DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.30604#0056
THE LEGEND OF OSIRIS.
The main features of The chief features of the Egyptian religion remained unchanged from the
constant. Vth and Vlth dynasties down to the period when the Egyptians embraced
Persistence of the
legend of Osiris and
the belief in the
resurrection.
Christianity, after the preaching of St. Mark the Apostle in Alexandria, a.d. 69,
so firmly had the early beliefs taken possession of the Egyptian mind ; and the
Christians in Egypt, or Copts as they are commonly called, the racial descendants
of the ancient Egyptians, seem never to have succeeded in divesting themselves
of the superstitious and weird mythological conceptions which they inherited from
their heathen ancestors. It is not necessary here to repeat the proofs of this fact
which M. Amelineau has brought together,1 or to aclduce evidence from the lives
of the saints, martyrs and ascetics; but it is of interest to note in passing that the
translators of the New Testament into Coptic rendered the Greek aS^s by
Ajuterrf-,3 amenti, the name which the ancient Egyptians gave to the abode of
man after death,3 and that the Copts peopled it with beings whose prototypes
are found on the ancient monuments.
The chief gods mentioned in the pyramid texts are identical with those whose
names are given on tomb, coffin and papyrus in the latest dynasties ; and if the
names of the great cosmic gods, such as Ptah and Khnemu, are of rare occurrence,
it should be remembered that the gods of the dead must naturally occupy the chief
place in this literature which concerns the dead. Furthermore, we find that the
doctrine of eternal life and of the resurrection of a glorified or transformed body,
based upon the ancient story of the resurrection of Osiris after a cruel death and
horrible mutilation, inflicted by the powers of evil, was the same in ail periods, and
that the legends of the most ancient times were accepted without material alteration
or addition in the texts of the later dynasties.
1 Le Christianisme chez les anciens Coptes, in Revue des Religions, t. xiv., Paris, 1886, pp. 308-45.
3 I.e.,
I1
3 See St. Matthew xi., 23; Acts ii., 27, etc.
The main features of The chief features of the Egyptian religion remained unchanged from the
constant. Vth and Vlth dynasties down to the period when the Egyptians embraced
Persistence of the
legend of Osiris and
the belief in the
resurrection.
Christianity, after the preaching of St. Mark the Apostle in Alexandria, a.d. 69,
so firmly had the early beliefs taken possession of the Egyptian mind ; and the
Christians in Egypt, or Copts as they are commonly called, the racial descendants
of the ancient Egyptians, seem never to have succeeded in divesting themselves
of the superstitious and weird mythological conceptions which they inherited from
their heathen ancestors. It is not necessary here to repeat the proofs of this fact
which M. Amelineau has brought together,1 or to aclduce evidence from the lives
of the saints, martyrs and ascetics; but it is of interest to note in passing that the
translators of the New Testament into Coptic rendered the Greek aS^s by
Ajuterrf-,3 amenti, the name which the ancient Egyptians gave to the abode of
man after death,3 and that the Copts peopled it with beings whose prototypes
are found on the ancient monuments.
The chief gods mentioned in the pyramid texts are identical with those whose
names are given on tomb, coffin and papyrus in the latest dynasties ; and if the
names of the great cosmic gods, such as Ptah and Khnemu, are of rare occurrence,
it should be remembered that the gods of the dead must naturally occupy the chief
place in this literature which concerns the dead. Furthermore, we find that the
doctrine of eternal life and of the resurrection of a glorified or transformed body,
based upon the ancient story of the resurrection of Osiris after a cruel death and
horrible mutilation, inflicted by the powers of evil, was the same in ail periods, and
that the legends of the most ancient times were accepted without material alteration
or addition in the texts of the later dynasties.
1 Le Christianisme chez les anciens Coptes, in Revue des Religions, t. xiv., Paris, 1886, pp. 308-45.
3 I.e.,
I1
3 See St. Matthew xi., 23; Acts ii., 27, etc.