ANCIENT EGYPT : The Discourse of a Man with his Ba

Introduction

This famous work is preserved in a single manuscript from the XIIth Dynasty. In 1843, the egyptologist Lepsius puchased this nameless hieratic papyrus and brought it to Berlin were it became "Berlin Papyrus 3024". In 1859, he published the text without translation. The first transcription & translation was by Adolf Erman in 1896, under the title : Das Gespräch eines Lebensmüden mit seiner Seele. The Egyptian text can also (partly) be found in Sethe's Aegyptische Lesestücke (1928). Faulkner published his translation as : "The Man who was tired of Life" (in JEA, n°42, 1956, pp.21 - 40). His work was based on more recent philological insights. In 1969, Wilfrid Barta studied the work. He took 37 translations into account. He stressed the difficulties posed by the text, understood by him as unparalleled among the texts of Ancient Egypt. In 1970, Goedicke published his translation in The Report about the Dispute of a Man with his Ba. In 1973, Miriam Lichtheim (who described this text as exceedingly difficult and intriguing) proposed a new translation, but she acknowledged that a great variety of interpretations are possible. In 1978, Bika Reed translated the text from the perspective of the initiatic experience. Another translation in French was done by Claire Lalouette in 1984. The present translation owes much to the translations of Faulkner, Lichtheim, Reed, Lalouette and made also use of the Egyptian texts published by Faulkner, Sethe & Reed.

According to Assmann in his Maat (1999), this highly remarkable work belongs to what he calls "discourses on Maat" or "sapiental literature", consisting of teachings & complaints. In the Old Kingdom, the Maxims of Ptahhotep and the shorter instructions of Prince Hordedef and those addressed to Kagemni and in the Middle Kingdom the Eloquent Peasant, the Prophecies of Neferti and the Complaints of Khakheperre-sonb also dealt with Maat. According to Hornung in his Idea and Image (1992), the text is from the First Intermediate Period (while the manuscript is from the XIIth Dynasty).

It is clear that in the Discourse of a Man with his Ba, Maat is spoken of "a contrario", namely as auto-destruction, dispute, rebelion, ungratefulness, egoism etc. Here death instead of life is glorified.

What is the plot of the text ?

Section 1 : the Ba speaks

We know that the dialogue is already going on for some time. The broken sentences of the first section indicate that between the man and his Ba an advanced state of argument prevails. The man wants to end his life. His Ba tries to dissuade him. The Ba threatens to leave the man and probably cries out that the man will have to answer for the offense of taking his own life. Payment will be asked for by those who are unpartial, namely the 42 judges of Osiris. In fact, at the beginning of the extant text, the Ba seems, from the perspective of the man, to have left him ...

Section 2 : the man speaks

His Ba does not talk anymore, which is like deserting the man. This is a crime. In fact, it is the reflection of the man's confused and split state of being. The Ba seems to have left the physical body while the man is still alive on earth ! The man knows that his Ba will be there on the day of judgment. Leaving him now would only hasten what the Ba wants to avoid : the unnatural death of the man. On the other hand, when it is around, the Ba nurses the pain of life for the man and tries to bring him to other thoughts.

Apparently, the man does not wish to end his life without the approval of his Ba. He realizes that without his Ba he will be lost in the afterlife (total annihilation) and so he tries to persuade his Ba to participate in his auto-destructive sacrificial act, for he envisages immortal bliss & resurrection ! So this is a man who knows about the afterlife and the deities and who nevertheless wants to end his life himself but not without the help of his own Ba ! Because his Ba does not want to cooperate, he reminds it that it is obliged to assist him. Moreover, he knows that his Ba will witness the weighing of the man's heart on the day of judgment. Instead of stilling the pain of life, he asks to sweeten the West (i.e. to make death easy for him). But it will not be sweetened and even if the Ba could do it (for it has incredible powers) it will not. This state of affairs triggers desperate reactions in the man. He is totally carried away and pleads his case before the deities. He ends by saying that life is too painful for him and invites the gods to begin with their work (the funerary rituals allowing the "sah" to be released from the body).

Section 3 : the Ba speaks

The Ba succinctly replies that the man should be ashamed of himself and stop complaining. Who is he to utter these words and think these thoughts. Is he not of modest origins ?

Section 4 : the man speaks

This admonition was of no help at all. But the man is reluctant to die if his Ba is left behind. For if left on earth, his Ba would die too and this would imply total annihilation (physical as well as spiritual). This the man does not seek. He needs his Ba to rise and become a god in the afterlife. He wants his Ba to assist him and pleads to it by saying that he will make a splendid mortuary temple and that his children will present offerings. He turns the argument around, and tries to reason his Ba by saying that it will not find peace if it accepts that the man should die without it being around ... He is very aware that all his efforts are in vain, for his Ba will never help him with anything else than the just course of events. To die before death comes is rejected by the Ba.

Section 5 : the Ba speaks

The Ba again questions the attitude of the man. The tombs & monuments become, after their owners have ascended, as desolate as those who die abandoned. The Ba urges the man to listen and to follow the day of his jubilee (namely his birth, the beginning of life) instead of worry. The Ba strikes two simulitudes to offer comfort to the man but with no avail.

Section 6 : the man speaks (poetically)

The man denies his name, the others & life. He glorifies death and reverses the highest values !

Section 7 : the Ba speaks

The Ba is not impressed at all and suggests the man to throw away his complaints and to set aside his longing for death. As long as he is alife, the natural course of events will not be hampered with and his Ba will surely enlighten him after the appropriate moment arrives for the physical body to die and nothing should change that. It is unknown whether the man decides in favor for his Ba ...

From patriarchy to the individualism of the "classical age"

the centralized power of Pharaoh

The thinkers of the "age of the pyramids" envisaged the order of society as a mirror-image of the order that supposedly governed the cosmos. In this picture, the Sun-god Re and his son on earth, i.e. Pharaoh, the "great house", were the two fundamental points of reference. The never failing circuit of the Sun (as well as the annual flooding of the Nile) ruled the world in the same way as Pharaoh & the royal dynasties guaranteed the human order. This harmony between "macro" and "micro" (between "above" and "below") was conceived as a cosmic order of universal value, a "justice" imbeded in the nature of being which encompassed both the realms of "being" and "obligation" ("sein und sollen"). These ideas were brought together in the concept of Maat, which was the great creation of the Old Kingdom.

"The sky is at peace, the earth is in joy, for they have heard that Pharaoh Neferkare will set Maat in the place of Isefet."
Pyramid Texts, utterance 627 (§ 1775).

To realize a centralized sovereignty with supralocal dimensions, i.e. to erect a state, was the great achievement of the Old Kingdom. Pharaoh, the son of Re, "said Maat", "realized Maat" or replaced "Isefet" (sins, faults, transgressions, i.e. the negation by an act of free will of what is necessary by nature) by "Maat". In the Old Kingdom, the pharaonic institution was the center of gravity of the country. In fact, one could say that "Maat" was the will of Pharaoh. Every initiative emanated from him.

"... c'est d'abord le dieu qui veut que la Maat soit réalisée, et que la Maat soit accomplie. Et, en dernière instance, c'est la Maat qui veut ou plutôt exige que l'homme parle et agisse de façon solidaire. Cela implique naturellement que le roi soit obéi, que sa volonté s'accomplisse. Mais c'est la Maat qui détermine la volonté du roi, le roi ne peut vouloir autre chose que la Maat."
Assmann, 1999, p.127.

