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The Book of the Dead
THE BOOK OF THE DEAD.
by E. A. Wallis Budge.
CHAPTER I
The Title.
"Book of the Dead" is the title now commonly given to the great
collection of funerary texts which the ancient Egyptian scribes
composed for the benefit of the dead. These consist of spells and
incantations, hymns and litanies, magical formulae and names, words of
power and prayers, and they are found cut or painted on walls of
pyramids and tombs, and painted on coffins and sarcophagi and rolls of
papyri. The title "Book of the Dead" is somewhat unsatisfactory and
misleading, for the texts neither form a connected work nor belong to
one period; they are miscellaneous in character, and tell us nothing
about the lives and works of the dead with whom they were buried.
Moreover, the Egyptians possessed many funerary works that might
rightly be called "Books of the Dead," but none of them bore a name
that could be translated by the title "Book of the Dead." This title
was given to the great collection of funerary texts in the first
quarter of the nineteenth century by the pioneer Egyptologists, who
possessed no exact knowledge of their contents. They were familiar
with the rolls of papyrus inscribed in the hieroglyphic and the
hieratic character, for copies of several had been published, [1] but
the texts in them were short and fragmentary. The publication of the
Facsimile [2] of the Papyrus of Peta-Amen-neb-nest-taui [3] by M.
Cadet in 1805 made a long hieroglyphic text and numerous coloured
vignettes available for study, and the French Egyptologists described
it as a copy of the "Rituel Funéraire" of the ancient Egyptians. Among
these was Champollion le Jeune, but later, on his return from Egypt,
he and others called it "Le Livre des Morts," "The Book of the Dead,"
"Das Todtenbuch," etc. These titles are merely translations of the
name given by the Egyptian tomb-robbers to every roll of inscribed
papyrus which they found with mummies, namely, "Kitāb-al-Mayyit,"
"Book of the dead man," or "Kitāb al-Mayyitun," "Book of the dead"
(plur.). These men knew nothing of the contents of such a roll, and
all they meant to say was that it was "a dead man's book," and that it
was found in his coffin with him.
CHAPTER II
The Preservation of the Mummified Body in the Tomb by Thoth.
The objects found in the graves of the predynastic Egyptians, i.e.,
vessels of food, flint knives and other weapons, etc., prove that
these early dwellers in the Nile Valley believed in some kind of a
future existence. But as the art of writing was, unknown to them their
graves contain no inscriptions, and we can only infer from texts of
the dynastic period what their ideas about the Other World were. It is
clear that they did not consider it of great importance to preserve
the dead body in as complete and perfect state as possible, for in
many of their graves the heads, hands and feet have been found severed
from the trunks and lying at some distance from them. On the other
hand, the dynastic Egyptians, either as the result of a difference in
religious belief, or under the influence of invaders who had settled
in their country, attached supreme importance to the preservation and
integrity of the dead body, and they adopted every means known to them
to prevent its dismemberment and decay. They cleansed it and embalmed
it with drugs, spices and balsams; they anointed it with aromatic oils
and preservative fluids; they swathed it in hundreds of yards of linen
bandages; and then they sealed it up in a coffin or sarcophagus, which
they laid in a chamber hewn in the bowels of the mountain. All these
things were done to protect the physical body against damp, dry rot
and decay, and against the attacks of moth, beetles, worms and wild
animals. But these were not the only enemies of the dead against which
precautions had to be taken, for both the mummified body and the
spiritual elements which had inhabited it upon earth had to be
protected from a multitude of devils and fiends, and from the powers
of darkness generally. These powers of evil had hideous and terrifying
shapes and forms, and their haunts were well known, for they infested
the region through which the road of the dead lay when passing from
this world to the Kingdom of Osiris. The "great gods" were afraid of
them, and were obliged to protect themselves by the use of spells and
magical names, and words of power, which were composed and written
down by Thoth. In fact it was believed in very early times in Egypt
that Ra the Sun-god owed his continued existence to the possession of
a secret name with which Thoth had provided him. And each morning the
rising sun was menaced by a fearful monster called Aapep, which lay
hidden under the place of sunrise waiting to swallow up the solar
disk. It was impossible, even for the Sun-god, to destroy this "Great
Devil," but by reciting each morning the powerful spell with which
Thoth had provided him he was able to paralyse all Aapep's limbs and
to rise upon this world. Since then the "great gods," even though
benevolently disposed towards them, were not able to deliver the dead
from the devils that lived upon the "bodies, souls, spirits, shadows
and hearts of the dead," the Egyptians decided to invoke the aid of
Thoth on behalf of their dead and to place them under the protection
of his almighty spells. Inspired by Thoth the theologians of ancient
Egypt composed a large number of funerary texts which were certainly
in general use under the IVth dynasty (about 3700 B.C.), and were
probably well known under the Ist dynasty, and throughout the whole
period of dynastic history Thoth was regarded as the author of the
"Book of the Dead."
CHAPTER III
The Book Per-t em hru, or [The Chapters of] Coming forth by (or, into)
the Day, commonly called the "Book of the Dead."
