Religious Character of Society and the Building of the Pyramids
Religious belief was central to ancient Egyptian society. Religion justified royal authority and provided an explanation of creation, the nature of the world, and ethical principles.
The Egyptians created a religion that had aspects of totemism (belief in a common ancestor with the spirit of an animal or plant) and animism (belief that within every object, animate or inanimate, their dwells a spirit or force that governs its existence). The Egyptians viewed the world as the continuum of the substance shared by a variety of beings in the form of men, women, birds, fish, crocodiles, hippos, cats, and dogs. Each village, city and nome had its own gods, and festivals in their honor were a common form of celebration.
Many national gods were worshiped. Horus became a national god because he was the god of Memphis, the city of Menes. By the 5th dynasty the priests of Heliopolis and the strength of the sun cult raised their god, Re, the falcon headed sun god, above Horus. The ram headed god, Amon (or Amun), god of the city of Thebes, became joined with Re (Amon-Re) as the king of the gods when the royal family of Thebes established the twelfth dynasty.
A view of the world as being full of humans, spirits, and gods, all of whom were ultimately of one nature, is called pantheism (God is in all and all is God). Thus, though there were many gods and beings, they all were of the same substance which was eternal. This belief, combined with the benevolent and serene nature of life along the Nile, encouraged the belief in life after death. The kings, who were gods themselves, expected immortality, as their elaborate burial places, complete with all the material things they would need in the next life, shows. The nobles of the Old Kingdom constructed their tombs close to the king’s in the belief that their services would be needed in the next world. The lower classes did not expect an afterlife at this time, in large part because they could not afford the cost of the rituals needed to achieve it, including preservation of the body.
The dry Egyptian climate helped to preserve corpses well. To preserve the body indefinitely, Egyptians who could afford to do so had them mummified and placed in tombs, assuming that they would use them again. Also stored in the tomb were food and drink and even transportation, like a boat or chariot, for the journey to the next world.
Ancient Egyptian Religion & Myths
The popularity of the cult of Osiris and his sister/wife Isis beginning in the sixth dynasty, led to the idea that the body was the home the vital force or soul known as ka. At the judgment seat of Osiris, one’s ka was examined in light of one’s actions on earth. This was often portrayed as the weighing of the deceased’s heart on a scale against the feather of the goddess Ma’at. Had he murdered, stolen, coveted the property of others, blasphemed, given false testimony, ill treated his parents? If so, his heart would be full of sin and heavier than the feather, leading to his being devoured by a monster (a crocodile). But if he had led a good life he was admitted to eternal happiness in a garden paradise.
Kings and nobles were first buried in rectangular tombs called mastabas; the modern Arabic word for benches, and these mastabas were often piled one on top of the other. During the third dynasty the Pharaoh Djoser (2650 B.C.) had the architect Imhotep, a priest of Heliopolis, build the great step pyramid, which was the largest structure built entirely of stone at that time. It is referred to in the sources as the “stairway to heaven.” According to myths of the sun cult, the king would spend much of his after life with the sun god, and thus it was necessary for him to be able to reach the solar region. Pyramids (a Greek word of unknown origin), were thought to approximate
the cone of the sun’s rays, resembling the holy stone of the temple at Heliopolis called benben, on which the creator of the world, Atum, first made his appearance. Within a century, having perfected the stone cutting technique and the necessary technology, and using huge amounts of manpower, the Egyptians began producing the Great Pyramids at Gizeh, near Memphis, and at two other sites, the work of the kings of the fourth dynasty.
The Greek historian Herodotus of the 5th century B.C., called the father of history, wrote that the largest of these pyramids was that of Khufu (which he called Cheops) and claimed that it took 100,000 men and 20 years to complete. Even if Herodotus is exaggerating, it was a huge undertaking. The pyramid covers 13 acres, 755 feet square at the base and 481 feet in height. There are almost 2.5 million blocks, each weighing about 2.5 tons, which were quarried locally, ferried across the Nile, and put in place by means of ramps and cranes.
How were the pyramids built?
Adjacent to each pyramid of the fourth dynasty was a small funerary chapel for the performance of rites, the smaller pyramids of the wives and lesser members of the royal family, and the mastabas of the nobles who served that monarch. The pyramids contained a gold sarcophagus which held the pharaoh’s mummified body, and they were filled with all sorts of valuable goods. Despite the presence of guards and daily worshippers, nearly all of the pyramids were robbed to some extent.
The fourth dynasty had the wealth and power to construct such tributes to their kings. Later, the pyramids in the fifth and sixth dynasties would be of smaller scale. Some historians believe that pyramid construction was an example of the Egyptian elite consuming the wealth produced by the economy. Another theory claims that pyramid construction was a means of redistributing wealth – a public works project providing employment for artisans and peasants.
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