the for! of hippopota!i, to deter!ine a %ictor" #n this account, /orus repeatedly defeats Set and is supported by !ost of the other deities"G3=M et the dispute drags on for eighty years, largely because the udge, the creator god, fa%ors Set"G+?M #n late ritual texts, the conflict is characteri)ed as a great battle in%ol%ing the two deities6 asse!bled followers" G+1M The strife in the di%ine real! extends beyond the two co!batants" At one point #sis atte!pts to harpoon Set as he is locked in co!bat with her son, but she strikes /orus instead, who then cuts off her head in a fit of rage" G+-M Thoth replaces #sis6 head with that of a cowL the story gi%es a !ythical origin for the cow8horn headdress that #sis co!!only wears"G+M #n so!e sources, Set ustifies further attacks on /orus as punish!ent for the young god6s %iolence against his !other"G+M #n a key episode in the conflict, Set sexually abuses /orus" Set6s %iolation is partly !eant to degrade his ri%al, but it in%ol%es ho!osexual desire, in
34
keeping with one of Set6s !aor characteristics, his forceful and indiscri!inate sexuality"G+3M #n the earliest account of this episode, in a frag!entary 7iddle Cingdo! papyrus, the sexual encounter begins when Set asks to ha%e sex with /orus, who agrees on the condition that Set will gi%e /orus so!e of his strength" G++M The encounter puts /orus in danger, because in Egyptian tradition se!en is a potent and dangerous substance, akin to poison" According to so!e texts, Set6s se!en enters /orus6 body and !akes hi! ill, but in 4ontendings, /orus thwarts Set by catching Set6s se!en in his hands" #sis retaliates by putting /orus6 se!en on lettuces that Set eats" Set6s defeat beco!es apparent when this se!en appears on his forehead as a golden disk" /e has been i!pregnated with his ri%al6s seed and as a result gi%es birth to the disk" #n 4ontendings, Thoth takes the disk and places it on his own headL in earlier accounts, it is Thoth who is produced by this ano!alous birth"G+2M Another i!portant episode concerns !utilations that the co!batants inflict upon each otherH /orus inures or steals Set6s testicles and Set da!ages or tears out one, or occasionally both, of /orus6 eyes" So!eti!es the eye is torn into pieces"G+M Set6s !utilation signifies a loss of %irility and strength"G+=M The re!o%al of /orus6 eye is e%en !ore i!portant, for this stolen Eye of /orus represents a wide %ariety of concepts in Egyptian religion" .ne of /orus6 !aor roles is as a sky deity, and for this reason his right eye was said to be the sun and his left eye the !oon" The theft or destruction of the Eye of /orus is therefore e9uated with the darkening of the !oon in the course of its cycle of phases, or during eclipses" /orus !ay take back the lost eye, or other deities, including #sis, Thoth, and /athor, !ay retrie%e or heal it for hi!"G+M The Egyptologist /er!an te :elde argues that the tradition about the lost testicles is a late %ariation on Set6s loss of se!en to /orus, and that the !oon8like disk that e!erges fro! Set6s head after his i!pregnation is the Eye of /orus" #f so, the episodes of !utilation and sexual abuse would for! a single story, in which Set assaults /orus and loses se!en to hi!, /orus retaliates and i!pregnates Set, and Set co!es into possession of /orus6 Eye when it appears on Set6s head" Because Thoth is a !oon deity in addition to his other functions, it would !ake sense, according to te :elde, for Thoth to e!erge in the for! of the Eye and step in to !ediate between the feuding deities"G2?M #n any case, the restoration of the Eye of /orus to wholeness represents the return of the !oon to full brightness,G21M the return of the kingship to /orus, G2-M and !any other aspects of maat "G2M So!eti!es the restoration of /orus6 eye is acco!panied by the restoration of Set6s testicles, so that both gods are !ade whole near the conclusion of their feud"G2M 9esolutionGeditM As with so !any other parts of the !yth, the resolution is co!plex and %aried" .ften, /orus and Set di%ide the real! between the!" This di%ision can be e9uated with any of se%eral funda!ental dualities that the Egyptians saw in their world"
