Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection

CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Cornell University Library The original of this bool< is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031011707 jata&mm OSIRIS &THE EGYPTIAN RESURRECTION E.A.WALLIS BUDGE Osiris, the king, was slain by his brother Set, dismembered, scattered, then gathered up and reconstituted by his wife Isis and finally placed in the underworld as lord and judge of the dead. He was worshipped in Egypt from archaic, pre-dynastic times right through the 4000-year span of classical Egyptian civilization up until the Christian era, and even today folkloristic elements of his worship survive among the Egyptian fellaheen. In this h>ook E. A. VVallis Budge, one of the world's foremost Egyptologists, focuses on Osiris as the single most important Egyptian deity. This is the most thorough explanation ever offered of Osirism. With rigorous scholarship, going directly to numerous Egyptian texts, making use of the writings of Herodotus, Diodorus, Plutarch and other classical writers, and of more recent ethnographic research in the Sudan and other parts of Africa, Wallis Budge examines every detail of the cult of Osiris. At the same time he establishes a link between Osiris worship and African religions. He systematically investigates such topics as: the meaning of the name "Osiris" (in Egyptian, Asar) ; the iconography associated with him; the heaven of Osiris as conceived in the \'Ith dynasty; Osiris's relationship to cannibalism, human sacrifice and dancing; Osiris as ancestral spirit, judge of the dead, moon-god and bull-god; the general African belief in God; ideas of sin and purity in Osiris worship; the shrines, miracle play and mysteries of Osiris; "The Book of Making the Spirit of Osiris" and other liturgical texts; funeral and burial practices of the Egyptians and Africans; the idea of the Ka, spirit-body and shadow; magical practices relating to Osiris; and the worship of Osiris and Isis in foreign lands. Throughout there are admirable translations of pyramid texts (often with the original hieroglyphics printed directly above) and additional lengthy texts are included in the appendices. There are also a great many reproduc- tions of classical Egyptian art, showing each phase of the Osiris story and other images bearing upon his worship. The great wealth of detail, primary information, and original interpretation in this book will make it in- dispensable to Egyptologists, students of classical civilization and students of comparative religion. Since Osiris seems to have been the earliest death and resurrection god, whose worship both caused and influenced later deities, the cult of Osiris is highly important to all concerned with the development of human culture. Unabridged republication of the original (19U) edition. Author's preface. Appendix contaii^ing translations from the pyramid texts of Pepi I, Mer-en- Ra and Pepi II. Additional notes. Index. 194 illustrations. Two volumes: total of xliii + 884pp. Gi/g x Qi^. 22780-4, 22781-2 Paperboiind A DOVER EDITION DESIGNED FOR YEARS OF USEI We have made every effort to make this the best book possible. Our paper is opaque, with minimal show-through; it will not discolor or become brittle with age. Pages are sewn in signatures, in the method traditionally used for the best books, and will not drop out, as often happens with paperbacks held together with glue. Books open Hat for easy reference. The binding will not crack or split. This is a permanent book. J2 " ; H = = ° "£ O « jswaw* m 1- I- c ?^M! o Q -;£i^^i-<^ UJ UJ ml n!*=-v' -It-'j*- ^ i) o H « o ,*- 2 > *i.K' 5 ° V"""^ S3 2 : i- e O C J5 '/ t, ? -a 'o O ^ f S -g J " Q, ^ SIRIS AND THE EGYPTIAN RESURRECTION BY E. A. WALLIS BUDGE M.A.. LITT.D. D.LITT. D.LIT. F.S.A. KEEPER OF THE EGYPTIAN AND ASSYRIAN AN- TIQUITIES IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. ILLUSTRATED AFTER DRAWINGS FROM EGYPTIAN PAPYRI AND MONUMENTS In Two Volumes VOLUME I DOVER PUBLICATIONS, INC., NEW YORK This Dover edition, lirst piiblislicd in 1973. is an unabridged republication of tlie work originally published in 1911 by The Medici Society, Ltd. International Standard Book Number: 0-486-22780-4 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 72-81534 Manufactured in the United States of America Dover Publications, Inc. 180 Varick Street New York, N. Y. 10014 I DEDICATE THIS BOOK ON THE FUNDAMENTALS OF SOdANI AND EGYPTIAN RELIGION BY PERMISSION TO THE HONOURABLE LIONEL WALTER ROTHSCHILD, TRUSTEE OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM, WITH SINCERE GRATITUDE AND THANKS. PREFACE. The Chapters printed in these volumes are the result of a study undertaken with the object of attempting to discover the source of the fundamental beliefs of the indigenous Religion of Ancient Egypt, to trace their development through a period of some two score centuries, and to ascertain what were