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The Judgment of Osiris.

The oldest religious texts suggest that the Egyptians always associated

the Last Judgment with the weighing of the heart in a pair of scales,

and in the illustrated papyri of the Book of the Dead great prominence

is always given to the vignettes in which this weighing is being

carried out. The heart, ab, was taken as the symbol of all the

emotions, desires, and passions, both good and evil, and out of it

proceeded the issues of life. It was intimately connected with the ka,

i.e., the double or personality of a man, and several short spells

in the Book PER-T EM HRU were composed to ensure its preservation

(Chapters XXVI-XXXB*). The great Chapter of the Judgment of Osiris,

the CXXVth, is divided into three parts, which are sometimes (as

in the Papyrus of Ani) prefaced by a Hymn to Osiris. The first part

contains the following, which was said by the deceased when he entered

the Hall of Maati, in which Osiris sat in judgment:

"Homage to thee, O Great God, Lord of Maati, I have come to thee,

O my Lord, that I may behold thy beneficence. I know thee, and I know

thy name, and the names of the Forty-Two who live with thee in the

Hall of Maati, who keep ward over sinners, and feed upon their blood

on the day of estimating characters before Un-Nefer ... Behold,

I have come to thee, and I have brought maat (i.e., truth, integrity)

to thee. I have destroyed sin for thee. I have not sinned against

men. I have not oppressed [my] kinsfolk. I have done no wrong in the

place of truth. I have not known worthless folk. I have not wrought

evil. I have not defrauded the oppressed one of his goods. I have

not done the things that the gods abominate. I have not vilified a

servant to his master. I have not caused pain. I have not let any man

hunger. I have made no one to weep. I have not committed murder. I have

not commanded any to commit murder for me. I have inflicted pain on

no man. I have not defrauded the temples of their oblations. I have

not purloined the cakes of the gods. I have not stolen the offerings

to the spirits (i.e., the dead). I have not committed fornication. I

have not polluted myself in the holy places of the god of my city. I

have not diminished from the bushel. I did not take from or add to the

acre-measure. I did not encroach on the fields [of others]. I have not

added to the weights of the scales. I have not misread the pointer of

the scales. I have not taken milk from the mouths of children. I have

not driven cattle from their pastures. I have not snared the birds

of the gods. I have not caught fish with fish of their kind. I have

not stopped water [when it should flow]. I have not cut the dam of

a canal. I have not extinguished a fire when it should burn. I have

not altered the times of the chosen meat offerings. I have not turned

away the cattle [intended for] offerings. I have not repulsed the

god at his appearances. I am pure. I am pure. I am pure. I am pure...."

In the second part of Chapter CXXV Osiris is seen seated at one

end of the Hall of Maati accompanied by the two goddesses of Law

and Truth, and the Forty-Two gods who are there to assist him. Each

of the Forty-Two gods represents one of the nomes of Egypt and has a

symbolic name. When the deceased had repeated the magical names of the

doors of the Hall, he entered it and saw these gods arranged in two

rows, twenty-one on each side of the Hall. At the end, near Osiris,

were the Great Scales, under the charge of Anpu (Anubis), and the

monster Amemit, the Eater of the Dead, i.e., of the hearts of the

wicked who were condemned in the Judgment of Osiris. The deceased

advanced along the Hall and, addressing each of the Forty-Two gods

by his name, declared that he had not committed a certain sin, thus:

"O Usekh-nemmit, comer forth from Anu, I have not committed sin.

"O Fenti, comer forth from Khemenu, I have not robbed.

"O Neha-hau, comer forth from Re-stau, I have not killed men.

"O Neba, comer forth in retreating, I have not plundered the property

of God.

"O Set-qesu, comer forth from Hensu, I have not lied.

"O Uammti, comer forth from Khebt, I have not defiled any man's wife.

"O Maa-anuf, comer forth from Per-Menu, I have not defiled myself.

"O Tem-Sep, comer forth from Tetu, I have not cursed the king.

"O Nefer-Tem, comer forth from Het-ka-Ptah, I have not acted

deceitfully; I have not committed wickedness.

"O Nekhen, comer forth from Heqat, I have not turned a deaf ear to

the words of the Law (or Truth)."