35
/orus !ay recei%e the fertile lands around the ;ile, the core of Egyptian ci%ili)ation, in which case Set takes the barren desert or the foreign lands that are associated with itL /orus !ay rule the earth while Set dwells in the skyL and each god !ay take one of the two traditional hal%es of the country, pper and *ower Egypt, in which case either god !ay be connected with either region" et in the 7e!phite Theology, eb, as udge, first apportions the real! between the clai!ants and then re%erses hi!self, awarding sole control to /orus" #n this peaceable union, /orus and Set are reconciled, and the dualities that they represent ha%e been resol%ed into a united whole" Through this resolution, order is restored after the tu!ultuous conflict"G23M A different %iew of the !yth6s end focuses on /orus6 sole triu!ph"G2+M #n this %ersion, Set is not reconciled with his ri%al, but utterly defeated,G22M and so!eti!es he is exiled fro! Egypt or e%en destroyed"G2M /is defeat and hu!iliation is !ore pronounced in sources fro! later periods of Egyptian history, when he was increasingly e9uated with disorder and e%il, and the Egyptians no longer saw hi! as an integral part of natural order"G22M >ith great celebration a!ong the gods, /orus takes the throne, and Egypt at last has a rightful king"G2=M The di%ine decision that Set is in the wrong corrects the inustice created by .siris6 !urder and co!pletes the process of his restoration after death"G?M So!eti!es Set is !ade to carry .siris6 body to its to!b as part of his punish!ent"G1M The new king perfor!s funerary rites for his father and gi%es food offerings to sustain hi!often including the Eye of /orus, which in this instance represents life and plenty" G-M According to so!e sources, only through these acts can .siris be fully enli%ened in the afterlife and take his place as king of the dead, paralleling his son6s role as king of the li%ing" Thereafter, .siris is deeply in%ol%ed with natural cycles of death and r enewal, such as the annual growth of crops, that parallel his own resurrection"GM .riginsGeditM As the .siris !yth first appears in the Pyramid Texts, !ost of its essential features !ust ha%e taken shape so!eti!e before the texts were written" The distinct seg!ents of the story.siris6 death and restoration, /orus6 childhood, and /orus6 conflict with Set!ay originally ha%e been independent !ythic episodes" #f so, they !ust ha%e begun to coalesce into a single story by the ti!e of the Pyramid Texts, which loosely connect those seg!ents" #n any case, the !yth was inspired by a %ariety of influences"GM 7uch of the story is based in religious ideasGM and the general nature of Egyptian societyH the di%ine nature of kingship, the succession fro! one king to another,G3M the struggle to !aintain maat ,G+M and the effort to o%erco!e death"GM For instance, #sis and ;ephthys6 la!entations for their dead brother !ay represent an early tradition of rituali)ed !ourning"G2M There are, howe%er, i!portant points of disagree!ent" The origins of .siris are !uch debated, GM and the basis for the !yth of his death is so!ewhat uncertain"GM .ne influential hypothesis was gi%en by the anthropologist Ja!es
36
Fra)er , who in 1=?+ said that .siris, like other dying and rising gods across the ancient ;ear East, began as a personification of %egetation" /is death and restoration, therefore, were based on the yearly death and re8growth of plants" G=M 7any Egyptologists adopted this explanation" But in the late -?th century, J" wyn riffiths, who extensi%ely studied .siris and his !ythology, argued that .siris originated as a di%ine ruler of the dead, and his connection with %egetation was a secondary de%elop!ent" G=?M 7eanwhile, scholars of co!parati%e religion ha%e increasingly critici)ed Fra)er6s o%erarching concept of dying and rising gods" G=M 7ore recently, the Egyptologist @osalie Da%id !aintains that .siris originally personified the annual rebirth of the trees and plants after the G;ileM inundation"G=1M
