The Book of the Dead

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The Preservation of the Mummified Body in the Tomb by Thoth.

The objects found in the graves of the predynastic Egyptians, i.e.,

vessels of food, flint knives and other weapons, etc., prove that

these early dwellers in the Nile Valley believed in some kind of a

future existence. But as the art of writing was, unknown to them their

graves contain no inscriptions, and we can only infer from texts of

the dynastic period what their ideas about the Other World were. It is

clear that they did not consider it of great importance to preserve

the dead body in as complete and perfect state as possible, for in

many of their graves the heads, hands and feet have been found severed

from the trunks and lying at some distance from them. On the other

hand, the dynastic Egyptians, either as the result of a difference in

religious belief, or under the influence of invaders who had settled

in their country, attached supreme importance to the preservation and

integrity of the dead body, and they adopted every means known to them

to prevent its dismemberment and decay. They cleansed it and embalmed

it with drugs, spices and balsams; they anointed it with aromatic

oils and preservative fluids; they swathed it in hundreds of yards of

linen bandages; and then they sealed it up in a coffin or sarcophagus,

which they laid in a chamber hewn in the bowels of the mountain. All

these things were done to protect the physical body against damp,

dry rot and decay, and against the attacks of moth, beetles, worms

and wild animals. But these were not the only enemies of the dead

against which precautions had to be taken, for both the mummified

body and the spiritual elements which had inhabited it upon earth

had to be protected from a multitude of devils and fiends, and from

the powers of darkness generally. These powers of evil had hideous

and terrifying shapes and forms, and their haunts were well known,

for they infested the region through which the road of the dead lay

when passing from this world to the Kingdom of Osiris. The "great

gods" were afraid of them, and were obliged to protect themselves

by the use of spells and magical names, and words of power, which

were composed and written down by Thoth. In fact it was believed in

very early times in Egypt that Ra the Sun-god owed his continued

existence to the possession of a secret name with which Thoth had

provided him. And each morning the rising sun was menaced by a fearful

monster called Aapep, which lay hidden under the place of sunrise

waiting to swallow up the solar disk. It was impossible, even for the

Sun-god, to destroy this "Great Devil," but by reciting each morning

the powerful spell with which Thoth had provided him he was able to

paralyse all Aapep's limbs and to rise upon this world. Since then the

"great gods," even though benevolently disposed towards them, were not

able to deliver the dead from the devils that lived upon the "bodies,

souls, spirits, shadows and hearts of the dead," the Egyptians decided

to invoke the aid of Thoth on behalf of their dead and to place them

under the protection of his almighty spells. Inspired by Thoth the

theologians of ancient Egypt composed a large number of funerary

texts which were certainly in general use under the IVth dynasty

(about 3700 B.C.), and were probably well known under the Ist dynasty,

and throughout the whole period of dynastic history Thoth was regarded

as the author of the "Book of the Dead."