Imhotep exhibiting his powers
The Hom-Dai curse was an ancient malediction created by the ancient high priests of Egypt as a punishment reserved for blasphemers. It is described as "the worst of all ancient Egyptian curses. One so horrible, it had never before been bestowed."
Description[]
The Hom-Dai was used by the ancient Egyptians only to punish the worst of blasphemers who committed severe crimes, and so was used very rarely, if at all. Although the curse was mentioned in any form of text, there was no written case of it ever actually having been performed. This is because the Egyptians greatly feared it, and the sole known cause of the Hom-Dai ever being carried out was on that of the High Priest of Osiris, Imhotep.
He committed the crime of using the Book of the Dead to bring back his lover, the Pharaoh Seti I's mistress, Anck-Su-Namun, from the dead. Anak-Su-Namun had taken the fall for the murder of Seti I, and thus her body had been desecrated placed under a separate curse to prevent her from reaching the Field of Reeds in the Underworld. The Hom-Dai was so potent a curse that should any of its victims ever arise, with them would come forth the Ten Plagues of Egypt, as God of the Hebrews himself had set unto Egypt in biblical times. The victim would also be condemned to a cursed half-life that would not end, even in death. And although a person cursed with the Hom-Dai might be in a physically death-like state, they were still capable of being reanimated through an incantation from the Book of the Dead.
Bound to the victim's existence was a chest that, should it ever be opened, would leave those that opened it bound to the curse of the Hom-Dai. As the original victim would seek out whoever was present when the chest was opened, so as to kill them and assimilate their organs and fluids. By doing this, the original Hom-Dai's victim would regenerate themselves to their original state of being, and no longer be undead, and the curse designed to make them suffer for eternity would instead make them a being with unspeakable powers and immortality. Until the victim is fully regenerated, they will fear the presence of cats, who are the guardians of the underworld in Egyptian mythology. Cats were representatives of the goddess Bast, who protected Ra in the underworld every night from demons and undead creatures; part of Bast's mandate was to hunt down and destroy such creatures if they should ever escape the underworld to plague the living.
In order to prepare one the Hom-Dai, it began by first cutting the person's tongue out: this was especially necessary with Imhotep since, being a powerful magician-priest, he would be rendered unable to invoke any spells that would interruot the casting of the curse or allow him to escape afterwards (in some versions, the victim's eyes are to be put out as well). They were then mummified alive with sacred scarabs, which would eat them very slowly and painfully. This is a vital part of the curse: as both the victim and the scarabs slowly starve in confinement, they begin to eat one another. As the victim consumes the scarabs, the cycle of morning renewal and rebirth the scarab represents is perverted, and the casting of the curse is completed; as the scarabs themselves resort to carnivorinsm and comsume the victim's flesh, the curse is thus pased onto them so that they may continue to devour the victim's body forever. The Ka of the victim's soul is forever trapped within their corpse instead of being allowed into the afterlife, while the Ba portion of their soul cannot roam far beyond their body's burial place, sometimes affecting the material world as a shifting of sands to reveal an agonized face, or as an ominous wind.
As a further precaution, Imhotep was placed withing a special coffin with a locking mechanism, which itself was locked within a larger stone sarcophagus. It was then buried at the feet of the statue of Anubis, the jackal-headed god of mummification and funerals, so that the god could stand watch over the condemned. Ithout the customary food offerings to the dead, the victim's Ba would eventually lose energy, and their body would be left unable to move or fully regenerate. The victim however is still aware of their surroundings even in this decrepit state, condemned forever in suffocating darkness and isolation, trapped in a rotting, half-eaten corpse unable to see, move, or even scream.
Reading an incantation from the Book of the Dead resurrects the cursed individual, re-energizing their Ba and giving them the power of invincibility, but condemning them to be a spreader of pestilence. They are also compelled to consumate the curse upon those who opened the chest containing the Book of the Dead. A passage from the Book of Amun-Ra removes the immortality from the cursed individual, leaving them vulnerable and subject to being killed.
Trivia[]
- According to what was said by the narrator in the first film,
- "The Medjai would never allow him to be released, for he would arise a walking disease, a plague upon mankind, an unholy flesh eater with the strength of ages, power over the sands, and the glory of invincibility."
- Based on several scenes in the first film, a victim of the curse could affect the mortal realm of Egypt in subtle ways, such as manipulating the sands and creating ominous noises to frighten away people and animals. This is likely the victim's Ka roaming about and projecting the victim's torment.
- One other possible way of stopping a regenerated Hom Dai victim would be to learn their Ren, or secret name, effectively learning the true essense of a person's being, and forcing the victim to obey the learner's commands. The Goddess Isis learned Atheren of Ra, which she used to force him to abdicate his throne to her husband Osiris, so even gods are subject to this rule.
- Creatures who consume the flesh of a Hom Dai victim fall under the curse as well, including the scarabs entombed with Imhotep. Thus, reanimated swarms of such scarabs can quickly render a human body down to a shriveled corpse in the same fashion Imhotep does to his victims.
- To further drive the point of the Hom-Dai's terrible reputation, there's a chance the afflicted not only adapted to the curse, but also became capable of weaponizing it outright one way or another, as demonstrated by Imhotep. As the former High Priest of Osiris, and thus an extremely powerful Heka magician, it's unwise to rule out that Imhotep was already familiar with the Hom-Dai prior to being subjected to it himself. He was also fluent in many Heka spells, the most powerful of which carried extremely high risk of killing the user. Being immortal would allow Imhotep to effectively spam such spells, and to far greater extent than and mortal magician could manage. The infamous Wall of Sand for example.
- Not surprisingly, the reason the Medjai went to great lengths in keeping Imhotep sealed away was because their predecessors who were involved in Imhotep's capture and subsequent punishment realized subjecting him to the Hom-Dai was a terrible mistake that would bring dire ramifications to the world at some point, should their vigil fail.
Appearances[]
- The Mummy (First appearance)