Pyramid texts

Main article: History of Ancient Egypt

Analysis of the contents of the "Pyramid Texts" and the peculiarities of the language irrefutably indicates that they arose at different times, including the time before the unification of Egypt, and in different places. However, science is not able to trace the process of their emergence and formation. Their recording was first made at the behest of the last king of the V dynasty, Unas, on the walls of the interior of his pyramid. This marked the beginning of a tradition that continued under the pharaohs of the VІ dynasty.

The "pyramid texts" are inscribed with artistically executed hieroglyphs painted green. K. Zete emphasizes that before the appearance of these texts in the pyramids, there was undoubtedly not only their oral, but also written tradition (in this regard, he compares the "Texts of the pyramids" with the Indian Vedas), as evidenced indirectly by the following fact. Starting from the end of the ІІІ dynasty, in a number of mastabs, an image of a funeral priest appears, reading the funeral service on the papyrus scroll, named in explanatory inscriptions for images of sahu, which means "funeral literature," in this case "funeral mass or funeral service." Thus, by the end of the ІІI dynasty, there was already a written funeral service canon for mastab owners. It can be assumed that it existed until this time.

And of course, there is no doubt, wrote M.A. Korostovtsev, that the same canon existed for the dead kings. K. Zete expresses a very interesting idea that Unas already felt signs of the beginning of the collapse of the centralized monarchy of the Old Kingdom and the unreliability of even the funeral cult of kings. Hence the desire to secure a funeral cult with magical inscriptions inside the pyramid.

The priests of Heliopolis create the cults of Atum and the eight gods who were the first "rulers" of Egypt, and the pharaohs - "living Choirs" - their heirs

In Heliopolis, the oldest Egyptian theogony and cosmogony were created and developed, as far as can be judged. The emergence from the eternal chaos of the great, "self-created" chthonic god Atum ("perfect") was the beginning of the universe.

So Atum and his offspring make up a collection of nine deities, the Heliopolian nine, or ennead. This theogony, sufficiently abstract, reveals traces of the theological work of the Heliopolian priesthood. It was already attested in the Texts of the Pyramids and had a huge influence on the theological thought of other major religious centers, such as Memphis, Hermopol and Thebes. See heliopol for details.

The tradition of Heliopolis became all-Egyptian. Throughout its centuries-old history, the Egyptians considered, in accordance with the tradition of Heliopolis, the deity of the Heliopolian ennead to be their first kings, after which the god Choir, the son of Osiris and Isis, began to rule. This is followed by demigods and pharaohs. Pharaohs, the "living Choirs," were considered by this tradition the successors and descendants of the gods of the "big" Heliopolian Ennead, who ruled the ancient country.

Humanization of images of gods in the largest cities, because in addition to the forces of nature, people begin to be greatly influenced by the actions of nomarchs and pharaohs

Every religion is nothing but a fantastic reflection in people's heads of the external forces that dominate them in their daily lives, a reflection in which earthly forces take the form of the unearthly. At the beginning of history, the objects of this reflection are primarily the forces of nature. But soon, along with the forces of nature, social forces also come into action, which also begin to dominate him. In other words, the humanization of totems begins with an increase in the importance of social forces (i.e. actions of people) in the life of an individual.

It is very significant, for example, that the god Nemti of the city and noma Busiris (Lower Egypt) is depicted as a person with insignations (signs of power) of the pharaoh, and in the "Texts of the pyramids" bears the title of nomarch - "the head of his nome." In this case, the iconography and titles in the "Pyramid Texts" reflect the process of anthropomorphizing a deity, originally a falcon. After all, the social forces, depending on which the person turned out to be, are primarily the persons who began to dispose of his fate - first of all, the nomarch, then the pharaoh.

Egyptian iconography indicates that a small number of gods have undergone complete anthropomorphization - Osiris, Isis, Pta, Amon, Honsu, Min, Atum, etc. Some of them were worshipped in major religious centers, in which theological thought went far ahead from totemistic and fetishistic ideas. The process of anthropomorphization took place everywhere in Egypt approximately simultaneously, for the growth of productive forces and the development of industrial relations (i.e. the process of decomposition of the primitive family society) took place throughout the country mostly evenly. Most minor religious centers lagged behind Heliopolis, Coptos, Memphis, Thebes in their development, and probably therefore in these minor centers, despite the intensified work of theological thought, the anthropomorphization of deities in iconography turned out to be not so ^[1].

Anthropomorphization did not weaken, however, totemism and the cult of animals.

Maat is the main link in Egyptian ethics

In Egyptian religion and mythology, there are deities that embody this or that abstract concept, but have never been, apparently, local deities. First of all, the goddess Maat should be mentioned. In Egyptian, "maat" denoted a complex, synthetic concept that unites the concepts: "truth," "truth," "law and order," "ethical norm," "divine establishment" in nature and among people), "religious and moral foundations," etc. "Maat is the proper order in nature and society, which was established by the creator, and therefore everything that is correct and accurate; however, it is law, order, justice, and truth. " Texts in which the goddess Maat appears indicate that she is the deified equivalent of this synthetic abstract concept.

Maat is already mentioned in the "Texts of the Pyramids": the god Ra announces that he "restored" Maat (Pyr., S 265), elsewhere it is said that "the sky is satisfied, the earth rejoices, for they heard that [the late king] hoisted Maat to the place of disorder (іsf.t)" (Pyr., S 1775b).

The authority of Maat especially increased at the end of the era of the Ancient Kingdom. The goddess was put in direct contact with the god Ra as his daughter. And since the sun god (starting from the 5th dynasty) becomes the supreme god - the patron saint of kings, their "father," since Maat in all its aspects symbolizes the divine establishment, the correctness of life's foundations and moral principles.

The concept of Maat forms the main link of Egyptian ethics, wrote ^[2] of ^[3]. Maat was also close to the god Thoth. Vezirs, beginning in the 5th dynasty, were considered priests of Maat; judges at a later time wore an image of her around her neck on a chain. In large temples, and in particular in the temple in Deir el-Medina, the cult of Maat was observed. Pharaoh, as the son of God and the representative of the gods on earth, was to guard Maat - the rule of law.

In iconography, Maat was depicted as a woman with an ostrich feather on her head.

The cults of Osiris, Isis and Bastet in the Nile Delta

Approximately in the center of the Nile Delta, two cities were located near each other:

• to the north, in the Sevennite nome - the modern Behbet el-Haggar (the ancient Greeks called him Iseum);
• to the south - the main city of the Busiris nome PerPer-Usir (dr. Greek. Busiris, modern Abu Sir Bana).

Only a certain number of granite blocks have survived from Iseum - the remains of a large temple. From Busiris - and even less, in its place is now a village.

These cities were the "homeland," so to speak, of the two largest gods of the Egyptian pantheon. The first is the goddess Isis, the second is the god Osiris. Probably, the geographical proximity of these places contributed to some extent to the rapprochement of god and goddess and their transformation into a married couple, repeatedly mentioned in the "Texts of the Pyramids."

Modern Tel Basta, near Ez-Zakazik (dr. Egyptian Per Per-Bast, dr. Greek Bubast) from ancient times was famous for the cult of the cat goddess Bastet, also mentioned in the "Texts of the Pyramids."

Hathor cult in Dendera

Main article: Kena

Notes