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SETH (Egyptian Set, Sth~~~{{{or Sts)
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See also:SETH (See also:Egyptian Set, Sth~~~{{{or Sts)
, by the Greeks called See also:Typhon,
was depicted as an See also:animal that has been compared with the
See also:jerboa by some, and with t e See also:okapi by others, but which the Egyptians themselves occasionally conceived to be nothing but a badly See also:drawn See also:ass
.
In historic times his cult was celebrated at Tanis and Ombos
.
He regained a certain See also:prestige as See also:god of the See also:Hyksos rulers, and two Pharaohs of the XIXth See also:Dynasty derived their name Sethos (Seti) from him
.
But, generally speaking, he was abominated as a See also:power of evil, and his figure was often obliterated on the monuments
.
He is named in similes as a See also:great See also:warrior, and as such and " son of See also:Nut " he is identified with the Syrian See also:Baal
.
4
.
The Divine Cult.—In the midst of every See also:town See also:rose the See also:temple of the See also:local god, a stately See also:building of See also: The only difference was that the divine statue was See also:half-consciously recognized as a lifeless thing that required carefully regulated See also:rites and ceremonies to enable it to enjoy the See also:good things offered to it . Early every See also:morning the officiating See also:priest proceeded to the See also:holy of holies, after the preliminaries of See also:purification had cleansed him from any miasma that might interfere with the efficacy of the rites . Then with the prescribed gestures, and reciting appropriate formulae all the while, he See also:broke the See also:seal upon the See also:door of the See also:shrine, loosed the bolts. and at last stood See also:face to face with the the antithetical nature of See also:light and darkness . In one See also:text at least as See also:ancient as the XVIIIth Dynasty(the copy that we have See also:dates only from the Ethiopian See also:period) an ingenious See also:attempt Later is made to represent Ptah as the source of all See also:life: god . There followed a See also:series of prostrations and adorations, culminating in the offering of a small See also:image of Maat, the goddess of Truth . This seems to have been the psychological moment of the entire service: hitherto the statue had been at best a god in posse; now the symbolical See also:act placed him in See also:possession of all his faculties, he was a god in truth, and could participate like any mortal in the food and luxuries that his servants put before him . The daily ceremony closed with ablutions, anointings and a bountiful feast of See also:bread, geese, See also:beer and oxen; having taken his fill of these, the god returned to his shrine until the next morning, when the See also:ritual was renewed . The words that accompanied the See also:manual gestures are, in the rituals that have come down to us, wholly dominated by the myth of See also:Osiris: it is often hard to discern much connexion between the acts and the formulae recited, but the See also:main thought is clearly that the priest represents See also:Horus, the pious son of the dead divinity Osiris . That this conception is very old is proved by the fact that even in the See also:Pyramid texts " the See also:eye of Horus " is a synonym for all offerings: an ancient See also:tale. of which only shreds have reached us related how See also:Seth had torn the eye of Horus from him, though not before he himself had suffered a still more serious See also:mutilation; and by some means, we know not how, the restoration of the eye was instrumental in bringing about the vindication of Osiris . As to the manual rites of the daily cult, all that can here be said is that See also:incense, purifications and anointings with various See also:oils played a large See also:part; the sacrifices consisted chiefly of slaughtered oxen and geese; burnt offerings were a very See also:late innovation . At an early date the rites practised in the various temples were conformed to a See also:common See also:pattern . This holds good not only for the daily ritual, but also for many festivals that were celebrated on the same See also:day throughout the whole length of the See also:land . Such were the calendrical feasts, called the beginnings of the seasons," and including, for example, the monthly and half-monthly festivals, that of the New See also:Year and that of the rising of Sirius (Sothis) . But there were also local feast days like that of See also:Neith in See also:Sais (Hdt. ii . 62) or that of Ammon in See also:southern Opi (See also:Luxor) . These doubtless had a more individual See also:character, and often celebrated some incident supposed to have occurred in the lifetime of the god . Sometimes, as in the case of the feast of Osiris in See also:Abydos, a veritable See also:drama would be enacted, in which the whole See also:history of the god, his sufferings and final See also:triumph were represented in mimic See also:form . At other times the ceremonial was more mysterious and symbolical, as in the feast of the raising of the Ded-See also:column when a column of the kind was drawn by cords into an upright position . But the most common feature of these holy days was the procession of the god, when he was carried on the shoulders of the priests in his divine See also:boat far beyond the precincts of his temple; sometimes, indeed, even to another town, where he paid a visit to the god of the place . These occasions were public holidays, and passed amid great rejoicings . The See also:climax was reached when at a given moment the curtains of the shrine placed on the boat were withdrawn, and the god was revealed to the eyes of the See also:awe-struck multitude . Music and dancing formed part of the festival rites . As with the rites and ceremonies, so also the temples were early modelled upon a common type . Lofty enclosure walls, Temples. adorned with scenes from the victorious See also:campaigns of the See also:Pharaoh, shut off the sacred buildings from the surrounding streets .
