Oldest Religious Texts (Kingdom, coffin, God, cult, theology)

[Kowalski]

Hail from Ancient Egypt. Known as the pyramid texts, they are found in fifth dynasty and sixth dynasty pyramids and can be dated to circa 2400bc. The texts, or utterances/spells are a corpus of magical spells designed to ensure the dead kings smooth passage into the next world. At this time in Egypt, the new solar cult of the God Ra was emerging as the new and most important theology of the day. As it began to take on great importance, it was also running alongside of the Osiris cult. Both these were to some extent diminishing the once prominent stellar cult. In this Older Star cult, the abode of the dead King was thought to be among the Circumpolar stars, the <i> Ikmenu-Sek</i>, Stars which never die, that is never set, such as Ursa Major.

So, you find the texts have spells belonging to the older star cult, spells belonging to the newer solar cult ,and spells which are for the Osirian view on death and the afterlife. And in quite few of them, you have a mixture of two or all three systems.

This wasn't a problem for the Egyptians, if one view saw the dead kings living with and amongst the stars and another joining with the sun god, then all well and good. A lot like a full cover insurance policy.

One thing to note, at this period of Egyptian history, only the King as the son of a God and was thought to have another life. The nobility hoped for one as well. But the magical texts were for royal use only. In the due course of time, by the Middle Kingdom, circa 1200bce, nobles were aspiring the next life, and you find elaborate tombs decorated with scenes of daily life, wbich they hoped enjoy in the land of the departed. Magical spellsto ensure they got there, tended to be painted on the wooden coofins, and hence these spells became known in modern parlance, as the 'Coffin Texts'

Cheers

K

[Darkdale]

Good post.