/orus and Set as supporters of the king Another continuing debate concerns the opposition of /orus and Set, which Egyptologists ha%e often tried to connect with political e%ents early in Egypt6s history or prehistory" The cases in which the co!batants di%ide the kingdo!, and the fre9uent association of the paired /orus and Set with the union of pper and *ower Egypt, suggest that the two deities represent so!e kind of di%ision within the country" Egyptian tradition and archaeological e%idence indicate that Egypt was united at the beginning of its history when an pper Egyptian kingdo!, in the south, con9uered *ower Egypt in the north" The pper Egyptian rulers called the!sel%es followers of /orus, and /orus beca!e the patron god of the unified nation and its kings" et /orus and Set cannot be easily e9uated with the two hal%es of the country" Both deities had se%eral cult centers in each region, and /orus is often associated with *ower Egypt and Set with pper Egypt"G1M .ne of the better8known explanations for these discrepancies was proposed by Curt Sethe in 1=?" /e argued that .siris was originally the hu!an ruler of a unified Egypt in prehistoric ti!es, before a rebellion of pper Egyptian Set8 worshippers" The *ower Egyptian followers of /orus then forcibly reunified the land, inspiring the !yth of /orus6 triu!ph, before pper Egypt, now led by /orus worshippers, beca!e pro!inent again at the start of the Early Dynastic (eriod"G=-M 37
#n the late -?th century, riffiths focused on the inconsistent portrayal of /orus and Set as brothers and as uncle and nephew" /e argued that, in the early stages of Egyptian !ythology, the struggle between /orus and Set as siblings and e9uals was originally separate fro! the !urder of .siris" The two stories were oined into the single .siris !yth so!eti!e before the writing of the Pyramid Texts" >ith this !erging, the genealogy of the deities in%ol%ed and the characteri)ation of the /orus$Set conflict were altered so that /orus is the son and heir a%enging .siris6 death" Traces of the independent traditions re!ained in the conflicting characteri)ations of the co!batants6 relationship and in texts unrelated to the .siris !yth, which !ake /orus the son of the goddess ;ut or the goddess /athor rather than of #sis and .siris" riffiths therefore reected the possibility that .siris6 !urder was rooted in historical e%ents"G=M This hypothesis has been accepted by !ore recent scholars such as Jan Ass!ann G3M and eorge /art"G=M riffiths sought a historical origin for the /orus$Set ri%alry, and he posited two distinct pre 8 dynastic unifications of Egypt by /orus worshippers, si!ilar to Sethe6s theory, to account for it" G=3M et the issue re!ains unresol%ed, partly because other political associations for /orus and Set co!plicate the picture further"G=+M Before e%en pper Egypt had a single ruler, two of its !aor cities were ;ekhen, in the far south, and ;a9ada, !any !iles to the north" The rulers of ;ekhen, where /orus was the patron deity, are generally belie%ed to ha%e unified pper Egypt, including ;a9ada, under their sway" Set was associated with ;a9ada, so it is possible that the di%ine conflict di!ly reflects an en!ity between the cities in the distant past" 7uch later, at the end of the Second Dynasty0c" -=?