Death as an Enemy 6

[ikhet_sekhmet]

I'm very interested in the next section, "The world reversed" (starts p73). Zandee writes: "The realm of the dead is situated on the under-side of the disk of the earth. People there walk with their feet against the ceiling. This has the unpleasant consequence that digestion goes in the reverse direction, so that excrements arrive in the mouth." The polite term iwty.w means "digestion products" and is found in the names of netherworld demons who are said to eat them. Not surprisingly, there are spells to protect the deceased from having to eat faeces or drink urine, which are linked with spells about not having to walk around upside-down. Referring to a spell in the Pyramid Texts against walking upside-down in darkness, Zandee notes: "This is the reversal of earthly existence. Instead of living in the light and going over the earth on one's feet, one here goes in darkness with the feet turned upwards."

"Going upside down," writes Zandee, belongs to a whole complex of conceptions, according to which one has not the normal use of the parts of one's body. All this fits in with the conception of aשְׁאל  [sheol], where normal life has become impossible." Luckily the deceased is plentifully supplied with food offerings.

Being upside-down is also depicted as a temporary state for all of the deceased, except when Re's barque passes by, in the Book of the Dead chapter 101; and as a general punishment for sinners - so for example Re's enemies are inverted in flames in the Amduat.
__
Zandee, J. Death as an Enemy According to Ancient Egyptian Conceptions. (Studies in the Histories of Religions, Supplement to Numen, V). Leiden, E.J. Brill, 1960.