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Was just reading this passage from E.A, Wallis Budge's Intro to The Egyptian Book of the Dead on the train today:
"From the earliest times it is clear that the Egyptians imagned he existence of other powerswho offered opposition to the dead ["dead" is singular here, since much of the EBotD is in the form of a travel guide for the spirit of the deceased -Q], and who are called in many places his "enemies." Like so many of the ancient gods, these powers were originally certain forces of nature, which were believed to be opposed to those that were regarded as beneficient to man, as for example darkness to light, andnigh to day; wih darkness and night were also associated the powers of the sunor to prevent his shining. But since the deceased was identified with Osiris and Ra, andthir accompanying gods, the enemies of the one became the enemies of the other, and hte welfare of the one was the welfare of the other. When the Egypians personified the destroying powers, or opposing powers, theygave to them the shapes of noxious animals and reptiles, such as snakes and scorpions. As ime wen on, the moral ideas of good and right were attributed to the former, and evil and wickedness to the latter. The first personifications of Day and Night, or Light and Darkness, were Horus and Set, andinthe combat--the prototype of thesubsequen legends of Marduk and Tiamat, Bel and the Dragon, St. Gorge and the Dragon, andmany others--which took place between them, Horus was always the victor.
"Now, though the deceased was identified wih Osiis or Ra, the victory that Horus gained over Set only benefited the spritual body which dwelt in heaven, and did not preserve the natural body which lay in the tomb. The principal enemy of the natural body was the worm, and from the earliest times it seems that a huge worm or serpent was chosen by the Egyptians as the type ofthe powers which were hostile to the dead and also of the foe against whom the Sun-god fought. Already in the Pyramid of Unas a long section of the text contains nothing but formulae, the recital of which wasintended to protect the deceased from various kinds of snakes and worms. These are exceedingly ancien, indeed they may safely be said to form one of the oldest parts of the funereal tradition of hte Egyptians, and we find from the later editions of hte Book of the Dead and certain Coptic woks that the dread of the serpent as the emblem of physical and moral evil among the Egyptians in all generations, and that, as will be seen later, the belief in a limbo filled with snakes swayed thei minds long after they had been converted to Christianity."
He then goes on to describe Aapep, Am-mit, et al, and then to talk about the reappearence of BoTD monsters in the Coptic images of hell (which are truly frightening -- much scarier than my grandfather's Catholic hell of eternal fire). I should also note that the Horus refered to doesn't seem to be Heru-p-khart, Harpocrates, the avenging son of Osiris and Isis. He seems to be a Sun god who, like Set, predates Osiris, Amon (who doens't get much mention in this book), and Ra. More on all this stuff soon, when I get these lines straightened out a little.
A further note. As far as I can tell, Budge's translation was last revised around 1913, and those revisions had more to do with illustrations and format than text. It was firs publishd in 1890. There are plenty of places where he says he doesn't know exactly what is being said. There may have been other discoveries in the field over the last 90 years that come to bear. I just thought I'd highlight this rather old-school-whoopass facet of the Serpent image. |
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