Jul 28 2008
What was a person’s soul called in Egypt?
When I was first out of high school, I became enthralled with the world of Ancient Egypt, or rather, I became enthralled with their language. This urged me to purchase and read the entire Book of the Dead and somewhere along the way, I quickly lost my interest in it. This isn’t to say that I didn’t find it interesting but I probably shouldn’t have read that specific book at so early a stage.
Fast forward several years and I have the delight of having a son that aspires to be an archaeologist and specifically wants to work in either an Ancient Mayan or Ancient Egyptian site. This led to the renewal of my interest in Ancient Egypt so I was very happy to have the opportunity to answer this question for you.
To get down to business, Ancient Egyptians did not have a universal word for soul as a whole. In their culture, they believed that the soul consisted of several different parts, or more specifically of 5 parts.
All of these represented some part of the person or the person’s soul. These parts are:
- The “Ka”: Most people are aware of this word but for those who aren’t, the “Ka” is basically the life force of the person. It was believed that the “Ka” was formed at birth but continued to live on after death. It was the force that could restore life to the dead body and was the ultimate reason for food offerings being left in the tombs.
- The “Ba”: This may be what we equate as the soul since it was the part of the soul that made the journey back to its body on a nightly basis. If the “Ba” did not reunite with the “Ka”, then the body could not survive.
- The “Akh”: The “Akh” was considered to be the spirit of the person. It was believed that this part of the soul could influence the world in both good and bad ways.
- The “Ren”:Â This is the person’s name, which was believed to be a living part of a person.
- The “Shewt”: Like a person’s name, a person’s shadow was also believed to be a living part of a person. Both the “Ren” and “Shewt” were believed to live on after the person had died.
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