The names of most of the Forty-Two gods are not ancient, but

were invented by the priests probably about the same time as the

names in the Book of Him that is in the Tuat and the Book of Gates,

i.e., between the XIIth and the XVIIIth dynasties. Their artificial

character is shown by their meanings. Thus Usekh-nemmit means "He

of the long strides"; Fenti means "He of the Nose"; Neha-hau means

"Stinking-members"; Set-qesu means "Breaker of bones," etc. The

early Egyptologists called the second part of the CXXVth Chapter the

"Negative Confession," and it is generally known by this somewhat

inexact title to this day.

In the third part of the CXXVth Chapter comes the address which the

deceased made to the gods after he had declared his innocence of the

sins enumerated before the Forty-Two gods. He says: "Homage to you,

O ye gods who dwell in your Hall of Maati. I know you and I know your

names. Let me not fall under your slaughtering knives. Bring not my

wickedness to the notice of the god whose followers ye are. Let not

the affair [of my judgment] come under your jurisdiction. Speak ye the

Law (or truth) concerning me before Neb-er-tcher, for I performed

the Law (or, truth) in Ta-mera (i.e., Egypt). I have not blasphemed

the God. No affair of mine came under the notice of the king in his

day. Homage to you, O ye who are in your Hall of Maati, who have no

lies in your bodies, who live on truth, who eat truth before Horus,

the dweller in his disk, deliver ye me from Babai who liveth upon

the entrails of the mighty ones on the day of the Great Reckoning (APT

AAT). Behold me! I have come to you without sin, without deceit (?),

without evil, without false testimony (?) I have not done an [evil]

thing. I live upon truth and I feed upon truth. I have performed

the behests of men, and the things that satisfy the gods. I

have propitiated the God [by doing] His will. I have given bread to

the hungry, water to the thirsty, raiment to the naked, and a boat

to him that needed one. I have made holy offerings to the gods, and

sepulchral offerings to the beautified dead. Be ye then my saviours,

be ye my protectors, and make no accusation against me before the

Great God. I am pure of mouth, and clean of hands; therefore it hath

been said by those who saw me, 'Come in peace, come in peace.'"

The deceased then addresses Osiris, and says, "Hail, thou who art

exalted upon thy standard, thou Lord of the Atefu Crown, whose name

is 'Lord of Winds,' save me from thy Messengers (or Assessors) with

uncovered faces, who bring charges of evil and make shortcomings plain,

because I have performed the Law (or Truth) for the Lord of the Law

(or Truth). I have purified myself with washings in water, my back

hath been cleansed with salt, and my inner parts are in the Pool of

Truth. There is not a member of mine that lacketh truth." From the

lines that follow the above in the Papyrus of Nu it seems as though

the judgment of the deceased by the Forty-Two gods was preliminary

to the final judgment of Osiris. At all events, after questioning

him about the performance of certain ceremonies, they invited him to

enter the Hall of Maati, but when he was about to do so the porter,

and the door-bolts, and the various parts of the door and its frame,

and the floor, refused to permit him to enter until he had repeated

their magical names. When he had pronounced these correctly the

porter took him in and presented him to Maau (?)-Taui, who was Thoth

himself. When asked by him why he had come the deceased answered,

"I have come that report may be made of me." Then Thoth said, "What

is thy condition?" And the deceased replied, "I am purified from evil

things, I am free from the wickedness of those who lived in my days; I

am not one of them." On this Thoth said, "Thou shalt be reported. [Tell

me:] Who is he whose roof is fire, whose walls are living serpents,

and whose floor is a stream of water? Who is he?" The deceased having

replied "Osiris," Thoth then led him forward to the god Osiris, who

received him, and promised that subsistence should be provided for

him from the Eye of Ra.

In great papyri of the Book of the Dead such as those of Nebseni,

Nu, Ani, Hunefer, etc., the Last Judgment, or the "Great Reckoning,"

is made the most prominent scene in the whole work, and the vignette

in which it is depicted is several feet long. The most complete form

of it is given in the Papyrus of Ani, and may be thus described:

At one end of the Hall of Maati Osiris is seated on a throne within

a shrine made in the form of a funerary coffer; behind him stand

Isis and Nephthys. Along one side of the Hall are seated the gods

Harmachis, Tem, Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut, Isis and Nephthys, Horus,

