Divinization and Empowerment of The Dead

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9. DIVINIZATION AND EMPOWERMENT OF THE DEAD
FIGURE 9.3. The papyrus of Nany from the Twenty-first Dynasty shows figures labelled with the name of Nany
interspersed with labeled divinities. Metropolitan Museum of Art 30.3.32
known figures: Osiris, Sobek, Horus, Re, Anubis, the

Phoenix, Hotep (lord of fields), etc. (fig. 9.5). your teeth are Soped.” A thorough anatomical list is
Deification need not be singular but can be mul- contained in PT 539, with different divine equations
tiple and composite. PT 506 combines varying state- for the head, sides of the head, [pate], face, eyes, nose,
ments of full identification (“I am Bat … I am Hapy, … [mouth], tongue, teeth, lips, chin, spine, shoulders,
I am Imsety, etc”) with partial deification : [hands], [fingers], heart, belly, [back], [vertebrae],
“My lips are the Two Enneads.” A similar combination rear, buttocks, phallus, thighs, calves of the legs, soles
appears in BD 82d: “My head is Re; the total of me is of the feet and toes. In the Book of the Dead, the list-
Atum” (cf. PT 537: “Your entire flesh is that of Atum, ing of body parts is most elaborate in BD 42 and in
your face is that of a jackal/Wepwawet). Again first the “Spell for a Secret Head” (BD 151), the text found
encountered in the Pyramid Texts, the technique of on the back of Tutankhamun’s famous golden mask.
“listing” body parts and divine counterparts becomes Although expressly intended for the mummy mask
a regular feature in later funerary and magical texts and head, the list of divine body parts is more exten-
(Massart 1959, pp. 227–46). Thus the broad asser- sive: “Your right eye is the night bark, your left eye
tion in BD 7, “My limbs are the limbs of Atum,” is is the day bark; your eyebrows are the Ennead. Your
based on more compartmentalized statements like pate is Anubis; the back of your head is Horus. Your
fingers are Thoth; your braided tress is Ptah-Sokar.”
are Atum, your belly is Atum.” PT 556 identifies the Individual identifications may vary, but the cumula-
deceased’s feet, and later the arms, as those of the tive effect is that “there is no limb ( ) in you devoid
jackal Wepwawet, whose face equals that of the de- of a god” (BD 42), a common concluding statement
ceased in PT 424. More commonly, individual limbs to such lists in magical healing texts (Sander-Han-
are linked to different deities, as in PT 215: “Your sen 1956, pp. 26 and 28 (Spell III, l. 33); Daressy 1919,
head is Horus of the Netherworld … your eyes are
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BOOK OF THE DEAD: BECOMING GOD IN ANCIENT EGYPT
FIGURE 9.4. The Third Intermediate Period papyrus of Amenmose shows him worshipping before a series of divine images
provided with his titles and name. British Museum EA 10011, 1 (© Trustees of the British Museum)
The terminology of divine “limbs” has broad ap- the “Book of Amduat” (“What is in the Underworld”)
plication in Egyptian religious speculation. In the of the woman Nany (P. MMA 30.3.32), a series of for-
Middle Kingdom, the commander’s record of a quar- ty standing mummiform gods are represented with
rying expedition presents the expedition leader (and their individual names or emblems above their heads.
future king Amenemhat I) as a physical extension of Repeatedly alternating (nineteen times) with these
the divine body of the king: “My Lord l.p.h., the King divine symbols is the name “The Osiris Nany as one
of Upper and Lower Egypt Nebtawyre, living forever,
sent me as a god sends a limb ( ) of his” (Couyat and 1964, pp. 114–19 and 170–72. The same interpretation
is found in Forman and Quirke 1996, p. 142). In effect,
In the New Kingdom, the underworld gods them- the triumphant Nany is directly equated with the en-
selves can be seen as limbs, or physical components, tire file of deities; they are all components of Osiris
of Osiris. The composition “The Gods of the Caverns Nany. Similarly, the Amduat papyrus of the priest
in the Mysterious Underworld,” adapted as BD spell Amenmose (P. BM 10011), depicts the deceased wor-
168A, thus invokes the gods of the tenth cavern: “The shiping a series of twenty-eight deities within shrines.
-souls of the gods who have become limbs ( ) of The name written before each divinity is not the
Osiris, may they let Osiris N rest” (c §S6, T. Allen 1974, expected name of the individual god, however, but
p. 166). Since the deceased is linked to Osiris in the the repeated name and titles of Amenmose himself
same passage, he can have an analogous claim to di- -
vinities as his limbs, paralleling the “lists” of deified ity is “the Osiris, priest and scribe of the treasury of
body parts discussed above. As gods are components Amen-Re, king of the gods, Amenmose, the justified.”
of Osiris, so they are components of Osiris N. This divine form of the deceased is acknowledged
Depictions of underworld gods on papyri can directly at the conclusion of BD spell 137A (§S3): “May
show their explicit identity with the deceased. In Osiris N. live in his true nature ( ), in his form
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FIGURE 9.5. Transformation spells from the papyrus of Irtyuru include spells for “Becoming a God” (BD 80), “Becoming
Ptah” (BD 82), and “Becoming a crocodile (i.e., Sobek)” (BD 88). OIM E10486F = Cat. No. 15 (D. 13329)
( ) of a true god.” The following instructions in cosmic bond, not a random phonetic accident. This
the papyrus caution secrecy due to the effectiveness inherent divinity can be harnessed by knowledge,
of the spell for its owner: “Since the gods and the with resulting empowerment and divine favor. In the
blessed and the dead see him in the form ( ) of the tomb of Paheri at el-Kab, the prince boasts: “I know
Foremost of the Westerners (= Osiris), he is powerful the god who is in ( ) mankind, since I perceive
like this god” (§ T9; the translation is in agreement him” ( . IV, 119/15). To the tomb visitor he recom-
with T. Allen 1974, p. 114, not Quirke 2013, p. 309, who mends: “May you traverse eternity in pleasantness of
wrongly links the spell itself to the “forms” ( ) in heart in the praises of the god who is in you ( )”
§ T9 but correctly to Osiris N in the preceding § S3). (
In both passages, the specific term used for “form” posit more specific identifications: “Is it Amennakht
( ), designates an essential, not a transitory, form. who is as (
The word choice is not arbitrary, for in Egyptian the- who has come to be in ( ) him? Send the truth!”
ology latent divinity resides in every human. Divine
identifications are not mere ritual fictions, restricted in later personal names; cf. Shemamenimes “Amon
to the context of funerary cult. They are encountered has gone into ( ) her” (for the name, see Ritner 1999,
more broadly in Egyptian speculation. Coffin Texts -
spell 1130, a proclamation of the deeds of the cre- sion of the living by demonic spirits in the Demotic
ator, declares that men — like gods — derive from Tale of Inaros: “The two demons entered into ( )
the creator’s bodily fluids: “From my sweat I created him” (P. Krall 2/4–5; see Ritner 2011, p. 13). The no-
the gods. Mankind ( ) is from the tears ( ) of tion of a god “who is in” ( ) the deceased has been
my eye” (CT VII, 464–65; see also CT II, 33 d). For the treated above. It is significant that an indwelling god
Egyptians words are divine creations, so the revealed is relevant to both the living and the dead.
pun between and represents an underlying
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FIGURE 9.6. BD spells 31 and 32 from the papyrus of Nesshutefnut repel crocodiles who try to take away his “magic” ( )
power. OIM E9787B = Cat. No. 14 (D. 28915)
Through tapping the force of magic ( ),

this divine essence within mankind can even pose Corrupt’ … go northward … to the place where you
a threat to the gods. In the New Kingdom Book of were beaten!” (Faulkner 1969, p. 201). Similarly, PT
the Heavenly Cow, the creator god Re confronts spell 569 threatens cosmic upheaval and loss to the
the rebellion of mankind, the very creations of his gods if the king’s heavenly advance is hindered. Most
eye, and is told to “be wary of these magicians who striking, however, is PT spell 539, which combines an
know their spells, for Heka (god of magic) is in them extensive “list” of the king’s deified body parts with
himself ” (Hornung 1982, pp. 20 and 44). By obtaining a direct threat against “any god who will not set up
magic, humans acquire a further divine force and a stairway for me ... He shall have no loaf; He shall
by absorbing it, another identity. The acquisition have no fan ... No offering shall be presented to him.”
of magic is a persistent theme in Egyptian funerary In a ritual technique that would become common in
literature from the Pyramid Texts to the Book of the later magical recitations, the king shifts the blame
Dead. PT spells 646 and 678 stress the king’s mastery for cursing the gods by identifying himself with a
of magic, and the latter spell warns opponents different divine speaker: “It is not I who says this to
about the king’s possession of the cosmic force. The you, O gods; It is Heka (god of magic) who says this
implied threat becomes explicit in PT spell 534, in to you, O gods” (cf. Faulkner 1969, p. 208). Here the
which Osiris, Horus, Seth, Khenty-irty, Thoth, Isis, pattern of identifying with a god becomes a method
and Nephthys are rebuffed from coming “in an for cursing any other god (for Egyptian magic in
evil coming.” Divine violators of this proscription theory and practice, see Ritner 1993, for threats,
are cursed and dismissed: “If Isis comes with this including those against the gods, see the index on
her evil coming, do not open your arms to her, but p. 311).
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In the Book of the Dead, the threat of magic to and inflammation shall develop in the eyes of Atum”
the deceased is countered in spell 23, while spell 24 (T. Allen 1974, pp. 76–77).
ensures that magic is brought to the deceased “as- The recitations of the Book of the Dead envelop
sembled for me from every place where it was, from the deceased in ritualized phrases of deification.
every man with whom it was, faster than a grey- When they are inscribed on mummy bandages and
hound, quicker than a shadow” (T. Allen 1974, p. 37). coffins, the envelopment is quite literal (fig. 9.7).
Spell 31 drives off a crocodile that comes to take the They are the textual counterpart to the physical ritu-
als of mummification intended for the same purpose,
Spell 90 defends the deceased’s magical abilities converting a deceased man into a god by extracting
against those spirits that would “put incoherence corrupting fluids with surrounding bundles of cleans-
into the speech of the blessed because of the magical ing natron salts, washing and thus “baptizing” the
spells that are in their bellies.” Notably, the quoted corpse in enclosing streams of blessed water (fig. 9.2),
curse “your face is for your testicles, you lion-faced applying protective amulets whose textual sources
one” is attributed not to the deceased but to Isis. and images actually appear in the Book of the Dead
Spell 93 evokes the Pyramid Text spells against hin- (BD spells 155–160, fig. 9.8), and fumigating the com-
drance from attaining paradise, with curses against pleted mummy with incense, whose very name, ,
Osiris, Khepri and Atum. If the deceased is taken to means “to make divine,” encoding in a word the es-
the tomb of the beheaded, “horns shall gore Khepri, sence of Egyptian funerary practice.
FIGURE 9.7. A papyrus inscribed with BD 162 placed under FIGURE 9.8. Spells for the placement of various amulets
the head of the mummy along with the texts inscribed on the mummy appeared in Book of the Dead papyri along
on the coffin in order to envelop the body in magical with their illustrations, such as BD spells 155, 157, and 159
protection (cf. fig. 8.2). Cairo JE 96272 (photo courtesy of shown here from the end of papyrus Ryerson. OIM E9787J
the Egyptian Museum, Cairo) = Cat. No. 14 (D. 28923)
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10. THE MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS

ANDREA KUCHAREK
A rguably, no deity exerted an impact on Egyp-

tian society in general comparable to Osiris.
Impersonating the crucial aspects of two ap-
parently diametrically opposed spheres — the exalted
level of kingship and the most human fate, death, he
non-royal persons during the Old Kingdom or the
nature of the relationship between the deceased and
Osiris (Chapters 2 and 9).
Osiris is first attested in the Fifth Dynasty (2494–
2345 ), overwhelmingly in the area of the then cap-
would touch the life of any individual. Another deep- ital Memphis at the apex of the Nile delta. Here, close
ly human experience, being part of a family, commu- to the residence, the royal families and the court elite
nity and society and their networks of dependency, is were buried. In the pyramids, Osiris is a major deity
reflected in the myths concerning the Osirian nuclear within the huge corpus of the Pyramid texts; in pri-
family — the parents, Geb and Nut, the siblings Osiris, vate tombs, he rapidly achieves an eminent position
Isis, Nephthys, and Seth, and the son of Isis and Osiris, in the offering formulae alongside Anubis, who had
Horus. While each of these deities also has its own,
separate provinces and forms part of different divine
constellations as required by theological thought, it
is as the “Osirian circle” that they are most consis-
tently represented. As such they have transcended
Pharaonic religion and the circumference of Egypt.
It has been noted that “Osiris is one of the few
Egyptian divinities of whom it is possible to write
even the outline of a biography” (Smith 2008, p. 2). To
a much higher degree than any other deity, Osiris was
subject to the human condition — birth, marriage,
death, progeny, love, betrayal, loyalty, even, as a king,
a status and office recognizable in the here and now.
These qualities determine the “myth of Osiris,” lend-
ing themselves to a narrative.
ORIGINS
According to Egyptian theology, Osiris and his sib-

lings were the children of Nut, the sky goddess, and
Geb, god of the earth. He was born to be king of Egypt.
The origins and development of Osiris in historical
and functional terms are less easy to determine and
have long been a subject for debate. The latest re-
search has overturned some long-held assumptions, FIGURE 10.1. Seth, brother and murderer of Osiris, being
for instance as to his place of origin, his original worshipped on the stela of Nakht. Egypt. Purchased in
character, the availability of an Osirian afterlife to Egypt, 1919. New Kingdom. H: 30.2 x W: 22.7 x D: 7 cm.
OIM E10510 (P. 8822 / N. 4429)
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THE MYTH OF O SIRIS
While there is a great number of images and text

passages instantly recognizable as pertaining to the
myth and mysteries of Osiris, there is hardly anything
approaching what we would call a narrative, a con-
tinuous and consistent account of the fate of Osiris.
The most comprehensive presentation of the myth
attested in Egyptian sources is preserved on a stela
now in the Louvre in Paris, dating to the earlier part
of the Eighteenth Dynasty (1550–1295 ). Coherent
accounts we owe to classical authors, first and fore-
most Plutarch. The narration included in his book De
Iside et Osiride ,
informs our concept of the “myth of Osiris.” Many
details are confirmed by native sources, lending cre-
dence to other, yet unsubstantiated points.
Sketching the myth in its barest outlines and
following the “mainstream” version, Osiris, king of
Egypt and husband to his sister Isis, was killed by
their younger brother Seth (fig. 10.1), husband to
the fourth sibling, Nephthys. As Osiris and Isis had
no offspring yet, the throne was for Seth to take
once Osiris was out of the way. There are several
versions of how Seth disposed of the body of his
brother, all resulting with it ending up on the banks
of the Nile. Isis, distraught, searched the whole
FIGURE 10.2. Corn Osiris resting in its coffin. Metropolitan
Museum of Art 58.106.1 land, supported by Nephthys who had disassociated
herself from Seth and his cause. Having finally
recovered Osiris, his body was brought to the safety
of an embalming hall where, by means of lament,
been sole deity before. As to the geographical origin recitation of glorifications, and embalming, he was
of Osiris, it has been argued that while his earliest revived to a state enabling him and Isis to create an
and closest association was with Abydos (see below), heir, Horus. Osiris, in his new state as an “august
he was not a local god in the strict sense. Much rather, mummy,” neither ultimately dead nor fully alive,
his ties to Abydos were functional in nature. While became king of the netherworld. Horus, while still a
regeneration and rejuvenation were core aspects of child, was hidden and protected by Isis and Nephthys.
Osiris, he was not, as has long been assumed, a god of Having grown up, he contended with the usurper and
vegetation. His original function had been as a god of murderer Seth, eventually, by combat and by court
the royal funerary religion, and he became associated decision, obtaining victory and the throne of Egypt.
with Abydos as the site of the earliest royal burial Seth’s murderous act is hardly ever addressed in
ground. In fact, the position of local deity was already a straightforward fashion, in order to avoid lending
occupied by the jackal deity Khentamenti, a god of enduring reality to it. Therefore, for instance, the
the royal necropolis. Only toward the beginning of Louvre stela account begins rather abruptly with Isis
the Middle Kingdom did Khentamenti finally give way looking desperately for her brother, the murder be-
to Osiris, becoming little more than the Abydene epi- ing an implied precondition. The text of the myth is
thet of Osiris. preceded by two significant sections. The first, tak-
ing up the first half of the entire stela, is an exten-
sive hymn to Osiris, emphasizing his qualities as a
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FIGURE 10.3. An allusive depiction of Osiris in the womb of his mother Nut (after Gabra 1954, pl. 27)
sovereign and warrior: “With great strength when the confederates of Seth are a burnt sacrifice. The
he fells the rebels and kills the enemy, who casts his throne of Geb is yours, as you are his beloved son.
terror among his foes, who reaches the farthest limits
of evil, whose heart is firm when he crushes the en-
emies.” The second section is a short passage praising THE MYSTERIES OF O SIRIS
Isis as “his guard, who drives off his foes, who stops
the deeds of the disturber by the power of her utter- The mysteries of Osiris ritually reenacted and
ance.” Both sections render apotropaic precedence reactivated the salient episodes of the Osiris myth,
to the happy outcome. The second functions more- realizing and perpetuating the ultimate prevalence
over as a transition, bringing Isis into focus as the of good over evil, of life over death. As with the
central agent and catalyst of the unfolding events. myth, there are numerous different versions, played
Had she not tirelessly searched for her husband and out all over Egypt and over a period of several
subsequently achieved the creation of Horus, there millennia. And as with the myth, classical authors
would have been no heir to the throne to challenge have preserved valuable information — even though
Seth. Several texts refer to this achievement of Isis one would wish that Herodotus, for one, had been
as her having acted as a man even though she was a less piously reticent about his knowledge. Referring
woman, thereby emphasizing her active role in the to the nocturnal “performance of the god’s sufferings,
procreative act. A passage in a late liturgy, uttered which the Egyptians call the mystery-rites” on the
by Isis and addressed to Osiris, neatly sums up her sacred lake at Sais, the historian, who had travelled
crucial role (translation based on Smith 2009, p. 141): Egypt in the fifth century , added: “Although I am
familiar with the details of this performance and
I am your sister Isis. There is no god who accom-
how each part of it goes, I will keep silence” (II.171;
plished what I accomplished, or goddess either.
Waterfield 1998/2008, p. 164). Even though many
I acted as a man even though I am a woman, in
order to make your name live on earth. Your di- of these mysteries were to be kept secret, not to be
vine seed was in my womb, and I placed him (i.e., witnessed by anyone uninitiated, we are quite well
Horus) upon the earth, so that he might defend informed by native sources as well. In a number of
your character, so that he might heal your suf- temples the rooms dedicated to the Osirian rites have
fering, so that he might inflict injury upon him been preserved, and of these some are furnished
who caused it. Seth has fallen to his slaughter, and with a wealth of ritual scenes and texts. It is also a
stroke of luck for today’s scholars that for a while,
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the new moon, the day — or rather night — of the