$-++ B45, Cing (eribsen used the Set ani!al in writing his serekh8na!e, in place of the traditional falcon hieroglyph representing /orus" /is successor Chasekhe!wy used both /orus and Set in the writing of his serekh" This e%idence has pro!pted conecture that the Second Dynasty saw a clash between the followers of the /orus8king and the worshippers of Set led by (eribsen" Chasekhe!wy6s use of the two ani!al sy!bols would then represent the reconciliation of the two factions, as does the resolution of the !yth"G1M ;oting the uncertainties surrounding e%ents so far back in ti!e, /er!an te :elde argues that the historical roots of the conflict are too obscure to be %ery useful in understanding the !yth and are not as significant as its religious !eaning" /e says that the origin of the !yth of /orus and Seth is lost in the !ists of the religious traditions of prehistory"GM #nfluenceGeditM The effect of the .siris !yth on Egyptian culture was greater and !ore widespread than that of any other !yth"G1M #n literature, the !yth was not only the basis for a retelling such as 4ontendingsL it pro%ided the basis for !ore distantly related stories" The Tale of Two Brothers, a folk tale with hu!an protagonists, includes ele!ents si!ilar to the !yth of .siris"G=2M
38
.ne character6s penis is eaten by a fish, and he later dies and is resurrected" G=M Another story, The Tale of Truth and Falsehood, adapts the conflict of /orus and Set into an allegory, in which the characters are direct personifications of truth and lies rather than deities associated with those concepts" G=2M
The opening of the !outh cere!ony, a key funerary ritual, perfor!ed for Tutankha!un by his successor Ay" The deceased king takes on the role of .siris, upon who! /orus was supposed to ha%e perfor!ed the cere!ony"G==M Fro! at least the ti!e of the Pyramid Texts, kings hoped that after their deaths they could e!ulate .siris6 restoration to life and his rule o%er the real! of the dead" By the early 7iddle Cingdo! 0c" -?33$1+3? B45, non8royal Egyptians belie%ed that they, too, could o%erco!e death as .siris had, by worshipping hi! and recei%ing the funerary rites that were partly based on his !yth" .siris thus beca!e Egypt6s !ost i!portant afterlife deity"G1??M The !yth influenced the notion, which grew pro!inent i n the ;ew Cingdo!, that only %irtuous people could reach the afterlife" As the asse!bled deities udged .siris and /orus to be righteous, undoing the inustice of .siris6 death, so a deceased soul had to be udged righteous in order for his or her death to be undone"G?M As ruler of the land of the dead and as a god connected with maat , .siris beca!e the udge in this posthu!ous trial, offering life after death to those who followed his exa!ple"G1?1M As the i!portance of .siris grew, so did his popularity" By late in the 7iddle Cingdo!, the centuries8old to!b of the First Dynasty ruler Der , near .siris6 !ain center of worship in the city of Abydos, was seen as .siris6 to!b" Accordingly, it beca!e a !aor focus of .siris worship" For the next 1,3?? years, an annual festi%al procession tra%eled fro! .siris6 !ain te!ple to the to!b site" This procession !ade reference to, and !ay ha%e ritually reenacted, #sis and ;ephthys6 !ourning, restoration, and re%i%al
39
of their !urdered brother"G1?-M Cings and co!!oners fro! across Egypt built chapels, which ser%ed ascenotaphs, near the processional route" #n doing so they sought to strengthen their connection with .siris in the afterlife"G1?M Another !aor funerary festi%al, a national e%ent spread o%er se%eral days in the !onth of Choiak in the Egyptian calendar , beca!e linked with .siris during the 7iddle Cingdo!"G1?M During Choiak the d!ed pillar, an e!ble! of .siris, was ritually raised into an upright position, sy!boli)ing .siris6 restoration" By (tole!aic ti!es 0?3$? B45, Choiak included the planting of seeds in an .siris bed, a !u!!y8shaped bed of soil, connecting the resurrection of .siris with the seasonal growth of plants"G1?3M The !yth6s religious i!portance extended beyond the funerary sphere" 7ortuary offerings, in which fa!ily !e!bers or hired priests presented food to the deceased, were logically linked with the !ythological offering of the Eye of /orus to .siris" By analogy, this episode of the !yth was e%entually e9uated with other interactions between a hu!an and a being in the di%ine real!" #n te!ple offering rituals, the officiating priest took on the role of /orus, the gifts to the deity beca!e the Eye of /orus, and whiche%er deity recei%ed these gifts was !o!entarily e9uated with .siris"G1?