Question

Compare contrast Egyptian views of the afterlife with that of the Mesopotamians.

Answer 1

There were a lot of assumptions about death and the afterlife among the Egyptians. The Egyptians were of the belief that only the pharaoh could become one with the gods. They passed into a dark place that reflected the reverse of life as someone else died. Tombs and everything that was thought they would require in the afterlife were obtained by worthy people, such as pharaohs. The more items a pharaoh had going into the afterlife, or "gifts" as they were called, the greater chance he had of being accepted. It was assumed from an early age that the dead pharaoh would go to heaven and dwell amid the stars. After that, numerous gods such as Osiris and Ra became more adored and values shifted.

The Egyptians began to believe that ownership of a ba will lead you to the afterlife during the Old Kingdom and everybody had one. Yet the values of the New Kingdom remained distinct. The belief was that before final judgement, known as the "Weighing of the Heart," the soul had to escape a number of various spiritual hazards.

In this decision, to decide if he or she had acted as an Egyptian should, the gods compared the deceased 's behaviour while alive to Ma'at. If the deceased was deemed respectable, his or her ba was unified into an akh. There were some distinct views regarding the destination of the Akh. They were also told that the dead lived in the domain of Osiris, a fun land in the underworld. The idea that the akh could still fly throughout the land of the living, and could have magically influenced events there, grew more common during the Middle and New Kingdoms.

Ancient Mesopotamia claimed that you must go anywhere in the afterlife beneath the living. This was a territory known as Arallû, Ganzer or Irkallu. It was assumed that everyone, irrespective of social class, went to the same place after death. Death was not considered to be as wonderful as life on earth. It was considered that the deceased were frail and helpless spirits. The storey of the fall of Ishtar into the underworld relates that "dust is their food and clay their bread, they see no light where they dwell in darkness." Stories such as the storey of Adapa resignedly convey that all men must die because of an error, and that real eternal life is just something the gods can get.