The spells and other texts which were written by Thoth for the benefit
of the dead, and are directly connected with him, were called,
according to documents written under the XIth and XVIIIth dynasties,
"Chapters of the Coming Forth by (or, into) the Day." One rubric in
the Papyrus of Nu (Brit. Mus. No. 10477) states that the text of the
work called "PER-T EM HRU," i.e., "Coming Forth (or, into) the Day,"
was discovered by a high official in the foundations of a shrine of
the god Hennu during the reign of Semti, or Hesepti, a king of the Ist
dynasty. Another rubric in the same papyrus says that the text was cut
upon the alabaster plinth of a statue of Menkaura (Mycerinus), a king
of the IVth dynasty, and that the letters were inlaid with lapis
lazuli. The plinth was found by Prince Herutataf, a son of King Khufu
(Cheops), who carried it off to his king and exhibited it as a "most
wonderful" thing. This composition was greatly reverenced, for it
"would make a man victorious upon earth and in the Other World; it
would ensure him a safe and free passage through the Tuat (Under
World); it would allow him to go in and to go out, and to take at any
time any form he pleased; it would make his soul to flourish, and
would prevent him from dying the [second] death." For the deceased to
receive the full benefit of this text it had to be recited by a man
"who was ceremonially pure, and who had not eaten fish or meat, and
had not consorted with women." On coffins of the XIth dynasty and on
papyri of the XVIIIth dynasty we find two versions of the PER-T EM
HRU, one long and one short. As the title of the shorter version
states that it is the "Chapters of the PER-T EM HRU in a single
chapter," it is clear that this work, even under the IVth dynasty,
contained many "Chapters," and that a much abbreviated form of the
work was also current at the same period. The rubric that attributes
the "finding" of the Chapter to Herutataf associates it with Khemenu,
i.e., Hermopolis, and indicates that Thoth, the god of this city, was
its author.
The work PER-T EM HRU received many additions in the course of
centuries, and at length, under the XVIIIth dynasty, it contained
about 190 distinct compositions, or "Chapters." The original forms of
many of these are to be found in the "Pyramid Texts" (i.e., the
funerary compositions cut on the walls of the chambers and corridors
of the pyramids of Kings Unas, Teta, Pepi I Meri-Ra, Merenra and Pepi
II at Sakkārah), which were written under the Vth and VIth dynasties.
The forms which many other chapters had under the XIth and XIIth
dynasties are well represented by the texts painted on the coffins of
Amamu, Sen, and Guatep in the British Museum (Nos. 6654, 30839,
30841), but it is possible that both these and the so-called "Pyramid
Texts" all belonged to the work PER-T EM HRU, and are extracts from
it. The "Pyramid Texts" have no illustrations, but a few of the texts
on the coffins of the XIth and XIIth dynasties have coloured
vignettes, e.g., those which refer to the region to be traversed by
the deceased on his way to the Other World, and the Islands of the
Blessed or the Elysian Fields. On the upper margins of the insides of
such coffins there are frequently given two or more rows of coloured
drawings of the offerings which under the Vth dynasty were presented
to the deceased or his statue during the celebration of the service of
"Opening the Mouth" and the performance of the ceremonies of "The
Liturgy of Funerary Offerings." Under the XVIIIth dynasty, when the
use of large rectangular coffins and sarcophagi fell somewhat into
disuse, the scribes began to write collections of Chapters from the
PER-T EM HRU on rolls of papyri instead of on coffins. At first the
texts were written in hieroglyphs, the greater number of them being in
black ink, and an attempt was made to illustrate each text by a
vignette drawn in black outline. The finest known example of such a
codex is the Papyrus of Nebseni (Brit. Mus. No. 9900), which is 77
feet 7 1/2 inches in length and I foot I1/2 inches in breadth. Early
in the XVIIIth dynasty scribes began to write the titles of the
Chapters, the rubrics, and the catchwords in red ink and the text in
black, and it became customary to decorate the vignettes with colours,
and to increase their size and number. The oldest codex of this class
is the Papyrus of Nu (Brit. Mus. No. 10477) which is 65 feet 3 1/2
inches in length, and 1 foot 1 1/2 inches in breadth. This and many
other rolls were written by their owners for their own tombs, and in
each roll both text and vignettes were usually, the work of the same
hand. Later, however, the scribe wrote the text only, and a skilled
artist was employed to add the coloured vignettes, for which spaces
were marked out and left blank by the scribe. The finest example of
this class of roll is the Papyrus of Ani (Brit. Mus., No. 10470).
which is 78 feet in length and 1 foot 3 inches in breadth. In all
papyri of this class the text is written in hieroglyphs, but under the
XIXth and following dynasties many papyri are written throughout in
the hieratic character; these usually lack vignettes, but have
coloured frontispieces.
