BRITISH MUSEUM.

The Book

of the

Dead

WITH TWENTY-FIVE ILLUSTRATIONS.

PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE TRUSTEES.
1920.

PRICE ONE SHILLINGAKr
[All

Rights Reserved.]

Y

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD
The
"
Title.
title

Book of the Dead

"

is

the

now commonly

given to the

great collection of funerary texts which the ancient Egyptian

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 misceUaneous in character, and tell us nothing about the lives and works of the dead with whom they were
scribes
;

buried.

Moreover, the Egyptians possessed many funerary works that might rightly be called " Books of the Dead," but

Jione 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,^ but the texts in them were short and fragmentary. The publication of -the Facsimile^ of the Papyrus of Peta-Amen-neb-nest-taui^ by
'

See Journal de
I,

torn.

plate 21

;

Caylus, Antiq. Egypt. Trhoux, June, 1704 Denon, Travels, plates 136 and 137 and Description
;

;

de I'Egypte, torn. II, plate 64

ff.

« Copie Figur/e d'un Rouleau de Papyrus trouv^ d Th^es dans un tombeau des Rois. Paris, XIII-1805. This papyrus is nearly 30 feet in length and was brought to Strassburg by a paymaster in Napoleon's

Army

in

Egypt

called Poussielgue,

who

sold

it

to

M. Cadet.

272
GIFT

2

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD.

M. Cadet in 1805 made a long hieroglyphic text and numerouscoloured vignettes available for study, and the French Egyptologists described it as a copy of the " Rituel Funeraire " of the Among these was Champollion le Jeune, ancient Egyptians. 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
roll of

name

given by the Egyptian tomb-robbers to every

papyrus which they found with mummies, al-Mayyit," " Book of the dead man," or " Kitab al-Mayyitun,"
"

inscribed namely, " Kitab

Book

of the

dead "

(plur.).

These

men knew
it

nothing of the
it

contents of such a

roll,

and

all

they meant to say was that

was "a dead man's book," and that
with him.

was found

in his coffin

II.

The Preservation of the Mummified Body BY Thoth.
The objects found
i.e.,

in

the Tomr

in the graves of the predynastic Egyptians,

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

unknown

to them their graves contain no inscriptions, can only infer from texts of the dynastic period what their ideas about the Other World were. It is clear that they did not

was and we

consider

it

of great importance to preserve the

dead body in as

complete and perfect state as possible, for in
the trunks and lying at some distance from them.

many

of their

graves the heads, hands and feet have been found severed from

On the

other

hand, the dynastic Egyptians, either as the result of a difference

under the influence of invaders who had supreme importance to the preservation and integrity of the dead body, and they adopted every means known to them to prevent its dismemberment and
in religious belief, or
settled in their country, attached

decay.

They cleansed it and embalmed
;

it

with drugs, spices and
oils

balsams
fluids
;

they anointed
it

it

with aromatic

and preservative
;

they swathed

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

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD.
these things were done to protect the physical

body against

and decay, and against the attacks of moth, 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 The " great gods " were this world to tlie Kingdom of Osiris. 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 Egj^t that Ra the Sun-god owed his continued existence to the
rot
beetles,

damp, dry

worms and wild

possession of a secret
Thotli

name with which had provided him. And each
rising

morning the

by a

fearful
»

sun was menaced monster called Aapep,

which lay hidden under the P ^i^ 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

The Spearing
(From
the

of Aapep.

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 1st dynasty, and throughout the whole period of dynastic history Thoth was regarded as the author of the " Book of the Dead."

Pa^rus of Nckhtu-Amcn.)

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD.
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."
and other texts which were written by the benefit of the dead, and are directly connected were called, according to documents written under and XVIIIth dynasties, " Chapters of the Coming

The

spells

Thoth
the

for

with him,

Xlth

Forth by

(or, into)

the Day,"

in the Papyrus of
of the

Nu

^ ^ ^ ^ ^/f
^'^
j

•

^^^

rut)ric

into) the

tions

work Day," was discovered by a high official in the foundaof a shrine of the god Hennu during the reign of Semti,
Another rubric in the

called "

Mus. No. 10477) states that the text Per-t em hru," i.e., " Coming Forth (or,
(Brit.

or Hesepti, a king of the 1st dynasty.

same papyrus says that the text
plinth of a statue of

was cut upon the alabaster Menkaura (Mycerinus), a king of the
letters

IVth dynasty, and that the

were inlaid with lapis

lazuli.

The

plinth

was found by Prince Herutataf,

^^

tziS Jj, a

it off to his king and " thing. This composition most wonderful exhibited it was greatly reverenced, for it " would make a man victorious " upon earth and in the Other World it would ensure him a

son of King Khufu (Cheops),
as a "

who

carried

;

" 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 fuU benefit of this text it had to be recited by a man " who was ceremonially pure, and who had

women." Xlth 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
not eaten
fish

or meat, and had not consorted with

On

cofiins of the

is

clear that this work,

many

" Chapters,"
also

work was

even under the IVth dynasty, contained and that a much abbreviated form of the current at the same period. The rubric that

attributes the " finding " of the Chapter to Herutataf associates

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD.
it

5

with Khemenu,

i.e.,

Hermopolis, and indicates that Thoth,
in the

the god of this city,

was its author. The work Per-t em hru received many additions

5

2

.:2

Si

i)

op

•5^ d
a 6^ 2 o lA
!2

>>

O

it

course of centuries, and at length, under the XVIIItli dynasty, contained about 190 distinct compositions, or " Chapters."

The

original forms of

many

of these are to be found in the

6

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD.
(^.^.,

the funerary compositions cut on this and corridors of the pyramids of Kings Unas, Teta, Pepi I Meri-Ra, Merenra and Pepi II at Sakkdrah), which were written under the Vth and Vlth dynasties. The forms which many other chapters had under the Xlth and Xllth 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 cofhns of the Xlth and Xllth 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
walls of the chambers

"Pyramid Texts"

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 feU somewhat into disuse, the scribes began to wTite collections of Chapters from the Per-t em hru on roUs 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 7J inches in length and i foot ij 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
and
roll

(Brit.

Mus. No. 10477) which
i| inches in breadth.

is

I foot

65 feet 3J inches in length, This and many other rolls

were written by their owners for their
hand.

own tombs, and

in each

both text and vignettes were usually the work of the same
Later, however, the scribe wrote the text only,

and a

skilled artist

was employed

to

add the coloured

vignettes, for

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD.

7

which spaces were marked out and left blank by the scribe. The finest example of this class of roll is the Papyrus of Ani

^1
rn

I

-Xw-^l* *•.

xn

•
.-tcr

•

jttHM^
Vignette and text of the Tl.. ^ wt ihe Dead from the Papynis of Nu. XVI I Ith dynasty [Brit. Mus., No. 10477.]
i
-

m ^
i;w.,.,
.;i

Vignette and text ol the Theb.i;.

ilic

the Papyrus of Ani. XVI 1 1 ih dynasty. [Brit. Mus., No. 10470.]

Dead from

(Brit.

Mus., No. 10470), which

is

yS feet in length and

i foot
is

3 inches in breadth.

In

all

papyri of this class the text
c

8

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD.
many
XlXth and following papyii are written throughout in the hieratic character these usually lack
;

written in hieroglyphs, but under the-

dynasties

vignettes,

but

have
of

coloured

frontispieces.

Under the
Priests of

rule

the

High

Amen many

changes

were introduced into the contents
of the papyri,

of the texts

and the arrangement 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
the

necessary

to

emphasize

the

supremacy of

their god,

even in

Kingdom of Osiris, and they added many prayers, litanies and h3nTins 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, of the Royal e.g., the Papyrus 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
finest
Vignette and Chapter of the Book of the Dead written in hieratic
for
[Brit.

;

of this class of roll the
is

example
(Brit.

the Papyrus of

Heru-em-heb. Mus., No. 10257.]

Anhai The most
of

Mus.

No.