So, in a way Pharaoh incarnated cosmic harmony and order. Never did these two notions conflict. Pharaoh was the divine institution par excellence and he guaranteed the continuity of both the cosmic as well as the social, political realm.

literature in the Old Kingdom

At the very beginning of the Dynastic Age, writing, considered to be a gift of the gods, and hence sacred, was limited to brief notations, identifying Pharaoh, an important event or a crucial possession (like a tomb). A distinction should be made between, on the one hand, texts on vessels and monuments and on the other hand, short notices carved on tablets of wood or ivory that accompanied jars of oil, to indicate their vintage year, like : "Smiting the Land of Nubia." or "fashioning" a divine statue, "visiting" a sanctuary of the goddess Neith. At this early date (although cursive script and papyrus were attested in the Predynastic period), there were no continuous texts or arrangements of hieroglyphs into rows, no sentences. The hieroglyphs were used to record short information, like names of persons, places and products. Here are some examples :

from a fragment of a large, globular, green faience vessel or vase inlaid with the name of Pharaoh Aha in brown-coloured faience (Ith Dynasty, ca. 3000 - 2800 BCE, in British Museum) we learn about the sophistication of the combination of faience technology and artistic talent in the Early Dynastic period ;
the Palette of Narmer (Dynasty 0, ca. 3050, in Cairo Museum JE 32169) commemorates a victory, probably the final one, ending the struggle for the unification of the entire Nile Valley (or Delta of Lower Egypt), for by this time Hierakonpolis was a powerful political and religious center in Upper Egypt. Narmer or Menes was the legendary or historical Pharaoh who united the Two Lands, initiating the end of the Predynastic era (ca. 3050 BCE). The Palette has his name on it ;
the tomb stela of Pharaoh Djet (Djer, Wadj, Uenephes, "serpent" - Ith Dynasty, ca. 2920 BCE - Louvre E 11007) has his Horus name inscribed on it ;
the tomb stela of Pharaoh Reneb (Saqqara, IIth Dynasty, in Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York) was also the focal point of the royal mortuary cult (it represents the falcon Horus surmounting a paneled facade, the "serekh", with the hieroglyphs "Ra" and "neb", meaning "Ra is my Lord.") ;
the statuette of Pharaoh Ninetjer in festival Sed-garb (IIth Dynasty, ca. 2760 - 2715 BCE, little over 5 inches in height) has his royal name on it ;
the gods Geb and Seth have been identified on a fragmentary relief of Pharaoh Djoser (IIIth Dynasty, ca. 2654 - 2635 BCE, in Turin Museum) ; the mortuary temples at Maidum & Dahshur of Snofru (IVth Dynasty, ca. 2600 - 2571 BCE) were simple (an altar with two tall stelæ bearing the royal titulary) but the valley temple of the Bent Pyramid was provided with statues & relief decorations (processions of the royal estates in the various nomes) and columns (with ceremonies like foundation rituals, scenes of the Sed festival, scenes of Pharaoh being kissed by the deity) ...

The first major literary application was the so-called Offering List which contained a list of foods, ointments & fabrics. It probably already existed in the IIIth & IVth Dynasties. It was carved on the walls of the private tombs of high officials. The written word gave special identity to the pictoral representations, and named the tomb-owner, his family, his ranks & titles and the offerings the deceased was about to receive. We have to wait for Pharoah Wenis or Unas (end of the Vth Dynasty, ca. 2378 - 2348 BCE) to read what had probably been recited for at least since the beginning of the Dynastic Age, i.e. the spells of the Pyramid Texts.

"(...) one cannot help suspecting that a fundamental revision of the ritual coincided with the decision to immortalize these spells, previously handed down on perishable papyrus, by carving them in stone and thereby also endowing them with greater magical power."
Hornung, 1999, p.36.

So in this early period, the priests drew up an Offering List which contained that which was thought right to offer to the dead, together with formulæ repeated when the offerings were made (and possessing a sacred force "sui generis"). This list, together with the rituals, was handed down from generation to generation, and was extant in the Roman Period. So we see that the Old Kingdom list of offerings made to Unas or Wenis (5th Dynasty), is repeated without too many variations in the Late Period tomb of Peta-Amenapt (XXVIth Dynasty), i.e. 27 centuries later !

"It must also be remembered that the nature of the material offerings presented to the dead was changed during the act of offering by the sacred formulæ which the Kerh heb recited over them. The bread and meat, and wine and beer, were transmuted into the essence and substance of Horus, the great god of heaven."
Budge, 1994, p.99.

For example, to cleanse & purify the statue so that it might become a suitable and permanent dwelling-place for the "ka", the "Sem" priest (who performed the ceremonies) took up a vessel filled with clean water, in which salt or soda had been dissolved, and poured it into a bowl held by his assistant. He walked around the statue four times, sprinkling the salted water on it from all sides. Meanwhile, the "Kher heb" priest (who held a roll of papyrus in his hands and directed the assistant) recited (after Budge, E.A.W., Ibidem, p.43) :

"O Osiris, take away all those who hate Pharaoh Unis and who speak evilly against his name. O Thoth, hasten, take away him who is harmful to Osiris, and carry off him who speak evilly against Pharaoh Unis ; put him in your hand ! (Recite four times) 'Do not let go of him ! Beware lest you let go of him !' (Pour water)."
Pyramid Texts, utterance 23 (§ 16).

This ritual was performed in the Tuat-chamber of the tomb. Before it began, the altar (table of offerings) was purified for the "ka" of the deceased. The "sa" ("sA") was a protective energy existing in the gods, represented by rolled up papyrus (V17), also used as an amulet with the same meaning. As "sA n anx" it was the magical fluid of life, which could be transferred by "magnetic passes" along the back, over the nape of the neck or the spinal column. In the context of this ritual, we may suppose that the transfer of the Sa was properly executed by the purification of the statue by salted water by the "Sem" priest and the invocation of Osiris by the "Kher heb".

However, the divinity of Pharaoah defined the distinction between royal and private burials. Although there was common ground between them (interchange & adaptation of certain scriptoral practices) the difference was very important and placed its stamp on writing.

In the Pyramid Texts, exclusively used to adorn the tombs of the kings, the divinity of Pharaoh is clearly attested. Many ascension-texts clarify that after he had died, he travelled to the sky and (being a god) returned to the realm of the gods. Only Pharaoh had that privilege. The pyramids themselves were magificent monuments evidencing the divine status of the king who utilized this mortuary house of fire to return to the heavenly world of the stars where the gods abided. Osiris (in the constellation of Orion), the god of resurrection, was the prototype of the dead Pharaoh, son of Re.

Other royal inscriptions appeared in rudimentary form :
(1) record of a single event ;
(2) the annalistic record ;
(3) the royal decree.

The inscriptions made in private tombs became the stepping-stone to literature, for in their "house of eternity", the high officials of Pharaoh used the written word to identify pictoral representations and to name the tomb-owner and his family, listing his ranks, titles and offerings. These first texts focus on the tomb (especially its protection) and not on the deceased. The status of tomb-owner implied :
(1) a function allowing one to use artisans to make and to adorn the tomb (this was a state monopoly) ;
(2) a family organizing the funerary cult &
(3) a place in the collective memory of society (public approbation).

"The elder Judge of the Hall, Hetep-her-akhet, says : 'I made this tomb on the west side of a pure place, in which there was no tomb of anyone, in order to protect the possession of one who has gone to his ka. As for any people who would enter this tomb unclean and do something evil to it, there will be judgement against them by the great god. I made this tomb because I was honored by the king, who brought me a sarcophagus."
Inscription of Hetep-Her-Akhet (Lichtheim, 1975, vol.1, p.16. The inscription of Hetep-Her-Akhet is in the Leiden Museum and was carved in vertical columns on the two sides of the entrance leading into the tomb-chapel. It dates from the Vth Dynasty).

The long offering list became a short Prayer for Offerings and to the ever lenghthening lists of ranks and titles, narration was added, giving birth to the Autobiography (cf. the autobiographies of Weni & Harkhuf, both of the VIth Dynasty). Hence, the Egyptian autobiography was derived from the epitaph.

Three fundamental components of the Egyptian autobiography appeared side by side in prominent non-royal tombs :

a commentary on the tomb-owner, sketching an impersonal portait of the deceased in an ideal biography. This aimed at showing that the deceased had been integrated in the cosmos & society (the pharaonic state) and thus that s/he had accomplished & spoken as Maat. It did this in general terms ;
a catalogue of virtues, implying a serious commitment to ethical values which were also helpful in the afterlife (namely in the "Hall of Maat" on the Day of Judgment) ;
the distinguishing marks of the individual, in flamboyant and particular wording, i.e. a personal description of the individual career (the professional biography) of the departed.

These two elements, Maat & career, determined who one was in the Old Kingdom, both from the perspectives of cosmic (divine) justice and of social status (defined as a function of Pharaoh's goodwill towards the individual, directly -the court- or indirectly -the local temples-).

"The quest for immortality had a magical as well as a moral side. Statues, food offerings, and other rituals would magically ensure revivification and eternal life. But a good character, a life lived in harmony with the divine order (maat) was equally essential."
Lichtheim, 1975, vol.1, p.4.

