An ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead : the papyrus of Sobekmose /
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'The Book of the Dead of Sobekmose', in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum, New York, is one of the most important surviving examples of the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead genre. Such papyrus scrolls were composed of traditional funerary texts, including magic spells, that were thought to assist a dead person on their journey into the afterlife. This publication is the first to offer a continuous English translation of a single, extensive, major text that can speak to us from beginning to end in the order in which it was composed. The papyrus itself is one of the longest of its kind to come down to us from the New Kingdom, a time when Egypt's international power and prosperity were at their peak. This new translation not only represents a great step forward in the study of these texts, but also grants modern readers a direct encounter with what can seem a remote and alien civilization. With language that is, in many places, unquestionably evocative and very beautiful, it offers a look into the mindset of the ancient Egyptians, highlighting their beliefs and anxieties about this world as well as the next. The papyrus itself is reproduced in its entirety and the translation is prefaced by a fully illustrated introductory essay which, along with a brief chronology of ancient Egypt and a glossary guiding the reader through the religious and mythological terminology that they will encounter, grounds it in its historical context.
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Glossary of terms and names, and chronology. :
216 pages : color illustrations ; 26 cm. :
Bibliography : pages 205-207. :
9780500051887
Between temple and tomb : the demotic ritual texts of Bodl. MS. Egypt. a. 3(P) /
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The ancient Egyptians believed that rites performed for Osiris, the god of the dead, played a critical role in maintaining Egypt?s well-being and prosperity. Not only did they ensure the renewed fertility of the country?s arable land, they also guaranteed the political and social cohesion of the Egyptian state. However, it was not only at the national level, but at the individual level as well, that the Egyptians deemed such rites to be beneficial. Ritual texts intended to restore Osiris to life, suitably adapted, could also be recited for deceased individuals. Thus they could benefit from them in the same way that Osiris did. In the Graeco-Roman Period, adapted ritual texts of this sort were employed alongside texts originally composed for use in the funerary cult of ordinary deceased people. A number of ritual texts which are first attested in the private sphere subsequently appear in the temple sphere as well. Some ritual texts appear to have moved back and forth from one sphere to another, which suggests that the boundaries between the Osirian temple cult and the private funerary cult may have been more fluid than we usually imagine.0The ritual texts edited in this volume offer an excellent opportunity to explore these and related issues. Most of them are known to have been employed both for the benefit of the god Osiris and for ordinary deceased people, in certain cases, during one and the same period of Egypt?s history. This is one of their most interesting and striking features. They stand at the interface between temple cult and cult of the dead and allow us to trace the transmission of beliefs and practices from one sphere to the other.
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205 pages, 14 pages of plates : illustrations (some color), facsimiles ; 31 cm. :
Includes bibliographical references (pages 165-172). :
9783447113311
3447113316 :
2190-3646 ;