![]() In this ritual, the deceased's first task was to correctly address each of the forty-two Assessors of Maat by name, while reciting the sins they did not commit during their lifetime. If the deceased was successfully able to pass various demons and challenges, then he or she would reach the Judgment of the dead. The rest of the dead journeyed through the various parts of the Duat to be judged, but not to be unified with the sun god like the dead king. Place of the dead Īnubis, Thoth and Ammit seen during the " Weighing of the Heart". According to the Amduat, the underworld consists of twelve regions signifying the twelve hours of the sun god's journey through it, battling Apep in order to bring order back to the earth in the morning as his rays illuminated the Duat during the journey, they revived the dead who occupied the underworld and let them enjoy life after death during that hour of the night when they were in the presence of the sun god, after which they resumed their sleep, waiting for the god's return the following night. Īlong with the sun god the dead king travelled through the Duat, the Kingdom of Osiris, using the special knowledge he was supposed to possess, which was recorded in the Coffin Texts, that served as a guide to the hereafter not just for the king but for all deceased. The role of the dead king, worshiped as a god, was also central to the mythology surrounding the concept of Duat, often depicted as being identical with Ra. Ra travelled under the world upon his Atet barge from west to east on the course of the underground journey, he was transformed from his aged Atum form into his young Khepri form – the new dawning sun. When in the underworld he was in his ram-headed form. The Akh (the conscious part of the soul) could use tombs to travel back and forth from the Duat.Įach night the sun god Ra travelled through the Duat, bringing revivification to the dead as their main benefit. As such, the west bank of the Nile was associated with the dead and funeral barges would mimic the sun god Ra's journey through the sky during the day. (p 143) Burial chambers formed touching-points between the mundane world and the Duat. ![]() It was also the place where people's souls went after death for judgment, though that was not the full extent of the afterlife. The Duat was the region through which the sun god Ra traveled from west to east each night, and it was where he battled Apep, who embodied the primordial chaos which the sun had to defeat in order to rise each morning and bring order back to the earth. Underworld route of the sun Īf or Afu (commonly known as Afu-Ra), the ram-headed form of Ra when traveling the Duat on the subterrestrial Nile (the 12 hours of night and the underworld) on the Mesektet barque along with Sia (left and front of barque) and Heka (right and behind of barque), surrounded by the protective coiled serpent deity Mehen. The grotesque spirits of the underworld were not evil, but rather acted as directed by the gods, to provide the various ordeals that the deceased had to face. The absolute punishment for the wicked, in ancient Egyptian thought, was the denial of an afterlife to the deceased, ceasing to exist in the intellectual form ( Ancient Egyptian: ꜣḫ Egypt. In spite of the many demon-like inhabitants of the Duat, it is not equivalent to the conceptions of Hell in the Abrahamic religions, in which souls are condemned with fiery torment. The Duat was also a residence for various gods, including Osiris, Anubis, Thoth, Horus, Hathor, and Maat, who all appear to the dead soul as it makes its way toward judgement. In the Book of Two Ways (a Coffin Text) there is even a map-like image of the Duat. The geography of the Duat is similar in outline to the world the Egyptians knew: There are realistic features like rivers, islands, fields, lakes, mounds and caverns, but there were also fantastic lakes of fire, walls of iron, and trees of turquoise. The underworld was also the residence of various other gods along with Osiris. He was the first mummy as depicted in the Osiris myth and he personified rebirth and life after death. ![]() The god Osiris was believed to be the lord of the underworld. It has been represented in hieroglyphs as a star-in-circle: □. The Duat ( Ancient Egyptian: dwꜣt, Egyptological pronunciation "do-aht", Coptic: ⲧⲏ, also appearing as Tuat, Tuaut or Akert, Amenthes, Amenti, or Neter-khertet) is the underworld in ancient Egyptian mythology. The presence of Osiris at the gateway to the paradise of Aaru dates the papyrus to a late tradition of the myth. The scales are shown with the feather balance, and Ammit awaits hearts that she must devour. A section of the Egyptian Book of the Dead that is written on papyrus, showing the Weighing of the Heart in the Duat, where Anubis can be seen on the far right.
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