absolute invisibility of the moon; the festival would
then culminate fourteen days later at full moon.
Synchronised to the waxing moon, Osiris would
correspondingly heal and be rendered complete.
The Khoiak festival is remarkably well-known, not
primarily because it was the most important Osiris
festival, but due to an extensive wall inscription in
the sanctuary of Osiris on top of the Hathor temple
at Dendera. This Khoiak text, running to 159 lines, is
made up of seven manuals concerning the manufac-
turing and treatment of the Osiris figures and their
rites, specifying countless local variations. What this
extremely valuable source lacks is information on the
recitations accompanying all those rites — it is solely
concerned with the practical side of the proceedings.
Curiously, too, there is not a single reference to the
name of the festival in the Khoiak text — in the ma-
jority of such manuals, as in the ritual texts them-
selves, only specific calendar dates appear — “month
4 of the akhet season, day 25,” for instance, meaning
25 Khoiak.
Osiris mysteries were celebrated throughout the
land, and although there were several major cult
centres of the god — such as Busiris, Memphis, and
Heliopolis — Abydos was without a doubt the most
important one. The specifically Abydene manifesta-
FIGURE 10.4. A stela from Abydos with the characteristic
tion of Osiris, Osiris Khentamenti (“Foremost of the
assembly of family members. Egypt, Abydos. Gift of Westerners” = the dead) was the default recipient of
the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1900. Middle Kingdom. most rituals, and the wider area around the Osiris
H: 48 x W: 30 x D: 9 cm. OIM E6739
temple had become informed by its mythical implica-
tions and the desire of the people to be close to the
deity who represented their hopes of an afterlife.
primarily during the early Ptolemaic period, Osirian The cult of Osiris at Abydos was inextricably
liturgies inscribed on papyri formed part of the burial linked to the royal funerary landscape of the place.
equipment of a priestly elite. As grave goods, hidden Long before Osiris was introduced there, the burial
away in dry rock chambers, papyrus rolls stood a ground of the kings of the First and Second Dynasties
much better chance of survival than in the library of a had been created at Umm el-Qaab, a low desert hill.
temple situated in the midst of a settlement on damp, While Osiris is associated with Abydos already in the
alluvial ground, and exposed to the vicissitudes of Pyramid Texts of the Fifth Dynasty, it is only with the
the structural and cultural changes throughout the rise of the Middle Kingdom, when royal tombs were
millennia. once more erected in Abydos, that his cult was firmly
The most eminent and best-known of the Osiris established. The Osiris temple complex at the very
mysteries, the Khoiak festival (Egyptian ka-her-ka, edge of the alluvial plain was situated adjacent to
of obscure meaning), was celebrated all over Egypt the royal mortuary enclosures with their huge brick
during the fourth month of the year which was walls. In later periods, the famed Osiris processions
named after it. In the Greco-Roman period it would (see below) would emerge from a portal facing these
unfold over the course of fifteen days, starting on enclosures, heading to the cluster of royal tombs out
11th Khoiak. This date would ideally coincide with in the desert at Umm el-Qaab. One of these tombs
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FIGURE 10.5. The sledge that conveyed the mummy to the tomb was often assimilated to the neshmet-bark, the divine
bark of Osiris with its lotiform bow and stern curved inward. OIM E10486A = Cat. No. 15 (D. 13324)
had by then been declared to be the tomb of the god Only with the next festival cycle would this figure be
himself. The procession wound along an ancient ritually embalmed and wrapped and finally interred
wadi connecting both places and continuing into the at the local Osiris necropolis as sovereign of the Duat
limestone cliffs farther to the west where the wadi proper, joining an annually increasing number of
emerged from a cleft considered to be the entry to predecessors. Thus, the Khoiak festival was, in a way,
the netherworld. The processional road was about merely the conspicuous apex in a progression of in-
- terlocking, perpetual cycles.
tance would have been accessible to the audience, up A major, and for nearly all people the only, part
to a hill nowadays known as Heqareshu Hill. Beyond of the mysteries they could in any way participate in
this point lay Ra-Poqer, the forbidden zone surround- were several processions of the god; some of these
ing the tomb of Osiris. ventured outside the temple precinct, presenting
From a material perspective, the rites centered the rare chance of a direct encounter with the god,
on a small figure of Osiris fashioned annually from the sole occasion this side of the grave. Mostly this
Nile mud and grains of emmer and barley (fig. 10.2). encounter was restricted to “witnessing the perfec-
This figure, resting in a mould, was watered, induc- tion” (or translated otherwise, “seeing the beauty”)
ing the seed to germinate. This process was explicitly as the resplendent processional bark, carried along
understood as a gestation, the mould being likened by priests, passed by. In fact, the area closest to the
to the womb of Nut, the mother of Osiris (fig. 10.3). temple portal where the procession emerged, in the
The mould would consist of two halves which, at the Middle Kingdom became covered with private cha-
end of the gestation period, were united, just as the pels of varying sizes. These featured family stelae
scattered limbs of Osiris had been united in the em- (fig. 10.4), and more of such stelae were erected on
balming hall. their own. Additionally, the adjacent, initial section
At the end of the fifteen days of the Khoiak festi- of the processional path was flanked by cemeteries.
val, the figure would be buried, symbolizing the entry It is evident that a large number of Egyptians sought
of Osiris into the netherworld. However, this was not to establish a permanent presence here, be it in the
the figure that had been made and matured during vicarious embodiment of their names on a stela (of-
the past fifteen days. This recent figure would reside ten designed to incorporate as many relatives as pos-
for a whole year in a chapel called the “Upper Duat” sible), or physically, by choosing to be buried here.
(or Netherworld), where it would embody the royal Therefore, apart from those who accomplished
qualities and power of Osiris as an earthly sovereign. the actual pilgrimage to participate in the procession,
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representative and therefore in the mythical role of

Horus, stated: “I repelled the attackers of the neshmet-
bark, I felled the enemies of Osiris” (Stela Berlin 1204
in Anthes 1974). However, this seemingly straight-
forward evidence is ambiguous; on another stela of
slightly later date, the king himself states: “I recite
for you the repelling of the attackers on the road of
Ra-Poqer” (Stela of Neferhotep in Anthes 1974), indi-
cating that a ritual text called “The Repelling of the
Attackers” was either recited in the place of a dra-
matic performance or accompanied the performance.
OSIRIAN RITUALS
A large proportion of Osirian rituals is funerary in

character, addressing a multitude of relevant issues
— rejuvenation, perpetuation, continuing presence
in this world, but also judgment, righteousness, and
legitimacy. The evidence may be somewhat skewed as
a considerable portion of Osirian rituals has been pre-
served only because of their secondary application to
private use. Due to these favorable circumstances the
absolute number of Osirian rituals preserved in more
or less their entirety is considerably higher than for
comparably eminent deities. Moreover, titles of fur-
ther ritual books are known, and recent research by
FIGURE 10.6. Osiris on the bier, rising as king of the
netherworld, protected by Isis, Nephthys, and Anubis. the author into the fragmentary evidence for Osirian
Metropolitan Museum of Art 11.155.5 rituals preserved in the Roman period temple library
of Tebtynis has resulted not only in further copies of
familiar rituals but also in an impressive number of
hitherto unassignable fragments.
there would be a virtual audience of names as well as As with every deity, there were default rituals of
a physical one of the dead. A standardised text pas- the quotidian cult based on the mundane routines of
sage on Abydos stelae dating to the Middle Kingdom, wakening, cleaning, washing, clothing, and feeding
the so-called “Abydos formula,” enumerates the af- the cult image in its shrine, accompanied by hymns
terlife wishes of the deceased in specific regard to and praises, food offerings, libations and censing.
the Osiris of Abydos, such as receiving offerings, par- These basic rituals — like the Daily Statue Ritual or
ticipating in the Osirian feasts, being received into the Daily Offering Ritual — differed little, regardless
the company of the Abydene gods and “followers of of the deity concerned. The specifically Osirian rituals
Osiris,” and even being granted a seat in the proces- were mostly performed in the course of his festivals.
sional neshmet-bark of Osiris. In death one hoped for The Khoiak festival described above is sometimes
an even higher degree of closeness to the divine than stated explicitly as is the place, Abydos, but in actual
in life. fact the rituals were widely applicable, as exemplified
Similar to what Herodotus had only alluded to by the opening passage of a glorification ritual, the
in the case of the sacred lake rites in Sais, there is Lamentations of Isis and Nephthys: “Invocation of the
evidence of the dramatic reenactment of mythical glorifications which the Two Sisters performed in the
events during the procession (fig. 10.5). Already in temple of Osiris Khentamenti, the Great God, Lord of
the Middle Kingdom, an official acting as the king’s Abydos, on the 25th day of Khoiak. To be performed
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FIGURE 10.7. The mummy in the tomb chamber, protected by Isis and Nephthys. The caption above the bed reads “august
mummy” (sah shepes). British Museum EA 10010 (© Trustees of the British Museum)
likewise in every place of Osiris at every festival of passage of another liturgy, the Great Decree Issued to
his.” the Nome of Silence, states as its purpose “to cause
In recent decades publications of hitherto un- Osiris to rule in the Nome of Silence.” This relates
known Osirian rituals as well as research into the to the burial, conceived as the introduction of Osiris
topic have enjoyed an immense increase (for an into his future realm.
updated list of known papyri, many of which could Both passages from the Lamentations quoted
be inscribed with several rituals, see Backes 2015, above comprise the terms “glorification” or “glori-
- fy,” rather vague but time-honoured translations of
dence consists of papyri dating to the Greco-Roman Egyptian “sakhu” and “sakh” (pronounced “se-akh(u)”).
period, about 330 – 400, with most of the ma- Sakh means “causing to be akh.” Akh may be either a
terial originating in the earlier half of that period. noun, denoting a person who has successfully been
Dating the actual composition is much more difficult, made an akh, or an adjective, describing the state of
with opinions, based on linguistic as well as theologi- akh-hood. The abstract noun sakhu designates a spe-
cal analysis, veering widely. cific class of rituals. As to the meaning of akh, Jan
The various rituals fulfilled different functions, Assmann succinctly states that “the untranslatable
sometimes stated quite explicitly. For instance, the word akh refers to the salutary effectiveness that
passage from the Lamentations of Isis and Nephthys crosses the threshold of death, from this world into
quoted above continues: “Glorifying his ba, stabilizing the next and vice versa” (Assmann 2005, p. 52). By
his corpse, making his ka jubilant, granting breath to means of performing a sakhu ritual, Osiris or the de-
the nose of him whose throat is constricted, gladden- ceased individual emulating him became an akh. As
ing the hearts of Isis and Nephthys, placing Horus on such, although dead, he was empowered to receive
the throne of his father” (translation based on Smith sustenance, to move freely, even recrossing the
2009, p. 129). This places the ritual firmly in the em- threshold of death to visit his former abode, and to
balming hall where Osiris is revivified by the recita- dwell in the company of the gods.
tion of the Lamentations (fig. 10.6). The introductory
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There are numerous rituals for Osiris explic- Appropriate to the occasion of this exhibition, a
itly labelled as sakhu. Others were intended spe- spell from the Book of the Dead shall round off this
cifically for his protection. These so-called apo- sample of Osirian rituals. BD 172 is one of those texts
tropaic rites repelled the enemies of the god, led labelled as a Book of the Dead spell because they
by Seth, from the embalming hall until the pro- were, at one time or another, included in, or rather
cess of mummification, embalming, wrapping, and appended to, a copy of the book without actually be-
glorifying had been completed and the former longing to the corpus (on the question of standard-
lifeless corpse, prone to decomposition (equat- ization and canon in the Book of the Dead, see Gee
ing to destruction), had been transformed, by all
of these means, into an “august mummy” (sah arranged into nine stanzas most of which concern
shepes), the durable, imperishable abode of the an idiosyncratic description of the mummy’s limbs,
ba soul, ready to enter the netherworld (fig. 10.7). identifying them with deities but also with precious
Sah shepes is the repeated designation of Osiris in the materials. The refrains separating the stanzas refer
Great Decree, the ritual enactment of the funerary to mourning. All copies of the spell dating to the
procession. New Kingdom — apart from a single complete one
The so-called Hour Watches or Hour Vigils denote all others are either extremely fragmentary or ex-
a group of rituals that combine glorification, lamen- cerpts — are from private contexts. While Osiris is not
tation, protection, offering and libation. They owe mentioned in the one complete copy of this rather
their designation — in Egyptian simply “Hours” — to mysterious text, fragmentary evidence of BD 172 has
the fact that they were indeed arranged into hourly been identified quite recently among the remains of
sections, primarily encompassing the twelve hours of the temple library of Tebtynis, in Roman period pa-
the night but sometimes expanded to the full 24 hour pyri preserving rituals for the cult of Osiris. In one
cycle. They were performed in the night (or the full
day) before burial — in terms of the rituals described ritual” passage and a lament by Nephthys (based on
above, after the Lamentations but before the Great forthcoming publication of the author).
Decree. The hour watches had been performed for Of the priesthood concerned with keeping up
private individuals as well at least since the Middle the daily cult as well as performing the festival
Kingdom, when, in the Tale of Sinuhe, the hero is rites, the lector priest was without doubt the most
promised a night vigil before burial. important figure. He was, as his title (literally “who
FIGURE 10.8. The opening of the mouth rite performed by the lector priest (reciting from a papyrus) and a sem-priest
clad in the characteristic panther skin, censing and libating. British Museum EA 10470 (after British Museum 1894, pl. 6)
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holds the festival roll”) indicates, responsible for contrast to the majority of the merely representative
the verbal component of the ritual performance. He women, who were positioned in an adjacent room,
was seconded by the sem-priest, a distinctly funerary they were present at the ritual performance,
figure acting in the role of the son of the recipient. contributing on the same level as the male priests.
He is well known from the ritual of the opening of Besides the major cult centers of Osiris like
the mouth, a funerary ritual that was performed Abydos and Busiris, Memphis, Heliopolis, and Thebes,
sem- sanctuaries of Osiris were scattered all over Egypt,
priest, while also uttering spells and formulae, was often appended to the temples of the local deity.
particularly engaged in performing ritual acts like Several well-preserved Late Period, Ptolemaic, and
offering food, libating, and censing. On a divine Roman period temples still feature these Osirian
level, the lector priest was assimilated to Thoth, sections. The structures serving the execution of the
the god of writing and measuring, while the sem- Osirian mysteries are often located on the rooftop, a
priest was represented by Horus, the son of Osiris. secluded position well-suited to the secrecy of the
Several Osirian liturgies feature extensive speeches proceedings. This requirement of seclusion finds
by Isis and Nephthys. While some of these liturgies expression in a specific architecture marked by suites
specify that two women were to participate in the of rooms with unaligned doorways. The outermost
performance, it appears that their tasks did not room is often in fact a court with the innermost
encompass the recitation of lengthy utterances room sheltering the figure of Osiris for its year-long
but that they were mainly restricted to physically residence there. The most elaborate suite of such
representing the goddesses and contributing short chapels, well preserved and decorated throughout, is
exclamations and wailing. Their speeches were in located on the roof of the Hathor temple at Dendera,
fact recited by the lector priest. On the other hand, a treasure trove of information on Osirian mysteries
there is evidence of women of quasi-priestly status and theology.
who were qualified to recite the divine speeches. In
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11. GODS, SPIRITS, DEMONS OF THE BOOK OF THE DEAD

