Ba (Egyptian mythology)

Ba in hieroglyphics
B3

The Ba (also excursion soul ) is a name in Egyptian mythology for a certain mental aspect, which despite a close connection to the body can detach itself from it and move away. Such souls that leave the body and act independently are called “free souls ” in ethnology and religious studies .

After death, the ba of every human being is transformed into an animal that is sacred in its environment. In the texts of the books of the dead, the ba is described as a falcon that flies to the sky, as a goose that is also divinely worshiped as the great Schnatterer ( Gengen Wer ), as a crane that kisses the sky, or as a grasshopper that leaps to the sky. Such free souls, which are realized in animals, are also known as alter egos .

Differentiation of the soul aspects

In ancient Egypt, a distinction was made between three aspects of the human soul, for which the terms Ka , Ba and Ach were used. The ancient Egyptian conceptions of the soul or the different souls or soul aspects of a person and of their fate in this world and the hereafter were partly unclear and contradictory; however, the three terms correspond to clearly delimited content that has not been mixed up or confused.

In the era of the Old Kingdom , the term Ka dominated , denoting the "soul" as the source of life force. The ka leaves the person at death, but remains near the corpse. After death, his main task is to protect the dead and to help them to live that corresponds to their previous social rank. The ach is a form of existence that is only attained after death through appropriate efforts, in that the dead person appropriates the ach-power and thereby becomes an ach .

A depiction of the Ba bird from the Egyptian Book of the Dead

In contrast to Ka, Ba is a term that only gained general meaning after the end of the Old Kingdom. In the Old Kingdom a ba seems to have only been ascribed to the king; It was only in the First Intermediate Period and in the Middle Kingdom that it appeared in coffin texts from private individuals, who thus claimed something for themselves that was previously a royal privilege. The main feature of the Ba is its great posability. It is expressed in his bird form. The ba is usually depicted as a bird (often with a human head) and thus shows that it belongs to the type of "soul bird" that is common among indigenous peoples . But it can also assume other forms, including the human figure of the deceased.

During the lifetime of the human being, the Ba is enclosed in the body, at death it is released from the body. However, it did not pre-exist, but arose in the body. He remains permanently connected to the corpse - the mummy - even after death, although the Ba birds as free souls are actually heavenly beings and live “in the north”. According to the wishes of the bereaved, the ba should go to the grave, which they imagine leads to a kind of resuscitation of the corpse with which the ba should regularly unite. To lure him there, drinking water is provided. The ba is by no means inherently immortal and inviolable; it can be seized and imprisoned, even destroyed.

In addition, the ba represents parts of the dean stars , since the deceased received a promise that his ba could transform into a dean star at will. More detailed information is provided by pLouvre N 2420 c , where the owner of the coffin asks to join the circle of the seven invisible Chatiu deans . In the Egyptian Book of the Dead , these wishes are standardized under number 158 in the “saying for a golden collar ”: “Loosen me, look at me. I am one of those (Chatiu deans) who are part of the solution when they see Geb. "

A man talking to his ba

Main article: Conversation of a life weary with his soul

The ba is already present in living people, but it hardly plays a role. Only at death, which means a kind of birth for the Ba , does he emerge. A special case is the famous poetic dialogue of a life-weary man with his Ba from the time of the 12th Dynasty , one of the earliest evidence of a Ba in private individuals. Here a living person speaks with his ba , but it is significant that in this text too the ba only comes into focus from the point of view of death. The tired of life laments his fate and expresses his longing for death; The Ba takes the opposite point of view, it defends the value of this world and points out the risks of life in the hereafter. Eventually a compromise is reached, with each side finding and recognizing something justified in the other's argument.

Bas of the gods and their manifestations

A Ba or even a plural of Bas was also assigned to gods . The ideas of God were fluid, the gods were basically seen as adaptable. A deity represented primarily a network of will and radiance forces; therefore she had only a limited personality. The ideas about the souls of the gods were correspondingly diverse and flexible. So it was possible for one god to be declared the Ba of another god.

In the Book of the Celestial Cow , the deity Re describes various manifestations of the gods - Bas :

Col 85 verse 275 It is I who created and fixed the heavens in order to set the bas of the gods in it. Col 85 Verse 275 I am with the Bas until the end of time. Col 88 Verse 290 I am Re, the shining one! Col 87 Vers 291 Therefore you shall speak Col 87 Vers 292 at dusk, Col 88 Vers 294 who is the enemy of Re: Col 89 Vers 295 “I am the Ba des Re, his magic.” Col 87 Vers 286 The Ba des Re is the whole world. Col 86 verse 282 The Ba des Osiris is the ram of Mendes . Col 86 Vers 283 The Bas des Sobek are the crocodiles. Col 86 verse 281 The ba of Nun is the water. Col 87 verse 285 The Ba of Apophis is in the east mountain. Col 86 verse 280 The ba of darkness is the night. Col 86 verse 279 The ba of every god is in the serpents. Col 95 verse 327 I belong to the flame which is the ba of fire. Col 95 verse 324 I am Re of the Ninth and Col 95 verse 326 pass as I am bright.

