The devotion of Egypt

We can start in ancient Egypt. My task is to identify virtues in each civilization that can be identified as a strength or weakness in their culture. In Egypt I have identified the following values. They believe in eternity, duty and beauty.

The virtues will later be labeled as characters in a story to weave these virtues together. Belief in eternity we will call devotion. This virtue is reflected in their devotion to the afterlife. The language of their devotion was spelled out in hieroglyphics’ that pictured scenes of the afterlife. They promoted their world leader to a god called Pharaoh. The Priests therefore had a role that held much honor. The weakness in this values system is in the error of elevating one man or a class of people to God status will eventually tumble as a house of cards when the Pharaoh or priests are found in error.

However, the virtue of devotion is one that carried their civilization through difficult times. The virtue of devotion also lends itself to the other virtues of duty and beauty. With these three virtues in operation there was an emphasis taken from survival needs. When this happens a civilization can advance beyond the boundary of sustenance. The duty and beauty that stemmed from the virtue of devotion advanced the Egyptian civilization into high levels of art, math and science.

This cardinal virtue of devotion therefore becomes one of the articles of a new language of virtue. It is my opinion that the development of this virtue is not dependant on ease of meeting survival needs. On the contrary other civilizations also display this article of the language of virtue with great pressure on daily sustenance. I will not be rating these societies. My aim is not to create a hierarchy of civilizations are even an evolution of the human virtue. I prefer to discover them as we travel through time to create the element of our new language.

Here is reading about Isis the goddess of devotion in Egypt.

This reading is taken from http://www.touregypt.net/isis.htm

From a number of passages in the texts of various periods we learn that Isis possessed great skill in the working of magic, and several examples of the manner in which she employed it are well known. Thus when she wished to make Ra reveal to her his greatest and most secret name, she made a venomous reptile out of dust mixed with the spittle of the god, and by uttering over it certain words of power she made it to bite Ra as he passed. When she had succeeded in obtaining from the god his most hidden name, which he only revealed because he was on the point of death, she uttered words which had the effect of driving the poison out of his limbs, and Ra recovered. Now Isis not only used the words of power, but she also had knowledge of the way in which to pronounce them so that the beings or things to which they were addressed would be compelled to listen to them and, having listened, would be obliged to fulfill her bequests. The Egyptians believed that if the best effect was to be produced by words of power they must be uttered in a certain tone of voice, and at a certain rate, and at a certain time of the day or night, with appropriate gestures or ceremonies. In the Hymn to Osiris it is said that Isis was well skilled in the use of words of power, and it was by means of these that she restored her husband to life, and obtained from him an heir. It is not known what the words were which she uttered on this occasion, but she appears to have obtained them from Thoth, the "lord of divine words," and it was to him that she appealed for help to restore Horus to life after he had been stung to death by a scorpion.