RITA LUCARELLI
MAIN GODS BETWEEN MYTH AND -

FUNERARY RELIGION on in spells 83 and 84, a ba-bird in spell 85, a swallow
S
in spell 86). The theme of transforming into a divine
upernatural beings of different sorts populate bird, which is the most popular of the group, echoes
all the spells and vignettes of the Book of the also the wish for freedom of movement in the neth-
Dead and their high number and variety of erworld. The same word , “becoming,” occurring
names, epithets, and forms may leave us with a sense in the incipit of these spells (“spell for becoming…”),
of bewilderment. It is difficult to detect which are the is expressed by the hieroglyph of the scarab, also a
most important divine entities the deceased wishes symbol of the sun as Khepri, in its cycle of transfor-
to obtain the favor of or to become assimilated with, mation from night to day. As a matter of fact, these
or which are the demonic beings he fears the most. spells are closely related to the solar journey and in
Although a few gods are more often mentioned than the standard versions of the Late Period papyri they
others, we cannot implicate that when a minor god occur in the number of twelve (77 to 88, 76 being an
or spirit is mentioned in one spell or represented in introductory formula for “transforming into any
a vignette, his role is not as important as that of the form one wishes to take”), mirroring the journey of
main gods, such as Re and Osiris, who are omnipres- the sun god during the twelve hours of the day and
ent in this corpus. The netherworld of the ancient of the night (Quirke 2013, pp. 179–80).
Egyptians was inhabited by beings whose hierarchy In the spells of the Book of the Dead the deceased
— if there was one — is hard to understand. Unlike is called “the Osiris N;” he is therefore, since the be-
the divine population in a temple, we cannot always ginning of his journey in the Realm of the Dead, a
distinguish between one main god or goddess and god himself. Osiris, as Khentyamentyu “foremost of the
a following of minor deities when dealing with the westerners” (the “westerners” being the dead souls
divine inhabitants of the ancient Egyptian nether- inhabiting the beyond, associated with the West/
world. We can rather sense a complex, harmonious sunset), is clearly a prominent figure in the Book of
architecture of divine, demonic, and spiritual enti- the Dead (Chapter 10) and his name and figure occur
ties cooperating among each other, through different almost constantly in the spells; his function of god of
roles and functions, in order to help the deceased death and rebirth mingles with that of the sun god Re
reach glorification and divine assimilation. Various (also in his forms of Atum, the creator, aged god, and
stages, some of them challenging and rather danger- Khepri) with whom he unites in the syncretized form
ous, guide her/him toward the transformation into of Osiris-Re, the ( ), “great god.” How-
an akh, namely a transfigured, blessed dead assimi- ever, Re’s and Osiris’ main presence in the Book of the
lated to the gods. The power of transformation into Dead is closely connected with and complemented by
divine beings and symbols is actually the topic of one a number of other gods, some of which can join Re
of the most attested group of spells of the corpus, and Osiris in syncretized forms too, such as Amun-Re,
the so-called “transformation spells” (spells 76–88), Ptah-Sokar-Osiris, and Re-Horakhty. The other gods
where the deceased expresses her/his wish to be- of the Heliopolitan account of creation, the so-called
come a lotus (spell 81A), a god (“the greatest of the ennead, are also widely mentioned, namely the air
tribunal” in spell 79), “a god, causing darkness to be god Shu and his female counterpart Tefnut, the earth
light,” Ptah (spell 82), a snake (spell 87), a crocodile god Geb, the sky goddess Nut, Osiris’s brother Seth,
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FIGURE 11.1. In this stela, Harsiese is shown worshiping before the family of Osiris, Isis, and Horus. Horus appears in his
form as a falcon-headed man. The offering text below focuses on the gods of Dendera. Limestone and paint. Egypt,
Dendera. Gift of the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1897-8. Saite Period. H: 76.7 x W: 26.6 x 8.8 cm. OIM E5033 (D. 19884)
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FIGURE 11.2. An image of the sky goddess Nut arched over the earth god Geb, with the god Shu supporting the sky
between them. British Museum EA 10554, 87 (after Budge 1912, pl. CVI-CVII)
and his sisters Isis (who is also the wife of Osiris) and the deceased assimilates. One of the most popular
Nephthys. Finally, Osiris and Isis’s son Horus is very and beautiful images of the sky goddess, which is
often invoked as well in the spells and represented attested on funerary papyri also of genres other than
in the vignettes in his fully animal falcon form or as the Book of the Dead, is that of Nut arching her body
an anthropoid god with falcon head (fig. 11.1). The over a lying Geb while supported by Shu, as occurs
mention of the members of the ennead is generally on one of the longest scrolls of the Book of the Dead
in relation to the mythological cycle of creation from (almost 40 m), the so-called Papyrus Greenfield (fig.
Heliopolis, which sees Re-Atum as the creator god 11.2). The role of Nut as mother of the creator sun
and Horus as the living king of Egypt after the mur- god and of the deceased, toward whom the other
der of Osiris by the hand of his brother Seth. gods move in procession, is expressed at the end of
one of the transformation spells mentioned above,
namely spell 79: “… in his (i.e., the sun god/Atum)
NUT AND THE FEMALE DIVINE beautiful processions to the body of the lower sky,
PROTECTION OF THE DECEASED he whom his mother Nut has born” (Quirke 2013,
The cosmogonic associations of the primordial of mankind against the old sun god are made, as in
gods also influenced their representation and men- spell 175, mankind is called “the children of Nut.”
tion in the Book of the Dead; being the goddess of The title of spell 59, which is particularly widespread
the sky, Nut is depicted as mother of the deceased, in papyri of the Late Period and Ptolemaic Period, is
embracing her/him in a celestial netherworld and “spell for breathing air and having power over water;”
protecting her/him during the journey while ascend- its vignette depicts the “sycamore of Nut,” which is
ing to the sky (fig. 10.3). In spell 136A, it is said that also invoked in the text as granter of water and air to
the deceased “sails on it (i.e., on the boat) to Nut.” the deceased. The theme of the tree-goddess is very
In many other incantations, she is mentioned as popular in the Book of the Dead and not only con-
mother of the sun god and therefore the deceased
is born from her womb, as is the sun god to whom
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FIGURE 11.3. The vignette for BD 163, a spell to “prevent the destruction of a man’s corpse in the necropolis,” shows two
striding, winged eyes symbolic of the sun god (after Lepsius 1842, pl. LXXVII–LXXXVIII)
Hathor, and the Goddess of the West, among others, solar boat can be found in a row where the primordial
are depicted in connection with a tree (Billing 2004). gods of the myth are the “followers of Re.”
The aforementioned spells 175 and 59 have no Another rather important female deity is Hathor,
earlier sources, but they do occur in temple rituals who, similar to Nut, can be part of the solar crew and
as well. spell 79, and many others where Nut and the is related to the tree-goddess motif. Her main char-
gods of the ennead are mentioned, are newer ver- acter in ancient Egyptian religion is that of goddess
sions of older texts for the protection of the deceased of sensuality, love, and female creative power, but, as
king. Such spells derived from the Pyramid Texts also happens for other gods, in the funerary context
of the Old Kingdom, or were re-editions of the so- of the Book of the Dead her role becomes more nu-
called Coffin Texts employed in the Middle Kingdom anced and focuses on her relationship with the de-
mainly on coffins of the elite and officials close to ceased. In funerary texts (among others are the Books
the king. The role of these primordial gods toward of Breathing) and monuments of the later periods,
the deceased does not seem to have changed much. in particular by the end of the Ptolemaic Period and
The main difference is that now not only the king in the Roman Period, it became common practice to
(or a restricted elite such as for the Coffin Texts) refer to the female deceased as “Hathor N,” showing
but a larger number of private individuals, mostly how the importance of this goddess in funerary cult
members of priestly families and scribes working in and literature had grown and how she had become
the temples, could aim at gaining their favor in the the female counterpart of Osiris (Riggs 2005, pp. 41–
netherworld and even to being assimilated to them 48). The funerary role of Hathor gains in importance
by possessing a funerary papyrus of the Book of the starting from the New Kingdom. The frequent repre-
Dead. A very popular spell, employed in papyri from sentations of the celestial cow of Hathor in the Book
the Eighteenth Dynasty to the Ptolemaic Period and of the Dead is a consequence of this increased role as
where the gods of the Ennead occur all together, is funerary deity, which is manifested in the form of a
spell 134, for “glorifying an akh-spirit.” It includes cow or as a woman with cow horns and the solar disk
instructions on how to draw an image of these deities on her head. In particular, many Theban papyri of the
in the solar boat in a bowl; the vignette of this spell Ramesside period employ in their closing section the
represents indeed a number of deities (mostly those vignette of spell 186, depicting Hathor as a cow and as
of the ennead) in a boat and the same image can be a manifestation of the “mistress of the west,” emerg-
found also on pottery bowls used for temple offering from the western mountain within a thicket of
ings (Taylor 2010b, pp. 48–49). The theme of the solar papyri, protecting the tomb depicted behind her and
boat and the deceased traveling in it with the gods is welcoming the deceased in the netherworld together
a central motif in texts and vignettes of the Book of
the Dead. In the same papyrus more vignettes of the Faulkner 1985, pl. 37). This motif, also popular on
coffins of the Third Intermediate Period, includes an
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FIGURE 11.4. This gilded judgment scene, associated with BD 125, shows the heart of the deceased weighed against Maat,
the symbol of righteousness. Several deities assist in the activities as Anubis and Horus attend to the scales and Thoth
records the outcome. ROM 910.85.236.10 (with permission of the Royal Ontario Museum © ROM)
important detail, namely the wedjat-eye of the cow, 148 (figs. 6.5 and 6.6) is the most representative in
which symbolizes another main character of Hathor this respect, since it depicts the seven celestial cows
as apotropaic goddess related to the furious eye of Re and their bull as providers of offerings and rebirth
for the deceased. They are also a manifestation of the
closes with spell 162, which is an incantation “for “seven Hathors,” who are mentioned in literary texts
providing heat under the head of the dead” and in- as deities of fate, having the skill of predicting the
cludes at the end a short colophon with instructions future for the newly born. A heavenly cow with sun
on reciting the spell “over a figure of the heavenly disk and Hathor plumes is also depicted in the final
cow (i.e., Ihet) made of fine gold and placed at the vignette (fig. 8.1) of Papyrus Milbank (Cat. No. 15).
throat of the blessed one” (figs. 9.2 and 9.3, see Chap-
ter 8 and Wüthrich 2017). The idea of female deities
with apotropaic characters, which are connected to THOTH AND THE MALE DEITIES OF
the eye of the god, is also attested by peculiar amu- THE FINAL JUDGMENT
lets where the “dangerous goddess,” such as Sekhmet,
Neith, Isis, and Tefnut, is depicted on one side of the While female deities may in general be inter-
wedjat-eye; this sort of amulet is described in spell changeable in their motherly, protective role toward
163 of the Book of the Dead as well, as a representa- the deceased, male deities have more individual roles
tion of solar power (Darnell 1997). The vignette of in the Book of the Dead. In the popular scene of the
spell 163, which is widespread in late papyri, repre- final judgment, which is represented by the vignette
sents indeed two winged wedjat-eyes (fig. 11.3). of spell 125 (figs. 4.16, 6.7, and 11.4), which is a wide-
Other divine cows, which are related to Hathor spread iconographic motif on coffins from the New
and other female cow goddesses in the myth, appear Kingdom onward and on the later Books of Breath-
as well in the Book of the Dead. The vignette of spell ing (Chapter 12 and Cat. No. 17), a few central male
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FIGURE 11.5. The Late Period coffin of Padiamun was decorated with netherworld gates, each with their own guardian.
World Museum, Liverpool 53.72D
deities occur, such as Thoth, Anubis, and the four ability to interact with humans or the deceased
sons of Horus. (Wilkinson 2008). Indeed, the same concept applies
The importance of the judgment and in general to Anubis, the jackal-headed god who in the judgment
of trials for the dead in front of divine tribunals scene oversees the scale — sometimes accompanied
(in ancient Egyptian djadjat, which is also the topic by another god such as Horus. In a less active role,
of spells 18 and 20) is connected to the myth as Thoth, in his theriomorphic form of baboon, can be
well, in particular to the mythological account of depicted overseeing the scale as well, as in Papyrus
the justification of Osiris (Stadler 2009) and of the Ryerson (Cat. No. 14) where two extra small scales
Contending of Horus and Seth. The scene of the scale overseen by a baboon are used as decorative motifs to
upon which the heart of the deceased is weighed frame the architecture of the “Hall of the Two Truths”
against the feather of Maat (the symbol of justice where the judgment takes place (fig. 14.3).
