rnishes a {240} valuable
indication as to the Egyptian origin of prayer for the dead; this is
unknown to Graeco-Roman paganism which prayed to the deified dead but never
_for_ the dead as such. The Church took this custom from the Synagogue, but
the Jews themselves seem to have taken it from the Egyptians during the
Hellenistic period, undoubtedly in the course of the second century (S.
Reinach, _Cultes, mythes_, I, p. 325), just as they were indebted to the
Egyptians for the idea of the "spring of life" (_supra_, n. 90). The
formula in the Christian inscriptions cited,

[Greek: anapauson ten psuchen en kolpois Abraam kai Isaak kai Iakob],

appears to indicate a transposition of the doctrine of identification with
Osiris. In this way we can explain the persistence in the Christian
formulary of expressions, like _requies aeterna_, corresponding to the most
primitive pagan conceptions of the life of the dead, who were not to be
disturbed in their graves.--A name for the grave, which appears frequently
in Latin epitaphs, viz., _domus aeterna_ (or _aeternalis_) is undoubtedly
also of Egyptian importation. In Egypt, "la tombe est la maison du mort, sa
maison d'eternite, comme disent les textes" (Capart, _Guide du musee de
Bruxelles_, 1905, p. 32). The Greeks were struck by this expression which
appears in innumerable instances. Diodorus of Sicily (I, 51, Sec. 2) was aware
that the Egyptians

[Greek: tous ton teteleutekoton taphous aidious oikous prosagoreuousin, hos
en Haidou diatelounton ton apeiron aiona] (cf. I, 93, Sec. 1, [Greek: eis ten
aionion oikesin]).--

It is probable that this appellation of the tomb passed from Egypt into
Palestine and Syria. It appears already in Ecclesiastes, xii. 7 (_beth
'olam_ = "house of eternity"), and it is found in Syrian epigraphy (for
instance in inscriptions of the third century (_Comptes Rendus Acad.
Inscr._, 1906, p. 123), also in the epigraphy of Palmyra. (Chabot, _Journal
asiatique_, 1900, p. 266, No. 47)).--Possibly the hope for consolation,
[Greek: Eupsuchei, oudeis athanatos], frequently found engraved upon tombs
even in Latin countries was also derived from the Egyptian religion, but
this is more doubtful. [Greek: Eupsuchei] is found in the epitaphs of
initiates in the Alexandrian mysteries. Kaibel, _Inscr. gr._, XIV, 1488,
1782 ([Greek: Eupsuchei kuria kai doie soi ho Osiris to psuchron hudor]),
2098 (cf. _supra_, n. 90). Possibly the twofold meaning of {241} [Greek:
eups