Ka

The ka is the vital life-force in Egyptian thought — the spiritual double born with each person, the animating energy that divides the living from the dead. Fashioned for each being by the potter-god Khnum, it was what the gods gave and what departed at death; 'to go to one's ka' meant to die.

The ka lived on after death and needed sustenance: the offerings of food and drink at the tomb were given to nourish it, and the statue of the deceased served as its dwelling. One of several components the Egyptians distinguished in the person — beside the ba and the akh — the ka shows how subtly they analyzed the soul.