10472).

interesting of all the rolls

that were written during the rule

the Priest- Kings over Upper Papyrus of Princess Nesitanebtashru (Brit. Mus. Egypt is the No. 10554), now commonly known as the " Greenfield Papyrus."

XXVIth

dynasty, or later.

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD.

<I-

"

a a

1?

^

&

.£ ex

uj

00

(^

I

1*

•c

X

W

c^

C

i

10
It
it

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD.
is

the longest and widest funerary papyrus^ known, for

feet by i foot 6J inches, and it contains more Chapters, Hymns, Litanies, Adorations and Homages The ^y Chapters from the to the gods than any other roll. 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 But under the Offerings," and the " Book of the Two Ways."

measures 123

rule

of

the

Priest- Kings

the

scribes

incorporated with

the

Chapters of the Per-t

Tuat " and the " and texts that are found on the walls
Thebes.

em hru extracts from the " Book of AmiBook of Gates," and several of the vignettes
of the royal

tombs

of

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 drawTi up in a series of paragraphs in legal phraseology by the priests of Amen, who beHeved 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
of the
*

One

The

longest papyrus in the world
;

is
i

Mus. No. 9999)

it

measures 133 feet by

Papyrus Harris No. foot 4^ inches.

i

(Brit.

ISMS >l^

^Br^^J®'^^^^C»^^!^4^^;^gl)^'liro^l
i^f^^.^l3^i3^{|\-^i:^!l?il!r^H^^^^^!^

g^^-n¥^i^^efeijir3w;^j¥^si-^i''5i:

!SiiMiai^Sifiii^^i;v]3i¥

WMmm ^muimwmA:.^ ^zt^mm-v

l]i;^VviHlMi1i!BM5ilHW'.^l^.^ be.

mBmmmm^^]

<\\\i\-Xu:]^M^.-\l

12

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD.
Book enjoyed
a great vogue.

the

Many
;

funerary

rolls

were

\\Titten

both in hieroglyphs and

hieratic,

and were decorated
this time the

with vignettes drawn in black outline

and about

o o

<*,

tx

^3

O

(U

ON

•So

C

CQ

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, XlXth and XXth

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD.

13

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 ix,

v

4-1

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,"

" Book of and the Honouring Osiris," etc.,
the
central
figure
is

Osiris,

and he alone
as
life.

is

/

regarded

the giver

of everlasting

The
longer

dead
of

were

no

buried with large rolls

papyrus

filled

with
their
:\^

Chapters of the Per-t

EM HRU
coffins,

laid

in

but with small

sheets or strips of pa-

pyrus,

on which were
the

inscribed

above
or
of

compositions,
shorter
texts

the

the

1:
A
copy of a Book of the Dead entitled

"

Book

of Breathings,"

May my
Period.

or the
versing

"Book

of Tra-

name
[Brit.

flourish

"

1

Mus., No. 10,304.]

Roman

Eternity,"

or
flourish," or a part of the "

the" Book of
of the Last

May my name

Chapter

Judgment."

Ancient Egyptian tradition asserts that the Book Per-t EM HRU was used eariy in the 1st dynasty, and the papyri and coffins of the Roman Period afford evidence that the native

14

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD.
still
it.

Egyptians

accepted

all

the essential beliefs and doctrines

During the four thousand years of its existence 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., (i) the Heliopolitan, (2) the Theban and its various forms, and (3) the Saite 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
contained in

many

additions were

;

Theban Recension, and
Chapters.
for

to indicate the contents of the principal

No one papyrus can be

cited as a final authority,

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.

IV.

Thoth, the Author of the Book of the Dead.
Thoth, in Egyptian Tchehuti or Tehuti,
S

v\ ^ J|

"^ f ^ ^ r^

or

,

who has

already been mentioned as the author

of the texts that form the

Per-t em hru, or Book of the Dead, was believed by the Egyptians to have been the heart and mind of the Creator, who was in very early times in Egypt called by the natives "Pautti," and by " foreigners " Ra." Thoth was also the " tongue of the Creator, and he at all times voiced the will of the great god, and spoke the words which commanded every being and thing in heaven and in His words were earth to come into existence. almighty and once uttered never remained without He framed the laws by which heaven, earth Tehuti (Thoth). effect. and all the heavenly bodies are maintained; he
;

ordered the courses of the sun, moon, and stars

he invented

drawing and design and

the arts, the letters of the alphabet

and

the art of writing, and the science of mathematics.

At a very

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD.
early period he

15

was

called the " scribe (or secretary) of the Great
celestial register

Company

of the Gods," and as he kept the words and deeds of men, he of the

was regarded by many generations
of

Egyptians

as

the
the

"Recording
inventor of

Angel."

He was

physical and moral

Law and became
the

the personification of Justice

as the Companies of

and Gods of
;

Heaven, and Earth, and the Other World appointed him to " weigh the words and deeds " of men, and his verdicts were unalterable, he became more powerful in the Other World than Osiris himself. Osiris owed his
triumph over Set
in the Great

Judg-

Gods entirely to the skill of Thoth of the ** wise mouth " as an Advocate, and to his
ment Hall
of the influence

with the gods in heaven.

And
of

every follower of Osiris relied

Set, the Arch- Liar of Evil.

and god

upon the advocacy of Thoth to secure his acquittal on the Day Judgment, and to procure for him an everlasting habitation in the Kingdom of Osiris.

V.

Thoth and
the texts of Thoth,

Osiris.

The Egyptians were not satisfied with the mere possession of when their souls were being weighed in the Great Scales in the Judgment Hall of Osiris, but they also wished Thoth to act as their Advocate on this dread occasion and to prove their innocence as he had proved that of Osiris
before the great gods in prehistoric times.

According to a very

ancient Egyptian tradition, the god Osiris,

who was

originally

the god of the principle of the fertility of the Nile,

became

incarnate on earth as the son of Geb, the Earth-god, and Nut,
the Sky-goddess.

He had two
;

one brother, Set

he married
of

Geb set

Osiris

on the throne

and Nephthys, and and Set married Nephthys Egypt, and his rule was beneficent
sisters, Isis

Isis

16

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD.

and the nation was happy and prosperous. Set marked this and became very jealous of his brother, and wished to slay him so that he might seize his throne and take possession of Isis, whose reputation as a devoted and loving wife and able manager filled the country. By some means or other Set did contrive to kill Osiris according to one story he killed him by the side
:

of a canal at Netat,

(I

,

near Abydos, and according

to another he caused

by her

sister

him to be drowned. Isis, accompanied Nephthys, went to Netat and rescued the body of
sisters,

her lord, and the two

with the help of Anpu, a son of

Ra the Sun-god, embalmed it. They then laid the body in a tomb, and a sycamore tree grew round it and flourished over the grave. A tradition which is found in the Pyramid Texts
states that before Osiris

was laid in his tomb, his wife Isis, by means of her magical powers, succeeded in restoring him to life temporarily,

and made him beget of her an heir, who was called Horus. After the burial of Osiris, Isis retreated to the marshes in the Delta, and there she brought forth
Horus.
of
Set,

In order to avoid the persecution

who on one

occasion succeeded

in killing

Horus by the sting of a scorpion,

she fled from place to place in the Delta,

and

years.

unhappy life for some But Thoth helped her in all her difliculties and provided her with the words of power which restored Horus to life, and enabled her to pass unharmed among the crocodiles and other evil
lived a very

beasts that infested the waters of the
Horus of Edfu spearing the
Crocodile
(?)

Delta at that time.

Set.

When Horus

arrived

at

years

of

out to find Set and to wage war against maturity, he At length they met and a fierce fight his father's murderer.
set

ensued, and though Set was defeated before he was finally hurled to the ground, he succeeded in tearing out the right eye
of

to

Horus and keeping it. Even after this fight Set was able persecute Isis, and Horus was powerless to prevent it

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD.
until

17

Thoth made Set give him the right eye of Horns which off. Thoth then brought the eye to Horus, and replaced it in his face, and restored sight to it by spitting upon it. Horus then sought out the body of Osiris in order to raise it up to life, and when he found it he untied the bandages so that Osiris might move his limbs, and rise up. Under the direction of Thoth Horus recited a series of formulas as he presented offerings to Osiris, and
he had carried
The Four Sons of Horus.

