Funeral ritual. Burial, the path through the Duat and the judgment of Osiris

Before crossing the threshold of the Great Hall, the deceased addressed the solar god Ra:

- Glory to you, great god, Lord of the Two Truths! I have come to you, oh my lord! I was brought so that I could behold your perfection. I know you, I know your name, I know the names of the forty-two gods who are with you in the Hall of the Two Truths, who live as guardians of sinners, who drink the blood on this day of testing [of people] in the presence of Ushefer.

“He whose beloved twins are the Two Eyes, the Lord of the Two Truths” is your name. I came to see you, I brought you Two Truths, I removed my sins for your sake.

The Great Ennead, the gods who headed the Afterlife Judgment under the leadership of Ra, and the Lesser Ennead, the gods of cities and nomes, listened to the deceased. The Great Ennead, in addition to Ra, included Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut, Nephthys, Isis, Horus, Hathor, Hu (Will) and Sia (Intelligence). The heads of all judges were decorated with the feather of Truth - the feather of Maat.

Having made his speech, the deceased began the “Confession of Denial”:

- I did not commit injustice against people. I did not oppress my neighbors.<-..>I didn't rob the poor. I did not do anything that was not pleasing to the gods. I did not incite the servant against his master. I didn't poison<...>.

Having listed forty-two crimes and sworn to the gods that he was not guilty of any of them, the deceased exclaimed:

- I am pure, I am pure, I am pure, I am pure, my purity is the purity of the Great Benu, who is in Neninnesut.<...>No harm will come to me in the Great Hall of the Two Truths, for I know the names of the gods who reside there with you.

After the “Confession of Denial,” the deceased addressed the Little Ennead, calling each of the forty-two gods by name and again assuring them of his innocence in the crimes. Then the gods began interrogating the deceased: “Who are you?” Say your name. - I am the lower shoot of papyrus. The one who is in his Olive. - That's my name. -Where did you come from?<...>“I come from a city that lies north of Oliva.

When the interrogation ended, Meshent, the “guardian angel” of Shai, the goddess good luck The soul of the Ba of the late Egyptian is also renenut. They testified to the character of the deceased and told the gods what good and bad deeds he had committed in life.

Isis, Nephthys, Selket and Nut defended the deceased before the judges. After this, the gods began to weigh the heart on the Scales of Truth: they placed the heart on one bowl, and the feather of the goddess Maat on the other. If the arrow of the scales deviated, the deceased was considered a sinner, and the Great Ennead pronounced a guilty verdict on him, after which the heart was given to be devoured by the terrible goddess Am(ma)t - “The Devourer,” a monster with the body of a hippopotamus, lion paws and the mane and mouth of a crocodile. If the scales remained in balance, the deceased was recognized as acquitted.

Why the sinful heart should have been lighter (or heavier) than the feather of Maat is, strictly speaking, unknown, there are only hypotheses. For example, a number of Egyptologists are of the opinion (shared by the author) that the Libra served as a kind of “lie detector” for the afterlife judges: the weighing of the heart was carried out not after the “Confession of Denial” and the second acquittal, but simultaneously with them - throughout the entire interrogation of the heart rested on the scales, and if the deceased was guilty of any of the crimes, then, as soon as he began to swear to the contrary, the arrow immediately deviated.

It seems to the author that the ancient Egyptian mythical act of weighing the heart symbolically expresses the spiritual meaning of confession as such, a meaning that is apparently the same in all religions, regardless of differences in the external attributes of the confessional rite.

It has long been noted that a person, having committed an act contrary to morality, involuntarily (this process is unconscious) seeks, and therefore finds, an excuse, the essence of which usually boils down to the fact that the act was forced by circumstances and not committed by free will. When talking about such an act or remembering it, a person feels the need to provide justifications. his reasons; if he does not have such an opportunity, he is immediately overcome by a certain internal anxiety, discomfort. IN fiction It has been described many times how in such a situation one wants to “look away”, “change the topic of conversation”, etc. The rite of confession does not allow any kind of justification - only “let your word be: “yes, yes,” “ no, no"; and anything beyond this is from the evil one." Thus, a person who has convinced himself of his own sinlessness (or, in relation to Christianity, of the sincerity of his repentance for sin), declaring his sinlessness (repentance) out loud and being deprived of the opportunity to add anything, will immediately feel this very inner discomfort - “the heart will expose the lie,” and the Libra arrow will deviate.

The Ennead announced the acquittal, and the god Thoth wrote it down. After this the deceased was told:

- So, come in. Cross the threshold of the Chamber of Two Truths, for you know us.

The deceased kissed the threshold, called it (the threshold) by name, pronounced aloud the names of the guards and finally entered the Great Hall, where the lord of the dead Osiris sat on the path, surrounded by other gods and goddesses: Isis, Maat, Nephthys and the sons of Horus.

The arrival of the deceased was announced by the divine scribe Thoth:

“Come in,” he said. - Why did you come?

