AMDUAT - The book (papyruses) ?That is in the Netherworld?.
AMULET - Small figure or symbol hung from a chain or strap
from the neck, ostensibly to ward off evil or to bring luck or other positive
reaction (love, prosperity, etc.). Three such charms were placed in the
wrappings of mummies to protect the
deceased or to endow him/her with magical powers.
ANKH - A symbol whose hieroglyphic sign means life or a
symbol of divinity. Gods are frequently shown wearing or carrying the sacred
symbol. Common people would wear the ankh as an amulet.
ANOINTING - The use of fragrant, purified oils to dress
the body. Oils were used in purification rituals, to prepare the deceased for
the afterlife. They were used for their protective powers, as well as to appeal
to the gods. Often, wax is mixed with fragrant oils, formed into small cakes
and set upon the head, or ontop a ceremonial wig and allowed to melt during the
course of a day or night, would keep the wearer bathed in delightful smells.
ARROW - The bow and arrow were the chief weapons during
most of the ancient history of Egypt.
ASS - The word ?ass? was used to describe a miserable
beast of burden. Also, the animal was associated with the god of Seth.
BA - The essence or key part of the soul of a
human being.
BARQUE - A ceremonial boat, used in rituals to carry the
gods? proxies, the statues. In the ancients? theology, many of the gods ride
across the celestial skies.
BIRTH BRICK - Two bricks were often used by women,
squatting to give birth. A symbolic brick, sometimes sits atop a goddess? head,
symbolizing her fertility or her role as a mother.
BLACK - The color denotes the netherworld or refers to the
fertility of the rich, black soil
of the land. Thus, the ancient country was called, ?the
Two Lands,? referring to the fertile land and the red, or desert lands.
Fertility gods, such as Osiris, were depicted with black skin, representing the
land.
BOOK OF THE DEAD - Actually the correct title of the
collective whole of papyruses used for instruction and as protection to go with
the deceased, is ?Going Forth By Day.? Among the finest of these papyruses were
the ones prepared for private citizens, Ani and Hunefer.
BOW - See also ARROW. Nine bows were a pharaoh?s symbol of
his loyal subjects, the people.
BEER - The specialty of ancient Egypt was a light beer,
that could quench the thirst and calm the spirit. It had to be strained to keep
the fermented sediment out of the beverage. Most often, it was served in
pottery jars that had conical bottoms, drinkers set their drinks in stands and
sipped it through straws.
BREAD - Was a staple of the ancients diet. It was eaten at
every meal and barley bread was fermented to make a fine, light beer.
BULL - Various varieties of this animal, the
Buchis, Apis, Mnevis, etc., were revered for their
strength and verity, often becoming the
symbol for a royal or a god.
CANOPIC JARS - Pottery or limestone jars that held the
vital organs of the deceased. The particular organs were believed to be
protected by one of the four sons of Horus, thus a set of four jars would
likely be topped with a representation of the four siblings, Hapi, the lungs,
Duamutef, the stomach, Imsety, the liver and Qegsenmuef, the intestine.
CARAVANSY - A rest house for caravans, consisting of
storage rooms, topped with merchants? sleeping quarters, built around a large
yard for holding animals.
CARTOUCHE - A ring denoting the written (hieroglyphic)
name of a pharaoh or queen.
COFFER - Ornamental recessed panel in a ceiling.
COLONADE - Columns set at regular intervals.
COLOSSUS - Oversized figure of a king or god.
COLOR - It symbolized ?substance?. Red signified,
aggression and life-force (blood),
blue is submissive, yet signifies the flow of
the infinite, black signified the netherworld
(death) as well as rebirth (the earth). Men were always
portrayed a brownish-red and women portrayed as pale yellow. These differences
seem to point to the fact that men were more often browned by working in the
sun, while women worked indoors. Red and white were considered opposites,
thus the pharaoh wore the White Crown of Upper Egypt and
the Red Crown of Lower Egypt together as the double crown.
COLUMNS - Were the architectural support for the heavens,
so that they were used in the construction of temples.
COPTS - Egyptian Christians, who trace their lineage back
to the Egyptians of pharaonic times.
CROOK - The scepter carried by many of the gods, highly
placed officials and always, with the FLAIL, by the pharaoh.