Mesta.

HSpi.

Tuamutcf.

Qebhsennuf.

he and his sons and Anubis performed the ceremonies which opened the mouth, and nostrils, and the eyes and the ears of

PMim\iiiiiniimiiiii\llllllllHllllli

i

iii'||||||iiii

im
bier of the dead.

Anubis standing by the

D

2

18
Osiris.
i.e.,

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD.
his

He embraced Osiris and so own hving personality and

transferred to
virility,

him

his ka,
his

and gave him

eye which Thoth had rescued from Set and had replaced

As soon as Osiris had eaten the eye of Horus he became endowed with a soul and vital power, and recovered thereby the complete use of all his mental faculties, which death had suspended. Straightway he rose up from his bier and became the Lord of the Dead and King of the Under World. Osiris became the type and symbol of resurrection among the Egyptians of all periods, because he was a god who had been originally a mortal and had risen from the dead.
in his face.

became King of the Under World he suffered further persecution from Set. Piecing together a number of disconnected hints and brief statements in the texts, it seems " pretty clear either that Osiris appealed to the " Great Gods to take notice that Set had murdered him, or that Set brought a series of charges against Osiris. At all events the " Great Gods " determined to investigate the matter. The Greater and the Lesser Companies of the Gods assembled in the celestial Anu, or Heliopolis, and ordered Osiris to stand up and defend himself Isis and against the charges brought against him by Set. Nephthys brought him before the gods, and Horus, " the avenger of his father," came to watch the case on behalf of his father, Osiris. Thoth appeared in the Hall of Judgment in his official capacity as " scribe," i.e., secretary to the gods, and the hearing of the evidence began. Set seems to have pleaded his own cause, and to have repeated the charges which he had
But before
Osiris

made
Osiris
lies,

against Osiris.

The defence

of Osiris

was undertaken by
of Set

Thoth, who proved to the gods that the charges brought against

by Set were unfounded, that the statements
therefore Set

were

and that

was a

liar.

The gods accepted
guilt of Set,

Thoth's proof of the innocence of Osiris

and the

and
to

ordered that Osiris was to be considered a Great
rule over the

God and

to

have

Kingdom

of the

Under World, and that Set was
Osiris
i.e.,

be punished.

Thoth convinced them that
I

was

"

maa

KHERU,"

^^
is

^^'

"^^"^ ^^ word,"

that he had
all

spoken the truth when he gave his evidence, and in texts of
periods

Thoth

frequently described as S-maa

kheru Asar,

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD.
1

19

1

^^

I

V 9r

of word."

As

^'^'' ^^ ^^^° proved Osiris to be '' true AJ\' for Set the Liar, he was seized by the ministers

of the Great Gods,

who threw him down on his hands and face and made Osiris mount upon his back as a mark of his victory and superiority. After this Set was bound with cords hke a beast for sacrifice, and in the presence of Thoth was hacked in
pieces.

Vf.

Osiris as

Judge of the Dead and King of the Under World.

Set was destroyed Osiris departed from this world to kingdom which the gods had given him and began to reign over the dead. He was absohite king of this realm, just as Ra the Sun-god was absolute king of the sky. This region of the
the

When

dead, or Dead-land,

is

called

"Tat,"

^=^^

^»
it

or " Tuat,"

^
is

^^ ,—-,

»

^"* where the Egyptians thought

was situated

was was called Tetu by the Egyptians and Busiris by the Greeks, and it is reasonable to assume that the Tuat, over which Osiris ruled, was situated near this place. Wherever it was it was not underground, and it was not originally in the sky or even on its confines but it was located on the borders of the visible world, in the Outer Darkness. The Tuat was not a place of happiness, judging from the description of it in the Per-t em hru, or Book of the Dead.
not quite clear.
oiiginal

The

home

of the cult of Osiris

in the Delta, in a city

which in

historic times

;

When Ani the scribe arrived
"
I

What is this to which have come ? There is neither water nor air here, its depth " is unfathomable, it is as dark as the darkest night, and men '* wander about here helplessly. A man cannot live here and " be satisfied, and he cannot gratify the cravings of affection "
(Chapter CLXXV). In the Tuat there was neither tree nor plants it was the " land where nothing grew " and in primitive
;

there he said, "

for

times

was a region of destruction and death, a place where the dead rotted and decayed, a place of abomination, and horror and terror, and annihilation. But in very early times, certainly
it

20

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD.

some kind of and they dimly conceived that the attainment of that life might possibly depend upon the manner of life which those who hoped to enjoy it led here. The Egyptians " hated death and loved life," and when the belief gained ground among them that Osiris, the God of the Dead, had himself risen from the dead, and had been acquitted by the gods of heaven after a searching trial, and had the power to " make men and women to be born again," and " to renew life " because of his truth and righteousness, they came to regard him as the Judge as As time went on, and moral and well as the God of the Dead. religious ideas developed among the Egyptians, it became certain to them that only those who had satisfied Osiris as to their truth-speaking and honest dealing upon earth could hope for admission into his kingdom.
in the Neolithic Period, the Egyptians believed in
life,

a future

When

the power of Osiris became predominant in the Under

World, and his fame as a just and righteous judge became well

among the natives of Lower and Upper Egypt, it was universally believed that after death all men would appear before him in his dread Hall of Judgment to receive their reward or their sentence of doom. The writers of the Pyramid Texts, more than fifty-five centuries ago. dreamed of a time
established

when heaven and

earth and

men

did not exist,

when

the gods
created,

had not yet been born, when death had not been

a
D

0^ <=> D ^
'l^

o
I

P==;i

D P? =S=

B ^^
^""i

o

\ \ \

k
speech

P

"111

-^SSTK'

"i^^'^

^"g*^^-

(?),

cursing and rebellion were unknown.^

But that

time was very remote, and long before the great fight took

Horns and Set, when the former lost his eye and the latter was wounded in a vital part of his body. Meanwhile death had come into the world, and since the religion of Osiris gave man a hope of escape from death, and the promise of everlasting life of the peculiar Hnd that appealed to the great mass of the Egyptian people, the spread of the cult of Osiris and its ultimate triumph over all forms of religion in Egypt were assured. Under the early dynasties the priesthood of Anu (the On of
place between
*

Pyramid

of

Pepi

I, 11.

664 and 662.

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD.
the Bible) strove to

21

their Sun-god Ra pre-eminent in god never appealed to the people as Egypt, but the cult of this a whole. It was embraced by the Pharaohs, and their high

make

officials,

and some

of the nobles,

and the

official

priesthood, but the reward which

its

doctrine offered

was not popular with

the materialistic Egyptians.
in the

A

life

passed

Boat of

Ra

with the gods, being
light,

arrayed in light and fed upon

made

no

appeal to the ordinary folk since Osiris

offered

them as a reward a

life

in the Field

of Reeds, and the

Field of

Offerings of

Food, and the Field of the Grasshoppers,

and everlasting existence in a transmuted and beatified body among the resurrected bodies of father and mother, wife and children, kinsfolk and friends.
But, as according to the cult of Ra, the
wicked, the rebels, and the blasphemers of
the Sun-god suffered swift and final punish-

ment, so also
against the

all

those

who had

sinned

and Ra the Sun-god. who had failed to satisfy its demands, paid the penalty without delay. The Judgment of Ra was held at sunrise, and the wicked were thrown into deep pits filled with fire, and their bodies, souls, shadows and hearts were consumed forthwith. The Judgment of Osiris took place near
of Osiris,

stem moral Law

Abydos, probably at midnight,

and\'i decree of swift annihilation

was passed by him

on the damned.

Their heads were cut off by

the headsman of Osiris,

who was called Shesmu,
__

1\

^^

»

and

their bodies

dismembered and destroyed in

pits of

fire.

