Egyptian View of Death and Their Pyramids

The Egyptian view of death during the dynastic period involved elaborate mortuary rituals, including the careful preservation of bodies through mummification as well as immensely rich royal burials such as that of Seti I and Tutankhamun, and construction of the pyramids, the largest and most long-lived monumental architecture known in the world. The Egyptian religion is described in the vast body of mortuary literature found and deciphered after the discovery of the Rosetta Stone. The primary texts are the Pyramid Texts — murals painted and carved onto walls of the pyramids dated to the Old Kingdom Dynasties 4 and 5; the Coffin Texts — decorations painted on elite individual coffins after the Old Kingdom, and the Book of the Dead. The Basics of the Egyptian Religion All of that was part and parcel of the Egyptian religion, a polytheistic system, which included a number of different gods and goddesses, each of whom was responsible for a specific aspect of life and the world. For example, Shu was the god of the air, Hathor the goddess of sexuality and love, Geb the god of the earth, and Nut the goddess of the sky. However, unlike the classic Greek and Roman mythologies, the Egyptians gods didnt have much of a backstory. There was no specific dogma or doctrine, nor was there a set of required beliefs. There was no standard of orthodoxy. In fact, the Egyptian religion may have lasted for 2,700 years because local cultures could adapt and create new traditions, all of which were considered valid and correct — even if they had internal contradictions. A Hazy View of the Afterlife There may have been no highly developed and intricate narratives about the actions and deeds of the gods, but there was a firm belief in a realm that existed beyond the visible one. Humans could not comprehend this other world intellectually but they could experience it through mythic and cultic practices and rituals. In the Egyptian religion, the world and the universe were part of a strict and unchanging order of stability called Maat. This was both an abstract idea, a concept of universal stability, and the goddess who represented that order. Maat came into existence at the time of creation, and she continued to be the principle for the stability of the universe. The universe, the world, and the political state all had their appointed place in the world based on a principle system of order. Maat and a Sense of Order Maat was in evidence with the daily return of the Sun, the regular rise and fall of the Nile River, the annual return of the seasons. While Maat was in control, the positive powers of light and life would always overcome the negative forces of darkness and death: nature and the universe were on the side of humanity. And humanity was represented by the ones who had died, especially the rulers who were incarnations of the god Horus. Maat was not threatened, as long as man was no longer threatened by eternal annihilation. During his or her life, the pharaoh was the earthly embodiment of Maat and the effective agent through which Maat was realized; as the incarnation of Horus, the pharaoh was the direct heir of Osiris. His role was to make sure the obvious order of Maat was maintained and to take positive action to restore that order if it was lost. It was crucial for the nation that the pharaoh successfully made it to the afterlife, to maintain Maat. Securing a Place in the Afterlife At the heart of the Egyptian view of death was the Osiris myth. At sunset every day, the Sun god Ra traveled along a heavenly barge illuminating the deep caverns of the underworld to meet and battle Apophis, the great serpent of darkness and oblivion, and succeed to rise again the next day. When an Egyptian died, not just the pharaoh, they had to follow the same path as the Sun. At the end of that journey, Osiris sat in judgment. If the human had led a righteous life, Ra would guide their souls to immortality, and once united with Osiris, the soul could be reborn. When a pharaoh died, the journey became crucial to the whole nation — as Horus/Osiris and the pharaoh could continue to keep the world in balance. Although there wasnt a specific moral code, Maats divine principles said that to live a righteous life meant a citizen kept moral order. A person was always part of Maat and if he or she disordered Maat, he or she would find no place in the afterworld. To live a good life, a person would not steal, lie, or cheat; not defraud widows, orphans, or the poor; and not harm others or offend the gods. The upright individual would be kind and generous to others, and benefit and help those around him or her. Building a Pyramid Since it was important to see that a pharaoh made it to the afterlife, the internal structures of the pyramids and the royal burials in the Valleys of the Kings and Queens were built with intricate passageways, multiple corridors, and servants tombs. The shape and number of the internal chambers varied and features such as pointed roofs and starry ceilings were in a constant state of reformulation. The earliest pyramids had an internal pathway to the tombs that ran north/south, but by the construction of the Step Pyramid, all corridors began on the west side and led toward the east, marking the journey of the Sun. Some of the corridors led up and down and up again; some took a 90-degree bend in the middle, but by the sixth dynasty, all entrances started at ground level and headed eastward. Sources Billing, Nils. â€Å"Monumentalizing the Beyond. Reading the Pyramid before and after the Pyramid Texts.†Ã‚  Studien Zur Altà ¤gyptischen Kultur, vol. 40, 2011, pp. 53–66.Kemp, Barry, et al. â€Å"Life, Death and beyond in Akhenatens Egypt: Excavating the South Tombs Cemetery at Amarna.†Ã‚  Antiquity, vol. 87, no. 335, 2013, pp. 64–78.Mojsov, Bojana. â€Å"The Ancient Egyptian Underworld in the Tomb of Sety I: Sacred Books of Eternal Life.†Ã‚  The Massachusetts Review, vol. 42, no. 4, 2001, pp. 489–506.Tobin, Vincent Arieh. â€Å"Mytho-Theology in Ancient Egypt.†Ã‚  Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, vol. 25, 1988, pp. 169–183.

