the Book of the Dead ( PDF )

The Gods Of The Book Of The Dead.
Egyptians of the XVIIIth dynasty from a moral as well as from a physical point of view.[6] Apep, the
emblem of evil, was here punished and overcome, and here dwelt the souls of the wicked and the
righteous, who received their punishments or rewards, meted out to them by the decree of Ra and his
company of gods. The chief instruments of punishment employed by the gods were fire and beasts which
devoured the souls and bodies of the enemies
[1. See below, p. 258.
2. Naville, Todtenbuch, Bd. I., Bl. 49.
3. Lepsius, Todtenbuch, Bl. 17.
4. ###. Naville, Todtenbuch, Bd. I., Bl. 184.
5. See Maspero, Les Hypogées Royaux de Thèbes, p. 76.
6. See Lefébure, Book of Hades (Records of the Past, vol. x., p. 84).]
{p. cxxxi}
Traditions about hell preserved in Coptic times.
of Ra; and we may see from the literature of the Copts, or Egyptians who had embraced Christianity,
how long the belief in a hell of fire and torturing fiends survived. Thus in the Life of Abba Shenuti,[1] a
man is told that the " executioners of Amenti will not show compassion upon thy wretched sol,"[2] and in
the history of Pisentios, a Bishop of Coptos in the seventh century of our era, we have a series of details
which reflect the Tuat of the ancient Egyptians in a remarkable manner. The bishop having taken up his
abode in a tomb filled with mummies, causes one of them to tell his history.[3] After saying that his
parents were Greeks who worshipped Poseidon, he states that when he was dying already the avenging
angels came about him with iron knives and goads as sharp as spears, which they thrust into his sides,
while they gnashed their teeth at him; when he opened his eyes, he saw death in all its manifold forms
round about him; and at that moment angels without mercy came and dragged his wretched soul from his
body, and tying it to the form of a black horse they bore it away to Amenta. Next, he was delivered over
to merciless tormentors, who tortured him in a place where there were multitudes of savage beasts; and,
when he had been cast into the place of outer darkness, he saw a ditch more than two hundred feet deep
filled with reptiles, each of which had seven heads, and all their bodies were covered as it were with
scorpions. Here also were serpents, the very sight of which terrified the beholder, and to one of them
which had teeth like iron stakes was the wretched man given to be devoured; for five days in each week
the serpent crushed him with his teeth, but on the Saturday and Sunday there was respite. Another picture
of the torments of Hades is given in the Martyrdom of Macarius of Antioch, wherein the saint, having
restored to life a man who had been dead six hours, learned that when he was about to die he was
surrounded by fiends, some of whom had the faces of dragons, others of lions, others of crocodiles, and
others of bears. They tore his soul from his body with great violence, and they fled with it over a mighty
river of fire, in which they plunged it to a depth of four hundred cubits; then they took it out and set it
before the judge of Truth. After hearing the sentence of the judge the fiends took it to a place of outer
darkness where no
[1. See Amélineau, Monuments pour servir à l'Histoire de Égypte Chrétienne, p. 167.
2 ###.
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