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Egyptian Mythology
← The afterlife

Ka

kꜣ

What it is

The vital essence, created at birth on Khnum's potter's wheel alongside the body, and the thing whose presence makes a body alive.

What it needs after death

Food and drink, indefinitely. Every offering formula on every tomb wall is addressed to the ka rather than to the person, and mortuary endowments existed to keep the supply running for generations.

What “soul” loses

That death is described as going to one's ka rather than losing it. The ka does not depart; the body does.

The other parts