Ghosts in ancient Egyptian culture - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

There was widespread belief in ghosts in ancient Egyptian culture in the sense of the continued existence of the soul and spirit after death, with the ability to assist or harm the living, and the possibility of a second death. Over a period of more than 2,500 years, Egyptian beliefs about the nature of the afterlife evolved constantly. Many of these beliefs were recorded in inscriptions, papyrus scrolls and tomb paintings. The Egyptian Book of the Dead compiles some of the beliefs from different periods of ancient Egyptian history. In modern times, the fanciful concept of a mummy coming back to life and wreaking vengeance when disturbed has spawned a whole genre of horror stories and movies.

Concept of the soul

In the early period of ancient Egypt, the concept of the Khu or luminous part of man emerged, part of the human but also a separate entity. Khu was the soul, symbolized by the crested ibis. The Ba, or soul, of later Egypt was its direct descendant. It was only in the decadent Greek and Roman periods that Khu became seen as a malignant ghost

Ghost

In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to...

that entered the bodies of the living to torture them.

In later periods, the Egyptians developed the idea of five components of the soul representing the heart (the seat of thought and emotion), the shadow, the name, the soul (ba) and the spirit (ka). The ba is everything that makes a person unique, a concept similar to "personality", while the ka gives life. Death occurs when the ka leaves the body. After death, the ba and ka are reunited to form the akh, represented by a bird-like hieroglyphic.

If the proper funeral rites were executed and followed by constant offerings, the akh could later be reanimated. The akh is close to the western cultural concept of a ghost or spirit, since the Egyptian believed that the akh could reach beyond the tomb to have positive or negative effects on the living. The akh even developed into a sort of ghost or roaming 'dead being' (when the tomb was not in order any more) during the Ramesside Period. An Akh could do either harm or well to persons still living, depending on the circumstances, such as causing nightmares, feelings of guilt or sickness.

Similar concepts have been observed in Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

and in the Solomon Islands

Solomon Islands

Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of . The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal...

, perhaps transferred by travellers in the ancient world.

Afterlife

The idea of total death was unthinkable to the Egyptians. The ghost would live on in the tomb to which the body was consigned. A belief grew up of a tomb world, a subterranean world where the ghosts still lived and could communicate between each other. The ghosts of rich men would need servants to attend them. In the first dynasty, the bodies of the Pharaoh's dead slaves were buried around his tomb chamber at Abydos

Abydos, Egypt

Abydos is one of the most ancient cities of Upper Egypt, and also of the eight Upper Nome, of which it was the capital city. It is located about 11 kilometres west of the Nile at latitude 26° 10' N, near the modern Egyptian towns of el-'Araba el Madfuna and al-Balyana...

.
From the New Kingdom onwards, people were buried with models that resembled them called ushabtis. These could do any menial work required in the afterlife in place of the dead person.
Large amounts of food were also stored in the tomb to support the ghost in the afterlife.

When a person of importance died, a collection of hymns, spells, and instructions to allow the deceased to pass through obstacles in the afterlife was placed in the coffin or burial chamber. The texts evolved over time starting with the Pyramid Texts
Pyramid Texts
The Pyramid Texts are a collection of ancient Egyptian religious texts from the time of the Old Kingdom. The pyramid texts are possibly the oldest known religious texts in the world. Written in Old Egyptian, the pyramid texts were carved on the walls and sarcophagi of the pyramids at Saqqara during...

of the Old Kingdom

Old Kingdom

Old Kingdom is the name given to the period in the 3rd millennium BC when Egypt attained its first continuous peak of civilization in complexity and achievement – the first of three so-called "Kingdom" periods, which mark the high points of civilization in the lower Nile Valley .The term itself was...

through the Coffin Texts
Coffin Texts
The Coffin Texts are a collection of ancient Egyptian funerary spells written on coffins beginning in the First Intermediate Period. The texts are derived in part from the earlier pyramid texts, reserved for royal use only, but they contain substantial new material related to everyday desires that...

of the Middle Kingdom

Middle Kingdom of Egypt

The Middle Kingdom of Egypt is the period in the history of ancient Egypt stretching from the establishment of the Eleventh Dynasty to the end of the Fourteenth Dynasty, between 2055 BC and 1650 BC, although some writers include the Thirteenth and Fourteenth dynasties in the Second Intermediate...

to The Book of Breathings in the Late Period. A selection of these writings titled the The Book of the Dead was published by Karl Richard Lepsius

Karl Richard Lepsius

Karl Richard Lepsius was a pioneering Prussian Egyptologist and linguist and pioneer of modern archaeology.-Background:...

in 1842.
The Pyramid texts, dating to between 2400–2300 BCE, were reserved for the Pharaoh

Pharaoh

Pharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. The title originates in the term "pr-aa" which means "great house" and describes the royal palace...

. They were carved on the walls and sarcophagi

Sarcophagus

A sarcophagus is a funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved or cut from stone. The word "sarcophagus" comes from the Greek σαρξ sarx meaning "flesh", and φαγειν phagein meaning "to eat", hence sarkophagus means "flesh-eating"; from the phrase lithos sarkophagos...

of the pyramids at Saqqara

Saqqara

Saqqara is a vast, ancient burial ground in Egypt, serving as the necropolis for the Ancient Egyptian capital, Memphis. Saqqara features numerous pyramids, including the world famous Step pyramid of Djoser, sometimes referred to as the Step Tomb due to its rectangular base, as well as a number of...

during the 5th

Fifth dynasty of Egypt

The fifth dynasty of ancient Egypt is often combined with Dynasties III, IV and VI under the group title the Old Kingdom. Dynasty V dates approximately from 2494 to 2345 BC.-Rulers:...

and 6th Dynasties

Sixth dynasty of Egypt

The sixth dynasty of ancient Egypt is often combined with Dynasties III, IV and V under the group title the Old Kingdom.-Pharaohs:...

of the Old Kingdom

Old Kingdom

.
The spells are concerned with protecting the pharaoh's remains, reanimating his body after death, and helping him ascend to the heavens. The spells delineate all of the ways the pharaoh could travel, including the use of ramps, stairs, ladders, and most importantly flying. The spells could also be used to call the gods to help, even threatening them if they did not comply.