+M The ideology surrounding the li%ing king was affected by the .siris !yth" The Egyptians en%isioned the e%ents of the .siris !yth as taking place so!eti!e in Egypt6s di! prehistory, and .siris, /orus, and their di%ine predecessors were included in Egyptian lists of past kings such as the Turin @oyal 4anon" G1?2M
/orus, as a pri!e%al king and as the personification of kingship, was regarded as the predecessor and exe!plar for all Egyptian rulers" /is assu!ption of his father6s throne and pious actions to sustain his spirit in the afterlife were the !odel for all pharaonic successions to e!ulate"G1?M Each new king was belie%ed to renew maat after the death of the preceding king, ust as /orus had done" #n royal coronations, rituals alluded to .siris6 burial, and hy!ns celebrated the new king6s accession as the e9ui%alent of /orus6 own"G2=M The !yth influenced popular religion as well" .ne exa!ple is the !agical healing spells based on /orus6 childhood" Another is the use of the E ye of /orus as a protecti%e e!ble! in personal apotropaic a!ulets" #ts !ythological restoration !ade it appropriate for this purpose, as a general sy!bol of well8being"G1M As the antagonist of the !yth, Set did not enoy increased popularity" Although other traditions credit hi! with positi%e traits, in the .siris !yth the sinister aspects of his character predo!inate"G1?=M /e and /orus were often uxtaposed in art to represent opposite principles, such as good and e%il, intellect and instinct, and the different regions of the world that they rule in the !yth" Egyptian wisdo! texts contrast the character of the ideal person with the opposite typethe cal! and sensible Silent .ne and the i!pulsi%e, disrupti%e /otheadand one description of these two characters calls the! the /orus8type and the Set8type"
4/
The two gods were often treated as part of a har!onious whole" #n so!e local cults they were worshipped togetherL in art they were often shown tying together the e!ble!s of pper and *ower Egypt to sy!boli)e the unity of the nationL and in funerary texts they appear as a single deity with the heads of /orus and Set, apparently representing the !ysterious, all8enco!passing nature of the Duat"G11?M .%erall, Set was %iewed with a!bi%alence, until during the first !illenniu! B4 he ca!e to be seen as a totally !ale%olent deity" This transfor!ation was pro!pted !ore by his association with foreign lands than by the .siris !yth" G1?=M ;e%ertheless, in these late ti!es, the widespread te!ple rituals in%ol%ing the cere!onial annihilation of Set were often connected with the !yth"G111M Both #sis and ;ephthys were seen as protectors of the dead in the afterlife because of their protection and restoration of .siris6 body"G11-M #sis, as /orus6 !other, was the !other of e%ery king according to royal ideology, and kings were said to ha%e nursed at her breast as a sy!bol of their di%ine legiti!acy" G11M /er appeal to the general populace was based in her protecti%e character, as exe!plified by the !agical healing spells" #n the *ate (eriod, she was credited with e%er greater !agical power, and her !aternal de%otion was belie%ed to extend to e%eryone" By @o!an ti!es she was the !ost i!portant goddess in Egypt"G11M The i!age of the goddess holding her child was used pro!inently in her worshipfor exa!ple, in panel paintings that were used in household shrines dedicated to her" #sis6 iconography in these paintings closely rese!bles and probably influenced the earliest 4hristian icons of 7ary holding Jesus"G113M #n the late