A small gateway between two massive
towers or pylons gave admittance to a spacious forecourt open
to the sky, into which the See also:people were allowed to enter at least on
feast days
.
Farther on, separated from the forecourt by smaller
though still massive pylons, See also:lay a See also:hypostyle See also: Countless were the riches that the See also:kings heaped upon the gods in the See also:hope of being requited with See also:long life and prosperity on the See also:throne of the living . It became the theory that the temples were the gifts of the Pharaoh to his fathers the gods, and therefore in the scenes of the cult that adorn the inner walls it is always he who is depicted as performing the ceremonies . As a See also:matter of fact the priesthoods were much more See also:independent than was allowed to appear . Successive grants of land placed no small power of portion of the entire See also:country in their hands, and the the priests . See also:administration of the temple estates gave employment to a large number of officials and See also:serfs . In the New See also:Kingdom the might of the Theban god Ammon gradually became a serious menace to the throne: in the reign of See also:Rameses III. he could boast of more than 8o,000 dependants, and more than 400,000 See also:cattle . It is not surprising that a few generations later the high priests of Ammon supplanted the Pharaohs altogether and founded a dynasty of their own . At no .period did the priests form a See also:caste that was quite distinctly separated from the laity . In early times the feudal lords were themselves the See also:chief priests of the local temples . Under them stood a number of subordinate priests, both professional and lay . Among the former were the kher-heb, a learned See also:man entrusted with the conduct of the ceremonies, and the " divine fathers," whose functions are obscure . The lay priests were divided into four classes that undertook the management of the temple in alternate months; their collective name was the " See also:hour-priesthood." Perhaps it was to them that the often recurring See also:title oueb, " the pure," should properly be restricted, though strict rules as to See also:personal purity, See also:dress and See also:diet were demanded of all priests . The personnel of the temple was completed by various subordinate officials, doorkeepers, attendants and slaves . In the New Kingdom the leading priests were more frequently See also:mere clerics than theretofore, though for instance the high priest of Ammon was often at the same See also:time the See also:vizier of southern See also:Egypt . In some places the highest priests See also:bore See also:special names, such as the Ouer See also:mast, " the Great Seer," of Re in Heliopolis, or the Khorp himet, " chief artificer," of the Memphite Ptah . See also:Women could also hold priestly See also:rank, though apparently in early times only in the service of goddesses; priestess of See also:Hathor " is a frequent title of well-See also:born ladies in the Old Kingdom . At a later date many wealthy dames held the See also:office of " musicians " (shemat) in the various temples . In the service of the Theban Ammon two priestesses called " the Adorer of the God " and the " Wife of the God " occupied very influential positions, and towards the Saite period it was by no means unusual for the king to secure these offices for his daughters and so to strengthen his own royal title . 5 . The Dead and their Cult.—While the worship of the gods tended more and more to become a monoply of the state and the priests, and provided no adequate outlet for the religious cravings of the people themselves, this deficiency was amply supplied by the care which they bestowed upon their dead: the Egyptians stand alone among the nations of the See also:world in the elaborate precautions which they took to secure their own welfare beyond the See also:tomb . The belief in See also:immortality, or perhaps rather the incapacity to grasp the notion of See also:complete annihilation, is traceable from the very earliest times: the simplest See also:graves of the prehistoric period, when the corpses were committed to the See also:earth in sheepskins and See also:reed mats, seldom lack at least a few poor vases or articles of See also:toilet for use in the hereafter . In proportion as the prosperity of the land increased, and the advance of See also:civilization afforded the technical means, so did these primitive burials give place to a more lavish funereal equipment . Tombs of brick with a single chamber were succeeded by tombs of stone with several See also:chambers, until they really merited the name of " houses of eternity " that the Egyptians gave to them . The conception of the tomb as the See also:residence of the dead is the fundamental notion that underlies all the ritual observances in connexion with the dead, just