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Alcohol clearly played a positive role in <i>The Destruction of Mankind</i>, but its importance is even more apparent when one considers the many rituals associated with ancient Egyptian religion. Several ancient Egyptian religious rituals concerned a deceased person’s transition into the afterlife, which was perhaps the most important aspect of their religion. The earliest ancient Egyptian texts that concern the afterlife are a series of spells, referred to as “Utterances,” known collectively as <i>The Pyramid Texts</i>. The Utterances of the <i>The Pyramid Texts</i>, which were inscribed on the walls and ceilings of kings’ pyramids from the Fifth through the Eighth Dynasties of the Old Kingdom, were intended to make sure that the king not only transitioned safely into the afterlife, but that he was unified, depending on the Utterance, with the sun-god or Osiris, the god of the dead. Central to a Utterance being effective was often an offering of beer or wine to the gods. Some spells read, “O Osiris the King, take the ferment which issued from you – beer!” <ref> Faulkner, Richard O, trans. <i>The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts.</i> (Stilwell, Kansas: Digireads.com Publishing, 2007), Utterances 49, 50, 95, 148, 149, 150</ref> In other Utterances, beer is equated to the “Eye of Hours, for little is that which Seth has eaten of it – 2 bowls of strong ale.” <ref> Faulkner, Utterance 145</ref> Offering alcohol to the gods was not restricted to the Old Kingdom, or even the nobles, though, because throughout all periods of pharaonic history alcohol was seen as one of the most appropriate, if not required, commodities a pious person could offer to the gods.
During the Late Period (ca. 664 BC-Christian Era), the religion of the Egyptians became more “popular” as more and more people became involved by donating statues, mummified animals, and votive stelae to the temple complexes of various gods and goddesses. The inscriptions on the statues and stelae often began with the same formulaic statement – known as the <i>hetep di nisu</i> or “royal offering” formula – that was commonly used in tombs of the New Kingdom. In these statements, the person giving the offering would state how many of a particular item he or she gave to the gods as an offering. In one interesting votive statue that was donated by a man named Udjahorresnet who was physician, high-priest of the goddess Neith, and navy admiral during the sixth century BC under both Egyptian and Persian kings, he gave an offering to Osiris of “1000 in bread, beer, cattle, fowl and every good and pure thing for the <i>ka</i> of the honored one who is near the great gods of Sais, the doctor Udjahorresnet. " <ref> Posener, Georges. <i> La première domination Perse en Égypte: Recueil d’inscriptions hiéroglyphs.</i> (Cairo: The French Institute of Oriental Archaeology, 1936), p.3</ref> The Udjahorresnet statue is just one example among thousands of documented offerings where beer and/or wine were an integral part of the offerings given to the gods in a ritualistic setting.
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