There was no eternal punishment for men, for the wicked were
annihilated quickly and completely
in
;

but inasmuch as Osiris sat
daily, the

judgment and doomed the wicked to destruction
punishment never ceased.

inffiction of

22

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD.
VII.

The Judgment of
The
associated the Last
in a pair of scales,

Osiris.

oldest religious texts suggest that the Egyptians always

Judgment with the weighing of the heart and in the illustrated papyri of the Book of
is

the

Dead

great prominence

always given to the vignettes in

which

this weighing is being carried out.

The

heart, ah

y*

was taken as the symbol of all the emotions, desires, and passions, both good and evil, and out of it proceeded the issues of life.
It

was intimately connected with the

ka,

^

,

i.e.,

the double

or personality of a man, and several short spells in the

Book

Per-t em hru were composed to ensure its preservation (Chapters XXVI-XXXb). The great Chapter of the Judgment of Osiris, the CXXVth, is divided into three parts, which are sometimes The (as in the Papyrus of Ani) prefaced by a Hymn to Osiris. first part contains the following, which was said by the deceased when he entered the Hall of Maati, in which Osiris sat in
judgment
"
*'

Homage
thee,

to thee,

O Great
I

God, Lord of Maati,^

I

have come
I

to thee,

O my
and
live

Lord, that
I

may

behold thy beneficence.
the

" "

know

know thy name, and

names

of the Forty-

Two who

with thee in the Hall of Maati,

who keep ward

" over sinners, and feed upon their blood on the day of estimating " characters before Un-Nefer^ Behold, I have come to " thee, and I have brought maat (i.e., truth, integrity) to thee.
.

.

.

" I have destroyed sin for thee.
*'

I have not sinned against men. have not oppressed [my] kinsfolk. I have done no wrong in " the place of truth. I have I have not known worthless folk. " not \\Tought evil. I have not defrauded the oppressed one "of his. goods. I have not done the things that the gods

I

" abominate.

I

have not

vilified

a servant to his master.

I

"have not caused pain. I have not let any man hunger. I "have made no one to weep. I have not committed murder. " I have not commanded any to commit murder for me. I have " inflicted pain on no man. I have not defrauded the temples
1

I.e.,

Truth, or Law, in a double aspect.
of Osiris.

2

A name

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD.
"of
their oblations.
I

23

"gods.

I have not purloined the cakes of the have not stolen the offerings to the spirits (i.e., the "dead). I have not committed fornication. I have not pol" luted myself in the holy places of the god of my city. I have " not diminished from the bushel. I did not take from or add

" to the acre-measure.

I

did not encroach on the fields [of

"others]. I have not added to the weights of the scales. I " have not misread the pointer of the scales. I have not taken " milk from the mouths of children. I have not driven cattle " from their pastures. I have not snared the birds of the gods.

" I have not caught fish with fish of their kind. I have not " stopped water [when it should flow]. I have not cut the dam " of a canal. I have not extinguished a fire when it should burn. "
I have not altered the times of the chosen meat offerings. " have not turned away the cattle [intended for] offerings.

I
I

"have not repulsed the god
"
I

at his appearances.

I

am

pure.

am

pure.

I

am

pure.

I

am

pure.

.

.

."

In the second part of Chapter CXXV Osiris is seen seated at one end of the Hall of MaSti accompanied by the two goddesses
of

Law and
him.

Truth, and the Forty-Two goda

who

are there to

Each of the Forty-Two gods represents one of the nomes of Egypt and has a symbolic name. When the deceased had repeated the magical names of the doors of the Hall, he entered it and saw these gods arranged in two rows, twenty-one on each side of the Hall. At the end, near Osiris, were the Great Scales, under the charge of Anpu (Anubis), and the monster Amemit, the Eater of the Dead, i.e., of the hearts of the kicked who were condemned in the Judgment of Osiris. The deceased advanced along the Hall and, addressing each of the Forty-Two gods by his name, declared that he had not comassist

mitted a certain
"

sin,

thus

:

O
O O O

Usekh-nemmit, comer forth from Anu,
sin.

I

have not committed

" " "

Fenti,

" "

O O

comer forth from Khemenu, I have not robbed. Neha-hau, comer forth from Re-stau, I have not killed men. Neba, comer forth in retreating, I have not plundered the property of God. Set-qesu, comer forth from Hensu, I have not lied. Uammti, comer forth from Khebt, I have not defiled any man's wife.

24
"
*' *'

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD.
Maa-anuf, comer forth from Per-Menu,
myself.
I

O
O O

have not

defiled

Tem-Sep, comer forth from Tetu, I have not cursed the king. Nefer-Tem, comer forth from Het-ka-Ptah, I have not acted
deceitfully I have not committed wickedness. Nekhen, comer forth from Heqat, I have not turned a deaf
;

*'

O

ear to the words of the

Law

(or

Truth)."

The names of most of the Forty-Two gods are not ancient, but were invented by the priests probably about the same time as the names in the Book of Him that is in the Tuat and the Book of Gates, i.e., between the Xllth and the XVIIIth dynasties. Their artificial character is shown by their meanings.

Thus Usekh-nemmit means "He of the long strides " Neha-hau means " StinkingFenti means " He of the Nose " " " Breaker of bones," etc. The members Set-qesu means
;
; ;

early Egyptologists called the second part of

the

CXXVth
known

Chapter the "Negative Confession," and

it

is

generally

by

this

somewhat inexact

title to this

day.

In the third part of the

CXXVth

Chapter comes the address

which the deceased made to the gods after he had declared his
innocence of the sins enumerated before the Forty-Two gods.

He
*'
^'

says

:

"

of Maati.

Homage to you, O ye gods who dwell I know you and I know your names.

in

your Hall

Let

me

not

Bring not my wickedness fall under your slaughtering knives. " to the notice of the god whose followers ye are. Let not the
affair [of

"

my

judgment] come under your
(or truth)

jurisdiction.

Speak

"''ye

the

Law

concerning

me

before Neb-er-tcher,^

"for
"'
^'

I

I performed the Law (or, truth) in Ta-mera {i.e., Egypt). have not blasphemed the God. No affair of mine came under

the notice of the king in his day. Homage to you, O ye who " are in your Hall of Maati, who have no lies in your bodies,

"'who live on truth, who eat truth before Horus, the dweller "in his disk, deliver ye me from Babai- who liveth upon the '" entrails of the mighty ones on the day of the Great Reckoning
^'

(Apt
'

a at,

°
(]

fl^^^ ^
^H r^
'

)•

Behold

me

!

I

have come

I.e.,

the " Lord to the uttermost Hmit of everything," or God.

'

J^^'^.'^^'^^

^®

^^

according to one legend the

firstborn son of Osiris.

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD.
" to you without
" false testimony
sin,
(?)

25
evil,

without deceit

(?),

without

without

have not done an [evil] thing. I live upon '* I have performed the behests truth and I feed upon truth. "of men, and the things that satisfy the gods.^ I have pro" pitiated the God [by doing] His will. I have given bread to the " hungry, water to the thirsty, raiment to the naked, and a boat
I
** "-

him that needed one. I have made holy offerings to the Be ye gods, and sepulchral offerings to the beatified dead. " then my saviours, be ye my protectors, and make no accusato

" tion against me before the Great God. I am pure of mouth, " and clean of hands therefore it hath been said by those who " saw me, * Come in peace, come in peace.' "
;

The deceased then addresses Osiris, and says, " Hail, thou who art exalted upon thy standard, thou Lord of the Atefu "Crown, whose name is *Lord of Winds,' save me from thy
"

" Messengers (or Assessors) with uncovered faces, who bring " charges of evil and make shortcomings plain, because I have

"performed the Law (or Truth) for the Lord of the Law (or "Truth). I have purified myself with washings in water, my " back hath been cleansed with salt, and my inner parts are in "the Pool of Truth. There is not a member of mine that " lacketh truth." From the lines that follow the above in the Papyrus of Nu it seems as though the judgment of the deceased by the Forty-Two gods v\^s preliminary to the final judgment of Osiris. At all events, after questioning him about the performance of certain ceremonies, they invited him to enter the Hall of Maati, but when he was about to do so the porter, and the door-bolts, and the various parts of the door and its frame, and the floor, refused to permit him to enter until he had repeated their magical names. When he had pronounced these correctly the porter took him in and presented him to Maau (?)-Taui, who was Thoth himself. When asked by him why he had come the
deceased answered, "

have come that report may be made of me." Then Thoth said, " What is thy condition ? " And the deceased replied, " I am purified from evil things, I am free " from the wickedness of those who lived in my days I am not
I
;

" one of them." " [Tell me :] Who

On
is

Thoth said, " Thou shalt be reported. he whose roof is fire, whose walls are living
this

•

I.e.,

I

have kept the Moral and Divine Law.

