The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism [1911] - Get a Free Blog

EGYPT. 101
irresistible power of attraction. Instead of the vague
and contradictory opinions of the philosophers in re
gard to the destiny of the soul, Serapis
offered cer
tainty founded on divine revelation corroborated by
the faith of the countless generations that had adhered
to it. What the votaries of Orpheus had confusedly
discovered through the veil of the legends-, and taught
to Magna Grecia, 88 namely, that this earthly life was
a trial, a preparation for a higher and purer life, that
the happiness of an after-life could be secured by
means of rites and observances revealed by the gods
themselves, all this was now preached with a firmness
and precision hitherto unknown. These eschatolog-
ical doctrines in particular, helped Egypt to conquer
the Latin world and especially the miserable masses,
on whom the weight of all the iniquities of Roman
society rested heavily.
* * *
The power and popularity of that belief in future
life has left traces even in the French language, and in
concluding this study, from which I have been com
pelled to exclude every picturesque detail,
I would like
to point out how a French word of to-day dimly per
petuates the memory of the old Egyptian ideas.
During the cold nights of their long winters the
Scandinavians dreamed of a Walhalla where the de
ceased warriors sat in well-closed brilliantly illuminated
halls, warming themselves and drinking the strong
liquor served by the Valkyries ;
but under the burning
sky of Egypt, near the arid sand where thirst kills
the traveler, people wished that their dead might find
a limpid spring in their future wanderings to assuage
the heat that devoured them, and that they might be