CROWNS - There were several variations of the crown worn
by pharaohs. There was the White Crown, a fitted type of hat that comes to a
high, round knob at the crown, the Red Crown, fitted also to the face, flat
across the front, but rising almost to a point at the rear of the crown. The
Double Crown combines the red and white crowns, the Atef Crown is basically
shaped like the white crown, but in the classical side-view portrait has two
flaring ridges along either side of the crown. Osiris is always seen wearing
this style. The Blue or War crown, has the symbols of Egypt, usually in gold on
the front of the crown, and is rounded. Pharaohs are also
seen wearing a royal headcloth (as on the
Sphynx). Sometimes, in more casual settings, the royals
would wear a simpler diadem (a headband) of gold and precious stones.
SAGE OF THE
AGES
Sometime
during the Old Kingdom, a wise man, grand vizier of the land, advisor to the
king and
keeper of
secrets, Ptah-Hotep, recorded his much sought after advice for posterity. The
teachings of of Ptah-Hotep was recorded in it?s entirety, in the Papyrus
Prisse, Paris. The manuscript had, no doubt, been edited by the Middle Kingdom
and comes to us today as a result of several translations made during the 20th
century. On this page, we shall, offer interpretations of the sages' advice.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE WISDOM
OF PTAH-HOTEP
An
Introduction
The
beautifully expressed utterances, spoken by the prince and count, the father of
the god and
beloved of
the god, the bodily son of the king, the superintendent of the capital and
vizier,
Ptah-Hotep,
while instructing the ignorant in knowledge and in the rules of elegant
discourse, the weal of him that will hearken thereto and the woe of him that
shall transgress them.
THOU CANST
LEARN SOMETHING FROM EVERY ONE.
Be not
arrogant because of thy knowledge, and have no confidence in that thou art a
learned
man. Take
counsel with the ignorant as with the wise, . . . A good discourse is more
hidden
than the
precious green stone, and yet is it found with slave-girls over the
mill-stones.
THOU WILT
GET ON BEST IN LIFE
WITH THE
AID OF RIGHT AND TRUTH.
If thou art
a leader and givest command to the multitude, strive after every excellence,
until there be no fault in thy nature. Truth is good and its worth is lasting,
and it hath not been disturbed since the day of its creator, whereas he that
transgesseth its ordinances is punished. It lieth as a right path in front of
him that knoweth nothing. Wrongdoing hath never yet brought its venture to
port. Evil indeed winneth wealth, but the strength of truth is that it endureth
and the upright saith: ?It is the property of my father.?
THOU CANST
OBTAIN NOTHING IN LIFE BY BLUSTER.
WHAT HATH
COME TO PASS
IS THE COMMAND
OF GOD.
BE FAITHFUL
IN THE DELIVERING OF MESSAGES.
If thou art
one of the trusted ones, whom one great man sendeth to another, act rightly in
the
matter when
he sendeth thee. Thou shalt deliver the message as he saith it. Be not
secretive
concerning
what may be said to thee, and beware of any forgetfulness. Hold fast to the
truth and
overstep it
not, even if thou recountest nothing that is gratifying.
PERMIT THEY
SELF TIME FOR RECREATION.
Follow
thine heart so long as thou livest, and do not more than is said. Diminish not
the time in
which thou
followest the heart, for it is an abhorrence to the ka if its time is
diminished.
PROCLAIM
THY BUSINESS WITHOUT CONCEALMENT.
One ought
to say plainly what one knoweth and what one knoweth not.
WARNING
AGAINST COVETOUSNESS.
If thou
desirest thy conduct to be good, to set thyself free from all that is evil,
then beware of
covetousness,
which is a malady diseaseful, incurable. Intimacy with it is impossible. It
maketh the sweet friend bitter, it alienateth the trusted one from the master,
it maketh bad of father and mother, together with the brothers of the mother,
and it divorceth a man?s wife.
BE LIBERAL
TOWARDS THINE INTIMATES.
Satisfy
thine intimates with that which hath accrued to thee, as one favored of God. To
do this is prudent, for there is none that knoweth his condition, if he
thinketh of the morrow. If, therefore, a misfortune befalleth the favored ones,
it is the intimates that still say ?Welcome!? ho him . . .
REPEAT NOT
FRIVOLOUS SPEECHES,
THE
UTTERANCE FOR INSTANCE
OF ONE THAT
IS HEATED...
BE CAUTIOUS
IN SPEECH.
