Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore
"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 pr...
The oldest religious texts suggest that the Egyptians always associated the Last Judgment with the weighing of the heart in a pair of scales, and in the illustrated papyri of th...
3. Chapter 3The 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 XI...
13. Chapter 13in the Henu Boat of Seker the Death-god, and Chapter LXXVI brought to his help the praying mantis which guided him through the "bush" to the House of Osiris. By the recital of C...
9. Chapter 9All the great papyri of the Book of the Dead begin with a HYMN TO RA, who from the period of the IVth dynasty was the "King of the Gods" of Egypt. His cult was finally "establis...
5. Chapter 5The Egyptians were not satisfied with the mere possession of the texts of Thoth, when their souls were being weighed in the Great Scales in the Judgment Hall of Osiris, but they...
6. Chapter 6When Set was destroyed Osiris departed from this world to the kingdom which the gods had given him and began to reign over the dead. He was absolute king of this realm, just as...
12. Chapter 12which were sung daily in the morning and evening; specimen paragraphs are given above (pp. 33, 34). Chapter XVI is only a vignette that illustrates Chapter XV, Chapter XVII is a...
8. Chapter 8According to the Book of Gates and the other "Guides" to the Egyptian Under World, the Kingdom of Osiris formed the Sixth Division of the Tuat; in very early times it was situat...
2. Chapter 2The 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 bel...
1. Chapter 1"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 consi...
4. Chapter 4Thoth, in Egyptian Tchehuti or Tehuti, 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 t...
11. Chapter 11which were placed in the tomb, and when the deceased recited it these figures became alive and did everything he wished. The shabti figure, took the place of the human funerary...
10. Chapter 10the tomb and performed the burial ceremonies there. In it the priest (kher heb) assumed the character of Thoth and promised the deceased to do for him all that he had done for O...