C/2

o

^

o

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD.
" serpents, and whose
*'

27
?

floor is

a stream of water

Wlio

is

The deceased ha\dng repUed " Osiris," Thoth then led him forward to the god Osiris, who received him, and promised that subsistence should be provided for him from the Eye of Ra. In great papyri of the Book of the Dead such as those of
he
?

"

Nebseni, Nu, Ani, Hunefer,
*'

etc.,

the Last Judgment, or the

Great Reckoning,"

is

made

the most prominent scene in the
it is

whole work, and the vignette in which
feet long.

depicted

is

several

The most complete form

of
:

it is

given in the Papyrus

of Ani, and

Maati Osiris

form of

At one end of the Hall of on a throne withm a shrine made in the. a funerary coffer behind him stand Isis and Nephthys.
be thus described
is

may

seated

;

Along one

side of the Hall are seated the

gods Harmachis,

Tem, Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut, Isis and Nephthys, Horus, Hathor, Hu and Saa, who are to serve as the divine jury these formed the " Great Company of the Gods " of Ami (Heliopolis). By these stands the Great Balance, and on its pillar sits the dogheaded ape Astes, or Astenu, the associate of Thoth. The pointer of the Balance is in the charge of Anpu. Behind Anpu are Thoth the scribe of the gods, and the monster Amemit, with the head of a crocodile, the forepaws and shoulders of a lion, and the hindquarters of a hippopotamus the duty of the lastnamed was to eat up the hearts that were light in the balance. On the other side of the Balance Ani, accompanied by his wife,
;

;

is

seen standing uith head bent low in adoration, and between
the Balance stand the two goddesses

him and

who

nurse and

rear children, Meskhenet

form of a man-headed hawk, a portion of his body, and his luck Shai.
soul, in the

and Rennet, Ani's

Since the heart was considered to be the seat of
feeling,

all will,
"O*,

emotion,
seen
in

reason and intelHgence, Ani's heart,
is

is

one pan of the Balance, and in the other
symbolic of truth and righteousness.

the feather,

[J,

Whilst his heart was in

the Balance Ani, repeating the words of Chapter of the Book of the Dead, addressed it, saying, " My heart of my
'*

XXXb

mother My heart of my mother My heart of my being "Make no stand against me when testifying, thrust me not " back before the Tchatchaut {i.e., the overseers of Osiris), and " make no failure in respect of me before the Master of the
! !
!

PL.

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD.
" Balance.
*' **

29

my Ka, the dweller in my body, uniting (?) and strengthening my members. Thou shalt come forth to Make not my name to the happiness to which we advance.
Thou
art
lie

" stink with the officers [of Osiris] who made men, utter no " against me before the Great God, the Lord of Amentt."

Then Thoth,

the Judge of Truth, of the Great

Company

of

the Gods who are in the presence of Osiris, saith to the gods, " Hearken ye to this word In very truth the heart of Osiris " hath been weighed, and his soul hath borne testimony con:

"
**

ceming him
tnith
{i.e.,

;

according to the Great Balance his case

is

just).

No

wickedness hath been found in him.

He

" did not filch offerings from the temples.

He

did not act

"crookedly, and he did not

vilify folk

dwelleth

Company of the " This that cometh Khemenu (Hermopolis) "forth from thy mouth of truth is confirmed (?) The Osiris, " the scribe Ani, true of voice, hath testified. He hath not " sinned and [his name] doth not stink before us Amemit
the Great
in
: ;

And

when he was on earth.'* Gods say to Thoth, who

"

{i.e.,

the Eater of the Dead) shall not have the mastery over

" him.

Let there be given unto him offerings of food and an
Osiris,

"appearance before

and an abiding homestead in the

" Field of Offerings as unto the Followers of Horus.*'

Thus the gods have declared that Ani is "true of voice,'* as was Osiris, and they have called Ani " Osiris," because in his
purity of word and deed he resembled that god.
copies of the Book " Osiris," and as it
of the

In

all

the

Dead the deceased is always called was always assumed that those for whom they were written would be found innocent when weighed in
the Great Balance, the words " true of voice," which were equivalent in meaning to " innocent and acquitted," were always

written after their names.

It

may

be noted in passing that
of the

when

Ani's heart

was weighed against Truth, the beam

Great Balance remained perfectly horizontal.

This suggests that

the gods did not expect the heart of the deceased to " kick the

beam," but were quite
Truth.

satisfied

if

it

exactly counterbalanced

They demanded more, and were content
verdict

the fulfilment of the
to

Law and nothing bestow immortality upon the man
evil," -/u.

on whom Thoth 's

was " he hath done no

ji %*•

30

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD.
In accordance with the

command

of the gods

Osiris is seated,

end and as he approaches the god Horus, the son of Isis, takes him by the hand and leads him forward, and standing before his father Osiris says, " I have come to thee, Un-Nefer,^ " I have brought to thee the Osiris Ani. His heart is righteous " [and] hath come forth from the Balance. It hath no sin "before any god or any goddess. Thoth hath set down his "judgment in writing, and the Company of the Gods have *' declared on his behalf that [his] evidence is very true. Let *' there be given unto him of the bread and beer which appear " before Osiris. Let him be like the Followers of Horus for " ever " Next we see Ani kneeling in adoration before Osiris, and he says, " Behold, I am in thy presence, O Lord of Amentt. " There is no sin in my body. I have not uttered a lie knowGrant that I may be like *'ingly. [I have] no duplicity (?) *' the favoured (or rewarded) ones who are in thy train." Under
from
the Great Balance to the
of the Hall of
!

Ani passes Maati where

favour of Osiris Ani then became a sdhu,

R

V^

Q O'

^^
of

" spirit-body," and in this form passed into the
Osiris.

Kingdom

VIII.

The Kingdom of

Osiris.

According to the Book of Gates and the other " Guides " to
the Egyptian

Under World, the Kingdom
;

of Osiris
it

formed the
situated

Sixth Division of the Tuat
in the

in very early times

was

Xllth dynasty theologians placed it near Abydos in Upper Egypt, and before the close of the Dynastic Period the Tuat of Osiris had absorbed the Under World of every nome of Egypt. When the soul in its

Western Delta, but

after the

beatified or spirit

body arrived

there, the

ministers of Osiris

homestead or place of abode which had been allotted to it by the command of Osiris, and there it began its new existence. The large vignette to the CXth Chapter shows us exactly what manner of place the abode of the blessed was. The country was fiat and the fields w^ere intersected by canals
took
it

to the

'

I.e.,

the " Beneficent B^ing," a

title of Osiris.

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD.
of running \\'ater in which there were " no fish
(i.e.,

31

and no w'orms "

water snakes).

In one part of

it

were several small

and on one of them Osiris was supposed to dwell with his saints. It was called the "Island of Truth," and the ferryman of Osiris would not convey to it any soul that had not been declared " true of word " by Thoth, Osiris and the Great Gods at the " Great Reckoning." The portion of the Kingdom of Osiris depicted in the large Books of the Dead represents in many respects a typical Egj^^tian farm, and we see the deceased engaged in ploughing and reaping and driving the oxen that are treading out the com. He was introduced into the Sekhet Heteput (a section of the Sekhet Aaru, i.e., "Field of Reeds," or the " Elysian Fields ") by Thoth, and there he found the souls
islands,

of his ancestors,

who were
i.e,,

joined to the

Company

of the Gods.

