The Theban version of the Book of the Dead

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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Thoth, the Author of the Book of the Dead

Thoth, in Egyptian Tchehuti or Tehuti, or , who has already been named as the author of the texts that form the PER-T EM HRU, or Book of the Dead, was believed by the Egyptians to have been the heart and brain of the Creator, who was in very early times in Egypt named by the natives "Pautti," and by foreigners "Ra." Thoth was also the "tongue" of the Creator, and he at all times voiced the will of the great god, and spoke the words which required every being and affair in heaven and in earth to come into existence. His words were powerful and once uttered never staid on without effect. He set up the laws by which heaven, earth and all the ethereal bodies are held; he ordered the forms of the sun, moon, and stars; he invented making and purpose and the arts, the letters of the alphabet and the art of writing, and the science of math. At a very early period he was called the "scribe (or secretary) of the Great Company of the Gods," and as he kept the divine register of the words and works of men, he was seen by many propagations of Egyptians as the "Recording Angel." He was the inventor of physical and moral Law and became the prosopopoeia of justice; and as the Companies of the Gods of Heaven, and Earth, and the Other World established him to "weigh the words and deeds" of men, and his verdicts were last, he got more powerful in the Other World than Osiris himself. Osiris owed his triumph over Set in the Great Judgment Hall of the Gods entirely to the skill of Thoth of the "wise mouth" as an Advocate, and to his mold with the gods in heaven. And every follower of Osiris relied upon the advocacy of Thoth to good his acquittal on the Day of Judgment, and to secure for him an everlasting habitation in the Kingdom of Osiris.

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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
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The Book of The Dead in the Ptolemy Period

The Saite and Ptolemaic version was in vogue from the period of the 26th dynasty, about B.C. 5 5 0, tr belike the end of the rule of the Ptolemies over Egypt. The chapters have a fixed and definite order, and it seems that a careful alteration of the whole work was executed, and that several changes of an essential nature were made in it. A number of chapters which are not seen in older papyri come out during this period, but these are not necessarily new designs, for, as the kings of the 26th dynasty are famous for having renovated the arts and sciences and literature of the early dynasties, it is quite viable that many or most of the supplemental chapters are nothing more than new editions of evokes fron older works. Some copies of this rendering were written by scribes who did not picture what they were copying, and skips of signs, words, and even whole passageways are very common, in papyri of the Ptolemaic period it is impossible to read many transits without the help of texts of earlier periods. The papyri of this period vary in colour from a light to a dark brown, and consist commonly of layers composed of strips of the plant measurement about 2 inches in width and 14'/2 to 16 inches in length. Fine examples of Books of the Dead of this version vary in length from about 24'/2 feet (B.M. No. 10,479, written for the utclieb Heru, the son of the utclieb Tchehra) to 60 feet. Hieroglyphical texts are written in black, in heavy rows between rules, and hieratic texts in horizontal lines; both the hieroglyphs and the hieratic characters lack the boldness of the writing of the Theban period, and exhibit the characteristics o a straight hand. The titles of the chapters, shibboleths, the words ,,,  which present a variant reading, etc., are sometimes written in red. The vignettes are usually drawn in black outline, and fonn a kind of constant border above the text. In good papyri, however, the scene fonning the XVIth Chapter the scene of the Fields of Peace (Chapter CX.), the judgment scene (Chapter CXXV.), the vignette of Chapter CXLVIII., the scene working Chapter CLI. (the rank chamber), and the vignette of Chapte CLXI., fill the who[e width of the inscribed portion of the papyrus, and are painted in slightly crude colours. In some papyri the disk on the head of the hawk of Horus is covered with gold leaf, instead of being painted red as is familiar in older papyri. In the Graeco-Roman period both texts and vignettes are very carelessly executed, and it is broad that they were written and drawn by clueless workmen in the quickest and most careless way possible. In this period also certain passages of the text were copied in hieratic and Demotic upon small pieces of papyri which were buried with portions of the bodies of the dead, and upon narrow bandages of coarse linen in which they were swaddled.

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The Book of The Dead in the sixth Dynasty

Evidence of the text of the pyramid of Teta, pyramids of King Pepi I, King Merenre and King Pepi II.

Continuing his diggings at Saqqara, M. Maspero given the pyramid of Teta, king of Egypt about B.C. 3300, which Vyse view had never been entered, and of which, in his day, the masonry on oneside only could be seen. Here again it was found that hooks had already been at work, and that they had wet in pieces walls, Aoors, and many other characters of the chambers in their frantic search for treasure. As in the case of the pyramid of Unas, distinct chambers, etc., of this tomb were found covered with letterings in hieroglyphics, but of a earlier size. A brief testing of the text showed it to be formed of a series of draws from the Book of the Dead, some of which were very with those in the pyramid of Unas. Thus was brought round light a Book of the Dead of the time of the first king of the 6th dynasty.

The pyramid of King Pepi I., king of Egypt about B.C. 3233, was next opened. It is set in the central group at Saqqara, and is commonly known as the pyramid of Shkh Abu-Mansur. Certain chambers and other functions of the tomb were found to be covered with hieroglyphic texts, which not only continual in part those which had been got in the pyramids of Unas and Teta, but also contained a considerable number of additional sections of the Book of the Dead. In the same neighbourhood M. Maspero, made out the pyramid of Merenre, the fourth king of the 6th dynasty, about B.C. 3200, and the pyramid of King Pepi II., the fifth pharaoh of the 6th dynasty, about B.C. 3166.

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