Corvidius Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Mark Heaton Wrote:
> > In my opinion the concept was of the sun rising
> as
> > a sphere from primordial earth, so the Great
> > Pyramid represented that sphere, because Khufu
> > envisaged an after-life with the sun-god.
>
> I very much like this comment.
>
> All the maths go straight over my head so I cannot
> make any worthwhile comment on that aspect,
> however, I do have a very small amount of
> knowledge of the AE religion, and seeing all the
> maths end up as, essentially, the solar disk,
> makes sense. However, I can only mostly come at
> this from an 18th Dynasty perspective, and so am
> used to shouts and screams about not using
> anything from about one thousand years after G1 to
> make any explanation about it at all.
>
> The fact of the king becoming one with Ra after
> death is not in doubt, though the way this is
> visually represented does not become evident until
> the 18th Dynasty and the Amduat. Yet even here,
> and in other books such as the "Book of Gates" the
> joining of Ra with Osiris, and the king, all
> previous kings, are seen as being a part of Ra,
> is rather vague, except in one case, though it
> still leaves much to the imagination.

The deceased king is identified as becoming an Osiris -- they are not identified as or with Re.

Hence, in the pyramid texts we have statements like "Osiris Unis, accept Horus’s white eye: prevent him from putting it on
as a headband" which is from the pyramid of Unis, a mere 300 years after Khufu. This is clearly a belief, since the reference to the king as Osiris ("The sky shall speak, the earth shall shake, at your ferocity, Osiris, as you make emergence" from the pyramid of Teti or "You shall sit, Pepi, at the fore of the Ennead as Geb, the gods’ elite one; as Osiris at the fore of the controlling powers; as Horus, lord of the gods’ elite" from the pyramid of Pepi.

Even the queens were referred to as an Osiris (as in this translation by Allen from the Pyramid Texts found in Queen Neith's tomb: "Be seated, (Neith), on your great seat. Your bread is great-bread, your bread is from the broadhall. The watchers shall dance for you, and the Moorer shall call to you as Osiris. "

Allen, James P., and Peter der Manuelian. "Writings from the Ancient World: The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts. 23." Arlanta: SBL (2005).

-- Byrd
Moderator, Hall of Ma'at