HOUSES OF PRAYER

EGYPT:THE QUEST FOR ETERNITY

OBJECTIVES:

1. Be able to explain the impact of the geography of ancient Egypt on religion and society.

2. Be able to discuss the ancient Egyptian view of life and its relationship to the afterlife.

3. Be able to explain various theories concerning the function and uses of the Old Kingdom pyramids.

4. Be able to explain the Egyptian view of art and its role in society.

5. Be able to discuss excerpts from the Book of the Dead and to explain the view of human conduct and its rewards found their.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT:

What accounts for the exuberance of the Egyptians and their sheer optimism concerning life and the afterlife? If the pyramids are monuments to the afterlife, how was life itself viewed by the Egyptians? Do you agree with their outlook or disagree? Does their emphasis on the afterlife deemphasize life or give it deeper meaning? The ancient Egyptians were one of the most remarkable phenomena of human civilization. Noted for monumental building projects such as the pyramids, the developed a rigid society dominated by the pharaoh, a living god, and an optimistic view of life and the afterlife. The last of the great builders, Ramses II, dotted the landscape with colossal figures, which stand as timeless monuments to one of the greatest of all ancient civilizations. But did their focus on the afterlife distract them from life itself? Theirs was a society which could harness 100,000 men for twenty years to construct a pyramid, but could not harness the energy to survive the migration of the People of the Sea, the Assyrians, Persians or Alexander the Great. This once-great society finally collapsed in the seventh century b.c., yet one may wonder whether it had not already collapsed from rigid stagnation and the timelessness of its preoccupation with the glory of the pharaoh in the life after life.

"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands strech far away. Shelley, Ozymandias

OUTLINE

I. Importance of the Nile River

A. other features of Egyptian geography and its effects on culture

B. Historical evidence for the study of Egypt

II. Major periods of Egyptian History

A. Archaic 3100-2686 b.c.

ii. first dynasty -- Narmer (Menes) unification of Upper and Lower Egypt

B. Old Kingdom 2686-2181 b.c. -- age of Pyramids

C. Middle Kingdom 2133-1603 b.c. -- Civil War

D. New Kingdom 1567-1085 b.c. -- Prosperity and Warfare

E. Late Period 1085-525 b.c. -- Egypt is incorporated into the Assyrian and Persian Empire, and later falls to the youthful Alexander the Great.

III. The Old Kingdom (third-sixth dynasties)

A. rigid bureaucracy Pharaoh as completely Divine Osiris of the underworld, living Horus on earth

B. pyramids and the cult of the pharaoh

i)the importance of the afterlife
ii) mumification
iii) the stepped pyramid at Sakkarah (Zoser)

a) Imhotep: first recorded architect in history

vi) The Great Pyramids at Giza

a) actual construction -- Herodotus's description
b) modern considerations
c) slave labor?
d) the inner structure of the Great Pyramid
e) The Grand Gallery
f) The Sarcophogus
g) The Descending Passage
h) possible theories about the uses of the pyramids and function of inner structure
i) To prevent plunder?
j) as an astronomical observatory

C. cost of pyramids to Egyptian society

i) rising power of the priests
ii) collapse of Old kingdom after rule of Pepi