EGYPTIAN PRAYER AND THE AFTERLIFE

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As it was in every ancient religion

(including those of the Greeks, Romans, and

Hebrews before the 8th century B.C.) polytheism

was taken for granted in ancient Egypt, for which

we have very extensive and detailed records.

During the period from about 2700 to 2200 B.C.,

for example, the Egyptian kings themselves were

worshipped as sons of the sun god. But from

2000 B.C., there is clear evidence of monotheism:

Amon was regarded as the one supreme deity,

and when one ruler addressed a spontaneous

hymn to Amon, his prayer was set down
 in hieroglyphs:

 "Creator, Maker, Giver of breath -

how manifold are your works, O sole God,

whose power no other possesses. You created

the earth according to your heart."

Egyptians also offered morning and

evening prayer to Amon.

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Along with the tendency toward monotheism,

there was a conviction about the afterlife.

The Papyrus of Ani, which can be dated to

about 1250 B.C., is a major extant portion

of the texts now collectively known as the

Egyptian Book of the Dead; it contains hymns

and invocations interred with the deceased

and intended to guide them safely to the

beyond. A typical prayer for mercy was

addressed, for example, to 
"My Shining One,
 who dwells in the Mansion of Images...

O Preeminent one...may you grant me life...

O my father, my brother, my mother -

Isis! I shall cross to the Mansion of him

who finds faces, the collector of souls...

And I will not die again in God's domain...

I give you praise, O Lord of the gods."

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Perhaps nowhere are the traditions of

prayerful acts discerned more clearly

than in this ancient conviction that life

endures beyond the grave, a conviction

to which the pyramids remain a grand and

silent witness.

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From In Silence - Why We Pray

by Donald Spotto

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