Egyptian Perceptions of Death in Antiquity

The Giza Pyramids, the only remaining example of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, are massive tombs that demonstrate the emphasis placed on death and the afterlife by the ancient [Page 399]Egyptians. Life in ancient Egypt was, as noted by Thomas Hobbes, “brutish and short.” The ancient Egyptian beliefs regarding death are complex. The focus was not on the end of life but on the cycle of life, which encompassed such issues as sex, fertility, death, and rebirth, and potentially immortality. But the ancient Egyptians prepared in life for a more pleasant existence in the afterlife, an afterlife that promised an easier existence than that experienced while living.

Because of the burial practices in Predynastic Egypt (c. 5500–3100 B.C.E.), such as funerary goods, it is assumed the ancient Egyptians held a complex set of beliefs regarding the afterlife. Given the typical items found in these early graves, it is clear the Egyptians believed one would need these items in the afterlife.

During the Predynastic era, Egyptian bodies were buried in the fetal position; this practice implies a belief in rebirth after death. The scarab beetle (aka the dung beetle), which hatches in a ball composed of mud and dung, appears throughout ancient Egyptian literature as a theme that links notions of death and rebirth. This link with life, death, fertility, and rebirth are common features throughout Egyptian practices. Some funerary texts dating from the Middle Kingdom (c. 2030–1650 B.C.E.) describe the ba (the living, immortal divine soul) of the dead man engaging in sexual activity with goddesses and mortal women.

The practice of mummification is thought to have developed after bodies that had previously been buried in the desert emerged in a preserved state. Discovery of these preserved bodies may have aided the ancient Egyptians in developing the concept that the dead continued to live and that the physical body was needed to maintain existence in the afterlife.

To ensure this continued existence, statues of the deceased were often interred with the person's body. Another method to ensure existence after death was via the name, or ren, of the deceased person. In instances when it was thought an individual had betrayed the interests of Egypt, that individual's name was physically destroyed by eliminating appropriate writings and inscriptions, along with the destruction of that person's physical body and images thereof. One such example of an attempt to thwart an existence in the afterlife is that of Akhenaten (c. 1349–1336 B.C.E.), a pharaoh who ruled during the Eighteenth Dynasty (c. 1550–1295 B.C.E.). Akhenaten was unsuccessful in attempting to replace ancient Egyptian religion with monotheism. In this instance at least the attempt was not totally successful given that some information remains.

Related to the concept of the afterlife are the ka, ba, and akh. The ka is commonly translated “spirit,” like a spiritual doppelganger; ba is thought to be associated with one's personality of moral qualities akin to a soul; akh is held as the successful reunion, at death, of a person's ka and ba, somewhat like a shadow. If a person's ka and ba were not reunited and akh failed to develop, then everlasting life would not occur. In essence that person would be condemned to eternal death.

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