Tuesday, November 3, 2026 · 天火 · tianmu.org
Funerary Literature and Afterlife Books
Egyptian funerary corpora, mortuary rites, judgment texts, and afterlife literature from Pyramid Texts through the Book of the Dead.
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Texts
Book of the DeadThe great funerary literature of ancient Egypt — spells, hymns, and declarations to guide the dead through the underworld. Good Works Translation from the Papyrus of Ani.Egyptian Ideas of the Future Life — E. A. Wallis BudgeA comprehensive survey of ancient Egyptian beliefs about death, the afterlife, the judgment of the soul, and the nature of the blessed dead, drawing on the Pyramid Texts, the Book of the Dead, and the great funerary literature of the New Kingdom.The Ancient Egyptian Doctrine of the Immortality of the Soul — Alfred WiedemannAlfred Wiedemann’s 1895 study, in an English version, of the Osirian doctrine of the immortality of the soul in ancient Egypt: the Ka, heart, Ba, Sāhû and shadow of the dead, the Osiris of the dead and his journey in the Book of the Dead, the judgment and the weighing of the heart, the fields of the blessed, the ushabti figures and the soul’s transformations, with 53 notes.The Coffin TextsTwenty-one spells from the Egyptian Coffin Texts — including the opening of the Book of Two Ways, the theology of Shu, and selected creation and transformation spells. Good Works Translation from Egyptian.The Egyptian Book of the Dead — E. A. Wallis BudgeThe ancient Egyptian guide for the deceased through the underworld, from the Papyrus of Ani. One of the most important religious documents of the ancient world, containing hymns, prayers, and spells intended to guide the dead through the dangers of the afterlife and secure their immortality among the gods.The Egyptian Conception of Immortality — George Andrew ReisnerGeorge Andrew Reisner’s Ingersoll Lecture for 1911, tracing the Egyptian belief in a life after death from the graves of the prehistoric race through the offering chapels, the Pyramid Texts, the Osiris cult, mummification and the books of the dead to the Ptolemaic-Roman period, read from burial and offering customs as much as from the funerary texts.The Liturgy of Funerary Offerings — E. A. Wallis BudgeA detailed study and translation of the ancient Egyptian ritual of funerary offerings, also known as the Book of the Opening of the Mouth. The text records the elaborate sequence of offerings, prayers, and ritual acts performed during the preparation of the pharaoh's mummy for eternal life.The Pyramid TextsThe oldest religious writings in the world. Utterances from the Pyramid of Unas at Saqqara, c. 2375–2345 BCE, translated from Old Egyptian by the Good Works Library.