The Magic of Sound in Ancient Egypt

Egypt was one of the earliest civilizations in the ancient world. From c. 3000 B.C.E. till the nation was conquered in 332 B.C.E. by Alexander the Great, Egyptians enriched human history and influenced later civilizations by inventing the calendar and hieroglyphic writing, building the earliest known seagoing ships, making scientific advances, creating a memorable artistic style, erecting massive stone pyramids and temples, and forming highly complex beliefs and practices in religion and magic.

At the center of their belief system was the magic power of sound.

Sonic Creation
Ancient Egyptians developed many creation myths (some of which varied by region) based on the seminal power of sound-usually conceived or symbolized as a word-and its association with the birth of light and the world out of a mound emerging from the dark water of chaos. The Egyptians derived this basic view of creation from their experience with the Nile River, which annually flooded the nearby land and, on receding, left behind newly formed mounds of fertilized earth, perfect for life-sustaining farming.

In the Egyptian belief system, the cyclic nature of creation was symbolized every day with the rising of the morning sun. The Egyptians worshiped the sun in the form of various gods, the supreme solar deity being Ra, originally based at Heliopolis but eventually worshiped throughout Egypt.

For the Egyptians the heart was the seat of intellect and therefore thought, which the tongue spoke to make real. Likewise, sounds initiated creation in most Egyptian myths.

According to one version of one myth, in the beginning "nothing existed except a boundless primeval mass of water which was shrouded in darkness and which contained within itself the germs or beginnings, male and female, of everything which was to be in the future world. The divine primeval spirit which formed an essential part of the primeval matter felt within itself the desire to begin the work of creation, and its word woke to life the world, the form and shape of which it had already depicted to itself. The first act of creation began with the formation of an egg out of the primeval water, from which broke forth Ra, the immediate cause of all life upon earth. The almighty power of the divine spirit embodied itself in its most brillant form in the rising sun." (Budge, xcviii)

The Egyptians called the sun, both as a physical manifestation and as a divine spirit, "Ra, and...all other gods and goddesses were forms of him" (Budge, xciii).

Another myth, centered in Memphis, included a mound creator god, Atum, who represented material creation, but exalted another god, Ptah, who represented intellectual creation. "By uttering a litany of names Ptah was able to produce the gods and all of Egypt, including the cities, shrines, temples and nomes" (Fleming and Lothian, 25).

In a creation myth at Hermopolis, the primeval water was inhabited by the Ogdoad ("Group of Eight"), initially divided into two groups of deities, four male and four female. Thoth, the patron deity of the city, vocally commanded that the two groups be driven together, producing a cataclysmic event that resulted in the primordial mound, which contained a cosmic egg that hatched to reveal the young sun god.

In Thebes the sole creator of the Ogdoad was Amun, who, in one version of the myth, "emitted a mighty honk, like a goose, which burst into the stillness of the universe, causing a cosmic reaction" and initiating creation. The myth was probably inspired by the common sight of geese along the Nile. (Fleming and Lothian, 29)

In another myth, a heron perched above the water of chaos and broke the silence with a cry, which caused a disturbance that set the creation act in motion. The heron settled on the primeval mound and laid an egg, which hatched to produce the sun god.

Magic Sounds
Egyptians not only regarded sound as the cause of creation but also ascribed magic properties to sound in their daily lives.

Magic was perceived as a divine creative force called heka, which had existed since before time began. In fact, the first gods had used the power of heka to create the world. Heka was often described as "the art of the mouth" because its effectiveness depended on the correct uttering of incantations and spells. (Fleming and Lothian, 115)

The power of magic utterances extended to the written word as well. Amuletic jewelry, for example, was inscribed with protective spells to ward off evil spirits. Magic "wands" used in rituals of various kinds were also inscribed with special words. Beginning c. 2100 B.C.E., the wand inscriptions usually began with the same text: "Words spoken by these gods: we have come to give protection." (Fleming and Lothian, 124, 126)

The greatest magicians were the gods, who disbursed their power through magic, followed by the divinely originated pharaohs. Physicians routinely incorporated magic along with science in their efforts to heal. Educated commoners, too, utilized magic to protect themselves against disasters. However, for practical purposes in daily life, the most important magicians were the priests.