“I came so that they would announce me,” answered the deceased. - What state are you in? - I am cleansed of sins.<...>-Who should I tell about you? - Tell about me to the One Whose arch is made of fire, Whose walls are made of living snakes and Whose floor - water flow. - Tell me, who is it? - asked Thoth. - This is Osiris.

“Truly, truly [to him] they will say [your name],” He exclaimed.

Since the era of the Old Kingdom, there has been another idea - that the Afterlife Court is headed by Ra. This idea lasted until the Ptolemaic period, but was much less popular.

At this point the Judgment ended, and the Egyptian went to the place of eternal bliss - to the Fields of Iala, where he was accompanied by the “guardian angel” Shai. The path to the afterlife “paradise” was blocked by a gate, the last obstacle on the path of the deceased. They also had to be conjured:

- Give me the way. I know you]. I know the name of [your] guardian god. Name of the gate: "Lord of fear, whose walls are high<...>. Lords of destruction, uttering words that curb the destroyers, who save from destruction the one who comes." The name of your gatekeeper: "He who [instills] terror."

In the Fields of Ialu, “Fields of Reeds,” the same life awaited the deceased as he had led on earth, only it was happier and better. The deceased knew no shortage of anything. Seven Hathor, Neperi, Nepit, Selket and other deities provided him with food, made his afterlife fields fertile, bearing a rich harvest, and his cattle fat and fertile. So that the deceased could enjoy his rest and would not have to work the fields and graze the cattle himself, ushabti were placed in the tomb - wooden or clay figurines of people: scribes, porters, reapers, etc. Ushabti - “respondent”. The sixth chapter of the “Book of the Dead” talks about “how to make an ushabti work”: when in the Fields of Ialu the gods call the deceased to work, calling him by name, the ushabti man must come forward and respond: “Here I am!”, after which he will unquestioningly go where the gods command, and will do what they order. Rich Egyptians usually had a ushabti placed in their coffins - one for each day of the year; for the poor, the ushabti was replaced by a papyrus scroll with a list of 360 such workers. In the Fields of Ialu, with the help of magic spells, the little men named in the list were embodied in ushabti and worked for their master.

M. A. Korostovtsev writes about the funeral cult in Ancient Egypt: “The cult was based on the idea that the deceased after burial continues a life similar to the earthly one, that is, he needs housing, food, drinks, etc., therefore The funeral cult primarily consisted of providing the deceased with the necessary benefits of life. During the time of the Old Kingdom, the pharaoh granted his nobles a tomb during his lifetime. Those who did not receive such a reward built a tomb for themselves at their own expense. In the initial period of the Old Kingdom, the deceased who lived in the tomb. , were presented with offerings either at his own expense or at the expense of the crown. To provide material support for the cult of the dead, special plots of land were allocated for “feeding” the deceased, and the persons performing the functions of “feeding” were called “hem-Ka” - “slaves”. Ka". But very soon this practice turned out to be very unprofitable, and in fact, gifts in favor of the deceased were replaced by magical fiction. In the mastabas of dignitaries of the Middle Kingdom, texts were discovered inviting visitors to the necropolis to refrain from violating ritual purity and actively help the deceased with spells and prayers. In general, the content of these “appeals to the living,” which have come down to us from the time of the V and VI dynasties, comes down to the following:<...>points: 1) a visitor to the necropolis has no right to approach the tomb if he is not ritually clean - if he ate, for example, forbidden food; 2) the visitor should not ritually desecrate the tomb - otherwise the threats of the deceased were addressed to him; 3) the visitor should not cause damage to the tomb building, so as not to incur the wrath of the deceased; 4) the visitor was exhorted to read the text of the sacrificial prayer in favor of the deceased; this magical action replaced a material offering.

Appeals are addressed either to the relatives of the deceased, or to persons who more or less accidentally ended up in the necropolis, or, finally, to special-purpose persons called upon to observe the cult of the dead. The admonition addressed to “the living who are [still] on earth” was accompanied by encouragement or threats from the deceased: the deceased promised the living intercession before the divine forces in case of a favorable attitude towards him and a threat to “sue” him before the “great god” or even “ "break his neck" otherwise, as well as the threat of bringing misfortune on him on earth. Thus, the deceased in relation to the living was perceived not as a passive, neutral being, but as a being capable of causing harm to the living or, conversely, being useful to them.

Particular attention is paid in these texts to sacrificial prayer in favor of the deceased, which replaced material offerings: the so-called formula “hetep di nesu” - “a gift given by the king.” The prayer was addressed to the gods so that the gods would provide the deceased with what was listed in it. There was even something like a more or less standard “menu” for the dead - a list of food and other offerings: bread, beer, oxen, poultry, different types robes, etc. Most often, the prayer was addressed to the god of the Kingdom of the Dead Osiris and the god Anubis. The funeral sacrificial prayer in the interests of the deceased was pronounced on behalf of the king - a demigod and unlimited ruler of the material resources of all temples. The pharaoh's offerings, as a being close to the gods, were pleasing to the gods and therefore effective. Thus, magical fiction saved the Egyptians for many centuries from the unbearable material costs of the cult of the dead."