and cosmic order, also personified as a goddess) in Similar to Thoth and Anubis, the main gods men-
front of Osiris (or more rarely Re) and of the gods tioned in the Book of the Dead, who appear in mytho-
overseeing this crucial moment, is attested very logical accounts and temple scenes and texts, have
frequently also on coffins, mummy bandages, and more than one manifestation (mostly animal or hy-
shrouds; in one isolated case, a temple version of the brid with animal head and human body) and can play
scene of the judgment dating to the Ptolemaic Period more than one role; both Thoth and Anubis, for in-
occurs as well in Deir el Medina (Thebes). In this stance, occur in a number of other spells beside spell
scene Thoth, the ibis or baboon-god, who is known 125 and in each of them are characterized according
as the god of writing and wisdom, takes the specific to the context (for a comprehensive analysis of the
role of recorder of the verdict and is represented as role of Thoth in the Book of the Dead, see Stadler
an ibis-headed anthropomorphic god, his human 2009). The jackal-headed Anubis (Cat. No. 40), for in-
body making it possible to exploit his scribal activity. stance, when occurring in spell 151 of the Book of the
In general, the anthropomorphic body of gods in Dead, takes the role of embalmer and the vignette of
the Book of the Dead, as well as in other ritual and the same spell, whose central scene sees him oversee-
funerary depictions, denote their “humanness” and ing the funerary bed where the deceased’s mummy or
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coffin lies, is another popular motif on funerary ob- attested cults in cities, such as Nefertem in Memphis,
jects and in tomb decorations (fig. 10.6). Anubis was, or have epithets related to other main gods such as
as a matter of fact, a very old funerary god, protector “nosey” of Hermopolis (Thoth) and “white of teeth”
of the king’s burial since the beginning of the Phara- (Sobek) (Wilkinson 2008, p. 84). Moreover, Re, Atum,
onic Period and with chapels in temples throughout Shu, and Tefnut, as well as other primordial gods,
Egypt; he shared the important epithet of “foremost may be represented among the judges in the vignette,
of the westerners” (Khentyimentyu) with the god as for instance in the already mentioned papyrus of
Osiris. He must be distinguished from another an- Ani. The other judges have, however, very specific and
cient and important funerary jackal god, Wepwawet otherwise unattested names, which are connected to
(literally, “the opener of the ways”). In the vignette other places and each of them is related to a specific
of spell 138, which is a “spell for entering Abydos sin that the deceased has to avoid. Their names
and being in the following of Osiris,” both Anubis are rather frightening (“far-strider,” “swallower of
and Wepwawet are depicted as jackals on a stand. A shades,” “dangerous one,” etc.) and their nature
series of other jackal-faced gods and demonic beings could be defined as “demonic” if we accept the
populate the Book of the Dead as well, showing how existence of demons in addition to the gods.
popular canids, and in particular jackals, were as
manifestations of funerary deities.
Already from the few remarks made above on a
“sample” of deities mentioned and depicted in the
Book of the Dead, one may be able to single out a few
central features characterizing the divine world of
the ancient Egyptian afterlife. First of all, it is clear
how the main deities of the ancient Egyptian pan-
theon, when acting within a funerary context such as
that of the Book of the Dead, recall the mythological
accounts in which they play a role. Moreover, they
generally have a protective and benevolent function
toward the deceased who seeks a physical and spiri-
tual empowerment in order to become an akh, a di-
vine, transfigured spirit. Finally, their iconography is
rather fixed and “traditional:” Thoth as an ibis or a
baboon, Anubis as a jackal god, Sobek as a crocodile
and Ptah as an anthropomorphic god.
A series of supernatural inhabitants of the
netherworld, also widely depicted and mentioned in
the spells, seem to gravitate around those main divine
figures. Sometimes these liminal beings with jackal or
crocodile heads are anonymous and depicted together
with the main gods, therefore hardly distinguished
from them unless their names are indicated in
the captions of the vignettes. This is where the
category of the “great gods” actually intermingles
with what are called “minor gods,” “demons,” or
“genii,” namely different classes of supernatural
beings. An example is that of the 42 judges of spell
125, “who hear cases,” in front of whom the “negative
confession” is recited by the deceased and who are
also represented in the vignette. A few of them are FIGURE 11.6. A statuette of the snake-headed deity
known already from other religious sources and have Nehebkau. Egypt. Bronze. H: 7.9 x W: 2.3 x D: 3.5 cm. Gift
of Helen Swift Neilson, 1944. OIM E17555 (D. 18547)
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FIGURE 11.7. Netherworld guardians depicted on the coffin of Horaawesheb hold a variety of implements, including knives
and lizards. British Museum EA 6666 (© Trustees of the British Museum)
FROM G ODS T O D EMONS lower part of a hippopotamus, who is a constant pres-
In the ancient Egyptian language, the only gen- ready to destroy the life of those who are not judged
eral word referring to the category of the divine is favorably; her divine power was therefore only re-
, represented by the hieroglyph ö , which prob- lated to the retribution in the afterlife. Similarly, the
ably depicts a cult flag or wrapped fetish, while the mostly hybrid creatures supervising the gates and
sign of a falcon on a pole [ or the hieroglyph of doors of the netherworld, which occur in a group of
the seated god K occurs as determinatives of divine very popular spells of the corpus (spells 144–147) are
names (Hornung 1982b, pp. 33–42). is generally better defined as guardian demons than gods, since
translated as “god.” It indicates the main gods men- their sphere of action is restricted to the place they
tioned above, which occur in myth, have cult places, guard and it is only there that the deceased faces
and reside in temples (Assmann 2001, pp. 7–8). How- them and interact with them in order that they may
ever, a crowd of supernatural entities not worshipped let him pass through (Cat. No. 17).
in temples and not even appearing in myths and offi- The popularity of these guardians was so wide-
cial cults are present as well in the texts and vignettes spread that they are depicted and mentioned not only
of the Book of the Dead. They have various names on papyrus but also on coffins, tomb walls, and even
and epithets according to their physical appearance, temples. In the latter, their status changes from being
their function, or the place where they live within guardians of the afterlife to genii of the temple but
the variegated regions of the netherworld. If, on one their static function — they cannot leave the place
hand, they belong to the sphere of the because they guard — is the same. The protective function of
of their super-human nature, on the other hand they the guardians is related to the important moment of
differ from the main gods for not possessing a univer- the vigil of Osiris during the hours of night, when the
sal power. Their sphere of action and range of magic mummified body of the god needs protection before
power are limited and circumscribed to a physical rebirth; for this reason, it is not surprising that the
space and very specific roles or influences toward the spells on the guardian demons and their vignettes
deceased. An example of this limited power is Amemet, are widely employed on coffins in order to protect
“the devourer of the dead,” a composite animal being the mummy (fig. 11.5). The guardians have gener-
with crocodile head, upper body part of a lion, and ally a hybrid iconography with an animal head and
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FIGURE 11.8. A fragment from a portable chest showing a pharaoh followed by three kneeling, falcon-headed figures
representing the “bau of Re.” Wood and paint. Egypt, Akhmim. Purchased in Egypt, 1894–5. Roman Period. H: 16.7 x
W: 40.6 cm. OIM E374 (D. 19796)
anthropomorphic body. The head can represent vari- service of a main god such as Osiris, Sekhmet, or Re.
ous sacred animals, from reptiles to birds and mam- These demons are also mentioned widely in spells for
mals, in particular crocodiles, snakes (fig. 11.6), dogs, everyday magic, where they are especially feared as
rams, bulls, monkeys, and falcons, just to mention a disease-carriers and as messengers of Sekhmet. This
few. They are depicted sitting or standing, alone, in shows that the supernatural world and the belief in
couples, or as triads, while holding attributes that demons and spirits as represented in the Book of the
can vary from vegetal elements resembling barley — Dead are closely related to the world of the living and
probably a symbol of fertility — to knives or upstand- to the daily magical practices performed by the local
ing lizards — the latter being also the hieroglyph for magicians and priests in the temple in order to pro-
“many” (fig. 11.7). Their iconography may be confus- tect and heal the living from unwanted happenings. It
ing since in some cases it is the same as for certain is also in relation to the same need of protection that
main gods, such as the dog-headed Anubis or the the spells and vignettes against dangerous, demonic
crocodile god Sobek. Their names are what distin- animals present in the Book of the Dead should be
guishes them from the main gods, although some of seen; the group of spells 31 to 42 aims at repelling
those names may be used also as epithets for the gods, hostile beings and forces and to demonize certain
such as “the one with many forms,” which is also an animals, such as snakes, crocodiles, pigs, and insects,
epithet of the god Amun-Re or “the one with many which were to be warded off also in spells of daily
faces,” which also applies in other religious texts to magic (Cat. Nos. 30–31). The anti-snake spells are the
Osiris and Re. most numerous in the group (spells 33–35, 37, and
Unlike the guardians, there are gangs of demons 39); they are also attested in the oldest magical cor-
that are rarely depicted and are only mentioned
through collective names such as the “murderers,” and widespread in spells for daily magic through the
the “messengers,” and the “wanderers.” Their names New Kingdom and later. We can consider those snakes
are very representative of their fearful function as and the other animals mentioned in these spells “de-
punishers sent to earth from angry deities or at the monic” since they do not inhabit the earth but belong
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instead to the variegated divine category of the in- hieroglyph of the crested ibis o whose root has
habitants of the netherworld. Moreover, they are a vast array of meanings, from “being effective,
generally associated to the god of chaos Seth, such efficacious” to “transfigure” and “glorify.” The
as the pig of some variants of spell 36 and the don- similar root , “to be bright,” indicates the close
key of spell 40, or to the giant serpent Apophis, such connection of the blessed spirits to the sun; spells
as the snakes of spells 33–35. The latter, mentioned 130–136 of the Book of the Dead, which are all focused
in particular in spell 39 of the Book of the Dead to- on the solar boat, are for “making an akh excellent”
gether with its earlier variant of (Cat. No. 31), in assimilation to the sun god. However, in other
occurs also in spell 7 of the corpus, where the “spine contexts the akhu can be understood as spirits
of Apophis” is also the sandbank that halts the boat inhabiting the netherworld and even as demons
of the sun god during its journey. Apophis cannot be controlled by a main deity, as in the case of a peculiar
considered either a god or a demon, but rather an spell only attested in a few papyri of the Ramesside
archetypal enemy of creation that can be compared and Third Intermediate Period, the so-called spell
to primordial monsters, dragons, and snakes repre- 194 of the Book of the Dead (DuQuesne 1994), where
senting chaos and contrasted with creation in other Anubis is depicted at the head of seven akhu holding
religions, such as the Babylonian Tiamat or Leviathan snake-wands, which are said to belong to the tribunal
of the Hebrew Bible. Apophis is also represented in and are also mentioned in spell 17 (Lucarelli 2006b).
the vignette of spell 17 while being fettered with a These demonic akhu can be seen even as ghosts when
knife by Atum, who manifests in the form of a wild the term is used for ghostly manifestations occurring
cat (fig. 3.6) or while attacking the solar boat in the on earth, as in many Ramesside spells of daily and
scenes of the so-called Book of the Hidden Chamber funerary magic.
or Amduat. Finally, the term “ba” ( ), represented by the
The latter illustrates the journey of the sun god in hieroglyph t of the -bird, indicates a transfig-
his boat through the twelve hours of the night in the ured status of the deceased in the afterlife in relation
subterranean netherworld, in order to unite with the to freedom of movement (similar to akh). It could also
dead body of Osiris. A series of divine and demonic designate supernatural forces when used in its plural
figures accompany the sun god in his journey, among form bau. Spells 107–116 of the Book of the Dead are
them snake-like creatures, some of them benevolent for knowing the bau of different places in the neth-
and related to deities (Cat. No. 12), while others play erworld, which are represented as triads of divine
the role of punishers of the damned souls. Some mo- figures, probably local gods. The bau of the gods also
tives of the Amduat, which was originally employed occur in spells of daily magic as rather dangerous
to decorate the royal tombs of the New Kingdom, forces (fig. 11.8).
converge in the Book of the Dead and other funerary
papyri of the Third Intermediate Period that accom-
panied the deceased in the coffin. CONCLUSION
In conclusion, we could say that the world of gods,

