Budge, Ernest A. Wallis [Bearb.]: The book of the dead: the Papyrus Ani in the British Museum ; the Egyptian text with interlinear transliteration and translation, a running translation, introd. etc. ([Text]) (London, 1895)

THE ABODE OF THE BLESSED.

The gods of the Egyptians dwelt in a heaven with their ka s, and khtt s, and J[(|!lev^fyptliin
shadows, and there they received the blessed dead to dwell with them. This heaven
was situated in the sky, which the Egyptians believed to be like an iron ceiling,
either flat or vaulted, and to correspond in extent and shape with the earth beneath
it. This ceiling was rectangular, and was supported at each corner by a jnllar J ;
in this idea, we have, as M. Maspero has observed, a survival of the roof-tree of
very primitive nations. At a very early clate the four pillars ]jjjy, were identifiecl
with “ the four ancient kku’s who dwell in the hair of Horus,”1 * who are also saicl to
be “ the four gods who stancl by the pillar-sceptres of heaven.”3 These four gods

are “ children of Horus,” and their names are Amset fj Hapi,

f. r D ’ Tuamautef, and Oebhsennuf, ||| . 4 They were

supposed to preside over the four quarters of the world, and subsequently were
acknowledged to be the gods of the cardinal points. The Egyptians named the

sky or heavenpet [TfJ. A less primitive view made the heavens in the form of
the gocldess Nut who was represented as a woman with bowed body whose

hands ancl feet rest on the earth In this case the two arms and the two


p- 55 (•■ 473); and compare jj Q D ^ P ■£}
(1. 171).

. Recueil de Travau: e, t. iv.,
\ . Ibid., t. v., p. 186

s t.«.,p.,7(i.»33>.

3 Ilnd., p. 39 (1. 281). -i Ibid; p. 10 (1. 60)