Nature vs. Nurture Essay - 2118 Words

Nature vs. Nurture Throughout the history of human existence, there have always been questions that have plagued man for centuries. Some of these questions are â€Å"what is the meaning of life† and â€Å"which came first, the chicken or the egg†. Within the past 400 years a new question has surfaced which takes our minds to much further levels. The question asked is whether nature or nurture has more of an impact on the growing development of people. It is a fact that a combination of nature and nurture play important roles in how humans behave socially. However, I believe that nature has a more domineering role in the development of how people behave in society with regards to sexual orientation, crimes and violence and mental disorders.†¦show more content†¦Even the famous psychologist Sigmund Freud believed that sexual orientation was derived from nurture. Freud developed a theory which explains that at birth till the age of four every child is bisexual. Wh en the child reaches the age of around four, he/she begins to learn to withhold their feeling for members of the same sex and start expressing those sexual feeling to members of the opposite sex. Freud proposed the idea that male homosexuality originates when this crucial developmental stage is hindered by some outside force also known as nurture. According to Freud, this can occur when either a chided is raised in a fatherless household or with a domineering mother figure. However, when this idea was actually tested, it did not fall through as many would expect it would (Steen 185). Since many years after Freud’s passing, it has become apparent that nature holds a strong role in the development of sexual orientation of humans. If nurture isn’t the cause for sexual orientation then nature must be. According to Grant Steen, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, a large study was recently conducted which gathered gay males who have either identical or fraternal twins or adopted brothers. The goal of the study would be to see if genetics played a role in twins. At the end of the survey more than half of the identical twins of gay men were also found to me homosexuals. At the same time only about 22% of the fraternal twins were found toShow MoreRelatedNature vs. nurture Essay1322 Words   |  6 PagesNature vs. Nurture It is a matter of concern whether human behaviors and characteristics are determined by nature or nurture. If a person’s behavior is inherited directly from the genes of his/her parents or other biological factors, then it is the nature that determines his character. But if the environment that a person grew up in, affects his behavior, then it is the nurture that determines his/her character. 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Liberty University Psychology 101 Nature vs. Nurture There has been extensive debate between scholars in the field of psychology surrounding the Nature vs. Nurture issue. Both nature and nurture determine who we are and neither is solely independent of the other. â€Å"As the area of a rectangle is determined by its length and its width, so do biology and experience together create us.†(Myers, 2008, p. 8) Carl Gustav Jung, and leading thinker and creator of analytical

Compare and Contrast At Least Two Poems Which Deal With Love Essay Example For Students