as the See also:idea of the temple as the dwelling-place of the god is the basis of the divine cult . The See also:parallelism between the attitude of the Egyptians towards the dead and their attitude towards the gods is so striking that it ought never to be lost sight of: nothing can illustrate it better than the manner in which the Osirian doctrines came to permeate both kinds of cult . The See also:general See also:scheme of See also:Egyptian tombs remained the same throughout the whole of the dynastic period, though there were Tombs. many See also:variations of detail . By preference they were built in the Western See also:desert, the Amente, near the place where the sun was seen to go to See also:rest, and which seemed the natural entrance to the nether world . A deep See also:pit led down to the sepulchral chamber where the dead man was deposited amid the funereal See also:furniture destined for his use; and no See also:device was neglected that might enable him to rest here undisturbed . This aim is particularly conspicuous in the pyramids, the gigantic tombs which the Pharaohs of the Old Kingdom constructed for themselves: the passages that See also:lead to the See also:burial chamber were barred at intervals by vast See also:granite blocks, and the narrow opening that gave See also:access to them was hidden from view beneath the stone casing of the pyramid sides . Quite See also:separate from this part of the tomb lay the rooms employed for the cult of the dead: their walls were often adorned with pictures from the earthly life of the deceased, which it was hoped he might still continue to enjoy after See also:death . The innermost chamber was the See also:chapel proper: on its western See also:side was sculptured an See also:imitation door for the dead man to pass through, when he wished to participate in the offerings brought by pious relatives . It was of course only the few who could afford elaborate tombs of the kind: the poor had to make shift with an unpretentious See also:grave, in which the See also:corpse was placed enveloped only by a few rags or enclosed in a rough wooden See also:coffin . The utmost care was taken to preserve the See also:body itself from decay . Before the time of the See also:Middle Kingdom it became usual for the See also:rich to have their bodies embalmed . The intestines were removed and placed in four vases (the so-called Canopic jars) in which they were supposed to enjoy the See also:protection of the four sons of Horus, the man-headed Mesti, the See also:ape-headed Hapi, the See also:jackal Duamutef and the See also:falcon Kebhsenuf . The corpse was treated with natron and See also:asphalt, and See also:wound in a copious swathing of See also:linen bandage, with a See also:mask of linen and See also:stucco on the face . The " See also:mummy " thus prepared was then laid on its side like a See also:sleeper, the See also:head supported by a head-rest, in a See also:sarcophagus of See also:wood or stone . The operations in connexion with the mummy grow more and more elaborate towards the end of the Pharaonic period: already in the New Kingdom the wealthiest persons had their mummies laid in several coffins, each of which was gaudily painted with mythological scenes and See also:inscriptions . The costliest See also:process of embalmment lasted no less than seventy days . Many superstitious rites had to be observed in the course of the process: a late See also:book has preserved to us the magical formulae that were repeated by the See also:wise kher-heb priest (who in the See also:necropolis performed the functions of taricheutes, "embalmer"), as each bandage was applied . A large number of utensils, articles of furniture and the like were placed in the burial-chamber for the use of the dead—jars, weapons, mirrors, and even chairs, musical See also:instruments and wigs . In the early times statuettes of servants, representing them as engaged in their various functions (brewers, bakers, &c.), were included for the same purpose; they were supposed to perform their See also:menial functions for their deceased See also:lord in the future life . In the Middle Kingdom these are gradually replaced by small See also:models of the mummy itself, and the belief arose that when their owner was called upon to perform any distasteful See also:work in the nether world, they would See also:answer to his name and do the task for him . The later ushebti-figures, little statuettes of wood, stone or See also:faience, of which several hundreds are often found in a single tomb, are confused survivals of both of the earlier classes of statuettes . Still more important than all such funereal See also:objects are the books that were placed in the grave for the use of the dead: in the pyramids they are written on the walls of the sepulchral chamber and the passages leading to it; in the Middle Kingdom usually inscribed