religion-in-egypt

"O tell me, were you standing by when Isis to Osiris knelt?"

"[...] After these appear’d A crew who under Names of old Renown, Osiris, Isis, Orus and their Train With monstrous shapes and sorceries abus’d Fanatic Egypt and her Priests, to seek Thir wandring Gods disguis’d in brutish forms Rather then human. [...]"

"Nor is Osiris seen In Memphian Grove, or Green, Trampling the unshowr’d Grasse with lowings loud: Nor can he be at rest Within his sacred chest, Naught but profoundest Hell can be his shroud, In vain with Timbrel’d Anthems dark The sable-stolèd Sorcerers bear his worshipt Ark."

"You died, believing in Horus and Pasht, Isis, Osiris, and priestly lore; And found, of course, such theories smash’d By actual fact on the heavenly shore."

"Pomp of Egypt’s elder day, Shade of the mighty passed away, Whose giant works still frown sublime Mid the twilight shades of Time; Fanes, of sculpture vast and rude, That strew the sandy solitude, Lo! before our startled eyes, As at a wizard’s wand, ye rise, Glimmering larger through the gloom! While on the secrets of the tomb, Rapt in other times, we gaze, The Mother Queen of ancient days, Her mystic symbol in her hand, Great Isis, seems herself to stand.From mazy vaults, high-arched and dim, Hark! heard ye not Osiris’ hymn? And saw ye not in order dread The long procession of the dead?"

"If this were a new religion, invented to satisfy our modern scientific conceptions, we could not find a flaw in the correctness of this view of the energy of the solar system. How much Akhenaten understood, we cannot say, but he certainly bounded forward in his views and symbolism to a position which we cannot logically improve upon at the present day. Not a rag of superstition or of falsity can be found clinging to this new worship evolved out of the old Aton of Heliopolis, the sole Lord of the universe."

"Thou art in my heart; There is no other that knoweth thee, Save thy son Ikhnaton. Thou hast made him wise in thy designs And in thy might. The world is in thy hand, Even as thou hast made them. When thou hast risen, they live; When thou settest, they die. For thou art duration, beyond thy mere limbs, By thee man liveth, And their eyes look upon thy beauty, Until thou settest. All labour is laid aside, When thou settest in the west; When thou risest, they are made to grow . . . . . . for the king. Since thou didst establish the earth, Thou hast raised them up for thy son, Who came forth from thy limbs, The king, living in truth, The lord of the Two Lands Nefer-khepru-Re, Wan-Re, The son of Re, living in truth, lord of diadems, Ikhnaton, whose life is long; [And for] the great royal wife, his beloved, Mistress of the Two Lands, Nefer nefru aton, Nofretete, Living and flourishing for ever and ever."

"Bright is the earth, When thou risest in the horizon, When thou shinest as Aton by day. The darkness is banished, When thou sendest forth thy rays, The Two Lands [Egypt] are in daily festivity, Awake and standing upon their feet, For thou hast raised them up. Their limbs bathed, they take their clothing: Their arms uplifted in adoration to thy dawning, Then in all the world, they do their work."

"Thou makest the seasons, in order to create all thy works: Winter bringing them coolness, And the heat [of summer likewise]. Thou hast made the distant heaven to rise therein, In order to behold all that thou didst make, While thou wast alone, Rising in thy form as living Aton, Dawning, shining afar off and returning."

"Thou makest the Nile in the Nether World, Thou bringest it at thy desire, to preserve the people alive. O lord of them all, when feebleness is in them, O lord of every house, who risest for them, O sun of day, the fear of every distant land, Thou makest [also] their life. Thou hast set a Nile in heaven, That it may fall for them, Making floods upon the mountains, like the great sea; And watering their fields among their towns.How excellent are thy designs, O lord of eternity! The Nile in heaven is for the strangers, And for the cattle of every land, that go upon their feet; But the Nile, it cometh from the nether world for Egypt.Thus thy rays nourish every garden, When thou risest they live, and grow by thee."