THE AKHU : TRANSFIGURED SPIRITS spirits, and demons in the Book of the Dead is a faith-
AND GHOSTS ful mirror of how the ancient Egyptians conceived
and dealt with divine entities during their cultural
Finally, the Book of the Dead spells contribute also and religious activities on earth; they believed in an
to our understanding of another important religious afterlife where the encounters with the supernatural
concept, that of “spirit” or “ghost,” which also were not an exceptional but rather an ordinary hap-
indicates creatures belonging to the sphere of the penstance. Such experiences were managed with the
supernatural; however, they are not independent catalog of spells and vignettes of the Book of the Dead
entities such as the gods and demons; rather, they and, in general, the other magical objects included
represent the transfigured status of the living after in their funerary equipment with their tombs, their
death. The term that in ancient Egyptian indicates coffins, and their mummies.
these creatures is , “akh,” represented by the
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IV
DEATH AND REDISCOVERY

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OVERLEAF. The vignette of BD 16 from Papyrus Ryerson showing the reborn sun. OIM E9787A = Cat. No. 14 (D. 28914)
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12. THE DEATH OF THE BOOK OF THE DEAD

FOY SCALF
M anuscripts with Book of the Dead spells had

been used for nearly two thousands years
before they finally disappeared. A great
deal of attention has been devoted to the develop-
ment of the Book of the Dead out of the Pyramid
a complex interaction of social, cultural, and political
developments, many of which have yet to be com-
pletely understood. One aspect that is certain and of-
ten not emphasized is that the Book of the Dead was
never alone. It always existed within a much larger
Texts and Coffin Texts (Chapter 2). The earliest at- corpus of ancient Egyptian funerary literature. The
tested spells and spell sequences identifiable as the Pyramid Texts and Coffin Texts continued to be used
Book of the Dead appeared in the Thirteenth Dynasty even after the Book of the Dead developed and devel-
) on heart scarabs and coffins, be- opment did not end there. Already in the early New
fore the real flourishing at the end of the Seventeenth Kingdom, just as the format of the Book of the Dead
) and into the Eighteenth as we know it was being crystallized, new composi-
). However, what eventually tions were already being written to supplement it.
happened to the Book of the Dead? The Book of the Dead reached an early zenith in
The last attested Book of the Dead spells date
between the first and second centuries and were ) when the manuscripts of the “classic” format
written in Demotic. In between the birth of the Book were produced for an elite class with the wealth to
of the Dead in the eighteenth century and its fi- afford them. Royal funerary literature focused on
nal disappearance in the first century , Egyptian new compositions that can be divided into two basic
funerary literature went through many phases in sets, the Books of the Netherworld and the Books of
which new compositions were created, old compo- the Sky, which decorated their tombs in the Valley
sitions abandoned, and various styles of decorum of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens. For kings
governed how each was employed. In many cases, it of this period, no Book of the Dead papyri have been
can be difficult to determine the exact reason why identified (with two exceptions, the Book of the Dead
particular traditions arose and others vanished. All of papyrus of Pinudjem I, and a Book of Caves papyrus
these changes and developments were influenced by found in the Tomb of Amenhotep II, but that did not
FIGURE 12.1. The Amduat papyrus of Gatseshen from the Twenty-first Dynasty shows how these mythological papyri were
decorated with elaborate imagery and reduced text as compared to manuscripts of the Book of the Dead. Metropolitan
Museum of Art 25.3.31
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name the king), but Book of the Dead spells are found
throughout their tombs on the walls and on funerary made on each wall.
objects. It is not clear why kings did not have Book As the plural designations suggest, Books of
of the Dead papyri. Certainly it is possible that they the Netherworld and Books of the Sky are rough
simply have not been preserved. However, with the categories that encompass many individual
wealth of funerary material from ancient Egypt, it is compositions, including the Book of What is in the
hard to imagine that not a single fragment remains. Netherworld otherwise known by its Egyptian name
Even king Tutankhamun’s tomb had no Book of the as the Amduat ( ), Book of Gates, Book of
Dead papyrus; all the BD spells from his tomb were Caverns, Book of Caves, Book of the Earth, Book of
on the tomb walls or on items in the burial, such as Nut, Book of the Day, Book of the Night, Book of the
Heavenly Cow, the Litany of Re, and others. The
earliest examples of these texts already appear at
the beginning of the Eighteenth Dynasty, such as
copies of the Amduat associated with the tombs of
or the Litany of Re inscribed on the burial shroud of

Thutmose III (fig. C2). When they first appear, these
texts are used by New Kingdom royalty, but they are
quickly adopted for more general use.
Private elites sought to imitate royalty in their
funerary preparations. This had already happened
at the end of the Old Kingdom and into the Middle
Kingdom when they had copied the Pyramid texts
of imitation took place at the end of the New Kingdom

and by the time of the Third Intermediate Period (ca.
) it was common to find two funerary
Book of the Dead manuscript and a highly illustrated

papyrus decorated with scenes from the Books of
the Netherworld (fig. 12.1). Scenes and texts from
were especially common on these second papyri. All

of these texts, the Pyramid Texts, Coffin Texts, Book
of the Dead, Books of the Netherworld, and Books of
the Sky (among others) remained part of standard
funerary literature from the Third Intermediate
Period through the Ptolemaic Period. After the
Twenty-first Dynasty, production of elaborate papyri
waned and relatively few extensive papyri are known
from the Twenty-second Dynasty until the end of
the Twenty-fifth Dynasty. Coffins and sarcophagi
of the Late Period, therefore, became increasingly
important conveyors of these texts.
Under the Kushite (Twenty-fifth Dynasty) and
FIGURE 12.2. The sarcophagus lid of Wennefer from Saite (Twenty-sixth Dynasty) rulers, increased
the Thirtieth Dynasty shows an image of the deceased’s
soul as a ba-bird with human head. It is surrounded by
attention was paid to the religious literature of
texts from the Book of the Dead, but the trough of the the past in an archaizing trend to emulate Egypt’s
sarcophagus had texts from the netherworld books. ages of past glory. We find new copies of all the old
Metropolitan Museum of Art 11.154.1
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compositions, including Pyramid Texts, Coffin Texts, popular funerary manuscripts being taken to the
Book of the Dead, Books of the Netherworld, and
Books of the Sky reappearing in the tombs of these Period, the Book of the Dead had nearly disappeared
eras. The texts were often combined together in from use completely, with only a handful of spells
interesting conglomerations, such as the BD spells attested into the Roman Period. What happened
found on the sarcophagus lid of Wennefer from the in these intervening three centuries that made
Thirtieth Dynasty (fig. 12.2) that had been juxtaposed the ancient Egyptians abandon one of their most
with Amduat texts on the sarcophagus trough important religious texts that had been in use for
fourteen centuries and had been standardized
the Twenty-fifth Dynasty and into the Twenty-sixth three centuries prior? The traditional answer is
Dynasty, that the so-called Saite Recension of the that the Book of the Dead had been replaced by new
Book of the Dead was formed. It is called the Saite compositions. While this seems to be an indisputable
recension because it was previously believed to have fact, the complete picture requires a more detailed
developed during the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, a line of discussion.
kings from the delta city of Sais. However, research in There are three compositions that came into use
beginning in the late fourth century that began to
well underway under the Nubian kings of the Twenty- replace the older Book of the Dead manuscripts based
fifth Dynasty. It is possible that their search into on the classic model of the Saite recension. These
Egypt’s ancient past spurred the priests of the time compositions are known collectively as the Books of
to collate and formalize the Book of the Dead. This Breathing. The earliest attested of these had the title
resulted in a more standard format, layout, and spell Book of Breathing which Isis Made for her Brother
sequence for the Book of the Dead than is known
from prior periods. From this period forward, most dates to the end of the fourth century (Hornung
papyri would follow the basic outline of the Saite
recension, although there were plenty of deviations, Ptolemaic Period, two further “books” appeared,
until the Book of the Dead ceased to be used at the often labeled in Egyptian on the papyri as the First
end of the Ptolemaic Period.
), Book of the Dead papyri were still the most more and more common while the Book of the Dead
FIGURE 12.3. The papyrus manuscript of Wesirwer inscribed with the “Book of Breathing which Isis Made for Her Brother
Osiris” and ritual instructions in hieratic between the two vignettes. Louvre N 3284, 6 (© RMN-Grand Palais, Art Resource,
NY)
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became less and less common, until by the end of the priestly scribe had taken, often word for word, pas-
first century it had effectively disappeared (with a sages from these spells and combined them into a
few exceptions discussed below). This disappearance new composition (Scalf, forthcoming). He then added
has been traditionally described as a replacement -
of the Book of the Dead by the Books of Breathing. sociated vignettes. What the scribe skipped is almost
However, recent research suggests that there was as interesting as what he copied. Notice that nearly a
a much closer relationship between the Book of
the Dead and the Books of Breathing than has been It seems likely that the scribe saw the apotropaic
previously recognized.
There are probably several interrelated reasons animals, as less theologically significant than the text
why this shift took place, but one of the primary fac- of BD 42, which identified the body parts of the de-
tors was likely that major sections of the Books of ceased directly with the most important deities in the
Breathing were derived directly from Book of the Egyptian pantheon (Chapter 9).
Dead spells and they were therefore not viewed as It should be remembered that many of these
