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THE BOOK OF THE DEAD
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The Book of the Dead is a name generally given
to a large collection of funerary texts of various dates,
containing magical formulas, hymns, and prayers believed by the
ancient Egyptians to guide and protect the soul (Ka) in its
journey into the region of the dead (Amenti). Egyptians believed
that the knowledge of these texts enabled the soul to ward off
demons attempting to impede its progress, and to pass the tests
set by the 42 judges in the hall of Osiris, god of the
underworld. These texts also indicated that happiness in the
afterlife was dependent on the deceased's having led a virtuous
life on earth. The earliest religious (funerary) texts known were
found cut in hieroglyphs on the walls inside the pyramids of the
kings of the 5th and 6th Dynasties of the Old Kingdom; these
became known as the Pyramid Texts. A famous example is found in
the pyramid of Unas (reigned about 2428-2407 BC), the last king
of the 5th Dynasty. In the first Intermediate Period and in the
Middle Kingdom private individuals had these texts painted on
coffins, from which the alternate name Coffin Texts is derived.
By the 18th Dynasty the texts were inscribed on papyri placed in
the mummy case; these papyri were frequently from 15 to 30 m (50
to 100 ft) long and illustrated in color. This vast collection of
mortuary texts has survived in three critical revisions, or
recensions: the Heliopolitan Recension, edited by the priests of
the College of Anu (Heliopolis), and containing texts in use
between the 5th and the 12th Dynasties; the Theban Recension,
used from the 18th to the 22nd Dynasties; and the Saite
Recension, used from the 26th Dynasty, about 600 BC probably to
the end of the Ptolemies, 31 BC. The title “Book of the
Dead” is misleading; the texts do not form a single
connected work and do not belong to one period. Egyptologists
have usually given this title to the last two Recensions.
Translations of some sections (chapters) were made under various
titles; one celebrated English translation of the Book of the
Dead was made by Sir E. A. Wallis Budge in 1895.