Author Description

Book Description: "The Book of the Dead is the common name for the ancient Egyptian funerary text known as 'The Book of Coming '[or 'Going']' Forth By Day'. The book of the dead was a description of the ancient Egyptian conception of the afterlife and a collection of hymns, spells, and instructions to allow the deceased to pass through obstacles in the afterlife. The book of the dead was most commonly written on a papyrus scroll and placed in the coffin or burial chamber of the deceased. The name 'Book of the Dead' was the invention of the German Egyptologist Karl Richard Lepsius, who published a selection of the texts in 1842. When it was first discovered, the book of the dead was thought to be an ancient Egyptian Bible. But unlike the Bible, The Book of the Dead does not set forth religious tenets and was not considered by the ancient Egyptians to be the product of divine revelation, which allowed the content of the book of the dead to change over time. The Book of the Dead was thus the product of a long process of evolution from the Pyramid texts of the Old Kingdom to the Coffin Texts of the Middle Kingdom. About one-third of the chapters in The Book of the Dead are derived from the Coffin Texts. The Book of the Dead itself was adapted to The Book of Breathings in the Late Period, but remained popular in its own right until the Roman period." (Quote from wikipedia.org) Table of Contents: Publisher's Preface; Preface; Introduction; The Versions Of The Book Of The Dead; The Legend Of Osiris; The Doctrine Of Eternal Life; The Egyptians' Ideas Of God; The Legend Of Ra And Isis; The Abode Of The Blessed; The Gods Of The Book Of The Dead; The Principal Geographical And Mythological Places In The Book Of The Dead; Funeral Ceremonies; The Papyrus Of Ani; Translation; Plate I.; Plate ii.; Plate iii.; Plate iv.; Plates V. And vi.; Plates vii.-x.; Plates xi. And xii.; Plate xiii.; Plate xiv.; Plate xv.; Plate xvi.; Plate xvii.; Plate xvii