Under the rule of the High Priests of Amen many changes were
introduced into the contents of the papyri, and the arrangement cf the
texts and vignettes of the PER-T EM HRU was altered. The great
confraternity of Amen-Ra, the "King of the Gods," felt it to be
necessary to emphasize the supremacy of their god, even in the Kingdom
of Osiris, and they added many prayers, litanies and hymns to the
Sun-god to every selection of the texts from the PER-T EM HRU that was
copied on a roll of papyrus for funerary purposes. The greater number
of the rolls of this period are short and contain only a few Chapters,
e.g., the Papyrus of the Royal Mother Netchemet (Brit. Mus. No. 10541)
and the Papyrus of Queen Netchemet (Brit. Mus. No. 10478). In some the
text is very defective and carelessly written, but the coloured
vignettes are remarkable for their size and beauty; of this class of
roll the finest example is the Papyrus of Anhai (Brit. Mus. No.
10472). The most interesting of all the rolls that were written during
the rule of the Priest-Kings over Upper Egypt is the Papyrus of
Princess Nesitanebtashru (Brit. Mus. No. 10554), now commonly known as
the "Greenfield Papyrus." It is the longest and widest funerary
papyrus [4] known, for it measures 123 feet by 1 foot 6 1/2 inches,
and it contains more Chapters, Hymns, Litanies, Adorations and Homages
to the gods than any other roll. The 87 Chapters from the PER-T EM HRU
which it contains prove the princess's devotion to the cult of Osiris,
and the Hymns to Amen-Ra show that she was able to regard this god and
Osiris not as rivals but as two aspects of the same god. She believed
that the "hidden" creative power which was materialized in Amen was
only another form of the power of procreation, renewed birth and
resurrection which was typified by Osiris. The oldest copies of the
PER-T EM HRU which we have on papyrus contain a few extracts from
other ancient funerary works, such as the "Book of Opening the Mouth,"
the "Liturgy of Funerary Offerings," and the "Book of the Two Ways."
But under the rule of the Priest-Kings the scribes incorporated with
the Chapters of the PER-T EM HRU extracts from the "Book of Ami-Tuat"
and the "Book of Gates," and several of the vignettes and texts that
are found on the walls of the royal tombs of Thebes.
One of the most remarkable texts written at this period is found in
the Papyrus of Nesi-Khensu, which is now in the Egyptian Museum in
Cairo. This is really the copy of a contract which is declared to have
been made between Nesi-Khensu and Amen-Ra, "the holy god, the lord of
all the gods." As a reward for the great piety of the queen, and her
devotion to the interests of Amen-Ra upon earth, the god undertakes to
make her a goddess in his kingdom, to provide her with an estate there
in perpetuity and a never-failing supply of offerings, and happiness
of heart, soul and body, and the [daily] recital upon earth of the
"Seventy Songs of Ra" for the benefit of her soul in the Khert-Neter,
or Under World. The contract was drawn up in a series of paragraphs in
legal phraseology by the priests of Amen, who believed they had the
power of making their god do as they pleased when they pleased.
Little is known of the history of the PER-T EM HRU after the downfall
of the priests of Amen, and during the period of the rule of the
Nubians, but under the kings of the XXVIth dynasty the Book enjoyed a
great vogue. Many funerary rolls were written both in hieroglyphs and
hieratic, and were decorated with vignettes drawn in black outline;
and about this time the scribes began to write funerary texts in the
demotic character. But men no longer copied long selections from the
PER-T EM HRU as they had done under the XVIIIth, XIXth and XXth
dynasties, partly because the religious views of the Egyptians had
undergone a great change, and partly because a number of Books of the
Dead of a more popular character had appeared. The cult of Osiris was
triumphant everywhere, and men preferred the hymns and litanies which
dealt with his sufferings, death and resurrection to the compositions
in which the absolute supremacy of Ra and his solar cycle of gods and
goddesses was assumed or proclaimed. Thus, in the "Lamentations of
Isis" and the "Festival Songs of Isis and Nephthys," and the "Litanies
of Seker," and the "Book of Honouring Osiris," etc., the central
figure is Osiris, and he alone is regarded as the giver of everlasting
life. The dead were no longer buried with large rolls of papyrus
filled with Chapters of the PER-T EM HRU laid in their coffins, but
with small sheets or strips of papyrus, on which were inscribed the
above compositions, or the shorter texts of the "Book of Breathings,"
or the "Book of Traversing Eternity," or the "Book of May my name
flourish," or a part of the "Chapter of the Last Judgment."
Ancient Egyptian tradition asserts that the Book PER-T EM HRU was used
early in the Ist dynasty, and the papyri and coffins of the Roman
Period afford evidence that the native Egyptians still accepted all
the essential beliefs and doctrines contained in it. During the four
thousand years of its existence many additions were made to it, but
nothing of importance seems to have been taken away from it. In the
space here available it is impossible to describe in detail the
various Recensions of this work, viz., (1) the Heliopolitan, (2) the
Theban and its various forms, and (3) the Saļte; but it is proposed to
sketch briefly the main facts of the Egyptian Religion which may be
deduced from them generally, and especially from the Theban Recension,
and to indicate the contents of the principal Chapters. No one papyrus
can be cited as a final authority, for no payprus contains all the
Chapters, 190 in number, of the Theban Recension, and in no two papyri
are the selection and sequence of the Chapters identical, or is the
treatment of the vignettes the same.