substitutes for each other, but actually part of the spells were extremely important within the corpus.
larger continuum through which the “Book of Going -
Forth by Day” was expressed. In fact, the Books of firms the testimony of the deceased against his en-
Breathing could themselves be referred to as Books of emies in the tribunal just as he justified Osiris against
his enemies. It appeared throughout the mortuary
assemblage in the first millennium , including on
) in Egyptian was likewise applied to a great
variety of texts. was extremely common on Third Intermediate Period
The best example of how the Books of Breathing papyri for which they had been extracted and writ-
were derived from the Book of the Dead is the First ten by themselves (fig. 3.3). Thus, the spells were not
Book of Breathing, which was produced by condens- chosen haphazardly. Likewise, the Book of Breathing
ing and combining texts from a sequence of Book of which Isis Made for Her Brother Osiris has many sec-
the Dead spells from the Saite recension (Scalf, forth-
coming). Since the Saite recension was the standard the invocation of gods and the negative confession.
spell sequence of contemporary Book of the Dead This is among the most important spells in the entire
manuscripts in the Ptolemaic Period, it is logical that Book of the Dead and its vignette appeared ubiqui-
texts such as the First Book of Breathing would be tously both in tombs as well as in temples.
derived from it. When the First Book of Breathing When looked at closely then, much of the text
is laid out next to the sequence of Book of the Dead found in the Books of Breathing derived directly
from the Book of the Dead. Their composition and
FIGURE 12.4. Kerasher’s Book of Breathing which Isis Made for Her Brother Osiris is unusual for its extensive illustrations.
British Museum EA 9995, 3 (© Trustees of the British Museum)
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FIGURE 12.5. The First Book of Breathing often looked very similar to earlier Book of the Dead papyri, although the text
and vignettes have been reduced. Berlin P. 3028 (© SMB Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung, photo: Sandra
Steiß)
compilation must have taken place in the temple into the larger corpus of ancient Egypt funerary lit-
scriptorium, called the “House of Life” ( ) in erature, but the older compositions were retained. A
Egyptian, by priestly scribes studying and copying primary source for much of this new material was the
the manuscripts. No single author is probably re- temple libraries. Literature that had previously been
sponsible as the ancient conception of authorship reserved specifically for use in the temple cult was
differed from ours. In antiquity, authorship was of- now adapted for use on behalf of private individuals.
ten a collective enterprise and texts built up through As the deceased sought to become an “Osiris So-and-
layers of exegesis and commentary, much like the de- so” himself, it was the Osiris cult that saw many of its
ritual texts repurposed as new funerary compositions
researching ancient manuscripts, codifying Book of
the Dead spells, and composing new sections of text, Book of the Dead, as the Books of Breathing and these
the Books of Breathing were formed and quickly co- new compositions provided a wealth of options to the
alesced. However, just as great variation was embed- potential purchaser.
ded into the Book of the Dead tradition, so too was In addition to the compositions already
there great variation in the Books of Breathing. They mentioned in this chapter, dozens of other funerary
had long and short forms. They could be inscribed compositions were used in the Ptolemaic and
together on the same manuscript with other texts. Roman Periods to perform the similar function of
For example, the Book of Breathing which Isis Made transforming the deceased into a powerful spirit
has been found on manuscripts that included Book in the company of the gods. Some of the more
funerary compositions from the Greco-Roman reper- Book of Traversing Eternity, the Glorifications, the
toire. The First and Second Books of Breathing could Lamentations of Isis and Nephthys, the Embalming
Ritual, the Great Decree Issued to the Nome of
These phenomena reflect the great vitality and the Silent Land, and the Ritual of Introducing the
resurgence of funerary literature after the fourth Multitude on the Last Day of Tekh. In addition to
century and during the Ptolemaic Period. Not only these, there also appeared many unique compositions
were ancient texts studied and revived, a plethora that have no direct parallels with other texts. The
of new material entered the tradition, at least par- phraseology of such texts was inspired by the
tially inspired by this research into the past. Over the standard religious literature of the time, but
centuries, new texts had been created and absorbed each individual text contained its own set and
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FIGURE 12.6. This papyrus contained a short version of the “May my name flourish” composition characteristic of the
Second Book of Breathing. The first two lines at the top contain the owner’s name, Padiamun, whom Tarenenutet bore.
The refrain is written in the long vertical column on the right: “May my name flourish like flourishes the name of ....” The
remaining horizontal lines contain the names of deities and their sacred localities, from Osiris to Thoth. A.1956.357 D
(© National Museum of Scotland)
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sequence of phrases. Furthermore, any individual Demotic was the name of both the script and phase of
manuscript could have any combination of these the language that developed in the mid-eighth cen-
tury . Thus, it represented a more contemporary
was a compendium of Book of the Dead spells, vernacular than the archaic grammar often found in
the Book of Traversing Eternity, and the Second the religious texts written in hieratic. An element of
Book of Breathing, with many short original texts this interplay can be seen in the Demotic note left
interspersed among them. Such originality and by the scribe for the illustrator of Papyrus Ryerson
diversity demonstrate the creativity of the Egyptian -
scribes working in the Greco-Roman Era. Most ably wrote the note in Demotic so that the illustrator
manuscripts of this period show similar multiplicity could read it, presuming that the illustrator could not
and it should be remembered that this multiplicity is read the archaic grammar imitating Middle Egyptian
reflective of Egyptian funerary literature in general behind the hieratic text. In fact, our terms for these
because the Pyramid Texts, Coffin Texts, and the scripts reflect this situation. It was Herodotus who
Book of the Dead were also collections of individual called the scripts hieroglyphic (“picture writing”),
compositions. hieratic (“priestly writing”), and demotic (“popular
At the end of the Ptolemaic Period further pres- writing”), accurately reflecting the use of hieratic for
sure was placed on the Book of the Dead by the use religious texts and Demotic for everyday texts at the
of Demotic for Egyptian funerary literature, which time.
in a composition remi- The early funerary literature in Demotic
niscent of the transformation spells from the Book reflected closely the same situation as the hieratic
manuscripts. Demotic funerary manuscripts were
point, Egyptian funerary literature was written in ei- often compilations of multiple texts. No two of
ther the hieroglyphic or hieratic script (Chapter 3). these Demotic funerary manuscripts were the same.
FIGURE 12.7. Both the First and Second Books of Breathing could be inscribed on the same papyrus as in this example,
which shows the final column of the first book and the first column of the second book. Rylands Hieratic 6 (reproduced
by courtesy of the University Librarian and Director, The John Rylands University Library, The University of Manchester)
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A famous set of papyri written for a priest named the bare essentials of Egyptian afterlife theology.
Hemsuef and his wife Tanewat had original texts There was a focus on the revitalization of the ba,
written in both hieratic and a Demotic translation provision of the deceased, and companionship with
(Möller 1913). Some of the Demotic compositions the gods. Many of them were illustrated with black
had similar titles to, but different content from, line drawings for vignettes. These papyri were folded
their hieratic counterparts. For example, a Demotic up, tied, and sealed prior to deposition in the grave.
text on a papyrus in the British Museum is titled the Their formulae seem to derive from an oral tradition,
“Book which Isis Made,” but its content is completely evidence for which is found in earlier graffiti record-
different than the hieratic Book of Breathing which ing the same texts on sacred spaces around Thebes,
Isis Made. Likewise, there is a group of papyri including both temples and tombs. Although these
preserving a ritual called the Liturgy for Opening the “Demotic documents for Breathing,” as they have
Mouth for Breathing, which, however, bears only a
slight relationship to the opening of the mouth ritual of their phraseology remained remarkably consistent,
known from earlier sources. none more so than their opening lines of “May the
A significant change seems to occur in the first ba live” ( ), by which scholars often refer to
and second century when the final manuscripts of the texts today.
ancient Egyptian funerary literature were produced. What is extremely interesting about this corpus
Hieratic copies of the Books of Breathing and the pre- is that we see a renewed attempt toward rough stan-
viously mentioned Demotic compositions were still dardization at a time when variation in the corpus
being used. Yet, at this time, a new, somewhat stan- is at its height. The Books of Breathing, for example,
dardized text appears written in Demotic (fig. 12.9). were still being used in the mid-second century as
Over fifty examples of this text are known, mostly demonstrated by the manuscripts belonging to the
inscribed on papyri, and labels on many of them refer
to them each as a “Document of Breathing.” This la- important official in Roman Period Thebes. Soter was
bel is yet another generic term applied widely across buried together with extended family members in
funerary literature of the time. Its content is short, -
usually less than ten lines, and consists of funerary ing buried with them and these Demotic Documents
wishes on behalf of the deceased. Rather than the of Breathing inscribed on their coffins. These are the
long ritual and magical spells of previous funerary last securely dated vestiges of Egyptian funerary lit-
literature, these short funerary wishes encapsulated erature. Although hieroglyphic, hieratic, and Demotic
FIGURE 12.8. The compendium of ritual texts inscribed for Imhotep. Metropolitan Museum of Art 35.9.21
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inscriptions continue to be used into the fourth and ,

