The Book of the Dead

The Egyptian Book of the Dead, or the Book of Coming Forth by Day, is an Ancient Egyptian funerary text consisting of spells to protect the soul on its journey to Duat, or Afterlife.

By : E. A. Wallis Budge (1857 - 1934)

00 - Preface 01 - Introduction: The History of the Book of the Dead part 1 02 - Introduction: The History of the Book of the Dead part 2 03 - Introduction: Osiris and the Resurrection 04 - Introduction: The Judgment 05 - Introduction: The Elysian Fields 06 - Introduction: The Magic of the Book of the Dead 07 - Introduction: The Object and Contents of the Book of the Dead 08 - Introduction: A Book of the Dead of Nesi-Khonsu 09 - Introduction: A Book of the Dead of the Greco-Roman Period 10 - Introduction: A Book of the Dead of the Roman Period 11 - Introductory Hymns 12 - Chapters 1-10 13 - Chapters 11-17 (1) 14 - Chapters 17-20 15 - Chapters 21-30 16 - Chapters 31-40 17 - Chapters 41-50 18 - Chapters 51-60 19 - Chapters 61-70 20 - Chapters 71-80 21 - Chapters 81-90 22 - Chapters 91-100 23 - Chapters 101-110 24 - Chapters 111-120 25 - Chapters 121-130 26 - Chapters 131-140 27 - Chapters 141-145 28 - Chapters 146-150 29 - Chapters 151-160 30 - Chapters 161-170 31 - Chapters 171-180 32 - Chapters 181-190

"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, but the texts in them were short and fragmentary. The publication of the Facsimile of the Papyrus of Peta-Amen-neb-nest-taui 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, "Kitâb-al-Mayyit," "Book of the dead man," or "Kitâb 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.