Before crossing the threshold of the Great Hall, the deceased addressed the solar god Ra:

Glory to you, great god, Lord of the Two Truths! I have come to you, oh my lord! I was brought so that I could behold your perfection. I know you, I know your name, I know the names of the forty-two gods who are with you in the Hall of the Two Truths, who live as guardians of sinners, who drink the blood on this day of testing [of people] in the presence of Ushefer.

“He whose beloved twins are the Two Eyes, the Lord of the Two Truths” - such is your name. I came to see you, I brought you Two Truths, I removed my sins for your sake.

Having made his speech, the deceased began the “Confession of Denial”:

I did not commit injustice against people. I did not oppress my neighbors.<-..>I didn't rob the poor. I did not do anything that was not pleasing to the gods. I did not incite the servant against his master. I didn't poison<...>.

Having listed forty-two crimes and sworn to the gods that he was not guilty of any of them, the deceased exclaimed:

I am pure, I am pure, I am pure, I am pure, my purity is the purity of the Great Benu, who is in Neninnesut.<...>No harm will come to me in the Great Hall of the Two Truths, for I know the names of the gods who reside there with you.

After the “Confession of Denial,” the deceased addressed the Little Ennead, calling each of the forty-two gods by name and again assuring them of his innocence in the crimes. Then the gods began interrogating the deceased: - Who are you? Say your name. - I am the lower shoot of papyrus. The one who is in his Olive. - That's my name. -Where did you come from?<...>- I came from a city that lies north of Oliva.

When the interrogation ended, Meshent, the “guardian angel” of Shai, the goddess of good fate Renenut and the soul of Ba of the late Egyptian appeared before the face of Ra-Horakhte and the Ennead. They testified to the character of the deceased and told the gods what good and bad deeds he had committed in life.

Why the sinful heart should have been lighter (or heavier) than the feather of Maat is, strictly speaking, unknown, there are only hypotheses. For example, a number of Egyptologists are of the opinion (shared by the author) that the Libra served as a kind of “lie detector” for afterlife judges: the weighing of the heart was carried out not after the “Confession of Denial” and the second acquittal, but simultaneously with them - throughout the entire interrogation of the heart rested on the scales, and if the deceased was guilty of any of the crimes, then, as soon as he began to swear to the contrary, the arrow immediately deviated.

It has long been noted that a person, having committed an act contrary to morality, involuntarily (this process is unconscious) seeks, and therefore finds, an excuse, the essence of which usually boils down to the fact that the act was forced by circumstances and not committed by free will. When talking about such an act or remembering it, a person feels the need to provide justifications. his reasons; if he does not have such an opportunity, he is immediately overcome by a certain internal anxiety, discomfort. Fiction has described many times how in such a situation one wants to “look away”, “change the topic of conversation”, etc. The rite of confession does not allow any kind of justification - only “let your word be: “yes, yes” ", "no, no"; and anything beyond this is from the evil one." Thus, a person who has convinced himself of his own sinlessness (or, in relation to Christianity, of the sincerity of his repentance for sin), declaring his sinlessness (repentance) out loud and being deprived of the opportunity to add anything, will immediately feel this very inner discomfort - “the heart will expose the lie,” and the Libra arrow will deviate.

The Ennead announced the acquittal, and the god Thoth wrote it down. After this the deceased was told:

So, come in. Cross the threshold of the Chamber of Two Truths, for you know us.

The arrival of the deceased was announced by the divine scribe Thoth:

Come in,” he said. - Why did you come?

“I came so that they would announce me,” answered the deceased. - What state are you in? - I am cleansed of sins.<...>-Who should I tell about you? - Tell about me to the One whose arch is made of fire, whose walls are made of living snakes and whose floor is a stream of water. - Tell me, who is it? - asked Thoth. - This is Osiris.

Truly, truly they will tell [him] [your name], - He exclaimed.

Since the era of the Old Kingdom, there has been another idea - that the Afterlife Court is headed by Ra. This idea lasted until the Ptolemaic period, but was much less popular.

Give me a way. I know you]. I know the name of [your] guardian god. Name of the gate: "Lord of fear, whose walls are high<...>. Lords of destruction, uttering words that curb the destroyers, who save from destruction the one who comes." The name of your gatekeeper: "He who [instills] terror."

