. The dawn of civilization: Egypt and Chaldaea . eath of the gods is expressed in other places as well as in a passageof the eighth chapter of the Booh of the Dead (Navilles edition, pi. x. 11. 6, 7), which has not to myknowledge hitherto been noticed: lam that Osiris in the West, and Osiris knoweth his day inwhich he shall be no more ; that is to say, the day of his death when he will cease to exist. All the£ods, Atûmû, Hoius, Râ, Thot, Phtah, Khnûmû, are represented under the forms of mummies, andthis implies that they are dead. Moreover, their tombs were pointed out in several places in Egy
. The dawn of civilization: Egypt and Chaldaea . eath of the gods is expressed in other places as well as in a passageof the eighth chapter of the Booh of the Dead (Navilles edition, pi. x. 11. 6, 7), which has not to myknowledge hitherto been noticed: lam that Osiris in the West, and Osiris knoweth his day inwhich he shall be no more ; that is to say, the day of his death when he will cease to exist. All the£ods, Atûmû, Hoius, Râ, Thot, Phtah, Khnûmû, are represented under the forms of mummies, andthis implies that they are dead. Moreover, their tombs were pointed out in several places in Egypt{De Iside et Osiride,§ 21, Leemans edition, p. 36). 3 Drawn by Boudier from a photograph by M. Gayet, taken in 1889, of a scene in the hypostylehall at Lûxor. This illustration shows the relative positions of prince and god. Amon, after havingplaced the pschent upon the head of the Pnaraoh Amenôthes III., who kneels before him, proceeds,to impose the sa. * Maspeuo, Études de Mythologie et dArchéologie Égyptiennes, vol. ii. p. THE KING AFTER HIS CORONATION RECEIVING THE IMPOSITIONOF THE 112 THE GODS OF EGYPT. insinuated itself into the living man, or fell upon him with irresistible violence—illness being a struggle between the one possessed and the power whicbpossessed bim. As soon as the former succumbed he was carried away from hisown people, and bis place knew him no more. But had all ended for him withthe moment in which he had ceased to breathe ? As to the body, no one wasignorant of its natural fate. It quickly fell to decay, and a few years sufficedto reduce it to a skeleton. And as for the skeleton, in the lapse of centuriesthat too was disintegrated and became a mere train of dust, to be blown awayby the first breath of wind. The soul might have a longer career and fullerfortunes, but these were believed to be independent upon those of the body, andcommensurate with them. Every advance made in the process of decompositionrobbed the soul of som
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookidd, booksubjectcivilization