centuries B4, the worship of #sis spread fro! Egypt across the 7editerranean world, and she beca!e one of the !ost popular deities in the region" Although this new, !ulticultural for! of #sis absorbed characteristics fro! !any other deities, her original !ythological nature as a wife and !other was key to her appeal" /orus and .siris, being central figures in her story, spread along with her"G11+M #t was to a reek priestess of #sis that (lutarch wrote his account of the !yth of .siris"G112M /er i!portance continued into the fourth century AD, when 4hristianity eclipsed it" But 4hristianity absorbed !any of the traditions surrounding #sis and incorporated the! into the %eneration of 7ary, such as #sis6 title 7other of the od 0referring to /orus5, which influenced 7ary6s title 7other of od"G11M Through the work of classical writers such as (lutarch, knowledge of the .siris !yth was preser%ed e%en after the !iddle of the first !illenniu! AD, when Egyptian religion ceased to exist and knowledge of the writing syste!s that were originally used to record the !yth were lost" The !yth re!ained a !aor part of >estern i!pressions of ancient Egypt" #n !odern ti!es, when understanding of Egyptian beliefs is infor!ed b y the original Egyptian sources, the story continues to influence and inspire new ideas, fro! works of fiction to scholarly speculation and new religious !o%e!ents"G11=M
41
$ppendi( II
'+ Negati.e Confessions /Papyrus of Ani 0
.ne aspect of ancient Egyptian funerary literature which often is !istaken for a codified ethic of 7aat is Spell 04hapter5 1-3 of the Book of the Dead or Papyrus of Ani 0known to the ancient Egyptians as The Book of "oin# $orth by Day 5" The lines of these texts are often collecti%ely called the Forty8Two Declarations of (urity" These declarations %aried so!ewhat fro! to!b to to!b and so cannot be considered a canonical definition of 7aat" @ather, they appear to express each to!b owner6s indi%idual practices in life to please 7aat, as well as words of absolution fro! !isdeeds or !istakes, !ade by the to!b owner in life could be declared as not ha%ing been done, and through the power of the written word, wipe particular !isdeed fro! the afterlife record of the deceased" 7any of the lines are si!ilar, howe%er, and they can help to gi%e the student a fla%or for the sorts of things which 7aat go%erned essentially e%erything, fro! the !ost for!al to the !ost !undane aspects of life" The doctrine of 7aat is represented in the declarations to @ekhti8!erti8f8ent8 7aat and the - ;egati%e 4onfessions listed in the (apyrus of Ani" The following are taken fro! public do!ain translations !ade by E" A" >allis Budge in the early part of the -?th centuryL !ore recent translations !ay differ in the light of !odern scholarship"
'+ Negati.e Confessions /Papyrus of Ani 0 1 # ha%e not co!!itted sin" 2 # ha%e not co!!itted robbery with %iolence" 3 # ha%e not stolen" 4 # ha%e not slain !en and wo!en" 5 # ha%e not stolen grain" 6 # ha%e not purloined offerings" 7 # ha%e not stolen the property of the god" 8 # ha%e not uttered lies" 9 # ha%e not carried away food" 1/
# ha%e not uttered curses"
11
# ha%e not co!!itted adultery, # ha%e not lain with !en"
12
# ha%e !ade none to weep"
# ha%e not eaten the heart Gi"e, # ha%e not grie%ed uselessly, or felt re!orseM" 13
42
14
# ha%e not attacked any !an"
15
# a! not a !an of deceit"
16
# ha%e not stolen culti%ated land"
17
# ha%e not been an ea%esdropper"
18
# ha%e slandered Gno !anM"
19
# ha%e not been angry without ust cause"
2/
# ha%e not debauched the wife of any !an"
# ha%e not debauched the wife of GanyM !an" 0repeats the pre%ious affir!ation but addressed to a different god5" 21 22
# ha%e not polluted !yself"
23
# ha%e terrorised none"
24
# ha%e not transgressed Gthe *awM"
25
# ha%e not been wroth"
26
# ha%e not shut !y ears to the words of truth"
27
# ha%e not blasphe!ed"
28
# a! not a !an of %iolence"
29