Priestly Sonic Rituals
Magic and religion were inseparably intertwined in ancient Egypt. The most highly regarded magicians were the hery-heb ("lector priests"), who held the secret knowledge of the sacred temple texts and were responsible for exercising the magic power of those texts to communicate with the spirits of the invisible world during religious ceremonies.

Priests had the power of heka in their voices. They held tremendous influence in Egyptian society because people feared the priests' ability to utter fatal curses.

Echoing the prehistoric belief that the sounds of nature were the voices of spirits/gods, Egyptians used the same symbol to stand for "sound" and "voice." The voice, then, was the magic means by which to reach the gods. One special part of the Egyptian temple liturgy was described as "the going forth of the voice," during which priests chanted their sacred formulas. (Farmer, 258-59)

During daily religious rituals in temples, priests chanted magic formulas and sang hymns to summon, praise, and supplicate the gods. For example, it was believed that Ra, the sun god, passed through the underworld each night before rising again the next morning. While in the underworld, he had to battle the giant serpent Apophis, who represented the forces of chaos. Apophis could not be destroyed, but Ra overcame him each night with the aid of the priests' prayers, incantations, and magic spells recited using the secret names of the serpent (the knowledge of those names was believed to give power over Apophis).

One of the principal duties of the priests was to conduct funeral ceremonies. Because life expectancy was only about thirty-five years, ancient Egyptians tended to be preoccupied with death, burial, and especially afterlife.

Regardless of the dead person's status or type of burial site, the burial place was regarded as the doorway to the afterlife, and the funeral ceremonies were designed to assist the departed one's soul in its journey to the underworld, where Osiris, the god of the underworld and of resurrection, tested the soul's worthiness. If the soul passed the test, it was transformed into one of the "blessed dead"; if not, the soul was condemned to oblivion.

The soul's greatest asset in achieving its goal of immortality was verbal magic. At funeral ceremonies, priests and relatives of the dead person recited or chanted prayers and magic formulas, believing that such sonic efforts would aid the soul in its passage to the afterlife.

In addition, priests inscribed sacred writings on surfaces within the burial site. Over a period of time, a vast array of funerary texts evolved into a collection now called the Book of the Dead, consisting largely of songs, hymns, and prayers to the gods.

Selected texts were written on a roll of papyrus-the length of the book depending on the wealth of the deceased-and put into the coffin. The texts were supposed to aid the dead, giving the soul directions for the journey through the underworld and revealing the proper words and magic spells necessary to protect the soul from its underworld enemies.

The climax of the funeral was a ritual in which a priest used incantations and ceremonial implements to effect a symbolic reanimation of the deceased's senses so that the body could function in the afterlife. Significantly the procedure was described as "the opening of the mouth," the organ of sonic communication. (Fleming and Lothian, 100-101)

During its journey through the underworld, the soul uttered magic spells to ward off hostile beings, such as serpents and demons. Finally arriving at the Hall of Judgment, the soul had to provide correct sonic responses to the tests given by Osiris. For example, the soul had to address by name the forty-two assessor gods; knowing and uttering the names helped protect the soul.

Magic, especially sonic magic, was, then, the binding force between earthly existence and the spirit realm, the link between mortals and gods, and the power that allowed its practitioners-preeminently pharaohs and priests-to act as intermediaries between the world and the heavens.
_________________________________

Budge, E. A. Wallis. The Book of the Dead: The Papyrus of Ani. 1895. Reprint, New York: Dover Publications, 1967.

Bunson, Margaret. The Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt. New York: Facts on File, 1991.

Crossley-Holland, Peter. "Non-Western Music." Ancient Forms to Polyphony, ed. Alec Robertson and Denis Stevens. Pelican History of Music, vol. 1. 1960. Reprint, Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1962.

Farmer, Henry George. "The Music of Ancient Egypt." Ancient and Oriental Music, ed. Egon Wellesz. New Oxford History of Music, vol. 1. London: Oxford Univ. Press, 1957.

Fleming, Fergus, and Alan Lothian. The Way to Eternity: Egyptian Myth. London: Duncan Baird Publishers, 1997.

Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary. 3rd ed. Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 2007.

The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. 2nd ed. London: Macmillan, 2001.