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

240 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS
able indication as to the Egyptian origin of prayer for the
dead ; this is unknown to Graeco-Roman paganism which
prayed to the deified dead but never for the dead as such.
The Church took this custom from the Synagogue, but the
Jews themselves seem to have taken it from the Egyptians
in the course of
during the Hellenistic period, undoubtedly
the second century (S. Reinach, Cullcs, mythes, I, p. 325),
just as they were indebted to the Egyptians for the idea of
the "spring of life" {supra, 11.90). The formula in the Chris
tian inscriptions cited,
avcnravcov rip ipvxqv kv KO^TTOI^ A6paa/n nal Icaait Kai Ia/oj6,
appears to indicate a transposition of the doctrine of identi
fication with Osiris. In this way we can explain the persist
ence in the Christian formulary of expressions, like rcquies
aeterna, corresponding to the most primitive pagan concep
tions of the life of the dead, who were not to be disturbed in
their graves. A name for the grave, which appears frequently
in Latin epitaphs, viz., domus aeterna (or aeternalis) is un
doubtedly also of Egyptian importation. In Egypt,
"la tombe
est la maison du mort, sa maison d eternite, comme disent les
textes" (Capart, Guide du musee de Bruxelles, 1905, p. 32).
The Greeks were struck by this expression which appears in
innumerable instances. Diodorus of Sicily (I, 51, 2) was
aware that the Egyptians
T<ri> T(JV TereTi.evTTfKdrui Tatiovt; aifitovc olnovf Trpoaayopevoixrtv, uf kv
"Aifiov 6ia,T%ovvTov TOV aTTEtpov aiuva (cf. I, 93, I, elf TT/V ai&viov
It is probable that this appellation of the tomb passed from
Egypt into Palestine and Syria. It appears already in Ec-
clesiastes, xii. 7 (beth olam "house of eternity"), and it is
found in Syrian epigraphy (for instance in inscriptions of the
third century (Complex Rendus Acad. Inscr., 1906, p. 123), also
in the epigraphy of Palmyra. (Chabot, Journal asiatique, 1900,
p. 266, No. 47). Possibly the hope for consolation, Eityux,
ovSeis adavaros, frequently found engraved upon tombs even in
Latin countries was also derived from the Egyptian religion,
but this is more doubtful. EityOxe is found in the epitaphs of
initiates in the Alexandrian mysteries. Kaibel, Inscr. gr.,
XIV, 1488, 1782 (Ev-tfaxel Kvpia aal Soiri aoi 6 "Ooipi? rd ipvxpev vdup),
2098 (cf. supra, n. 90). Possibly the twofold meaning of