During the Vth Dynasty, prayer and autobiography acquired their fundamental shape. The prayers focused on the request for offerings and a good reception in the West. The Prayer for Offerings became a standardized formula, invoking Anubis and the power from whom the desired goods would come. The rise of a noble class of administrators was the result of an increasingly complex system of government. Through their wealth and the beneficence of Pharoah, they fashioned for themselves more elaborate tombs to provide for the afterlife. At the end of the Vth Dynasty, the first Pyramid Texts were carved on the walls of the pyramids of Pharaoh Wenis (Unis or Unas).

In the VIth Dynasty, the autobiography (unfettered by the cult) became prominent & attained its full length. Its aim being to sum up the features of the person in terms of positive worth in the face of eternity and in terms of what s/he had done or received by Pharaoh. However, as the person was supposed to live eternally in a transfigured body of the resurrected dead, so that his or her name would live on forever, personal shortcomings and the details of his or her life were unsuitable for the autobiography. Hence it remained a blend of the real with the ideal (as does a portrait sculpture).

The self-laudatory traits of the autobiography have to be viewed in the context of the epitaph and the quest for immortality. The epitaph is not a confession, and the faulty & ephemeral features of the deceased were stripped off. In these Old Kingdom autobiographies, Pharaoh always comes first (cf. the Autobiography of Weni of the VIth Dynasty).

Along with the autobiography, the catalogue of virtues expanded. It was written in a strict formalized, symmetrically structured sentences (midway between prose and poetry). This catalogue contrasted with the free proze of the narrative components of the autobiography but provided the monumental, official proof that life had been lived consistent with the precepts demanded by the sapiental instructions. These wisdom discourses or didactic literature were literary works on papyrus, calling for a life in accordance with Maat, universal justice & truth (symbolized by a feather).

In the middle of the VIth Dynasty, royal power diminished progressively to the advantage of the provincial governors, the nomarchs. Maat had been identified with the will of Pharaoh (the ultimate divine source of the unity of the Two Lands). By serving society one had served the state and its core, Pharaoh. The decay of the unity of the land triggered questions about Maat, for the equation had been disrupted. Were was the general standard to be found if the gods had forsaken Egypt ?

the patriarchy of the Old Kingdom and the First Intermediate Period

At the end of the Old Kingdom, the stable pharaonic system slowly broke down. During the nine decades of the reign of the last Pharaoh of the VIth Dynasty, Pepi II (ca.2246 - 2152) -the longest reign in history- the way was paved for the collapse of the Old Kingdom under the pressure of internal weakening. A folk tale of the New Kingdom depicts Pepi II as a weak personality with abnormal tendencies ... No serious dangers threatened Egypt from western Asia or Nubia, although attacks on Egyptian expeditions seems to have been more frequent. One important factor was the increase in the number of cults freed by royal decree from taxes and other obligations, placing a burden on the royal treasury, diminishing is power and majesty (cf. the number of buildings built). Low Nile floods are also to be noted, as well as a climate change ca. 2200 BCE (probably a world-wide small ice age).

"But the decisive factor was that the archaic, patriarchal structure of the adminstration was no longer adequate to meet the more specialized demands of the era and thus not suited in all respects to the tenor of the times."
Hornung, 1999, p.41.

The weak administration was no longer able to run the country as a whole and the consequences were economical difficulties, famine and struggle for life itself (while Pharaoh made enormous gifts to the temples). Economic need occupied the center of attention in biographical inscriptions which emerged in this period. This situation triggered two important phenomena :

(objective) local potentates acquired the necessary goods for themselves and their subjects. Raids on neighboring regions and the peasants were common. The latter therefore formed armed bands. Safety was lost. Art sank to a provincial level. In the walled homes of the rulers of the nomes (the nomarchs) an urban middle class was formed, focused on the accumulation of private property. These "nedjes" (a pejorative word for "small") designated these new "bourgeois" who made the cities into political centers.
(inter-subjective) the struggle against the terrible experience of returning to the banished chaos triggered a flowering of literature such as Egypt had never produced before. With the decline of the monarchy, the identification of Maat with the will of Pharaoh broke up. So the questions : What is good ? What is evil ? became all important. For the intellectual elite of the First Intermediate, the divine shepherd had forsaken his human flock. Even the blessed afterlife was questioned. New ways of formulating their thoughts were sought, especially to break away from the formulaic & archaic literary style of the mortuary cults. The power of the individual was found ...

After Pepi II, the construction of pyramids stopped and in rapid successions at least a dozen Pharaoahs resided in Memphis and nominally ruled the entire land. What exactely happened is unknown (for this period is obscure), but at the end Egypt was divided between the "kings" of two major nomes : Heracleopolis (IXth & Xth Dynasty) & Thebes (XIth Dynasty). The unity broke up and no great monuments were erected to consolidate the power of the state. The Theban ruling family assumed the royal titulary at about the same time as the nomarchs of Herakleopolis. This fact initiates the First Intermediate Period, which would last for about a century.

"Statues of the Theban rulers were set up in the temple of Heqaib on the island of Elephantine, and we must assume that because of this tie with the south, the Thebans had at their disposal, from the very beginning, seasoned Nubian soldiers who would lend considerable combat strength to the Theban army in the warfare that ensued to reunite the land."
Hornung, 1999, p.45.

Hornung situates the Discourse of a Man with his Ba in this First Intermediate Period. The vivid images used by the man to describe the incurable degeneration of solidarity, justice and goodwill in society, could thus be suggestive of a disrupted and divided Egypt, returning to geosentimental barbarism (from the unity of the Two Lands to the war between the nomes). However, although unity was lost and conflicts did happen, no general anarchy prevailed during the First Intermediate Period.

So the poetical enunciations of the man are proof of the author's refined literary abilities, combining "real" events with subjective imagination & fiction to describe what happens in the heart (the mind) of the man. In the narrative, as well as in the poetry, the method "a contrario" is used. The negation of these negative statements produces a remarkably refined subjective reflection of Maat and the ways of the just life. It also allows us to understand the relationship between a living human being and his soul.

In our text, kingship is mentioned only once, an this in the context of nome-politics ("the town of a king") and treason. It is interesting to note that although his moral depravity is complete, the man has not relinquished the deities nor eternal life. In fact, the discourse oscillates between a dispute and a reconciliation. The outcome remains unknown.

The Ba-soul or guardian of the man remains focused on justice and life. The man (his heart) is split between a total rejection of this life on Earth (because of its chaos) and his knowledge that he will be judged (although the Two Lands had no Pharaoh, the celestial Pantheon remained). His higher, true individuality is called in to act against its own laws. The reply is a radical refusal : life on Earth must be lived in happy and enjoyable ways whatever happens. When physical death arrives, the Ba will assist the man to attain immortality. Meanwhile, he should stop worrying, for his soul will nurse his pains anyway ...

the salvation of the non-royals

The inscriptions of the First Intermediate provide us with ample proof of the fact that individualism was on the rise. Although the society remained organized in a hierarchical fashion, the leaders were not divine kings but local chiefs, ruling the country's ancient districts (the nomes), called "nomarchs". These nobles (princes) and high officials displayed a proud individualism which was taken over by the commoners.

"An offering which the king gives and Anubis, who is upon his mountain and in the place of embalming, the Lord of the necropolis : an offering for the Count, Royal Seal-bearer, Sole Companion, Lector-priest, the revered Indi, who says :
I was a citizen excellent in combat, a companion of excitement.
I was one loved by his father, praised by his mother,
Loved by his brothers, liked by his relations.
Raised from the back of his father's house by the might of Onuris ; ruler of This with a will to excell, with a will to act for the best. One who spoke with his mouth, one who acted with his arm. No man will be found who would speak against the revered Indi.
A thousand of bread, a thousand of beer, a thousand of oxen, a thousand of fowl, a thousand of ointment jars, a thousand of clothing, a thousand of everything good, for the revered Indi. His beloved wife, Sole Royal Ornament, Priestess of Hathor, honored by the gods of This, Mut-muti."
Stela of Count Indi of This (Lichtheim, 1975, pp.84-85. The inscription was found on a rectangular, painted limestone, carved in sunk relief. Metropolitan Museum 25.2.3, VIIIth Dynasty).

Hence, the two families of nomarchs (at Heracleopolis and at Thebes) amassed sufficient power to claim the kingship. Again : although these inner conflicts are clear, the First Intermediate Period is not decadent or anarchic.

