Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/80

 52 07itlines of European History character of his life on earth and to show whether it had been good or bad. Osiris was the great judge and king in the next world, for he himself had suffered death but had triumphed over it and had risen from the dead (p. 27). Every good man might rise from the dead as Osiris had done ; but in the pres- ence of Osiris he would be obliged to see his soul weighed in the balances over against the symbol of truth and justice (Fig. 35). The dead man's friends al- ways put into his coffin a roll of papyrus con- taining prayers and magic charms which would aid hmi in the hereafter, and among these was a picture of the judgment. We now call this roll the " Book of the Dead." It was in these great days of the Empire that some of the leading Egyptians gained the belief in a single god to the exclusion of all others. Such a belief we call monotheism (see p. 108). Ikhnaton, the greatest of their kings, endeavored to make this faith in one god the religion of the Empire, but the opposition of the priests and the people was too strong, and he perished in the attempt. But these monuments of Thebes do not tell us of the Egyp- tians alone. We find also in the temple-sculptures and the Fig. 34. Jewel Casket from the House of a Noble Egyptian Lady OF the Empire This lady was the wife of the owner of the chair (Fig. 33), and the casket was placed in the same tomb where both the noble and his wife were buried. The casket is overlaid with red and blue incrustation of glaze in the brightest tones. The inscripr tions contain the name of the king who gave the casket to the lady