In the Fields of Ialu, “Fields of Reeds,” the same life awaited the deceased as he had led on earth, only it was happier and better. The deceased knew no shortage of anything. Seven Hathor, Neperi, Nepit, Selket and other deities provided him with food, made his afterlife fields fertile, bearing a rich harvest, and his cattle fat and fertile. So that the deceased could enjoy his rest and would not have to cultivate the fields and graze the cattle himself, ushabti were placed in the tomb - wooden or clay figurines of people: scribes, porters, reapers, etc. Ushabti - “respondent”. The sixth chapter of the “Book of the Dead” talks about “how to make an ushabti work”: when in the Fields of Ialu the gods call the deceased to work, calling him by name, the ushabti man must come forward and respond: “Here I am!”, after which he will unquestioningly go where the gods command, and will do what they order. Rich Egyptians usually had ushabti placed in their coffins - one for each day of the year; for the poor, the ushabti was replaced by a papyrus scroll with a list of 360 such workers. In the Fields of Ialu, with the help of magic spells, the little men named in the list were embodied in ushabti and worked for their master.

Particular attention is paid in these texts to sacrificial prayer in favor of the deceased, which replaced material offerings: the so-called formula “hetep di nesu” - “a gift given by the king.” The prayer was addressed to the gods so that the gods would provide the deceased with what was listed in it. There was even something like a more or less standard “menu” for the dead - a list of food and other offerings: bread, beer, bulls, poultry, different types of clothing, etc. Most often, the prayer was addressed to the god of the Kingdom of the Dead Osiris and the god Anubis. The funeral sacrificial prayer in the interests of the deceased was pronounced on behalf of the king - a demigod and the unlimited ruler of the material resources of all temples. The pharaoh's offerings, as a being close to the gods, were pleasing to the gods and therefore effective. Thus, magical fiction saved the Egyptians for many centuries from the unbearable material costs of the cult of the dead."

The most important, even the only goal of their life. It taught to consider not only earthly blessings as gifts of the gods, happiness as a consequence of pious deeds and thoughts, misfortune as a consequence of the wicked, but also to look beyond the limits of earthly life, to posthumous fate, to believe that the fate of the soul in the future life depends on how a person behaves on the ground. This fate is decided at the trial of the god of the underworld, Osiris.

It is not only the Greek writers, especially Herodotus, who tell us that the Egyptians were the first people to come to believe in the immortality of the soul; we know from the Egyptians themselves that they had a detailed doctrine about the fate of the soul at the end of earthly life. Their ideas about this are introduced to us by images in tombs and a remarkable work of Egyptian literature, “ Book of the Dead", which was placed in the coffin with the deceased, as if it were a guide for his upcoming journey to the kingdom of the dead. This is a collection of prayers and speeches, more or less full list which was given to the deceased on a papyrus scroll; Mystical invocations were added to them, which were already incomprehensible to the Egyptians themselves of later times, so it was necessary to add comments to them. The soul, on its path through the regions of the underworld of Osiris, shown in this book, will meet gods and spirits and must pray to them and speak to them, as it is written in the book; she will be interrogated, and the answers she must give are written here. One of the most important places in the book is a scene depicting how the soul, after burying the body, descends with the sun sinking below the horizon into Amentes, the dark kingdom of shadows, and how there the judges of the dead pronounce judgment on it.

At the entrance to the court of Osiris, the Devourer (Absorber) - a monster similar to a hippopotamus - sits on a raised platform; its mouth is wide open, like a Greek Cerberus. Beyond the entrance through ornate pylons is the antechamber of the palace of the dead; The ceilings of the halls of this palace rest on columns. In the antechamber sits on the throne the judge of the dead, Osiris, in the form of a mummy, with a crown on his head, with a whip and a staff curved at the top in his hands. On either side of it near the wall of the hall sit 42 spirits; the figures of some of them are completely human, others have the heads of different animals. These are members of the court pronouncing a verdict on the issues of 42 mortal sins prohibited by the Egyptian religion, of which the deceased claims to be innocent. The throne of Judge Osiris is surrounded by water. On the lotus flowers above her are depicted four “spirits of the kingdom of the dead,” with the heads of a man, a monkey, a falcon and a jackal; The internal organs of a person were dedicated to these spirits, each one special.

Weighing the heart of the scribe Hunefer at the afterlife court of the god Osiris. "Book of the Dead"

The deceased enters from the other end of the hall. Maat, the goddess of truth and justice, adorned with her symbol, an ostrich feather, meets him and leads him to the scales of justice on which his heart is weighed: it is placed on one cup, an ostrich feather on the other, or a small statue of the goddess herself is placed. They do the business of weighing god Horus, depicted with the head of a falcon, and the guide of the dead Anubis, who has the head of a jackal. The God of writing and science, Thoth, with the head of an ibis, stands with a writing cane and tablet to record the result of the weighing and the verdict. There is no sublime moral feeling in the interrogation and confession of the sins of the person being judged. The person facing the judgment of Osiris is not imbued with humble sorrow for his sinfulness, but refers to the conformity of his life with the law: he did not violate the sacred decrees; did not abuse the king, nor the father, nor the gods with words, did not disrespect them; he was neither a thief, nor a drunkard, nor an adulterer, nor a murderer; did not tell lies, did not give a false oath, did not shake his head when listening to the words of truth; was not a hypocrite; his piety was not feigned; he was not a slanderer; did not kill or eat any sacred animal, did not commit any offense by failing to fulfill established rituals and devotions; did not steal anything from the sacrifices to the gods, did not steal anything from their sanctuaries, etc. Probably, the stories about the trial of Osiris gave the Greeks a reason for the erroneous idea that already on earth, immediately after the death of a person, a trial is carried out on him and the wicked are deprived of the honor of being buried and as if the fear of this was an incentive for many kings to reign justly.