Be
silent--this is better than teftef flowers. Speak only if thou knowest that
thou canst unravel
the
difficulty. It is an artist that speaketh in council and to speak is harder
than any other work.
_______________________________________________
* This text
liberally adapted from a collection of translations, Ancient Egyptian Poetry
and
Prose,
Adolf Erman, editor. Dover Press 1995, (from the English translation of Die Literatur
der
Agypter,
1923.)
DECANS -
Stars and constellations that rose at 10-day intervals. The ancients used these
to tell time.
DEMONS -
Messengers of evil, malignant spirits, usually thought to be doing the bidding
of a fierce or evil god. The most feared was the ?eater of hearts? a mythical
animal, described as being part crocodile, part lion, part hippopotamus and
part lion is an archetypal demon. This animal was thought to crouch beside the
scales in the Hall of Judgment and when the recently deceased stood in judgment
his heart was weighed against the feather of Ma?at (truth). If the heart was
not pure and tipped the scales, the
beastly
demon would devour it and the
deceased
lived no more. Many of the
chapters in
?Book of Going Forth By Day?
(?Book of
the Dead?) were dedicated to
warding off
demons.
DEMOTIC - A
kind of cursive or casual form of hieroglyphic writing.
DESERT -
Was considered the land of the dead, though the Egyptians knew and accepted
that the desert had it?s practical uses as a site for quarries, the location of
many of the major routes of trade. In the ?Book? there are four goddesses who
provide the punishment for the evil doer in the afterlife. The ancients view of
the desert can be found in these goddess? names, ?she
who cooks,?
?she who provides heat,? ?she who is upon the sand,? and the destroyer?. Seth,
in one of his aspects, was called the ?red? god. Red is the symbolic color of
the parching desert lands.
DIVINE
STAFF - Desert chieftains always carried staffs as a symbol of authority.
Divine staffs were kept in the temples for ceremonies, engendered an authority
and divinity.
DJED PILLAR
- The straight column with arms holding thhe crook and flail, is often used as a
charm and, probably, began as a fetish then became symbol of Osiris. In it?s
original form it was a representation of a rack made for drying corn.
DUAT - The
netherworld, dwelling place of the dead.
ELECTRUM -
Gold and silver alloy used for fine jewelry.
FAIENCE - A
glaze used to mold small figurines, decorative beads and amulets. Usually comes
in a blue green color resembling turquoise.
FALSE DOOR
- A recess made in the mastaba or tomb, thhat is made to appear like a real
door. The deceased was to enter and leave the tomb by means of this door.
FLAIL - See
also CROOK. A short whip with several tails, used as a symbol of royal
power, when
held across the chest with the crook.
FRESCO -
Refers to tempera paintings on walls.
FRIEZE - A
band of color or painting, that is painted around the borders of a room.
HEADCLOTH -
see CROWNS.
HEB-SED - A
jubilee celebrating 30 years of a pharaoh's reign.
HIERATIC -
See DEMOTIC.
HIEROGLYPHS
- The form of writing, used by ancient Egyyptians. It is unique that the symbols
mean and sound the same.
JARS -
Pottery jars that had conical bottoms, beer drinkers set their beer in stands
and sipped it through straws.
KIOSK -
Small open temple or pavilion supported by pillars.
KILT - A
short, pleated, usually linen wrap of cloth worn around the waist by men.
LOGGIA - A
roofed attachment, usually built on the north side of the house.
MASTABA -
Arabic word for bench, like the ones outside of homes. Because of its shape,
the term is also used to describe the ancients? low, flat-topped tombs.
MEIKITES -
Roman Christians who were in constant conflict with the Copts.
MENATS - An
elaborate beaded necklace, with a counterweight going down the back. Always
worn by Goddess Hathor, it symbolizes her healing powers.
NAOS - The
sacred place in the interior of temples where statues of the divinities were
kept.
NARTHEX -
Entrance to tombs.
NATRON -
The naturally occurring salts found in Wadi Natrun, that were used for
desiccating mummies.
NILOMETER -
A station equipped with a device used for measuring the level of the waters of
the Nile.
NOME - A
district or province of ancient Egypt.
OBELISK - A tapered stone shaft, with a pyramidion tip, that
was usually gilded. The other surfaces were carved with hieroglyphs.