"How manifold are all thy works! They are hidden before us, O Thou sole god, whose powers no other possesseth. Thou didst create the earth according to thy desire. While thou wast alone: Men, all cattle large and small, All that are upon the earth, That go about upon their feet; All that are on high, That fly with their wings. The countries of Syria and Nubia, The land of Egypt; Thou settest every man in his place, Thou suppliest their necessities. Every one has his possessions, And his days are reckoned. Their tongues are divers in speech, Their form likewise and their skins, For thou divider, hast divided the peoples."

"When the chicklet crieth in the egg-shell, Thou givest him breath therein, to preserve him alive; When thou hast perfected him That he may pierce the egg, He cometh forth from the egg, To chirp with all his might; He runneth about upon his two feet, When he hath come forth therefrom."

"Thou art he who createst the man-child in woman, Who makest seed in man, Who giveth life to the son in the body of his mother, Who soothest him that he may not weep, A nurse [even] in the womb. Who giveth breath to animate every one that he maketh. When he cometh forth from the body, . . . on the day of his birth, Thou openest his mouth in speech, Thou suppliest his necessities."

"The barques sail up-stream and down-stream alike. Every highway is open because thou has dawned. The fish in the river leap up before thee, And thy rays are in the midst of the great sea."

"All cattle rest upon the herbage, All trees and plants flourish, The birds flutter in their marshes, Their wings uplifted in adoration to thee. All the sheep dance upon their feet, All winged things fly, They live when thou hast shone upon them."

"Thou makest the beauty of form, through thyself alone. Cities, towns and settlements, On highway or on river, All eyes see thee before them, For Thou art Aton of the day over the earth."

"Thy dawning is beautiful in the horizon of heaven, O living Aton, Beginning of life! When thou risest in the eastern horizon of heaven, Thou fillest every land with thy beauty; For thou art beautiful, great, glittering, high over the earth; Thy rays, they encompass the lands, even all thou hast made. Thou art Re, and thou hast carried them all away captive; Thou bindest them by thy love. Though thou art from afar, thy rays are on earth; Though thou art on high, thy footprints are the day."

"When Thou settest in the western horizon of heaven, The world is in darkness like the dead. They sleep in their chambers, Their heads are wrapt up, Their nostrils stopped, and none seeth the other. Stolen are all their things, that are under their heads, While they know it not. Every lion cometh forth from his den, All serpents, they sting. Darkness reigns (?), The world is in silence: He that made them has gone to rest in his horizon."

"In this hymn the universalism of the empire finds full expression and the royal singer sweeps his eye from the far-off cataracts of the Nubian Nile to the remotest lands of Syria. These are not thoughts which we have been accustomed to attribute to the men of some fourteen hundred years before Christ. A new spirit has breathed upon the dry bones of traditionalism in Egypt, and he who reads these lines for the first time must be moved with involuntary admiration for the young king who in such an age found such thoughts in his heart. He grasped the idea of a world-dominator, as the creator of nature, in which the king saw revealed the creator’s beneficent purpose for all his creatures, even the meanest; for the birds fluttering about in the lily-grown Nile-marshes to him seemed to be uplifting their wings in adoration of their creator; and even the fish in the stream leaped up in praise to God. It is his voice that summons the blossoms and nourishes the chicklet or commands the mighty deluge of the Nile. He called Aton, "the father and the mother of all that he had made," and he saw in some degree the goodness of that All-Father as did he who bade us consider the lilies. He based the universal sway of God upon his fatherly care of all men alike, irrespective of race or nationality, and to the proud and exclusive Egyptian he pointed to the all-embracing bounty of the common father of humanity, even placing Syria and Nubia before Egypt in his enumeration. It is this aspect of Ikhnaton’s mind which is especially remarkable; he is the first prophet of history. While to the traditional Pharaoh the state god was only the triumphant conqueror, who crushed all peoples and drove them tribute-laden before the Pharaoh’s chariot, Ikhnaton saw in him the beneficent father of all men. It is the first time in history that a discerning eye has caught this great universal truth. Again his whole movement was but a return to nature, resulting from a spontaneous recognition of the goodness and the beauty evident in it, mingled also with a consciousness of the mystery in it all, which adds just the fitting element of mysticism in such a faith."

