The Ancient Egyptians believed that a human soul was made up of five parts: the Ren, the Ba, the Ka, the Sheut, and the Ib. Human beings, humans or man (Origin 1590–1600 L homō man OL hemō the earthly one (see Humus The soul, according to many religious and philosophical beliefs is the self-awareness, or Consciousness, unique to a particular living In addition to these components of the soul there was the human body (called the ha, occasionally a plural haw, meaning approximately sum of bodily parts).

Ib (heart)

The most important part of the Egyptian soul was thought to be the Ib, or heart. Egyptian hieroglyphs (ˈhaɪərəʊɡlɪf from Greek grc-Grek ἱερογλύφος " sacred carving " also hieroglyphic = grc-Grek To Ancient Egyptians, it was the heart and not the brain that was the seat of emotion and thought, including the will and intentions. In Egyptian religion, the heart was the key to the afterlife. It was conceived as proceeding at death to the future world, where it gave evidence for, or against, its possessor. It was thought that the heart was examined by Anubis and the deities during the Weighing of the Heart ceremony. If the heart weighed heavier than the feather of Maat, the heart immediately was consumed by the demon Ammit. Maat or Mayet, thought to have been pronounced as *Muʔʕat (Muh-aht was the Ancient Egyptian concept of Truth, balance order— Law In Egyptian mythology, Ammit (also spelt Ammut, Ammet, Amam, Amemet and Ahemait) was the personification of Divine This is evidenced by the many expressions in the Egyptian language which incorporate the word ib, Awt-ib: happiness (literally, wideness of heart), Xak-ib: estranged (literally, truncated of heart). Egyptian is an Afro-Asiatic language most closely related to the Berber, Semitic, Somali and Beja languages This word was transcribed by Wallis Budge as 'Ab'. Sir Ernest Alfred Thompson Wallis Budge ( July 27, 1857 &ndash November 23, 1934) was an English Egyptologist,

Sheut (shadow)

A person's shadow, Sheut (šwt in Egyptian), was always present. A shadow is an area where direct light from a light source cannot reach due to obstruction by an object It was believed that a person could not exist without a shadow, nor a shadow without a person, therefore, Egyptians surmised that a shadow contained something of the person it represents. For this reason statues of people and deities were sometimes referred to as their shadows.

The shadow was represented graphically as a small human figure painted completely black as well, as a figure of death, or servant of Anubis. Anubis is the Greek name for a Jackal -headed god associated with Mummification and the afterlife in Egyptian mythology.

Ren (name)

As a part of the soul, a person's name (ren in Egyptian) was given to them at birth and the Egyptians believed that it would live for as long as that name was spoken, which explains why efforts were made to protect it and the practice of placing it in numerous writings. A name ( Etymology: from OE nama akin to OHG namo, Latin Nomen, and Greek όνομα ( Egyptian is an Afro-Asiatic language most closely related to the Berber, Semitic, Somali and Beja languages For example, part of the Book of Breathings, a derivative of the Book of the Dead, was a means to ensure the survival of the name. ' The Book of the Dead' is the common name for the Ancient Egyptian Funerary text known as ' Spells of Coming' (or ' Going') ' Forth By Day' A cartouche (magical rope) often was used to surround the name and protect it. In Egyptian hieroglyphs a cartouche is an oblong enclosure with a horizontal line at one end indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name coming into use during Conversely, the names of deceased enemies of the state, such as Akhenaten, were hacked out of monuments in a form of damnatio memoriae. Akhenaten (often alt: Akhnaten, or rarely Ikhnaton) (In English ˌɑkəˡnɑtən or approximately "AHK-en-AHT-en" his royal name Amenhotep Damnatio memoriae is the Latin phrase literally meaning "damnation of memory" in the sense of removed from the remembrance. Sometimes, however, they were removed in order to make room for the economical insertion of the name of a successor, without having to build another monument. The greater the number of places a name was used, the greater the possibility it would survive to be read and spoken.

Ba (individual personality)

The ba

The 'Ba' ('b3') is in some regards the closest to the contemporary Western religious notion of a soul, but it also was everything that makes an individual unique, similar to the notion of 'personality'. Egyptian hieroglyphs (ˈhaɪərəʊɡlɪf from Greek grc-Grek ἱερογλύφος " sacred carving " also hieroglyphic = grc-Grek Egyptian hieroglyphs (ˈhaɪərəʊɡlɪf from Greek grc-Grek ἱερογλύφος " sacred carving " also hieroglyphic = grc-Grek (In this sense, inanimate objects could also have a 'Ba', a unique character, and indeed Old Kingdom pyramids often were called the 'Ba' of their owner). The Old Kingdom is the name commonly given to that period in the 3rd millennium BCE when Egypt attained its first continuous peak of civilization in complexity and achievement The Egyptian pyramids are pyramid shaped structures located in Egypt, and were built as a tomb for dead pharaohs Like a soul, the 'Ba' is a part of a person that the Egyptians believed would live after the body died, and it is sometimes depicted as a human-headed bird flying out of the tomb to join with the 'Ka' in the afterlife.

The word 'bau' (plural of the word ba) is based on this concept. It meant something similar to 'impressiveness', 'power', and 'reputation', particularly of a deity. When a deity intervened in human affairs, it was said that the 'Bau' of the deity were at work [Borghouts 1982]. In this regard, the ruler was regarded as a 'Ba' of a deity, or one deity was believed to be the 'Ba' of another.

