6. Deification in Egypt

For the Egyptians the process of deification is a little complicated because in life, the Pharaoh was God incarnate. (Okon, 114) Essentially he is the earthly manifestation of a god. However upon his death the concept of the Pharaoh being godly is reinforced, as when he dies it isn’t the end of him; he is born again in his own successor. (Hamilton-Patterson, 16) This idea of the Pharaoh as a god is greatly tied up in the notion of the Pharaoh’s immortality. Being the intermediate between the earth and the heavens, the Pharaoh was not simply immortal; he was the source for immortality, which was why the people would try so hard to be buried near to him or his tomb.  (Okon, 111)

            Because of their position as the earthly incarnation of the god Horus when a pharaoh died, their journey through the afterlife was crucial to the whole nation. For the Pharaoh, the journey through the afterlife required being united with Osiris to be reborn as the next successor. (Mojsov, 491) Every royal tomb in the Valley of the Kings contains the sacred writings of the Books of the Afterlife in some form in order to guide the Pharaohs on their journey. (Mojsov, 492) The importance of this rebirth and manifestation as a God or the ‘earthly sun’ to the Egyptian’s beliefs is evident in that only the King would have these writings, with the secret of the journey through the Underworld, in his tomb. (ibid)

            It could be said that in Egypt, deification is a cyclical matter. When the pharaoh dies, he travels through the underworld tangling with the sun god Ra, then his soul is judged, he becomes one with Osiris through the ceremony of Opening of the Mouth, and is then reborn. He becomes Osiris and Ra merged into one joining the eternal cosmic cycle. (Mojsov, 493) This process of merging with the gods to be reborn would occur at the death of every pharaoh.

Osiris sitting in judgement of a Pharaoh in the Underworld

            In the article The Ancient Egyptian Underworld in the Tomb of Sety I: Sacred Books of Eternal Life the information about the afterlife and these beliefs in deification was largely due to the large amount of archaeological evidence present in the tomb of Sety I. Sety is believed to be the successor of King Akhenaten of the previous ruling family who tried to enforce a monotheistic religion. As a response to that Sety, having restored the traditional religions, had all the books about the afterlife and the dead present in his tomb, seemingly because the Egyptians were determined to get him to the other side, and restore the balance and order that was central to their world-view. (Mojsov, 491)

           

The entire concept of Deification in Egyptian beliefs revolves around the Pharaoh. You could say that this constant cycle of transformation from pharaoh, to merging with Osiris and Ra, to rebirth as Pharaoh is another form of deification, different from that discussed in the previous blog post about King Tut being depicted directly in mummification as Osiris. In this view of the Pharaoh's journey he merges with Osiris in the Underworld and is then reborn as a god on earth, not Osiris specifically, but as an earthly incarnation of the divine. With the importance placed by the Egyptians on tradition and the preservation of the body, the differences in the mummification process for King Tut should not be entirely dismissed.

Sources

Okon, E., & Etim E Okon. (2012). Archaeological Reflections on Ancient Egyptian religion and society. European Scientific Journal, 8(26) http://eujournal.org/index.php/esj/article/view/572/641

James Hamilton–Paterson, Carol Andrews. (1978). Mummies: Death and Life in Ancient Egypt.  William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd.

Mojsov, Bojana. (2001/2002). The Ancient Egyptian Underworld in the Tomb of Sety I: Sacred Books of Eternal Life. The Massachusetts Review. 42(4) pp.489-506. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25091798

Author Unknown "Osiris sitting in Judgement" photograph. https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjErdXff_Q9CrxMVc9nEdMrLvbyVJKkvg3HAJclf9ewxDRXbW2-Fmqq2tY3y0SeuIXn-pkVrg4Z6pINDVMzD8MoyZAv7lGs_bjD4GYMleriCj5PZjuR_8JtAqKqTLDQH3e2_Dp-CRXBYdg/s1600/weighing_of_the_heart%255B1%255D.jpg