the departed.When Odysseus wishes to speak with the Nekyia in Book eleven, goats must besacrificed and their blood was recognized as inspiring the deceased tospeak. The Egyptians also were concerned with the ability of the deceasedto speak in the next realm; this is exemplified in one of the mostimportant spells in The Book of the Dead, the opening of the mouth. When all the funerary rites had been done, the next step was tomark the spot of the deceased. "The grave is marked with a stone, thesign, sema." This grave stone would have the name of the soul, and oftensome type of epigram in verse form. Invariably near the grave, some type ofguardian of the soul would be located. Lion and sphinx were found as gravemarkers and this idea is paralleled in the practices of the natives ofEgypt. A certain "cult image" was buried with the deceased in Egypt inorder to look after and more importantly protect one's ba from beingdisturbed. It also acted as a type of "purge valve" for any ba which mayhave been unjustly disturbed in the tomb. Burial practices aside one can note an interesting differencebetween these two ancient civilizations. Differences can be observedconcerning how amicable the afterlife was. The Egyptians had a positiveoutlook. They believed that after one became Osirus, They would move intoa new world, which was nice, no one had to work, and everything was veryclean. One could compare their lives in the next world with the children'sclassic board game, Candyland. In this game all was fine and dandy, the"don't worry be happy" attitude flourished, not distant from the life inthe Fields of the Blessed. On the other hand, Greco-Roman afterlife was arather dismal place. The dead Achilles summed everything up by saying toOdysseus, "Do not try to make light of death to me, I would sooner be boundto the soil in the hire of another man, a man without lot and without muchto live on, than rule over all the perished d...