fifth centuries , they are restricted to the far south coinciding with the rise of the Demotic Document for
of Egypt, mostly prominently at the temple of Philae. Breathing. These texts represent the last holdouts
By the end of the native Egyptian funerary text tra- of the pagan funerary religion of pharaonic Egypt
dition, the large, illustrated Book of the Dead papyri as Christianity rapidly spread through the country.
based on the Saite recension had not been used for Nearly all the latest material derives from the city of
nearly two centuries. Individual spells lived on for a Thebes, a rural enclave for these Egyptian religious
short while, having been translated into Demotic and practices until the sweeping Christianization of the
incorporated into other manuscripts. Use of the First third and fourth centuries
Book of Breathing, a direct descendant of the Book of
FIGURE 12.9. An illustrated Demotic Document of Breathing from the Roman Period, with the front on the left and the
back on the right. Moscow I.1d.142 (drawing by Foy Scalf)

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9. DIVINIZATION AND EMPOWERMENT OF THE DEAD

known figures: Osiris, Sobek, Horus, Re, Anubis, the

BOOK OF THE DEAD: BECOMING GOD IN ANCIENT EGYPT

9. DIVINIZATION AND EMPOWERMENT OF THE DEAD

BOOK OF THE DEAD: BECOMING GOD IN ANCIENT EGYPT

Through tapping the force of magic ( ),

9. DIVINIZATION AND EMPOWERMENT OF THE DEAD

10. THE MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS

10. THE MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS

A rguably, no deity exerted an impact on Egyp-

According to Egyptian theology, Osiris and his sib-

BOOK OF THE DEAD: BECOMING GOD IN ANCIENT EGYPT

THE MYTH OF O SIRIS

While there is a great number of images and text

10. THE MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS

BOOK OF THE DEAD: BECOMING GOD IN ANCIENT EGYPT

the new moon, the day — or rather night — of the

10. THE MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS

BOOK OF THE DEAD: BECOMING GOD IN ANCIENT EGYPT

representative and therefore in the mythical role of

A large proportion of Osirian rituals is funerary in

10. THE MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS

BOOK OF THE DEAD: BECOMING GOD IN ANCIENT EGYPT

10. THE MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS

11. GODS, SPIRITS, DEMONS OF THE BOOK OF THE DEAD

11. GODS, SPIRITS, DEMONS OF THE BOOK OF THE DEAD

MAIN GODS BETWEEN MYTH AND -

BOOK OF THE DEAD: BECOMING GOD IN ANCIENT EGYPT

11. GODS, SPIRITS, DEMONS OF THE BOOK OF THE DEAD

BOOK OF THE DEAD: BECOMING GOD IN ANCIENT EGYPT

11. GODS, SPIRITS, DEMONS OF THE BOOK OF THE DEAD

BOOK OF THE DEAD: BECOMING GOD IN ANCIENT EGYPT

11. GODS, SPIRITS, DEMONS OF THE BOOK OF THE DEAD

BOOK OF THE DEAD: BECOMING GOD IN ANCIENT EGYPT

FROM G ODS T O D EMONS lower part of a hippopotamus, who is a constant pres-

11. GODS, SPIRITS, DEMONS OF THE BOOK OF THE DEAD

BOOK OF THE DEAD: BECOMING GOD IN ANCIENT EGYPT

In conclusion, we could say that the world of gods,

DEATH AND REDISCOVERY

12. THE DEATH OF THE BOOK OF THE DEAD

12. THE DEATH OF THE BOOK OF THE DEAD

M anuscripts with Book of the Dead spells had

BOOK OF THE DEAD: BECOMING GOD IN ANCIENT EGYPT

or the Litany of Re inscribed on the burial shroud of

of imitation took place at the end of the New Kingdom

Book of the Dead manuscript and a highly illustrated

were especially common on these second papyri. All

12. THE DEATH OF THE BOOK OF THE DEAD

BOOK OF THE DEAD: BECOMING GOD IN ANCIENT EGYPT

12. THE DEATH OF THE BOOK OF THE DEAD

BOOK OF THE DEAD: BECOMING GOD IN ANCIENT EGYPT

12. THE DEATH OF THE BOOK OF THE DEAD

BOOK OF THE DEAD: BECOMING GOD IN ANCIENT EGYPT

12. THE DEATH OF THE BOOK OF THE DEAD

inscriptions continue to be used into the fourth and ,

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