Going out in Daylight – prt m hrw

The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead - translation, sources, meanings

Stephen Quirke

• Publisher: Golden House Publications
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781906137311
• eBook ISBN: 9781906137717
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Ancient Languages
• Index: History

First full illustrated translation with Egyptian transliteration, aiming to present with their individual histories all the compositions on prt m hrw "Book of the Dead" papyri from the New Kingdom to Ptolemaic Period. The volume gives at least one version of every written composition, together with one or more images for the essential pictorial component of all writings for which illustrations are known. Writings at the margins or outside the prt m hrw corpus, including all ascribed "Book of the Dead" numbers in Egyptological publications, are included in the final section. The translations are supported by a thematic and historical introduction and closing glossary.

Introduction to Chapters 1-15 (Lepsius 1843 numbering)

From the Late Period on (7th-1st centuries BC), most prt m hrw papyri opened with a scene of the deceased before Osiris, followed by a long section of writing under an extended depiction of the funeral rites, marking entry into life after death. The first written composition in this section is an address by Thoth to Osiris; this is the item which Lepsius chose to number chapter 1 (rather than the opening adoration scene, as he would number other depictions). The heading for chapter 1 acts as a title for the entire manuscript, “Beginning of the formulae for going out by day” (Backes 2009). Its closing words of instruction specify that it should be recited on the day of burial. Accordingly, already from the Eighteenth Dynasty, the image chosen to accompany chapter 1 was the depiction of the funeral, a prominent motif in tomb-chapel wall-decoration since the Old Kingdom (Settgast 1963). In the Late Period and Ptolemaic Period papyri, additional elements were introduced into the funeral depiction, such as the standard-bearers holding emblems of divinities, earlier known from images of the processions of kings. In the writing-space below, the two main elements are the Thoth address, chapter 1, and a cycle of nine sun-hymns, chapter 15. Where Ramesside artists place sun hymns as framing elements at start and end of the entire manuscript, the Late Period composers chose instead this initial section with chapter 1. The connection between funeral and sun hymn may not initially seem obvious, but sun hymns are prominent in the art and architecture of burial, above all as formulated at Thebes in the New Kingdom, when the king was buried there. From the mid-Eighteenth Dynasty, at the chapel entrance, facing east to the rising sun, the tomb-owner is depicted praying to the sun; introduced at the same time, a new type of statue created a three-dimensional version, the words of the hymn between his hands. In the Ramesside Period, a small pyramid is constructed above the chapel, reinforcing the solar character. For the New Kingdom, then, the sun hymn is an essential part of funeral, burial and afterlife, and Late Period tomb-chapels maintain the link in chapel design and decoration, and in the sun hymns painted on wooden stelae placed below in the burial chamber.

Even chapters 1 and 15 together left a gap below the Late Period funeral depiction, and this was filled by a series of shorter compositions (chapters 2-14). In the Egyptological tradition of according primacy to writing, we might consider that the funeral depiction was extended in order to cover the space above chapters 1-15. However, it is equally possible that the extended funeral depiction itself guided the layout and contents of the opening section. Five of the shorter compositions recur later in the regular Late Period sequence: chapter 9=73, chapter 10=48, chapter 11=49, chapter 12=120, chapter 13=121. Instead of thinking of these subsequent instances as repetitions, perhaps some or all of these compositions belonged first elsewhere, and were secondarily deployed in the context of the funeral depiction. Thus, before assuming that chapter 9 belongs in the introductory section and is repeated as chapter 73, we need to consider the possibility of the reverse movement, that chapter 73 belongs with chapters 65 to 74, and is duplicated at the start either as part of a recital during the funeral (Chapters 1-15 as a funeral liturgy), or as writing to fill the space below the funeral depiction (regardless of whether it was recited during the funeral or not). The contents of chapters 8-11 are already closely associated on one early Middle Kingdom coffin from Bersha, for a woman named Sathedjhotep (B4C): in one series of writings there CT 567-568-569-574-97-243-564, passages CT 97 and 564 = BD chapt...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Table of contents
• An Introduction to the prt m hrw - the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead
• Opening Vignette
• Chapters 1-15 From Funeral to Sun Hymns
• Chapter 17 “I am All” – exposition of knowledge around embalming rites
• Chapters 18-20 Justification
• Chapters 21-30 Mouth, Word-power, Heart
• Chapters 31-42 Repelling Aggressors and Destructive Forces
• Chapters 43-53 Preventing physical loss and reversals of order
• Chapters 54-63 Securing Power over (free access to) Air and Water
• Chapters 64-75
• Chapters 76-88 Transformations
• Chapters 89-106
• Chapters 107-116 Knowing the Powers of Places
• Chapters 117-124
• Chapter 125 Judgement before Osiris
• Chapters 126-129
• Chapters 130-136 the solar journey - from ‘Book of Two Ways’ to the prt m hrw papyri
• Chapters 137-140
• Chapters 144-150 addresses and offerings to approaches, gates and mounds
• Chapters 151-161
• Chapters 162-165 “formulae added from another roll in addition to the prt m hrw”
• B Chapters 166-186 (Naville numbers) and Chapters 187-190 (from papyrus of Nu)
• After ‘chapter 190’ other compositions on prt m hrw papyri or ascribed to the corpus in modern editions
• Appendix compositions assigned ‘chapter’ numbers but not attested on manuscripts
• Glossary
• References
• Sources for documents cited and images