The images in the tomb introduce us to the fate of souls after Osiris pronounced the sentence. pharaoh Ramses V. The souls of people who lived piously and justly go to the heavenly regions where the highest gods live. Refreshed by the water of life that the goddess pours on them from Perseus (the tree of life) Chickpeas, - as a harbinger of what was proclaimed over the deceased: may Osiris give you cool water! - and reinforced by the fruits with which she feeds them, the souls of the righteous pass through the underworld, in which there are many terrible monsters, snakes, crocodiles, and come to the fields of the blessed. On them those acquitted in court lead a life of heavenly innocence and joy. They are engaged in rural labor there, picking heavenly fruits from the trees, walking through flower beds and alleys; bathe in heavenly waters; they collect harvests to eat themselves and to offer part of what they have collected as sacrifices to the gods; rejoice and enjoy at the sight of the sun - Ra.

The kneeling supplicant of Ani before Osiris in the Kingdom of the Dead. Behind Osiris are the goddesses Isis and Nephthys

Like other eastern peoples, the Egyptians believed in the transmigration of souls, which consists in the fact that from time to time the soul returns to earth and lives in the body of a person or some animal. But it seems that in Egypt the return of the soul to earth was not considered a punishment, as was the belief of the Indians; on the contrary, the Egyptians prayed that the deceased would be allowed to return to earth and take whatever bodies he wished. – The tomb of Ramesses V also depicts the torment suffered by those condemned by Osiris, not illuminated by the divine rays of the sun. In different sections of the underworld, guarded by armed demons, black souls are depicted tormented by red demons, some in the form of people, others in the form of birds with human heads. Some of them are tied to pillars and the demons are cutting them down with swords; others walk in long rows without heads; some were hanged by their feet, others were thrown into boiling cauldrons; demons are chasing a pig - this, no doubt, is also the soul of a sinner. Human imagination has always been fertile in inventing tortures, and in Christian times Dante's poetry about Hell, and in Egyptian antiquity.

The news of Greek writers, according to which the Egyptian transmigration of souls appears to be a process of purification of sinners, is difficult to reconcile with the data on ancient monuments. Perhaps the doctrine of immediate reward after death, of heaven and hell should be considered an ancient belief, and the dogma of the transmigration of souls, which, according to Herodotus, could last three thousand years, was a new doctrine. According to this dogma, it is up to the person himself to shorten the time of his earthly wandering through a pious life, after which his soul becomes pure and blissful. There is no eternal hellish torment after the judgment of Osiris; sooner or later, but the state of peace desired by the people of eastern countries will certainly come. Such thoughts indicate the high development of religion, based, like the Egyptian one, on the deification of nature.

Burial, the path through the Duat and the judgment of Osiris. Judgment of Osiris and eternal life in the fields of Iaru. Egyptian mythology

Before crossing the threshold of the Hall, the deceased must turn to Ra:
- Glory to you, great god, Lord of the Two Truths! I have come to you, oh my lord! I was brought so that I could behold your perfection. I know you, I know your name, I know the names of the forty-two gods who are with you in the Hall of the Two Truths, who live as guardians of sinners, who drink the blood on this day of testing [of people] in the presence of Unnefer.
“He whose beloved twins are the Two Eyes, the Lord of the Two Truths” - this is your name. I came to see you, I brought you Two Truths, I removed my sins for your sake.
The deceased will be listened to by the Great Ennead - the gods who administer Judgment, and the Lesser Ennead - the gods of cities and nomes. The Great Ennead includes Ra, Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut, Nephthys, Isis, Horus, Hathor, Hu and Sia. The heads of the judges are decorated with the feather of Maat.
In the face of the Great Ennead, the deceased must pronounce the “Confession of Denial” - list forty-two crimes and swear to the gods that he is not guilty of any of them:

I did not commit injustice against people.
I did not oppress my neighbors.<…>
I didn't rob the poor.
I did not do anything that was not pleasing to the gods.
I did not incite the servant against his master.
I didn't poison<…>

Having named all the crimes, the deceased must swear:
- I'm clean, I'm clean, I'm clean, I'm clean! My purity is the purity of the Great Benu, which is in Nenini-sut.<…>No harm will come to me in the Great Hall of the Two Truths, for I know the names of the gods who dwell there with you.
After the “Confession of Denial,” the deceased must appear before the Lesser Ennead and, in the same way, calling each of the forty-two gods by name, assure them of his non-involvement in the crimes.
It is noteworthy that in the New Kingdom the pharaoh also had to justify himself before the Afterlife Court and have ushabti (see below).
The gods will then proceed to weigh the heart on the Scales of Truth. The heart will be placed on one bowl of Libra, and the feather of the goddess Maat on the other. If the arrow of the scales deviates, it means that the deceased is sinful, and the Great Ennead will pronounce a guilty verdict on him. Then the sinful heart will be given to the terrible goddess Amt (Ammat) (Fig. 213) - “The Devourer,” a monster with the body of a hippopotamus, lion paws and mane, and the mouth of a crocodile. If the scales of Libra remain in balance, the deceased will be recognized as “right-hearted” (Fig. 214, 215).