on the inner sides of the sarcophagus; in later times contained in rolls of See also:papyrus . The Pyramid texts and the Book of the Dead are the most important of these, and See also:teach us much about the dangers and needs that attended the dead man beyond the tomb, and about the manner in which it was thought they could be counteracted . The burial ceremony itself must have been an imposing spectacle . In many cases the mummy had to be conveyed across the See also:Nile, and boats were gaily decked out for this purpose . On the western See also:bank a stately procession conducted the deceased to his last resting-place . At the door of the tomb the final ceremonies were performed; they demanded a considerable number of actors, chief among whom were the sem-priest and the kher-heb priest . It was a veritable drama that was here enacted, and recalled in its incidents the See also:story of Osiris, the divine prototype of all successive generations of the Egyptian dead . However carefully the preliminary rites of embalmment and burial might have been performed, however sumptuous the tomb wherein the dead man reposed, he was never- The soul. theless almost entirely at the See also:mercy of the living for his welfare in the other world: he was as dependent on a continued cult on the part of the surviving members of his See also:family as the gods were dependent on the See also:constant attendance of their priests . That portion of a man's individuality which required, even after death, food and drink, and the See also:satisfaction of sensuous needs, was called by the Egyptians the ka, and represented in hieroglyphs by the uplifted hands U . This ka was supposed to be born together with the See also:person to whom it belonged, and on the very rare occasions when it is depicted, wears his exact semblance . The conception of this psychical entity is too vaguely formulated by the Egyptians and too See also:foreign to See also:modern thought to admit of exact See also:translation: of the many renderings that have been proposed, perhaps " See also:double " is the most suitable . At all events the ka has to be distinguished from the soul, the bai (in hieroglyphsor \ ), which was of more tangible nature, and might be descried hovering around the tomb in the forma of a See also:bird or in some other shape; for it was thought that the soul might assume what shape it would, if the funerary rites had been duly attended to . The gods had their ka and bai, and the forms attributed to the latter are surprising; thus we read that the soul of the sky See also:Nun is Re, that of Osiris the See also:Goat of Mendes, the souls of Sobk are crocodiles, and those " of all the gods are See also:snakes "; similarly the soul of Ptah was thought to dwell in the See also:Apis See also:bull, so that each successive Apis was during its lifetime the reincarnation of the god . Other parts of a man's being to which at given moments and in particular contexts the Egyptians assigned a certain degree of separate existence are the " name " See also:Embalming and burial . ran, the " See also:shadow" khaibet, and the " corpse " , khal . It was, however, the ka alone to which the cult of the dead was directly addressed . This cult was a See also:positive See also:duty binding on the See also:children of a dead man, and doubtless as a See also:rule discharged by them with some regularity and conscientiousness; at least, on feast-days offerings would be brought to the tomb, and the ceremonies of purification and opening the mouth of the deceased would be enacted . But there could be little See also:guarantee that later generations would perpetuate the cult . It therefore became usual under the Old Kingdom for the wealthiest persons to make testamentary dispositions by which certain other persons agreed for a See also:consideration to observe the required rites at stated periods: they received the name of " servants of the ka," and stood in the same relation to the deceased as the priests to the gods . Or again, contracts might be made with a neighbouring temple, the priesthood. of which See also:bound itself to reserve for the contracting party some portion of the offerings that had already been used for the divine cult . There is probably a superstitious See also:reason for the preference shown by the dead for offerings of this kind; no wish is commoner than that one may receive " bread and beer that had gone up on to the See also:altar of the local god," or " with which the god had been sated "; something of the divine sanctity still clung about such offerings and made them particularly desirable . In spite of all the precautions they took and the contracts they made, the Egyptians could never quite rid them-selves of the dread that their tombs might decay and their cult be neglected; and they sought therefore to obtain by prayers and threats what they feared they might lose altogether . The occasional visitor to the tomb is reminded by its inscriptions of the many virtues of the dead man while he yet lived, and is charged, if he be come with empty hands, at least to pronounce the funerary See also:formula; it will indeed cost him nothing but " the breath of his mouth "1 Against the would-be desecrator the wrath of the gods is invoked: " with him shall the great god reckon there where a reckoning is made." The funerary customs that have been described are meaning-less except on the supposition that the tomb was the See also:regular dwelling-place of the dead . But just as the Egyptians found no See also:contradiction between the view of the temple as the residence of the god and the conception of him as a See also:cosmic deity, so too they often attributed to the dead a continued existence quite apart from the tomb . According to a widely-spread See also:doctrine of great See also:age the deceased Egyptian was translated to the heavens, where he lived on in the form of a See also:star . This theme is elaborated with great detail in the Pyramid texts, where it is the dead king to whom this destiny is promised . It was perhaps only a restricted See also:aristocracy who could aspire to such high honour: the ikh, or " glorified being," who has his place in the sky seems often to hold an intermediate position between the gods and the rank and See also:file of the dead . But in a few early passages the required qualification appears to be rather moral integrity than exalted station .
The life of the dead man in the sky is variously envisaged in different texts: at one moment he is spoken of as accompanying the sun-god in his See also:celestial bark, at another as a mighty king more powerful than Re himself; the crudest See also:fancy of all pictures him as a See also:hunter who catches the stars and gods, and cooks and eats them
.
According to another conception that persisted in the See also:imagination of the Egyptians longer than any of the ideas just mentioned, the See also:home of the dead in the heavens was a fertile region not very different form Egypt itself, intersected by canals and abounding in See also:corn and See also:fruit; this place was called the Sokhet Earu or " See also: The date at which these conceptions became general is not quite certain, but it can hardly be later than the Middle Kingdom, when the dead man has the epithet " justified " appended to his name in the inscriptions of his tomb . It was but a natural wish on the part of the Egyptians that they should See also:desire to place their tombs near the traditional burying-place of Osiris . By the time of the XIItb Dynasty it was thought that this lay in Abydos, the town where the kings of the earliest times had been interred . But it was only in a few cases that such a wish could be literally fulfilled . It therefore became customary for those who possessed the means to dedicate at least a tombstone in the neighbourhood of " the See also:staircase of the great god," as the sacred spot was called . And those who had found occasion to visit Abydos in their lifetime took See also:pleasure in recalling the part that they had there taken in the ceremonies of Osiris . Such pilgrims doubtless believed that the pious act would stand to their See also:credit when the day of death arrived . 6 . Magic.—Among the rites that were celebrated in the temples or before the statues of the dead were many the mystical meaning of which was but imperfectly understood, though their efficacy was never doubted . Symbolical or imitative acts, accompanied by spoken formulae of set form and obscure content, accomplished, by some See also:peculiar virtues of their own, results that were beyond the power of human hands and See also:brain . The priests and certain wise men were the depositaries of this mysterious but highly useful See also:art, that was called hik or " magic "; and one of the chief See also:differences between gods and men was the See also:superior degree in which the former were endowed with magical powers . It was but natural that the Egyptians should wish to employ magic for their own benefit or self-gratification, and since See also:religion put no See also:veto on the practice so long as it was exercised within legal See also:bounds, it was put to a widespread use among them . When magicians made figures of See also:wax representing men whom they desired to injure, this was of course an illegal act like any other, and the See also:law stepped in to prevent it: one papyrus that has been preserved records the judicial proceedings taken in such a case in connexion with the See also:harem See also:conspiracy against Rameses III . One of the chief purposes for which magic was employed was to avert diseases . Among the Egyptians, as in other lands, illnesses were supposed to be due to evil See also:spirits or the ghosts of dead men who had taken up their See also: |