How To Read The Egyptian Book Of The Dead
An interesting if brief essay that attempts to both place the Book of the Dead in a social context, and to extrapolate details of that society from it. Made some very good points and convinced me that I need a better translation.
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It would seem the authors final words sum the Book of the Dead up as well as their belief To live a good life was the prime goal. Though there seems to be great fear of the afterlife and the many pitfalls the soul may come upon in it. Many of these problems could be overcome by study of the B It would seem the authors final words sum the Book of the Dead up as well as their belief Many of these problems could be overcome by study of the Book of the Dead while living and when one is dead. The greatest benefit of the BOTD is through the spells you learn the names of the guardians and so forth as well as how to become the god too.
By becoming the god you share in his or her power and help to safeguard your soul on its journey. If you use this in conjunction with reading the BOTD I would suggest a more modern translation rather than the Budge one. His seems to just bounce to much around. This book is a great read, full of quotes and explanations. It goes beyond one's basic education. I recommend it because it's a quick and easy read, and quite interesting if you don't know much about the Book of the Dead. Sep 10, Lisa marked it as to-read Shelves: Want to read this because the cover is so cute.
James F rated it liked it Feb 04, Mark Mirabello rated it it was amazing Apr 15, Accio Reviews rated it really liked it Jul 21, Lashon Tolbert rated it it was amazing Apr 01, Koky rated it it was amazing Dec 15, Stefanie rated it really liked it Sep 12, Aug 22, Daniel rated it really liked it. Very useful if you are reading the "Book of the Dead". Suzannah Gottfredsen rated it it was amazing Nov 14, Alynn rated it it was amazing Jun 13, Agnes rated it it was amazing May 23, Angie rated it liked it Aug 13, Wavemonkey rated it liked it Oct 29, Andres rated it it was ok Mar 03, Kristopher Swinson rated it liked it Feb 03, Rae rated it it was amazing Aug 06, Pr rated it it was amazing Apr 21, Lindea rated it really liked it Nov 24, Meghan rated it really liked it Oct 29, Charles rated it liked it Jan 22, Ellee marked it as to-read Mar 06, House of Anansi and Groundwood Books added it Mar 16, Ruth marked it as to-read Jun 05, Jess added it Jul 26, Ashley marked it as to-read Aug 04, Dadhival Prasad marked it as to-read Mar 06, Sarah marked it as to-read Mar 22, Mickslibrarian marked it as to-read Apr 02, The texts and images of the Book of the Dead were magical as well as religious.
Full text of "The Egyptian Book of the dead"
Magic was as legitimate an activity as praying to the gods, even when the magic was aimed at controlling the gods themselves. The act of speaking a ritual formula was an act of creation; [20] there is a sense in which action and speech were one and the same thing. Hieroglyphic script was held to have been invented by the god Thoth , and the hieroglyphs themselves were powerful.
Written words conveyed the full force of a spell. The spells of the Book of the Dead made use of several magical techniques which can also be seen in other areas of Egyptian life. A number of spells are for magical amulets , which would protect the deceased from harm.
In addition to being represented on a Book of the Dead papyrus, these spells appeared on amulets wound into the wrappings of a mummy. Other items in direct contact with the body in the tomb, such as headrests, were also considered to have amuletic value. Almost every Book of the Dead was unique, containing a different mixture of spells drawn from the corpus of texts available.
For most of the history of the Book of the Dead there was no defined order or structure. The spells in the Book of the Dead depict Egyptian beliefs about the nature of death and the afterlife. The Book of the Dead is a vital source of information about Egyptian beliefs in this area. One aspect of death was the disintegration of the various kheperu , or modes of existence. Mummification served to preserve and transform the physical body into sah , an idealised form with divine aspects; [29] the Book of the Dead contained spells aimed at preserving the body of the deceased, which may have been recited during the process of mummification.
The ka , or life-force, remained in the tomb with the dead body, and required sustenance from offerings of food, water and incense. In case priests or relatives failed to provide these offerings, Spell ensured the ka was satisfied. It was the ba , depicted as a human-headed bird, which could "go forth by day" from the tomb into the world; spells 61 and 89 acted to preserve it.
An akh was a blessed spirit with magical powers who would dwell among the gods. The nature of the afterlife which the dead person enjoyed is difficult to define, because of the differing traditions within Ancient Egyptian religion. In the Book of the Dead , the dead were taken into the presence of the god Osiris , who was confined to the subterranean Duat.