Rice. 213. Amt.

Rice. 214. Judgment of Osiris.
Left: Anubis brought the deceased
to the Great Hall of Two Truths.
Center: Anubis weighs on the Scales of Truth,
depicted as the goddess Maat,
heart of the deceased; on the right side of Libra -
feather Ma'at, symbolic "truth";
God Thoth writes down the weighing result
and sentence; next to Libra - Amt.
Above: the deceased pronounces an acquittal
speech before the Great Ennead, headed by
god Ra. Right: The choir brought the deceased
after the acquittal
before the face of Osiris. At the foot of the throne -
the sons of Horus in the lotus flower; upstairs -
winged Solar Eye with the feather of Maat;
behind the throne are Isis and Nephthys.
Drawing from the “Book of the Dead” (“Papyrus of Ani”);
XIX Dynasty; British Museum, London.

Rice. 215. Judgment of Osiris.
In the center of the top row is the deceased,
under his outstretched arms there are two eyes,
symbolizing the act of return
justified deceased vision.
Next in the top row is an ornament of uraei,
lamps and hieroglyphs “shu” (air) -
allegory of returning the ability to the deceased
see the light and breathe; at the edges there are two baboons
with scales. Middle row: deceased
makes excuses in front of
Great and Lesser Enneads. In the bottom row
from right to left: the deceased surrounded by the “Two Truths”;
Anubis and Chorus, weighing the heart on the Scales of Truth,
crowned with an image of a baboon;
god of magic Heka, seated on the image of a rod -
symbol of power; That; Amt; the sons of Horus in the lotus flower;
Osiris on the throne. Above Amt are two patron gods,
left - Shai. Between Amt and Thoth - the name Meskhent
and her image in the form of a maternity brick
with a woman's head. Drawing from the Book of the Dead
(“Papyrus of the scribe Nesmin”); IV century BC e.; Hermitage Museum.

Why the sinful heart should have been lighter (or heavier) than the feather of Maat is unknown. A number of Egyptologists are of the opinion (shared by the author) that the Libra served as a kind of “lie detector” for the afterlife judges: the weighing of the heart was carried out not after the “Confession of Denial” and the second acquittal speech, but simultaneously with them - throughout the entire interrogation, the heart rested on the scales , and if the deceased turned out to be guilty of any of the crimes, then as soon as he began to swear to the contrary, the arrow was immediately deflected.

It seems to the author that the ancient Egyptian mythical action of weighing the heart symbolically expresses the spiritual meaning of confession as such - a meaning that is apparently the same in all religions, regardless of differences in the external attributes of the confessional rite.
It is known that a person, having committed an act contrary to morality, involuntarily (this process is unconscious) seeks, and therefore finds, an excuse, the essence of which usually boils down to the fact that the act was forced by circumstances, and not committed by free will. When talking about such an act or remembering it, a person feels the need to give reasons justifying it; if he does not have such an opportunity, he is immediately overcome by a certain internal anxiety, discomfort.
Fiction has described many times how in such a situation one wants to “look away”, “change the topic of conversation”, etc. The rite of confession does not allow any kind of justification - only “let your word be: “yes, yes” ", "no no"; and anything beyond this is from the evil one” (Matt. 5:37). Thus, a person who has convinced himself of his own sinlessness (or, in relation to Christianity, of the sincerity of his repentance for sin), declaring his sinlessness (repentance) out loud and being deprived of the opportunity to add anything, will immediately feel this very inner discomfort - “the heart will expose the lie,” and the Libra arrow will deviate.
After weighing the heart, the gods will begin interrogating the deceased:
- Who are you? Say your name.
- I am the lower shoot of papyrus. The one who is in his Olive. Here's my name.
-Where did you come from?<…>
- I came from a city that lies north of Oliva.
When the interrogation is over, Meschent, Shai, the goddess of good fate Renenutet and the Ba of the deceased will appear before Ra-Horakhty and both Enneads. They will testify to the character of the deceased and tell the gods what good and bad deeds he committed in life.
Isis, Nephthys, Serket and Neith will defend the deceased before the judges.
When the Great Ennead announces a verdict of not guilty, the god Thoth will write it down. After this the deceased will be told:
- So, come in. Cross the threshold of the Chamber of Two Truths, for you know us.
The deceased must kiss the threshold, call it (the threshold) by name and name all the guards - only after this can he finally enter the shadow of the Great Hall of Two Truths, where the Lord of the Dead Osiris himself sits on the throne, surrounded by Isis, Maat, Nephthys and the sons of Horus in a lotus flower.
The arrival of the deceased will be announced by the divine scribe Thoth:
“Come in,” he will say. - Why did you come?
“I came so that they would announce me,” the deceased must answer.
- What state are you in?
- I am cleansed of sins.<…>
-Who should I tell about you?
- Tell about me to the One Whose vault is made of fire. Whose walls are made of living snakes and Whose floor is a stream of water.
- Tell me, who is it? - will ask that last question that needs to be answered:
- This is Osiris.
“Truly, truly [to him] they will say [your name], - He will exclaim, rejoicing that the deceased is pure before the great ruler of the Duat Osiris and is worthy to reunite with him.
Initially, there was another idea - that the Afterlife Court was headed by Ra (Fig. 216). This idea lasted until the Ptolemaic period, but was much less popular.