"An offering which the king gives and Osiris : an offering of a thousand of bread and beer, a thousand of ointment jars and clothing, a thousand of everything good, to one honored by Re-Atum in his evenings, honored by Hathor who nurses the dawn. He says :

Will you depart, father Re, before you commend me ?
Will sky conceal you before you commend me ?
Commend me to night and those dwelling in it.
So as to find me among your adorers, O Re !
Who worships you at your risings.
Who lament at your settings.
May night embrace me, midnight shelter me.
By your command, O Re !
I am your deputy, you made me lord of life, undying.
Commend me to night's early hours.
May they place their guard upon me.
Commend me to early dawn.
May he put his guard about me.
I am the nursling of early dawn.
I am the nursling of night's early hours.
Born at night, whose life is made in darkness.
Whose fear besets the herds with back-turned horns.
With your eye's red glow as my protection.
You find me hailing your approach !"
A Stela of Pharaoh Intef II (Lichtheim, 1975, pp.94-95. The inscription was found on a finely carved limestone stela in his Theban tomb. Metropolitan Museum 13.182.3, XIth Dynasty).

The crude artwork found evidences that quite ordinary people made funerary monuments for themselves, which beforehand had been the privilege of the wealthy high officials only. It was not court art but work done by local craftsmen or perhaps even by their owners themselves. Mostly the stelæ survived.

At the end of the Old Kingdom, the two main components of the autobiography (ideal biography & professional biography) which had never merged will do so and form a new genre which has been called the "apogee" of Ancient Egyptian autobiography, namely that of the First Intermediate Period. In this period and thereafter the stela became the carrier of a short autobiography. In the autobiography of the period, no royal service (career) is mentioned.

"The Prince, Count, Royal Seal-bearer, Sole Companion, Lector-priest, General, Chief of scouts, Chief of foreign regions, Great Chief of the nomes of Edfu and Hieraconpolis, Ankhtifi, says :
Horus brought me to the nome of Edfu for life, prosperity, health, to reestablish it, and I did it. For Horus wished it to be reestablished, because he brought me to it to reestablish it.
I found the House of Khuu inundated like a marsh, abandoned by him who belonged to it, in the grip of a rebel, under the control of a wretch. I made a man embrace the slayer of his father, the slayer of his brother, so as to reestablish the nome of Edfu. Now happy was the day on which I found well-being in this nome ! No power in whom there is the heat of strife will be accepted, now that all forms of evil which people hate have been suppressed.
I am the vanguard of men and the rearguard of men. One who finds the solution where it is lacking. A leader of the land through active conduct. Strong in speech, collected in thought, on the day of joining the three nomes. For I am a champion without peer, who spoke out when the people were silent, on the day of fear when Upper Egypt was silent.
As to everyone on whom I placed my hand, no misfortune ever befell him, because my heart was sealed and my counsel excellent. But as to any fool, any wretch, who stands up in opposition I shall give according as he gives. 'O woe !' will be said of one who is accused by me. His w'r will take water like a boat. For I am a champion without peer !"
Autobiography of Ankhtifi (Lichtheim, 1975, pp.85-86. From his tomb at Hefat (Mo'alla) - last decades of the 22th century B.C).

Two other facts reflect this important change of attitude : the Instruction to Pharaoh Merikare (the first treatise on kingship) and, what Assmann (1999) called, "the advent of virtue". The instruction proves the changed attitude towards kingship : textualization of the royal tradition (the testament of a departing king to his son & successor) in the context of the division of the land and the absence of a unifying political power.

The fact that in the autobiography excellence in royal service is no longer mentioned, indicates that Maat alone is needed to attain immortality. The accomplishment of a supra-individual rule or norm coupled with individual merits became the two determining elements of who one was in the First Intermediate Period and in the Middle Kingdom. With the "invention of virtue" (beauty, goodness, good nature, quality, character, grace, kindness, patience, etc.) a new view on justice and truth emerged. Moral behavior and professional activity merged. In the First Intermediate Period, the autobiographies make no mention of Maat as such. This because Maat had been associated with the pharaonic state which had collapsed. Hence, only individual merit remained :

"Kindness is a man's memorial for the years after the function."
Maximes of Ptahhotep, maxim 34.

"Good nature is a man's heaven."
Instruction to Pharaoh Merikare (Lichtheim, 1975, p.99. Three fragmented papyri of the XVIIIth Dynasty - the work is dated Xth Dynasty or perhaps XIIth Dynasty)

"The monument of man is his virtue."
Stela of Mentuhotpe (Schenkel, 1964, p.11. - dated XIth Dynasty)

In the Middle Kingdom this new view was again directly associated with Maat :

"Speak Maat, do Maat.
For she is mighty.
She is great, she endures.
Her worth is tried,
She leads one to the state of reveredness."
The Eloquent Peasant (Lichtheim, 1975, p.181. Four copies on papyrus dating Middle Kingdom, also Assmann, J. : Op.cit., 1999, p.70 - dated XIIth Dynasty).

Around ca.1980 BCE, after a century of disunity, Herakleopolis fell and all of Egypt was again under the rule of a single Theban Pharaoh, namely Mentuhotpe III (ca. 1945 - 1938 BCE). The apprenticeship period of Egyptian literature lay behind. The Middle Kingdom produced a vast number of works in a variety of genres and with full control over a vast number of forms. Hence, it is called the "classical age" of Egyptian literature, which saw the consolidation of Middle Egyptian.

The Coffin Texts superseded the Pyramid Texts as early as the VIIIth Dynasty, but their principal sources are the later cemeteries of the nomarchs of Middle Egypt in the XIIth Dynasty. The largest number of spells of this textual tradition was found in Deir el-Bersha, the cemetery of Hermopolis, the city of the god of writing, Thoth. These spells (1.185 of them) appear mainly on coffins of officials and their subordinates, but also on tomb walls, stelæ, canoptic chests, mummy masks and papyri. However, they are attested in only one place. This local element distinguishes the Coffin Texts from other corpora. The deceased was almost always spoken of in the first person singular. Red ink was used for emphasis and to indicate divisions. Important spells were entirely in red.

The Coffin Texts eliminated the royal exclusivity of ascension. Every deceased was an "Osiris NN", although the principal group of people to make use of them were the nomarchs and their families of the Middle Kingdom. The tradition of these Coffin Texts came to an end at the end of the Middle Kingdom. They were transformed into the new Book of the Dead in the XVIIth Dynasty. Some important spells survived and were used in the New Kingdom (cf. burial chamber of Minnakhte TT87).

"Going out from the tomb in the necropolis. The cavern of those who are in the Abyss is opened, the movements of those who are in the sunshine are extensive, the tomb of the Sole One is opened. When he went out, I went out from the tomb, I went forth from the Great Lake, I descended into the lustral basins. My foot is on the (...), my hand is raised aloft, I have laid hold of his lashing which belongs to (...), I row in my seat which is in the Bark of God, I do go down into my seat which is in the Bark of God, I have taken control without neglect of my seat which is in the Bark of the Controller, my seat which is in the Bark of God did not leave me stranded."
Coffin Texts, spell 151, popular in the New Kingdom.

Besides these Coffin Texts, major works were the private autobiographies of officials, artists as well. They combined narration, the catalogue of virtues & elaborate prayers and also contained hymns to the gods and praises to Pharaoh. Royal monumental inscriptions, erected as a result of historical circumstances (like war, peace, new temples, to set boundaries, to mark festivals or special occurences) developed and came into their own. Pharaoh was described as leader of the state in war and in the service of the gods. His divinity was given ornate expression.

Personal piety in Ancient Egypt before the New Kingdom

the indwelling of the deities

For the Egyptians of the Old Kingdom, the deities withdrew to the sky and were separated from humanity. The cohabitation had been a primordial state which was lost. The withdrawal of the deities to the sky went hand in hand with the founding of the pharaonic state (ca. 3000 BCE). Direct contact between humanity and the gods did no longer exist, except for the mediation between the state and the divine Pharaoh (the heart of the state). Between the human and the divine a sacred signification, a "transcendent function" bridged the gap. This was provided for by the temples, the state agencies, who represented Pharaoh. The gods were resident on earth as lords of a particular temple. Although their essences (or spirit or "akh") existed in the sky, their "kingdom" was "of this world" (through their "doubles", the "Ka's").

