Egyptian Afterlife Beliefs

This is a summary of the article “How the Ancient Religions Viewed the Afterlife” by Patrick J. Kiger. In this article, Kiger describes the beliefs of four ancient societies-the Mesopotamians, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. For many years, numerous individuals have trusted that presence doesn't end with physical passing, and that some kind of eternity exists. Many ancient civilizations, actually created expand dreams of what life past the grave may be like. Each exhibit a strikingly unique vision of everlasting status and the soul domain. The Mesopotamians imagined the universe as a circle, parceled comparably between reality of the living and the space of the dead. According to the article, the grave for Mesopotamians was not only the …show more content…
They have a vision of the afterlife being so divine that they spent most of their time alive, preparing for death. Their salvation was the promise of afterlife, with the hope that their hearts would be lighter than a feather, they’d be freed from sin and passed into the blissful afterlife. What I find interesting about the Egyptian views of afterlife is that they didn’t see death as the end but rather just a passageway that they needed to go through so as to achieve another phase of presence, and join an alternate class of being, the dead, who imparted the universe to the divine beings and the living. I also found the part of the article interesting which talks about how the underworld was ruled by Osiris which was a god who ruled over the dead and everything that came from earth. The article stated that in order for a dead person to get to Osiris realm, they had to navigate through hills and lakes and pass a series of test. If that person was found worthy, meaning they passed the series of test, they were welcomed into the afterlife and was given land to grow crops along with worshiping the …show more content…
.A damnation where offenders experienced torment in discipline for their deeds, a midway area called limbo where babies and individuals who had passed on youthful abided, and the Elysian Fields, where saints delighted in a pleasurable presence. For the Romans, demise was seen as a pleasurable presence. Some felt that the dead stayed in the sky or in the Moon, or were conveyed over the sea on the backs of ocean animals to the Blessed Isles. Overall, the Romans by and large trusted that a wealthier, more joyful presence sat tight for them after death, as long as they satisfied certain conditions, for example, having carried on with a righteous and profitable life on Earth. Overall this article was very informative. I like how the author gave descriptive views on the afterlives of each ancient religion. I can’t say that I agree with any views of the afterlife that was presented in the article. If I had to choose than the Roman views would be the closet to what my views are. As I read through this article, I found that some of the information didn’t coincide with what our lecture notes had in