Cursed Times - What Now?

Info Chapter: Gods and Souls in Ancient Egypt

This info chapter describes some elements of the ancient Egyptian belief systems as a background to 'Cursed Times'. If you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to contact me!

The Gods of Ancient Egypt

The ancient Egyptian religion was polytheistic (with the single exception of Akhenaten's sun-worship and that one did not last long). Meaning there was a great number of gods, every one of them representing one principle aspect of the world. Ra/Re was the sun god, he who brings light and life. Nut was the goddess of the sky; very often she was depicted as stretching her star-spangled body either across ceilings - or murals.

Other important gods (I include only those referred to in 'Cursed Times') include Osiris, the God of the underworld. He was married to Isis and murdered by his brother, Seth. Osiris was maybe one of the first zombies in world history - his wife Isis brought him back to life, and they had a son, the falcon god Horus. Horus was the god of the sky and the divine protector of kings. He was Seth's arch enemy, trying to take revenge for the murder of his father. Seth is a very interesting character. He could be seen as the Egyptian version of the devil, given that he represents the malevolent aspects of this world, chaos and disorder ...

Anubis was closely associated with mummification and was the protector of the dead. He is shown with a jackal-head, and the consensus seems to be that jackals were forever running around in the ancient graveyards (looking for bones?) prompting the connection. When the female MC, who you will meet in the next chapter, nearly gets run over by the tour bus from 'Anubis Experience', she is right to wonder what they are doing on their trip ...

Sobek was the crocodile god, depicted with the head of a crocodile and a complex crown. In antiquity, the Nile was still full of these reptiles, and swimming in those murky waters was not always such a good idea. Taurit is associated with another formidable animal that once lurked in Nile; she is shown with the head of a hippopotamus. The Nile god - or, more correctly: God of the Nile flood was called Hapi. A fat man with breasts, signifying fertility. Since the dam was built, there are no more Nile floods. Less danger - but at the same time the fertile mud no longer gets washed on the fields, and the water table is changing ...

Bastet is depicted as a woman with a cat's head or simply as a cat. This common household pet was worshipped widely in ancient Egypt; whole graveyards of mummified felines have been found. Bastet herself became the goddess of pleasure. Sakhmet has been explained in the novel; she is the goddess of war, chaos and heat. Of the female goddesses, we are still missing Hathor. Depending on the period, she was either the consort or even the daughter of Ra. In any case, she was the patron goddess of women, love, beauty, pleasure, and music. 'Cursed Times' is focussed on the Old Kingdom, I therefore chose to make her a consort of Ra.

These are just the main ones. Over the long period of the Egyptian civilisation, gods changed and became absorbed by other deities. This happened to Ra himself, when the 'upstart god of the Theban princes, Amun eventually took over many of the aspects of the old sun god.

A few words on the Egyptian expectations for the afterlife: After death, there was a trial of the dead, where the heart was measured against the feather of the Maat. If one had committed one nefarious deed too many during life, the scales sank, and the soul got swallowed by Ammut, the devourer of the dead.

Metjen refers to the Devourer a lot when swearing. Not to be able to enjoy an afterlife, to be annihilated and forgotten forever was the ultimate horror for the ancient Egytians. It did not make this civilisation any more law-abiding than others ... .

Additional Information:

In 'Cursed Times', I once in a while refer to the 'Pyramid Texts'. Those are the Old Kingdom version of the 'Book of the Dead'. It contained all the information the newly deceased needed to make their way through the 'Duat', the underworld, into the afterlife, called 'field of the rushes'.

The ancient Egyptian concept of the soul is rather complex. Very simplistically put, it was composed of five elements (heart, name, shadow-as well as ba: personality; and ka: life force/vital spark). They did not have the word (or concept) of a soul as such. In fact in the Greek period 'psyche' was used instead. I have mainly stuck to ba as personality and ka as life force in the widest sense. You will find in the next chapter that there is an additional element of power one would not have found in the pyramid texts ... .

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Let me know if you found this helpful - and if you are missing anything. Thank you for commenting - and voting! This chapter is dedicated to jahmaymay for all her lovely reads and votes!