OSTRACA - Fragments of limestone pottery that have a
smooth surface that could be used by students to practice writing.
PECTORAL - A large, intricate piece of jewelry worn on the
chest.
PERISTYLE - An outdoor, roofed court.
PRONAOS - The chamber that leads to the sanctuary.
PYLON - Entrance with two huge sides. The propylon is the
gate that stands in front of the pylon.
PYRAMIDION - The pyramid shaped top of an obelisk.
SENET - A popular board game.
SEPTUAGINT - A version of the Bible translated into Greeks
in Alexandria, by 70 writers, who, though working separately came up with the
same version of the sacred text. This was the basis for most of the modern
translations of the Bible.
SERAPEUM - A temple to Serapis.
SERDAB - A hidden room in the tomb where a statue of the
deceased could view the rituals honoring her/him.
SEREKH - Symbol of kingship shaped like a palace.
SHABTI - A small human-life figure made to be put in along
with the tomb goods of the deceased. The figure would, when the deceased were
called to work in the Netherworld, would spring to life and work in place of
his master.
SHADUF - A bucket hung from a pole with a counterweight,
used for lifting water.
SISTRUM - a rattle or tambourine like instrument, often
associated with the Goddess Hathor.
SPHYNX - Human headed lion figure.
STELA - A stone block covered with hierogylphic writing.
VAULT - An arched roof.
VIZIER - a high-ranking official, who is a special
minister or advisor. Pharaohs would
always have at least one key advisor who coordinated the
administration of the county.
WADI - A dry depression or gulch.
WAS SCEPTER - A life-giving fetish that developed from the
symbol of a protective, canid.
WEDJAT-EYE - The eye of the god Re that Seth stole. Thoth
healed and it eventually became associated with Thoth. It was used as an
amulet, to ward of the evil eye.
YARU - The Fields of Yaru were the fields of the
afterlife, where wheat grows taller than a man and everything is plentiful.
BELIEFS
All of
Egypt believed in the great gods of Egypt, there were local gods and gods who
ascended, the ancients did not believe that stones and twigs were animated with
magical spirits, but rather, they revered the natural forces of nature that
created the natural resources at their command.
They
selected animals or men or women who embodied these qualities and assigned a
divine respect for these qualities to the symbols. The gods didn?t have a
single manifestation, they had at a minimum, two sides, a positive and negative
pole. A god could metamorphize, be joined with a more prominent god and share
the properties and symbolism of the other.
Fertile and
Arid
The
story of ancient Egypt, is the story of a people and their relationship to
their land. The character and belief systems derive from the land.
The land was called Kemet, it consisted, as it does
today, of two main areas--The desert, or the red land and the nutrient rich,
cultivable land, called, the black land. Pharaohs, the ultimate authority in
ancient Egypt, were called Lord of the Two Lands.
The land, bordered by the Mediterranean Ocean, the Red
Sea, was dominated by an inland source of water, that ran south to north, the
river, Nile. The cooling waters quenched the thirst, fed the hunger of the
ancient people. The Nile was constant.
The Nile was so steady, so predictable, that early scientists
devised ways to measure the Nile at scheduled intervals, by means of a device
called a Nilometer. With these measurements, engineers could predict the level
of the waters at its height, so that preparations could be made for the season
of high water. Irrigation canals and runoffs diverted, widened or otherwise
prepared so that the mineral enriched silt, born by the waters of the Nile,
could best be absorbed by the land.
The land would be tilled and crop yields maximized. Excess
crops were dried and stored in granaries for the dry season, that follows the
floods. This was the rhythm of the seasons, the interplay of the land and the
waters and the people absorbed the rhythm and worshipped the balance that held
their universe.
THE PEOPLE
Duality was the rhythm, constancy was its flow. Egyptians accepted the
red, arid desert . . expected human frailty, yet hoped that they themselves, as
well as their leaders would be honest and forthright, kind and nurturing. The
ancient people aspired to a better life, but accepted thatthey had a role and a
place in their society. The people loved life, but prepared for the afterlife.
The people who we credit with phenomenal monuments and
fantastical myths brought
their sense of duality, into everyday life. The people of
the land were
and various and sundry types of laborers. When the fields
were idle, thousands could work on Pharaoh?s monumental building projects.