literature

• Jan Assmann : Death and the afterlife in ancient Egypt . Beck, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-406-49707-1 .
• Hans Bonnet : Ba. In: H. Bonnet: Lexicon of the Egyptian religious history . Nikol, Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-937872-08-6 , pp. 74-77.
• Hermann Kees: Belief in the dead and conceptions of the afterlife of the ancient Egyptians . 2nd, revised edition, Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1956.
• Klaus Koch: History of the Egyptian Religion . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-17-009808-X .
• Christian Leitz : Ancient Egyptian star clocks . Peeters, Leuven 1995, ISBN 90-6831-669-9 .
• Alexandra von Lieven : Floor plan of the course of the stars - the so-called groove book . The Carsten Niebuhr Institute of Ancient Eastern Studies (among others), Copenhagen 2007, ISBN 978-87-635-0406-5 .
• Alexandra von Lieven: The sky over Esna. A case study of religious astronomy in Egypt using the example of the cosmological ceiling and architrave inscriptions in the Temple of Esna . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2000, ISBN 3-447-04324-5 .

Web links

Commons : Ba  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Remarks

1. ↑ For classification and terminology see Hans-Peter Hasenfratz: Article Seele I. In: Theologische Realenzyklopädie . No. 30, 1999, pp. 734f .; Hans-Peter Hasenfratz: The soul. Introduction to a basic religious phenomenon (with selected texts). Theologischer Verlag, Zurich 1986, ISBN 978-3-290-11567-8 , pp. 105–111; especially on Ba as a free soul, see Jan Assmann: Tod und Jenseits im Altengypt , Munich 2001, pp. 116–120.
2. ↑ Erik Hornung : The One and the Many - ancient Egyptian gods. 6., completely revised and extended edition, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2005, ISBN 3-534-14984-X ; 7th edition, von Zabern, Darmstadt / Mainz 2011, ISBN 978-3-8053-4364-0 . Pp. 39, 51.
3. ↑ Alfred Wiedemann (Egyptologist) : The animal cult of the ancient Egyptians. In: Vorderasiatische Gesellschaft (Ed.): Der Alte Orient. Common representations. Leipzig 1912. pp. 7, 22-28
4. ↑ Hellmut Brunner: Basic features of the ancient Egyptian religion (= basic features. Vol. 50). Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1983, ISBN 978-3-534-08424-1 , pp. 138-141, 143f .; Hermann Kees: Belief in the dead and conceptions of the afterlife of the ancient Egyptians. Berlin 1956, pp. 33-52.
5. ↑ Jan Assmann: Death and Beyond in Ancient Egypt. Munich 2001, pp. 118, 131-139.
6. ↑ Siegfried Morenz: Egyptian religion (= religions of mankind. Vol. 8). Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1960, p. 216.
7. ^ Winfried Barta: The conversation of a man with his Ba (Papyrus Berlin 3024) (= Munich Egyptological studies. Vol. 18). Hessling, Berlin 1969, p. 88.
8. ↑ Hellmut Brunner: Basic features of the ancient Egyptian religion. Darmstadt 1983, p. 140.
9. ↑ Alexandra von Lieven: Plan of the course of the stars. The so-called Nutbuch (= CNI publications. Vol. 31; Carlsberg papyri. Vol. 8). Museum Tusculanum Press, Copenhagen 2007, ISBN 978-87-635-0406-5 , p. 166; Alexandra von Lieven: The sky over Esna. A case study of religious astronomy in Egypt using the example of the cosmological ceiling and architrave inscriptions in the Temple of Esna . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2000, pp. 188-189; Serge Sauneron: Rituel de l'Embaumement - pap. Boulaq III, pap. Louvre 5.158. Imprimerie nationale, Kairo 1952, pp. 24, 12-25, 1 and 29.5-8.
10. ↑ Alexandra von Lieven: The sky over Esna. A case study of religious astronomy in Egypt using the example of the cosmological ceiling and architrave inscriptions in the Temple of Esna. Wiesbaden 2000, p. 15; Michel Chauveau In: Revue d'Egytologie 41 , 1990, pp. 3-8.
11. ↑ Edda Bresciani and a .: La tomba di Ciennehebu, capo del flotta del Re (= Biblioteca degli studi classici e orientali. Vol. 7; Series egittologica. Tombe d'età saitica a Saqqara. Vol. 1). Giardini, Pisa 1977, p. 83.
12. ↑ Klaus Koch: History of the Egyptian religion. From the pyramids to the mysteries of Isis. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 978-3-17-009808-4 , pp. 254-256; Winfried Barta: A man's conversation with his ba. Berlin 1969, pp. 97-100.
13. ↑ Le livre de la vache divine Annexe Ssud, Colonnes 79 à 93 . (Book of the Celestial Cow) On: sethy1.free.fr , last accessed on 25 August 2014.