Rice. 216. Ra-Horakhti, the leader
Afterlife Court.
Painting a canopic box; XX Dynasty;
Louvre, Paris.

The trial will end here, and the Egyptian will go to the place of eternal bliss - to the Fields of Reeds, the Fields of Iaru. The guardian god Shai takes him there. The path to the blessed monastery is blocked by a gate, the last obstacle on the path of the deceased. They will also have to be conjured:
- Give me the way. I know you]. I know the name of [your] guardian god. Name of the gate: "Lords of fear, whose walls are high<…>Lords of destruction, uttering words that bridle the destroyers, who save from destruction the one who comes.” Your gatekeeper's name: "He who [instills] terror."
In the Fields of Iaru, the “right-minded” deceased will have the same life that he led on earth, only happier and richer. He will not lack anything, he will not experience need for anything. The servants depicted on the walls of the tomb will cultivate his fields (Fig. 217), graze livestock, and work in workshops. Seven Hathor, Nepri, Nepit, Serket and other deities will make his afterlife arable lands fertile (Fig. 218), and his cattle fat and fertile.

Rice. 217. Agricultural work in the Fields of Iaru.

Rice. 218. Worship of the gods and harvesting
in the Fields of Iaru.
Fragment of the painting of the tomb of Senedjem
in Deir el-Medina; XIX-XX dynasties.

The deceased will not have to work himself - he will only enjoy his vacation! He will not need to cultivate the fields and graze cattle, because figurines of servants and slaves and ushabti figurines will be placed in the tomb.
Ushabti - “defendant”. The sixth chapter of the “Book of the Dead” talks about “how to make a ushabti work”: when in the Fields of Iar the gods call the deceased to work, calling him by name, the ushabti must come forward and respond: “Here I am!”, after which he will unquestioningly go go where they order, and will do what they order.
Figures and figurines, the purpose of which was to serve in the Duat of the deceased - the owner of the tomb, can be divided into two groups (In popular publications on Egyptology, they are sometimes not distinguished and are called by the general term “ushebti”).
The first group, conventionally called “servant figurines,” includes figurines depicting people at various jobs: plowmen, porters, brewers (Fig. 219), scribes (Fig. 220), weavers, shipbuilders (Fig. 221), overseers, etc. . d. The presence of such figurines in tombs perhaps goes back to the ancient custom of killing his slaves, servants and wives at the funeral of a leader and burying them near the burial of the master.

Rice. 219. Maid preparing beer.
Limestone painted figurine;
Archaeological Museum, Florence.

Rice. 220. Scribes.
Wooden painted figurines;
Middle Kingdom; Pushkin Museum.

Rice. 221. Rooks with ship squads.
Painted tree; Middle Kingdom.

In the Old Kingdom, “servant figurines” were made of wood and stone, starting from the Middle Kingdom - almost exclusively of wood. All types of figurines have a fairly strict canon of depiction: for example, brewers are always depicted kneading dough for barley loaves (from which beer was made) in a mortar, weavers are squatting at the looms, etc. In rich burials with a large number of “servant figurines” » the figures were usually combined into groups and mounted on a board; each group gradually depicted the entire process of preparing a particular product - like compositions in tomb paintings depicting one or another workshop of a noble household (see, for example, Fig. 184).
The second group consists of ushabti - figurines made of faience, wood or clay in the form of swaddled mummies with hoes in their hands (Fig. 222, left) or in ordinary clothes (the so-called “ushebti in the clothes of the living”) (Fig. 222, right). Ushabti sometimes depicted the owner of the tomb himself (Fig. 223), but more often these were purely conventional images, without individual portrait features(manufactured in workshops using the “in-line method”). An inscription was made on the ushabti-mummy - the so-called. “Ushabti formula” (quote from the 6th chapter of the “Book of the Dead”), full or abbreviated. Sometimes ushabti mummies were placed in a coffin (Fig. 224).