One comer of

this region

was

specially set apart for the dwelling

place of the dakhu,

beatified souls, or spirit-souls,

who were

said to be seven cubits in height,

and

to reap

which grew to a height of three cubits. moored two boats that were always ready for the use of the
denizens of that region
boats,"
%,e,,
;

wheat or barley Near this spot were

boats which

moved

they appear to Jiave been " spirit of themselves and carried the

beatified wheresoever they

wanted

to

go without any trouble

or fatigue on their part.

How
Osiris

the beatified passed their time in the

Kingdom

of

may

be seen from the pictures cut on the alabaster sarcoSeti
I,

phagus of

now

preserved in Sir John Soane's

Museum

in

Here we see them occupied in producing the celestial food on which they and the god lived. Some are tending the wheat plants as they grow, and others are reaping
Lincoln's Inn Fields.

the ripe grain.

In the texts that accompany these scenes the

members of Osiris," and the wheat plant is called the mant plant. Osiris was the Wheat-god and also the personification of Madt (i.e., Truth), and the beatified- lived upon the body of their god and ate him daily, and the substance of him was the " Bread of Everlastingness," which is mentioned in the Pyramid Texts. The beatified are described as " Those who have offered up incense to the gods, " and whose kau (i.e., doubles, or persons) have been washed "clean. They have been reckoned up and they are madt (i.e.,
.

ears of wheat are said to be the "

'*

Truth) in the presence of the Great

God who

destroyeth sin."

32

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD.
Ye
are truth of truth
;

Osiris says to them, "

rest in

peace."

And

of them he says, "

They were doers of truth

whilst they were

"

upon earth, they did battle for their god, " called to the enjoyment of the Land of the

and they shall be House of Life with

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD.
" Truth.
" of the Great

33

Their truth shall be reckoned to them in the presence

again Osiris

God who destroyeth sin." Then addressing them says, " Ye are beings of Truth, O ye Truths. Take

"ye your

rest because of what ye have done, becoming even " as those who are in my following, and who direct the House " of Him whose Soul is holy. Ye shall live there even as they " live, and ye shall have dominion over the cool waters of your

" land. I command that ye have your being to the limit [of " that land] \nth Truth and without sin." In these passages
vre

have the two conceptions of Osiris well illustrated. As the Wheat-god he would satisfy those who \\ished for a purely

material, agricultural heaven, where hunger would be unknown and where the blessed would be able to satisfy every physical desire and want daily and as the God of Truth, of whom the spiritually minded hoped to become the counterpart, he would be their hope, and consolation, and the image of the Eternal
;

God.

IX

A

SHORT DESCRIPTION OF THE " DoORS " OR CHAPTERS OF THE Book of the Dead.
All the great papyri of the

Book

of the

Dead begin with a

to Ra, who from the period of the IVth dynasty was the " King of the Gods " of Egypt. His cult was finally " established " under the Vth dynasty when the king of Egypt began to call himself in official documents and monuments " Son of the
Sun,"

Hymn

^^

Sa

R(i.

This
:

Hymn

is

supposed to be sung by

the deceased,
"

who

says

to thee, O Ra, at thy beauteous rising. Thou risest, thou shinest, thou shincst at the dawn. Thou art King of the Gods, and the Maati goddesses embrace thee. The Company of the Gods praise thee at sunrise and at sunset. Thou sailest over the heights of heaven and thy heart is glad. Thy Morning Boat meeteth thy Evening Boat with fair winds. Thy father is the Sky-god and thy mother is the Sky-goddess, and thou art Horus of the Eastern and Western skies. O thou Only One, O thou Perfect One, O thou who art eternal, who art never weak, whom no mighty one can abase none hath dominion over the things which appertain to thee. Homage to thee in thy characters of Horus, Tem, and Khepera, thou Great Hawk, who makest man to rejoice by thy beautiful face. When thou risest men and women live. Thou renewest thy youth, and dost

Homage
risest
;

thou

.

.

.

;

34

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD.
art self-created, I cannot

where thou wast yesterday. O Divine Youth, comprehend thee. Thou art the lord of heaven and earth, and didst create beings celestial and beings
set thyself in the place

who

Thou art the God One, who earnest into being in the beginning of time. Thou didst create the earth, and man, thou didst make the sky and the celestial river Hep thou didst make the waters and didst give life unto all that therein is. Thou hast knit together the mountains, thou hast made mankind and the beasts of the field to come into being, and hast made the heavens and the earth. The fiend Nak is overthrown, his arms are cut off. O thou Divine Youth, thou heir of everlastingness, self-begotten and self-born. One, Might, of myriad forms and aspects, Prince of An {i.e., On), Lord of Eternity, Everlasting Ruler, the Company of the Gods rejoice in thee. As thou risest thou growest greater thy rays are upon all faces. Thou art unknowable, thou existest alone. and no tongue can describe thy similitude Millions of years have passed over the world, I cannot tell the number Thou journey est through of those through which thou hast passed. spaces [requiring] milHons of years [to pass over] in one little moment
terrestrial.
;
:

;

of time,

and then thou

settest

and dost make an end

of the hours."

The
rising,

subject matter of the above extract

is

treated at greater

length in Chapter
or

XV, which

contains a long

Hymn to Ra at his
gods,
e.g.,

Amen-Ra, or Ra united to other solar and Khepera, and a short Hymn to Ra at his

Horus
In the

setting.

welcome which Ra receives from the dwellers in Amentt (i.e., the Hidden Place, like the Greek " Hades ") is emphasized thus
latter the
:

" All the beatified dead (Aakhu) in the Tuat receive him in the horizon of Amentt. They shout praises of him in his form of Tem
settest,

the setting sun). Thou didst rise and put on strength, and thou a living being, and thy glories are in Amentt. The gods of Amentt rejoice in thy beauties (or beneficence). The hidden ones worship thee, the aged ones bring thee offerings and protect thee. The Souls of Amentt cry out, and when they meet thy Majesty (Life, Strength. Health be to thee !) they shout Hail Hail The lords of the mansions of the Tuat stretch out their hands to thee from their abodes, and they cry to thee, and they follow in thy bright train, and the hearts of the lords of the Tuat rejoice when thou sendest thy light into Amentt. Their eyes follow thee, they press forward to see thee, and their hearts rejoice at the sight of thy face. Thou hearkenest to the petitions of those who are in their tombs, thou dispellest their helplessness and drivest away evil from them. Thou givest breath to their nostrils. Thou art greatly feared, thy form is majestic, and very
[i.e.,
' '
! !

greatly art thou beloved

by those who dwell

in the Other World."

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD.
The Introductory

35

Hymn

to

Ra
:

is

followed by a

Hymn

to

Osiris, in which the deceased says

(Abydos),
existence
of the

" Glory be to thee, O Osiris Un-Nefer, thou great god in Abtu King of Eternity, Lord of Everlastingness, God whose
is

millions of years, eldest son of

Nut, begotten by Geb, the

Ancestor-Chief, Lord of the Crowns of the South and the North, Lord

High White Crown. Thou art the Governor of gods and of men and hast received the sceptre, the whip, and the rank of thy Divine Fathers. Let thy heart in Amentt be content, for thy son Horus Thou art Lord of Tetu (Busiris) and is seated upon thy throne. Governor of Abtu (Abydos). Thou makest fertile the Two Lands {i.e., all Egypt) by [thy] true word before the Lord to the Uttermost Limit. Thy power is widespread, and great is the terror of thy name Osiris.' Thou endurest for all eternity in thy name of Un-Nefer Beneficent Being). Homage to thee. King of kings. Lord of {i.e.. lords. Governor of governors, who from the womb of the Sky-goddess hast ruled the World and the Under World. Thy hmbs are as silvergold, thy hand is blue hke lapis-lazuli, and the space on either side of thee is of the colour of turquoise (or emerald). Thou god An of milhons of years, thy body is all-pervading, O dweller in the Land of The gods come before thee HoUness, thy face is beautiful. bowing low. They hold thee in fear. They withdraw and retreat when they see the awfulness of Ra upon thee the [thought] of the
.
.
.

