Civ 101-031-28-15CLASS 4

The Rise of Civilization: Egypt

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The Rise of Civilization: Egypt

• A Quest for Eternal Cultural Values– The West will see this feature in later manifestations

including the Greek notion of Paideia and the Christian perfections associated with the body of Christ (virgin birth, ascension, etc)

– Religion• Royal divinity

– The people worshiped the pharaoh but the pharaoh could worship any god . . . So disagreements arose

• The Amarna revolution– Exemplifies the potential trouble as the pharaoh could pick and

choose among options for who and how to worship.

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Egyptian Book of the Dead

Osiris, God of the Underworld

Of all the gods of Egypt Osiris God was the best known; a famous hymn to him from the Book of the Dead captured his essence. Osiris God is perhaps the most easily recognized of the gods. He was always dressed in white mummy’s clothes; he wore a beard and held in his crossed arms the crook, the flail (whip), and sometimes the scepter-all signs of authority and power. Most often he was depicted as the judge of the dead person’s soul.

http://www.ancient-egypt.info/2012/03/osiris-egyptian-god-of-underworld-and.html

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD/The Papyrus of Ani translated by E. A. WALLIS BUDGE [1895]

A body of texts which have reference to the burial of the dead and to the new life in the world beyond the grave, and which are known to have existed in revised editions and to have been in use among the Egyptians from about B.C. 4500, to the early centuries of the Christian era.

Osiris was the god through whose sufferings and death the Egyptian hoped that his body might rise again in some transformed or glorified shape, and to him who had conquered death and had become the king of the other world the Egyptian appealed in prayer for eternal life through his victory and power. In every funeral inscription known to us, from the pyramid texts down to the roughly written prayers upon coffins of the Roman period, what is done for Osiris is done also for the deceased, the state and condition of Osiris are the state and condition of the deceased; in a word, the deceased is identified with Osiris. If Osiris liveth for ever, the deceased will live for ever; if Osiris dieth, then will the deceased perish.

http://www.sacred-texts.com/egy/ebod/

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The Rise of Civilization: Egypt

• A Quest for Eternal Cultural Values –Writing and Literature• Multiple Genres, though mostly inscriptions on tombs

and folktales• Hymns (as we saw with the Book of the Dead/Hymn of

Osiris)

– Science and medicine• A calendar

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Due to the fact that Egyptians didn't account for the additional fraction of a day, their calendar [became wrong]. However Ptolemy III--Euergetes of Egypt, decided to add one day to the 365 days every 4 years. (LEAP YEAR anyone?)

Egyptians are responsible for the appearance of the solar calendar.To make it, they took the yearly sunrise recurrence of Sirius (the Dog Star) in the eastern sky as a fixed point . . . this period coincided with the yearly flooding of the Nile River.

http://www.infoniac.com/science/top-10-inventions-of-ancient-egypt.html

Ancient Egyptians developed a calendar that featured 365 days and 12 months (30 days in each month and additional 5 days at the end of the year).

• A Quest for Eternal Cultural Values• Science and medicine• Mummification

To live in the next world, one needs a preservedBody

Mummification1. The body was washed

2. A cut was made on the left side of the abdomen and the internal organs - intestines, liver, lungs, stomach, were removed. The heart, which the Ancient Egyptians believed to be the centre of emotion and intelligence, was left in the body for use in the next life.

3. A hooked instrument was used to remove the brain through the nose. The brain was not considered to be important and was thrown away.

4. The body and the internal organs were packed with natron salt for forty days to remove all moisture.

5. The dried organs were wrapped in linen and placed in canopic jars. The lid of each jar was shaped to represent one of Horus' four sons.

6. The body was cleaned and the dried skin rubbed with oil.

7. The body was packed with sawdust and rags and the open cuts sealed with wax

8. The body was wrapped in linen bandages. About 20 layers were used and this took 15 to 20 days.

9. A death mask was placed over the bandages

10. The bandaged body was placed in a shroud (a large sheet of cloth) which was secured with linen strips.

11. The body was then placed in a decorated mummy case or coffin.

http://www.historyonthenet.com/Egyptians/mummies.htm

• A Quest for Eternal Cultural Values• Architecture• Pyramids • Funerary

temples

Introduction from: Great Cities of the Ancient World: The Pyramids and the Cities of the Pharaohs

(1994)

• A Quest for Eternal Cultural Values (continued)

– Sculpture, painting, and minor arts: Rigid canon in sculpture and relief• Exact proportion; front facing in statues, profiles in painting; eyes and shoulders and

fingers shown; no perspectivism. • Houses for the eternal bodies of those represented.

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Statue of Shebenhor, Saite Period, Dynasty 26(664–525 B.C.)http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/13454

Statue of the God Horus as a Falcon, Ptolemaic Period (305-30 B.C.)http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/180206

Statuette of the God Re Horakhty, Third Intermediate Period, Dynasty 21–26, (about 1070–656 B.C.)http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/120300

Hand Mirror, New Kingdom, Dynasty 18–20 (c. 1550–1070 B.C.)http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/835

Dead Man standing in the barge of the sun worshiping the phoenix, symoble of the sun god of Heliopolis, Tomb of Irinefer.http://historylink101.com/n/egypt_1/pic_wall_paintings_1.htm