Rice. 222. Ushebti of the New Kingdom.
Left: ushebti in the form of a mummified man;
in the vertical column - “ushabti formula”.
On the right is the so-called "to be killed in the clothes of the living"
with the inscription "Osiris Khonsu" (that is, "deceased
[an Egyptian named] Khonsu."
Clay painted figurines;
XIX Dynasty; Pushkin Museum.

Rice. 223. Ushabti of Pharaoh Tutankhamun
with the attributes of royal power -
a scepter-staff and a triple whip in his hands.
XVIII Dynasty; Egyptian Museum, Cairo.

Rice. 224. Ushabti in the sarcophagus.
XIX Dynasty; Pushkin Museum.

The purpose of the ushabti, in contrast to the “servant figurine,” is not to work in the Duat for the owner of the tomb, but to replace him when the owner himself is called upon, as the “formula” says, “to transport sand from East to West.” What is meant by "carrying sand" is unclear; perhaps this is just a metaphor, denoting either simply hard work, or the “afterlife analogue” of state labor service for free citizens of Egypt (which in different times there were, for example, work on the construction of pyramids, in the nobles’ or temple households, transportation of statues to tombs, etc.).
Ushabti appear in the New Kingdom, and from the same time “servant figurines” disappear from tombs.
“Ushabti in the clothes of the living” were made only during the 19th dynasty. Explaining such iconography is difficult; some researchers associate it with echoes of the beliefs of the period of the sun-worshipping revolution, when it was believed that the “soul” of the deceased spent the day among the living (see p. 183).
In the tomb, the ushabti were placed in special boxes (Fig. 225).

Rice. 225. Ushabti box
with the image of the deceased and his wife.
XVIII Dynasty; Pushkin Museum.

The nobles usually took 360 ushabti with them to the Duat - one for each day of the year; for the poor, the ushabti was replaced by a papyrus scroll with a list of 360 such workers. In the Fields of Iaru, with the help of magic spells, the little men named in the list were embodied in ushabti and worked for their master (Fig. 226).

Rice. 226. Fields of Jaru.
To the left and above are scenes of worship.
deceased to the gods of the Underworld;
in the center - agricultural work in the Fields of Iaru;
below - day and night Boats of the Sun,
on which the deceased(?) travels along with Ra’s retinue.
Drawing from the “Book of the Dead” (“Papyrus of the scribe Nesmin”);
IV century BC e.; Hermitage Museum.

The most ancient religious texts tell us that the Egyptians were preparing for the Last Judgment. This is described on the Book of the Dead papyri. Their heart was the center of all feelings, desires and passions, where good and evil fought. Life came from it. Two personalities associated with inner world, called "ka", were in constant struggle. Chapters XXVI-XXXB describe spells that helped them cope with evil spirits.

Chapter CXXV of the Book of the Dead is devoted to a description of the judgment of Osiris. It is divided into three parts, beginning with the hymn of Osiris. The first part tells what is said to the deceased when he enters the Kingdom of the Dead:

“Oh, Great Lord of the kingdom of the dead, I have come to you, my lord! Will you be kind to me? I know you, I know your name and the names of forty-two who live with you in the other world, protecting sinners. I came to you and brought maat (truth, honesty) to you. I struggled with sin for you. I have not sinned against people. Didn't oppress my relatives. I haven't done anything wrong in my life. I did not offend the oppressed. I didn't do anything you didn't want. I didn't hurt anyone. Didn't leave anyone hungry. I did not destroy the temples where sacrifices were made. I did not commit adultery, I did not desecrate any sacred place in my city. I didn't steal the offerings. I did not encroach on (others') fields. I did not weigh or take milk from the children. He did not drive the cattle away from his pastures. I didn't make a dam for the canal. And did not extinguish the fire when it should be burning. I did not eat prohibited meat. I followed God's orders. I am clean. I am clean. I am clean…"

The second part of Chapter CXXV of the Book of the Dead describes how Osiris is seated in the center of the Judgment Hall, accompanied by Law and Truth and forty-two angels who assist him. Each of them represents one of the nomes Ancient Egypt and has symbolic name. When the deceased enters the courtroom, he sees two rows of angels, 21 on each side of the hall. At the end of it, next to Osiris are the Great Libra Anpu (Anubis) and Amemit, who devours those who turned out to be wicked and were condemned by Osiris. The deceased walks along the hall and, addressing each of the 42 angels by name, says that he did not commit sins:

“O Usekh-nemmit, who came from Anu, I have committed no sin.”
“O Fenti, who came from Hemenu, I did not rob.”
“O Neha-hua, who came from Re-Gnau, I did not kill people.”
“O Heaven, I did not take from the altars.”
“O Set-kesu, who came from Hensu, I did not lie.”
“O Uammti, who came from Hebi, I did not defile the wife of any of the men.”
“O Maa-anuf, who came from Per, I did not defile.”
“O Tm-Sen, who came from Tetu, I did not curse the king.”
“O Nefer-Tem, who came forward from Het-ka-Ptah, I did not act by deception and did not commit evil.”
“O Nekhen, who came from Hekate, I am not deaf to the words of the Law (Truth).”