*

'

'

.

.

.

;

conquests of thy Majesty is in their hearts. Life is with thee. " Let me follow thy Majesty as when I was on earth, let my soul be summoned, and let it be found near the Lords of Truth. I have come to the City of God, the region that is eternally old, with my soul {ba), double (Aa) and spirit-soul {(iakhu), to be a dweller in this land. Its he giveth old age to him that God is the Lord of Truth worketh Truth, and honour to his followers, and at the last abundant equipment for the tomb, and burial in the Land of Holiness. I have come unto thee, my hands hold Truth, and there is no falsehood in my Thou hast set Truth before thee I know on what heart. thou livest. I have committed no sin in this land, and I have defrauded no man of his possessions." (Chapter CLXXXIII.)

...

.

.

.

;

was recited by the priest who accompanied the tomb and performed the burial ceremonies In it the priest (kher Jieh) assumed the character of there. Thoth and promised the deceased to do for him all that he had Chapter Ib gave the sdhu, or done for Osiris in days of old. "spirit-body," power to enter the Tuat immediately after the burial of the material body, and delivered it from the Nine Worms that lived on the dead. Chapters H-IV are short spells written to give the deceased power to revisit the earth, to join the gods, and to travel about the sky. Chapters V and VI provided
Chapter
I

mummy

to the

36
for the

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD.
performance of agricultural labours in the Other World.
text of Chapter

The

etc. (ushabtiu),

VI was cut on figures made of stone, wood, which were placed in the tomb, and wfeen the
it

deceased recited

these figures

became
t^l^'t

alive

and did everything

he wished.
of the

The

shabti figure,

^.

J T

^

'

*^^^ ^^^ place
all

human

funerary sacrifice which was

common

over

Egypt before the general adoption of the cult of Osiris under the Xllth dynasty. About 700 ushabtiu figures were found in the tomb of Seti I, and many of them are in the British Museum. Chapter VII is a spell to destroy the Great Serpent Aapep,

T^ )Mh

,

the

Arch-enemy of Horus the Elder, Ra,

Osiris,

Horus son of Isis, and of every follower of Osiris. Chapters VIII and IX secured a passage for the deceased through the Tuat, and Chapters X and XI gave him power over the enemies he met there. Chapters XII and XIII gave him great freedom
of

movement

in the

Kingdom
is

of Osiris.

Chapter

XIV

is

a

prayer in which Osiris
dissatisfaction that he
*'

entreated to put

away aay

feeling of

may have for the deceased, who says, Wash away my sins. Lord of Truth destroy my transgressions, " wickedness and iniquity, O God of Truth. May this god be at
;

*'

peace with me. Destroy the things that are obstacles between " us. Give me peace, and remove aU dissatisfaction from thy " heart in respect of me."

Chapter

Hymns

has several forms, and each of them contains to Ra, which were sung daily in the morning and

XV

The holy Ape-gods of praise to Ra

singing

hymns

at sunrise.

singing

The Jackal-gods and the Hawk-gods hymns of praise to Ra at sunset.

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD
evening
;

37

Chapter Chapter

XVI

specimen paragraphs are given above (pp. 33, 34). is only a vignette that illustrates Chapter XV,
is

XVII

a very important chapter, for

it

contains state-

ments of divine doctrine as understood by the priests of Heliopolis. The opening words are, " I am Tem in rising. I am the Only One. " I came into being in Nu (the Sky). I am Ra, who rose in " primeval time, ruler of what he had made." Following this comes the question, " Who is this ? " and the answer is, " It is
"

Ra who rose

in the city of

Hensu, in primeval time, crowned as

The Sun-god Ra,

in the

Tree of Anu, and cutting

form of the "Great Cat," silting by the side of the Persea off the head (»f .\aix'p, the god of darkness and evil.

" king. He existed on the heiglit of the Dweller in Khemenu " (i.e., Thoth of Hermopolis) before the pillars that support the " sky were made."

Chapter XVIII contains the Addresses to

Thoth,

who

is

entreated to

make

the deceased to be declared

innocent before the gods of Heliopolis, Busiris, Latopolis, Mendes,

Abydos,

etc.

These addresses formed a very powerful

spell

his enemies were

which was used by Horus, and when he recited it four times all overthrown and cut to pieces. Chapters XIX and XX are variant forms of Chapter XVIII. Chapters XXIXXIII secured the help of Thoth in "opening the mouth " of the deceased, whereby he obtained the power to breathe and
think and drink and eat.
whilst Ptah untied the bandages

Thoth recited spells over the gods and Shu forced open their
Chapter

mouths with an

iron (?) knife.

XXIV

gave to the

deceased a knowledge of the " words of power " (^
fiekau)

LJ

^^^

|'

which were used by the great god Tem-Khepera, and

Chapter

XXV

restored to

him

his

memory.

Five chapters,

XXVI-XXX,

contain prayers and spells whereby the deceased

38

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD.
The most popular prayer
that of Chapter

obtained power over his heart and gained absolute possession
of
it.

is

XXXb

(see
i.e.,

above, p. 4) which, according to its rubric, was "found," edited, by Herutataf, the son of the great Cheops, about
B.C.

3600

This prayer was

still

in use in the early years of the

Christian Era.

In the Papyrus of

Nu

it

is
it

associated

with
in

Chapter LXIV, and the earliest form of
existence under the 1st dynasty.

was probably

were written to deliver the deceased from the Great Crocodile Sui, and the Serpents Rerek and Seksek, and the Lynx with its deadly claws, and the Beetle
Chapters
Apshait, and the terrible Merti snake-goddesses, and a group of

XXXI-XLII

venomous serpents, and Aapep a personification of Set the god of evil, and the Eater of the Ass, and a series In of beings who lived by slaughtering the souls of the dead.
three particularly

Chapter XLII every
protection
of,

member

of the deceased

is

put under the
e.g.,

or identified with, a god or goddess,

the hair

with Nu, the face with Aten

(i.e., the solar disk), the eyes with Hathor, and the deceased exclaims triumphantly, " There is no

member
deceased,
Eternity.

of

my

body which

is

not

the

member

of a god."

Chapter XLIII.

A

spell to

prevent the decapitation of the
character of Osiris the Lord of

ancient and mighty speU, the which prevented the deceased from dying a second time. Chapters XLV and XLVI preserved the mummy of the deceased from decay, and Chapter XLVII prevented the removal of his seat or throne. Chapter L enabled the deceased to avoid the block of execution of the god Shesmu. Chapters LI-LIII provided the deceased with pure food and clean water from the
recital of

who assumes in it the Chapter XLIV. An

table of the gods

;

he lived upon what they lived upon, and so

became one with them. Chapters LIV-LXII gave the deceased power to obtain cool water from the Celestial Nile and the springs of waters of heaven, and being identified with Shu, the god of light and air, he was enabled to pass over all the earth at will. His life was that of the Egg of the " Great Cackler," and the goddess Sesheta buUt a house for him in the Celestial Anu, or
Heliopolis.

Chapter LXIII enabled the deceased to avoid drinking boiling water in the Tuat. The water in some of its pools was cool and refreshing to those who were speakers of the

The

recital of

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD.
truth, but
it

3^

turned into boiling water and scalded the \vicked
it.

when they
the whole

tried to drink of

Chapter
it

Book of
for

the Dead, and deceased.

