ancient cultures view on death
The different views of death in Ancient cultures The one thing that unifies all livings is that they die. Therefore it is no suprise that cultures create believes and legends around death. Death gives meaning to life. Any ones belief in life is going to be influenced by their interpretation of the significance of death. While death is a common theme, the view of it is different in all cultures. Below, I will outline attitudes towards death in Egyptian, and Mesopotamian cultures. I will limit this topic primarily to these two prehistoric cultures. Of all the ancient cultures, Egypt appears to be the most preoccupied with death. They looked at it more as a continuation of life. There is a distant split in the theory of the afterlife between the commoners and the pharaohs. For the commoners death meant facing judgment according to The Book of the Dead. In the book it explains that in the final judgment, the confessions of the heart will be weighed based on how pure their heart is. The purity is based on a set of 'rules' which are: I have not done iniquity. I have not robed with violence. I have not done violence [to any man]. I have not commeted theft. I have not slain man or woman. I have not made light wit
One, which I thought was interesting, was the fact that they both had seven gates to pass through. There they go before Osiers (god of the dead) and repeat the inscriptions which is the beginning of the trial of innocence. In Mesopotamia their underworld was gloomy dark and filled with goast from the ones living previously before them. Wallis Budge (secauses, Ney Jersey: University Books, Inc. I have not increased my wealth, except with such things as are my possessions. This is mainly important because it shoes the relation these people associated death with. There is as well the physical and spiritual side of there after worlds. It shows that the Mesopotamian's craved this need for inmortality. There were three elements as well that were nesscesary for the afterlife. No matter how one has lived there life, they are still going to be punished, it only depends on how much, determined on the value of what you bring them as an offering, showing very much the human emotion based behind the ideals of there gods. At the end of the gates they finally reach Queen Ereshkigal with her consort Nergal, who were the rulers of the underworld. The outlook they had on death was morbid and grim, with no hope of immortality for any one on earth. However if they manage to achieve it, they go to sustenance. In Mesopotamia one may have to loose all there cloths in an agressive manner where in Egypt you had to answer these spiritual questions, but the still had seven gates.
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Egyptians Mesopotamia,
Field Rushes,
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