RELIGION.
cxxiii
numerous deities had long been explained as in reality one with
the great sun-god (comp. p. 203). The representations and names
of Ammon and his fellow-gods were everywhere obliterated. But
after the death of Amenophis the partizans of Ammon speedily
regained the upper hand; the new religion was abolished, and the
earlier creed restored. The Egyptian religion remained in its former
confusion; the process of amalgamating different gods became more
and more common; and religious belief gradually lost all living
reality. Men clung anxiously to the ancient traditions, and the
superstitious belief in amulets and magic as the only protection
against harmful influences gained universal sway. But no fresh
religious conceptions are to he found in the innumerable texts in¬
scribed upon the temples, tombs, and sarcophagi of the later period.
A few Egyptian deities, however, such as Isis, Harpocrates, and
Serapis (who was introduced into Egypt under the Ptolemies),
retained sufficient influence to find their way into the Roman pan¬
theon, and to gather round them a considerable crowd of worship¬
pers in the Roman empire. The old religion of Egypt was gradually
vanquished only by the power of Christianity.
The Future Life. A considerable diversity of doctrine as to the
fate of man after death prevailed amongst the Egyptians. Different
localities held different views as to the future state and the life
there led, and these various views were never reduced to a single
authoritative creed. The only point that was common to the whole
people was the firm conviction that the life of man did not end at
death, but that on the contrary men continued to live just as they
had lived upon earth, provided that the necessaries of existence
were assured to them. It thus seemed specially necessary that the
body should be carefully interred and protected from decay. The
next step was to build a house for the deceased, after the pattern
of his earthly abode, in which he might dwell, and which, according
to the popular belief, he could quit at pleasure during the day.
Statues, erected in a special room for the purpose, represented the
owner of the house, his family, and his domestics. Sacrificial of¬
ferings provided the deceased with food, and pious endowments
ensured him against hunger and thirst even in the distant future.
Nor was this all; representations of food, utensils, etc. were painted
or carved upon the walls of the tomb or the sides of the sarcophagus,
and it was believed that through magic these representations could
serve the deceased in place of the real things. Ornaments, cloth¬
ing, etc., also were placed in the tomb or depicted on the walls for
the same purpose. The occupations that engrossed the deceased
while on earth, the pleasures that he delighted in, the dignities
that he enjoyed, awaited him beyond the tomb, and these too were
represented on the walls in order that he might really possess them.
To this belief we owe those sepulchral paintings that give us so exact
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