Egypt and Duat, the underworld

Osiris

Osiris was the Egyptian god of the dead.

Isis

Isis was Osiris’ wife.

Anubis

Anubis was the Egyptian god of mummies.Egyptian priests wore the mask of Anubis when they were preparing mummies. He looked like a human with the head of a jackal. He was the judge when you went to the afterlife, to see if you were worthy.

Bastet

Bastet was the Egyptian goddess of cats, dance and music. She took the form of a cat, or a woman with the head of a cat. Egyptians mummified cats. Cats were sacred and a person who killed a cat was put to death.

The Legend of Osiris, Isis, and Set

Set, Isis, Osiris, and two other gods were all brothers and sisters born from Ra, the sun god, and his wife Nut. Osiris married his sister Isis and became king of Egypt, but his brother Set was jealous. Set tricked Osiris into a lying down in a wooden chest, then nailing it shut and pouring molten lead over it and then floated it down the Nile River. Osiris died and Set ruled Egypt, not a good time. There must have been a drought. Isis hunted down the body of Osiris to Byblos, a city in Syria. Here she found the chest embedded in a tree. She brought the chest back to Egypt. Set found the chest with Osiris and he cut Osiris into 14 pieces and scattered them all over. Isis found all the pieces but one and then punished the fish in the Nile that ate that one.All the other pieces she buried where she found them and built temples to honor Osiris.Osiris became the god of the underworld, called Duat.

Mummies

Mummies were dead bodies wrapped in strips of linen. People made mummies because they thought the body needed to be preserved. When you died, you could take all your possessions with you if they were in your tomb. And you would need your body back, so your body was preserved so that you could use it in your afterlife.

Pyramids

Pyramids were triangle shaped buildings of sandstone. They were made to be dead kings’ and their families’ tombs. Egyptians filled them with the king’s possessions so that he could use them in the afterlife. They stopped making pyramids because robbers would come in and steal all the stuff. Instead they would carve tombs out of rock underground and hide the entrances.

The Afterlife, called Duat the underworld

Egyptians thought the afterlife was a real place. Anubis, the god of mummies, would judge you by weighing your heart against a feather. If it was heavier than the feather, a monster would eat your heart and you would not get to journey into the afterlife. If it was lighter, then it meant that you did good deeds and were worthy of going to the afterlife.

Facts about El Dia de los Muertos

Butterflies

The monarch butterflies carry the souls of the dead back to their graves. The monarch butterflies arrive in Mexico for their winter migration stop at the same time as El Dia de los Muertos is. El Dia de los Muertos starts October 31^st and ends November 2^nd.

Mictlantechutli

He was the Aztec god of the dead. He was thought of a nice god because he relieved people of their sufferings.

The Afterlife

They believed that the afterlife was a real place with mountains and valleys and such. The god of the dead was Mictlantechutli and the newly dead brought him offerings of food and gifts.

Calaveras

Calavera means skull in Spanish. They are cool. People decorate their houses with them to honor the dead. They also dress up with skull masks to show that death is nothing to be feared.

Ofrendas

Ofrendas are tables that families put together to honor their dead relatives. They put on skulls, chrysanthemums and other decorations. They also put on pan de muertos and sugar skulls and their dead relatives’ favorite food.

Cemeteries

They are gay places where people celebrate El Dia de los Muertos by placing marigolds and candles and such on the graves. These help guide the spirits back. The people sell ice cream and sugar skulls. Families celebrate their ancestors together by sitting around the decorated graves and singing, telling stories, eating, and the kids run and play.

Myth of Mictlantechutli

Quetzalcoatl was sent to the underworld to get some bones. Mictlantechutli tried to stop him. The bones shattered and Quetzalcoatl picked them up and brought them back to the mortal world. With these he made the different races of people.

The Greek thoughts on the death and the underworld

The Gods

Hades, the god

Hades was the king and god of the underworld and a pretty gloomy guy. The Romans called him Pluto. There is a planet named after him.

Persephone

Persephone was daughter of Demeter, a beautiful maiden, and the queen of Hades forced to spend three months of every year in the underworld.

Hermes

Hermes guided souls to the underworld. He was also the only being, mortal or immortal, allowed to cross back and forth across the River Styx. He was a god.

Charon, the Ferry Man

He was the shade who guided the newest shades across the River Styx into Hades, the underworld. Charon needed to be paid so only the shades who had a gold coin could take his boat. The other shades had to wander around until they found the beggar’s entrance to the underworld. In a family that had enough money, they put a coin under the deceased’s tongue to pay Charon.

Shades

Shades are the people of the underworld, mortals who have died.

Cerberus

Cerberus was a three-headed dog who prevented anyone from crossing the River Styx back into the mortal world. He was Hades’ pet dog.

The Legend of Hades and Persephone

Persephone was the daughter of Demeter, the goddess of the harvest. Persephone was kidnapped by Hades to be his queen and wife.

Demeter was so grief stricken by the loss of her daughter that she no longer cared for the crops of the people. The crops all shriveled and died and no one had anything to eat.

All the mortals cried to the gods until at last Zeus, the chief god, could no longer ignore them and he interfered. Zeus made Hades give Persephone back.

Persephone had eaten a few seeds from a pomegranate, though. If you eat in the underworld, you may never return to the land of the mortals.

Persephone, having only eaten three seeds, was forced to spend three months in the underworld as Hades’ queen. The rest of the time she remained of the world with her mother.

Hades, the underworld

The underworld was a parallel dimension where the mortals go at the end of their lives. The sun shines, all your troubles are left behind, it is no different from earth, except for the fire river, Phlegethon. Bad people got punished in the underworld by select punishments given by the judges Minos, Rhadamanthus and Aeacus. Heroes got to live without work or anything else.

River Phlegethon

A river whose banks are pure fire. It guards Tartarus, the deepest pit on earth, whose entrance was in the underworld. It was the prison for gods.

River Styx

The River Styx was the river that separated Hades from the mortal world. Cerberus, the ferocious three-headed dog prevented anyone from leaving Hades across the River Styx. Charon, the Ferry Man, ferried people across the River Styx, but only the ones who had money to pay him.

River Lethe

The River Lethe was the river that made you forget your very name. The shades could choose to go in or not. A person who had bad memories or strong longings that couldn’t be fulfilled would go in the River Lethe to get cleaned and forget his troubles.

El Dia de los Muertos, memories of Liki and Melba

El Dia de los Muertos is the Mexican celebration of the Day of the Dead. Butterflies carry the souls of the dead back to where they are buried. It's October 31st to November 2nd. The Mexicans put together ofrendas to honor the dead. On ofrendas are pictures of the dead, flowers, papel picado, skeleton decorations, and other stuff. My mom is a Mexico nut. (El Dia de los Muertos is a Mayan holiday that we celebrate in our house.)

Liki and Melba are our cats that died.

Melba, Baby Fluff

Melba was my dad's cat. She was a one man cat. She only let dad hold her.

Melba was a cat who did not like toys. She liked to sit on the chair in the cat room.

Pipi is Melba's sis. They used to like each other, then they didn't.

Melba ate cat food.

Liki

Liki was my cat. She was completely black with amber eyes. She loved people, and she would always sleep on my feet.

Liki's favorite food was chicken. Once she even stole some from Tuffy.

Liki took baths. Not willingly. Mom wore gardening gloves to give her a bath.

Be careful. CAR killed the cat.