LXIV is an epitome of formed a " great and divine
is

protection "

the

The text

of

a 'mystical
its

character and suggests that the deceased could, through
recital, either

absorb

tlie

gods into his being, or become himself

absorbed by them.
fish

Its rubric orders abstention

from meats,
to recite
it.

and women on the part of those who were

Chapter

LXV

gave the deceased victory over

all his

enemies,

and Chapters

LXVI and LXVII gave him access to the Boat of Ra. Chapters LXVIII-LXX procured him complete freedom of motion in heaven and on earth. Chapter LXXI is a series of
who punished
the wicked in the

addresses to the Seven Spirits

and Chapter LXXII aided the deceased to be reborn in the Mesqet Chamber. The Mesqet was originally a bull's skin in which the deceased was wrapped. Chapter LXXIII is the same as Chapter IX. Chapters LXXIV and

Kingdom of

Osiris,

LXXV secured
the

a passage for the deceased in the

Henu Boat

of

Seker the Death-god, and Chapter
the praying mantis which guided

LXXVI

brought to his help
to

him through the " bush "

House of

Osiris.
i.e.,

By

the recital of Chapters

LXXVII-

"Chapters of Transformations," the deceased was enabled to assume at will the forms of (i) the Golden Hawk, (2) the Divine Hawk, (3) the Great Self-created
the

LXXXVIII,

The

soul visiting the

mummified is Isis, and

Ixnly in the tomb. The bird-goddess at the head that at the feet is Nephthys.

God,

(4) the

Light-god or the Robe of Nu,

(5)

the Pure Lily,

Benu Bird, (8) the Heron, (9) the Soul of Ra, (10) the Swallow, (11) the Sata or Earth-serpent, (12) the Crocodile. Chapter LXXXIX brought the soul (ba)
(6) the

Son

of Ptah, (7) the

40

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD.
body in the Tuat, and Chapter XC prehim from mutilation and attacks of the god who " cut heads and slit foreheads." Chapters XCI and XCII preis

of the deceased to his

served
off

vented Hie soul of the deceased from being shut in the tomb.

Chapter XCIII

a spell very difficult to understand.

Chapters

XCIV and XCV provided
and the power
of this god,

the deceased with the books of Thoth

and enabled him to take his place as XCVI and XCVII also placed him under the protection of Thoth. The recital of Chapter XCVI 1 1 provided the deceased with a boat in which to sail over the northern heavens, and a ladder by which to ascend to heaven. Chapters XCIX-CIII gave him the use of the magical boat, the mystic name of each part of which he was obliged to know, and helped him to enter the Boat of Ra and to be with Hathor. The Bebait, or mantis, led him to the great gods (Chapter CIV), and the Uatch amulet from the neck of Ra provided his double (ka) and his heart-soul (ba) with offerings (Chapters CV, CVI). Chapters CVII-CIX made him favourably known to the spirits of the East and West, and the gods of the Mountain of Sunrise. In this region lived the terrible Serpent-god Ami-hem-f he was 30 cubits (50 feet) long. In the East the deceased saw the Morning Star, and the Two Sycamores, from between which the Sun-god appeared daily, and found the entrance to the Sekhet Aaru or Elysian Fields. Chapter CX and its vignette of the Elysian Fields have already been described (see p. 31). Chapters CXI and CXII describe how Horus lost the sight of his eye temporarily through looking at Set under the form of a black pig, and Chapter CXI II refers to the legend of the drowning of Horus and the recovery of his body by Sebek the Crocodile-god. Chapter CXIV enabled the deceased to absorb the wisdom of Thoth and his Eight gods. Chapters CXV-CXXII made him lord of the Tuats of Memphis and HeliopoHs, and supplied him with food, and Chapter CXXIII enabled him to identifyTiimself with Thoth. Chapters CXXIV and CXXV, which treat of the Judgment, have already been described. Chapter CXXVI contains a prayer to the Four Holy Apes, Chapter CXXVI I a hymn to the gods of the " Circles " in the Tuat, and Chapter CXXVIII a hymn to Osiris. Chapters CXXX and CXXXI secured for the deceased the use of the Boats of Sunrise and Sunset, and Chapter CXXXII enabled him to return to earth
the scribe of Osiris.

Chapters

;

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD.
and
visit

41

the house he

had

lived in.

Chapters

CXXXIII

(or

CXXXIX)-CXXXVI resemble in contents Chapter CXXXI. Chapter CXXXVII describes a series of magical ceremonies
that were to be performed for the deceased daily in order to

make

become a ** living soul for ever." The formulae are said to have been composed under the IVth dynasty. Chapter CXXXVII I refers to the ceremony of reconstituting Osiris, and Chapters CXL-CXLII deal with the setting up of twelve altars, and the making of offerings to all the gods and to the various
to

him

forms of

Osiris.

Chapter CXLIII consists of a

series of vignettes,

in three of which solar boats are represented.

Chapters

CXLIV and CXLVII
Kingdom

deal witli the Seven Great

The gate of each Hall was guarded by a porter, a watchman, and a messenger the first
Halls (Ant) of the
of Osiris.
;

kept the door, the second looked out for the arrival of

visitors,

and the third took

their

names

to Osiris.

No one

could enter a

Hall without repeating the
the Gates of the

name

of

it,

of the porter, of the

watchman, and of the messenger.

According to a late tradition

Kingdom

of Osiris were twenty-one in

number

(Chapters

CXLV and CXLVI), and each had a magical name, and

each was guarded by one or two gods, whose names had to be repeated by the deceased before he could pass. Chapter

names of the Seven on which the " gods " were supposed to Chapters CXLIX and CL give the names of the Fourteen feed. Aats, or districts, of the Kingdom of Osiris. Chapter CLIa and CLIb give a picture of the mummy chamber and the magical texts that were necessary for the protection of both the chamber and the mummy in it. Chapter CLII provided a house for the deceased in the Celestial Anu, and Chapter CLIIIa and CLIIIb
supplied the deceased with the
their Bull

CXLVIII Cows and

enabled his soul to avoid capture in the net of the snarer of

CLIV is an address to Osiris in which the " I shall not decay, nor rot, nor putrefy, nor deceased says, " become worms, nor see corruption. I shall have my being,
souls.

Chapter

**

I shall live, I shall flourish, I shall rise

up

in peace."

Chapters

CLV-CLXVII
U» n,

are speUs which were engraved

on the amulets

O,

|, "^1

^^,

etc.,

giving the deceased the protec-

tion of Ra, Osiris,

Isis,

Horns, and 6ther gods.

The remaining

Chapters (CLXVIII-CXC) are of a miscellaneous character, and

42

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD.

few of them are found in more than one or two papyri of the Book of the Dead. A few contain hymns that are not older
is an extract from the text Unas (Hnes 379-399). The most interesting perhaps. Chapter CLXXV, which describes the Tuat as is, In this chapter the deceased is airless, waterless, and lightless. assured of immortailty in the words, " Thou shalt live for

than the XVIIIth dynasty, and one

on the Pyramid

of

millions of millions of years, a

life

of millions of years."

E. A.

Wallis Budge.

Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, British Museum.
April 15, IQ20.

43

NOTE.
The Trustees
1.

of the British

Museum have

published

:

Coloured facsimile of the Papyrus of Hunefer,
II plates, large
folio.

XlXth

dynasty, with hieroglyphic transcript and translation.

2.

Coloured facsimile of the Papyrus of Anhai, XXIst dynasty, with hieroglyphic transcript and translation,
8 plates, large
folio.

3.

Collotype

reproduction
translation.

of

the

Papyrus of
folio.

Queen

Netchemet, XXIst dynasty, with hieroglyphic transcript
4.

and

12 plates, large

Coloured reproduction of the hieratic text of the Book
of Breathings, with hierogl)T)hic transcript
lation.
folio.

and trans-

With

2 collotypes of the vignettes, large

5.

Hieroglyphic transcript of the Papyrus of Nu, with one
collotype plate.

Nos. 7-5 are bound in one volume, price £^2 los,
6.

Collotype reproduction of the Papyrus of Queen Nesita-nebt-ashru, with full descriptions of the vignettes,
translations,
illustrations,

and introduction, containing several and 116 plates of hieratic text. Large

4to.

Price £2 los.

;n'^'

Harrison
TrtnUrs
St.
in

&
to

Sons,
His Majesty,

Ordinary

Martin's Lane, London,

W.C.

2.

LOAN
,

DEPT.

or stamped below, ,he last date

General Library

.

T-n9lA-60m-lO,'65
(F7