"Either for the temple service or for personal devotions the king composed two hymns to Aton, both of which the nobles had engraved on the walls of their tomb chapels. Of all the monuments left by this unparalleled revolution, these hymns are by far the most remarkable; and from them we may gather an intimation of the doctrines which the speculative young Pharaoh had sacrificed so much to disseminate. They are regularly entitled: “Praise of Aton by king Ikhnaton and queen Nefernefruaton”; and the longer and finer of the two is worthy of being known in modern literature. The titles of the separate strophes are the addition of the present author, and in the translation no attempt has been made to do more than to furnish an accurate rendering. The one hundred and fourth Psalm of the Hebrews shows a notable similarity to our hymn both in the thought and the sequence."

"The uniform darkness, fount of the gods, The place from which the birds come... Open to the Duat [Underworld] that is on her northern side With her rear in the east and her head in the west."

"Homage to you, O you who have come as Khepri, Khepri the creator of the gods, you are seated on your throne, you rise up in the sky, illumining your mother Nut, you are seated on your throne as the king of the gods."

"Verily I say to you, I am the Plant which comes forth from Nu, and my mother is Nut."

"Hail to you, gods! I know you, I know your names. I shall not fall in fear of you, You shall not accuse me of crime to this god whom you follow! No misfortune shall befall me on your account! You shall speak rightly about me before the All-Lord, For I have acted rightly in Egypt. I have not cursed a god, I have not been faulted. [...] Behold me, I have come to you, Without sin, without guilt, without evil, Without a witness against me, Without one whom I have wronged. I live on maat, I feed on maat, I have done what people speak of, What the gods are pleased with, I have contented a god with what he wishes. I have given bread to the hungry, Water to the thirsty, Clothes to the naked, A ferryboat to the boatless. I have given divine offerings to the gods, Invocation-offerings to the dead. Rescue me, protect me, Do not accuse me before the great god!I am one pure of mouth, pure of hands, One to whom "welcome" is said by those who see him."

"Akhenaten’s temples incorporated vast open-air courts with offering tables and unroofed shrines. The cult image, of course, was no longer a statue hidden deep in the sanctuary, but the Aten above."

"Rebel, tyrant, and prophet of arguably the world’s earliest monotheistic religion, Akhenaten has been called history’s first individual. His impact upon ancient Egyptian customs and beliefs stretching back for centuries was so alarming that, in the generations following his death in 1336 BC, he was branded a heretic. Official king lists omitted his name. For my money, this makes him the most fascinating and controversial figure in Egyptian history."

"The origins of diplomacy date back at least to the Bronze Age in the Near East. Caches of documents from the Euphrates kingdom in the mid–eighteenth century bc and from Akhenaten’s Egypt four centuries later reveal a regular exchange of envoys with neighboring states, prompted by the need for trade and the danger of war. This was hardly a fully fledged diplomatic “system.” Envoys were not resident ambassadors and they were not protected by agreed rules of immunity—but it was a recognizable form of diplomacy."

"Without the basis for proper diagnosis, the charge of madness is best avoided … but clearly Akhenaten had an original mind. He developed a vision of how God should be honoured, and had the determination and means to turn that vision into reality."

"The first monotheist religion known to us appeared in Egypt, c.1350 BC, when Pharaoh Akhenaten declared that one of the minor deties of Egyptian pantheon, the god Aten. was, in fact, the supreme power ruling the universe."

"One must be moved with involuntary admiration for the young king who in such an age found such thoughts in his heart."