Hathor, Hu and Saa, who are to serve as the divine jury; these formed

the "Great Company of the Gods" of Anu (Heliopolis). By these stands

the Great Balance, and on its pillar sits the dog-headed ape Astes,

or Astenu, the associate of Thoth. The pointer of the Balance is in

the charge of Anpu. Behind Anpu are Thoth the scribe of the gods,

and the monster Amemit, with the head of a crocodile, the forepaws

and shoulders of a lion, and the hindquarters of a hippopotamus; the

duty of the last-named was to eat up the hearts that were light in

the balance. On the other side of the Balance Ani, accompanied by his

wife, is seen standing with head bent low in adoration, and between him

and the Balance stand the two goddesses who nurse and rear children,

Meskhenet and Rennet, Ani's soul, in the form of a man-headed hawk, a

portion of his body, and his luck Shai. Since the heart was considered

to be the seat of all will, emotion, feeling, reason and intelligence,

Ani's heart, is seen in one pan of the Balance, and in the other is

the feather, symbolic of truth and righteousness. Whilst his heart

was in the Balance Ani, repeating the words of Chapter XXXB* of the

Book of the Dead, addressed it, saying, "My heart of my mother! My

heart of my mother! My heart of my being! Make no stand against me

when testifying, thrust me not back before the Tchatchaut (i.e., the

overseers of Osiris), and make no failure in respect of me before

the Master of the Balance. Thou art my Ka, the dweller in my body,

uniting (?) and strengthening my members. Thou shalt come forth to

the happiness to which we advance. Make not my name to stink with

the officers [of Osiris] who made men, utter no lie against me before

the Great God, the Lord of Amentt."

Then Thoth, the Judge of Truth, of the Great Company of the Gods

who are in the presence of Osiris, saith to the gods, "Hearken ye to

this word: In very truth the heart of Osiris hath been weighed, and

his soul hath borne testimony concerning him; according to the Great

Balance his case is truth (i.e., just). No wickedness hath been found

in him. He did not filch offerings from the temples. He did not act

crookedly, and he did not vilify folk when he was on earth."

And the Great Company of the Gods say to Thoth, who dwelleth in

Khemenu (Hermopolis): "This that cometh forth from thy mouth of

truth is confirmed (?) The Osiris, the scribe Ani, true of voice,

hath testified. He hath not sinned and [his name] doth not stink

before us; Amemit (i.e., the Eater of the Dead) shall not have the

mastery over him. Let there be given unto him offerings of food and

an appearance before Osiris, and an abiding homestead in the Field

of Offerings as unto the Followers of Horus."

Thus the gods have declared that Ani is "true of voice," as was Osiris,

and they have called Ani "Osiris," because in his purity of word and

deed he resembled that god. In all the copies of the Book of the Dead

the deceased is always called "Osiris," and as it was always assumed

that those for whom they were written would be found innocent when

weighed in the Great Balance, the words "true of voice," which were

equivalent in meaning to "innocent and acquitted," were always written

after their names. It may be noted in passing that when Ani's heart

was weighed against Truth, the beam of the Great Balance remained

perfectly horizontal. This suggests that the gods did not expect the

heart of the deceased to "kick the beam," but were quite satisfied

if it exactly counterbalanced Truth. They demanded the fulfilment of

the Law and nothing more, and were content to bestow immortality upon

the man on whom Thoth's verdict was "he hath done no evil."

In accordance with the command of the gods Ani passes from the Great

Balance to the end of the Hall of Maati where Osiris is seated, and as

he approaches the god Horus, the son of Isis, takes him by the hand and

leads him forward, and standing before his father Osiris says, "I have

come to thee, Un-Nefer, I have brought to thee the Osiris Ani. His

heart is righteous [and] hath come forth from the Balance. It hath no

sin before any god or any goddess. Thoth hath set down his judgment in

writing, and the Company of the Gods have declared on his behalf that

[his] evidence is very true. Let there be given unto him of the bread

and beer which appear before Osiris. Let him be like the Followers of

Horus for ever!" Next we see Ani kneeling in adoration before Osiris,

and he says, "Behold, I am in thy presence, O Lord of Amentt. There

is no sin in my body. I have not uttered a lie knowingly. [I have] no

duplicity (?) Grant that I may be like the favoured (or rewarded) ones

who are in thy train." Under favour of Osiris Ani then became a sahu,

or "spirit-body," and in this form passed into the Kingdom of Osiris.