the foreign influences which first modified Egyptian beliefs, then checked their growth, and finally overthrew them. There is no doubt that the beliefs examined herein are of indigenous origin, Nilotic or Sudini in the broadest signification of the word, and I have endeavoured to explain those which cannot be elucidated in any other way, by the evidence which is afforded by the Religions of the modern peoples who live on the great rivers of East, West, and Central Africa. The central figure of the ancient Egyptian Religion was Osiris, and the chief fundamentals of his cult were the belief in his divinity, death, resurrection, and absolute control of the destinies of the bodies and souls of men. The central point of each Osirian's Religion was his hope of resurrection in a transformed body and of immortality, which could only be realized by him through the death and resurrection of Osiris. I have therefore made Osiris, and the beliefs which grew up under his cult, the central consideration of this enquiry, and have grouped about the history of the god the facts in modern African Religions which are similar and which I consider to be cognate to the old beliefs. The general argument of the book is indicated in the following paragraphs. The materials now available for the enquiry may be divided roughly into two main classes : — i. The Magical, Religious, and Mythological Texts written by native Egyptians for Egyptians. 2. Accounts of the Magic, Religion, Mythology, and Gods of Ancient Egypt written by Greek and Roman historians and philosophers, e.g., Herodotus, Diodorus, Plutarch, Apuleius, and others. ; viii Preface for the use and information of their countrymen. An examination of the statements on the ancient Religion of Egypt found in the works of the above-mentioned and other classical writers, carried on side by side with a study of the Egyptian texts, convinced me that the information supplied by them was wholly unsuitable for the solution of the numerous problems which confront the student of the ancient - Egyptian Religion at every turn. The reason of this is not far to seek. The works of classical writers on Egypt and her Religion contain much extremely valuable information, some of which is supported by the native Egyptian texts. On the other hand, there are incorporated with such information many fantastic theories and imaginings which are not only unsupported, but are absolutely contradicted by the facts drawn from the Egyptian monuments Herodotus and others wrote down, no doubt, accurately enough, so far as they understood it, what they were told by Egyptian priests and by their well-educated friends in Egypt, but it is quite clear, by the construction which they put upon much of the information which they received, that they did not really understand the rudi- mentary principles of the Egyptian Religion, or its primitive cults, or the nature of their symbolism. There is no 'evidence in their works that they knew of or even suspected, the existence in it of the all-embracing beliefs in the power of the great ancestral spirit, and in the resurrection of men in general and their immortality, which are the chief characteristics of the Egyptian Religion. And these writers had no knowledge of the details of the cult of Osiris, and of his history, such as we now possess (thanks to the religious texts of the Vlth dynasty), because they could not read the native literature of Egypt. They can hardly be blamed for this, because it is certain that very few of the Egyptian priests took the trouble to read and study it, and to arrange systematically the facts of their Religion which were to be derived from their ancient writings. The confusion and contradictions which appear in the religious texts written under the XXth and following dynasties prove beyond all doubt that the knowledge of the early dynastic Religion of Egypt possessed by the priests in general after, let us sav Preface ix 1 200 B.C., was extremely vague and uncertain. Such being the case, the information which they could impart to cultivated and enquiring foreigners is almost useless of itself for historical investigations. Moreover, the character of the Religion of Egypt changed entirely under the New Empire. Its spiritualities became buried under a mass of beliefs which were purely magical in character, and men in general relied for salvation upon spells, incantations, magical figures, and amulets ; only the wise few clung to the beliefs of their ancestors. When Herodotus visited Egypt the knowledge of the Religion of the Ancient and Middle Empires had practically died out. The general untrustworthiness of the information about the Egyptian Religion supplied by classical writers being thus evident, it is clear that, if we wish to gain exact knowledge about the subject, we must seek for it in the study of the native literature, which is compara- tively large and full.

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