The Tomb Makers
Some worked year-round on these building projects. These
were the tomb makers, artists
and craftsmen that created much of the beautiful edifices
and monuments that we marvel at to this day. Artists such as,
As well as these individuals, there would have been a
varitable city of support, including
· physicians
· physicians' assistants
· cooks and assistants, bakers and brewers
· scribes or clerks to coordinate the voluminous records produced
by the project
· priests to minister to the workforce
· soldiers to provide security and reinforce discipline
In addition, there were Chief Scribes and Gang Leaders and
nobles in charge of the entire project. These individuals would have refereed
disputes, administered punishment, arranged for promotions and been responsible
to the architect, the Mayor of Thebes and ultimately, to pharaoh, for the
success of these immense bulding projects.
In The Villages
Many of the same positions would have been held, but with
members of an entire family, likely to specialize in a single craft. The vast
majority of villagers would have been farmers, trading excess crops for
furniture, healing skills or clothing.
The typical village would have a village leader or headman
or woman, who would speak for the villagers. There would likely be elders and
individuals who had proven themselves particularly wise, that would consult
with the leader on major decisions. Each village would have at least one
midwife, a healer, specializing in herbal crafts and spells and at least one
priest to attend to the village shrine and to advise on religious matters.
Larger villages would have had more complex governing
systems, with scribes and web priests to attend to the rulers and priests. But,
the model was largely the same.
Nomes
The villages were eventually allied with other villages and
formed provinces, that would provide a means to wide ranging trade and
protection from marauders.
Craftsmen were not slaves as the Greek historian and
traveler, Herodotus reported, but were highly prized artisans who contributed
their efforts to building their nation?s tributes to the
king and Pharaoh in exchange for homes for their families
and regularly distributed food and supplies. On their free time, they could
freelance, providing artistic services to nobles and courtiers who could afford
their wares. Thus, in and around every great king?s monuments are invariably,
the tombs of nobles and honored courtiers, who had availed themselves of the
skills of the king?s finest craftsmen.
THE
AFTERLIFE
In the
afterlife, the soul persisted if, the heart was free from sin. There are many
sins orThe Ten Commandments, at death the transgressor is judged harshlly if
she has coomitted any of the
great sins.
The ancients believed that the deceased would stand in the Hall of Judgment,
before 42 judges, call their names and profess innocence. His heart, or soul,
as it was believed that the soul resided in the heart, was weighed on a scale
and balanced against the feather of truth, or feather of Ma?at. Ma?at was the
goddess of truth and divine order. The mortuary god, Anubis, administered the
weighing. Many of the mortuary texts, papyrus making up the Book of the Dead,
detail prayers for the deceased that appeal to the gods that their hearts not
rise up and bear witness against them at this critical moment. If their hearts
failed them, they would be devoured by a fiendish beast.
To be saved
from this plight, would mean that the deceased could live in a land, parallel
to the natural world, with a secure bounty, that would rival anything that
they?d experienced on earth. Wheat would grow taller than a man, there?d be no
droughts, no blights, no shortage of food, there would be peace, companionship,
beauty, music and revelry.
They
believed in their enjoyment of life and focused on enjoying their life, whether
laborer or noble, they celebrated holidays set aside for the gods. They
believed that their lot was part of the ?big picture?, believed that
preservation of the body after death was important and that their fate in the
afterlife, depended upon how they behaved in the land of the living.
There were
thieves, murderers and other wrongdoers in this society and they, not unlike
Christians
confessing their sins, believed that they could appeal to the gods and relieve
themselves of some of the guilt.
Wealth
played a role in their judgment only so far as, the deceased could afford to
send along prayers and spells written on fine papyrus, and be received into the
afterlife from tombs that depicted their good works, that their faces could be
captured in their youth in a golden
mask, on
the back of which, could be inscribed prayers, the identities of the 42 judges,
and the
feats of
the deceased. Ushabtis or shabtis (doll-size representatives of the deceased)
could be
taken along
the final trek, when called upon to work, the deceased could send a proxy in
the
form of a
Shabti to fulfill his duties in the divine fields.
THE
WISDOM
The word was revered, scribes were respected, sages and
seers were believed to be blessed with divine insight. The wisest of the
ancient land recorded their thoughts, their maxims and as part of the study of
letters, young scribes copied the wisdom
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Sometime during the Old Kingdom, a wise man, grand vizier
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THE WISDOM OF PTAH-HOTEP |
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