# a! not a stirrer up of strife 0or a disturber of the peace5"
3/
# ha%e not acted 0or udged5 with undue haste"
31
# ha%e not pried into !atters"
32
# ha%e not !ultiplied !y words in speaking"
33
# ha%e wronged none, # ha%e done no e%il"
# ha%e not worked witchcraft against the Cing 0or blasphe!ed against the Cing5" 34 35
# ha%e ne%er stopped Gthe flow ofM water"
# ha%e ne%er raised !y %oice 0spoken arrogantly, or in anger5" 36 37
# ha%e not cursed 0or blasphe!ed5 od"
38
# ha%e not acted with e%il rage"
39
# ha%e not stolen the bread of the gods"
# ha%e not carried away the khenfu cakes fro! the spirits of the dead" 4/
# ha%e not snatched away the bread of the child, nor treated with conte!pt the god of !y city" 41 42
43
# ha%e not slain the cattle belonging to the god"G-+M
$ppendi( III 1ields of $aru n ancient Egyptian mythology, the fields of Egyptian&
( 9pronunciationO :3
meaning
44
$ppendi( I: The $m Duat The $mduat Gpronunciation%M 0literally That >hich #s #n the Afterworld, translated as Text of the /idden 4ha!ber >hich is in the nderworld and Book of >hat is in the nderworld5G1M is an i!portant Ancient Egyptian funerary text of the ;ew Cingdo!" *ike !any funerary texts, it was found written on the inside of the pharaoh6s to!b for reference" nlike other funerary texts, howe%er, it was reser%ed only for pharaohs 0until the -1st Dynasty al!ost exclusi%ely5 or %ery fa%ored nobility"G-M #t tells the story of @a, the Egyptian sun god who tra%els through the underworld, fro! the ti!e when the sun sets in the west and rises again in the east" #t is said that the dead (haraoh is taking this sa!e ourney, ulti!ately to beco!e one with @a and li%e fore%er" The underworld is di%ided into twel%e hours of the night, each representing different allies and ene!ies for the (haraohPsun god to encounter" The Amduat na!es all of these gods and !onsters" The !ain purpose of the Amduat is to gi%e the na!es of these gods and !onsters to the spirit of the dead (haraoh, so he can call upon the! for help or use their na!e to defeat the!" As well as enu!erating and na!ing the inhabitants of the Duat 0or Dwat5 both good and bad, the illustrations of the 6book6 show clearly the topography of the underworld" The earliest co!plete %ersion of the Amduat is found in C:, the to!b of Thut!ose ### in the :alley of the Cings" #n hour 1 the sun god enters the western hori)on 0akhet5 which is a transition between day and night" #n hours - and he passes through an abundant watery world called 6>ernes6 and the 6>aters of .siris6" #n hour he reaches the difficult sandy real! of Sokar , the underworld hawk deity, where he encounters dark )ig )ag pathways which he has to negotiate, being dragged on a snake8boat" #n hour 3 he disco%ers the to!b of .siris which is an enclosure beneath which is hidden a lake of fire, the to!b is co%ered by a pyra!id like !ound 0identified with the goddess #sis5 and on top of which #sis and ;ephthys ha%e alighted in the for! of two kites 0birds of prey5" #n the sixth hour the !ost significant e%ent in the underworld occurs" The ba 0or soul5 of @a unites with his own body, or alternati%ely with the ba of .siris within the circle for!ed by the !ehen serpent" This e%ent is the point at which the sun begins its regeneration, it is a !o!ent of great significance, but danger, as beyond it in hour 2 the ad%ersary Apep 0Apophis5 lies in wait and has to be subdued by the !agic of #sis, and the strength of Set assisted by Ser9et"
45
.nce this has been done the sun god opens the doors of the to!b in hour and then lea%es the sandy island of Sokar by rowing %igorously back into the waters in hour =" #n hour 1? the regeneration process continues through i!!ersion in the waters until in hour 11 the gods eyes 0a sy!bol for his health and well being5 are fully regenerated" #n hour 1- he enters the eastern hori)on ready to rise again as the new day6s sun"
46
