the Book of the Dead ( PDF )

The Gods Of The Book Of The Dead.
In the judgment scene in the Book of the Dead, grouped round the pan of the balance which contains the
heart of the deceased (see Plate III.), are three beings in human form, who bear the names Shai, Renenet,
and Meskhenet.
Shai is the personification of destiny, and Renenet fortune; these names are usually found coupled. Shai
and Renenet are said to be in the hands of Thoth, the divine intelligence of the gods; and Rameses II.
boasts that he himself is "lord of Shai and creator of Renenet."[3] Shai was originally the deity who
"decreed" what should happen to a man, and Renenet, as may be seen from the pyramid texts,[4] was the
goddess of plenty, good fortune, and the like; subsequently no distinction was made between these
deities and the abstract ideas which they represented. In the papyrus of Ani, Shai stands by himself near
the pillar of the Balance, and Renenet is accompanied by Meskhenet, who appears to be the
personification of all the conceptions underlying Shai and Renenet and something else besides. In the
story of the children of Ra, as related in the Westcar papyrus, we find the goddess Meskhenet mentioned
with Isis, Nephthys, Heqet, and the god Khnemu as assisting at the birth of children.
[1. Recueil de Travaux, t. iii., p. 182 (l. 17).
2. ###, etc. Ibid., t. vii., p. 170 (l. 463).
3. See Maspero, Romans et Poésies du Papyrus Harris, No. 500, Paris, 1879, p. 27.
4 Pyramid of Unas, l. 564.]
{p. cxxvi}
Disguised in female forms, the four goddesses go to the house of Ra-user, and, professing to have a
knowledge of the art of midwifery, they are admitted to the chamber where the child is about to be born;
Isis stands before the woman, Nephthys behind her, and Heqet accelerates the birth. When the child is
born Meskhenet comes and looking upon him says, "A king; he shall rule throughout this land. May
Khnemu give health and strength to his body."[1] The word meskhenet is as old as the pyramid times,
and seems then to have had the meaning of luck, destiny, etc.[2]
The god Amen, his wife Mut and their associate Khonsu have nothing whatever to do with the Book of
the Dead; but Amen, the first member of this great Theban triad, must be mentioned with the other gods,
because he was usually identified with one or more of them. The name Amen means the "hidden one,"
and the founding of the first shrine of the god recorded in history took place at Thebes during the XIIth
dynasty; from that time until the close of the XVIIth dynasty, Amen was the chief god of Thebes and
nothing more. When, however, the last kings of the XVIIth dynasty had succeeded in expelling the
so-called Hyksos and had delivered the country from the yoke of the foreigner, their god assumed an
importance hitherto unknown, and his priests endeavoured to make his worship the first in the land. But
Amen was never regarded throughout the entire country as its chief god, although his votaries called him
the king of the gods. The conception which the Thebans had of their god as a god of the underworld was
modified when they identified him with Ra and called him "Amen-Ra"; and, speaking generally, in the
time of the XVIIIth dynasty and onwards the god became the personification of the mysterious creating
and sustaining power of the universe, which in a material form was typified by the sun. By degrees all
the attributes of the old gods of Egypt were ascribed to him, and the titles which among western nations
are given to God were added to those pantheistic epithets which Amen had usurped. The following
extracts from a fine hymn[3] will set forth the views of the priesthood of Amen-Ra concerning their god.
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