The Book of the Dead

O julgamento dos mortos · original

Thoth, the Author of the Book of the Dead.

Thoth, in Egyptian Tchehuti or Tehuti, who has already been

mentioned as the author of the texts that form the PER-T EM HRU, or

Book of the Dead, was believed by the Egyptians to have been the heart

and mind of the Creator, who was in very early times in Egypt called

by the natives "Pautti," and by foreigners "Ra." Thoth was also the

"tongue" of the Creator, and he at all times voiced the will of the

great god, and spoke the words which commanded every being and thing

in heaven and in earth to come into existence. His words were almighty

and once uttered never remained without effect. He framed the laws

by which heaven, earth and all the heavenly bodies are maintained; he

ordered the courses of the sun, moon, and stars; he invented drawing

and design and the arts, the letters of the alphabet and the art of

writing, and the science of mathematics. At a very early period he was

called the "scribe (or secretary) of the Great Company of the Gods,"

and as he kept the celestial register of the words and deeds of men,

he was regarded by many generations of Egyptians as the "Recording

Angel." He was the inventor of physical and moral Law and became

the personification of JUSTICE; and as the Companies of the Gods of

Heaven, and Earth, and the Other World appointed him to "weigh the

words and deeds" of men, and his verdicts were unalterable, he became

more powerful in the Other World than Osiris himself. Osiris owed his

triumph over Set in the Great Judgment Hall of the Gods entirely to the

skill of Thoth of the "wise mouth" as an Advocate, and to his influence

with the gods in heaven. And every follower of Osiris relied upon the

advocacy of Thoth to secure his acquittal on the Day of Judgment, and

to procure for him an everlasting habitation in the Kingdom of Osiris.