The temples of the nomes owned the land of Egypt and the local deity of the temple embodied the concept of "city", which was always the city of a particular deity. To belong to a city meant to be under the rule of the god of that city. A city was thus a temple situated on the primordial hill, home and domain of an independent deity. The temple was the center of municipal administration and those who lived in the city were automatically "hour-priests" serving in the temples in a monthly rotation under the authority of full-time priests (under the charge of a royal official representing Pharaoh). Hence, the Residence of Pharaoh determined which nome was dominant. Sedentariness was a principle and those who fleed were severely punished for desertion. In the "intermediate periods", wanderlust and internal migration happened as a result of famine and civil war.

The deities did not "dwell" on earth but they installed themselves "in their images". The "installation" of Pharoah during coronation (and his jubilees, the Sed-festivals) may have served as a model. The deities of the old pantheon were in the sky as "spirits" and "souls" ("ba's"), but their physical images existed on earth. This physical double or "Ka" could embrace or fraternize with the world if and only if the proper rituals of "installation" were daily performed by the priests who were functionaries of Pharaoh, for he was the state and the state was the unity of the temples of the Two Lands. In the cult, the divine brought itself near the realm of human activity. Through the rituals, the deity "installed" itself in its earthly image & function and in the mystery play, the divine drama was executed (the priests did not act as mediators but interacted as players in the ongoing divine plot). Without these rituals, only the inanimate, physical image would remain, emptied of its power of presence in this world (as if the gods had stopped living in Egypt and only graves remained). So the priest never responded to the occurring process of "indwelling" (cf. Junker's "Einwohnung") but rather accompanied and confirmed it. He never "spoke" to the deity, but narrated (assuming a particular god-form) his alloted part of the divine drama.

the paradox of Pharaoh in the Old Kingdom

This ongoing personal service to the lord of the temple was modeled on the daily morning ceremony of clothing Pharaoh, for he was (as son of Re) a direct divine source and hence he alone had a soul ("ba") and was the ultimate high priest. Pharaoh was a god and also the only god who was actually physically present in Egypt (he was not in the same way in need of ceremonial installation as the images & statues). This exclusivity of the divine king, who united & sustained the Two Lands, was absolute.

All of this points to his paradoxical nature, for although being a god he was the only god to dwell on earth, i.e. his "divine ba" was on earth ... He alone ascended to the sky, and for this he used a special door ("rhy.t"), translated as "the door which keep out the plebs" (cf. Pyramid Text §§ 655, 876, 1726, 1934). These commoners continued their existence too, but not vertically by ascending but by means of a horizontal passage toward the sacred, isolated and terrestial afterlife ("ta djsr"), put aside as the "Beautiful West", enlightened by the Sun of the night ...

There is a correspondence to be found between, on the one hand, the notion that the gods abided as "ba's" in the sky while installing themselves in their statues & images through magical means, and on the other hand, the idea that the "ba" was gratified by the offerings made to the double (cf. the "ka"), even if the latter were only representations of these offerings in the "sacred" language of the gods (hieroglyphs).

the rise of Amun in Thebes in the First Intermediate Period

This First Intermediate Period was a turning point in the history of Thebes, the fourth nome of Upper Egypt (opposite Karnak), "she of the sceptre". In the Old Kingdom, Thebes offers no clear evidence for royal activity. Substantial evidence for statuary data of this type does not exist outside of the Memphite region.

When the Old Kingdom had collapsed, the rulers of Herakleopolis (IXth & Xth Dynasties) may at first have ruled Egypt nominally, but it was not for long before many of the Southern nomarchs started to build their provincial empires. Military campaigns to conquer their neighbors were frequent, and at the end of the story, Thebes triumphed ! Pharaoh Inyotef I, initiating the Theban XIth Dynasty (ca. 2081 - 2065 BCE), assumed pharaonic titles and wrote his name in a cartouche, as did his successors.

Pharaoh Amenemhet I ("Amun is pre-eminent" - ca. 1938 - 1909 BCE), who initiated the XIIth Dynasty and with it the Middle Kingdom, moved the Residence away from Thebes to the North, thus removing the centre of activity (Pharaoh) elsewhere. Thebes lost much of its political power. Simultaneously, however, one of the local gods worshipped in the region, namely Amun, was promoted to be the pre-eminent dynastic and national deity. Thebes became the city of Amun. Pharaoh donated statues and a granite altar to the temple of Amun. However, he attended Ptah of Memphis too. Ptah had not been very prominent in the Old Kingdom. Re, Amun, Ptah and Osiris (who received special attention as an enduring focus of belief touching the afterlife) now formed a constellation of leading deities.

"La suprématie d'Amon s'affirmera à Thèbes de la XI^e à la XXVI^e dynastie, malgré l'intermède d'Hyksos et surtout son effacement temporaire lors de la crise armanienne."
Barucq & Daumas, 1980, p.182.

the afterlife of the commoners in the Middle Kingdom & Osiris

In the Old Kingdom, only Pharaoh had a "ba", i.e. a "soul". He alone would operate the transition from earthly existence to divine immortality. While on earth he had been a living god, after death he would ascend into the sky to return to the abode of the deities. The "ba" is represented by the hieroglyph of a bird that flies away, suggestive of the rise towards another world, considered to be fully part of the created order but transcending the gross plane of physical existence of life on earth. The commoners were supposed to "hide" in their tombs of the Beautiful West (the abode of the dead). Ascension was not for them, but exclusively for Pharaoh. The common people might survive death as "revered ones", but they could not ascend.

"To say : 'Nu has commened Pharaoh Teti to Atum. The Open-armed has commended the Pharaoh Teti to Shu, (so) that he may cause yonder doors of the sky to be opened for Phraoh Teti, barring ordinary folk who have no name. Grasp Pharaoh Teti by his hand and take Pharaoh Teti to the sky, that he may not die on earth among men.'"
Pyramid Texts, utterance 361 (§ 604).

Festivals were, besides the service payed in the temples to the local deity, the way to express the might of Pharaoh and the gods in a public way (the holy parts of the temples were forbidden to commoners). These festivals organized personal piety, for during a procession everybody could worship the deity "face to face" and present their offerings & prayers.

The inscriptions on the mastaba tombs and other monuments of the Old Kingdom give us the names of these festivals. On the sarcophagus of Khufu-ankh (IVth Dynasty) the following festivals are mentioned : Festival of the New Year, Festival of Thoth, Festival of the beginning of the year, Festival of Uak, Great Festival, Heat Festival, Appearance of Menu Festival, Festival of Uah-akh, Festival of Satch, Festival of the beginning of the month, Festival of the beginning of the half month, Every festival on every day for ever ... In later Middle Kingdom tombs (like that of Khnemu-hetep of the XII Dynasty) the list is longer, including Festivals of the 1th, 6th, 15th and one other day in each month, Festivals of the Five Epagomenal Days, ... in total 73 festivals, allowing for the conclusion that on average every fifth day was a day of festival ! In later periods several other festivals were mentioned, and in the most flourishing periods the sepulchral offerings in the tombs of Pharaoh and the wealthy people were renewed daily.

The collapse of the pharaonic Old Kingdom of the pyramids (from Djoser to Pepi II, i.e. ca. 450 years) and the subsequent decentralization which eventuated, put Egyptian culture in a state of crisis which triggered the re-equilibration of the nation & the state by the formation of an internal "prise de conscience" touching good, evil and the importance of the individual in the state. The Old Kingdom had been construed around Pharaoh and his temples. From the First Intermediate Period onwards and especially in the Classical Age, this new awareness moved the intellectual & spiritual forces of the Two Lands to understand that Pharaoh was no longer an absolute justification, for it was not one's service to Pharaoh which was weighed at the judgment, but the very heart of the deceased. And a heavy heart only invited the remainder to be eaten after the judgment by the monster, the Devouress (emerging as an iconographical element after the Amarna period) ...

After the fall of the Old Kingdom, the whole constellation of interrelated concepts about survival and immortality were democratized, although the distinction between survival and immortality remained. Although a human longed for immortality he would never attain it as a human being. A revered person ("imakhou") was a moral being surviving in the tomb in the Beautiful West. A living god was an immortal being. In the case of Pharaoh, this had only implied a transition, not a change in essence, for he was already a god on earth and he alone would ascend to reach the abode of his soul and the souls of all the other deities of the old pantheon. After the collapse of the Old kingdom, the commoners also aspired immortality and could attain it, not as a human being, but as a living god too ! Hence, a change of essence had to happen, for a mortal human had to be changed into an immortal god ! This deification called for new ideas.

