History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 2 (of 12) eBook

Gaston Maspero
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 355 pages of information about History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 2 (of 12).

History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 2 (of 12) eBook

Gaston Maspero
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 355 pages of information about History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 2 (of 12).
that a share of them might first be set aside for the deceased.  By the divine favour, the soul or rather the doubles of the bread, meat, and beverages passed into the other world, and there refreshed the human double.  It was not, however, necessary that the offering should have a material existence, in order to be effective; the first comer who should repeat aloud the name and the formulas inscribed upon the stone, secured for the unknown occupant, by this means alone, the immediate possession of all the things which he enumerated.

The stele constitutes the essential part of the chapel and tomb.  In many cases it was the only inscribed portion, it alone being necessary to ensure the identity and continuous existence of the dead man; often, however, the sides of the chamber and passage were not left bare.  When time or the wealth of the owner permitted, they were covered with scenes and writing, expressing at greater length the ideas summarized by the figures and inscriptions of the stele.

[Illustration:  014.jpg A REPRESENTATION OF THE DOMAINS OF THE LORD TI, BRINGING TO HIM OFFERINGS IN PROCESSION]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin taken from a “squeeze” taken from the tomb of Ti.  The domains are represented as women.  The name is written before each figure with the designation of the landowner.

Neither pictorial effect nor the caprice of the moment was permitted to guide the artist in the choice of his subjects; all that he drew, pictures or words, bad a magical purpose.  Every individual who built for himself an “eternal house,” either attached to it a staff of priests of the double, of inspectors, scribes, and slaves, or else made an agreement with the priests of a neighbouring temple to serve the chapel in perpetuity.  Lands taken from his patrimony, which thus became the “Domains of the Eternal House,” rewarded them for their trouble, and supplied them with meats, vegetables, fruits, liquors, linen and vessels for sacrifice.

[Illustration:  015.jpg THE REPRESENTATION OF THE LORD TI ASSISTING AT THE PRELIMINARIES OF THE SACRIFICE AND OFFERINGS]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Dumichen,
     Besultate, vol. i. pl. 13.

In theory, these “liturgies” were perpetuated from year to year, until the end of time; but in practice, after three or four generations, the older ancestors were forsaken for those who had died more recently.  Notwithstanding the imprecations and threats of the donor against the priests who should neglect their duty, or against those who should usurp the funeral endowments, sooner or later there came a time when, forsaken by all, the double was in danger of perishing for want of sustenance.  In order to ensure that the promised gifts, offered in substance on the day of burial, should be maintained throughout the centuries, the relatives not only depicted them upon the chapel walls, but represented in addition the lands which

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History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 2 (of 12) from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.