The Theban reading, which was much applied in Upper Egypt from the 18th to the 20th dynasty, was normally written on papyri in the hieroglyphic character. The text is written in black ink in heavy rows of hieroglyphics, which are widespread from each other by black lines; the titles of the chapters or segments, and certain parts of the chapters and the rubrics belonging to thereto, are written in rec ink. A steady development in the illumination of the vignettes is observable in the papyri of this period. At the getting of the 18th dynasty the vignettes are in black abstract, but we see from the papyrus c Hunefer (Brit. Mus. No. 9901), who was an overseer of cattle of King Seti I., king of Egypt about B.C. 1370, that the vignettes are painted in reds, greens, yellows, white, and other colors, and that the whole of the text and vignettes are involved in a red and yellow border. Originally the text was the most important part of the work, and both it and its vignettes were the work of the scribe, bit by bit, however, the brilliantly white vignettes were more and more cherished, and when the skill of the scribe went, the artist wa: called in. In many fine papyri of the Theban period it is altar that the whole plan of the sketches of a papyrus was set out by artists, who oftentimes failed to leave comfortable space for the texts to which they belonged, in issue many lines of chapters are often missed, and the last few lines of some texts are so much jam-packed as to be almost illegible. The frequent clerical errors likewise show that while an artist of the superior skill might be employed on the vignettes, the murder of the text was left to an innocent or regardless scribe. Again, the artist at times arranged his vignettes in wrong order, and it is occasionally evident that neither artist nor scribe taken the matter upon which he was involved. According to M. Maspero the scribes of the 6th dynasty did not understand the texts which they were drafting, and in the 19th dynasty the scribe of a papyrus now preserved at Berlin knew or cared so little about the text which he was copying that he recorded the LXXVIIth Chapter from the wrong end, and plain never broken his error although he concluded the chapter with its title. Earlier each copy of the Book of the Dead was written to order, but soon the tradition obtained of preparing copies with blank spaces in which the name of the buyer might be inserted, and many of the faults in spelling and mos of the omissions of words are to be sure due to the haste with which such regular copies were written by the appendages of the priestly caste, whose profession it was to copy them.
The sections or chapters of the Theban version are a series of separate and distinct compositions, which, like the segments of the pyramid texts, had no fixed order either on coffins or in papyri. Unlike these texts still, with very few exceptions each composition had a special title and vignette which indicate its use. The general selection of the chapters for a papyrus seems to have been left to the individual fancy of the purchaser or scribe, but particular of them were no doubt absolutely inevitable for the conservation of the body of the gone in the tomb, and for the benefit of his soul in its new state of existence. Traditional selections would probably be respected, and recent selections approved by any frequent school of religious thought in Egypt were without doubt accepted.
whilst in the period of the pyramid texts the several sections were said or spilled by priests, probably helped by some members of the family of the broken, the welfare of his soul and body being alleged for him as an given fact in the Theban version the hymns and prayers to the gods were put into the mouth of the deceased. As none but the great and wealthy could afford the ceremonials whicl were perfonned in the early dynasties, economy was belike the chief cause of this shift, which had come about at Thebes as early as the 12th dynasty. Little by little the ritual circumstances of the Book of the Dead disappeared, until last, in the Theban rendering, the only chapters of this class which continue are the XXIInd, XXIIIrd, CVth, and CLIst. Every chapter and prayer of this version was to be said in the next world, where the words, decent talked, enabled the deceased to overcome every foe and to accomplish to the life of the wrought soul which dwelt in a spiritual body in the abode of the sacred.
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The sections or chapters of the Theban version are a series of separate and distinct compositions, which, like the segments of the pyramid texts, had no fixed order either on coffins or in papyri. Unlike these texts still, with very few exceptions each composition had a special title and vignette which indicate its use. The general selection of the chapters for a papyrus seems to have been left to the individual fancy of the purchaser or scribe, but particular of them were no doubt absolutely inevitable for the conservation of the body of the gone in the tomb, and for the benefit of his soul in its new state of existence. Traditional selections would probably be respected, and recent selections approved by any frequent school of religious thought in Egypt were without doubt accepted.
whilst in the period of the pyramid texts the several sections were said or spilled by priests, probably helped by some members of the family of the broken, the welfare of his soul and body being alleged for him as an given fact in the Theban version the hymns and prayers to the gods were put into the mouth of the deceased. As none but the great and wealthy could afford the ceremonials whicl were perfonned in the early dynasties, economy was belike the chief cause of this shift, which had come about at Thebes as early as the 12th dynasty. Little by little the ritual circumstances of the Book of the Dead disappeared, until last, in the Theban rendering, the only chapters of this class which continue are the XXIInd, XXIIIrd, CVth, and CLIst. Every chapter and prayer of this version was to be said in the next world, where the words, decent talked, enabled the deceased to overcome every foe and to accomplish to the life of the wrought soul which dwelt in a spiritual body in the abode of the sacred.
Related Posts:
- What is the Book of the Dead?
- The History of the Book of The Dead
- The Book of The Dead in the First Dynasty
- The Book of The Dead in the Second Dynasty
- The Book of The Dead in the Fourth Dynasty
- The Book of The Dead in the Fifth Dynasty
- The Book of The Dead in the sixth Dynasty
- The Book of The Dead in the Ptolemy Period
- Thoth, the Author of the Book of the Dead