The transition was conceptualized in the funerary literature (Coffin Texts in the Middle Kingdom & Book of the Dead from the New Kingdom onward) in the form of a series of initiatoric events post mortem, starting with purification, then judgment and finally admission as a god. In this "scala perfectionis" (cf. the Christian "purificatio, illuminatio & deificatio"), purification (called "the baptisal of Pharaoh") implied that the deceased separated him or herself from all sins. It called for the recital of the "declaration of innocense" which is precisely the fact that the deceased had said and accomplished Maat. What one had not done was deemed more important than what one had done ! Not to eat the forbiden fruit was considered far more closer to doing the right thing than a series of obligatory actions. The list shows that a lot of sins were directly related to what one had said or to how one had listened. The cognitive element predominated, suggestive of the association of Maat with mental states and the notion of "logos" (also found in the Memphis Theology and the teachings on the accomplished discourse).

No other god in Ancient Egypt was more intimately related with the afterlife than Osiris. The original home of Osiris was the temple city Per-Asar-neb-Tetu (the Greek Busiris), situated in the 9th nome of Lower Egypt. Here was preserved the backbone of Osiris, the "tet", and grew the sacred acacia etc. As his cult extended, Osiris assumed & assimilated the forms of the gods of the dead of other nomes and cities like Memphis (Ptah-Seker) and Abydos (Khenti-Amenti). Before Osiris had arrived at Abydos from the North, Khenti-Amenti ("Foremost of those of the West") had been one of the oldest gods of Abydos ...

The Pyramid Texts evidence the assimilation of the Khenti-Amenti by Osiris. The oldest form of the name of Osiris had two hieroglyphs : a seat, throne, place and an eye, i.e. the seat maker, he who takes his throne. His important role in the funerary rituals is testified by the ceremony of "Opening the Mouth" found in the Pyramid Texts, intended to "balance the mouth", enabling the deceased to speak etc. in the afterlife.

In the Old Kingdom, Osiris was intimately related with the individual spiritual process of transformation happening after Pharaoh's physical body had died. For Osiris was the proto-type of a godman who had lived on the earth, had been dismembered but who nevertheless remained everlasting in a fine condition, alife after natural death ... immortal. Later, Osiris was called "Lord of the Living" (i.e. of those living their afterlife). Osiris was the god of the dead because he gave eternal life to the dead as a result of his own permanent state of divine existence in the afterlife.

In the classical account on Osiris, namely in Plutarch's De Iside et Osiride, we are not told whether Osiris returned from the Other World in his natural body or in a subtle body. The latter had power of speech, thought and an posture recognizable by his son Horus. The core of the message being that his natural body was only a sheet put on by the divine part of Osiris, able to take on all forms (at first of all the Kings of Egypt and eventually of all justified humans).

"A ladder is knotted together by Re before Osiris, a ladder is knotted together by Horus before his father Osiris when he goes to his spirit, one of them being on this side and one of them being on that side, while I am between them."
Pyramid Texts, utterance 305 (§ 472).

Hence, the nexus of paramount importance between the monarchy and Osiris consisted in the fact that once the king of Egypt had died, he became Osiris, king of the netherworld. At death, the divinity of Pharaoh, embodied in the forms of (a) Horus the elder sky god and (b) the son of Re, took on a new divine manifestation. Pharaoh became the monarch of the underworld & the afterlife : Osiris. Consequently, in the Pyramid Texts, the dead Pharaoh is sometimes referred to under the name of Osiris (cf. Osiris Wenis or Osiris Pepi). However, this was done with some reluctance and dread of the ruler of the dead. Osiris also reigned over the hidden, unknown & forbidden regions of the Duat (namely those touching the primordial chaos of pre-creation), associated with evil & the demonical. Osiris also gloried in slaughter and in the Coffin Texts he utters malignant spells against a dead person and is the head of "Osiris's Butcherers Painful of Fingers" ...

It seems that there is only one Great Hymn to Osiris which mentions the "top secret" regarding this unique and sole god of the dead, namely the narrative concerning his dismemberment by his evil brother Seth when he was king of Egypt. At no time in Ancient Egypt is this murder of Osiris at the hands of Seth pictorally represented ! According to Plutarch, the story of Osiris' death was a "mystery" veiled by silence. Indeed, the story as such is not mentioned in the Pyramid Texts, Coffin Texts or in the Book of the Dead, whereas the story of Horus (his posthumous son) as the defender & avenger of his father are oft repeated themes. Indeed, to write down the most terrible event in history would cause it to happen again ...

"We have delivered to the son of Isis his enemy, who succumbed to his force. We have done evil to the adversary. He who attacks the strong will see his misfortune reach him. The son of Isis has defended his father. His name becomes sacred and beneficial. Respect rests in its place and reveredness is established according to its own laws. The road is free, the paths are open. How joyous have the Double Banks become ! Evil dissipates and the accusor moves away. The land is pacified under the authority of its Lord. Justice is established for its Lord. Backs are turned towards injustice !"
Great Hymn to Osiris (translated to the French by Barucq & Daumas, 1980, pp.96-97. Preserved on Stela C 286 of the Louvre, dating from the early New Kingdom, XVIIIth Dynasty).

Seth is in many ways the outsider of the pantheon. He killed his brother Osiris and dismembered him. After the unfoldment of the complete drama (including Isis, Thoth, Re and Horus), Osiris returned from the abode of the dead (resurrection) to encourage Horus to battle Seth, who looses. At the end of this story, told in many versions, Osiris is the sole judge & king of the dead, the ruler of the underworld, he who could bestow immortal life on the dead ... but also cast the unfit into oblivion.

"Seth is one of the gods composing the Ennead of Heliopolos : Atum, Shu and Tefnut, Geb and Nut, Osiris and Isis, Seth and Nephthys. Primaeval time may be described as the time before duality had arisen in the land. The one primaeval god Atum, the lord of all, as the first act of creation brought forth a male-female twin by self-fecundation : the god Shu and the goddess Tefnut. This twin brought forth another twin : the earth god Geb and the sky goddess Nut, who in turn produced Osiris and Isis. The duality so far is that of man and woman and is complementary. However, Geb and Nut dit not bring forth only one male-female twin, but also Seth and Nephthys. This disturbs the harmonious development of creation, wherein each pair only produced on other pair. Thus the birthday of Seth is the beginning of confusion. Seth is the one who caused disorder before his name existed."
Te Velde, 1977, p.27.

Seth is one of the gods of the Ennead who actively embodies the force of chaos. The primordial Ogdoad was completely inert and represented the potential of evil present in pre-creation. It must be assumed that some part of this latent, hidden evil manifests when Atum differentiates and creation unfolds. Seth being the deification of the most powerful part of these disruptive, destructive, corrosive, dark & deadly power of chaos, emerging out of the inert matrix of dark pre-creation itself and actively engaged in moral & natural evil. Fratricide (of Osiris), anal intercourse (with Horus) and the destruction of Re (by Apophis, ruled by Seth helping Re) being particularly symbolic of the sinful states of mind of Seth, anthropologically as well as cosmically.

But the assassination of Osiris (evil par excellence) was of no avail ! In order to obtain his resurrection, Isis and Horus performed ceremonies on the body of his father, helped by Anubis, the embalmer, while Thoth recited sacred words. Thus was Osiris raised from the dead to life immortal in a new body. If Pharaoh was a living paradox (a god abiding on earth), then Osiris was a dead paradox (a man alive after death). In both worlds, they represented the exceptions :

The divine Ba of Pharaoh lives in his body and may return to the sky when the king dies.
Osiris natural body is mummified but he was raised from the dead to eternal life in the afterlife.

Osiris became the great prototype of all dead men, to start with Pharaoh in the Old Kingdom. From the Middle Kingdom onward, everybody who was just and able to pay for the rituals could find a set of spells which would be helpful to him or her in the afterlife ...

Didactical Literature

the didactical literature of the Old Kingdom : Hordedef, Kagemni & Ptahhotep

The wisdom teachings (or, as the Egyptians called them, "instructions") were the second major literary genre in the Old Kingdom. The great order (Maat) combined with speculative thought gave rise to brief teachings or maxims. The narrative frame of a father instructing his son were the literary device used to put these teachings together. These instructions teach how humans can be made perfect and summarize the deposit of wisdom of Ancient Egypt. Whereas all other works are anonymous, the wisdom instructions are attributed to a famous sage (genuine or pseudo-epigraphic).

