The religion of ancient Egypt / by W.M. Flinders Petrie.

  • Flinders Petrie
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The religion of ancient Egypt / by W.M. Flinders Petrie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the earliest age of documents, two entities were believed to vitalise the body. The ha is more frequently named than any other part, as all funeral offerings were made for the ha. It is said that if opportunities of satis¬ faction in life were missed it is grievous to the ha, and that the ha must not be annoyed needlessly ; hence it was more than perception, and it in¬ cluded all that we might call consciousness. Perhaps we may grasp it best as the ‘ self/ with the same variety of meaning that we have in our own word. The ha was represented as a human being following after the man; it was born at the same time as the man, but it per¬ sisted after death and lived in and about the tomb. It could act and visit other has after death, but it could not resist the least touch of physical force. It was always represented by two upraised arms, the acting parts of the person. Beside the ha of man, all objects likewise had their has, which were comparable to the human ha, and among these the ha lived. This view leads closely to the world of ideas permeating the material world in later philosophy. The him is figured as a crested bird, which has the meaning of ‘ glorious ’ or ‘ shining ’ in ordinary use. It refers to a less material conception than