The Coffin Texts were written on coffins beginning in the First Intermediate Period. The texts are derived in part from the Pyramid Texts but contain new material related to everyday desires since the texts were now used by the common people.
Where the Pyramid Texts focus on the celestial realm, the coffin texts emphasize the subterranean elements of the afterlife ruled by Osiris

Osiris

Osiris is an Egyptian god, usually identified as the god of the afterlife, the underworld and the dead. He is classically depicted as a green-skinned man with a pharaoh's beard, partially mummy-wrapped at the legs, wearing a distinctive crown with two large ostrich feathers at either side, and...

, in a place called the Duat

Duat

In Egyptian mythology, Duat is the underworld. The Duat is a vast area under the Earth, connected with Nun, the waters of the primordial abyss. The Duat is the realm of the god Osiris and the residence of other gods and supernatural beings...

. The subterranean realm is described as being filled with threatening beings, traps, and snares with which the deceased must contend. The spells in the Coffin Texts allow the deceased to protect themselves against these dangers and "dying a second death."

The first and second Book of Breathing were developed later, dating to the Greco-Roman period, and were placed in coffins to assist the dead in the afterlife. The first was supposed to have been written by Isis for Osiris, and the second to have been copied by Thoth. The books stress the importance of breath for the deceased, prolonging the existence of their name and preventing the second death of damnation.

The survivors of the dead thought that the spirits (akhs) of their ancestors had acquired divine powers but were still interested in their families and could intercede in response to prayers or "letters to the dead", which have been preserved on pottery bowls, linen and papyrus.

"The Ghost of Akhenaten"

The Pharaoh Akhenaten

Akhenaten

Akhenaten also spelled Echnaton,Ikhnaton,and Khuenaten;meaning "living spirit of Aten") known before the fifth year of his reign as Amenhotep IV , was a Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt who ruled for 17 years and died perhaps in 1336 BC or 1334 BC...

, who ruled from 1353–1335 BCE, was a follower of the god Aten, the sun god, and declared that he and his wife Nefertiti

Nefertiti

Nefertiti was the Great Royal Wife of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten. Nefertiti and her husband were known for a religious revolution, in which they started to worship one god only...

were Aten's sole representatives on Earth. He dismantled the elaborate religious structure of Ancient Egypt that was based on Amun and many other gods, abolishing its worship, dismissing priests and demolishing temples. After Akhenaten's death the old religion revived, and it is said that the priests cursed him to wander as a ghost for the rest of time. To this day people still claim to have met Akhenaten's ghost in the deserts of Egypt.

In modern popular culture

The careful preservation of mummified bodies in Egypt, often in elaborate tombs, combined with the concept of an ancient belief, has led to many modern books and movies based on the idea of the disturbed ghost wreaking vengeance.

The Mummy
The Mummy (1932 film)
The Mummy is a 1932 horror film from Universal Studios directed by Karl Freund and starring Boris Karloff as a revived ancient Egyptian priest. The movie also features Zita Johann, David Manners and Edward Van Sloan...

is a 1932 horror film

Horror film

Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...

from Universal Studios

Universal Studios

Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....

directed by Karl Freund

Karl Freund

Karl W. Freund, A.S.C. was a cinematographer and film director most noted for photographing Metropolis , Dracula , and television's I Love Lucy .-Early life:...

and starring Boris Karloff

Boris Karloff

William Henry Pratt , better known by his stage name Boris Karloff, was an English actor.Karloff is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein , Bride of Frankenstein , and Son of Frankenstein...

as a revived ancient Egyptian priest. It was followed by many other films on the same vein, such as The Mummy's Hand
The Mummy's Hand
The Mummy's Hand is a black-and-white horror film, produced by Ben Pivar for Universal Studios. Although it is sometimes claimed by fans as a sequel or follow-up to the 1932 film The Mummy, it does not continue the 1932 film's storyline, or feature any of the same characters, and its plot...

(1940), The Mummy's Tomb
The Mummy's Tomb
The Mummy's Tomb is the 1942 sequel to The Mummy's Hand .Lon Chaney, Jr. disliked the role of Kharis the mummy. Make-up artist Jack Pierce spent up to eight hours to wrap Lon Chaney. A rubber mask was used for long shots...

(1942), The Mummy
The Mummy (1959 film)
The Mummy is a 1959 Technicolor British Hammer Horror film starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.Though the title suggests Universal Pictures' 1932 film of the same name, the film actually derives its plot and characters entirely from two later Universal films, The Mummy's Hand and The Mummy's...

, The Mummy
The Mummy (1999 film)
The Mummy is a 1999 American adventure film written and directed by Stephen Sommers and starring Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah and Kevin J. O'Connor, with Arnold Vosloo in the title role as the reanimated mummy. The film features substantial dialogue in ancient Egyptian language, spoken...

(1999) and The Mummy Returns
The Mummy Returns
The Mummy Returns is a 2001 American adventure film written and directed by Stephen Sommers, starring Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah, Arnold Vosloo, Oded Fehr, Patricia Velásquez and Freddie Boath. The film is a sequel to the 1999 film The Mummy...

(2001).

Concept of the soul

Afterlife

"The Ghost of Akhenaten"

In modern popular culture

See also