There are also spells to enable the ba or akh of the dead to join Ra as he travelled the sky in his sun-barque, and help him fight off Apep.
There are fields, crops, oxen, people and waterways. The deceased person is shown encountering the Great Ennead , a group of gods, as well as his or her own parents.
While the depiction of the Field of Reeds is pleasant and plentiful, it is also clear that manual labour is required. For this reason burials included a number of statuettes named shabti , or later ushebti. These statuettes were inscribed with a spell, also included in the Book of the Dead , requiring them to undertake any manual labour that might be the owner's duty in the afterlife.
The path to the afterlife as laid out in the Book of the Dead was a difficult one. The deceased was required to pass a series of gates, caverns and mounds guarded by supernatural creatures. Their names—for instance, "He who lives on snakes" or "He who dances in blood"—are equally grotesque.
These creatures had to be pacified by reciting the appropriate spells included in the Book of the Dead ; once pacified they posed no further threat, and could even extend their protection to the dead person. If all the obstacles of the Duat could be negotiated, the deceased would be judged in the "Weighing of the Heart" ritual, depicted in Spell The deceased was led by the god Anubis into the presence of Osiris. There, the dead person swore that he had not committed any sin from a list of 42 sins , [44] reciting a text known as the "Negative Confession".
Then the dead person's heart was weighed on a pair of scales, against the goddess Maat , who embodied truth and justice. Maat was often represented by an ostrich feather, the hieroglyphic sign for her name.
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If the scales balanced, this meant the deceased had led a good life. Anubis would take them to Osiris and they would find their place in the afterlife, becoming maa-kheru , meaning "vindicated" or "true of voice".
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This scene is remarkable not only for its vividness but as one of the few parts of the Book of the Dead with any explicit moral content. The judgment of the dead and the Negative Confession were a representation of the conventional moral code which governed Egyptian society. For every "I have not John Taylor points out the wording of Spells 30B and suggests a pragmatic approach to morality; by preventing the heart from contradicting him with any inconvenient truths, it seems that the deceased could enter the afterlife even if their life had not been entirely pure.
A Book of the Dead papyrus was produced to order by scribes. They were commissioned by people in preparation for their own funeral, or by the relatives of someone recently deceased. They were expensive items; one source gives the price of a Book of the Dead scroll as one deben of silver, [51] perhaps half the annual pay of a labourer.
THE BOOK OF THE DEAD
In one case, a Book of the Dead was written on second-hand papyrus. Most owners of the Book of the Dead were evidently part of the social elite; they were initially reserved for the royal family, but later papyri are found in the tombs of scribes, priests and officials. Most owners were men, and generally the vignettes included the owner's wife as well. Towards the beginning of the history of the Book of the Dead , there are roughly 10 copies belonging to men for every one for a woman. The dimensions of a Book of the Dead could vary widely; the longest is 40m long while some are as short as 1m.
The scribes working on Book of the Dead papyri took more care over their work than those working on more mundane texts; care was taken to frame the text within margins, and to avoid writing on the joints between sheets. The words peret em heru , or 'coming forth by day' sometimes appear on the reverse of the outer margin, perhaps acting as a label. Books were often prefabricated in funerary workshops, with spaces being left for the name of the deceased to be written in later. The text of a New Kingdom Book of the Dead was typically written in cursive hieroglyphs , most often from left to right, but also sometimes from right to left.
The hieroglyphs were in columns, which were separated by black lines — a similar arrangement to that used when hieroglyphs were carved on tomb walls or monuments. Illustrations were put in frames above, below, or between the columns of text. The largest illustrations took up a full page of papyrus.
From the 21st Dynasty onward, more copies of the Book of the Dead are found in hieratic script.
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The calligraphy is similar to that of other hieratic manuscripts of the New Kingdom; the text is written in horizontal lines across wide columns often the column size corresponds to the size of the papyrus sheets of which a scroll is made up. Occasionally a hieratic Book of the Dead contains captions in hieroglyphic. The text of a Book of the Dead was written in both black and red ink, regardless of whether it was in hieroglyphic or hieratic script.
Most of the text was in black, with red ink used for the titles of spells, opening and closing sections of spells, the instructions to perform spells correctly in rituals, and also for the names of dangerous creatures such as the demon Apep. The style and nature of the vignettes used to illustrate a Book of the Dead varies widely. Some contain lavish colour illustrations, even making use of gold leaf. Others contain only line drawings, or one simple illustration at the opening. Book of the Dead papyri were often the work of several different scribes and artists whose work was literally pasted together.