Ka (life force)

The Ka (k3) was the Egyptian concept of life force, that which distinguishes the difference between a living and a dead person, death occurring when the ka left the body. The Egyptians believed that Khnum created the bodies of children on a potter's wheel and inserted them into women's bodies. In Egyptian mythology, Khnum (also spelled Chnum, Knum, or Khnemu) was one of the earliest Egyptian deities originally the god of the source In Pottery, a potter's wheel is a machine used in the shaping of round ceramic wares Depending on the region, Egyptians believed that Heket or Meskhenet, was the creator of each person's Ka, breathing it into them at the instant of their birth as the part of their soul that made them be, alive. To the Egyptians the Frog was a symbol of life and fertility since millions of them were born after the annual Inundation of the Nile, which brought fertility In Ancient Egyptian mythology, Meskhenet, (also spelt Mesenet, Meskhent, and Meshkent) was the Goddess of Childbirth, Birth is the act or process of bearing or bringing forth Offspring. This resembles the concept of spirit in other religions, sharing the PIE root. The English word " spirit " comes from the Latin " spiritus " (breath

The Egyptians also believed that the ka was sustained through food and drink. For this reason food and drink offerings were presented to the dead, although it was the kau (k3w) within the offerings (also known as kau) that was consumed, not the physical aspect. The ka often was represented in Egyptian iconography as a second image of the individual, leading earlier works to attempt to translate ka as double.

Ancient Egyptians believed that death occurs when a person's ka, leaves the body. Death is the termination of the biological functions that define living Organisms It refers both to a specific Ceremonies conducted by priests after death, including the "opening of the mouth (wp r)" aimed, not only to restore a person's physical abilities in death, but also to release a Ba's attachment to the body. This allowed the Ba to be united with the Ka in the afterlife, creating an entity known as an "Akh" (3ḫ meaning "effective one").

According to Friedrich Junge, Giacomo Borioni proposes in his work "Der Ka aus religionswissenschaftlicher Sicht" that, the Ka was the self of a human being.

Egyptians conceived of an afterlife as quite similar to normal physical existence—but with a difference. The model for this new existence was the journey of the sun. At night the sun descended into the Duat (the underworld). In Egyptian mythology, Duat (or Tuat (also called Akert, Amenthes, or Neter-khertet) is the Underworld. Eventually the sun meets the body of the mummified Osiris. Osiris ( Greek language, also Usiris; the Egyptian language name is variously transliterated Asar, Aser, Ausar, Ausir Osiris and the sun, re-energized by each other, rise to new life for another day. Osiris ( Greek language, also Usiris; the Egyptian language name is variously transliterated Asar, Aser, Ausar, Ausir For the deceased, their body and their tomb were their personal Osiris and a personal Duat. For this reason they are often addressed as "Osiris". Osiris ( Greek language, also Usiris; the Egyptian language name is variously transliterated Asar, Aser, Ausar, Ausir For this process to work, some sort of bodily preservation was required, to allow the Ba to return during the night, and to rise to new life in the morning. However, the complete Akhu were also thought to appear as stars. ^[1] Until the Late Period, non-royal Egyptians did not expect to unite with the sun deity, it being reserved for the royals. ^[2]

The Book of the Dead, the collection of spells which aided a person in the afterlife existence, had the Egyptian name of the Book of going forth by day. ' The Book of the Dead' is the common name for the Ancient Egyptian Funerary text known as ' Spells of Coming' (or ' Going') ' Forth By Day' They helped people avoid the perils of the afterlife and also aided their existence, containing spells to assure "not dying a second time in the underworld", and to "grant memory always" to a person.

The tomb of Paheri, an Eighteenth dynasty nomarch of Nekhen, has an eloquent description of this existence, and is translated by James P. Allen as:

Your life happening again, without your ba being kept away from your divine corpse, with your ba being together with the akh . Nomarchs were the semi- Feudal rulers of Ancient Egyptian provinces Hieraconpolis redirects here for the ancient fortress in Egypt called Hieracon see Hieracon Nekhen, ( Greek:, Strabo xvii James Peter Allen (born in 1945 is a prolific Egyptologist, specializing in language and religion . . You shall emerge each day and return each evening. A lamp will be lit for you in the night until the sunlight shines forth on your breast. You shall be told: "Welcome, welcome, into this your house of the living!"

Notes

1. ^ Ancient Egyptian Religion: An Interpretation by Henri Frankfort, p. 100. 2000 edition, first copyright 1948. Google Books preview retrieved January 19, 2008.
2. ^ 26th Dynasty stela description from Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna

References

• Allen, James Paul. 2001. "Ba". In The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, edited by Donald Bruce Redford. Vol. 1 of 3 vols. Oxford, New York, and Cairo: Oxford University Press and The American University in Cairo Press. 161–162.
• Allen, James P. 2000. "Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs", Cambridge University Press.
• Borghouts, Joris Frans. 1982. "Divine Intervention in Ancient Egypt and Its Manifestation (b3w)". In Gleanings from Deir el-Medîna, edited by Robert Johannes Demarée and Jacobus Johannes Janssen. Egyptologische Uitgaven 1. Leiden: Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten. 1–70.
• Borioni, Giacomo C. 2005. "Der Ka aus religionswissenschaftlicher Sicht", Veröffentlichungen der Institute für Afrikanistik und Ägyptologie der Universität Wien.
• Burroughs, William S. 1987. "The Western Lands", Viking Press. (fiction).
• Friedman, Florence Margaret Dunn. 1981. On the Meaning of Akh (3ḫ) in Egyptian Mortuary Texts. Doctoral dissertation; Waltham: Brandeis University, Department of Classical and Oriental Studies.
• ———. 2001. "Akh". In The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, edited by Donald Bruce Redford. Vol. 1 of 3 vols. Oxford, New York, and Cairo: Oxford University Press and The American University in Cairo Press. 47–48.
• Jaynes, Julian. 1976. The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, Princeton University.
• Žabkar, Louis Vico. 1968. A Study of the Ba Concept in Ancient Egyptian Texts. Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization 34. Chicago: University of Chicago Press