The Power Of The Dead In Ancient Egypt

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses religious belief and practices in Ancient Egypt. It particularly focuses on the ancient Egyptian's belief in the power of the dead and their concerns for immortality. The paper discusses how their rituals revolved around this concept, such as the idea that worshipping the sun would lead to immortality and how ancient Egyptians firmly believed that when a person died, the deceased would take on new lifeforms.

From the Paper:

"Understandably, Egyptian religion was replete with symbols which could be found on papyri, coffins, amulets and the walls of temples, palaces and especially tombs. These symbols were mostly designed to represent spiritual, religious and magical entities and the most common of these symbols, i.e. the key symbol of the Egyptians and their polytheistic religion, was the scarab beetle (Khepera) which stood "at the core of Egyptian religion and beliefs and incorporated the idea of the resurrection of the dead" (Budge, 231). The most influential of these beetles was the winged scarab which guaranteed the safe passage into the Underworld and were meant to ward off evil as the deceased stood before the Courts of Ausar. This scarab beetle also was often placed over the heart of a mummified person which was believed to guarantee rebirth and eternal life in the afterworld."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Armbrust, Walter. Mass Culture and Religion in Modern Egypt: Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology. UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
• Budge, E.A. Wallis. Egyptian Religion: Ideas of the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt. New York: Gramercy Books, 1996.
• Geertz, C. Magic, Witchcraft and Religion: An Anthropological Study of the Supernatural. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1972.
• Millidge, Judith, Ed., et al. Ancient Egyptian Culture. NJ: Chartwell Publishing, 1998.

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