The instruction was primarily aristocratic. It became "middle class" in the New Kingdom. The Old Kingdom instructions have the ambiance of the Old Kingdom and reflect a state which is unified, serene, orderly & optimistic. The state (Pharaoh & the temple services) is in harmony with itself, and the instructions embody the pragmatical wisdom of the upper-class Egyptian. They promote the code of the Old Kingdom nobleman, belonging to the wealthy class, (partly) initiated in the rituals of the temple service payed to the deities, able to read & write hieroglyphics, and a member of the administration of Pharaoh, like local governors, high priests, members of court or members of the family of the king.

Of the Instruction to Kagemni (serving under Huni & Snefru, IIIth to IVth Dynasty, but dated VIth Dynasty) only a final portion is preserved and the name of the sage is lost. The text is part of the Papyrus Prisse of the Bibliothèque Nationale and (after a blank stretch) it is followed by the Maxims of Ptahhotep. The latter is also written in the VIth Dynasty and both are stylistically resemblant.

"If a good example is set by him who leads,
he will be beneficient for ever,
(and) his wisdom will be for all time.
He who knows, feeds his Ba with what endures,
so that it is happy with him on earth.
He who knows is known by his wisdom,
(and) the great by his good actions.
(That) his heart twines his tongue,
(and) his lips (be) precise when he speaks.
That his eyes see !
That his ears be pleased to hear what profits his son.
(For) acting with Maat, he is free of falsehood."
Maxims of Ptahhotep, epilogue.

In fact, both instructions embody teachings on justice & truth (Maat) which must have existed long before the VIth Dynasty. On the walls of the pyramids of Pharaoh Unis (Vth Dynasty, the first one to cover the walls of his tombs with hieroglyphs) and the rulers of the VIth, we also find :

"To say : 'May you shine as Re, repress wrongdoing, cause Maat to stand behind Re, shine every day for him who is in the horizon of the sky. Open the gates which are in the Abyss.'"
Pyramid Texts, utterance 586 (§ 1582).

"Collect what belongs to Maat, for Maat is what the King says."
Pyramid Texts, utterance 758 (§ 2290), translated by Faulkner, 1969, p.318.

It is difficult to say how far these wisdom teachings go back. For example, in the early days of research, egyptologists dated the Pyramid Texts as early as possible. For Sethe they were Predynastic. Contemporary egyptologists mostly go to the other extreme, and generally date the origin of texts close to the time of their textualization. Personally, I reject both positions. The advent of a unified, pharaonic, dynastic Egypt (cf. Palette of Narmer - ca. 3050 BCE) was the starting-point of a particular Egyptian culture, the foundations of which would scarcely change.

Moreover, the invention of writing (phonogram + ideogram) immediately preceded the Ith Dynasty. From the very beginning the Egyptians developed cursive signs for use in everyday life, to record data which could not be expressed by means of a picture, suggestive of symbolized cognitive activity. Predynastic and Early Dynastic evidence does not make it likely that the first Dynasties were devoid of religious ceremony, ritual, sacred texts and oral wisdom teachings. Hence, from a hermeneutical perspective, exemplaric textualization like the Prayer for Offerings, the Pyramid Texts or the wisdom teachings must very probably have been part of the cultural tradition of the dynastic Egyptians since Djoser (ca. 2654 - 2635 BCE, IIIth Dynasty), if not earlier (Aha ? - ca. 3000 BCE, Ith Dynasty), i.e. ca. 750 years earlier than the reign of Pepi I (ca. 2316 - 2284 BCE, middle of Vth Dynasty), when Pharaoh had to start dealing with the growing importance of the provinces.

The wisdom teachings offer the "summum bonum" of the Old Kingdom : to be a man of peace & justice, to speak and to do Maat, i.e. the will of Pharaoh. Did these magisterial textualizations, by teaching what the wise considered to be the best, intent to avoid the progressive decline of the unity of the Two Lands, apparent from the middle of the VIth Dynasty ?

The collapse of the Old Kingdom brought about the disruption of the identity between the unified pharaonic state and the just and true state of affairs (Maat). Maat could not be the same anymore as what Pharaoh said ... the "sollen" required the heart (mind) of the individual.

"While art sank to a provincial level for lack of support from a central Residence, the intellectual elite of the land took pen in hand and even held the creator and sustainer of the world, now called 'God' responsible for the collapse."
Hornung, 1999, p.42.

the didactical literature of the Middle Kingdom : Neferti, Ipuwer & the Eloquent Peasant

After the collapse of the Old Kingdom, three major changes were taking place :

climate changes & low Nile floods : the equatorial African climate, hot and humid with abundant rainfalls, which down through the Neolithic Period had never changed, became the dry, desert climate of today. This must have had a tremendous impact on the naturalistic religiosity of the Egyptians and may well be one of the factors explaining why the Age of Pyramids was over (cf. the reduction of the size of the tomb and the influence of moisture on the conservation of the mummy) ;
the disruption of the state of union : the Two Lands were ruled by two kings ! The divine order was broken. Pharaoh, Lord of the Two Lands, was no longer and so justice, truth & the good could no longer be projected outwardly upon the institutions (a central "great house" and the temple services of the nomes, the functionaries of Pharaoh). Social unrest, famine, provincial anarchy, internal division, strife & the downfall of a central economy ensued ;
the rise of the urban class : at first local potentates, the former rulers of the nomes, go for self-help. Raids on neighboring nomes are common. The law of the strongest prevailed. Over time, the residences of the nomarchs were walled and an urban middle class was formed, focused on the accumulation of private wealth. Two major nomes ruled, in Upper Egypt, Thebes, and in the Delta, Heracleopolis.

These physical, political, economical & sociological changes affected Egyptian society deeply. Instead of disappearing altogether, the collective consciousness of Egyptian civilization was able to interiorize itself to deal with this crisis. New mental operators emerged (cf. Piaget). This proves the creative flexibility of the Egyptian way of life, always coupled with an incredible inner, hidden strength. Is it a coincidence that the reunification of Egypt was realized by the nomarchs of the Theban nome, the city of Amun : One, Millions and Hidden ?

How to characterize the novelty ? The explosion of intellectual activity in the Classical Age, as well as the finalization of the language itself, may be explained by the "Renaissance" brought about by the need of every individual to consolidate him or herself as a source of truth & justice. The individual had to make his or her free choices and these would be weighed against the feather of truth. Nobody escaped judgment and the importance of a good place in the West was no longer a royal privilege. The wisdom teachings evidence this change too.

The instructions appear in three forms : the didactical speech of a father to his son (like the Instruction of King Amenemhet I for His Son Sesostris I), prophetic & other speeches (containing lamentations and insights regarding the problematic nature of human life, like the Complaints of Khakheperre-sonb) and dialogue, with contrasting points of view (like in the present Discourse). This didactical literature still understood Pharaoh as the guardian of order, but then mostly in circumstances when kingship is weak and chaos ("isefet") had overtaken the land to the disadvantage of justice & truth ("maât").

Indeed, the main topic of the wisdom teachings was order versus chaos. The latter appeared -not in a cosmological -Nu- or theological sense -Seth-, but in a moral one, formulated as a general disruption of the Two Lands because of an extreme loss of solidarity and humanity between its people, fratricide, regicide & suicide. In fact, this topic was also literary, for -at the time of their composition- no "national distress" was at hand. Except for civil disorders that broke out periodically, peace & prosperity were the rule between the XIth and XIIIth Dynasties. It is clear that the foundation of the new sense of individuality (hand in hand with the democratization of ascension or deification) had also called for a more individualized, well-composed, deliberate, thematical approach of the fundamental opposition between "isefet" and "maât". A common rhetorical device often used was the reversal of something into its opposite : the poor becomes wealthy, the master a slave and a slave a master ...

"I show you the land in turmoil : the weak-armed is strong-armed, one salutes him who saluted. I show you the undermost uppermost : what was turned on the back turns the belly, man will live in the graveyard, the beggar will gain riches, the great will rob to live, the poor will eat bread, the slaves will be exalted. Gone from the earth is the nome of On, the birthplace of every god."
The Prophecies of Neferti (Lichtheim, 1975, p.143. Preserved in a single manuscript, the Papyrus Leningrad 1116B, from the VIIIth Dynasty - dated two decades after the Instruction of Amenemhet I, i.e. early XIIth Dynasty).

According to Lichtheim and others, neither the "long past" First Intermediate Period nor any other historical situation has influenced the contents of this literature.