"Everyone has his food, and his time of life is reckoned. Their tongues are separate in speech, And their natures as well; Their skins are distinguished, As thou distinguishest the foreign peoples. Thou makest a Nile in the underworld, Thou bringest forth as thou desirest To maintain the people According as thou madest them for thyself, The lord of all of them, wearying with them, The lord of every land, rising for them, The Aton of the day, great of majesty."

"How manifold it is, what thou hast made! They are hidden from the face. O sole god, like whom there is no other! Thou didst create the world according to thy desire, Whilst thou wert alone: All men, cattle, and wild beasts, Whatever is on earth, going upon feet, And what is on high, flying with its wings."

"The Eye of Horus protecteth thee, O Osiris Khenti-Amenti, and it keepeth thee in safety; it casteth down headlong all thine enemies for thee, and all thine enemies have fallen down headlong before thee."

"Hail, my Lord, who dost hasten through eternity, whose existence is for ever, Lord of Lords, King of Kings, Sovereign, King of the gods, who live in their shrine."

"I am he who protecteth you for millions of years. Whether ye be denizens of heaven, or of the earth, or of the South, or of the North, or of the East, or of the West, the fear of me is in your bodies. I am he whose being hath been wrought in his eye. I shall not die again. My moment is in your bodies, but my forms are in my place of habitation. I am "He who cannot be known." The Red Fiends have their faces directed against me. I am the unveiled one. The period when the heavens were created for me and were enlarged the bounds of earth, and multiplied the progeny thereof, cannot be found out. They shall fail and not be united again. By reason of the speech which I address to you, my name setteth itself apart from all things evil which are in the mouths of men. I am he who riseth and shineth, a wall which cometh out of a wall, an only One who proceedeth from an only One. There is never a day that passeth without the things which appertain unto him being therein; passing, passing, passing, passing. Verily I say unto thee, I am the Plant which cometh forth from Nu, and my mother is Nut. Hail, my creator, I am he who hath no power to walk, the Great Knot who dwelleth in Yesterday. The might of my strength is within my hand, I am not known [by thee], but I am he who knoweth thee. I cannot be held in the hand, but I am he who can hold thee in his hand. Hail, O Egg! Hail, O Egg! I am Horus who liveth for millions of years, whose flame shineth upon you, and bringeth your hearts unto me. I am master of my throne. I advance at this season. I have opened a path. I have delivered myself from all evil things."

"I am Ra, who stablisheth those who praise him. I am the Knot of the god in the Aser tree, the twice beautiful one, who is more splendid to-day than yesterday. I am Ra, who stablisheth those who praise him. I am the Knot of the god within the Aser tree, and my appearance is the appearance [of Ra] on this day.My hair is the hair of Nu. My face is the face of the Disk. My eyes are the eyes of Hathor. My ears are the ears of Up-uat."

"I have not spoken that which is not true knowingly, nor have I done anything with a false heart. Grant thou that I may be like unto those favoured ones who are in thy following, and that I may be an Osiris greatly favoured of the beautiful god, and beloved of the Lord of the Two Lands, I who am a veritable royal scribe who loveth thee, Ani, whose word is true before the god Osiris."

"The heart of Osiris hath in very truth been weighed, and his Heart-soul hath borne testimony on his behalf; his heart hath been found right by the trial in the Great Balance. There hath not been found any wickedness in him; he hath not wasted the offerings which have been made in the temples; he hath not committed any evil act; and he hath not set his mouth in motion with words of evil whilst he was upon earth."

"Homage to thee, O Bull of Amentet, Thoth the king of eternity is with me. I am the great god by the side of the divine boat, I have fought for thee, I am one of those gods, those divine chiefs, who proved the truth-speaking of Osiris before his enemies on the day of the weighing of words. I am thy kinsman Osiris."

"Let there be prepared for me a seat in the Boat of the Sun on the day whereon the god saileth."

"Homage to thee, O thou who hast come as Khepera, Khepera the creator of the gods, Thou art seated on thy throne, thou risest up in the sky, illumining thy mother Nut], thou art seated on thy throne as the king of the gods."