Compare and Contrast At Least Two Poems Which Deal With Love Essay I have chosen to compare and contrast Les Sylphides by Louis Macneice written after 1900 and Sonnet 116 by William Shakespeare written before 1900. I am comparing these two poems as the poets have very different opinions on true love. Shakespeare believes that true love will never end even after life while Macneice thinks that after marriage people grow apart because of everyday life. The two poems were written in different centuries so this could be why their opinion on love differs. The poem presents the life in a day. The man who poet is writing about sees his whole life in a day. He cannot see the ballet being short-sighted, which shows that he does love the girl in the poem as he is going to the ballet even though he cannot see it clearly. Metaphorically speaking he is blind to the future; he is not seeing it clearly. He is short sighted about marriage and thinks it will be perfect. The white skirts symbolise the purity and innocence as they do not know what marriage holds for them. The, white skirts in the grey is misty and romantic but also shows again that the man cannot see clearly and the future is unclear to him. The tone in this stanza is very dreamy, like music. The swell of the music makes us think of the swell of water which makes us imagine the ballerinas as ships in the sea. The ballerinas dresses are like calyx upon calyx, flower buds opening and the different layers of the flower buds symbolise different layers of meaning. The canterbury bells could symbolise wedding bells but also warning bells saying that marriage will not be as perfect as he thinks it will be. The mirror image of the flowers symbolises symmetry and the poet thinks there is symmetry in ballet and in life. He thinks that it will be perfect and even. He thinks he will just drift along in life moving like seaweed with no direction. In the third stanza he thinks that marriage will be perfect, no separation and they will be together forever. The white satin and red sash is a very idealistic view of romance. He thinks love and marriage will be like a ballet. In the fourth stanza, the rhythm changes abruptly, the music stopped. The ballet is over and he has to come back to reality. The river had come to a lock where he must stop dreaming. The programmes shuffle as people leave and the ballet ends and the romance ends. To enter the lock and drop is to stop and enter into marriage and drop down into reality. The next stanza is quick and sharp, no longer dreamy. They find that instead of bringing them closer together marriage brings them apart. They are separated by reality of everyday life. At the last stanza, the poem changes to the womans point of view. All gets from her husbands breathing is comfort and it is sad all she has in her marriage is security. She thinks her life has passed by, the river had flowed away and all her dreams are gone. The romance has disappeared and like the ballet, is no longer in their lives. Shakespeare begins the poem by saying he does not want to stand in the way of true love. He tells us that true love will not change when the things around us change: Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds, or bends with the remover to remove. .u14e1e091126b30401da9801c790a13b7 , .u14e1e091126b30401da9801c790a13b7 .postImageUrl , .u14e1e091126b30401da9801c790a13b7 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u14e1e091126b30401da9801c790a13b7 , .u14e1e091126b30401da9801c790a13b7:hover , .u14e1e091126b30401da9801c790a13b7:visited , .u14e1e091126b30401da9801c790a13b7:active { border:0!important; } .u14e1e091126b30401da9801c790a13b7 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u14e1e091126b30401da9801c790a13b7 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u14e1e091126b30401da9801c790a13b7:active , .u14e1e091126b30401da9801c790a13b7:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u14e1e091126b30401da9801c790a13b7 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u14e1e091126b30401da9801c790a13b7 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u14e1e091126b30401da9801c790a13b7 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u14e1e091126b30401da9801c790a13b7 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u14e1e091126b30401da9801c790a13b7:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u14e1e091126b30401da9801c790a13b7 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u14e1e091126b30401da9801c790a13b7 .u14e1e091126b30401da9801c790a13b7-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u14e1e091126b30401da9801c790a13b7:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: How the theme of conformity is explored in Peter Weir's EssayNo one is able to take it away from you if it is true love. If love alters it is not true love. In the second quatrain he begins O, no! which emphasises what he is saying. The tone is assertive which shows he is very sure about what he is saying. He says it is always there and is like a guiding light to a ship. Love will guide and help you through life. Also he compares love with the star as a star is beautiful as is love. He is saying at that love is priceless and it will remain steady: It is the star to every wandring bark, whose worths unknown, although his height be taken. In the next quatrain he is says loves not times fool meaning that love will remain although we become old and lose our youth and beauty, love can withstand it. Time cuts through everything with its bending sickle compass, it does not slow down. Everything but love is affected by time and it stays constant. Love does not transend. In the last quatrain of the poem Shakespeare says that true love lasts until the end of the world and even lives through death: Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, but bears it out even to the edge of doom. It can rise above the transience of life. The rhyming couplet at the end is a riddle and is not quite as serious as the rest of the poem. He is saying that if what he is saying is not true he has never written anything and no man has ever loved. This shows he believes very strongly in what he is saying in this poem. These poets view of love differ greatly. Perhaps it is because they were written in different centuries and love was viewed differently because of lifestyle etc. Women before 1900 looked after the children and had to be content because they were regarded as second class citizens. They looked after their husbands and perhaps they were happier in their marriages. After 1900 women began working and after they got married they left their jobs and became unhappy with only taking care of their children and this could affect their marriage. Les Sylphides, which is written after 1900, has a pessimistic tone to it and is saying true love does not exist. Love ends with marriage and the reality of everyday life will separate a couple. In the end all we get from marriage is security. It seems that Macneice does not believe in Shakespeares opinion of true love. Sonnet 116 has a more optimistic view on love. Shakespeare believes love to be never ending and true love will endure through anything life throws at you. He even believes that true love lasts beyond life.