"... the Admonitions of Ipuwer is inherently contradictory, hence historically impossible : on the one hand the land is said to suffer from total want ; on the other hand the poor are described as having become rich, of wearing fine clothes, and generally of disposing of all that once belonged to their masters."
Lichtheim, 1975, p.150.

Others, including myself, conjecture that the author's memory of the historical events of the First Intermediate Period (the loss of unity and the subsequent collapse of the state), which were less than two centuries old, was used as a literary background. The "new rich" mentioned, may well be the nomarchs who, being proud individualists, displayed the titles, customs & wealth which previously had exclusively belonged to Pharaoh and his court. The general loss of harmony, order & truth described, may express the lost paradise of the serene Old Kingdom. Moreover, our author adds that because of the evil impulses within certain individuals, things are not well in Egypt. Indeed, with individualism came egoism and also the lack of respect for others, leading to the downfall of the fundamental feeling of justice, intimately related with how one heard, listened, spoke and acted. So our authors use past horrors to make a point when reflecting on "la condition humaine" in the context of the Middle Kingdom.

"Each man's heart is for himself. (...) One gives only with hatred to silence the mouth that speaks. To answer a speech, the arms thrusts a stick, one speaks by killing him. Speech falls on the heart like fire, one cannot endure the word of mouth."
The Prophecies of Neferti (Lichtheim, 1975, p.142)

The order of the state was no longer, the land was shrunk and the rulers were many. In this situation, chaos rules and order is not. Re withdraws from humanity and no face will be dazzled by seeing him in Pharaoh. At the end of his prophecy, the political intentions of Neferti become clear. He writes that a king (called "son of man") will come, who will make order return to its seat while chaos is driven away and make those who attend him rejoice again ...

On the theme of loss of justice and this time without any political motives, we read in the Complaints of Khakheperre-sonb (closely related to the Prophecies of Neferti and the Admonitions of Ipuwer) :

"It is pain to be silent to what one hears, it is futile to answer the ignorant. To reject a speech makes enmity ; the heart does not accept the truth, one cannot bear a statement of fact. A man loves only his own words. Everyone builds on crookedness, right-speaking is abandoned. I spoke to you, my heart, answer you me. A heart addressed must not be silent. Lo, servant and master fare alike, there is much that weighs upon you."
Complaints of Khakheperre-sonb (Lichtheim, 1975, p.148. Preserved on a writing board, British Museum 5645, - dated to the reign of Sesostris II, i.e. XIIth Dynasty).

People's voices are crooked and even children dislike their existence ! Joy has gone.

"Lo, merriment has ceased, is made no more. Groaning is throughout the land, mingled with laments. Lo, every have-not is one who has, those who were people are strangers whom one shows the way. Lo, everyone's hair has fallen out. One can't distinguish the son of man from the pauper. Lo, one is numb from noise. No voice is straight in years of shouting. No end of shouting ! Lo, great and small say : 'I wish I were dead.'. Little children say : 'He should not have made me live !' Lo, children of nobles are dashed against walls, infants are put out on high ground. Lo, those who were entombed are cast on high ground, embalmers' secrets are thrown away. (...) If only this were the end of man, no more conceiving, no births ! Then the land would cease to shout, tumult would be no more !"
Admonitions of Ipuwer (Lichtheim, 1975, pp.152-153 & 154. Papyrus Leiden 344recto, which dates from the XIXth Dynasty although the work itself dates from the XIIth Dynasty).

In the Eloquent Peasant, a long work consisting of a narrative frame and nine poetical speeches, the need for justice coupled with the utility of fine, acomplished speech are also the dominant themes :

"When you go down to the sea of justice, and sail on it with a fair wind, no squall shall strip away your sail, nor will your boat be idle. (...)
Is it not wrong, a balance that tilts, a plummet that strays, the straight becoming crooked ? (...)
Straighten your tongue, let it not stray, a serpent is this limb of man. (...)
Earth's rightness lies in justice ! Speak not falsely - you are great. Act not lightly - you are weighty. Speak not falsely - you are the balance, do not swerve - you are the norm ! You are one with the balance, if it tilts you may tilt. (...)
When the secret of truth is found, falsehood is thrown on its back on the ground. (...)
None light of heart is weighty in conduct. Be patient so as to learn justice. Restrain your anger for the good of the humble seeker. No hasty man attains excellence, no impatient man is leaned upon. (...)
Do justice for the Lord of Justice. The justice of whose justice is real ! Pen, papyrus, palette of Thoth, keep away from wrongdoing ! When goodness is good it is truly good, for justice is for eternity. It enters the graveyard with its doer. When he is buried and earth enfolds him, his name does not pass from the earth ; he is remembered because of his goodness, that is the rule of god's command. (...)
Speak justice, do justice. For it is mighty. It is great, it endures. Its worth is tried, it leads to reveredness."
The Eloquent Peasant (Lichtheim, 1975, pp.169-182. Preserved on four papyrus copies from the Middle Kingdom).

The study of Egypt's wisdom texts is dealt with separately.

Components of Ancient Egyptian Funerary Anthropology

The Ancient Egyptians had a complex anthropology, called in to explain the processes which assured one's existence after the physical body had died. Egyptologists have had a very difficult time explaining the various components of this view on man, especially because it seems that the Ancient Egyptians themselves did not always understand them, but also because most contemporary sciences have embraced the materialist and realist fallacies, and have hence blinded themselves of seeing ... As a result, when the actual meaning of the fundamental concepts of Egyptian (African) anthropology, such as "ka" (double), "ba" (soul), "ab" (heart), "khaibit" (shadow), "akh" (spirit), "khab" (spirit-body), "ren" (name), "sah" (spiritual body), should be given, silence or a muddled explanation ensues. This is not surprising. Today, egyptology is still in the process of specializing, and a generalist approach has not yet emerged, mostly because the methodology of a multi-disciplinary approach is still lacking and the academia have time nor money to persue a free study, the mother of all scientific exploration and advance.

"The ideas and beliefs which the Egyptian held in reference to a future existence are not readily to be defined, owing to the many difficulties in translating religious texts and in harmonizing the statements made in different works of different periods. Some confusion of details also seem to have existed in the minds of the Egyptians themselves ..."
Budge, 1967, p.lv.

"Unlike ancient artists who concentrated on a person's individuality or beauty, Egyptian artists wished to present the enduring, suprapersonal part of the human being that, removed from time, lives on in the hereafter. While not ignoring the physical side of existence, the Egyptians realized that the human being had a variety of spiritual or mental components as well."
Hornung, 1992, pp.174-175.

Evidence points to :
(a) subtle bodies and
(b) different foci of conscious identity existing in these bodies.

In Neoplatonism, Christian Gnosticism, the Qabalah (Jewish mysticism) as well as in Eastern Yoga identical views are heard. Can a comparative analysis provide us with enough hermeneutical keys to conjecture the meaning of the different components of Egyptian funerary anthropology ?

hylic pluralism

How to name the view that matter is subdivided in gross & subtle strata, allowing for different aggregates on different material layers or sheets ? In his Ochêma of 1954, Poortman suggested the term "hylic pluralism" in order :

"(...) to give expression to the fact that it is not in the first place a question of matter as a philosophical point of view, as in 'materialism', but rather a question of several forms or subdivisions of matter. (...) The view that the soul does not possess one ochêma or vehicle, but several ochêmata or vehicles of matter, of decreasing density, is sometimes encountered, for example, in the case of the neo-Platonist Proclus."
Poortman, 1954, p.8.

Hylic pluralism can be found in many ancient cultures all around the globe. It is also operative in Jewish qabalah, in Hindu yoga as well as -more recently- in European theosophy (cf. Golden Dawn). The following table of correspondences makes this quite clear. This model is used as the general (mathematical) guideline regulating my comparative investigations, measuring the operational levels of the phenomenology of the infinite. By comparing the different anthropologies of these traditions, one is able to contextualize the diverse components of Egyptian funerary anthropology with more ease.

It is limited to 7 dimensions because the additional 3 addessed to analyze pre-creation have no bearing on the subject of the different components of man (they belong to mystical theology and are studied in Sufism).

So let me try to, on the basis of the available Egyptian sources, assess the meaning of these elusive Ancient Egyptian words, which describe the various components of man. This is speculative, but it is better for the advancement of knowledge to speculate than to remain silent. At the end of this analysis a comprehensive picture may emerge. Also, this tentative sketch is made with the warning that these reconstructive distinctions do not fit in the proto-r