Beliefs about the World after the Death
It was custom of the ancient Egyptians to make themselves buried together with the objects of daily use, because they believed that, after the death, in the afterworld the dead person would have taken back a normal life, and therefore he absolutely had to have his objects with himself. In the graves, besides, some small figurines have been found, the "sciaubti", that would have served the individual, with the function of slaves, and they would have developed the job for him. Then, according to the Egyptians, the life in the afterworld was better than the terrestrial one. Nevertheless, the passage in the new world was not so easy, the dead person had to complete a long trip and to face different obstacles; for this reason, the priests wrote the so-called "Book of the Dead", that entirely consisted in big parchments write in hieroglyphic which were left in the room of burial. The content of the writings would have helped the dead one to complete the trip, thanks to wise suggestions and to useful indications.
The Pharaoh, to pass in the afterworld, had however to face a great obstacle, in fact their trip was very more complicated in comparison to that of the common people: they must face the Court of Osiris. Here, the God of the Dead established if the pharaoh was innocent or if he had committed some sin during its terrestrial life. In the court, according to the beliefs, there was a big balance, a means for Osiris to judge the pharaoh. The execution happened in presence of all the gods, and they directly took part to the process, besides Osiris, there was Anubi, Toth and Maat, too. First of all, a feather of Maat was set on a dish of the balance. On the other, Anubi put the heart of the pharaoh. Then, they waited for the response of the balance: if the heart weighed less than the feather, the soul was pure and the pharaoh could pass in the afterworld; if instead the heart weighed more, the pharaoh wasn't pure and he was devoured by a monster with a crocodile head, the mane of lion, with half leopard and hippo body. During the execution, the God Toth annotated everything.
Osiris' Mith
The myths connected with the Egyptians were a large number and often inside them there were a lot of contradictions, due to the non-unitary character the religion in all the country. Among the myths, there is a very famous and important one: it speaks about the myth of Osiris, in which is narrated the tangled family story, born due to the jealousy of Seth. After the creation of the world, rising for the first time on a hill escaping from the sea, the god of sun, Amon - Ra gave four children, that himself gave birth to the light: Geb, Nut, Shu and Tefnut. Geb, god of the earth and Nut, goddess of the sky, got married and they had other four children: Osiris, Isis, Seth and Nefti. Among these four, Osiris, god of the nature, became soon the most prestigious, the favorite of grandfather Amon - Ra and he became patron of the most important cult after that of the Sun. His brother Seth envied him to death, and so definite that the moment had arrived to kill him, but he was a god, so he was immortal. So, Seth took his body and he cut it in various parts, that then lost for the whole Egypt. His sister Isis, however, in the meantime was became the bride of Osiris and, for love, she looked for all the parts and she recomposed the body of her husband, in spite of Seth. Subsequently, Osiris and Isis had a child, Horus and this, being a solar god, it was beloved from Amon - Ra also more than Osiris. Uncle Seth, envious, it tried to defeat him, but the powerful Horus succeeded in capturing him and to confine him forever. For his enormous courage, Horus was assimilated to Ra, while Osiris became, with his sister - bride Isis, the god of the dead.
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